Since Feeling Is First
COMPARE AND CONTRAST ESSAY
Poetry is a tool used to express the poets' innermost thoughts and feelings. The poems discussed in this essay are about one of the most powerful and complex emotions of all, love. The chosen two poems are the following; "Since Feeling Is First" by E. E. Cummings and "Love Is Not All" by Edna St. Vincent Millay. While these two poems share the same topic, the themes presented in each poem varies slightly.
Love has no logic. That is the theme of the poem " Since Feeling Is First." Even the title itself is quite an indication as to what E. E. Cummings has written about in his poem. At a first glance, it is visible that the poem does not follow any kind of structure or syntax. Upon reading the poem, it
is noticeable that even the sentences themselves lack structure. While in Edna St. Vincent Millay's poem it is recognizable that the poem indeed has structure and that it is in fact a sonnet, and even more specifically, a Shakespearean sonnet. That indicates that there are three quatrains and the remaining two lines is the rhyming couplet. In a Shakespearean sonnet an iambic pentameter is also used, meaning that every line has ten syllables. "Love Is Not All" discusses the theme that even though love cannot keep a person alive, a person cannot live without love either. The poem starts off describing what love is not and yet people are willing to give up their lives for it. Through the middle the poet says how she would be tempted to exchange her love to fulfill whatever need she has but the couplet concludes that even though she would be willing to give up her love, she wouldn't actually go through with it.
"Since Feeling Is First" is about how if a person always worries about order and rules they will not experience love completely compared to a person who does not pay close attention to the structure of things. To experience love fully is to understand and accept that love was, is, and always will continue to be, chaotic. It does not follow a pattern or any type of guideline. Basically, the poet is saying that enjoy life and what it brings, including love. But being in love where the person lets go of their inhibitions is what makes life worthwhile because in the end we are all going to die and death is not another stage in our lives but it is the end according to Cummings. The fact that poem is written without syntax reinforces the theme of it and to grasp this concept a reader has to look past the mistakes and comprehend what the poet is saying.
Though both of the poems mentioned above share the same topic, the theme of each poem varies. "Since Feeling Is First" is about how love does not follow a logical order or a scientific method, while "Love Is Not All" is about how even though love does not keep a person physically alive, but it is probably one of the biggest reasons why people commit suicide. These two poems explore the mysterious nature of love and the power it has on humans. In the end, both of the poems give a little insight as to what love can be described as because when asked anyone what love is, they cannot give a sufficient answer. A person will not know what or how love is until and unless the person experiences' it full force.
Poetry is a tool used to express the poets' innermost thoughts and feelings. The poems discussed in this essay are about one of the most powerful and complex emotions of all, love. The chosen two poems are the following; "Since Feeling Is First" by E. E. Cummings and "Love Is Not All" by Edna St. Vincent Millay. While these two poems share the same topic, the themes presented in each poem varies slightly.
Love has no logic. That is the theme of the poem " Since Feeling Is First." Even the title itself is quite an indication as to what E. E. Cummings has written about in his poem. At a first glance, it is visible that the poem does not follow any kind of structure or syntax. Upon reading the poem, it
is noticeable that even the sentences themselves lack structure. While in Edna St. Vincent Millay's poem it is recognizable that the poem indeed has structure and that it is in fact a sonnet, and even more specifically, a Shakespearean sonnet. That indicates that there are three quatrains and the remaining two lines is the rhyming couplet. In a Shakespearean sonnet an iambic pentameter is also used, meaning that every line has ten syllables. "Love Is Not All" discusses the theme that even though love cannot keep a person alive, a person cannot live without love either. The poem starts off describing what love is not and yet people are willing to give up their lives for it. Through the middle the poet says how she would be tempted to exchange her love to fulfill whatever need she has but the couplet concludes that even though she would be willing to give up her love, she wouldn't actually go through with it.
"Since Feeling Is First" is about how if a person always worries about order and rules they will not experience love completely compared to a person who does not pay close attention to the structure of things. To experience love fully is to understand and accept that love was, is, and always will continue to be, chaotic. It does not follow a pattern or any type of guideline. Basically, the poet is saying that enjoy life and what it brings, including love. But being in love where the person lets go of their inhibitions is what makes life worthwhile because in the end we are all going to die and death is not another stage in our lives but it is the end according to Cummings. The fact that poem is written without syntax reinforces the theme of it and to grasp this concept a reader has to look past the mistakes and comprehend what the poet is saying.
Though both of the poems mentioned above share the same topic, the theme of each poem varies. "Since Feeling Is First" is about how love does not follow a logical order or a scientific method, while "Love Is Not All" is about how even though love does not keep a person physically alive, but it is probably one of the biggest reasons why people commit suicide. These two poems explore the mysterious nature of love and the power it has on humans. In the end, both of the poems give a little insight as to what love can be described as because when asked anyone what love is, they cannot give a sufficient answer. A person will not know what or how love is until and unless the person experiences' it full force.