Context & Structure Love & Relationships Poems 2️⃣✅ Flashcards
Context for Eden rock
Causley’s father died when he was 7, therfore poem is somewhat autobiographical
Structure for Eden rock
Alternate rhyme - highlighting family’s separation
Context for Climbing my grandfather
Waterhouse was a known environmentalist & uses lots of euphamisms in nature + hes written a series of nature guidebooks
Structure for Climbing my grandfather
Free verse - shows risk of climbing without a safety net, trusts grandfather + Written in the shape of a mountain
Context for Letters from Yorkshire
Dooley now a freelance writer, her father works in cornwall
Structure for Letters from Yorkshire
Blank verse - written as if its an actual letter
Context for Mother, any distance
Poem is autobiographical & references when Armitage 1st moved out of his mother’s house, only a few doors down
Structure for Mother, any distance
Free verse - representitive of speaker/ armitage’s younger self craving independence
Context for Before you were mine
Autobiographical, Duffy’s mother died very near the time this poem was written - somewhat elegiac
Structure for Before you were mine
written as if its an actual letter,Blank verse - written as if its an actual letter, like it’s a letter for her dead mother/ to her mothers younger self
Context for Walking away
Autobiographical; poem is thought to be about his 1st son leaving home for boarding school ‘flying the nest’
Structure for Walking away
Alternate rhyme - referencing his separation/ distance from his son
Context for Follower
Heany grew up in a large family (eldest of 9) so had to endure the pressures of learning the farm and someday inheriting it, actually became poet
Structure for Follower
Irregular rhyme - Heany being irregular, not inheriting the farm and being a farmer like his father, but rather a poet
Context for When we two parted
It is though that Lord Byron wrote this poem about his past affair whith Lady Frances Webster, about their breaking up, her with a new man & his moving on + adultery she was already married, scandal in victorian period
Structure for When we two parted
Alternate rhyme - alludes to the pairs separation
Octaves - structure of poem is very well layed out, juxtaposing Byrons emotions, reflective of how he would have had to appear ‘neat’ in victorian society as his relationship was a scandal
Context for Love’s philosophy
Not an autobiographical poem as Shelley was in a comfortable & healthy relationship when he wrote the poem + conceit
Structure for Love’s philosophy
Alternate rhyme - reflective of how love in nature is in pairs that come together, also that the pair are not in a relationship and the speaker is attempting to court the lover
Context for Sonnet 29
Elizabeth Browning was married to Robert Browning & wrote this poem whilst they were courting, it was a private poem and was only inteded for Robert + the euphamisms for physical intamcy would have been extremly scandalous
Structure for Sonnet 29
Sonnet - ultimate love poem
Rhyming Couplets
Iambic Pentameter - sounds like a heartbeat
Context for Porphyria’s lover
Porphyria is a hereditary disese which envokes mental disturbances in the person - reflective of the odd behaviour of the speaker
Structure for Porphyria’s lover
Dramatic monologue - creates intreguing and unusual character to hear the innternal monologue of
Narrator/ speaker is unreliable
Context for Neutral tones
Hardy himself experienced two unhappy marriages himself, leading to his poems having somewhat depressive tone + soon quit poety after this poem
Structure of Neutral tones
Enclosed rhyme (ABBA) - how speaker is cutting off his feelings and becoming more enclosed, how he is falling out of love in the poem
Context for Winter swans
Swans are monogamous birds that mate for life, making them a symbol of love and fidelity, a perfect role model for the couple in the poem whilst attempting to reconcile their feelings
Sructure for Winter swans
Blank verse
The entire poem is in tercets apart from the the final stanza which is a couplet, alluding to how by the end of the poem the couple have reconciled and are back on usual terms/ back as a couple
Context for The farmer’s bride
The poem was written at a time where issues were beginning to arise about the way in which men possesed/ owned women. At the time, suffrage/ the suffgratete movement was beggning to gain prominence so Mew is expressing through her poem her own view that woment shouldn’t have their identity tied to their husband
Structure for The farmer’s bride
Mew mixes couplets (AABB) with alternate (ABAB) and enclosed rhyme (ABBA), this adds to the discourse in the speakers life and the crazines of the events that occur in the play/ messiness of farm living
Context for Singh song!
Nagra himself was the son of an immigrant so poem is somewhat autobiographical BUT IS NOT THE POEM IS FICTITIOUS & NOT ABOUT NAGRA
Nagra wanted to celebrate Indian steryotypes in his poem with the steryotype of british asians owning corner shops very prominant in the poem
Structure for Singh song!
Poem written in somewhat free verse, with extremely inconsistent rhyme and inconsistent structure + almost making the poem look and feel like a song with repeated phrases and choruses, reflective of the title of the poem + deliberately written in a way to force an indian accent on the reader (celebrating steryotypes)
