2 poems: Fast Break vs. Ulysses

In Fast Break and Ulysses, both Edward Hirsch and Alfred Lord Tennyson use vivid images, extremely distinctive word choices, and verbs to help emphasize the complexity and emotional poems that they have written. In Fast Break, the stunning images used by Hirsch when he uses words in which he describes how the basketball touches the rim, or how the players glide across the court. He expresses the unity of the basketball brothers (team) and how they interact on the court to create a better goal in basketball. Compared to Ulysses, Fast Break is the total opposite in the speed of the poem, and how Hirsch explains the rapid movements that the players and the basketball makes on the court. While Ulysses is a much slower paced poem that slowly describes the falling and aging of the King Ulysses, and how his time has passed. Hirsch also uses verbs that have a much greater impact on the reader with how he describes the passing of the ball and how the guards and the forwards lunge themselves at their opponents when on defense. Also Hirsch explains a much more exciting and happy game that these players play, while Tennyson describes the old age, nostalgia, and sad moments of King Ulysses life after his time has passed, and how he is an old man that already had his time of glory.