Compare two poems about eating in public. Eating out and The Sweet Menu
Compare two poems about eating in public.
‘Eating out’ and ‘The Sweet Menu’ are both poems written to educate and entertain the educated classes about modern life; however ‘Eating Out’ uses formal language and details how this person is extremely lonely and really wishes he could have someone to talk to whereas ‘The Sweet Menu’ relates to how another person is completely surrounded by people and how she wishes to be alone.
Both texts ‘Eating Out’ and The Sweet Menu’ use graphology for effect. The text ‘Eating Out’ is written in non-rhyming couplets (‘When the proper time came, he initiated me...Into the ritual consumption of lobster.’) which reflect her monotony, discomfort and awkwardness. Moreover, the couplets soon die out at the end of the poem (Humble, I’ll have whatever you’re having, dear.’), which could indicate a new identity being born. Collectively, this use of couplets could suggest a dysfunctional relationship between the parent and child and a desire for connection but failure in doing so. Furthermore, the writer uses Caesura (‘to recover. Later’) which creates a sense of a disjoint relationship and uncomforting environment giving the audience an impression of the writer being angry and disappointed.