Comparison between 2 poems

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The poem ‘Long Distance’ has strong themes throughout on family and love, and these also take on the main themes in ‘The Sick Equation’, as this poem also shares the two themes as well. However these strong themes may link the two poems together so we can compare, but there are still many other contrasts too, which is what makes the two poems so different.

One of the most important and obvious contrasts is how the two poets have extreme contrasting views of love and relationships. On one hand Harrison has grown up with a very close family loving life, and therefore his poem shows the side of love that is important and what we should all have because of the feeling of happiness it gives us, even if we do have to cope with the loss of family and friends. Patten learned at school that ‘one and one made two’. This metaphor is referring to love and how one person and another come together to make two. But at home it was a completely different story; Patten had parents who fought and didn’t take much interest in him, Patten’s home life ‘stung more than any teachers cane’ which shows the extent of how painful love came across to him. In his home life he learned that ‘one and one stayed one and one’. His parents actions when he was young left him with the idea that love and relationships are horrible and all it does is hurt us, he felt as if it’s not worth going through the pain and stress. He only saw the bad sides of love, and because of that, he kept himself from everyone; he never realised the good sides of love until later on in his life.

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Another main contrast between the two poems, is guilt. In both poems the poets both feel guilt, but in different ways. Harrison, who had a good and loving family life, felt guilty about the way he treated his father when mourning. His father couldn’t get over the fact that his wife had passed away; he carried on life as it was before, his father ‘still went to renew her transport pass’, as if his wife was still there living with him. Whilst his father was in denial, Harrison played along with his father, instead of trying to help him ...

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