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A2 English > Poems of the Decade > Flashcards

Poems of the Decade Flashcards

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1
Q

Themes/message of Eat Me:

A

Reflects the control the male has over the narrator however during the course of the poem this changes

Examines extreme kind of unhealthy relationship

Exposes issues of gender + power

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2
Q

Eat Me: Links to other poems

A

The Gun - due to sexual/sensual language

Map Woman - both focus around femininity + idea of women having lack of control

Leisure Centre - both assess sexual tone

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3
Q

Eat Me: Language + imagery

A

Alliteration: emphasis her size + body

Semantic Field of Food: emphasises the males greed + temptation

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4
Q

Eat Me: Structure

A

Tercet used in all stanzas: highlights narrator is trapped in life + can’t rebel against conformity

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5
Q

Eat Me: Poetic Features

A

Italics: used to illustrate the males voice - clearly objectifies the women’s body as the male voice is possessive/domineering

Starts with “When I am thirty” and in the penultimate stanza states “Soon you’ll be forty”: shows the length of the relationship as the timescale within the poem illustrates how long the narrator has been in the abusive relationship, implying trapped + can’t escape

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6
Q

Chainsaw vs. The Pampas Grass: Themes/Messages

A

Desire to exert power + culture

Humans vs. Nature

Masculinity vs. Femininity

Physical aggression as medium for expression of emotions

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7
Q

Chainsaw vs. The Pampas Grass: Links to other poems

A

The Gun - gender roles

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8
Q

Chainsaw vs. The Pampas Grass: Language + Imagery

A

Personification of inanimate object

Mechanical vs, Organic

Sharp (masculine) imagery vs. soft (feminine) imagery

Death + destruction

Onomatopoeia + sound effects

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9
Q

Chainsaw vs. The Pampas Grass: Structure

A

Lengthening in middle stanzas (attrition, persistent) to curtailed closing stanzas (defeat)

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10
Q

Chainsaw vs. The Pampas Grass: Poetic Features

A

Narrator’s degree of identification with saw

Idiomatic register

Tone - presumptions to resentful

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11
Q

Material: Theme/message

A

Material is an extended metaphor for life

Conveys how distractions in modern life distances narrator as a mother to her children

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12
Q

Material: Links to other poems

A

Out of the Bag - mum is the most essential person in narrators life

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13
Q

Material: Language + Imagery

A

Italic final words to symbolise speech: insinuates how life moves on and you make of it what you will. Also significant as the mum has the final words conveying how she is defining person in the narrators life

Juxtaposition of old + new - ten bob notes/50p

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14
Q

Material: Structure

A

End stopped lines create a sense of finality

Anecdotal style

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15
Q

Material: Poetic Style

A

Half rhyme on lines 2,4,6,8

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16
Q

Inheritance: Theme/Message

A

Questions of identity

Idea of wondering: journey of thought throughout the poem

Impression of someone thinking out loud

Personal poem with a historical + political dimension in its focus on specifically female forms of inheritance

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17
Q

Inheritance: Links to other poems

A

Genetics: due to relevance of children

Map Woman: charts a similar kind of society

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18
Q

Inheritance: Language + Imagery

A

Series of negatives: symbolic of her sense of adequacy

Final line: “I must have learnt that somewhere” creates a positive tone + shows how the material loves give her worth

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19
Q

Inheritance: Structure

A

Irregular structure: representative of memories and the narrators flow of consciousness. The structure also representative of the unpredictability of motherhood + emotions

Caesura’s: used to emphasise specific words

Alliteration and rule of three: “awake, alert + afraid”

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20
Q

Inheritance: Poetic Features

A

First person narrative voice: creates a personal tone

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21
Q

Leisure Centre is also a temple of learning: Theme/Message

A

Youth

Ageing

Narrator desires youth of the girl: envious

Warring about how young women are sexualised in society

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22
Q

Leisure Centre is also a temple of learning: Links to other poems

A

To My Nine Year Old Self: different take on the gap between youth + experience at the relationship between observer + observed in more intimate

Eat Me: due to the sexualised nature of both poems

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23
Q

Leisure Centre is also a temple of learning: Language + Imagery

A

Simile: “she brushes her hair so clean it looks like a waterfall” used to try and approximate her beauty

Metaphor: “A bee could sip her” suggests she is a flower and links to the description in the opening of the poem as “honey coloured”

Sexual + erotic language: “her secret cleft” + “nuzzle between her breasts”

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24
Q

Leisure Centre is also a temple of learning: Structure

A

Irregular stanzas

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25
Q

Leisure Centre is also a temple of learning: Other Poetic Features

A

Tonal Shift: comes in the last three lines which are blunt in their warning about what happens next. Supported through the fact every line is end-stopped + stark in its effect

