Tramp by Rupert Loydell and Decomposition by Zulfikar Ghose

Both of these two poems are structured well in a way that the stanzas are equally spaced out. For example, the poem Tramp is four quatrains and Decomposition is five quatrains. From my response, the use of structure in the two poems could symbolise the narrator considering the situations they have seen and all that they can do is retell it as it was. Furthermore, the use of well-structured poems could also suggest the narrator as being the judgmental society (being higher than the homeless and structured in life) looking downs over the unrefined and ragged men that the poets have presented.

The titles of these two poems present different concepts. In the poem Tramp presents an image of a dehumanised person of who is merely a tramp that is an outsider in our society. In the poem Decomposition the title has a different meaning. For example the use of Decomposition could be interpreted in terms of death, or signifying the homeless person’s physical state. Overall, both poems are considering human beings I through non-human ways. In the poem Decomposition the narrator uses a simile ‘his shadow thrown aside like a blanket’.

With this said, it is dehumanising the homeless man. This affects the reader in a way that it creates sympathy towards the man being poor and lifeless, as well as being compared to a blanket on the road. As the reader you could presume that through the representation of a blanket it refers to the thin worthless blanket being the thin worthless man due to the man’s poverty and starvation. Following the thinness of the blanket, the only purpose on the man would be the warmth that remains from and for the road.

For example, ‘his arms and legs could be cracks in the stone’. Through this, it could be suggesting that the homeless man has nothing else that the stone and that he has nowhere else to go than the stone. Finally the representation of the cracks in the stone means the homeless man has been there for a long time and has almost become a part of the stone. The poem Tramp considers this man in religious terms without giving any respect. By doing this it would be creating tension and making the reader feel uncomfortable.

The use of the word ‘prophet’ in Tramp can have different views. For example, a religious one – prophets are worshipped due to their links with God. Furthermore, the words of prophets should be listened to and should be respected. Although, in the case of this poem, the narrator uses the term ‘gibbers’. This is a nonsensical approach which therefore shoes the little respect towards the man, by using religious terms in a way of mocking him.

I think that the case of disrespect to the man is very similar to the other poem Decomposition, through what I have outlined with the blanket in the paragraph above. In conclusion, both of the poems affect the reader in different ways through the uses of techniques to represent narrators with somewhat of uncomfortable point on views. The use of a religious point could make us question our own thoughts. Whereas the other uses art and imagery to make us consider human life in society.