A Comparative Essay Based On The Poem New Prince, New Pomp by Robert Southwell and the BBC News Article
The poem ‘New Prince, New Pomp’ was written in the 1500’s by a martyred Jesuit priest named Robert Southwell. ‘New Prince, New Pomp’ is a Christian nativity poem that describes the humble, birth of Christ in a euphuistic tone. The BBC article ‘Japan’s New Prince Seen In Public’ describes Prince Hisahito’s arrival, that unlike the birth of Jesus, has been greatly anticipated and ‘widely celebrated’. Over 2000 years separate the births and unlike the Virgin Mary, Princess Kiko had the advantage of a hospital birth. Whilst both texts describe the safe arrival of a new born baby of significant importance, Southwell’s piece is clearly one of adoration and worship, whereas the news article assumes a more neutral and informative approach. Southwell’s poem reflects the humility of Christ’s birth through quatrains consisting of an abcb rhyme scheme and alternating tetrameter/trimeter rhythm. The news article is also direct in style, ‘Japan’s new prince seen in public’, although is clearly less emotive than Southwell’s portrayal of Christ’s birth. Southwell’s use of caesura, ‘Behold, a seely…’, ‘with joy approach, O…’ is to foreground the imperatives, the pause allowing the significance of the instruction to be understood. Southwell’s use of simple sentences such as the whole of verse one, is to convey the simplicity of his message. The news article, though, aims to inform the audience of details relating to the arrival of the Japanese prince, therefore there are fewer simple sentences and many more complex ones, ‘Prince Hisahito, who was born last Wednesday, is third in line…father.’ While the article employs a mostly declarative sentence mood, ‘Only men are allowed to be monarchs in Japan’, Southwell chooses to address his adoration ‘The prince himself is come from heaven’, not just in the declarative mood, but through imperatives such as ‘Do homage’ which reinforces the honour he feels Christ deserves, through the biblical tone of