The theme of ‘the field-mouse’ is about a mouse which symbolises a child in a war, “the child comes running through the killed flowers, his hands a nest of quivering mouse”. Whereas the theme of ‘October’ is about the month of October and how it represents death because in the month of October the days are very gloomy with mostly rain and never sunshine, “Wind in the poplars and a broken branch, a dead arm in the bright trees”.
The relationship in ‘the field-mouse’ is that the child (mouse) represents a close member of the reader’s family and the emotions that the narrator talks about have a direct and similar effect on the reader because the reader imagines that the child is a close member of his family. On the other hand the relationship in ‘October’ is between two friends and one friend dies in the month of October. The living friend expresses her feelings and emotions through metaphors and other poetic devices using the atmosphere surrounding the world around, in October.
The image in ‘the field-mouse’ is the mouse. The mouse helps to portray an image for the children about how they are powerless, “We know it will die and ought to finish it off”, vulnerable, “My neighbour turned stranger, wounding my land with stones”, weak, “their bones brittle as mouse ribs”, and innocent, “his hands a nest of quivering mouse”. Nevertheless in ‘October’ the image is the month of October. October is a good visual image to show the feelings and emotions of the living friend because the month of October is very gloomy and depressing which helps because she uses poetic devices like metaphors and symbolism to express a certain emotion.
The style of the narrator in ‘the field-mouse’ is in the first person perspective, but ‘October’ is also in the first person perspective. This is because both the poems narrator uses ‘my’ and ‘we’ in his sentences.
The structure of both the poems is similar because they both have three stanzas which are uneven and also they both do not rhyme.
