Comparative Analysis of Poetry
Senior 6 · Literature in English
Comparative Analysis of Poetry
Lesson 2 of 5
25 min
Two poets, nearly sixty years and an ocean apart, make the same complaint: we have learned to count, measure and buy, and in doing so we have stopped seeing the world. William Wordsworth made it in England in a strict fourteen-line sonnet. Walt Whitman made it in America in eight lines of free verse. Same idea, opposite forms: this is the perfect pair for asking how form shapes meaning.
The World Is Too Much with Us
William Wordsworth (published 1807)The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.
When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer
Walt Whitman (published 1865)When I heard the learn'd astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| sordid boon | a shameful, worthless gift or bargain |
| Pagan suckled in a creed outworn | someone raised (fed as a baby) in an old, abandoned religion, here the nature gods of ancient Greece |
| lea; forlorn | a meadow; lonely and unhappy |
| Proteus, Triton | Greek sea-gods: Proteus could change his shape; Triton blew a conch-shell horn to calm or raise the waves |
| unaccountable | for no reason that can be explained |
Definition
Count the words and the difference is visible at once. Wordsworth's lines stay between 7 and 10 words because each is a line of iambic pentameter: the sonnet holds his anger inside a strict frame. Whitman's lines grow longer and longer through the first four, each beginning "When", as the lecture piles proof on figure on chart, until the fourth line is so long it seems to go on as tediously as the lecture itself. Then the lines shorten as the speaker escapes, and the last line, "Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars", is short and calm. The form of the poem enacts its meaning: the clutter of measurement, then release into silence.
| Point | Wordsworth | Whitman |
|---|---|---|
| Form | Petrarchan sonnet, iambic pentameter, ABBAABBA CDCDCD | Free verse, one sentence, no rhyme or regular metre |
| Structure and turn | Octave: the complaint. The turn comes early, in the middle of line 9: "Great God! I'd rather be …" | Lines 1–4: four "When" clauses (anaphora) build up the lecture. Turn at line 5: "How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick" |
| What is wrong | Commerce: "Getting and spending" wastes our powers | A way of knowing: proofs, columns and diagrams that leave out wonder |
| Tone | Angry, exclamatory, despairing ("a sordid boon!") | Calm, almost amused; the anger is only weariness |
| Imagery of nature | Personified and mythical: the Sea "bares her bosom to the moon"; Proteus and Triton | Sensory and simple: "mystical moist night-air", "the stars" |
| Resolution | None: only a wish to see nature as the ancient Greeks did | Achieved: the speaker walks out and looks, in silence |
The deepest similarity is that both poets believe we must feel nature, not only use or measure it. The deepest difference lies in the endings. Wordsworth's speaker stands on the lea wishing; the sonnet's closed form matches his trapped feeling. Whitman's speaker simply gets up and leaves; the open form matches his freedom.
Worked example
A model comparative paragraph (point: form)
Each poet chooses a form that acts out his argument. Wordsworth confines his protest within the strictest of English forms, the Petrarchan sonnet, and the tension between the frame and his feeling shows in the line breaks: the octave is crowded with exclamations ("a sordid boon!"), and the turn bursts out early, in the middle of line 9, with "Great God!", as if he cannot wait for the sestet. Whitman, by contrast, abandons metre and rhyme altogether. His first four lines grow longer as the lecture's "proofs" and "figures" pile up, so that the reader, like the speaker, feels "tired and sick" by the end of the fourth. Then the lines contract into the simple last line, "Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars". Whereas Wordsworth's form expresses a man trapped in a world "too much with us", Whitman's free verse expresses escape; the difference in form is a difference in how far each speaker gets.
Tip
Ask "why this form?" for every poem. Then turn the answer into comparison: "The sonnet suits Wordsworth because …; free verse suits Whitman because …". An examiner rewards form discussed as meaning much more than form named as a label.
Warning
The astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson reads "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" for the American Museum of Natural History. Think about why an astronomer might enjoy this poem.
Practice
Sources and credits
