Love and Relationships Poetry - LANGUAGE Flashcards
(34 cards)
What 2 poems could you use for the theme Growing Apart?
› mother any distance
› walking away
› follower
What 2 poems would you use for the theme Unrequited Love?
› porphyria’s lover
› sonnet 29 (‘I think of thee!’)
› the farmer’s bride
› love’s philosophy
What 2 poems would you use for the theme Obsessive Love?
› sonnet 29 (‘I think of thee!’)
› porphyria’s lover
› love’s philosophy
What 2 poems would you use for the theme Family Love?
› mother any distance › walking away › eden rock › follower › before you were mine › climbing my grandfather
What is the content and key aspects of ‘Mother, Any Distance’?
The speaker the describes how his mother helps him to move into a house, using the event as a symbol of his independence.
This poem exposes the need to renegotiate parent-child relationships as time passes.
What is the content and key aspects of ‘Walking Away’?
First person narrative where the speaker reflects back on the anxiety of dropping his young son off to his first game of football at boarding school.
18 years on, he is still affected by the image of his son nervously walking away.
The poem ends with the recognition of the pain of separation but counters it with acceptance that “love is proved in the letting go”.
What is the content and key aspects of ‘Follower’?
The speaker recalls watching his father expertly plough the family farm. His father is an image of strength and reliability and the son admired him and wanted to be just like him.
As time passes, the father-son roles reverse.
The speaker recalls a time before life choices separated him from his father; whilst this separation was painful, it was inevitable.
What is the content and key aspects of ‘Porphyria’s Lover’?
Dramatic monologue which describes a stormy night when he strangled his lover, Porphyria, to death using hair own her so that she would be with him forever. The speaker is clearly insane and beloved that his lover wanted to be murdered so she could stay with him forever.
This poem reveals the dangers posed by possessive and obsessive love.
What is the content and key aspects of ‘Sonnet 29 (“I Think of Thee!”)’?
This sonnet is a declaration of passionate love. She tells how she obsessively thinks of him so much that her thoughts have begun to obscure reality of him.
Browning conveys how unrequited longing for a lover can consume you, make you impatient and even distort reality. She challenges an assumption of patriarchal cultures that women should not have the freedom to articulate sexual desire.
What is the content and key aspects of ‘The Farmer’s Bride’?
A farmer married a young girl and she tries to escape as she is scared of him. The farmer is frustrated that he has been rejected and his frustration build up towards the end of the poem where he appear to lose control suggesting that he may force himself upon her.
This poem reveals the detrimental impact of patriarchal values on men and women. When the husband’s concept of marriage is not fulfilled, he becomes frustrated but is unable to speak sensitively to his wife, leaving her marginalised by the patriarchal system.
What is the content and key aspects of ‘Love’s Philosophy’?
The speaker tries to seduce his listener, emphasising that nothing in nature is single so they shouldn’t be either.
Whilst the poem could be interpreted as a playful attempt to seduce a lover, it could equally be a reflection on the unscrupulous actions of a man focussed purely on sexual enjoyment.
What is the content and key aspects of ‘Eden Rock’?
The speaker imagines looking across a river where he sees his parents as a young couple. It was written in the present tense to make the memory seem real. They live a simple but happy life conveying the importance of family and how wealth isn’t important.
Causley affectively articulates the pain of separation and the longing to be reunited.
What is the content and key aspects of ‘Before You Were Mine’?
The speaker describes her mother’s life before children, reflection on how the arrival of a baby meant a loss of freedom showing her feeling of guilt.
Duffy explores the treatment of women who didn’t conform to 1950s gender stereotypes, as well as reflecting on the child’s admiration for their parent showing the strength of familial love.
What is the content and key aspects of ‘Climbing My Grandfather’?
The speaker uses extended metaphor of mountaineering to describe how he gets to know his grandfather. Like climbing a mountain, the journey is tiring and requires persistence, but holds great rewards.
Developing relationships may require persistence and hard work but leads to great rewards.
