Poem+comparison

Poem comparison:

Erosion

t took the sea a thousand years, A thousand years to trace The granite features of this cliff, In crag and scarp and base. It took the sea an hour one night, An hour of storm to place The sculpture of these granite seams Upon a woman's face.

and

Sleep

The evening hangs beneath the moon A silver thread on darkened dune with closing eyes and resting head i know that sleep is coming soon

Upon my pillow, safe in bed a thousand pictures fill my head I cannot sleep my minds a flight And yet my limbs seem made of lead

If there are noises in the night A frightening shadow, flickering light Then I surrender unto sleep

Where clouds of dreams give second sight

What dreams may come both dark and deep

Of flying wings and soaring leap

As I surrender unto sleep As I surrender unto sleep

Both of these poems have themes relating to the human race. Both can be thought of as highlighting humans' weaknesses compared to nature. Sleep is a poem talking metaphorically about death, and erosion is talking about how quickly humans can be changed by nature. Erosion's theme is the contrast between humans and nature, saying that the force of nature takes a thousand years to change a cliff, but takes an hour of storm one night to make the same changes in a woman's face. This is highlighting that nature is a lot stronger than humans, that human's emotions are ficle, change rapidly and can be changed easily.

Sleep is talking about death by comparing it to sleep. It is talking about the death of one person, and how humans pass away. This could be taken as a weakness because we have relatively short compared to some of the things of nature. Compared to nature, our lifespan is a weakness, along with our weak bodies. Nature is extremely powerful, and extremely strong.