As the word ‘Vultures’ is a metaphor it creates an image in the readers head to make the poem more effective and he commandant has been given two personalities to say what the character is like and to give more of an idea of what the poem is about. First, the commandant is said to be grouse, yet affectionate and capable as he stops at the sweet shop to buy his kids some sweets.
The characters in ‘Nothings Changed’ are blacks and whites, which are against each other. The poet himself is also a character. The reason for this is that the poet tells how different whites are to blacks, as he uses setting and actions to suggest how the blacks and whites are seen to others. Sentences he uses are ‘New, up-market, haute cuisine… Whites only inn’ and refers to the blacks in this sentence; ‘Working man’s café sells Bunny chows… Wipe your fingers on your jeans, spit a little on the floor: It’s in the bone’. The poem is about how legally blacks and whites are equal but in reality there is still no fairness between them.
The similarities and differences between the two poems are that both poets have used something other that people as their character. In ‘Vulture’ the poet has used animals and in ‘Nothings Changed’ the poet has used culture. The differences are that in the characters in ‘Vultures’ have used different emotions to suggest different meanings for the poem, whereas on the other hand, in ‘Nothings Changed’, there aren’t many emotions used and the point made in the poem are about fairness and equality.
How does the poet use poetic devices?
The poetic devices used in ‘Vultures’ are metaphors, which has been found with two different words. Personification and tone have also been used. The two metaphors, which have been used, are Vultures and commandant. Personification has been used in the sentence “Yesterday they picked the eyes of a swollen corpse in a water-logged trench and ate the things in its bowel”. I found tone being used in the stanza saying “Thus the commandant at Belsen camp going home for the day with fumes of human roast clinging rebelliously to his hairy nostrils will stop at the wayside sweet-shop and pick up a chocolate for his tender offspring waiting at home for daddy’s return”. The metaphors have been used to give a particular image in the readers mind. Personification has been used to explain the characters actions in more detail and tone has been used to show the characters feelings, which also gives a different meaning to the poem.
In ‘Nothings changed’, the different poetic devices used are onomatopia, alliteration and repetition throughout the poem. Examples of these being used in the poem are ‘cuffs’, ‘cans’ and crunch’ as alliteration, and, and, and has been repeated in one stanza 4 times and click has been used as onomatopia. Click resembles the sound of the word stone to make the poem more effective. The alliteration, cuffs, cans and crunch suggest what the person in the poem is doing and how he feels, eager and angry. The repetition suggests that as he carry’s on speaking, he is getting angrier. The poetic devices show the poets emotions.
The similarities are that both poems have poetic devices, which enhance the poems meanings, and the differences are that the poetic devices are clear in ‘Nothings Changed’ whereas in ‘Vultures’ the poem has to be read thoroughly to find them.
Why are those poems still important to us today?
Both the poems ‘Vultures’ and ‘Nothings Changed’, which I have been analysing, hold very important meanings and morals that people may follow. In ‘Vultures’ the poem is about things, which are to come, and about an affectionate man. In the poem, the poet has used two words, ‘Harbingers’ and ‘Bounteous’. ‘Harbingers’ means things, which are to come, and ‘Bounteous’ which means the good thing god has given. Also, the poet has given the man in the poem two different personalities, one as a ‘Commandant’ and the other as a ‘Daddy’. The specific words, which I have picked out of the poem, suggest that the poem may be quiet religious and so the poem would mean something to religious people. The two different personalities of the man teach that ha can still be considerate to his loved ones, as in the poem he is first described as grouse and then gives an affectionate response towards his kids as he stops at the shop to buy them sweets.
In ‘Nothings Changed’ the poem is about racism and how blacks and whites are legally equal but there is still no fairness between the two casts. The poem talks about blacks as if they are dirty, cheap and poor, but considers whites as fancy and posh. The ways in which the poet has compared the two casts shows how the blacks and whites are still not equal as the whites go to a ‘new, up-market, haute cuisine’ and the blacks are at a ‘working man’s café’ which sells ‘bunny chow’ and they eat on ‘plastic table’s top’ and also ‘wipe your fingers on you jeans, spit a little on the floor: it’s in the bone’. This poem teaches and resembles how everyone should be treated equally and fairly because the colour of your skin doesn’t matter.
The similarities in about both poems are that both poems give a teaching and have a bit of religion in both of them, and the difference is that ‘Vultures’ teaches how never to judge a book and ‘Nothings Changed’ teaches fairness and equality, to never hate someone because of the colour of their skin and not to be racist.