Comparing and Contrasting Hughess Mother to Son and Wilburs The Write

Comparing and Contrasting Hughess amaze to Son and Wilburs The WriterWhether behavior is a steep climb up a shaky staircase or a challenging voyage over rough seas, a parent hopes a child will persevere to the end. In Langston Hughess song get under ones skin to Son and in Richard Wilburs poem The Writer, the poets use the voice of a parent considering a childs future, and both use imagery of struggle and survival of the fittest to suggest what lies ahead for the child. Although the point of view, context, and language of the two poems differ significantly, the capacity is the same a parent wants a good life for his or her child, alone knows that many obstacles can block the way.While Hughes and Wilbur share a similar message in their poems, their points of view are very incompatible. Hughes uses a starting signal-person narrator, a mother speaking directly to her son. The title of the poem itself, Mother to Son, states this point of view. The reader is listening in on a ma n-to-man conversation. The opening line introduces the mothers monologue Well, son, Ill tell you. The point of view stay consistent as the mother describes what lifes stairway has been like for her Life for me aint been no crystal stair (2 and 20), and urges her son to do as she has done Ise calm down climbin (19). She addresses her son directly throughout the poem, calling him son (1), boy (14), and beloved (18). The poem is entirely in the mothers speaking voice, with the informalities of someone speaking in private to a close relative and the grammatical errors of someone who is probably not well educated. Richard Wilburs poem is also written in the first person, but the narrator does not address his daughter directly until the final stanza (31-33). The first thir... ...s her message across in twenty short, simple lines.Both Mother to Son and The Writer offer a parents sincere message to a child. However, the poems points of view, contexts, and language show two parents who h ave traveled very different paths before offering their messages. The reader sees that parents hopes and concerns for a child are universal, blush though their expression differs.Works CitedBixler, Frances. Richard Wilbur A Reference Guide. Boston G.K. abidance 1991Hughes, Langston. Mother to Son. Literature and Ourselves A Thematic Introduction for Readers and Writers. Eds. Gloria Mason Henderson, history Day, and Sandra Stevenson Waller. 4th ed. invigorated York Longman, 2003. Wilbur, Richard. Responses. Prose Pieces 19531976. New York Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 1976 New and Collected Poems. New York Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 1988