As making comparison of a poet with an essay, the elements of title, author and genre is of the essence. When seeing the title, we can have a rough understanding of their themes, keynotes, style and literary forms. If having a prior acquaintance of the author, we can master the author’s writing style and means of expression, which are useful for readers to have a deep understanding of the contents. On the aspect of genre, we should firstly remember the type of genre and its characteristics, which plays an important part on the choice of the reading method. This passage mainly illustrates the similarities and differences of different genre: the poet The Horses and the essay Vegetable gardens on Mars? It’s a more down-to-earth idea than you might think, with the aim of forming the deep understandings of their profound meanings and good skills of reading. Concerning the similarity of the poet and the essay, I would like to analyze it from the aspect of themes. In fact, both of them are full of strong romantic color. Here, I think it is necessary to explain the writing style of Edwin Muir, the author of The Horses. His poet is always rich in philosophy and personality with a direct and plain style. The events in the poet all take place in the future, and the horses described are endowed mysterious personalities, the fancies of which are so romantic. Such as “As fabulous steeds set on ancient shield.”As to the essay, it elaborates a fantastic and surprising event: it’s very possible to plant vegetables on Mars, which the ordinary never thought. The event, itself, is romantic. Therefore, they are both romantic.

On the aspect of the differences of the poet and the essay, I would like to demonstrate it from two levels. On the level of genre, one is lyrical poetry and another is argumentation. Generally, the aim of argumentation is to illustrate something clearly, which would use many figures, such as “The owner of 3 greenhouse operation totaling 121000 square meters.” while the aim of lyrical poetry is to express feelings with the help of matters. The reader should read the poet between the lines. On the level of content, though they are both full of romantic colors, the degree of their romanticism is totally different. The poet is fantastic both the theme and the content. The essay is just fantastic in its theme but the content of which is actual. And it’s the differences that help reader have a better understanding of them.

The analysis of the similarities and differences of the poet and the essay is rather important to the understandings of them and the formation of a good reading habit and skills. The readings skills, sometimes, are more important to the knowledge acquisition. We should expand our horizon. We should look things both from its similarities and differences. Having such habit, the world would be more fantastic in our eyes.