Poetry Analysis: Poetry Comparison
The Whipping
The old woman across the way
Is whipping the boy again
And shouting to the neighborhood
Her goodness and his wrongs.
Wildly he crashes through elephant-ears,
Pleads in dusty zinnias,
While she in spite of crippling fat
Pursues and corners him.
She strikes and strikes the shrilly circling
Boy till the stick breaks
In her hand. His tears are rainy weather
To woundlike memories:
My head gripped in bony vise
Of knees, the writhing struggle
To wrench free, the blows, the fear
Worse than blows that hateful
Words could bring, the face that I
No longer knew or loved…
Well, it is over now, it is over,
And the boy sobs in his room,
And the woman leans muttering against
A tree, exhausted, purged—
Avenged in part for lifelong hidings
She has had to bear.
Robert Hayden (1913-1980)
Questions:
1. Complete TP-CASSSTT on this poem.
2. What similarities connect the old woman, the boy, and the speaker? Can you say that one of them is the
main subject of the poem? Why?
3. Does this poem express any beauty? What human truth does it embody? Could you argue against the claim
that “it is over now, it is over” (19)?
My Papa’s Waltz
The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.
We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother’s countenance
Could not unfrown itself.
The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.
You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzing me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.
Theodore Roethke (1908-1963)
Questions:
1. Complete TP-CASSSTT on this poem.
2. List all the words that the speaker uses to describe his father. What might the father do for a living? Why
might he be drinking? (Consider that this poem was written during The Great Depression.)
3. Is the father abusive or loving? How do you know?
4. How is this poem similar to “The Whipping”? How is it different?
5. Does your perspective change if I told you the poet based this poem off his own personal past experiences,
positive experiences with his father when he was a boy? If so, how?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------TP-CASSSTT
T- Title: Contemplate the poem’s meaning based on the title before reading the poem.
P- Paraphrase: In your own words, summarize the poem. You may do so stanza by stanza.
C- Connotation: Identify at least 2 words that have connotative meanings that relate to your poem.
A- Attitude: What are the tones in the poem?
S- Shift: Is there a shift in mood/tone? If so, explain.
S- Symbol: Identify and explain
S- Syntax: Find any unique sentence structures and explain their purpose.
T- Title: Reexamine the title. How has the meaning changed?
T- Theme: What are the theme(s) of the poem?