Comparative Analysis: 'First Thanksgiving' & 'Rainy Country' Poems

This essay provides a comparative analysis of two poems: 'First Thanksgiving' by Sharon Olds and 'A Rainy Country' by Linda Pastan. The introduction highlights the value of comparing poems for a deeper understanding of their themes and contexts, followed by a thesis statement focusing on the comparison and contrast of these two specific poems. The discussion section analyzes the poems based on setting, imagery, and theme. 'First Thanksgiving' is described as having a joyful setting, highlighting the mother-daughter bond, while 'A Rainy Country' has a somber and melancholic setting, reflecting the poet's depression and the failures she perceives in the world. The analysis of imagery examines how both poets use symbolism to express human emotions, with Olds focusing on the mother-daughter relationship and Pastan using imagery of violence and fear. The theme section explores the similar and dissimilar themes in both poems, including emotions, family, and societal issues. The conclusion summarizes the contrasting tones and themes of the poems, with 'First Thanksgiving' representing joy and connection and 'A Rainy Country' depicting fear and melancholy.

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University Name
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Author Note

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Introduction
Comparison and contrasting poems helps the readers towards a better understanding
of the themes and the context written within the poem. This will initiate in comparing and
contrasting the poems,” First Thanksgiving” by Sharon olds and “a rainy country” by Linda
Pastan.
Sharon Olds is one of the emotional English poet personal experiences and his
waiting nature for expressing the family. He often focuses the beautiful family relation
between child and his or her parents, such as a mother letting go no of her only daughter in
the poem,” first Thanksgiving”. On the other hand Linda paston, reveals greater truth of
unions among people which often reserves in clashing believes, ideal and personalities. The
poem, “ a rainy country” Linda Pastan focus gradually over her memories of early childhood
with the things going wrong all over the world while she grew up. The thesis statement of this
essay over comparison and contrast of the two poems in a broader conversation. While
analysing the two poems, three forms of evidences that will be considered while comparing
or contrasting includes, setting or mood of the poems, imagery of the poems and theme of the
poems. This point by point arrangement will be conducted throughout this essay and will be
applied for the comparison and contrasting of the two selected poems for a better
understanding of the context of both the written pieces.
Discussion
Setting
Poems have the ability evoking emotions while these emotions develop certain modes
and the setting includes the combination of different elements (Mahmud). The setting
includes the combination of different elements like tone, voice, imagery and theme. The

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setting situated the poem towards a particular place and time where the writer conveys his
attitude towards the subject of poem.
Both the poems have some similarities and dissimilarities in terms of that tones and
setting. While both the poems in discussion are similar since both of them focus over the
emotions of human as well as the changing time.
However, “first Thanksgiving” includes a delightful tone as well as a peaceful and a
grateful mood where the joy of a mother is being highlighted, showcasing the significance of
small moments when the mother greets her little daughter with hug, smelling her daughter's
hair and having her sleep with her. The setting of the mood of this poem by Sharon olds
depicts the enthusiasm of a mother seeing her daughter coming to her home from her college
for her first holiday. The author of this poem mentions the mood which revolves around the
everyday interaction of a mother and her loving daughter and showcased the significance of
small affectionate moments between the two characters.
Nevertheless in the poem, “a rainy country” by Linda pastan, the post-modernist poet,
connected her personal obligation with the universal truth. The poem by Linda has a somber,
melancholy and a pessimist depressing setting. The use of the words such as bloodshed, fate
in the poem highlights the failure that the poet observe and recalls in melancholy nostalgia.
Rain in the poem symbolizes personal melancholia as well as the poets powerless life while
she goes through the memory lane of her childhood and the happy days she had been part of.
The entire theme of the poem by Linda Pastan revolves around the poet’s depression and
thoughts at a pessimist tone regarding the failures of time, the rising collision among people
and the fake smiles and cultural practices around the world. In short, the setting of the poem,
“a rainy season” depicts the view of a violence and bloodsheds that remains underneath the
fake mask of happiness within the greater societies of the world. The lines from the poem –

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“The wounding of the world mingling
with smells of bacon and bread”
The frost within the context of these two poems has effectively differentiate with the
beauty of bonding and emotions in “First Thanksgiving” and with bareness of depression and
melancholy in “a rainy country”.
Imagery
According to the research studies, imagery with poems develops the snapshots in the
mind of the readers. Poets use imagery within their poem for drawing the reader towards a
sensation of experiences (Ali, Muhammad and Khalid). For both the poems the poets used
symbolism and imagery for revealing the essential or important truths regarding emotions and
human feelings in respect to the societal values and people around.
In the context of imagery, both the poems, “first thanksgiving” and “a rainy country”
have been similar to theme of expression of human emotions and feelings, revealing about
their perspectives. However, Sharon used the beautiful relation and bond of a mother and a
daughter in the setting of thanksgiving holiday when her daughter visited her home after so
long, to show the happiness, joy and excitement in the peaceful reunion of a mother and her
child, and the role of feelings in human lives. The poem highlights,
“When she comes back, from college, I will see
the skin of her upper arms, cool,
matte, glossy.”
The poem highlighted the mothers imagery on her younger self and how shed let her
daughter go off to create her own life as time grows.

