How To Be Gravity By Robert Louis Stevenson Analysis

Through contrasting and comparing these two poems we become aware of two very different insights into how on how a mother copes when her child grows up and leaves home. The two poems are vastly different. Whilst Stevenson’s poem presents a mother’s relaxed, passive reaction to this, La-Rose’s poem shows an angry, resentful mother. Each poem presents a different perspective, which in turn creates two completely different poems. These differences become apparent by comparing the poem’s titles, theme, tone, language and form.

How to be Gravity by Jacob Sam La Rose has a distinct title, one with direction. It is an insight into the type of poem we are about to read; a warning for instruction, information and enlightenment. We are about to be told some very important information which

We are called to attention and addressed directly. The title is forceful, with an authoritarian air. This foreshadows the subject of the poem and links in with the forceful and authoritarian presence of the mother’s character. To Any Reader by Robert Louis Stevenson, does not have a distinct title. ‘To Any Reader’ could be the start of the poem, the title or indeed both. There is cause for debate as there is no clear break or jump from the title to the actual body of the poem; the words flow. This is a more open way of starting a poem, though it may be unconventional. As a contrast to How to be Gravity, the poem’s title is more relaxed and vague which also foreshadows what we will see as we read on.

The theme within the two poems is the relationship between a mother and her child. The poem is about how children grow up and leave