hello. Recently, there was a death in my girlfriends family. She took it very hard, and I spent much of the last week comforting her. I take an online ENG102 class, and haven't really had time to look at the work. Today, I finally logged on and saw I had an essay due by midnight tonight. I must compare the poem "My Last Duchess," by Robert Browning, and "My Papa's Waltz," by Theodore Roethke. I have read both poems, but am having a great amount of trouble coming up with any mojor similarities. I am seeking any and all help. Thank you for your anticipated cooperation. Here, along with the poems, is the essay's guidelines.
- From the pairs of works (below), select one pair to compare in a clear, coherent, well-organized essay. More effective essay responses will discuss the works substantially and present specific information, examples, facts, and relevant telling details to support the writer's observations and assertions. They will also demonstrate mastery of the conventions of standard written American English.
- As part of your paper's introductory paragraph, be sure to identify the works you are discussing, their authors, and your paper's focus. You may discuss similarities, differences, or both. Rather than tell you reader about the works, explain the significance of the comparisons or contrasts (e.g., what do you discover in comparing them?, how do the works and their details shed light on one another?, and why is that discovery noteworthy?).
- In subsequent paragraphs develop your main idea and points of comparison. Explain clearly what you think and why. Spell out the relationship between the works (your interpretation or "critical point"), your supporting points, and the details of the works themselves.
- Write to inform; provide specific information to back up what you say. Use relevant details (key words, phrases, comments, or quotations) from the literature to develop and reinforce your main and supporting points; please quote accurately and provide a context for quotations (i.e., identify the speaker, the audience, and the situation in which the remark is made).
My Last Duchess
That's my last duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf's hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
Will't please you sit and look at her? I said
"Fra Pandolf" by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
That depth and passion of its earnest glance,
But to myself they turned (since none puts by
The curtain drawn for you, but I) [10]
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
How such a glance came there; so not the first
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 't was not
Her husband's presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps
Fra Pandolf chanced to say "Her mantle laps
Over my lady's wrist too much" or "Paint
Must never hope to reproduce the faint
Half-flush that dies along her throat:" such stuff
Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough [20]
For calling up that spot of joy. She had
A heart - how shall I say? - too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed: she liked whate'er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
Sir, 't was all one! My favour at her ***,
The dropping of the daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace -all and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech, [30]
Or blush,at least. She thanked men - good! but thanked
Somehow - I know not how - as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to blame
This sort of trifling? Even had you skill
In speech - (which I have not) - to make your will
Quite clear to such a one, and say, "Just this
Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss
Or there exceed the mark"- and if she let
Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set [40]
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse
- E'en then would be some stooping; and I choose
Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive. Will 't please you rise? We'll meet
The company below, then. I repeat,
The Count your master's known munificence
Is ample warrant that no just pretence [50]
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed
At starting is my object. Nay, we'll go
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me.
My Papa's Waltz
The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.
We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.
The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.
You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.