Jamaica was colonized by the British in 1655. The poems The soldier by Rupert Broke and Colonization in Reverse by Louise Bennett have some similarities as well as several differences. The objective of this comparative commentary is to compare the tone; which could be formal, informal or the type that the author uses to express his or her self. Structure; it can be in the form of stanza, quatrains, pairs, triads or sonnets; it depends on what the author applies to his literature work. The authors of these poems has opposites historical context, just by the simple fact that both lived in different periods of time, they also do not have the same gender, among many other factors which influence them.
The tone can be determine by the way of expression in speech or writing; referring to the poems. In The Soldier we can see that the author is using a formal language, “Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day; and laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness, in hearts at peace, under an English heaven.” (Brooke), by the way that he uses an appropriated use of grammar and the words are arrange in a form that makes sense, as a consequences of this it makes to have a better comprehension. In the other hand in the Colonization in Reverse it is simple to know that the author is not using a formal language by the way that she writes incomplete words, “What an islan! What a people! Man an women, old an young jus a pack dem bag an baggage an turn history upside dung!”(Bennett), as a result for this is that it makes a drawback in the understanding, even though she is using her original form of language, it is complicate to understand it because we are not use to that type of language.
Structure is known as the forms the verse are arrange in poems; there are many different kinds of structures. In the first poem the author is using the structure of stanza; the abba form, since the first line ending word rhymes with the third line ending word and the second line ending word rhymes with the fourth line ending word and so on. For example me rhymes with be, field with concealed, aware with air, and roam with home. In the other stanza he uses another form because the first line ending word rhymes with the fourth line ending, the second line ending rhymes with the fifth and the third line ending word rhymes with the sixth line. This is shown in the way that away rhymes with day, less with gentleness, given with heaven. In contrast, the second poem is making use of the quatrains because each of the verse are grouped it in fours in addition it has a lack of rhyme in the ending words, dissimilarity to the first poem that it has rhyme in the ending words of each verse. “By de hundred, by de tousan, from country and from town, by de ship-load, by de plane load Jamica is Englan boun.” (Bennett), with this quatrain we can see that the ending words do not have rhyme even though if you read the verses you can find out that it has a kind of rhythm.
Both authors did a great literature work; they were outstanding and made an influential impact to their society during the time their poems were published. Rupert Brooke was born in 1887 he has English nationality, in most of his poems he glorified war and in 1911 his first collection was been published. On the contrary Louise Bennet was a Jamaican who was born on September 7th in 1919; mainly her poems talk about the expression of Jamaicans’ joys and sorrows. She is best known as the “only poet who has really hit the truth about her society through its own language.” What these two major authors has in common is that both make society relevant in their works. Also by reading the poems it is easy to infer which nationality each author has, in according to The Soldier we known that he is from England by “A body of England’s, breathing English air, washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.” (Brooke), also because he mention a lot the words England and English. In Colonization in Reverse it is easy to know that the author is from Jamaica, “… Dem a pour out a Jamaica, everybody future plan…” (Bennett), with it show that she is constantly repeating Jamaica.
Finally as in a conclusion this two poems have several similarities and differences. In according to the tone each poem as a different tone since the authors are likely to write as their own language. Referring to the structure also the poems have different structures the first poem is in the form of a stanza and the second one in the form of a quatrain. As already mention that the two poems have in common is that each author that about something that is happing to their society during that certain period of time. By making all this analyzing and comparing them it is easier to get a clearly comprehension.
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