What “comparison” means in a poem
People searching for comparison poems usually mean one of two things, and this page covers both.
- Poems that use comparison as a device. The poet sets one thing beside another so that the reader sees it freshly. Simile, metaphor and personification are the usual tools.
- Comparing two poems. This is the analytical task, common in school and exam settings, where you look at how two poems are alike and different in theme, language and structure.
A comparison in a poem, in the first sense, is any place where the poet links two things that are not identical so that one sheds light on the other. The comparison can be short, a single phrase, or it can run through the whole poem.
Poems that use comparison as a device
Simile
A simile compares two things using “like” or “as”. Robert Burns opens “A Red, Red Rose” with one:
O my Luve is like a red, red rose That’s newly sprung in June
Here love is set beside a rose in early summer, which brings freshness and warmth with it. Wordsworth uses the same device in the first line of “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”, where the speaker’s solitude is compared to a drifting cloud.
Metaphor
A metaphor states the comparison directly, without “like” or “as”. Emily Dickinson’s famous opening is a clear case:
“Hope” is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul
Hope is never called a bird in so many words, but the lines treat it as one. The comparison is then carried through the rest of the poem, which is what critics call an extended metaphor. Dickinson does something similar in “There is no Frigate like a Book”, where a book becomes a ship that carries the reader to other lands.
Carl Sandburg’s “Fog” is a compact example of an implied metaphor:
The fog comes on little cat feet.
Fog is never called a cat, yet the way it arrives, quietly and softly, is described in the cat’s terms.
Personification and extended comparison
Personification gives human qualities to something that is not human. It is a kind of comparison too, since the poet is treating a non-human thing as if it were a person. In “Fog” the creeping fog also behaves a little like a living creature. Frost’s “Nothing Gold Can Stay” opens with a compact comparison between early leaves and flowers, and uses it to suggest how brief beauty can be (a theme explored in nature themes in literature):
Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold.
Comparison turned upside down
Poets also push back against comparison. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 begins by refusing the usual love-poetry comparisons:
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;
The poem is still built from comparisons, but it uses them to mock lazy flattery. Compare this with the opening of Sonnet 18, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”, which asks the question and then argues that the beloved is more lovely and more temperate. Reading the two sonnets together is a good short exercise in comparing poems.
Ten comparison poem examples at a glance
| Poem | Poet | Comparison used |
|---|---|---|
| “A Red, Red Rose” | Robert Burns | Simile: love and a rose, love and a melody |
| “Hope is the thing with feathers” | Emily Dickinson | Extended metaphor: hope as a bird |
| “There is no Frigate like a Book” | Emily Dickinson | Metaphor: a book as a ship |
| “Fog” | Carl Sandburg | Implied metaphor: fog as a cat |
| “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” | William Wordsworth | Simile: the speaker and a cloud |
| “Nothing Gold Can Stay” | Robert Frost | Comparison of early leaf and flower |
| Sonnet 18 | William Shakespeare | The beloved compared with a summer’s day |
| Sonnet 130 | William Shakespeare | Anti-comparison: refusing clichéd similes |
| “Fire and Ice” | Robert Frost | Two possible ends of the world weighed against each other |
| “The Lamb” and “The Tyger” | William Blake | Paired poems that invite comparison and contrast |
A short original comparison poem
Here is a short poem written for this page, with the comparisons marked underneath.
The library at closing time is a tide going out. Chairs scrape like gulls, and the lamps, one by one, bow their heads.
- Metaphor: the library is a tide going out.
- Simile: chairs scrape like gulls.
- Personification: the lamps bow their heads.
Notice that the poem does not explain its comparisons. It trusts the reader to see what the two things share, which here is the sense of people draining away and quiet returning.
How to compare two poems
A five-step approach
A simple routine keeps a comparison organised, whether you are writing an essay or just thinking about two poems.
- Summarise each poem in one or two sentences. Say what happens and what the poem seems to be about.
- List similarities. Look at theme, speaker, tone, imagery, language and structure.
- List differences. Often the most useful differences sit inside a similarity. Two poems may both be about love, for example, but treat it very differently.
- Choose two or three key ideas. These become the main points of your answer. Avoid trying to cover everything.
- Write a comparative thesis. One sentence that states a key similarity and a key difference.
When writing, discuss both poems within the same paragraph rather than giving each its own separate section. Many teachers recommend a point, evidence, explanation and link pattern (often called PEEL) for each paragraph, with a short quotation from each poem.
Comparison and contrast example: Blake’s “The Lamb” and “The Tyger”
Blake published these two poems as companions in Songs of Innocence and of Experience, which makes them a classic pair. Both poems ask about a creator. “The Lamb” begins:
Little Lamb who made thee Dost thou know who made thee
“The Tyger” asks a harder question about its creature:
Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night;
Later it wonders whether the maker of the lamb also made the tiger.
| Aspect | “The Lamb” | “The Tyger” |
|---|---|---|
| Shared concern | Wonders about the creator of the animal | Wonders about the creator of the animal |
| Speaker’s stance | A gentle speaker who answers his own question | A speaker who keeps asking, without a stated answer |
| Imagery | Soft, pastoral, childlike | Fire, forge and darkness |
| Structure | Two stanzas | Six four-line stanzas of rhymed couplets |
| Mood | Calm and reassured | Awed and uneasy |
A comparative thesis might read: Both poems ask who made a living creature, but “The Lamb” answers with childlike reassurance while “The Tyger” leaves the question open and unsettling.
One sample paragraph could then run: “Both poems begin with a question to the animal, yet the questions feel very different. ‘The Lamb’ asks gently and then answers, whereas ‘The Tyger’ keeps asking, and its fiery imagery makes the creator seem both admirable and frightening.”
Words that signal comparison and contrast
- Comparison: similarly, likewise, both, in the same way, equally
- Contrast: however, whereas, in contrast, on the other hand, unlike
These words help the reader follow your thinking, but they do not replace evidence. Always follow them with a quotation or a specific detail. The same approach underlies the poetry analysis question in AP Literature essay examples.
Common mistakes
- Describing the poems one after the other. This leaves the reader to do the comparing for you.
- Listing devices without saying what they do. Naming a metaphor is not enough; say what it makes the reader see.
- Forcing a similarity. If the poems differ sharply, build the comparison around that difference.
- Ignoring form. Rhyme, line length and stanza shape are part of the meaning. The article on examples of rhyming poems explains how to read rhyme patterns.
Where to go next
Comparing poems often leads to questions about who is speaking. Our guide to point of view poem examples shows how to tell first, second and third person apart. When one poem seems to answer or echo another, see intertextuality poem examples.