IS THERE A BIG DIFFERENCE? COMPARING TWO SIMILAR POEMS

What can be the difference between two similar poems that both have the same theme and try to emphasize the same idea? Penelope and Ancient Gesture are two similar poems that both address the insignificance of woman and the importance of being a housewife. The poem “Penelope” is written by an American poet, Dorothy Parker. With the effect of having a liberalistic background, in her poem she criticizes the idea that supports the insignificance of woman. By drawing the readers’ attention on her ideas just in a ten lined poem, she successfully achieves her aim and disproof the other thoughts. Just as Ms. Millay, she uses Penelope and Odysseus as wife - husband models. Being well-known characters and being in an argumentative situation can be the reason for using them as models. Furthermore, it also helps her to draw the attentions. Anyhow, in her first stanza, she introduces the reader Odysseus just as he is seen by the society and finally she finishes the poem with a sarcastic end just after telling the complexities that Penelope has to stand. On the other hand, Edna St. Vincent Millay does what she does in a longer and more dramatic poem. She emphasizes the hopelessness of Penelope and criticizes men who detect his wife. As a different thing from the other poem, she achieves to draw the readers’ attention via using recap of some words, reference of ancient symbols and with word choice. Besides having so many similarities such as addressing to the same idea, using the same models and criticizing similar thoughts; there are also many differences between those poems like the tone, length of the poems, voice, point of view and structure etc. creates a big gap between them.

Due to the start with the similarities it is better to start talking about similarities first. The first similarity that draws the readers’ attention is surely the themes of the poems. As it would be guessed the themes are the insignificance of housewives and the role of woman in the society. Even though Penelope’s and Odysseus’s society is very different from today’s, there might be many significant similarities especially about the women’s roles in society. Besides the augmentation of the number of working women, there are still many housewife women and this issue keeps its importance still. Furthermore, being a woman is also an effect to stress it. In Ms. Parker’s poem, we see a comparison of Penelope and Odyssey. As much as mentioning from what Odysseus is doing during his voyage, she also tells the reader what Penelope is supposed to do. Also, comparing of Odysseus’s enormous, magnificent and adventures life with Penelope’s ordinary and insignificant life is very obvious. “He shall ride the silver seas; he shall cut the glittering wave.” “I (Penelope) shall sit at home, and rock…” Similarly, on the other hand, a comparison is seen, too. Ms. Millay stresses on the fact that while Penelope is waiting for Odysseus, he is away and does nothing like Penelope does for him. “You can’t keep weaving all day… Suddenly you burst into tears” “And your husband is has been gone and you don’t know where, for years.” As another similarity, the stress on the grueling of being a housewife and waiting for husband for years leaps to eyes. “… Rise, to heed a neighbor’s knock; brew my tea… they will call him brave.” (first poem) “Your arms get tired… You burst into tears.” (second poem) Besides the fact that in the second poem the stress on the complexity is more obvious, it is present in Parker’s poem, too. The last line of the poem actually is the most significant part of the poem and tells the main point of it. If it were not present, there would be no complexity on the hard times of waiting. Furthermore, in contradiction, the emphasizing would be on Odysseus, nevertheless it just reversed the meaning and in a sarcastic way tells the readers the actual brave and hard time having person is Penelope.

Besides having that many similarities, there are also some differences. Naturally, the first difference between those poems that strike readers’ attention is the length of the poems. Even though the length might be seen as inconsiderable, in those poems it forms a difference. The first poem is ten lines long, but on the other hand second one includes seventeen lines. Occurring from just ten lines actually makes poet’s work harder; because it is very hard to tell successfully what you want to say in only a few sentences. However, besides the hardness Dorothy Parker overcomes it and uses it to her advantage. Different from Ms. Millay’s poem, hers is very compact and concentrated. There isn’t any meaning lose. Moreover, counter to it since it is terse, there is nothing to confuse the readers and they can concentrate much easily. Furthermore, being structured gives her a chance to focus on the important points like the last line. Nevertheless, in Millay’s poem long sentences and repetitions catch to eyes (repetition of “ancient” and “and”). Moreover, the tone of the poems is another difference. Parker uses a sarcastic way to tell her ideas, while Millay uses a more dramatic tone. To illustrate that distinction, one excerpt from each poem might be examined. For “Penelope” poem the last line “They will call him brave.” is just showing the sarcastic tone. It suddenly changes the meaning and gives it a derisive tone. On the other hand, the lines that emphasizes the grieving of Penelope “… And along towards morning, when you think it will never be light, and your husband has been gone, and you don’t know where, for years. Suddenly you burst into tears; there is nothing else to do.”. Similarly, the poet is seem as agreed with the situation just as she says “There is nothing simply else to do.” However, contrarily in Parker’s poem, Penelope never accepts the present situation. This is due to the point of view difference. Since Parker talks in point of Penelope, she cannot make some changes in Penelope’s thoughts, but Millay might can. As another matter of fact, using persona and voice are some of other distinctions. In the first poem, 1^st person point of view point view is used “I shall sit at home, and rock…” (first poem, Penelope talks.) “ however in the second one Millay uses third person’s voice. “I thought, as I wiped my eyes on the corner of my apron..” (second poem, the poet talks.)This is also a big gap, since it affects the poets’ style and the meaning.

Last but not least, at this point the question “What can be the difference between two similar poems that both have the same theme and try to emphasize the same idea?”; which is asked in the beginning of the essay might be answered. There may be many differences just as there are between “Penelope” and “An Ancient Gesture”, voice, tone and structure; besides the big similarities.