write a comparative analysis essay

Romans 12:1

· Stichic: a poem not broken into stanzas , to be read as one long breathe.

· Stanzaic: broken into stanzas.

· Enjambment: Abruptly ending a line and continuing it on the next line with something different or unexpected. to broke the line when one natural sentence is not end

· How stichic and enjambment work? Free verse and every un-ended line help lead readers to the next line, make them curious about what Brown is trying to express, also delivers Brown’s faith of “trusting poem will eventually give resolution”, the meanings and messages change/ go to a deeper level as the poem moves forward.

· Main themes: Identity: Brown is honest about his identity of being homosexual and being black. Example: “ I let a man touch me until I bled”, “ As I will be, black as I am”, the otherness and oppression “ they hate a woman they smell in me..” Religion: “year of lord”

· Image: (Romans) Image of sacrifice, his sexuality, honesty and vulnerability. The speaker still being honest about his identity and willing to sacrifice.He Considered himself as holy and acceptable even though some others might outcast him.  (Heartland): diseases, memory of himself, how the heartland looks like.

· meaning or message? “we breathe until we don’t”: Claiming his identity, and claims that he did not do any inhuman things, he is no different from other humans, he breaths like others do. He is nothing different other than the deceases and sexual orientation. “Labeling others and outcasting other” is contagious and dangerous than a real disease. 

· Biblical allusions: He “rewrote” the passage to address his identity, he was in love with a man in the year of our lord, claiming that he is still holy. Showing that he still believes the God will accept him and treats him no different than others. In his TED talk he said that he used to believe in God who saw him as sinful, which were his father and the community he used to live in, but he did not give up his religious believe, instead, he found a true God who will accept him and pursue hope and redemption through his God.

Nakedness- Ellen Bass

Meanings and messages: Identity, vulnerability, humanness, gender roles, sexuality.

! Nakedness not just means physical nakedness, but more a metaphor of “vulnerability”

People trying to hide their vulnerability, just like people tend to think nakedness is embarrassing. Those who feel vulnerable are like being naked. They don’t want to show who they really are. Author tries to encourage audience to embrace themselves, to not be ashamed by their vulnerabilities. Challenges gender norm and stereotypes. “Laura shaved her head so she wouldn’t have to watch her hair fall grey”---to hide vulnerability.

Specific example of “emotional nakedness” : “nakedness when people have moved out”. Everything could be naked.

This is a lyric poem: shares meaning through collection of images/phrase.