An Advancement of Learning and An August Midnight Compare and contrasting free essay sample

The poems â€Å"An Advancement of Learning† and â€Å"An August Midnight† are connected in some way, these poems focus on encounters with certain creatures or animals. Heaney’s with a rat on a river embankment in Belfast and Hardy’s with nocturnal insects that fly through his window. In the poems In contrast they are laid out in different structures. In â€Å"An Advancement of Learning† it has eight stanzas of four short lines. In contrast â€Å"An August Midnight† is made up of two stanzas with six long lines, giving the poem a calm quality. In â€Å"An Advancement of Learning† Heaney recalls on his childhood fear of rats. This is due to his experiences of fear growing up on a farm as a child. The rats provide a link between his childhood and his inner-city life as an adult. â€Å"An August Midnight† is based on Hardy’s beliefs that all animals were conscious beings worthy of respect based on the evolutionary theory that all living things are related. We will write a custom essay sample on An Advancement of Learning and An August Midnight Compare and contrasting or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This interest is also evident in the close up acute details of the insects’ anatomy â€Å"winged, horned and spined†. The settings of both poems are very different or inconsistent. In â€Å"An Advancement of Learning† it is situated outside in an urban river landscape. It is portrayed as polluted with â€Å"dirty-keeled swans†. Overall it is an urban setting and a shabby environment, where it projects the negativity of the encounter. Whereas in â€Å"An August Midnight† it is inside and a welcoming scene inside a tranquil room where the insects are lured in by lamplight and an open window. Both poems contrast, in â€Å"An August Midnight† Hardy isn’t dismissive or scornful towards the insects, he shows them respect. This is shown when Hardy says â€Å"God’s humblest†. However in â€Å"An Advancement of Learning† uses words such as â€Å"slimed† and â€Å"slobbered† to describe the rat’s movements, this portrays Heaney’s dislike or hatred towards rats.