Poems

Question 1

Analysis of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130

Answer 1

Structure & Form:

• Shakespearean sonnet (ABAB CDCD EFEF GG). -> alternating rhyme -> couplet at the end
• Iambic pentameter (10 syllables per line).
• Three quatrains and a concluding couplet.

Themes:

• Love & Beauty: Rejects idealized beauty, focusing on realistic love.
• True Love: Love goes beyond physical appearance, making the imperfect mistress “rare.”

Language & Imagery:

• Uses nature-based metaphors (sun, roses, coral).
• Humorous and subversive tone mocking exaggerated comparisons.
• Simple, everyday vocabulary creates an honest portrayal of love.

Question 2

Analysis of William Wordsworth’s I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

Answer 2

Structure & Form:

• Iambic tetrameter (four iambic feet per line).
• 2 Cross rhyme (ABAB) and 1 pair rhyme (AABB) to symbolize unity with nature.
• Four six-line stanzas.

Themes:

• Nature & Human Connection: Nature as a source of happiness, peace, and self-reflection.
• Loneliness vs. Aloneness: The speaker feels lonely, but nature provides a sense of belonging.
• Renewal: Daffodils symbolize life, renewal, and self-recognition.

Imagery & Symbolism:

• Daffodils: Represent happiness, renewal, and the myth of Narcissus (self-reflection).
• Cloud Simile: The speaker, like a cloud, drifts aimlessly, finding solace in nature without a destination.
• Metaphors: Nature as a catalyst for joy and self-discovery.

Tone & Mood:

• Joyful, peaceful atmosphere created through natural imagery.
• The volta (shift) shows the lasting impact of nature’s beauty, even in the speaker’s imagination.

Context:

• Written during the Romantic era, reacting to the Industrial Revolution’s disconnection from nature.
• Wordsworth’s personal experience with his sister, and the contrast between solitude and connection to nature.

Question 3

Analysis of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Ozymandias

Answer 3

Structure & Form:

• Written in 1817 during the Romantic period.
• Petrarchan sonnet form (but deviates from tradition):
• Rhyme scheme: ABABA CDC EDE EFE, breaking from the traditional Shakespearean sonnet.
• Iambic pentameter.

Communicational Situation:

• Chinese whisper effect: The speaker narrates what a traveller told him, showing a chain of transmission.
• The lyric “I” is present only at the beginning; after that, the speaker quotes the traveller’s account.
• Implicit subjectivity: The poem explores broader themes of power, time, and the futility of human ambition.

Stylistic Devices:

• Enjambment: E.g., “legs of stone / Stand in the desert”.
• Inversion: E.g., “Half sunk, a shattered visage lies”.
• Alliteration: E.g., “cold command”, “King of Kings”, “boundless and bare”.
• Parallelism: E.g., “The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed”.

Metaphors & Imagery:

• Body parts as metaphor: The statue’s missing body parts (arms, heart, brain) represent the loss of the Egyptian empire’s power.
• Sand: Represents the passage of time, showing how power fades and empires collapse.
• Extended metaphor: The fragmented statue represents the fall of a once-great empire, with its legs and face still standing but powerless.

Question 4

The Fat Black Woman Goes Shopping – Grace Nichols

Answer 4

Context:

• Author’s experience: Themes of otherness and identity crises as an immigrant.
• Postmodernism: No punctuation, free verse, and lack of structure reflecting fragmentation.

Themes:

• Otherness: Immigrant woman struggles to belong in a foreign land.
• Fat Studies: Reduced to her body in a society that marginalizes her.
• Postcolonial: Critiques societal norms ignoring non-white, non-western identities.

Imagery:

• Coldness in the store mirrors emotional isolation.
• Salesgirls as lifeless and plastic, emphasizing alienation.

Form:

• Free verse: No rhyme or meter, mirroring fractured identity.
• Implicit lyrical “thou”: Sharing internal struggles.
• Postmodern: Reflects fragmentation and alienation.