To provide an effective comparison between any two things, you must be able to understand all aspects of the articles in question. Many forms of literature are easily comparable due to the very nature of an author transcribing a piece of history or thought directly onto paper; however, poetry is not one of these easily comparable forms of literature. This is because the poem itself is as emotionally driven as it is ambiguous. Because there is no definitive set of rules that dictate what is or is not poetry, attention to detail is critical to fully understanding the relationships between poems. Using three different poems, by different authors, and all contained in a similar category, allows for a wider range of analysis; furthermore, strong differences, as well as commonalities between them, become more evident when comparing more than two works by one or more authors. The works of poetry in this comparison are “The Mother,” by Gwendolyn Brooks; “The Man Who Killed,” by Thomas Hardy; and “Ballad of Birmingham,” by Dudley Randall. At first glance, each of these poems appears to have very little in common with each other. On the one hand, they are unique to each specific poem in its own right. On the other hand, these three pieces of poetry are similar in many ways. Analysis of each poem with respect to the theme presented, the tone communicated, the imagery used, and the rhyme scheme employed exposes the coexistence of similarities and differences between the three poems. The themes between the poems are very similar, if not identical. The speaker's floating guilt is overwhelming in each of these poems. In “The Mother”, the speaker is the mother herself, who has authorized the rem...... middle of paper ...... that of the internal struggles that the speaker has and the understanding of those struggles by of the public. The rhyme scheme, although all used together, is completely different and shows little, if any, sign of being similar. Theme is the main glue of what binds these three great works together, as the guilt and remorse felt by the speaker is so immense, signaling to the audience that the poems have much in common, however, through the differences of each. , they are unique to themselves. Works CitedCharters, Ann and Samuel B. Charters eds. Literature and its writers: an introduction to fiction, poetry and theatre. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford, 2013. Print.Brooks, Gwendolyn. "The Mother." Papers and Papers 942-943.Hardy, Thomas. "The man he killed." Maps and Papers 1064.Randall, Dudley. "Ballad of Birmingham." Cards and Cards 1048-1049.