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Linda Pastan in the poem , “ a rainy country” created imagery by the use of the words,
bacon and bread in the breakfast table, to describe how she feels the smell of blood and
violence that has been going around the entire world from the early morning newspaper. The
poet fears that whatever is seem to be graceful in the society is backed by dark shadows of
terror and some past angers which might be harmful. In the poem, while highlighting the
imagery, the poet created a metaphor by comparing the context of Trojan women in the war
of troy, where they suddenly learned their fates, with the poet’s horror on the filigree of
cruelty that every culture holds. Linda furthermore personified her failures in childhood with
the abstract stations of love depicting how she has grown to be a powerless person. Linda
uses a haunting raven and ominous self portrait of herself, by representing a unwelcoming
fear of violence and bloodshed that represents the darker side of the current society.
Theme
Themes are the life lessons or the statement regarding the nature of human that each
and every poem expresses. It is the meaning or the central idea of a poem which binds the
arbitrary events as well as the characters (Craig). The themes of the two poem in discussion is
similar in comparison to the other one. Both of the poems, “first thanksgiving” and “a rainy
season” contains a point of similarity in the themes of feelings, coming of the ages, survival,
prejudice, individual vs. society, affection, circle of life and reality. These themes which are
similar among both the poems has helps the authors of these poems to express themselves in
a proper and a better tone.
“First Thanksgiving”, the poem is a personal experience by Sharon depicted through
the relation of mother and daughter and the feelings of joy and happiness of their reunion.
The poem sheds light over a positive and peaceful environment where a loving mother
reunited with her daughter during her holiday. The entire theme of the poem is based on love,

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circle of life, everlasting happiness, family, fulfilment, motherhood and loneliness of a
mother. The theme of the essay revolves around the sweet bond of a parent and a child in the
search of joy and happiness , while the parent recalls her memory of her little child and how
her child is growing up for her own life. The lines thereby in the poem –
“Those nights, I fed her to sleep,
week after week, the moon rising,
and setting, and waxing—whirling, over the months,
in a slow blur, around our planet.”
“A rainy country” by Linda Pastan on the other hand contains themes related to fear,
war, isolation, wartime loss, tragedy, displacement, facing the darkness, hierarchy in nature,
identity crisis, individual versus society, isolationism, loneliness as the destructive force, self
preservation and vulnerability. The poem illustrates the depression and the feeling of fear
among the poet regarding violence and the bloodshed happening through out the world. The
theme in this poem includes one of the major notion of appearance verses reality, which is
highlighted by the words like
“Small pains are merely anterooms for larger,
and every shadow has a brother, just waiting”.
The poet explains how the entire society is submerged in the possibility of larger pains
and darker shadows that it is seemed in the fake, progressive reality. The lines by the poet,
“I am like the queen of a rainy country,
powerless and grown old” – showcased her depression and her feelings of failure. The feelings of
melancholy surrounded the poet through out the poem, thus forming the theme of negative and
sad feelings unlike the other poem.
Conclusion

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Thus it can be concluded from above that both the poems by the eminent poets are the
illustration of the theme of expression, feelings and human mind. While one of the poem
includes the settings and the tone of a positive bond among the mother and her child,
highlighting happiness, hope, reunion, joy and excitement, the other one depicts melancholy
feelings, the pots narration over her childhood failure, the violence and the bloodshed within
the society and how she fears of the darkness and ancient anger that lies beneath the make
progression of today’s society. “ First Thanksgiving” by Sharon Olds thus relates to a
peaceful and positive bond of happiness and the imagery of the mother’s memory lane
regarding her daughter. The thanksgiving poem thus illustrates a special bond which is both
joyous as well as sad since the mother feels that a piece of her life is missing when her child
will leave again. “A rainy country” by Linda Pastan however depicts the fear, failure and the
depression of the poet. The rain here signifies the melancholy and the negative feelings
towards the progressive society by the poet , who feels much pain , violence and blood is
underneath the small and visible pains.
Overall, both the poems are versatile on their own way, highlighting their way of life,
towards society and social relationships.

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Reference
Ali, Nosher, Muhammad Nawaz Zafar, and Khalid Mahmood. "A Stylistic Study of Theme
of Ultra-Earthliness in Wordsworth’s Selected Poetry." Language in India 17.4 (2017).
Craig, Annie. "Poetry Praising Poetry: An Examination of Alcuin's Better-Known
Poems." Discentes Vol. 4 No. 2 (2016): 7.
Mahmud, Murni. "Teaching Students to Develop Paragraphs by Poetry
Writing." International Journal of Language Education 1.1 (2017).
Olds, Sharon. Strike Sparks: Selected Poems, 1980-2002. Knopf, 2009.
Pastan, Linda. Queen of a Rainy Country. WW Norton, 2006.

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