Poetry Comparison: Flowers and Identity

Students love these poems and it is great first poetry comparison, because it is easy for students to notice the initial similarities and get the confidence they need to dig a little deeper. They are also both great poems for exploring personification. The first poem appears in many literature textbooks: “Identity” by Julio Noboa Polanco. The second is “The Rose That Grew from Concrete” by Tupac. They are both about tough flowers 😉

“Identity” by Julio Noboa Polanco

 Let them be as flowers,
always watered, fed, guarded, admired,
but harnessed to a pot of dirt.

I’d rather be a tall, ugly weed,
clinging on cliffs, like an eagle
wind-wavering above high, jagged rocks.

To have broken through the surface of stone,
to live, to feel exposed to the madness
of the vast, eternal sky.
To be swayed by the breezes of an ancient sea,
carrying my soul, my seed,
beyond the mountains of time or into the abyss of the bizarre.

I’d rather be unseen, and if
then shunned by everyone,
than to be a pleasant-smelling flower,
growing in clusters in the fertile valley,
where they’re praised, handled, and plucked
by greedy, human hands.

I’d rather smell of musty, green stench
than of sweet, fragrant lilac.
If I could stand alone, strong and free,
I’d rather be a tall, ugly weed.

“The Rose That Grew From Concrete” by Tupac

 Did you hear about the rose that grew

from a crack in the concrete?
Proving nature’s law is wrong it
learned to walk with out having feet.
Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams,
it learned to breathe fresh air.
Long live the rose that grew from concrete
when no one else ever cared.

QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT:

1. Why do you think both poets used FLOWERS as the topic of their poems?
2. Why do you think the poets relied heavily on personification?
3. How do the poems share similar themes? How are they different?

Poetry Comparison: Choices

Two other great poems for comparison and exploration are “The Rose That Grew From Concrete” by Tupac and “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost. I like doing this one after we have compared “The Rose That Grew” to “Identity” because it is a little more challenging, but they are already very familiar with one of the poems. Both deal with similar themes of decision making and taking the “less traveled” path. However, the differences are profound: Tupac’s rose did not choose where it was planted whereas Frost’s character does get to choose his path in life. However, both do choose their attitude. Teens will be draw to one or the other depending on their own life experiences (I’ve found). I love comparing these two because they are very different styles, but students always manage to find some similarities, especially with theme.

“The Rose That Grew From Concrete” by Tupac

Did you hear about the rose that grew
from a crack in the concrete?
Proving nature’s law is wrong it
learned to walk with out having feet.
Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams,
it learned to breathe fresh air.
Long live the rose that grew from concrete
when no one else ever cared.

“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

EXPANSION IDEA: Have the students pick the poem of the two they are more drawn to and try to create their own poem mimicking the style of Tupac or Frost. Another fun idea would be to have the students rewrite Frost’s poem mimicking Tupac’s style and/or Tupac’s poem mimicking Frost’s style.