Comparison of Two Poems Essay Example

needed.

As far as the language of the two poems, Strafford lacks complexity, but in fairness still gets his point across. His poem has strong imagery to bring emotion to the deceased animal, but fails to point out the bigger picture at hand. In theme, however, “Traveling through the Dark” seems narrower than “Thoughts on Capital Punishment. Reading the poem brings uncertainty to what he is truly theme; however, “Traveling through the Dark” seems more narrow than “Thoughts on Capital Punishment.

Reading the poem brings uncertainty to what he is truly trying to get across. He only ever speaks of the dead doe and how “she had stiffened already, almost cold. ” He describes the doe with descriptive emotion, but fails to point out whether her death is right or wrong. His closing note (“I thought hard for us all-my only swerving-then pushed her over the edge”) brings question to why he thought hard for us because the poem only ever talks about the dead doe and how he removed it from the side of the road, but never pointed out anything among that.

His closing note is really the only evidence of killing animals with an automobile is wrong, but he does not go further with the idea like Mckuen does. Mckuen’s closing note (“who kills a man kills a bit of himself, But a cat too is an extension of God”) goes further with the idea that men that kill other men are criminals, but men that kill cats or any other animal is also a criminal. He puts forth that animals are living as well as man, so there death should be treated like a

man death in the assumption they were killed. In both language and theme, “Thoughts on Capital Punishment” climbs much higher in comparison.