"Meeting at Night VS Resolution and Independence".

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“Meeting at Night VS Resolution and Independence”

In this essay I will attempt to compare and contrast the poem “Meeting at Night” by Robert Browning with “Resolution and Independence” by William Wordsworth. I shall begin by analysing the poems and looking for three similarities and differences, which will make me decide my final conclusion.

The simplest similarity that links these two poems is that they are both about nature.  Meeting at Night gives the impression of secrecy and darkness that goes together with the night and the morning suggests the revelation which light brings that prevents them getting together. In Resolution and Independence Wordsworth describes the nature more briefly and accurately. The language Wordsworth has used has a great effect on our senses. For example, in the first line

‘There was a roaring in the wind all night’

Here the use of metaphor ‘roaring in the wind’ used by Wordsworth relies on our sense of hearing to enable us to experience this image fully. An image however is not necessarily only a visual image; the image can be created by the poet's use of different senses and qualities. 

Both of the poems also change from negative to positive. In the first verse of Meeting at Night, Browning emphasizes a man’s desperate and brave quest for romantic pleasure, which is prevented with obstacles and doubt. Also in the poem "Meeting At Night," a powerfully romantic mood is built almost entirely by the use of images, which practically involve all of our senses.

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Only in the language of the third and fourth lines there is a hint of a metaphor used, which describes similarities between waves and living creatures:

‘And startled little waves that leap
In fiery ringlets from their
sleep,’

The use of personification that gives personal qualities to the waves builds on the emotional description of nature and makes us more involved in the poem. It also helps us to relate to the description very easily. In Resolution and Independence, we are given a scene of the countryside that was stormy the previous night, but has cleared up through the ...

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