Comparing "Summer of his Fourteenth Year" and "Hanging Fire"

Comparing "Summer of his Fourteenth Year" and "Hanging Fire"

When comparing poems, try to balance out the detail you include for each poem.  Comment on content, themes, ideas and attitudes as well as form, structure and language. Sum up your thoughts on ways in which the poems are similar and different in your conclusion.

After you compare the texts...

--let's do a check for understanding comparing that compares the text

--What are things that they have in common and what things are different

Multiple Choice

An important message in "Summer of his Fourteenth Year" is that-

• teenagers are messy and inconsiderate

• It's impossible to communicate with a surly teenager

• leaving childhood behind is hard for parents and teens

• parents of teens are too nagging and protective

Multiple Choice

A similarity with the teenagers in both poems would be--

• they were both excited and happy to be teenager

• they were both moody and with anxiety issues

• they were both happy to be seniors leaving the house

• they were both angry about failing grades in school

Multiple Choice

What is the main similarity in these two phrases from the poems? From "Hanging Fire", Line 24-25, "Nobody even stops to think about my side of it" and line 18-20, "He tears at the seams that hold us together and sees in mother only the ties to childhood."

• They both come from the teenagers point of view

• They show that both parents and teenagers can feel anxiety during this phase of their relationship

• They are both talking about boys in their 14th year

• They show that both students excel at learning and are doing well in school

I hope you have a better understanding of comparing two poetry texts.