Tichbournes poem is a very selfish poem with alot of My's and I's whereas Ralegh's is very reflective as he talks much of time and the way his time has come and that life is almost like a book, and his ending has been written,"Shuts up the story of our days".
Tichbournes poem has some very interesting poetic devices. In the first line he uses personification,"My prime of youth is but a frost of cares" with the frost underlining his cold feelings towards his ominant death.In the second line he uses imagery,"my feast of joy is but a dish of pain" to put across his feelings more fully, he then goes on to use a metaphor,"My crop of corn is but a field of tares" with the tares representing the feeling of emptyness as tares are the bit that the cob comes out of meaning that he is comparing his emptyness to that of a tare with no cob.It also has another meaning, the tare is the bit people don't want, they throw it away,he is comparing his death to the throwing away of something people dont want, basically feeling sorry for himself. He uses the paradox,"The day is past, and yet i saw no sun" to show the way he is locked up away from the light of day, unable to enjoy the freedom others have and the freedom he once had. He then repeats "and yet" in the next 5 lines on the second verse which is to show that everything he every did was in vain because he was always going to die like this no matter what he did. He then ends the poem by repeating the verbal irony he has used in the final stanza of the last two verses,"And now I live, and now my lie is done" Thus summing up his life being over and now he is to die. Tichbourne also uses a rhyming pattern that is alternite lines to rhyme on the first four stanzas then the last two lines rhyme, for example the last words on the first four of the first verse- Cares,pain,tares,gain, then the last two, sun,done.
Ralegh seems to be thinking of everyone in his poem, with alot of Our's and we's.In the third stanza he has summed up the fact that everyone has to die eventually,"And pays us but with age and dust". He then uses imagery in the 5th line,"When we have wandered all our ways" which is his way of adding to his theme of acceptance of his death, which is a stark contrast to Tichbournes Elegy as Tichbournes theme is one of non-acceptance and cold and bitter anger.Ralegh then uses a happy image,"The Lord shall raise me up, I trust" to basically say that even though he is dying by execution his life will still end with a happy ending. Ralegh uses irregular rhyming patterns with the 1st and 3rd lines rhyming (trust,dust) and the 5th and 6th lines rhyming(ways,days) also the 7th and 8th lines rhyme(dust, trust) This shows that ralegh was not too worried about how the poem looked as he knew his point would be put across by the words he has used, his point being that he accepts his death and awaits the kingdom of heaven.
Elegy for himself has a mood of non-acceptance, bitter anger and is very ironic as Tichbourne feels his life has led him to nothing.I think the line that shows this feeling of the fact he has hardly lead a life and that he feels he has more to offer the world before his death is this line,"My youth is spent,and yet I am not old". He sums up his feelings well by using the very ironic final line,"And now I live, and now my life is done" at the end of every verse. Ralegh on the other hand accepts his death, Knows his time is done, and he shows that even though he will die an unhappy death, he believes he has achieved what he wanted in life, believes hes had a happy life and doesn't want to end his life on a sour note and so is looking on the bright side of it. This is shown in his final line which is,"The Lord shall raise me up, I trust".
