Compare and Contrast the Ways in Which Two Poets Create Sympathy for Their Characters †‘on a Portrait of a Deaf Man’ and ‘the River God’. Essay

The poems On a Portrait of a desensitize piece of music, written by John Betjeman and The River God, written by Stevie Smith appear as two very different poems one in monologue unionise and the other in a regular form scarcely they are in fact two very similar poems. On a Portrait of a desensitise Man presents a citation mourning the destruction of a deaf man who was very close to him/her, and The River God presents a lonely God who is abused by people and resorts to murdering women to alimentation himself go with.Both characters are lonely and the portrayal of this loneliness causes you the reader to feel sympathetic towards them. The River God is lonely because he is only used by others, no one stays to be with him, they leave and I like the people who bathe in me . . . or will she go away? suggesting that he enjoys their company but doesnt want them to go as he gets lonely. In On a Portrait of a Deaf Man the mourner feels lonely because he/she has lost approximatelyon e very close to them the kind old face . . . he took me on long silent walks . . . when schoolboyish implying they were close as they have known each other since a young age.Both blame others for the situations that they have found themselves in. The River God blames the women who bathe in him for his loneliness, meaning that out of desperation he tries to keep the women with him but by doing so ends up killing them she lies in my beautiful deep river bed with many a weed. I believe he understands though that he has killed them and that is why he keeps them in the beautiful deep river bed this causes you to feel some philanthropy for him as he accidentally kills them but then out of love keeps them in his beautiful deep river bed. The mourner blames God for the death of the deaf man You, God, who treat him thus and thus, /Say Save his soul and pray./You ask me to believe You and / I only look out decay describing how God should be, but then the reality of asking God for things w hich arent achieved. This causes you to feel sympathetic because you see someone who asked God to save him yet he still died see decay.The poems both begin with descriptions of characters. The River God begins the kind old face, the egg-shaped head and On a Portrait of a Deaf Man begins I may be smelly and I may be old the first description makes you feel sad that someone kind and good has died and the plunk for makes you feel pitiful for the river, its not the rivers fault that its that way as its reflective of old age and the abuse it has had by mankind, all of which you would be distraught if you found yourself in so you can feel sympathetic towards them.The poets use the death of a person to draw sympathy from you. In The River God a woman dies, one that he was fond of and he was against her dying in On a Portrait of a Deaf Man a friendly deaf man dies, presumably suddenly these draw your sympathy because it suggests that they are lonely, in a state of mourning and insecure all of which are states in which you would not want to find yourself and when you see someone else in such a state, you will feel sympathetic and be able to relate to the emotions they are feeling.The poets use the deaths of characters in their poems to create side-personas for the characters through the persona of the main-speaking character. The River God uses the dead woman to give another perspective of whats going on, This beautiful lady, or will she go away? takes this perfectly. The questioning gives her perspective that she wants to leave but she is being held, spark advance you to feel sympathetic for her as this large River is holding her captive and she cannot leave. However, it shows the misunderstanding of the River God as she is drowned, Oh who would guess what a beautiful white face lies there, white face implying she is dead, leading you to feel sympathetic again towards him as he is totally ignorant of everything going on around him. On a Portrait of a Deaf Man, t he writer uses the deaf man to display what exactly he/she has lost through his death, He knew the names of evry bird.This shows how caring he was and this would presumably translate to how he acts to people kind and caring and lead to sympathy as you would never want to lose a person so good to die. The poem also describes what further potential to do good he had if he knew what was coming, He would have liked to say good-bye/ make hands with many friends. This causes a sympathetic response from the reader because again even though he was dying he would have wanted to show respect to his friends rather than just leaving. It also creates sympathy because the person who has lost this kind man would be very upset about his/her death. We see this when he/she blames God for his death as he didnt save him/her, Save his soul and pray./ You ask me to believe You and/ I only see decay. this shows a give of mourning in which you blame others for the death you have experienced.In conclusi on, the poets create sympathy for their characters very effectively through descriptions, meanings and powers out of the characters control all of which force the reader to feel some understanding, pity or empathy towards them. The poets both use the deaths of characters to contrast the feeling of the characters and the feelings of the dead to create sympathy.