Have you ever met a person that seemed to be the direct opposite of you, but then as you get to know them you see that they actually do share things in common with you? Well these two poems are just that, at first glance they couldn't be more different, but when you zoom in, you see that they do have similarities. The two poems “The Girl who Loved the Sky” by Anita Endrezze and “ Ain't I a Woman” by Sojourner Truth are unlike and similar in more ways than one. The poem “The Girl Who Loved the Sky” is about a woman recollecting her memories as a child, and the second poem, “ Ain't I A Woman” is about a woman trying to demand respect and equality with men. Other than the different authors, these two poems differ in figure of speech and tone, but do share similarities in their imagery and rhythm.
One difference is figures of speech. The poem “The Girl who Loved the Sky” is littered with figures of speech like metaphors and similes, yet the poem “ Ain't I a women” only seems to use metaphors, and seems to only have used metaphors once throughout her entire poem. “The room smelled like glue”(Anita 5),”she says when she was recollecting the smell of her second grade room. You can tell this stanza uses a simile because of the fact that she uses the word like when comparing the two objects. This author also uses many metaphors, like when she is describing the tree blossoms she says, “blossomed into purple lanterns”(Anita 2-3).” She uses many metaphors like these to paint a vivid picture in your head without actually meaning it literally;metaphor. Unlike “The Girl who Loved the Sky”, the poem “ Ain't I a Woman” only uses one figure of speech and that is a metaphor. She uses it to describe the power of women,“If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside-down, all alone” (Sojourner 29-35). She uses this metaphor to emphasize the power of women. These two poems are fairly different in their use of figure of speech.
One of the things they have in common is their imagery. Both poems primarily use “sight” imagery to describe items in their poems and make it more lively. In the poem “The Girl who Loved the Sky” when she describes her experience of making butter she says, “until the pale cream clotted into one sweet mass” (Anita 1-2). She uses “sight” imagery to describe the actions of the butter, and clearly paints you a picture of the butters formation. The poem “ Ain't I a Woman” also uses “sight” when she describes things like herself, “Look at my arm! I have plowed and planted and gathered into barns”(Sojourner 10-12). She also clearly shows you how she is strong by saying that she had plowed and planted which is no easy feat. Their use of “sight” imagery is one of the things that these poems have in common.
Another thing that these two poems share is their rhythm. Both of these two poems are free-verse. The poem “The Girl who Loved the Sky” clearly shows that it does not rhyme in line 3-4, “Outside the second-grade room, the jacaranda tree blossomed into purple lanterns, the papery petals drifted.” This section, like all others has no rhyming words at the end of a sentence or anywhere else. It also has no specific rhythm or syllable count that it follows, which proves that it is free-verse. The poem “ Ain't I a Woman” also shows it is free-verse in lines 8-10 where it says,“ Ain't I a women? Look at me Look at my arm.” This stanza contains no rhyming and has no specific rhythm or syllable count either. This shows that it too is free-verse. This is one of the connections that these two poems share.
Another thing that the poems are unlike in are their tones. The poem “ Ain't I a Woman” has a rough and angry tone, while the poem “The Girl who Loved the Sky” has a soft dreamy tone to it. In the poem “The Girl who Loved the Sky” she uses soft words in lines like, “On hot, still days we listened to the sky falling like chalk dust” (Anita 24-26). She uses gentle calm words that make her poems almost feel as if you were dreaming as she recollects her fond memories of her childhood. Unlike this poem, the poem “ Ain't I a Woman” seems to almost threaten you like when it says, “Nobody ever helped me into carriages or mud puddles or give me the best place”(Sojourner 5-7). She almost seems to demand that you treat her equally and uses powerful lines like “nobody ever helped me” to almost make you feel as if you were guilty for that and pushes it into your face. By her word choice you can tell she isn't calm and gives her poem a threatening edge to it. Tone, is one of the things that this poem has deviating from each other.
In conclusion, “The Girl who Loved the Sky”by Anita Endrezze and “ Ain't I a Woman” by Sojourner Truth are two very different yet alike poems. “The Girl who Loved the Sky” uses both similes and metaphors, while “ Ain't i a woman” only uses metaphors. Throughout their poems they both primarily use “sight” imagery. Both of their poems are free-verse and non-rhythmic. Unlike “ Ain't A a Woman,” “The Girl who Loved the Sky” is calm as she recollects her memories, but “ Ain't I a Woman” has more of a harsh, angry tone to it. Even though they are very different, when you look closer you find that they also have similarities, so don’t give up at your first glance, they're not always as different as they seem.