Comparing Poetry Essay

Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words. Good morning Ms Linton and students, today I will be informing you on why you must choose these two poems for the poetry speaking contest. The poems I have chosen are ‘The Man from Ironbark’, by Banjo Patterson as well as ‘He Started the Cycling Craze’ by myself. Narratives help the readers enjoy and understand poetry as it is a way the poets can connect to their readers by using storylines that may relate to them or something that they enjoy. Storylines of narratives play a major role and without these the readers would not be able to understand what is happening in the story. The story line of ‘The Man from Ironbark’ is about a man who wants his beard to be shaved, so this man heads off to the barber. The barber pulls out a razor and starts to shave his throat. The man from Ironbark fears the barber is a murderer who wants to cut his throat. The storyline of ‘He Started the Cycling Craze’ is about a man who decides to buy a new bike so he goes off to the bike shop. He buys a bike then rides it home and on the way home he rode up the hill then started to roll back. Once he had rolled down the hill he ended up in the creek. Both of these storylines are different in their own way, but one similarity is that a man leaves his home, goes somewhere and in both poems they make a mistake. In all poems there is a difference, but some may be similar in one way or another. The difference between these two poems is that they both contain various poetry techniques and they are both based on individual topics. Each poet uses several techniques and have a different style of writing. In this case these poems are similar as one was re-written from a poem written by the author of the other poem. Every poem can have differences and similarities to other poems. In poetry the poets describe the characters and settings so that the reader can view the image in their head, here is a quote from ‘The Man from Ironbark’ ‘The barber man was small and flash, as barbers mostly are, He wore a strike-your-fancy sash, he smoked a huge cigar:’ This describes how the barber looks and what he is holding. In this part of the poem he is stereotyping barbers to that that they are both small and flash. This helps the reader imagine what the main character is seeing. And from ‘He Started the Cycling Craze’ ‘He started to roll down the hill swerving a tree, and almost being stung by a big fat bee, nearly at the lake he had to swerve a car’. This describes what the man on the bike is enduring and what he is seeing. By describing surrounding and what people look like, it allows the reader to create an image in their head of what is happening in the poem. In poetry the poets use poetic devices to make the poems more interesting, this helps the reader keep interest in what they are reading. In ‘The Man from Ironbark’ the poetic devices used include; rhyme, rhythm, repetition, imagery, alliteration, and metaphors. The rhyming patter is a,a,b,b,c,c and the rhythm is shown by the rhyme and the flow or the poem. An example of alliteration is ‘upon the newly shaven skin it made a livid mark. ’ As well as ‘brow grew black’. Imagery is shown in many parts of the poem but particularly when he is describing the barber. ‘The barber man was small and flash, as barbers mostly are, he wore a strike-your-fancy sash, he smoked a huge cigar. ’ The metaphor was shown when he referred to the man as a dog. The devices used in ‘He Started the Cycling Craze’ includes rhyme which is used in a pattern of ‘a,b,b,a’ as well as rhythm which is seen by the rhyme and flow of the poem. Alliteration was also used in the line ‘and almost being stung by a big fat bee. ’ Imagery was also used when describing what was on the road when he was swerving so that he didn’t fall off of his bike. Overall there are many different poetic devices used in poetry and this is shown through these poems. In summary poets use different techniques and devices in their poems so that the poem becomes for intriguing so the reader continues to read on. Devices are used in poetry so that the readers have something to laugh or cry about and are intrigued to read other poems by the poet. Storylines of poems are important as they help describe what is happening in the poem and the reader is able to understand what the characters are doing. To wrap up these two poems should be chosen for the poetry speaking contest as they use various devices and techniques which allows the reader to continue interest in the poem as it goes on.