final quotes for poetry Flashcards
exposure - owen
“the merciless iced east winds that knive us”
“for our love of god is dying”
“but nothing happens” - refrain
“our brains ache”
owen was a main ww1 poet giving the poem a sense of realism, soldiers during ww1 faced one of the coldest winters reaching sub zero temperatures causing extreme frostbite
remains - armitage
“blood-shadow”
“he’s here in my head when i close my eyes”
“probably armed, possibly not”
“tosses his guts back into his body”
poem is based off of the conflict in Iraq 2003, after the war there was a major increase in the number of soldiers that suffered with ptsd, the number of suicides also increased
the prelude - wordsworth
“one summer evening (led by her)”
“with voluntary instinct, upreared its head”
“a huge peak, black and huge”
“troubled pleasure”
wordsworth grew up in the lake district and he had a troubled childhood due to his parents dying, he always found nature an escape from his problems, this gives the poem a sense of realism
storm on the island - heaney
“exploding comfortably”
“plummels” “blasts”
“bombarded by empty air” “it is a huge nothing that we fear”
“spits like a tame cat turned savage”
Heaney based the poem on the conflict group called ‘the troubles’, they terrorised northern island during the 20th century, the violence spilled into UK and Ireland, the Irish islands were based off the mainland and were exposed to the harsh weather conditions of the Atlantic ocean
ozymandias - shelley
“wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command”
“the lone and level sands stretch far away”
“half sunk and shattered visage lies”
Shelley’s work contrasted the common poets work during the enlightenment era, poets commonly focused on the beauty of nature whereas shelley based his work on the subjective element of nature and emotional power
my last duchess - browning
“notice neptune taming a sea horse”
“wil’t you please sit and look at her”
“my gift of a nine hundred year old name”
poem is based off of the Duke of ferrara who felt that his wife was socially below her, during the romantic era the only way for a women to gain a status was through a man, God was considered the greatest but the duke saw himself higher, this may be due to his narcissistic personality disorder
bayonet charge - hughes
“king, honour, human dignity, etcetera, all dropped like luxeries”
“a patriotic tear”
“a rifle as numb as a smashed arm”
Hughs never faught in war but his poems were influenced by the wars, his poems were a way for his to express what he saw, the government used marketing schemes like posters to promote patriotism (being loyal to your country) to encourage men to join, however they failed to show the reality of the fighting
charge of the light brigade - Tennyson
“noble six hundred”
“honour the light brigade”
“half a league, half a league, half a league onward”
“into the jaws of death, into the mouth of hell”
poet laurette, poem was based off of the crimean war between Russia and the ottoman empire, the light brigade were often lower class men lightly armoured on the back of horses
war photographer - carol ann duffy
“spools of suffering set in ordered rows”
“hundred agonies” in comparison to “his editor will pick out five or six”
“blood stained into foreign dust”
duffy found interest in the challenge that a photographer had to face as they were mostly in danger, during the iraq war roughly 40 photographers were killed
poppies - weir
“spasms of paper red, disrupting a blockade”
“released a song bird from its cage”
“your playground voice catching in the wind”
after the war had damaged the countryside nothing could grow, the exception was poppies, they have become a symbol of resilience, the poem is from the perspective of a mother who sends her son off to war and has to deal with the grief
london - blake
“mind forged manacles”
“runs in blood down palace walls”
“black’ning church appals”
the industrial revolution in the 18th century marked the shift from country life to city life, machines were being discovered and they found how much more efficient they were, young children were forced to work in and around the factories as they were small enough to fit around the machines but the conditions were awful. london became a smoke ridden city
kamikaze - garland
“shaven head full of incantations”
“he must have wondered which has been the better way to die”
“one way journey into history”
“her father embarked at sunrise”
kamikaze pilots were Japanese pilots who had a mission to drive into the enemy, this was a suicide mission during ww2,
the emigree - rumens
“my memory of it was sunlight clear”
“it may be at war, it may be sick with tyrants”
“i comb its hair and love its shining eyes”
rumens was born in London but she travelled to a lot of different places which reflects her poem, her poem was largely about foreign customs, culture and language
checking out me history - agard
“bandage up me own eye with me own history”
“blind me to my own identity”
“carving out me identity”
agard was born in guyana which became governed by britain in the 18th century, in 1966 guyana gained independence and Agard aw how much he was deprived of his identity, many guyanese people emigrated to the uk
points for comparing remains and exposure
- both set in wartime showing the graphic and horrific imagery of the fighting
R- “tosses his guts back into his body”
E - “for our love of god is dying” - expsore talks about the weather “the merciless iced east winds that knive us”
remians is about the ongoing conflict and the effect “he’s here in my head when i close my eyes” - both show the mental effects
R - “blood shadow”
E- “our brains ache”