What is the context of ‘Mother, Any Distance’?
›the poem was published in 1990s, when Armitage was 30 years old.
› it was part of a collection called Book of Matches. The poems within this book were all short enough to be read within the time it takes a match to burn. This image of the burning match represents how theses moments of life disappear quickly.
What is the context of ‘Walking Away’?
› Cecil Day Lewis was an Irish poet who lived between 1904 and 1972. This poem was published about 1960s and is about his first son, Sean.
› he was the poet laureate for five years until his death.
› Day Lewis had himself attended boarding school and so could appreciate the anxiety and pain from both sides of the relationship: this is apparent in the descriptions of his nervous son.
What is the context of ‘Follower’?
› Seamus Heaney lived from 1939-2013.
› he grew up on his father’s farm in Northern Ireland and so the poem is thought to be autobiographical.
› the poem was published in the 1960s, within a collection on themes of childhood, identity and rural life.
› in 1947, the NI Education Act opened up access to secondary and university education so Heaney took advantage of this and left the family farm to attend university.
What is the context of ‘Porphyria’s Lover’?
› porphyria is a disease that can result in insanity. Browning might be comparing being in love with insanity and a delusional view of reality.
› Porphyria is portrayed as a sexual and seductive woman. This could be the untrustworthy speaker’s way of justifying the murder.
› first published in the 1830s.
What is the context of ‘Sonnet 29 (“I Think of Thee!”)’?
› Browning wrote the poem in the 1840s about her then lover, and future husband, Robert Browning.
›This was a private poem for her husband but he encouraged her to publish it so she published it in the book entitled “Sonnets from the Portuguese” to protect her reputation within a moral and judgemental society.
› there is a joyous religious undertone to the poem. She compares him to palm tree: in Christianity, the palm tree represents faith.
What is the context of ‘The Farmer’s Bride’?
› published in the 1910s.
› Charlotte Mew was thought to be homosexual and lived through a time when homosexuality was not accepted by society.
› this might explain some of the poem’s themes. The poem deals with an unconventional relationship and frustrated desire for a woman.
› women had fewer rights like being unable to choose their won husband, own property or file for divorce. Expected to conform to stereotypes, completing household chores and submitting to their husband’s desires.
›written during the Suffragette movement.
What is the context of ‘Love’s Philosophy’?
›Shelley was a romantic poet. Romanticism was huge movement in 18th and 19th century literature, whereby writers focused on the power of and connections between human emotion and the natural world.
› the poem was first published in the 1810s.
› Shelley’s use of religion as a persuasive technique in the poem is ironic as he was an atheist, a highly controversial viewpoint in the 19th Century.
What is the context of ‘Eden Rock’?
› Charles Causley was from Cornwall. He lived from 1917-2003.
› published in the 1980s, the poem is thought to be autobiographical: he is perhaps talking about his parents as he’s father fought in WW1 and died from lasting injuries when Causley was just 7 years old.
› Causley said that he had made-up the location of Eden Rock. It is a dream-like place, and perhaps reflects an idyllic life rather than his actual life.
› he wrote ‘Eden Rock’ late in his life when he was meditating on approaching death.
What is the context of ‘Before You Were Mine’?
› Carol Anne Duffy was born in 1955 in Glasgow. The poem was published in the 1990.
› it is an autobiographical poem and makes reference to the streets of Glasgow, conveying her nostalgia for her home city.
› Duffy was made Poet Laureate in 2009.
› the poem depicts working-class life in 1950s Glasgow and young women’s ways that they had to live of which the speaker’s mother refuses to conform which exposes the tensions this creates in the family.
What is the context of ‘Climbing My Grandfather’?
› Andrew Waterhouse was a lecturer at an agricultural college.
› this was taken from his first book of poetry, published in 2000. He died in 2001.
› the poem seems to be autobiographical, with the poet reminiscing about his childhood – when perhaps everything seemed bigger, including his grandfather.
