write a comparative analysis essay
Harris_
JerichoBrown.pptxMarvin Gaye
American singer, songwriter, and record producer
Other/Outsider Status: Took risks politically and musically; helped shape the sound of Motown in the 60s; despite his happy public persona, he struggled with drug addiction and depression
Song: “What’s Going On” (written as a response to issues of the time including the Vietnam War and race riots in Detroit)
Suggested by: Ella Swanberg
Jericho Brown
Shreveport, Louisiana
Born, Nelson Demery III
Award-winning poet
Former speech writer for Mayor of New Orleans
Professor at Emory University
Themes/Subjects: identity, race, love/sexuality, religion, violence/abuse, politics, music
The New Testament
“In 2010, I became very ill with HIV. I had not, for a while, thought about the relationship I had with God…I wondered if God could comfort me in the ways I had once been taught to comfort myself. The Bible became the mythology around which I could create: the sound of scriptures came through my ear and into the poetry.”
The New Testament
Allusions to the Bible (seeks not to revise, but to find source of redemption)
Laments erasure of culture and ethnicity, yet extols survival & celebrates identity/individuality
Elegies and Odes
Main themes: identity, religion, relationships (self, familial, romantic, spiritual); love; race; sexuality/desire; disease
“One’s lover– or one’s brother, or one’s enemy– sees the face you wear, and this face can elicit the most extraordinary reactions.”
--James Baldwin
Romans 12:1
Second poem
Form: stichic, free verse
12:1
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”
--King James Bible
What are the primary subjects and images?
What is the meaning or message, in your interpretation?
How does the Bible passage connect with the poem?
Romans 12:1
How does the poem demonstrate both structure and surprise?
What patterns and variations do you notice?
How does the poem represent a sense of vulnerability? Explain
Heartland
Third poem
Stichic, free verse
‘Poetry reminds us of our own breath and vitality’
Unpack this line:
“Every last word is contagious.”
How does this line inspire resolution?
What are the primary subjects and images?
What is the meaning or message, in your interpretation?
How does it connect with Romans 12:1 (poem)?
Romans 12:1 & Heartland
How do both poems represent the Other/Outsider?
“It is the hardest thing to take chaos and make order of it. Poetry is a veil in front of a heart beating at a very fast pace.”
