Poetry Analysis: Comparison of two poems. Living In Sin and Reapers - Essay Example

Order 548250 Topic: Poetry Analysis: Comparison of two poems. "Living In Sin" and "Reapers" “Living in Sin” and “Reapers” have one element in common—suffering! In the former, it is the suffering of a woman, due to wrong choices in her personal life and in the latter the suffering of the blacks due to the prevailing social conditions, over which the members of the community have no control. The subject of “Living in Sin” relates to the life of two live-in partners, how the fanciful ideas about the love-life of a woman come to naught.

“Reapers,” depicts the intense suffering of the African-Americans and their pathetic working conditions. The purpose of the former is to empower the woman and make her aware to take a realistic view of married life, and “Reapers” pictures the grim realities of the life of African-Americans. To face the challenges squarely and intelligently without meekly accepting the suffering is the only solution; live life in its trials and tribulations, in its duty and beauty! Hope is like horizon, when you walk towards it, it moves away from you; when you walk away from it, it moves towards you.

Living with the man she loves, the young woman believes that all will be perfect and life is like what is depicted in the fairy tales. Her golden hopes are dashed to the ground with the daily realities of life. The first two lines convey her fond hopes and the vision of the future she envisages. “She had thought the studio would keep itself; no dust upon the furniture of love. (1-2)This idealist woman has many fond appointments about her future life with her husband. Soon, she realizes that life in reality is boring, routine activities, which repeat day after day, with no novelty or charm.

Ultimately, in the absence of perfect joy, she learns to carry on with the available joy and submits to the inevitable. The poet describes the qualities of her man thus: “… he, with a yawn, sounded a dozen notes upon the keyboard, declared it out of tune, . . . rubbed at his beard, went out for cigarettes . . . "(15-18) This sums up the character of the husband. He is a musician, not industrious, poor by economic standards but she does not expect the ambience of her household to be that uninspiring.

Like the change of the seasons, her moods change during the course of the day. The disposition of her husband fails to come up to her lively expectations and when her husband leaves to buy cigarettes, she is " . . . jeered by the minor demons” (19). She resents it, and his casual approach to life and the boring domestic chores add to her mental misery. But it is just a passing phase and by evening she recoups her idealistic thoughts about love and entertains positive feelings about him. But this again is a temporary phase.

When she wakes up at night, she dreads and is disappointed that another boring day lay ahead of her. Her fickle mind and the elusive love become her problems again! The poem indirectly hints at the difference between true love and infatuation, steadiness of the mind and the first flush of enthusiasm which will not stay for long. Once they begin to live together, not much interaction takes place between them and this is the evidence that they are living together out of some compulsion, without feeling enthusiastic about each other.

But when he is absent from the house, she is pondering over the issue, and “by evening she was back in love again, though not so wholly” (Rich 25). Perhaps the poet conveys the truth that it is sin to live together, in the absence of true love for each other. Or the woman makes a bad choice as for selecting her life-partner and now she desperately struggles to adjust to the circumstances that she is confronted with. The poem “Reapers” reveals the story of the various phases of miseries of varying degrees that the African Americans go through.

This is a short poem that pierces one’s heart like a sharp dagger. The connotation of the word ‘black’ in the first line of the poem refers to the sufferings of the black race. The lines “Black reapers with the sound of steel on stones, are sharpening scythes,” (1-2) depict the history of the blacks. The word ‘black’ is used twice to describe the reapers once, and for the second time to describe the horse. The inference, though painful, is simple and straightforward. Those who inflicted untold suffering on the black community treated them as their possessions or property and their standard was as good as a horse—the animal!

They spend their life in the fields and normal enjoyment to which a human being is entitled to is denied to them. Their work is strenuous and monotonous with no novel experiences in their life. The rules that bind them to labor are so harsh with no means to escape and the nature of their job dehumanizes them. The author describes their plight thus: “And there, a field rat, startled, squealing bleeds, his belly close to the ground. I see the blade, blood-stained, continue cutting weeds and shade.”(6-8)Their life is compared to that of a field rat—whether it lives or crushed under someone’s feet is of no consequence.

The society does not care for the living conditions of the African Americans and their suffering is taken for granted. The poem is the symbol of the living realities of the black reaper. He just exists; he has no choices of life. From the cradle to the grave from the womb to the tomb, the life is full of miseries. Conclusion The comparison in two poems is about private suffering of an individual (the woman) and the suffering of the society as a whole. It is essential for the readers to know the similarities, as responsible citizens one must work to find out solutions for such social evils.

In “Living in Sin,” proper counseling could help the woman, whereas for the issues mentioned in “Reapers” a social revolution is needed. Works Cited Rich, Adrienne. Living in Sin Toomer, Jean. Reapers