poems Flashcards
The charge of the light brigade.
‘Rode the six hundred’
‘Into the valley of death’
‘Came thro the jaws of death Back from the mouth of hell’
- Repetion through the poem, shows that they were valued, shows the large scale of death, also could make it less personal by not calling them soldiers.
- Emphasizing the fact that death is inevitable, valley related to the valley they went to but renaming it death. Brutal but straight forward with it.
- Religious connotations from mouth of hell, could emphasize the horrors, related to what happened before repetition of jaws, the journey out was the same badness as the one in.
Exposure
‘the merciless iced east winds that knive us’
‘sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence’
‘with crusted dark-red jewels’
- weather personified, everyones experience, no compassion, sibilance sounding like the wind, weather is the most harmful thing
- Sibilance, contrast to the loud bullets, could also be the wind or the bullets passing, alliteration
- Could be blood, could be embers showing how long as the fire has died down, representing their mood.
Bayonet charge
‘Sweating like molten iron from the centre of his chest’
‘threw up a yellow hare that rolled like a flame’
‘terrors touchy dynamite’
- Uniform, feling hot, like a machine due to iron, he is under control, there is no emotion
- The yellow hare could symbolise nature in pain as yellow means illness, solidarity, linking to the solider, only other life, foreshadows the fate.
- Sensitivity to fear, incredibly explosive, alliteration emphasizing the scared feeling
Remains.
‘probably armed, possibly not’
‘his blood shadow stays on the street’
‘his bloody life in my bloody hands’
- Uncertainty, why he felt bad, could have a weapon, alliteration
- Blood imagery, hard to clear, foreshadowing the remnicience in his head, the aftermath of what happened
- Anger, guily, could be seen as blood or frustration, ambiguity, responsibility, taking the blame
War photographer
‘with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows’
‘of running children in a nightmare heat’
‘a hundred agonies in black and white’
- Could be a reference to graves, hospital beds, bodies set out, the film is the spool which shows suffering, ordered juxtaposes what the images show
- Reference to famous photo, nightmare could show the trauma that the job evokes and can give to the photographer, children shows war affects everyone.
- Hundred shows the amount, agonies is bad pain but photos, black and white is how they have to be transparent about it to get the message across but can’t fully which makes him angry as he takes all the photos and he has to go through all of the pain.
Poppies
‘poppies has already been placed on induvidual war graves’
‘the world overflowing like a treasure chest’
‘released a song bird from its cage’
- Caseura is a shift in tone, from the off shows war kills, foreshadowiing, ambiguity could be anyones grave
- Sons perspective, she is overwhelmed, he has not seen the truth yet
- metaphor of the son, song bird-something trapped should be freed to sing, thats what she feels like she did to her son
Kamikaze
‘shaven head full of powerful incantations’
‘like a huge flag waved first one way then the other in a figure of eight’
‘he must had wondered which had been the better way to die’
- Shows he is leaving his hair and other stuff, metaphor, shows the sacrifice, what they were made to do, how he is being indoctrinated, simple task, they were made to look like everyone else
- Figure of eight could represent that it leads to infinite suffering any decision, the flag could be a surrender, shows patriochism.
- Almost like he is dead, as he is isolated, dying from peoples lives metaphor, he lost honour, his actions could be now seen as honourable as it is a modern poem but back then it was not, adding to internal conflict as he is thinking.
Ozymandius
‘A shattered visage lies’
‘hand that mocked them and the heart that fed’
‘King of kings look on my works’
1.Most claryfying feature, emphasises the forgetting, severity of the damage, even power can’t control time
2.Complicated, duplicitous, shows his power and how he is the reason they live, power of art surviving and how the sculpture illustrated him.
3.Most powerful, GCOB being compare to gods, revealing arrogance, imperative to everyone who sees the statue, demoralising for other Kings.
London
‘Near where the chartered Thames does flow’
‘The mind-forged manacles I hear’
‘Blasts the new-born infant’s tear’
- Water is free, chartered means own, so it is not free, oxymoron, shows everything is owned, power and ignorance of the government
- Freedom taken away, being indoctrinated, criticising them, metaphor, made to fit apurpose, all these people have done it themselves, they should be more like the French and revolt but they have a mental barrier and conflict.
- Can feel the sadness even though it is a newborn baby, future is looking grim, could be the infections from the prostitute, double meaning, shows the ambiguity of the times
The Prelude
‘act of stealth and troubled pleasure’
‘huge peak, black and huge’
‘in grave and serious mood’
- Oxymoron, thinks he shouldn’t do it, daring teenager, he is smug and cocky.
- Conveying his speechlessness, capturing his feelings, Change in tone to being scared, black shows the unknown plus other connotations
- ‘scared, tired, he wants not to remember it, he may be embaressed, change in tone to reflection on the experience’
Storm on the Island
‘we build our houses sqaut’
‘Exploding comfortably down on the cliffs’
‘spits like a tame cat turned savage’
- Universal experience, how the community suffers, they are confident and think they are secure
- Oxymoron, shows how the sea can be unpredictable, the cliffs shows that even nature which is very powerful can suffer.
- Being short tempered like a cat, sibilance, savage is a powerful description
The Emigree
‘my original view, the bright, filled paperwork’
‘The white streets of that city’
‘my shadow falls as evidence of sunlight’
- Her memory will always be good, shows how little memory she has as it is a paperweight, bright and connotations
- Bright, sunlight, innocence, pure, hope, the city is the victim, it looks elegant, she still likes it
- Darkness, need sunlight in negativity, hope, sunlight is a motif, last word is sunlight, as long as they are alive, her memories of the old city will be there, people may not want the truth
Checking Out Me History
‘dat’ and ‘cat’, ‘beacon’ and ‘revolution’
‘Wha dem want to tell me’
‘I carving out me identity’
- Simple rhyming used to describe white history and nursery rhyme type scheme, mocking it while with the black history it is complex and has a free verse, showing how it is more interesting
- They are only telling him what they want to, reference to schools and lack of black history, reference to history and how it is written by the literate
- He is engraving it, finding it hard, use of ‘me’ makes us use his vocabulary like he was forced to use ours
Tissue
‘fly our lives like paper kites’
‘lets the light shine through’
‘turned into your skin’
- Shows the role of money in our society, criticising, our is a universal experince
- 1st line with religious connotations with the bible and holy books being made of thin paper, showing the truth, prasising religion
- People being made of paper, people being not long lasting, human power not lasting
My last duchess
‘Looking as if she were alive’
‘called that spot of joy into the duchess’ cheek’
‘taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity’
- Either be a joke about her death or showing about how good the artist was, flexing about his money
- Uncontrolled enjambment, showing how he didn’t compose himself and a lack of male weakness, even though using iambic pentameter to show how sophisticated he is, shows paranoia where the artist was a monk and he wouldn’t have shown affection so she is just nice and smiling
- How he feels he should have had control of her, shows his cockyness as he is comparing himself to a god and putting her down to an animal
