Crista Angelina Quintos Grade 8

January 28, 2014

Comparative Essay
Rudyard Kippling was an English short story writer, a poet and a novelist born on December 30, 1865 in Mumbai, India. Although he was born in India, he had soon transferred to England with his family when he was just five years old. He had published a lot of novels such as The Naulahka, which he had collaborated with Wolcott Balestier, who is an American writer and a publishing agent. In 1891, he went back to India for a Christmas trip with his family until he heard of Balestiers death because of a typhoid fever and decided to return to London. This might have caused him to create poems such as The Answer and The Explanation. These two poems are very alike when it comes to theme, and structure of poems. Both poems have the theme of death as a main issue when it came to the poem. Also, every consecutive end of every two lines, they rhyme. As an example, in the poem The Answer, he used these two rhyming words at the end of every two consecutive lines; path and wrath. In the poem, The Explanation at the end of two consecutive lines was; strife and life. Even if Kipplings work is considered modern poetry and poetry that was famous during the 20th century, he used veteran words such as, sayest, twain and swarn in the poem The Answer. And words such as abhorred, sheaved, quiver, thus and woe in the poem The Explanation. Also in both poems, he was neighboring earth and flowers as images to picture while you are reading the poem. He used the image of a rose that tatters on a garden path to refer to someone who is ill fated. He used this on the poem, The Answer. And in his poem, The Explanation he talks about being one with the earth and about being on earths surface ground. Rudyard Kippling had always seemed to make a strong point about death. He talked about how death changes people and how good people who arent fame hungry or people who stay unselfish will be able to spend there golden hours in heaven when all the people who want popularity and nobility for there own selfish reasons will stay in hell. This he had mentioned in his poem, The Answer. He had referenced about death a lot in both of these poems and he referred to God and hell and God only saving good people and sending to hell those who are thirsty for fame and power. He had said that if people are selfish, that is wrong and people who do this will be seized by death. The last line on his poem, The Explanation he said old men love, while young men die this shows you how Kippling shows how the youth is getting worse and how the youth starts to want all this fame and suddenly have this urge to want power. This goes to how that Rudyard Kippling felt very strongly toward this topic because he believed that good people will have their golden hours in heaven and bad people will be seized by death, not have his soul saved and proceed towards hell.

Re-periodized Poem
Sonnet 121 Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed, When not to be receives reproach of being; And the just pleasure lost, which is so deemed Not by our feeling, but by others seeing: For why should others false adulterate eyes Give my salutation to my sportive blood? Or on my frailties why are frailer spies, Which in their wills count bad to what I think good? No, I am that I am, and they that level At my abuses reckon up their own: I maybe straight thought they themselves must not be shown; Unless this general evil they maintain, All men are bad and in their badness reign.

This is Sonnet number 121, written by William Shakespeare, this is a poem that was written in the renaissance poetry era of The United Kingdom. Unlike Rudyard Kippling, William Shakespeare wrote in a rhyme scheme. This is where the pattern which an unstressed syllable is supposed to be followed by a syllable that is stressed 5 times and the last two lines are a rhyming couplet. He had written the way sonnets should be written. This poem was written in answer to a situation where the youth accepted the poets excuse of death. This poem talks about being a bad person and how the youth cannot be controlled anymore and are ending up bad people. This poem although doesnt talk about death, it does talk about a similar theme found in the poem The Explantation because they both talk about the youth and how the youth can not be controlled. These two poems dont always talk about death but they both talk about bad people and how they will be punished, in time. At the end of Sonnet 121, the couplet; Shakespeare had said, Unless this general evil they maintain, All men ate bad, and in their badness reign. And at the end of The Explaination, Kippling had said old men love, while young men die. These both talk about the youth and about bad people getting punished. And so did Kipplings poem, The Answer after he said While he who questioned why the flower fell, caught hold of God and saved his soul from Hell. Which is something to connect to all poems to. This just really shows that people in the Renaissance period and Modern period have the same core values and still believe in the same thing. This also shows that this is a very powerful theme that comes across to people from different eras

Original Poem
If death were a flower What flower would it sprout? I would think a rose, But then I start to doubt, It wouldnt be a rose, Because it would have thorns And we all know death would be a pretty flower But a pretty flower with horns. I think that death must be Looking might fine, But then death would start to grow It would sprout out vines, Looking for the sunlight And trying to infect The other heart-rending flowers, And try to inject The poison from their roots, Well thats what I suspect. So why does such a flower exist If it ruins your life Its like surgical knife About to cut you open From piece to piece But you dont know if itll be messy Or give you release This flower, The flower sprouts because of the youth Because the youth doesnt care About speaking the truth They arent afraid of being bad people Because they are ready to be the steeple. But now we accept the flower of death, Even if we get infected, Were ready to test The taste of the poison And the smell of the blood Because everyone loves the death flower And I wouldnt mind the thud.