Both “Five
Flights Up” and “Five AM” center on a narrator’s thoughts in the early morning.
However, the thoughts of the narrator differ significantly with Stafford’s focusing
on how a new day washes away problems while Bishop’s focusing on how problems
never fade. Both make heavy use of imagery to accomplish this goal, but “Five
Flights Up” uses its images ironically against the narrator’s feelings to show
the struggles of the narrator while “Five AM” is more direct about how the
morning cleanses.
The structure
of both help to establish the tone each is trying to set. Structurally, both
poems are free verse poems with no rhyme scheme. Free verse lends both a
conversational tone, as if the narrator were just talking plainly. For both,
this helps them achieve a sense of immediacy with the narrator, as there are no
tricks of language to color their words. However, “Five AM” has a more
organized two stanza, eight line structure while “Five Flights Up” is rather
chaotic with the length of its lines and stanzas. “Five AM” feels calmer and
less busy because of this; there is a clear order that helps preserve Stafford’s
calm, contemplative tone. “Five Flights Up” uses its uneven construction to
create a sense of disorder and unease even though the images are quite beautiful.
The
imagery is also very different. “Five Flights Up” focuses initially on the
lives of a dog and bird. They live carefree, focusing on their sensory lives.
The dog “bounces up and down.” The bird “seems to yawn.” The simplicity of the
actions taken by the animals is contrasted to the humans. The owner is stern
shouts “You ought to be ashamed!” The narrator flatly states “…yesterday I find
almost impossible to lift.” The morning here brings only new things, good and
ill. For the dog and the bird, they “know everything is answered.” But for the
owner and narrator, the new morning promises a new day of struggle.
“Five AM” creates a calm tone that
it never leaves through Stafford’s word choice. Stafford uses very soft verbs
like, “breath, flicker, pad, touch.” These verbs help to stifle the action with
their light and soft connotation. Enjambment also creates a droning effect by
making the words go on and on and on. Stafford has a constant tone, but a
dramatic shift in subject at the start of the second stanza creates complexity.
Stafford shifts from very personal, sensuous images of a walk in the morning to
a rumination on the nature of good and evil for humanity. Then just as suddenly
shifts back to him. Stafford looks at positive things, “people… who never turn
into killers, saints have built sanctuaries…” Similarly, he walks uphill where “the
air doesn’t stir.” Stafford ends stanza one bothered by his ease and lack of
difficulty. However, he realizes that thousands of people go through a good
life without trouble; or rather their troubles are washed away each morning
with the rain. He realizes this through his tone shift back to himself during stanza
two.
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