Poems Flashcards
An African Thunderstorms
Themes: Nature
Man vs nature
Colonization/Colonialism
Figurative Devices: Personification
Onomatopoeia
Imagery
Simile
Summary:The poem tells of a storm violent storm moving, this storm makes its way towards an African village causing havoc has it moves toward and through the village having the trees themselves bending over the strength of the winds. Clouds heavy with rain moving quickly, children laugh and shout as the storm makes it way but the mothers take them as they try to find shelter from the storm.
Once Upon A Time
Themes: Childhood experiences,
Hypocrisy
Loss of innocence
Appearance vs reality
Mood: The mood of the poem is nostalgic. The persona is remembering how things used to be when he was young and innocent, like his son.
Tone: The tone of the poem is sad. The poet’s response to his nostalgia is sadness.
Literary Devices: Metaphor
Simile
Repetition
Summary: A parent is talking to his/her’s son and telling him how things used to be. The parent tells the son that people used to be sincere, but are now superficial and seek only to take from others. The persona tells the child that he/she has learnt to be just like these people, but does not want to be like that anymore.
Bird Shooting Season
Themes: Gender roles
Children’s curiosity
Childhood experiences
Nature
Figurative Devices: Metaphor
Imagery
Summary: As the poem’s title suggests the poem “Birdshooting Season” shows the rituals surround bird shooting season and the happenings in a house when both men and women prepare for the season. The poem is narrated by what seems to be a child member of the household as he/she tells the happenings in preparation for the hunt, thus the poem is told as he/she reflects on the activities in his/her household.
West Indies, U.S.A
Thematic Categorization: Discrimination
Oppression
Places
Culture
Mood: The mood of the poem is sarcastic.
Tone: The tone of the poem is slightly bitter, which is fueled by the sarcastic atmosphere.
Literary Devices: Simile
Allusion
Sarcasm
Pun
Summary: The persona is travelling in a plane, looking down at San Juan, Puerto Rico, as the plane descends. He is saying that this island is the wealthiest in the Caribbean because it has won the jackpot, it has come up lucky. He then points out that he, and others, had travelled to many Caribbean islands and received a hint of the flavour of each island through it’s calling card, – its airport – all of which fail when compared to plush San Juan. As they land, they are instructed to stay on the plane if their destination is not San Juan.
Sonnet Composed Upon A Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802
Thematic Categorization: Nature
Places
Tone: The tone of the poem is one of awe.
Mood: The mood of the poem is pensive, or thoughtful. The persona is expressing his thoughts, and reaction to, the city in the morning.
Literary Devices: Simile
Personification
Summary: The persona in this poem is reflecting on the perfection of the city. He believes that there is nothing on Earth so beautiful as the city in the morning. Only a dull person would not appreciate such a majestic sight. He is awed by the calm of the city.
Orchids
Themes: Death
Nature
Survival
Tone: The tone of the poem is one of almost bored musing.
Mood: The mood of the poem is pensive, or thoughtful. The persona is thinking about the lack of value that she places on the orchid.
Literary Devices: Simile
Pun
Metaphor
Symbol: The orchid is a flower of magnificence that brings a universal message of love, beauty, wisdom, thoughtfulness, luxury, strength, refinement, affection, new growth, and development.
Literal Meaning: The persona is moving from a house that she has occupied for five weeks. She has sent her belongings to her future home, but one item remains in her old space, an orchid. The persona clarifies that she was given the orchid as a gift, but implies that it holds no value because the gifting of orchids is habitual for the person who gave her. She describes the flower as odourless, but attractive.
The Woman Speaks to the Man who has Employed Her Son
Thematic Category: Death Love/love Family relationship Survival Dreams Aspirations Childhood Experiences Religion
Tone: The tone of the poem is pragmatic and pessimistic. The persona is telling the tale as it is, with no positive energy.
Mood: The mood of the poem is reflective. The persona is thinking about a mother’s response to her son’s life choices.
Literary Devices: Simile
Sarcasm
Irony
Allusion
Summary: The persona in this poem is telling the story of a mother who loved her son. The mother became aware of the child’s presence when she experienced morning sickness. She placed all her hopes in the child and raised him as a single parent because his father was indifferent to the child’s existence. The mother had set no barriers on what the child could become, but is told that he has an employer who values him so much that he is given his own submarine gun. The son tells his mother that his employer is like a father to him, but the mother wonders at the father figure who purposefully endangers his child.
It is the Constant Image of your Face
Thematic Category:Love Guilt Patriotism Places Desires/ dreams
Tone: The tone of the poem is sadness and guilt. The persona is guilt-ridden over this love triangle and sadness permeates the words that he uses to describe it.
