“…two garbage men…an elegant couple”
It tells the reader that there are four people at a traffic light and one couple is completely different to the other, it is straight to the point, and so the reader knows what is happening just from reading the first stanza.
However, in Nothing’s Changed the poet starts of telling the reader about a personal experience (so it is written in first person), it doesn’t start of by setting the scene, but starts by the use of unwelcoming words:
“Small round hard stones click” (line 1)
This gives the sense of heart beat and rhythm which shows Afrika’s anger growing.
The structure is free in “Two scavengers in a truck, Two beautiful people in a Mercedes” and he does not use punctuation either, and instead begins a new line whenever he wants us to pause:
“At the stoplight waiting for the light
Nine a.m. downtown San Francisco
A bright yellow garbage truck”
This causes the poem to look very fragmented on the page, and this could be because the poet wants to imply the fragmented or ‘broken’ nature of society. In addition, the poet could be structuring it out like this to make the reader think about the different ideas, at different parts of the poem. I also think that it could be because the two couples were only at the traffic for a number of seconds, and the poet (the observer) quickly notes down the differences, which could be why the sentences are not clear and it does not have full stops or commas.
By contrast, Nothing’s Changed has a kind of regularity:
“District Six.
No board says it is:
but my feet know,
and my hands,
and the skin about my bones,
and the soft labouring of my lungs,
and the hot, white, inwards turning
anger of my eyes.”
This creates a sense of control and that the poet is very clear about his feelings, not suddenly going into a rage.
Both poems are written in present tense:
“And both scavengers gazing down” (Two scavengers in a truck, Two beautiful people in a Mercedes)
“I press my nose” (Nothing’s Changed)
Ferlinghetti writes in the present tense to hive the reader a sense of immediacy and that the events are happening now. But from a wider perspective it also could suggest the huge gap between the rich and the poor.
In “Nothing’s Changed”, however, Afrika does not use the present tense to show that the events are happening now, but to recall a past experience – as if the poet is re-living the experience as he writes. This also makes the poem easy to identify with and vivid to read.
The images of these two poems are quiet different, because one poem shows the anger of the poet about the situation. But the other poem is about the differences between the two pairs.
The simile of the older garbage man suggests that he is like Quasimodo:
“Like some gargoyle Quasimodo”
The poet could be using this simile to help the reader imagine the ugliness of the garbage men, and so therefore emphasis the big difference between the pairs. Felinghetti might also have chosen this simile to show he big difference between the garbage men and the elegant couple – just like Quasimodo is so different to everyone else, the poet tries to show that the garbage men is also different to the beautiful couple.
There is less imagery in Nothing’s Changed, but he main image is a physical image, that we an almost feel.
“Hands burn”
This helps the readers understand that he is so angry that he can feel it in his hands and imagine how his hands burn to take revenge. Afrika also uses sound to link the words hand/burn/stone/bomb.
The attitude and tones of the poets change throughout the poems. In “Two scavengers in a truck, Two beautiful people in a Mercedes” Felinghetti changes his tone and attitude many times. Whereas, in Nothing’s Changed Afrika only changes his attitude/tone twice. Felinghetti starts off in a dramatic tone:
“…waiting for the light…two garbage men in red plastic blazers…looking down into/ an elegant open Mercedes/ with elegant couple in it”
The poet starts the poem off in this tone, so that the reader wonders what is going to happen between the two pairs.
Then the he changes into a sombre, muted tone:
“And two scavengers up since four a.m./grungy from their route”
This tone is created because Felinghetti want to show that he is sad that a gap remains between the rich and poor.
Finally, nearer to the end the poet shows a loud and angry attitude:
“Across the small gulf/in the high seas/of this democracy”
The poem is ended using this tone to show the poets attitude to protest the failure of democracy.
The start of Nothing’s Changed is an angry start:
“Small round hard stones click”
This suggests the poet is angry that nothing has changed, (his use of monosyllabic word give the sense of heart beat and rhythm which shows is growing anger). But at the end of the poem the writes a stanza to show that he is hopeless and ends the poem with: “Nothing’s Changed” emphasising his resigned tone that it is almost too much to hope that things can change.
The poet presents the people in these two poems in a very similar way, even though the structure, punctuation and images are quiet different. Both poets are angry about the difference between rich and poor, but Afrika concentrates more on the difference of Blacks and Whites.
