Tale of Two Cities Through Poetry

OPPRESSION

By Jimmy Santiago Baca

Is a question of strength,

of unshed tears,

of being trampled under,

and always, always,

remembering you are human.

Look deep to find the grains of hope and strength,

and sing, my brothers and sisters,

and sing. The sun will share

your birthdays with you behind bars,

the new spring grass

like fiery spears will count your years,

as you start into the next year;

endure my brothers, endure my sisters.

The poem "Oppression" fits perfectly with how the peasants in A Tale of Two Cities reacted to being mistreated by the French Aristocrats. They were trampled on by the nobles just like the people mentioned in this poem.

The first stanza is about how when the people are oppressed their pain makes them strong. It also mentions that the oppressed must never forget they are human beings that should be treated with respect. In the novel the nobles do not treat the peasants with any respect. Some examples are that the peasants were over taxed, starving, and treated like animals. Foulon even told the peasants to eat grass when they came to him for help. The Marquis ran over Gaspard's son and tried to make up for it by tossing Gaspard a coin. Darnay's father raped a girl and killed her husband by harassing him to a cart

The last part of the poem tells the peasants to have hope, be strong, and sing. It states that they should revolt and not worry about being arrested or put into prison because it will be worth the sacrifice. This is what happened in the novel. The peasants became revolutionaries and they wiped out all the Aristocrats left in France.

The last line of the poem tells the people to endure. This is what Madame Defarge told her husband when he was feeling like the revolution was not happening fast enough.

SACRIFICE

By Allison Chambers Coxsey

The sacrifice of love we give,

Takes less and yet gives more;

An everlasting hand of love,

The heart an open door.

The willingness to give of self,

To lay down your own life;

To touch another person's heart,

In loving sacrifice.

A chance that God has given you,

To reach another soul;

Forever changed by kindness,

A life your love made whole.

For life is but a circle,

Each life part of the chain;

Each link is joined by sacrifice,

That causes man to change.

To turn and reach a hand of love,

To touch another's life;

Will cause the circle to be whole,

In loving sacrifice.

Sydney Carton is an example of someone who made a sacrifice in A Tale of Two Cities. To make Lucie happy, Carton sacrifices his own life to save her husband's. Carton told Lucie, "When you gaze into your love one's eyes remember that there is a man who would give his life, to keep a life you love beside you!" (123).

The first four lines of the poem say that when one sacrifices he gets back more than he gives. This was true for Carton because his sacrifice gave his life meaning and he was remembered with love by Lucie and her family.

Lines five through eight tell about how when a person loves someone they are willing to give of themselves and even die for the person they love. This is a perfect example of what Carton did for Lucie by taking Darnay's place at the Guillotine.

Lines nine through twelve seem like they are written just for Carton because God gave him the chance to make Lucie's life better and he took it. Carton made Lucie's life whole by helping her to keep her all her family members alive