Comparison of The Target and Lamentations

Comparison of The Target and Lamentations by Nathan Giles - Donovan and Dan Atlee

1. Lamentations has 1 stanza and The Target has 5 stanzas.
2. Both have powerful openings e.g: 'I found him' and 'I shot him'. Both these opening use active verbs which give the statement s bold power. they put a vivid image in to your mind.
3. Both poems use enjambement to create a complex pattern as the rhyme is there but the idea is carried on. it also makes you focus more on what is being said.
4. Both poems are about people being killed but are different points of view. The Target is from the point of view of the 'Killer' and Lamentations is from the point of view of someone witnessing someone's grief of losing their brother.
5. The Target has an AABB ryhme scheme (Ryhming Couplets) and Lametations has an ABAB scheme.
6. Lamentations uses personification eg: 'the blind darkness' and 'the bleeding war'. The Targert doesn't use personification but does use an elipsis for great effect: 'Prehaps he was the only son...'
   
7. The Target is more up beat and sing song as it is written in Iambic Tretameter. Lamentations ont he other hand is slower and more merose.
8. Lamentations uses a euphemism for death ('gone west') whereas The target just says 'die' very plainly.
9. Both poems are about someone who is confused either the writer as in The Target, Ivor Gurney himself was rather disturbed and spend the last few years of his life in an aslymum, or the man the poem is written about like in Lamentations.
10. Lamentations has alot of physical description about he man who's recieved the bad news. The Target has more description about feelings.