“Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes crimes out of things that are not crimes. A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.” (Abraham Lincoln) These are very strong words for a very strong subject. This man and many others have debated for years about alcohol, often returning very different results. The two pieces that will be discussed are “Morning After” by Langston Hughes and “Ten Rounds With Jose Cuervo” by Tracy Byrd. “Ten Rounds With Jose Cuervo” and “Morning After” are two different sounding titles, but they do indeed have many similarities.
The first and similarity is the plot. The plot of the song and the poem both involve the consumption of alcohol and also the after effects of choosing to consume alcohol. In “Morning After” the consumption of alcohol can be seen when the line “I drunk some bad licker that/ Almost made me blind.” is used. This can also be seen in “Ten Rounds With Jose Cuervo” just by looking at the title. As for the after effects, this is most predominately seen in “Morning After”. Upon reading this poem, it is seen that the after effects can be very troublesome to relationships. This is seen when “Please don't snore so loud. / You jest a little bit o' woman but you/ sound like a great big crowd.” This is evident because the tone of this phrase is angry and she probably always snores but the alcohol is driving him to be angrier with her than usual.
The second similarity lies in the purpose. In both works the overall purpose is to depict a message that alcohol is a negative experience that could lead to judgment problems. In “Ten Rounds With Jose Cuervo” this can be seen when comparing at two important sections “I walked in the band just stunk. The singer couldn't carry a tune in a bucket.” And “But after one round with Jose Cuervo I caught my boots tapping long with the beat.” This shows that alcohol can affect your ability to discern between good and bad. This could lead to many different problems with daily life. In “Morning After” this is evident when the speaker says to his woman “You jest a little bit o' woman but you/ sound like a great big crowd.” showing that his judgment of his wife was effected. In conclusion, alcohol can effect you in a negative way that could lead to judgment problems.
A major similarity between the two works is the tone. On the surface the tone of “Ten Rounds With Jose Cuervo” is a happy, up-beat tone, but upon looking deeper, the reality is that the song started downtrodden. This can be seen when looking at “Was on a mission to drown her memory.” Meaning he sought to add the alcohol to his problem. Upon adding the alcohol the overall tone improved throughout the rest of the song. In “Morning After” the tone is negative and downtrodden throughout. At times the speaker is angrier that others, an example of one of these times is “You jest a little bit o' woman but you/ sound like a great big crowd.” In conclusion, the tones of these two appear to be different but actually are the same, Down-trodden, and depressed.
A difference seen between the two works is the theme. The themes portrayed in these two works are very different from each other. In “Morning After” the theme that the poem is portraying is: the after effects of alcohol are not worth it. This is seen when the speaker says “I was so sick last night I/ Didn't hardly know my mind.” In “Ten Rounds With Jose Cuervo” the theme that it portrays is: alcohol can drown memories, this is seen when looking at two lines in the song “Was on a mission to drown her memory” and “Well around five or round six I forgot what I came to forget.” This shows that the speaker went to the bar to drown a memory and succeeded with the help of alcohol. In conclusion, the theme of “Ten Rounds With Jose Cuervo” is: alcohol can drown memories and the theme of “Morning After” is: the after effects of alcohol are not worth it.
