[寫作指導] 文學分析：詩詞比較 Compare and Contrast｜潤稿 Copyediting｜學生作品成果 Writing Clinic
Compare and contrast the mood and tone of the poems you chose. How do the authors’ choices of literary devices affect meaning?
I would like to compare and contrast the poetry from Kimiko Hahn and Amy Gerstler, both American creative writing gurus, respectively teaching in UC Irvine and Queens College, CUNY, and provide more of my analysis on mood and tone in the essay. “Reckless Sonnet No.8,” experiencing the changing and uncertainty of life set in her father’s hometown, Kimiko Hahn has helped the reader to understand how the life-cycle works in 2002. “Night Herons,” the painful quest for physical and mental freedom and hope for a bright future by Amy Gerstler, has drawn the readers to the emotionally drenched situation where people feel helpless and hopeful at the same time during the pandemic in 2022. Both pieces wonderfully present how humans can respond to the uncertainty in life, beautifully and gracefully, and handle the difficulty, finally moving on.
The first thing I would like to compare and contrast is how they are similar with the stress on symbolism. The literary devices in the poems have affected the overall interpretation of the poem. For “Reckless Sonnet No. 8”, the symbol, “cicada”, is present as the nature of having life and death in the poem, and in parallel to the human’s circle of life of Hahn’s father from a child, man, and finally facing the loss of a family member; in “Night Herons”, the night herons are presented as the human’s state of mind for freedom, creeping us with goosebumps and may “croak like crows” (line 15) under emotional baggage, but sometimes turns to “tomorrow’s garlands” (line 36) for the mere possibility of a better future. I would also like to compare and contrast between the two pieces is how they intelligently had different choices on other literary devices, such as imagery and personification. In “Reckless Sonnet No. 8”, the author choose to use a lot of imagery to describe the every aspect of the poem; however, “Night Herons” uses on personification in the middle of the poem which it states “the future” is “mute or dead”, which show he is suffering from inability to verbal for his opinion, and encountered with the deprivation of a life as most people do during the pandemic.
What’s more, I would like to further analyze the tone in the poetry. The similarity comes in the tones that the authors are very neutral to navigate the bitter-sweet life. The way they tell a story of the come-and-go is never overly pessimistic, but stays observant and calm. The difference is clear. The former explicitly narrates a plot line from a carefree scene setting to the inevitable loss as a finale, going from sweet to bitter. The latter weaves the burning out reality during the pandemic into the hopeful, imaginary fantasy for another festive, lively season. The story unfolds like a roller coaster: weary, fantasized, panicked, bleak, hopeful, presenting the very tangled situation of how we are pressured during the pandemic, definitely rich-flavored.
To dig more in the pieces, we cannot overlook the fact that the moods are exquisitely touching. The same feelings of uncertainty and mystery, in the both poems we can know that the future is always unpredictable, life never is eternal, death is inevitable. However, the development of the feelings are the total opposite. “Reckless Sonnet No. 8” starts with a carefree, innocent mood, by looking at the first to the sixth line, but ends up with a heavy mood with grief, people can’t not live eternally, the grief of death started to explore by crying out loud. The poem truthfully presents how a human being has thrived to become a man, but unfortunately has to accept that the circle of life contains death in the end. “Night Herons” began with an annoyed and exhausted mood of a burnt out worker; finally, the poem gently wounds up the hope as a closure to provide some slim but long-lost happiness to us human beings.
Poetry is a mirror. It reflects individual, emotional responses like “Reckless Sonnet No. 8” does. It reflects the collective, vulnerable moments we have stayed strong together like “Night Herons” does. The two excellent pieces empower us to have the courage to survive the uncertainty in life, no matter if it is the inevitable death, or the anxiety-inducing environment because of this pandemic.
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