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26
Q

History: Theme/Message

A

Dating of the poem sets the context: set in the immediate aftermath of the attacks on the Twin Towers in NY in 2001. This event, History with a capital H, casts its shadow over the whole poem

Poem suggests that paying attention to the worlds transience + beauty might act as a kind of antidote to the hatreds that create ideologically motivated violence

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27
Q

History: Links to other poems

A

The War Correspondent: focussed on specific dates

The Fox in the National Museum of Wales: touches on similar themes however clear contrasting tone

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28
Q

History: Language + Imagery

A

Setting: beach is significant as seen as a reflective place + poised between land + sea

Tensions between the human + natural world as well as pessimism + hope

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29
Q

History: Structure

A

Stanzas enjambed + lines scattered: shows the broken up thoughts of the narrator + the narrators confusion conveyed through the fragmented nature of the poem

Structural shift: after the initial description + the word “stone”

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30
Q

War Correspondent: Theme/Message

A

By juxtaposing two different conflicts 60 years apart, Carson makes a point about the worlds ongoing addiction to war

Emphasises the underlying pointlessness of the sacrifice at the battles

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31
Q

War Correspondent: Links to other poems

A

History: both about an event and moment in time and the implications of it

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32
Q

War Correspondent: Language + Imagery

A

Through the title evident that poem from the eyes of a reporter: suggests reporter watching + narrating the war therefore detailed description of the war

Uses the senses: series of smells, places people, clothing, sound + unpleasant imagery to convey the true nature of wars

Juxtaposes imagery of nature + military associations throughout

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33
Q

War Correspondent: Structure

A

Gallipoli: narrative voice not established till the very last line suggesting battle is beyond words as it is so horrific

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34
Q

War Correspondent: Poetic Features

A

Mentions a lot of places: in order to suggest and convey to the reader how the battle affected many people

Emphasises the senses for the reader to feel part of the setting and gage what it really feels like as the reporter

Creates the place: demonstrates the diverse cultures

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35
Q

An Easy Passage: Theme/message

A

Symbolises girls stage in her life

Poem about halfway between child + adulthood

Finding yourself

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36
Q

An Easy Passage: Links to other poems

A

To My Nine Year Old Self: looks at youth from an older perspective

The Furthest Distance I’ve travelled: looks at youth from an older perspective however employ a more personal voice in comparison with tender detachment in an easy passage

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37
Q

An Easy Passage: Language and imagery

A

References to light + colour to describe the girls: help to convey both their delicate physical presence + the fragility of this particular moment in time

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38
Q

An Easy Passage: Structure

A

Anecdote: universal application

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39
Q

Deliverer: Theme/message

A

Family bonds

Women who display such apparent heartlessness towards their girl babies are seen, in the final part, to be at the mercy of society which privileges male children suggesting women are victims too

Women trapped by cultural and economic pressure

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40
Q

Deliverer: Links to other poems

A

Giuseppe: due to the complex exploration of guilt and its use of stripped down language

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41
Q

Deliverer: Language + Imagery

A

Lack of figurative or descriptive language contributes to a flatness of tone, expressive of the bleakness of the situation

Single syllable verbs: thud through the lines with a brutal emphasis on the physical

Language enforces a kind of numbness: as the women go through the terrible motions of sex + birth

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42
Q

Deliverer: Structure

A

Use of short sequence form: enables poet to explore the situation from different perspectives. perhaps also suggests, in its shift of time and place, both the invisible global connections linking the developed and developing world, and the fracturing of family relationships

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43
Q

To My Nine Year Old Self: Theme/message

A

Memories

Contrast from childhood and adulthood

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44
Q

To My Nine Year Old Self: Language + Imagery

A

Repetition of injury - juxtaposition with need to resist injury

Semantic field of childlike traits

Semantic field of adventure due to energetic verbs

Field of maturity - contrast of nine year old self

Envious tone

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45
Q

To My Nine Year Old Self: Structure

A

Opens with second person pronouns: highlights gap between adult + child

No fixed stanzas: conversational + spontaneous

46
Q

To My Nine Year Old Self: Poetic Features

A

Questions used to connect to younger self

No rhyme as it would make it artificial not honest

Shift in mood: separating child + adult

Enjambment used - creates a sense of movement

47
Q

Minor Role: Theme/message

A

How the speaker copes with a serious illness

Dwell on social acceptability of being seriously ill

Concern about how we speak truthfully in the face of life’s most difficult moments

48
Q

Minor Role: Links to other poems

A

An Easy Passage - due to the theme of concerns

49
Q

Minor Role: Language + Imagery

A

Metaphor of the stage + the narrators minor role within a play is used to explore ideas of social pretence: in the face of serious illness, the narrator carries on acting

