Comparing and Contrasting Are “father”, “warren Pryor”, and “the Average”

        Poets and other types of writers often use many different literary elements in their works to get their message across or to simply make things more entertaining for the audience. Literary devices such as simile, metaphor, and personification are usually common in most works. However, there are certain elements that are especially prevalent in poetry. Some of the elements that are most common in poetry include tone, rhyme, imagery, and symbol. The three works that I will be comparing and contrasting are “Father”, “Warren Pryor”, and “The Average”. One similar occurrence in each of the three works of poetry involves an unnamed character that loses their parent(s) to either a tragedy or from natural causes. The characters in the poems struggle with the decision of living a dream that their parents would have wanted in order to honor them.

Alfred A.Yuson wrote “Father”. It is told from the third person perspective just as the other poems. The poem tells the story of guy who watched his father die on his deathbed. The unnamed male reflects back on the unresolved tensions between him and his father. He wishes that he could have more time to just cherish the life of his father for a little while longer. Like the other two poems, the tone at the ending of “Father” does not suggest a positive future in the life of the character. This is made evident by the last line of text which states that the son of the dying father went back to half a home after accepting the fact that his father was going to pass, and there was no way for them to have more time together. The ending of “Father”, though it is negative like the other two poems, is slightly different in that regard. The characters in the other two poems suffered with their career choices while trying to choose between honoring their parent’s dying wishes and being happy at the same time. It was not because of the occurrence of their parent’s death. Yuson’s use of imagery in the poem to paint a picture of the father’s heart rate flat lining on a monitor was very powerful and crucial to the entire poem. The other two poets also made a great use of imagery in their works, but it was more on a subtle level. Their use of imagery does not have any moments that are as essential to helping the reader understand the poem, as was the case with “Father”.  

W.H. Auden wrote “The Average”. It tells the story of an unnamed character from a hardworking, blue-collar family. The boy’s parents died from working too hard. They dedicated their lives to ensuring that their son had every chance in the world to get a better job and become more successful than they were. Though the family was fairly poor, they had high expectations for their son in life. The son felt as though he was not worthy of the sacrifice made by his parents. He believed that such sacrifice would only be worthy of a hero, or a star achiever in his field. Living with the weight of his parent’s expectations for a simple life loving country boy, the task at hand just became too much for him. So, he ran away from the effort of trying to do something exceptional with his life, as his parents would have wanted. He was only an average man. Auden makes a great use of rhyme in the poem unlike the other two works mentioned in this essay. It really helps to establish the pace and tone of the poem.