Anthology context Flashcards
She Walks in Beauty
By Lord Byron
- Context
- Poem type
• Lord Byron had a lavish lifestyle conveyed through his free and powerful language.
• Originally written to be set to music
Byron wrote this in response to seeing his beautiful cousin walk through a room at a party. He was captivated by her.
It is a romantic poem which uses hyperbolic imagery to explore ‘love’ in its most lustful state.
Love
Sonnet 43
By Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- Context
- Poem type
• Part of a series of poems about Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s future husband, Robert Browning. Elizabeth was poorly at the time of writing, knowing she had a terminal illness conveying how ‘after death’ is such a powerful phrase as she wants to show her husband how much she loves him and that it is eternal.
Love
The Solder
By Rupert Brooke
- Context
- Poem type
• Written during WW1 in 1914 when it broke out
• Rupert Brooke died in 1915
Rupert Brooke was hugely patriotic and fully believed in fighting for his country.
War
A Wife in London
By Thomas Hardy
- Context
- Poem type
• Written during the Boer war where the English subjected hundreds of native people to death through genocide. Whilst the poem conveys love between a wife and a husband, the husband died fighting for the British - the side who killed innocent people. Initially we feel sorry for the couple but on learning the wider context we see how insignificant perhaps, his death is.
War
As Imperceptibly as Grief
By Emily Dickinson
- Context
- Poem type
• Emily Dickinson lived most of her life in isolation
• She usually wrote about death and nature
Emily Dickinson (1830 –1886) was an American poet.
She lived most of her life in solitude as a recluse.
Considered an eccentric by locals, she developed a noted penchant for white clothing and became known for her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, to even leave her bedroom.
Dickinson never married, and most friendships between her and others depended entirely upon correspondence.
Dickinson’s poems reflect her early and lifelong fascination with illness, dying and death.
‘As Imperceptibly as Grief’ is an example of her preoccupation with the idea of an oncoming darkness, and the end of what brief happiness life can bring.
Nature
Ozymandias
By Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Context
- Poem type
• The poem is about a statue that was recovered from a desert
• Political statement
• Ozymandias is a tyrant, like the British king of that time: King George
Percy Bysshe Shelley was a rebel, he was expelled from Oxford and disagreed with the monarchy. He was fascinated by the statue of Ramses II and wrote about it because he did not understand how people could be so self obsessed that they believed they were invincible and that they deserved the authority: “look on my works ye Almighty and despair!”
Nature
London
By William Blake
- Context
- Poem type
• William Blake had quite radical, social and political views
• He believed in social and racial equality
• General description of London as weak is the unseen aspect of the city
This poem was written just after the French Revolution with the uprising of French citizens to form a republic being an inspiration to the poem. It’s like a warning/inspirational message to the people of London as to what could happen.
Place
The Prelude
By William Wordsworth
- Context
- Poem type
- An autobiography of key moments in his life
- Wordsworth often wrote about nature
- Lived in the Lake District - beautiful landscape
- Linked to the death of his family members: step-sister/brother/children
Place
Dulce et Decorum est
By Wilfred Owen
- Context
- Poem type
Wilfred Owen fought in WW1 and wrote the poem at the same time
Reveals his anger at war’s horrific conditions
Wilfred Owen was killed in action on 4 November 1918 exactly one week (almost to the hour) before the signing of the Armistice, which ended the First World War.
His mother received the telegram informing her of his death on Armistice Day, as the church bells were ringing out in celebration.
This poem has such detailed imagery, even by today’s standards, it is still thought of as an unforgettable excoriation of World War I with the use of its intense tone, it truly gives the reader an insight of what the feeling of being on the front line would have been like.
War
Mametz Wood
By Own Sheers
- Context
- Poem type
• About a French WW1 battle
• Owen Sheers was present when the graves were uncovered
Mametz Wood was one of the bloodiest battles of World War One. As part of the first Battle of the Somme in 1916, soldiers of the Welsh division were ordered to take Mametz Wood, the largest area of trees on the battlefield.
The 38th Welsh Division lost 4,000 men during the attack which lasted five days.
The poet Owen Sheers grew up in Wales and wrote the poem in 2005 as he felt their bravery and sacrifice was never really acknowledged.
War
The Manhunt
By Simon Armitage
- Context
- Poem type
• (Autobiography)
• Shows war’s effects on ex-soldiers
• Could be a description of a soldier who:
o Suffered continuous injuries from a bullet
o Had continuous trauma and PTSD
Shows how string the bond is between him and his wife.
he Manhunt’ was originally aired as part of a Channel 4 documentary, Forgotten Heroes: The Not Dead, in which the painful truth of lives damaged beyond help is shown.
In the film ‘The Manhunt’ is read by Laura, wife of Eddie Beddoes. Eddie served as a peace-keeper in Bosnia before being discharged due to injury and depression.
Bosnian Conflict information: Bosnia-Herzegovina is still recovering from a devastating three-year war which accompanied the break-up of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.
The 1992-1995 conflict centred on whether Bosnia should stay in the Yugoslav Federation, or whether it should become independent.
War
Contains half rhymes
Cozy Apologia
By Rita Dove
- Context
- Poem type
- Autobiographical style
- Rita Dove writes to her husband Fred who is also a writer
- Includes details of Hurricane Floyd which happened at the time of writing and caused mass destruction in and around New York
- She looks at nature and love and compares their power. When nature is destructive, perhaps love reigns on.
Love
Valentine
By Carol Ann Duffy
- Context
- Poem type
• Carol Ann Duffy had fierce feminist views
• She like to break normal conventions
Her collection The World’s Wife took characters from history, literature and mythology and gave them a female point of view, as a sister, a wife or a feminised version of a character.
Carol Ann Duffy wrote Valentine after a radio producer asked her to write an original poem for St. Valentine’s Day.
Duffy likes to break conventions and in Valentine she is criticising society’s views of being materialistic.
Love
Living Space
By Imtiaz Dharker
- Context
- Poem type
• Imtiaz Dharker was born in Pakistan and was raised in Glasgow
• Both areas experienced poverty
• The poem speaks of the housing conditions in India
The slums she describes are symbols of society’s inequality.
Place
Death of a Naturalist
By Seamus Heaney
- Context
- Poem type
• Seamus Heaney often wrote about themes such as childhood and nature
• The poem displays the confusion of the people in his country: Ireland
Seamus Heaney’s four year old brother died in a car accident when Heaney was a young boy. The death affected him badly and many of his poems are about loss of innocence.
Heaney grew up on a farm and many of his poems reflect his upbringing.
Nature