50
Q

Minor Role: Structure

A

Irregular structure may illustrate the changes experienced throughout life

51
Q

The Gun: Theme/Message

A

Narrator somewhat saying that women feel obligated to comply with the males aggressiveness + illustrates through the voice how women conform to these gender roles

52
Q

The Gun: Links to other poems

A

Chainsaw vs. The Pampas Grass

Eat Me

53
Q

The Gun: Language + Imagery

A

Gender Roles clearly an essential element to the play

54
Q

The Gun: Structure

A

Stanza lengths irregular

Caesuras used to insinuate emphasis on particular words (this technique mainly used in the 4th stanza)

Setting: domestic house, juxtaposition of setting immediately in opening

Use of enjambment to leave emphasis on words + to increase the pace of the poem

55
Q

The Furthest Distance I’ve Travelled: Theme/message

A

Adult reflection on youthful aspirations

Freedom vs. (self impose) constraints

Possibilities not taken: regret vs. acceptance

Transience of relationships

56
Q

The Furthest Distance I’ve Travelled: Language + Imagery

A

Cliches of backpacking

Geographical imagery

Domesticity

Sex and romance

57
Q

The Furthest Distance I’ve Travelled: Poetic Features

A

First person viewpoint, including listing

Past tense shifting to present

Contrast and bathos

Attention drawn to forced/half rhymes - possibly illustrating failure

58
Q

Giuseppe: Theme/message

A

Explores the darkest corners of human behaviour

59
Q

Giuseppe: Language + Imagery

A

Lots of parallels to events in Nazi Germany suggesting in times of war people do terrible things

Narrative tone holds guilt as significantly sombre + matter of fact

Mermaid symbolises outcasts + minority groups in society

Final word “God” suggests God gets the final word as in desperation people turn to God in need. Also implies that poem highlights inhumanity + going against religious views as God is an omniscient presence

60
Q

Out of the Bag: Theme/message

A

Bag personified: narrator clearly believes the doctor brings the babies in his bag

61
Q

Out of the Bag: Language + Imagery

A

Finishes with a direct quotation from the mother illustrating her selfishness as she is putting the emphasis on the doctor - lots of colloquial language to represent the mother. Also as mother has the final word conveys how she is the most important person in the narrators life.

Bag Personified = threatening nature

62
Q

Out of the Bag: Structure

A

Part 4 has a cyclical structure as it returns to the mothers room - demonstrating how birth + death are a constant cycle

63
Q

Effects: Theme/message

A

About affect husband had on her

About human relationships

Poem on inner reflection of his relationship with his mother

64
Q

Effects: Structure

A

Form: dramatic monologue

Lots of enjambment: creates fast pace to the poem

65
Q

Effects: Other poetic features

A

Flow of consciousness - portrays his feelings + makes it credible + moving

66
Q

Fox in the National Museum of Wales: Theme/message

A

Cultures represented within museum range across the world. In doing so, the poem suggests, that a single nationality never exists in isolation but is always connected in complex ways to the outside world

67
Q

Fox in the National Museum of Wales: Language + Imagery

A

Religious imagery

Comparisons portrayed through art

68
Q

Fox in the National Museum of Wales: Structure

A

Narrowing of stanzas represents how humanity has become narrow minded

First person narrative - not established till the opening of the third stanza

69
Q

Fox in the National Museum of Wales: Poetic Features

A

Final line “the iron doors” suggests a dark conclusion: iron doors closed on history.

Could represent how the once powerful civilisations mentioned in the poem are long gone, as dead as the proverbial dodo referenced in stanza 5.

Also illustrates how the past inevitably links to the future.

70
Q

Genetics: Theme/message

A

About parents but about spoken relationship

Identity + genetics

71
Q

Genetics: Language + Imagery

A

Narrator unites them “fingers link to palms”

Image of child playing creates metaphoric image of their love through marriage

72
Q

Genetics: Structure

A

Villanelle

Stanzas are tercet apart from the final stanza which is a quotron

73
Q

Genetics: Poetic Features

A

A rhyme = masculine rhyme

B rhyme = feminine rhyme

74
Q

Journal of a Disappointed Man: Theme/message

A

Looking for the meaning of life

75
Q

Journal of a Disappointed Man: Language + Imagery

A

Alliteration used to put emphasis of them leaving the job

76
Q

Journal of a Disappointed Man: Structure

A

Caesuras create a reflective + contemplative tone

Narrative structures the poem - tells a story

Linear narrative

Written in free verse

Regular 4 line stanzas

77
Q

Journal of a Disappointed Man: Poetic Features

A

Enjambment creates an emphasis of space + is a depiction of the narrators thought process and reflection

