Compare and Contrast Essay: Disabled by Wilfred Owen and Still I Rise by Maya Angelou

Both poems talk about strong emotions that are driving the persona, however they are the opposite. Throughout Maya Angelou's poem ‘Still I Rise’ main emotions are confidence, empowerment and determination. She was born in 1928 and has gone through many inequalities in her life. The poem was written in 1978 and was her kind of declaration that she never gave up and she is not going to. On the other hand Wilfren Owen talks about despair, loneliness and naivety. He wrote the poem ‘Disabled’ in 1917, while recovering in a hospital after shell shock. The poet might have intended to convey to people how disturbing war is and that there are consequences for your actions, also showing the real war. 

In ‘Disabled’ Wilfred Owen talks about despair using contrast and adjectives. 

He keeps on comparing the men's life before and after the war. He says ‘ voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn, ‘voices of play and pleasures after the day’, this contrast shows the connotations between these two situations, persuading the fact of how he used to enjoy life and now he can’t find the purpose for living. The powerful use of the word ‘saddening’, enables the reader to feel sympathy for the soldier and furthermore shows the loneliness and despair he lives in now and adds this melancholy tone when reading, also suggesting he can’t see anything positive. This contrast could also suggest how he is detached from life almost like a ghost. He starts off the poem by an alliteration ‘ghastly suits of grey’, this brings a ghostly imagery. This emphasizes the sad reality he is going through, as if his life lost all the colours and is portrayed almost as if he was robbed of it. The poet intended to continue the feeling of loneliness further through the poem even in rhyming, which overlaps in stanzas, which could suggest how he reflects on his previous actions and how all of this could have been avoided.

Wilfred Owen gives a reader an idea of how the man regrets his naivety and how he is consumed with bitterness regarding his past choices. Moreover, the use of the phrasal verb ‘threw away’ gives a bitter tone suggesting it was not worth the sacrifices. ‘He’s lost his colour’ is a metaphor, which emphasises the effects of war, leaving the men with ‘half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race’, persuading the reader even more he lost his life. ‘Hot race’ is a metaphor of war he was expecting to be an exciting action. This shows how naive he was and how wasteful his act was. The ‘-’ emphasises even more how the character even himself reflects on how stupid he was and how easily this decision was made. ‘He thought he’d better join’ is a short sentence that reflects on his vigorous and impulsive act. After all this time he realizes the decision he made was - stupid. What’s even more interesting is that at the beginning of the poem Owen never specified the person behind the character, ‘he’ is all we know. This idea could be continued furthermore and reflect that there were many people who got fooled by propaganda and are now consumed by the bitterness regarding their past choices.

In ‘Still I Rise’ Maya Angelou shows her determination and empowerment. The poem's title is ‘Still I Rise’, the word ‘still’ suggests that no matter how bad she is brought down she always rises to the top, despite challenges, conveying the reader of her resilience just in the title.  The opening of the poem further conveys this idea where the title sentence is being repeated. ‘I’ll rise’, ‘Still I’ll rise’ and ‘I rise’. The word ‘rise’ is a powerful verb that brings a sense of unity and determination to her persona, and is almost like a slogan that makes people want to fight for her, with her and cheer her. The powerful use of simile is used by Angelou for self-empowerment as the second stanza. She uses a description of nature ‘moons’, ‘suns’, ‘tides’, as a simile to show how she is like a force of nature that in other words is unstoppable. Author ends the stanza with her characteristic line ‘Still I’ll rise’, where she exemplifies her determination and power.

Angelou effectively portrays her confidence. In the first line of the poem she uses a direct address ‘You may’, the word ‘you’ suggests the confrontational tone, suggesting she is confident and brave addresses her oppressor directy, further use of the modal verb ‘may’ suggests that the oppressor is powerful, meaning you would expect her to be scared of him, however she addresses him directly showing she is confident in herself. The line that exemplifies is ‘I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide’, the author uses a metaphor of ‘black ocean’, to show that she is proud of herself, of what she achieved and gives a celebratory tone. Before Angelou used similes to express herself, now we can see the character development in the poem. However the words ‘leaping and wide’ are both vigorous and vast, therefore convey the rider of her widening, growing confidence and how she rises. In the stanzas she also changed to present tense. The line ‘I rise’ exemplifies how she is rising, moreover she is trying to reach the top, conveying the reader of her growing confidence. 

In both poems authors were effective in conveying their emotions. Wilfred Owen deliberately showed despair and naivety, using contrast and adjectives helping the reader to understand what the persona went through and helping them unite. On the other hand Maya Angelou portrayed confidence, determination and empowerment in her poem, using direct address, repetition and similes. Both authors used different techniques, however they both achieved very detailed and amazing poems.