Mood: The mood of the poem is reflective. The persona is thinking about his two loves and how he is torn between them.
Literary Devices: Personification
Oxymoron
Summary: The persona reflects on the image of someone he cares for. This love interest accused him, with their eyes, of breaking their heart. The persona admits that both of them (he and the love interest) can make no excuses for his behaviour because the love interest does not take precedence over his land, or country. Despite this fact, the persona begs for mercy, pleading guilty for being seduced by his love interest’s beauty.
God’s Grandeur
Summary:
The first four lines of the octave (the first eight-line stanza of an Italian sonnet) describe a natural world through which God’s presence runs like an electrical current, becoming momentarily visible in flashes like the refracted glinting of light produced by metal foil when rumpled or quickly moved.
A Stone’s Throw
Themes: Discrimination Religion Appearance vs Reality Hypocrisy Oppression Power and Powerlessness
Tone: The tone of the poem is mixed. At times it is almost braggadocious, then it becomes sarcastic, moving to scornful.
Literary Devices: Personification Sarcasm Pun Allusion Contrast Irony
Overview: A crowd has caught a woman (Line 2: ‘We’ve got her! Here she is’). The persona implies to the reader that the woman is not decent (Line 6: ‘A decent-looking woman, you’d have said,’// Lines 11-14: And not the first time//By any means//She’d felt men’s hands//Greedy over her body’). The persona states that the woman has experienced men’s hands on her body before, but this crowd’s hands were virtuous (Lines 15-16: ‘But ours were virtuous,//Of course’).
Test Match Sabina Park
Thematic Categorization:Discrimination
Places
Culture
Sports
Tone: The tone of the poem is one of frustration (West Indian) and embarrassment (English man).
Mood: The mood of the poem is tense.
Voices: There are two distinct voices in this poem. The Englishman’s and the West Indian’s.
Literary Devices: Allusion
Sarcasm
Rhetorical Question
Summary: The persona, a white male, proudly enters Sabina Park to watch a cricket match between England and the West Indies. The persona notices that the game is slow and that the crowd is not reacting well. He is, in fact, initially shocked that there is a crowd at all because this is usually not the case at Lords. By lunch, England is sixty-eight for none, and the crowd gets abusive.
Theme for English B
Themes: Racism
Places
Tone: The tone of the poem is also reflective.
Mood: The mood of the poem is reflective.
Literary Devices: Rhetorical Question
Repetition
Summary: The persona’s lecturer gave him an assignment to write a page that reflects ‘him’, or his character. The persona wonders if this is a simple task, and begins to think about his life. Things like his age, place of birth, race and place of residence. Based on these musings, he surmises that he is confused due to his youth. He guesses that he is what he feels, sees and hears, which is Harlem, New York. He continues his musing about what he likes, and concludes that he likes the same things that people of other races like. On this basis, he questions whether or not his page will be influenced by race.
Dreaming Black Boy
Thematic Category:Racism Survival Oppression Desire/dreams Childhood experiences
Tone:The tone/mood of the poem is one of sadness. The persona is thinking about how he is treated and he reacts to this in a sad way. He keeps wishing that things were different.
Literary Devices: Repetition
Allusion
Summary: The poem is about a black boy who wishes that he could have regular things in life. Things such as a congratulatory hug, to be educated to the highest level and to travel without harassment. The persona yearns to stop fighting for the basic right to be successful and to rise above societal expectations.
My Parents
Possible Themes: Parent-Child Relationship
Childhood Experiences
Forgiveness
Bullying
Figuarative Devices: Simile
Metaphor
Allusion
Summary: This poem is a reflection on an experience in the childhood of Spencer. The recalls his parents keeping him sheltered from the children of the community he seems to be a weak child while the children in this community were wilder, he never got the chance to go out and play with them and even if he did he seems not to be accepted by them. The bullying he endured as a young child by these neighborhood kids was one of the reasons why they kept him away, they would constantly make fun of his lisp, threw dirt at him, etc.
‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’
Thematic Categorization:War
Death
Survival
Patriotism
Tone: The general tone of the poem is both sarcastic and ironic. The persona/ poet tries to present a visual of the realities of war while using the haunting words that contradict that reality.
Mood: The mood of the poem is reflective. The persona/ poet is thinking about his experiences in WW1.
Literary Devices: Simile
Summary: Wilfred Owen, the poet, tells of his first hand experience in war. He tells the tale of tired and wounded soldiers walking through dirt and sludge. Suddenly, there is a warning about gas, which the soldiers hurriedly and awkwardly heed by donning their helmets. Unfortunately, one soldier is too late in donning the helmet and his companions watch him ‘drowning’ in the gas. The unfortunate soldier was thrown in the back of a wagon, where it is implied that he was left to die.
