Comparision Between "The Fog" By Carll Sandburg And "The Sick Rose" By William Blake

The poems “Fog” by Carl Sandburg and the “The Sick Rose” by William Blake have many similarities and differences. Both the poems use animals and bad weather in their content. “Fog” uses a cat and the fog while in the “The Sick Rose” there is a worm and a storm. The poets use the bad weather to create a sense of unhappiness to the reader as the bad weather stops normal events from happening. For example the fog blocks the sun and makes everything seem hazy and the storm destroys plants and does damage to everything. Both the fog and the storm seem alive the poems due to the way the poets described them. Sandburg used a metaphor to make the fog seem alive. The fog becomes a cat and “It sits looking over harbour and city on silent haunches.” This could also be described as personification instead of a metaphor. Blake uses onomatopoeia, “In the howling storm” to create the same effect. Both poems’ use of foul weather conditions inflicts an undesired sense of darkness and sickness. The impression of "The Sick Rose" because of the storm is of darkness, sickness, and death. "Fog" gives us a sense of nausea, dirty streets, smoke, and grayish darkness. The immediate feeling that one gets at the very utterance of the word 'fog' is lack of definitude and opacity

Differences include the rhyming of the poem, tone of the poem, word choices and the point of view of the writer. Blake speaks to the rose and he tells the rose how it dies while Sandburg is the third person in the poem. He is an observer. Blake’s point of view makes the tone of his poem is severe and full of grief as the poem ends with great sorrow. His attitude is brutal and intense. An example is the first line of the poem, “O Rose, thou art sick.” He jumps right into the action and his tone suggests he feels sorry for the rose. He describes the death of the rose violently and creates many strong feelings. The form and style of this poem is full of intricacy. The words are complex and the poem rhymes every 2nd line and 4th line of each stanza. In contrast, “Fog” form and style