“Never offer your heart to someone who eats hearts” is about a woman advising us not to give our heart to someone who will hurt us. This poem is more wise then Walker’s “The Lie” and is not so emotionally involved.
When looking at the mood of the poems, we can see that both of the poems have a bitter sad mood, but “never offer your heart to someone who eats hearts” has a more frightening mood. Words like “blood-chinned”, “sucks” and “shuttling” are used in this poem to create this mood.
In both the poems the mood changed towards the end, in “The Lie” it goes from a hurt mood to a false happy mood when she is lying about how she feels when the person leaves her. The poem “never offer...” has a positive mood at the end.
When looking at tone, we can see that “never offer your heart to someone who eats hearts” starts off with a warning tone, wanting to warn the reader not to offer their heart to someone who will hurt them, the tone is also quite gruesome. At the end of this poem in the last stanza, the tone changes to a happy hopeful tone where Alice Walker writes about the “holy women “who “await you on the shore”. The entire poem has a slight comical undertone; it is almost funny to think that a man could eat your heart. “The Lie” starts off with a bitter, threatening tone, but it changes to a false tone when Maya Angelou writes “ill help you pack” we can tell by the tone of her voice that she doesn’t really mean this.
Both Walker’s and Angelou’s poems contain an effective use of structure. “The Lie” is written in three four lined verses that are rhymed. One line, after the 3rd stanza asks the rhetorical question “are you leaving?” This shows where the tone of the poem changes. In the last stanza the structure completely changes, the stanza has an AABB rhyme structure. In contrast Alice Walker’s poem is written in the style of a recipe, it has short lines and commands, it is written as though you are speaking directly to Walker. The entire poem is unrhymed. The word “delicious” is written in italics like in a recipe, the italics enhance the way “delicious” is used in a sinister way. Tension builds up all the way through the poem but break to a calm tone at the end.
There is comparison to be found when analysing the language of the poems. Both poems use negative verbs such as “hold”, “threaten”,”sear”,”tearing” the use of these verbs shows how much she would like to hurt him. Walker’s poem also uses negative verbs to show how much the man doesn’t care that he is hurting walker’s heart. Unlike in “The Lie”, “never offer your heart..” contains sibilance, when walker writes “send it shuttling from side to side” the repetition of s makes the words sound sinister and evil and like you can hear the mans saliva in his mouth. Imperatives are used in this poem also, when walker orders the reader that they “must do” as she says. This tells me that she is experienced in having her heart “eaten”, and is wise enough to give advice on how not to get hurt. In this stanza the writer talks about “freezing” your heart, when you freeze your heart, no one can get to it. Words associated with cooking and recipes are used in this poem such as “rare”, “delicious” and “stewed”. This makes the reader want to follow the instructions correctly in order to achieve the intended results, like in a recipe.
When looking at imagery, we see that in “The Lie” the use of the metaphors “flood your path” and “sear bottomless chasms in your road” show exactly how much damage and pain she could cause him.
The simile “tears, copious as spring rain” implies that walkers hiding her emotion and not showing how she feels.
Personification is also used when Angelou writes “screams are crowded in a corner”. Personifying this makes it seem like angelou is literally pushing her screams away.
In “never offer your heart” the use of an extended metaphor “someone who eats hearts” shows how painful loving this man or men alike him is. When walker uses the simile “grins like a God” this creates a sinister image again, because a God is meant to be good, high and mighty, yet men like this break women’s hearts. People also believe and trust in God this makes it seem like a man like the one described in the poem could draw you in, make you trust and believe in him, and then he “eats your heart”.
In the last stanza walker uses positive imagery. “Sail away to Africa” this is a calming image and tells the reader that there are women who can help them fix their hearts. Religious and cultural imagery is created by the words “holy women”, “art”, “God” and “sang”, Alice walker was a very proud African American woman , she not only stood up for her race, but she also stood up for her gender, she believed that women should unite against men.
In “The Lie” there is no rhyme until the last stanza where angelou rhymes “late” with “date” this is visual rhyme when “gone” is rhymed with “telephone”, this half rhyme shows how broken angelou is. In “never offer...” Half rhyme is also used in the last stanza this adds a happy upbeat feel this fits in with the idea of women there to help in Africa.
The rhythm in “The Lie” starts off slow and lots of commas are used, this makes the poem seem scary, but when it reaches the last stanza the rhythm is also slow, and the use of run on lines adds to the sinister tone.
In conclusion, it is evident that both poems are similar in the way that they are both written about love in a sinister way. The poems are different in that “The Lie” is written en an angry and upset mood, the word “today” is used, this showed how recent the poem was written after she was heart broken, However, in comparison the other poem “never offer your heart..” is written more about men in general as oppose to one particular man like in “The Lie”. My own personal preference is “The Lie” because I liked how emotional it is, but how there is a sudden change of mood at the end.
