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Comparing Themes in Poetry
Life Doesn't Frighten Me
by Maya Angelou
Shadows on the wall
Noises down the hall
Life doesn't frighten me at all
Bad dogs barking loud
Big ghosts in a cloud
Life doesn't frighten me at all
Mean old Mother Goose
Lions on the loose
They don't frighten me at all
Dragons breathing flame
On my counterpane
That doesn't frighten me at all.
I go boo
Make them shoo
I make fun
Way they run
I won't cry
So they fly
I just smile
They go wild
Life doesn't frighten me at all.
Tough guys fight
All alone at night
Life doesn't frighten me at all.
Panthers in the park
Strangers in the dark
No, they don't frighten me at all.
That new classroom where
Boys all pull my hair
(Kissy little girls
With their hair in curls)
They don't frighten me at all.
Don't show me frogs and snakes
And listen for my scream,
If I'm afraid at all
It's only in my dreams.
I've got a magic charm
That I keep up my sleeve
I can walk the ocean floor
And never have to breathe.
Life doesn't frighten me at all
Not at all
Not at all.
Life doesn't frighten me at all.
On Turning Ten
By Billy Collins
The whole idea of it makes me feel
like I'm coming down with something,
something worse than any stomach ache
or the headaches I get from reading in bad lighta kind of measles of the spirit,
a mumps of the psyche,
a disfiguring chicken pox of the soul.
You tell me it is too early to be looking back,
but that it is because you have forgotten
the perfect simplicity of being one
and the beautiful complexity introduced by two.
But I can lie on my bed and remember every digit.
At four I was an Arabian wizard.
I could make myself invisible
by drinking a glass of milk a certain way.
At seven I was a soldier, at nine a prince.
But now I am mostly at the window
watching the late afternoon light.
Back then it never fell so solemnly
against the side of my tree house,
and my bicycle never leaned against the garage
as it does today,
all the dark blue speed drained out of it.
This is the beginning of sadness, I say to myself,
as I walk thought the universe in my sneakers.
It is time to say good-bye to my imaginary friends,
time to turn the first big number.
It seems only yesterday I used to believe
there was nothing under my skin but light.
If you cut me I would shine.
But now when I fall upon the sidewalks of life,
I skin my knees. I bleed.
Literary Analysis- Comparing Two Poems
1. Compare and Contrast- Think about the two poems and the situation each speaker faces and the attitude each one
expresses. In what ways are the poems alike and different? Complete the chart below.
“Life Doesn’t Frighten Me”
“On Turning 10”
Who is the Speaker?
What situation does he
or she face?
How does he or she
feel about the
situation?
What is the theme or
universal message you
can take away from
this poem?
2. How does the speaker in “On Turning Ten” feel about turning one year older? (Write your answer in complete sentences and
give text evidence to support your answer)
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3. The speaker in “On Turning Ten” says, “At four I was an Arabian wizard” and “At seven I was a soldier. At nine a prince.”
What is the speaker referring to in these lines?
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4. Do you think the speaker in “Life Doesn’t Frighten Me” is truly not afraid? Use examples from the poem to support your
answer.
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