Looking at Hugo’s “Missoula Softball Tournament” and Harwood’s “In the Park,” analyze the roles of the women in each poem. In which ways are they similar? In which ways are they different? Similarly, analyze the roles of the men in each poem. Are the men stronger or freer in one poem or the other? In what ways does each poem reflect the failures of the men? What might each poem be saying about gender roles, traditional relationships, or growing old?
Analyze the speakers in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and “Acquainted with the Night.” Describe their relationships with their surroundings, including other people. Also, analyze their relationships with themselves. In what ways are the speakers similar and in what ways are they different? Are the tones of the poems similar or different? Why?
Analyze how nature is depicted in the two poems, “I wandered lonely as a cloud” and “The Lake Isle of Innisfree.” What role does nature play for each speaker? In what ways is the relationship between humans and nature similar in the two poems? In what ways is it different? Do these poems say more about nature’s importance to humans or about human’s ability to mentally transcend their immediate worlds?
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