This argumentative essay will discuss two poems; “Tension” by Billy Collins and “Wester” by Jason Schneider. The essay will majorly focus on bringing out the messages, differences, outlines, tones, effects and emotions between the poems. The poems used titles that contradict the messages being relayed in the stanzas.
The poem “Tension” authored by Billy Collins has applied a writing method that he diligently followed as well as make contradictions to it. The writing method Billy used says that just create tension but don not use the word suddenly. Therefore, from the author’s mockery, he applies the writing method in every way in the poem. The word suddenly is used in the poem when performing the tasks that are not sudden (1). Moreover, Billy is closely attentive to the use and the place of the word without bringing out tension. For instance, “and I suddenly closed the dictionary” (stanza 3). On the other hand, in the poem of “Westers,” the author applied a dialogue method in writing where he has a conversation with a character such as Karen and Bill and discuss their direction on their journey.
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Billy deliberately did not put the word suddenly in the poem, in every stanza at the end of the sentence. Had he done so, it could have created some tension that are usually linked with suddenly. However, the author casually used it and therefore, whatever position it is placed, it does not cause tension by any means. However, the author has titled the poem as “Tension” just to assert that tension does not exist in a teasing manner. On the other hand, in the poem of “Westers,” the author used the word Westers most often in the poem not to show their location or direction, but to contradict the title that there is no existing place called Westers. The use of the word Westers is deliberate in the poem to emphasize on the topic just like in the poem of Tension (stanza 1).
By closely reading the poem of “Tension,” the reader gets a feeling that the poem has a pattern of going a different direction, and it is brought back by “suddenly.” it is clear that the author stayed on topic in the poem until the end of the topic of a normal day, while it seems that its continuing in a different direction. For instance, the author goes to The Andes without warning that is definitely an off topic. However, by applying the word suddenly on the ending sentence, he instantly brings the poem back to a conclusive end. Unlike the poem of tension, in the poem of Westers, the ready seamlessly flows with the conversation among the characters. The reader gets to understand that the characters are moving towards west but in reality there is no location on Earth called west.
In the poem of the westers, the author applied a relaxed tone between acquaintances as characters. They are in a conversation, there are no high emotions around and this emphasized by the rhymes at the end of most sentences. “Says” is a rhyme appearing at the end of most sentences in the poem to show that the characters are talking to each other. In contrast, in the poem of tension, it is more of a narrative from the author explaining the happenings around. The tone is relaxed with no tension, and the emotions are also low because of the tactful use of the word suddenly (Billy 1; Jason 1).
In conclusion, the essay discussed the poems of “Tension” by Billy Collins and “Wester” by Jason Schneider. The essay majorly focused on the messages, differences, outlines, tones, effects and emotions between the poems. From the arguments, the essay proved that the poems used titles that contradict the messages being relayed in the stanzas.
Work cited
Collins, Billy. ‘Tension’. Great-poems.livejournal.com. N.p., 2015. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.
Schneider, Jason. ‘Wester’. N.p., 2015. Web. 17 Nov. 2015.
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