Poetry

Question 1

Half-Caste - John Agard
Quotes

Answer 1

‘Mix a black key / Wid a white key / Is a half-caste symphony?’
‘Explain yuself’
‘overcast, so spiteful dem dont want de sun pass’
‘I dream half-a-dream’
‘but you must come back… wid de whole of yu mind’

Question 2

No Problem - Benjamin Zephaniah
Quotes

Answer 2

‘I am branded athletic’
‘I am not de problem’
‘These conditions may affect me as I get older’
‘Sum of me best friends are white’
‘Yu put me in a pigeon hole, but I am versatile’

Question 3

Charge of the Light Brigade - Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Quotes

Answer 3

‘Half a league, half a league, half a league onward’
‘Cannon to right of them / Cannon to left of them / Cannon in front of them’
‘Rode the six hundred’/ ‘But not the six hundred’
‘Honour the charge they made!’
‘Into the jaws of death, into the mouth of hell’

Question 4

‘Exposure’ - Wilfred Owen
Quotes

Answer 4

‘Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous’
‘Twitching agonies of men among its brambles’
‘Slowly our ghosts drag home’
‘What are we doing here?’
‘Dawn massing in the east… ranks on shivering ranks of grey’
‘But nothing happens’

Question 5

‘Catrin’ - Gillian Clarke
Quotes

Answer 5

‘Hot, white room’
‘First fierce confrontation, the tight red rope of love’
‘I wrote all over the walls with my words’
‘As you ask may you skate, in the dark, for one more hour’
‘Taking turn at the traffic lights’
‘Child’

Question 6

‘Cousin Kate’ - Christina Rossetti

Answer 6

‘Contented with my cottage-mates’
‘To lead a shameless shameful life, his plaything and his love’
‘To sit with him on high’
‘Even so I sit and howl in dust, you sit in gold and sing’
‘Yet I’ve a gift… my fair-haired son’

Question 7

‘War Photographer’ - Carole Satyamurti

Answer 7

‘The reassurance of the frame is flexible’
‘I seek out the tragic, the absurd’
‘Sun-gilded girls, rolling, silk-crumpled on the grass in champagne giggles’
‘A small girl, staggering down some devastated street’
‘Boundaries arbitrary as a blood stain on a wall’

Question 8

‘Poppies’ - Jane Weir

Answer 8

‘Crimped petals, spasms of paper red, disrupting a blockade of bias’
‘Sellotape bandaged around my hand’
‘The world overflowing like a treasure chest’
‘Hoping to hear your playground voice catching on the wind’
‘Without a winter coat or reinforcements of scarf, gloves’
‘My words flattened, rolled over, turned into felt, slowly melting’

Question 9

‘The Man He Killed’ - Thomas Hardy

Answer 9

‘Ranged as infantry, and staring face to face’
‘I shot at him as he at me’
‘Killed him in his place’
‘He was my foe, just so: my foe of course he was’
‘Was out of work’
‘Yes; quaint and curious war is!’

Question 10

‘A Poison Tree’ - William Blake

Answer 10

‘Angry’
‘I water’d it in fears, night and morning with my tears’
‘Sunned it with smiles’
‘Day and night’
‘An apple bright / shine’
‘My foe outstretched beneath the tree’

Question 11

‘The Class Game’ / ‘No Problem’

Answer 11

Similarities:
- rhyme scheme; shows intelligence, which in both cases contrasts stereotypes
- beginning angry; shifts towards more reflective tone
- colloquial language

Differences:
- imagery used much more in ‘No Problem’
- sarcastic tone throughout ‘The Class Game’ (only at end in ‘No Problem’)

Question 12

‘The Destruction of Sennacherib’ / ‘Charge of The Light Brigade’

Answer 12

Similarities:
- present war in a glorious or honourable way
- use of exclamation marks at end for climactic finish
- religious references / imagery

DIfferences:
- interpretations of religious references / imagery
- use of punctuation throughout (much more in COTLB)
- regular rhyming couplets / irregular rhyme scheme
- use of syntax and indentation

Question 13

‘What were they like?’ / ‘Poppies’

Answer 13

Similarities:
- use of metaphors
- emotive language
- free-verse, lack of structure

Differences:
- format (Q and A / 4 main stanzas)
- tone created by imagery (violence / peace)
- personal / cultural loss

Question 14

‘The Prelude’ / ‘Exposure’

Answer 14

Similarities:
- personification of nature (although interpretations differ) also description as feminine (‘her’)
- free-verse (although half-rhymes in ‘exposure’)

Differences:
- tone shift / constant
- differing ideas about nature and the poets’ relationships with it
- punctuation used more in ‘exposure’ for suspense

Question 15

‘Belfast Confetti’ / ‘Poppies’

Answer 15

Similarities:
- both blank-verse (although different effects)
- metaphors used throughout (and both use at least some military imagery)
- lexical field of military (though also some nature in Poppies)

Differences:
- tense, violent / melancholy, peaceful tone
- indentation and line lengths in Belfast Confetti / free-verse ‘Poppies’
- violent imagery / natural imagery

Question 16

‘Catrin’ / ‘Cousin Kate’

Answer 16

Similarities:
- explore conflict in relationships and family arguments
- metaphors used throughout

Differences:
- stanza + form
- blank-verse / ABCB rhyme
- lots of oxymorons in ‘Cousin Kate’
- harsh, angry tone / shift to anger, then more comforted?

Question 17

‘The Man He Killed’ / ‘A Poison Tree’

Answer 17

Similarities:
- rhyme scheme creates child-like tone which contrasts language used

Differences:
- rhyming couplets / ABAB
- extended metaphor + imagery in ‘A Poison Tree’
- different tone at end
- four/five stanzas
- more use of punctuation in ‘The Man He Killed’