Poetry Synthesis Essay

In both the poems, “Five AM” by Estate of William Stafford and “Five Flights Up” by Elizabeth Bishop, they reflect upon the speaker’s early morning surroundings, but through different speaker’s point of view. Strafford employs stanzas, asyndeton, and personification to describe the morning surrounding and the state of mind, while Bishop utilizes injection, simple sentence and asyndeton. Strafford sets the scene with a peaceful tone and progresses into a rejuvenated tone. Bishop, on the other hand, begins with tranquil one which gets interrupted and progresses into a depressed and gloomy tone.
Stafford introduces the poem with imagery by describing the “early morning breathes/a soft sound above the fire.” The first two lines set the setting
The morning is “still dark” and the speaker is “Five Flights Up” looking down at the “unknown bird” and the “little dog” sleep. There is “gray light streaking each bare branch, each single twig”. Like Strafford, Bishop describes the morning setting, which portrays a calm, peaceful morning with little disturbance except the animals moving in their sleep. The speaker in “Five Flights Up” seems preoccupied as dashes are used in lines 7, “Questions-if that is what they are-”, to illustrate the interruption of thoughts. The speaker in “Five AM” depicts a less occupied mindset as the interruption is “Where are my troubles?” and proceeds to convey people who are content and at peace. Bishop, on the other hand, portrays a burdensome tone by describing how the dog “rushes in circles in the fallen leaves”. Fallen leaves are usually associated with autumn and autumn symbolizes tiredness and exhaustion. Additionally, the last line in the poem, “A yesterday I find almost impossible to lift”, further justifies the heavy and dark tone Bishop is illustrating. The speaker is so drained and fatigued but he cannot let the past go. In opposition, the speaker in “Five AM” has gone through a cleansing and has been reborn as he is greeted with spring and the