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The poems I am going to compare and contrast are ¨Nothing's Change¨ by Tatamknia Afrika and ¨What were they like¨ by Denise Levertov.
After reading both we can tell they talk about disappointment and sadness.
In ¨Nothing’s Change¨ change was expected. It was expected that black and white people could be together without racism, equality would happened and was inevitable. In ¨What were theylike¨, there was despair, sadness and a lost memory of how Vietnam used to be. The Vietnamese lost hope with the war in their country.

On the one hand in the poem ¨Nothing’s Change¨ you can see in the first 3 stanzas it is describing about some nice flowers, a high class restaurant and how black people feel about being there it says ¨no board says it: but we know, but my feet know¨ as if it wastelling you don’t need something to tell you were to be or not to be, your instinct tells you that. For me in it is describing how white people live even though they are in a black people town. For the fourth stanza it says ¨no sign says it is: but we know were we belong¨ a two lines paragraph is enough to see that it is a separation, now it starts to talk about how black Africans live also with 3stanzas, as being equidistant. It says the black person it is talking about can see the high class restaurant from outside (like if he isn’t welcomed there) how they eat without elegance and he is happy that way, he’s just waited for a change that seems its never going to happen.
On the other hand, in the poem ¨What were they like¨ the structure they follow is a question and answer stanzas. In thefirst stanza someone is asking about the Vietnamesse war, questions that seems that is someone that doesn’t know about it, like a foreigner. In the second stanza the answers starts to appear as if someone is answering back the questions from first stanza, the one that answers the questions seems for me it is a soldier and someone that knows from toe to head Vietnam, like for example when it says;¨Sir,the light hearts turn to stone¨. By putting the word sir it’s like a form a soldier rifers to someone who needs to respect. Using only 2 stanzas makes the structure look it doesn’t need more than two stanzas to create a sadness atmosphere in the poem.

In ¨Nothings Change¨ the language used seems as putting words with a second use. For example, the glass of the restaurant for white people,it is used as a seperation, the glass is transparent so it is like if you cant see theres something. in the poem the racism it’s the same, like if it was the glass. It is not visible but it doesn’t mean its not there, it applies also with the apartheid. You cant change how a person thinks even though there’s a law.
However in the poem ¨what were they like¨ the language it is ised for comparinghow Vietnamese were before and after the war. For example when it says: ¨maybe fathers told their sons old tales¨ it is quite a good image to imagine, because it seems there is calm in Vietnam to tell a story. This is an example of before but for after could it be ¨there was only time to scream¨ the word scream quickly makes you think about people maybe with fear, running through the street lookingfor a answer of why its happening.

As I said previously in my essay, before and after are really notable in both poems, ¨what were they like¨ and ¨Nothings change¨. In ¨what were they like¨ its saying how did Vietnam people lived before the war, like in ¨when peaceful clouds where reflected in the paddies¨. This shows that when they used to live like this, it was a calm life; there was time foreverything. I imagine the Vietnamese clouds before the war all blue and white, all over the sky. And then after the war like if suddenly blue turns to grey and black.
In the other poem, ¨Nothings change¨ all before was always living in a racism country with the apartheid and how black know were they belong and how white people had more benefit just because their skin colour, after because...