Humans sometimes have the tendency to keep things that are only useful for their own personal benefit. In these two poems, “Names of Horses” by Donald Hall and “The Bull Calf” by Irving Layton, the things that the people would use for their benefit are animals. In “Names of Horses”, the horse is killed because of old age and weakness. In the “The Bull Calf,” the calf is killed because no money could be profited from it on the farm. In both poems, the animals have no purpose to the owners, which proves that humans only keep things that are going to benefit themselves. These poems have many things in common and a few differences. One thing they have in common is the theme of assured death and that farm animals are only useful if they help profit the owners.
One difference in these two poems is that the death of the horse seems more suitable. The killing of the bull calf at such a young age, just barely after it was born seems to be a little bit more unacceptable. Another difference in these two poems is the tone. In “Names of Horses,” the tone appears to be a reminiscent view of the horses’ life, the horses that died before him, and future horses to come. The horse obviously will not be forgotten. In the ending of the poem, the line “old toilers, soil makers,” let the audience know that just because he’s now dead doesn’t mean that his work was not appreciated nor was he killed because they didn’t like him. They very much like the horse, it’s just his services weren’t needed from him anymore. The tone in “The Bull Calf” seems to be
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