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Poetry Comparison Essay

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Songs have many characteristic similar to poems when you break them down and analyze them. Songs are basically poems, but with an instrumental behind it. Like poems, songs can have bigger meanings behind their lyrics. They could have a set theme, different literary devices, and even a certain rhythm that they are spoken. For my comparison of these two types of works, I have chosen the song Running On Empty by Jackson Browne and the poem The Road Less Traveled by Kit McCallum. I picked these two works because I think these share a similar theme when it comes to what they are trying to portray to the reader/listener. This theme is about having a direction in life, although they both express it differently. There is also the use imagery and describing the atmosphere in both works, and The Road Less Traveled uses analogies effectively. And although similarities are apparent, their structure is different (which will also tie in with the theme). The structure of the the two works are different …show more content…

I think the analogies are great in this poem, because they describe and reflect upon real life and its scenarios. For example, “The endless roller coaster between happiness and sorrow; / The constant ups and downs of daily strife.” is a great line that compares real life to a rollercoaster. If you think about, it would make sense if someone had absurd emotions and compared it to a rollercoaster. And the constant use of the crossroads as an analogy towards life’s choices is clever. I really love this analogy because the deeper you go into this, the more you can relate it to real life. For example, roads in different directions lead to different futures, dead ends can represent the end of moving forward, and the lines in the road are there to guide you from getting lost along the way. If McCallum wanted to, I bet she could had gone into much further details relating to the poem and

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