Five A. M. Compare/Contrast Essay

Words: 494
Pages: 2

The two poems, Five A.M. by William Stafford and Five Flights Up by Elizabeth Bishop, use similar, yet in spots contrasting, descriptive techniques to reveal Stafford’s inwardly contemplative and Bishop’s outwardly observant states of mind. In Stafford’s Five A.M. there is a heavy use of personal pronouns such as “my” or “I”. These serve to demonstrate the speaker’s inward observations especially with phrases such as “Where are my troubles?” This demonstrates the reflection of the speaker and thus their inwardly contemplative state of mind. This inward view is furthered by the first five lines of the second stanza in which the speaker is contemplating history and essentially its relation to the speaker’s current state of being.
In Bishop’s Five Flights Up, there is heavy usage of personification of animals and the environment which demonstrates Bishop’s outwardly observative state. Birds are primarily personified in this poem in their actions and interactions with the environment. In this way, dogs are also personified in the first and third stanzas. This personification is an extension of the speaker’s thoughts and enables their state of mind to shine through. Specifically, these personifications show the
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By beginning the poem with the line “still dark,” the speaker is demonstrating that night has not completely ended thus setting the poem up to be a transition phase in existence or state of being for the speaker. By doing this, it opens the poems to be either inwardly or outwardly perceptive. Inward in the sense that one may still be in turmoil mentally and outwardly more to the literal sense of the phrase “still dark.” This transition happens throughout the morning as the speaker observes inwardly, Stafford, or outwardly, Bishop. This transition works to demonstrate each speaker’s respective states of