Alice Major's "Puce Fairy Book" and Michael Ondaatje's "The Diverse Causes" are two poems that are about a man and a woman's relationship and how their love is the only thing that will keep them together or separate them. Although both poems have an honest tone, the tone of "Puce Fairy Book" is more satirical and obnoxious, while the tone of "the Diverse Causes" is more contented and fiercely passionate.
"Puce Fairy Book" and "The Diverse Causes," both have an honest tone but "Puce Fairy Book" is more satirical and "the Diverse Causes" is more violent. The title of "Puce Fairy Book" supports the satirical environment in the poem. It hints that the fairy book or story being told is somewhat majestic. Puce is a shade of purple and purple represents royalty. Thus the title represents something that is almost magical and very unlikely to attain. Major uses a variety of fairy tale beauties and a tone of bleak hopelessness to get her point across.
Michael Ondaatje, author of "The English Pati...
Cutlery for children. Detail showing fairy-tale sc...
Jappis verMen expect women to be that kind of fairy tale but in reality they are not. The line that best expresses this tone of satire and bleak hopelessness is "other princes had made it through my forest." The girl in this line openly confesses and admits her imperfections and she is comfortable with them. However, the boy she is with insists upon making her into something that she is never going to be. "The Diverse Causes," on the other hand, has a tone of violence. This tone of violence represents the fierce passion of the narrator to his lover. The line that represents this tone is "The kitchen window hangs scarred, shattered by winter hunters." Although the narrator uses the words "scarred", "shattered", and "hunters" to represent the fierce passion to his lover,