A Monorhyme for the Shower VS. Discretion

In both "A Monorhyme for the Shower" by Dick Davis and "Discretion" by Robert Wrigley, there is a suggested theme of men watching women in their most intimate moments when they least expect it.

These two works are alike because they both have this sensual meaning to them when it comes to women. In "A Monorhyme for the Shower," Davis uses a very sensual and loving way to describe his "wife" if infact that is who she is. In the poem the narrator describes her while taking a shower,
Lifting her arms to soap her hair
Her pretty breasts respond- and there
The movement of that buoyant pair
Is like a spell to make me swear
Twenty-odd years have turned to air;
now she's the girl I didn't dare
Approach, ask out, much less declare
My love to, mired in young despair.(Davis 1-8)
The way he describes his wife so lovingly is very enjoyable but at the same time very intimate. It is the way that the narrator chooses to describe her that makes this poem so unique and very enjoyable to read.

In "Discretion" Wrigley uses this excerpt to describe his significant other,
and the heavenly light showed me everything: its cool tongues of silver lapping mountain
stones and the never-motionless leaves of aspens, licking her back, her hips,
haunches, and more, illuminating..."(Wrigley 3-5).
The narrator uses nature to visually describe his significant other, this helps the reader visualize what the narrator is seeing.

In both works there is a point in each poem where each woman's significant other is watching them in some of the intimate moments described above. This is also where the two poems are very much alike. In "A Monorhyme for the Shower," the line in the last stanza reads, "And turning smiles to see me there" (16).

This is where the two poems are somewhat different. In "Discretion" the narrator was told not to watch her use the bathroom but the narrator does it anyway, "from which I had sworn I would not look" (61).

While comparing these two poems the reader senses that there is a difference in the relationship of the couples in both poems.

In the first poem, the way the narrator describes  his significant other is very loving and he also speaks about "Childbearing, rows, domestic care/All the prosaic wear and tear" (9-10). Here the reader infers that the narrator and this woman have been together many years and have also had children together.

In the second poem the way the narrator describes his significant other is very sexual vs. intimate and loving. "licking her back, her hips,/haunches and more"(4-5). The reader infers that their relationship is very new.

Both of these two poems have very different ways of describing women in their most private moments. There are also very different levels of relationships and different types of intimacy.