Compare And Contrast An Unknown Girl And Still I Rise

Both poems “An Unknown Girl” and “Still I rise” have a very different narrative story and both poets use various different poetic devices to draw empathy and sympathy from their audiences, however both poems covey an overall positive mood. In the poem “Still I Rise’” by Maya Angelou, the poet uses many different powerful poetic devices like repetition, metaphors and similes to express to her audience about how she has overcome racism in her life. She does this by using a strong, proud and bold attitude throughout the poem to express her feelings. However, in the poem “An Unknown Girl”, Moniza Alvi also uses very effective poetic techniques such as metaphors, personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia and similes in order to describe her feelings

This causes the reader to reflect on their own lives and the fact that they themselves might have been racist. By using “you” it makes the poem more personal by getting the reader involved. The speaker’s tone varies during the poem; at times the speakers tone is lively and humorous but it can also be very serious and powerful. This becomes apparent when the tone of the stanzas varies from being serious to very humorous. For example, in stanzas 2, stanza 5 and 7, the narrator's tone is amusing and joyful. However, in all the other stanzas the speaker's tone is more serious and prideful. A good example of when her tone is very humorous is in stanza 2. She asks, "Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? 'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells, Pumping in my living room." The two rhetorical questions emphasise the fact that the speaker is so pleased with her confidence that it is upsetting. Contradicting this, in the first stanza the speaker says, "You may write me down in history". This shows she is determined and it is as if the speaker is accepting a challenge though despite the abuse she receives, she will still rise. One example of irony is taste. In line 2 it says "with your bitter, twisted lies". Here you can taste the dirty lies that someone was saying to the speaker. In the poem “An Unknown Girl” the

As it is in the form of free verse, containing lots of short sentences, the poet is able to create a fast rhythm which could imitate the energy and noise in the busy evening bazaar. On the other hand, it could represent the sound of a railway line. In the poem it mentions “people who cling onto the side of trains”. In addition, the poem looks good on the page due to its centred layout. Doing this creates an image that is similar to the narrator’s newly hennaed hand. The entire poem is one long stanza. It might suggest that she will be able to enjoy continuing to return to Pakistan. This creates one long flowing story that she doesn’t want to end. As the poem is a free verse, the poem does not have a clear, identifiable rhyme scheme. There are occasional rhymes to support some of the specific images. On the other hand, in the poem “Still I Rise” the structure of the poem's stanzas is mostly regular except the last two stanzas. The pattern of the stressed and unstressed syllable is a trochee. All the stanzas in this poem have four lines each, except for the last two stanzas. The rhyme scheme throughout this poem is A, B, C, B; except for the last two stanzas, where it is A, B, A, B, B, B, C, B C, B, D, D, B, B, B. The lines of the stanzas are quite rhythmic and clear with around 8 words in each line, however in the last two stanzas it is not as rhythmic and there is