Can anyone tell me how to compare and contrast the poem Sympathy and The Haunted Oak by Paul Laurence Dunbar?

In order to compare and contrast works by either the same
author, or different authors, the easiest thing to do is look at the imagery, symbolism and
themes.

Overall, both "Sympathy" and "The Haunted Oak" use elements
of nature as a portal to explain something more. Therefore, one could focus upon how nature is
regarded in order to compare and contrast the poems.

Another point
to examine within the poems would be the idea of solitude and imprisonment. Both poems speak to
the fact that the subjects, a bird and a tree, are alone.

One last
point to make when comparing and contrasting poems is the message the author is trying to get
across to the reader. What is the author saying in each of the poems? Is the reflection the
author is offering similar? If so, how? Is the message different? Again, if so,
how?

Basically, when comparing and contrasting anything, the purpose
of the text is to examine how the texts are the same and how they are
different.