78
Q

Look we have Coming to Dover: Theme/message

A

Immigration

Language in the poem reflects the dialect + vocabulary of a multi-racial language of English

Title is grammatically in correct suggesting owns or possess

79
Q

Look we have Coming to Dover: Structure

A

Full stop at the end of every stanza except for the last stanza

Regular stanza lengths

80
Q

Fantasia of James Wright: Theme/message

A

Miners’ strike major influence over the poem

81
Q

Fantasia of James Wright: Language + Imagery

A

Water imagery throughout - creates image of revival

Political imagery

Reference to contrast in class - irony as brought down by the establishment

82
Q

Fantasia of James Wright: Structure

A

Tercet - as each stanza has 3 lines

Free form = free verse

Enjambment flows throughout: symbolic of the flow of the river styx - linking the living + dead

83
Q

Fantasia of James Wright: Poetic Features

A

Title refers to passionate poem who defended minorities

May link to myth of Greek underworld

84
Q

Please Hold: Theme/message

A

Disempowerment - lack of control

Humans vs femininity

Lack of meaningful communication/barrenness of language

85
Q

Please Hold: Language + Imagery

A

Facelessness

Irony

Paradox

Cultural allusions (Mozart)

86
Q

Please Hold: Structure

A

Unbroken in to stanzas: overwhelming

87
Q

Please Hold: Poetic Features

A

Interweaving of (four) multiple voices

Anaphora (Repeated opening “And)

Present tense, with vision of (unchanged) future

88
Q

You, Shiva and My Mum: Theme/message

A

Adventure

89
Q

You, Shiva and My Mum: Language + Imagery

A

Exotic language

Unconventional - challenges cultural gender stereotypes

90
Q

You, Shiva and My Mum: Structure

A

Tercet - all stanzas consist of 3 lines, regularly suggests trapped by stereotypes however she chooses to break those boundaries

91
Q

Song: Theme/message

A

Poem about strength in numbers - about changing the world

Themes of movement

92
Q

Song: Language + Imagery

A

Poem written for a political activist

93
Q

Song: Structure

A

In the 4th stanza the fulcrum takes place - the moment the poem shifts

94
Q

Song: Poetic Features

A

Rhyme at certain stages of the poem

95
Q

On her Blindness: Theme/message

A

Reflective poem

About narrators mums blindness

Loss

96
Q

On her Blindness: Links to other poems

A

A minor role - dealing with illness

97
Q

On her Blindness: Language + Imagery

A

Diction informal + colloquial which creates greater empathy with his personal feeling

Uses humour as a defence mechanism

Conversational tone due to colloquial language

Similes illustrate narrators morbid humour as makes a joke about a serious matters

Personification - represents what the narrator has lost

98
Q

On her Blindness: Structure

A

Couplet - each stanza consists of 2 lines

Enjambment and caesuras put emphasis on certain words

99
Q

On her Blindness: Poetic Features

A

Final line is single - could represent how they are now separated

Title is an inner textual reference to Milton - connect with famous poet Milton as he went blind

100
Q

Ode on a Grayson Perry: Theme/message

A

Class divisions

101
Q

Ode on a Grayson Perry: Language + Imagery

A

Informal language such as “hello”

Sounds used such as “screech” and “squeals”

Slang used such as “buff” and “geezer”

102
Q

Ode on a Grayson Perry: Structure

A

Form = ode - poetry about art

103
Q

Ode on a Grayson Perry: Poetic Features

A

Direct reference to another poem by John Keats

Long lines enable an accumulation of detail

Slight rhyme in the final stanza

104
Q

Map Woman: Theme/message

A

Marked by our own past, by our origins

Restlessness: reflects the woman’s attempts to escape her past

Inescapable nature of the past

105
Q

Map Woman: Links to other poems

A

Chainsaw vs the Pampas Grass: both illustrate how social expectations are experienced differently by men + women

106
Q

Map Woman: Language + Imagery

A

Use of similes to convey narrators emotions

107
Q

Map Woman: Structure

A

Stanza length: 10 lines in each suggests narrator can’t break away from her past as shown by the regularity

108
Q

Map Woman: Poetic Features

A

Prevalence of lists given the poem a fast tempo, as does the predominantly anapaestic rhyme

Irregular rhyme + half rhyme

109
Q

The Lammas Hireling: Theme/message

A

May be referring to his wife + the hireling who had an affair

110
Q

The Lammas Hireling: Language + Imagery

A

Repetition of light throughout

111
Q

The Lammas Hireling: Structure

A

Regular stanza lengths make it appear like a series of stages in a story

Shifts after caesura in the line of the last stanza - tonal shift

112
Q

The Lammas Hireling: Poetic Features

A

Simile used suggests can’t control emotions + neglect

A2 English (5 decks)

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