COMPARE/CONTRAST Prompt

PROMPT: Compare/contrast the tone of the two poems about roaches, and explain how the poetic devices function to develop their themes. (350-400 words)

First, complete below graphic organizer to identify the poetic devices in the two poems.

Title:from Nursery Rhymes for the Tender-HeartedTitle: Roaches

Author: Christopher MorleyAuthor: Peter Wild

Tone: / Tone:
Summary: / Summary:
Roach: / Roach:
Imagery: / Imagery:
Roach at end / Roach at end
Theme/Purpose / Theme/Purpose

COMPARE/CONTRAST—Sample Completed Graphic Organizer

Christopher Morley’s from “Nursery Rhymes

for the Tender Hearted” Peter Wild’s “Roaches”

Tone: whimsical / Tone: gloomy
Summary: Imagined story about a roach playing and snacking through the kitchen during the night when no one is around to see. / Summary: Story of an actual previous night’s encounter smashing a roach in sink, leading into an imagined scene of roaches eating slime and filth.
Roach: Personified as adventurous & shy
explorer playing in park-like kitchen (metaphor) / Roach: Predator-like in the sewers crawling up into homes by way of bathroom sinks & crouching like lions (simile)
Imagery: reclining on cheese / Imagery: crouched flat cool porcelain
browse among tea leaves in garbage / feasts on gob of toothpaste & tasty slime
eats way through people food / antennae probes toothpaste cap
antennae wisks the biscuits / black eyes
drowsing in sugar bowl / moves up drainpipes through filth
shimmy on butter / breeding indiscriminately
chant tunes / known to be as large as a human hand
swimming in baby’s prunes
Roach does the same thing speaker does when hungry in the middle of the night. “My brother,” just like speaker. (Personification) / Roach starts invading the speaker, eating at his toes, and running up veins and throat. (metaphor-his body is the sewer)
DREAM-LIKE / NIGHTMARE-LIKE

PROMPT: Compare/contrast the tone of the two poems about roaches, and explain how the poetic devices function to develop their themes. (350-400 words)

Complete an essay plan below IN REVERSE based on the sample essay provided.

Poem 1 / Poem 2
Aspect 1
Aspect 2
Aspect 3

WRITING OPTION 1---FOUR PARAGRAPHS

INTRO: Title in quotes, author’s name & answer the prompt

POEM 1—Aspect 1, Aspect 2, Aspect 3 & Explain each example

POEM 2—Aspect 1, Aspect 2, Aspect 3 & Explain each and use comparative transitions

CONCLUSION: Tie it all up in different words

WRITING OPTION 2---FIVE PARAGRAPHS

INTRO: Same as above

POEM 1 & 2—Aspect 1 in both poems & explain each

POEM 1 & 2—Aspect 2 in both poems & explain each

POEM 1 & 2—Aspect 3 in both poems & explain each

CONCLUSION: Same as above

SAMPLE STUDENT ESSAY

Morley’s tone toward roaches is whimsical while Wild’s attitude is gloomy. Morley’s lighthearted entertaining poem is intended to assuage his youthful audience’s fear of the bug. Wild’s message is the opposite, instilling fear and terror toward the horrible little creatures.

The regular rhyme and meter of the Morley poem makes it sound lighthearted and appealing in which an imagined dream-like scene is described. The speaker addresses the roach directly, personifying it. The images are of the roach snacking and playing in the kitchen: “reclining on the cheese,” “browsing among the tea leaves,” “trekking on the biscuits,” “drowsing in the sugar bowl,” shimmying on the butter,” and “swimming in the baby’s prunes,” all the while “chanting tunes.” This roach is having tremendous fun just like a child playing on a playground might. In the end, the personification aligns the speaker with the roach as his “brother” who, like the speaker, also searches the dark kitchen at night for snacks. How scary can a roach be who is compared to a child playing on a playground?

On the other hand, Wild’s description is nightmare-like with his dark images of a roach in the bathroom “crouched flat” on the sink feasting “like a lion” and stalking the sewers for “tasty slime.” This roach, as opposed to Morley’s, is eating disgusting gunk in the bathroom that no person would consider food. The “black eyes” in the darkness moving through “drainpipes” through “filth” is a gross image, the antithesis of the fun-loving roach in the nursery rhyme. Even though the speaker kills one roach, thousands of others are “breeding without design” and begin to take over his body, ”nibbling his toes,” “probing in his veins,” and “scrambling up his throat” in the same way that roaches take over the sewers in the dark of night. Unlike Morley’s friendly roach who raids the kitchen at night, Wild’s creepy roaches take possession of human beings invading their bodies.

Morley’s is a dream-like fantasy in which he describes a roach as a friend and playmate and calms any fears one might have of roaches. Readers might even welcome meeting a harmless little guy on the way to the kitchen for a snack. On the other hand, Wild’s roaches are terrifying creatures and would most certainly bring blood-curdling screams from someone stumbling over one on the way to the bathroom in the middle of the night.