Analysing And Contrasting Two Poems Essay

The poet has described the sound of the whistle as a melody, which gives us the impression of a sound, which is very popular to the workers and a part of their daily routines. â€Å"The melody men & women built lives around†. This gives us an image of the workers being very unhappy with their Jobs because it mentioned that they have built lives around work. This implies that either they have been forced to work or that they have no other option to choose from because they have had to change their lifestyles to adapt to their jobs. The poet has compared the whistle to a queen bee by using a simile, â€Å"Sonorous as the queen bee’s fat hum drawing workers from the flowers back to the colonized heart. † This is a very good comparison because it shows how the whistle is similar to the queen bee. The whistles â€Å"Syncopation† wakes up the workers where as the â€Å"queen bee’s fat hum† calls the working bees from the flowers and back to the beehive, which is also the workplace of all the people. The workplace is referred to as the â€Å"colonized heart† because all the workers make up a single colony or a strong organisation, which is the key ingredient to a company, as if the heart is to the humans. Without the heart, we are nothing and the same goes for the workplace, no workers means no business. The whistle is also known to be loud. The first nine lines are a very effective part of the poem as it not only sets the scene but also describes what the whistle is and what it exactly does. The poet has now decided to begin to describe where the workers work. He does this by describing a piece of machinery, â€Å"a titanous puff of steam rose from the dragon trapped below iron, bricks and wood†. This quote is an example of personification because the â€Å"dragon trapped below† has been given a living characteristic which is the dragon. The poet gives us an image of fire by using a dragon, which is known to breathe fire. This image also gives us the idea that the workplace could possibly be a factory of some kind. This image of a dragon breathing out fire seem as though it would come from a child’s point of view especially because the image of a dragon is a myth. This nostalgic way of writing is very effective because it puts a clearer image of what exactly goes on and with this writing technique, many writers can create good linguistic devises. The next couple of lines give us a clearer view of what the factory could be. I believe that the factory could be a logging mill, â€Å"the whole black machine shuddered: blue jays & red birds wove light through leaves & something dead under the foundation brought worms to life†. The reason I believe it could be a logging mill is that I get the impression from this quote that a tree is being pulled out of the soil and worms are being exposed to the outside world. I believe that the â€Å"whole black machine† could be a piece of machinery, which is pulling the tree out of the ground. By doing this the wildlife, such as birds, which live in the tree, have been frightened by the sudden movement. The movement of the tree has now exposed the worms to sunlight, which has also caused sudden movement. I believe that this is the true meaning, however, Yusef Komunyakaa could be implying something totalling different. The black machine could be the whistle, which caused a loud vibration, which led to the sudden movement of the birds. This whistle has people working and waking up the foremen and employers. Yusef Komunyakaa could also be implying that the foremen are worms considering that they are white. Lines eighteen to twenty discuss the narrative of the men arriving to work, â€Å"men capped their thermoses, switched off Loretta Lynn, & slid from trucks and cars†. These lines are very unambiguous and straightforward. These three lines allow us to set a date the poem was written in. The poet mentioning Loretta Lynn allows us to date the poem because we know that she was a country singer and she made a number one hit in 1961. From this, we now know that the poem was probably written during the 1960’s. The poet has now described more about what the workers jobs consist of and I believe that this gives more evidence backing my prediction of the factory being a logging mill, â€Å"the rip saws throttled and swung out over logs on conveyer belts†. Here the poet has used personification to Describe the ripsaws. The word throttled means to strangle or choke. This gives us an image of aggression, however, up until this point of the poem there has been no mention of violence, this foreshadows something, which could possible happen later on in the poem. The equipment which have been described are heavy duty machinery, by this we understand that the logging mill is a very big factory and this leads to the question of, how many workers there are?