Phillip Levine & Anne Winters: Portraying Human Capital

They Feed They Lion, while as "crafty" as Winter's poems offers a much bleaker view of the human capital system both poems describe (Chiasson). The most obvious aspect which differs is the language used; Winters uses flowery, beautiful words (yes such as "faerique"), poetic terminology including her entire section of poems entitled "A Sonnet Map of Manhattan" and the poem entitled “Villanelle,” as well as foreign words and quotes such as the quote by Francis of Assusi in the opening of Cold-Water Flats. Levine, while he does use frequent repetition and even alliteration, uses much darker language or at the very least more savage language as he paints a picture of the scene of the Detroit racial riots, "from the ferocity... furred, full jowl." Furthermore, he uses the dialect of the working class whose viewpoint he writes from most notably in the namesake phrase "they feed they lion."

It is interesting to note that both poems highlight a comparison and a contrast in portraying the wake of human capital: They Feed They Lion captures many southern aspects including the pig imagery as well as the diction used in the title to the quite different urban way of life of "creosote, gasoline, drive shafts, [and] wooden dollies." This contrast alludes to the great Northern Migration likely made by many of the workers from the South in search of work. Their jobs have defined their environment as they are human capital. Both northern and southern elements feed the lion, indicating the pasts and presents of the workers are what is fueling the system, or feeding the lion. Winters contrasts the dismal working scene to the rich imagery of New York City or puts the labor in the background of another occurrence, even when Winters is having her coffee at a café in The Displaced of Capital, the newspaper makes her aware of the South American labor that has made it possible for her to enjoy it. While both poets deal with labor scenes, Levine is more subtle about his main message concerning human capital because his poem's subject is comparatively much more narrow and specific than the coverage of Winters' poems which deal with human capital in New York but also to the Nicaragua and other global destinations dealt with in the paper--essentially human capital everywhere. Consequently, Winters tends to spell out exactly what she is referring to, for example by utilizing titles (i.e. The Displaced of Capital) or capitalizing important words and phrases (i.e. "LABOR"). Levine's subject is made obvious to be a lion through repetition, the title of his poem, and the questionable grammar used in the phrase that highlights its oddness. Nevertheless, knowing that the poem is about a lion suggests little about the poem’s true theme without focusing on the context in which the lion is placed. In masking his subject in a metaphor it may still be accurately determined to what Levine is writing because his scope is so particular as aforementioned, but it requires readers to probe the poem for deeper meaning as opposed to merely accepting that it is about the race riots of Detroit.