Compare And Contrast Sandburg And Billy Collins

Though both are considered modern poets, Billy Collins and Carl Sandburg’s poems contain very distinguishable themes. Sandburg uses historical events and ideas to make the reader feel experience how looked and felt like. In many of Sandburg’s poems, he discovers the valuable traits of hard labor and how there is hope even through despair and adversity. Conversely, Billy Collins focuses on the past through the use of memories and death. Despite the fact that the objectives of their poems are differing, both authors write about the past and how it affects themselves and others today.
“Forgetfulness” by Billy Collins is a free verse poem that has no set rhyme scheme or line length. Collins uses some of his usual themes of memories that show up in poems including “The Golden Years” and “The First Night.” However, Collins does not use a first-person point of view in “Forgetfulness,” rather, he is a narrator in the third person. Throughout the writing, the title is shown by the use of phrases that show forgetfulness. “...first to go” (Collins 1), “...slipping away” (Collins 12), “...floated away” (Collins 17), “...drifted” (Collins 23), and more are used to relate to the focal theme. Since forgetfulness is displayed throughout the poem, the attitude throughout the stanzas is relatively the same. The poem uses a crescendo of

From the beginning to the end of “Forgetfulness,” the author puts forth a hopeless and pessimistic tone that memory loss is inevitable and that eventually, one will not remember the core ideas of their life. On the contrary, Sandburg’s “Work Gangs” speaks about the pride and hope he has for the stereotypical man. “...the secret of sleep is left us, sleep belongs to all, sleep is the first and last and best of all” (“Work Gangs” 34-35). The author tells the reader directly that the singing laborers cherish their rest because it is the superior gift they