Comparing "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and "Heritage"

“The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock” by T. S. Elliot, and “Heritage” by Countee Cullen are both ultimately poems of reflection and contemplation. Alfred J. Prufrock exhibits his uncertainties about the future, while the narrator in Countee Cullen’s poem reflects on his heritage, culture, and past. The speaker in each poem is part of what makes the poems seem so different. Alfred J. Prufrock comes off as a lazy man who is indecisive. The entire poem seems to be a quest just to gain the courage to act, let alone deciding what actions are right or warranted in his case. The speaker in “Heritage” seems much more sure of themselves, and more focused on a specific goal. The poem starts with the question “What is Africa to me:” and follows with musings on that topic
  “Heritage” uses a constant rhyme scheme while “Prufrock” does not, but when “Prufrock” does rhyme, it is in a similar AABBCC… style to Cullen’s. The presence of a fixed rhyme scheme adds to the more coherent nature of “Heritage”. Elliot’s poem is also broken into shorter stanzas than Cullen’s. This helps “Prufrock” to move at a quicker pace than “Heritage”, but it feels a little disorienting when the subject changes from stanza to stanza. The strongest theme present in “Heritage” is the speaker’s frustration at the way the white American culture limits their acceptance and expression of their African culture. The second half of the second stanza is a clear expression of the speaker’s growing distaste of the American pressure, “So I lie, whose fount of pride, Dear distress, and joy allied, Is my somber flesh and skin, With the dark blood dammed within Like great pulsing tides of wine That, I fear, must burst the fine Channels of the chafing net Where they surge and foam and fret.” The speaker’s dissent is growing greater than they can contain.
  The speaker in “Prufrock” seems most limited by his expectations. His encounters with past loved ones seem to have stripped him of his ability to venture into his own decisions. Cullen’s poem seems to be the one making something the most “new”. Instead of remaining complacent with the white oppression of African heritage, Cullen illustrates the difficulties African Americans face, and makes their struggle new. He is supporting those who want to acknowledge and work with their African past. “Prufrock” seems to be making new the question of what it means to act in the world. For both speakers, their pasts are acting to try to hold them in place and keep them from setting out upon a new course.