poetry Flashcards
“on another occasion”
remains opener
“probably armed…
…possibly not” -repeated in remains
” myself somebody else and somebody else”
“three of a kind”
remains
“I see every round as it…
…rips through his life” - remains
“I see broad…
…daylight on the other side”-remains
“sort of…
…inside out”-remains
“pain itself…
…the image of agony”- remains
“tosses his…
…guts back into his body”- remains
“end of story, except not really”
remains
“his blood shadow…
..stays on the street and out on patrol i walk right over it week after week”- remains
“then im home on leave…
…but i blink”- remains
“and the drink and the drugs…
…wont flush him out”- remains
“hes here in my head…
…when i close my eyes, dug in behind enemy lines”-remains
“not left for dead in some…
…distant, sun-stunned, sand-smothered land or six-feet-under in desert sand”- remains
“near to the…
…knuckle, here and now”- remains
“his bloody…
…life in my bloody hands”- remains closer
“in his darkroom he is finally alone”
war photographer opener
“with spools…
…of suffering set out in ordered rows”-war photographer
“as though this were a church and he a priest preparing to intone a mass. belfast. beirut. phnom penh. all flesh is grass”
war photographer
“he has a job to do”
war photogrpaher
“solutions slop in trays beneath his hands…
…which did not tremble then though seem to now”- war photographer
“ordinary pain which…
…simple weather can dispel”- war photographer
“fields which dont explode beneath the feet of running…
…children in a nightmare heat”- war photographer
“a stangers features faintly start to…
…twist before his eyes, a half-formed ghost”- war photographer
“he remembers the cries of this mans wife”
war photographer
“he has a job to do”
war photographer
“blood stained into..
…foreign dust”- war photographer
“a hundred…
…agonies in black and white”- war photographer
“the readers eyeballs prick with tears…
…between the bath and pre-lunch beers”- war photographer
“from the aeroplane he stays impassively at where he earns his living and they do not care”
War photographer closer
“suddenly he awoke and was running”
bayonet charge opener
“stumbling across a field of clods towards a green hedge that…
…dazzled with rifle fire”-bayonet charge
“bullets smacking…
…the belly out of the air”-bayonet charge
“he lugged a rifle…
…numb as a smashed arm”-bayonet charge
“the patriotic tear that had brimmed in his eye…
…sweating like molten iron from the centre of his chest”-bayonet charge
“in bewilderment then he almost stopped”
bayonet charge
“in what cold clockwork of the stars and the nations was he…
… the hand pointing that second?”- bayonet charge
“he was running like a man who has..
…jumped up in the dark and runs”-bayonet charge
“listening between his footfalls…
…for the reason of his still running”-bayonet charge
“his foot hung like statuary in mid-stride”
bayonet charge
“threw up a yellow hare that…
…rolled like a flame and crawled in a threshing circle , its mouth wide open silent, its eyes standing out”- bayonet charge
“king, honour, human dignity, etcetera…
…dropped like luxuries in a yelling alarm” -bayonet charge
“to get out of that blue crackling air”
bayonet charge
“our brains ache in the..
…merciless iced east winds that knive us…“-exposure opener
“we keep awake because…
…the night is silent”- exposure
“low drooping flares confuse our…
…memory of the salient…”- exposure
“worried by…
…silence”- exposure
“but nothing happens”
exposure
“mad gusts…
…tugging on the wire”- exposure
“like twitching…
…agonies of men among its brambles”- exposure
“northward,incessantly…
…the flickering gunnery rumbles”- exposure
“What are we doing here?”
exposure
“the poignant mysery of dawn…
…begins to grow…”- exposure
“we only know…
…war lasts, rain soaks, and clouds sag stormy.”- exposure
“dawn massing in the east her…
…melancholy army”- exposure
“sudden successive strikes of bullets streak the silence”
exposure
“less deadly than…
…the air that shudders black with snow”- exposure
“flowing flakes that flock”
exposure
“we watch them wandering..
…up and down the wind’s nonchalance”- exposure
“pale flakes with fingering stealth come…
…feeling for our faces”- exposure
“deep into grassier ditches…
…so we drowse, sun-dozed”- exposure
“littered with blossoms trickling where…
…the blackbird fusses”- exposure
“-is it that we are dying?”
exposure
“slowly our ghosts drag home”
exposure
“shutters and doors all closed…
…:on us the doors are closed”- exposure
“since we believe…
…not otherwise can kind fires burn”- exposure
“nor ever suns smile true on..
…child, or field, or fruit”- exposure
“for God’s invincible spring..
…our love is made afraid”- exposure
“therefore,not loath, we lie out here;…
…therefore were born”- exposure
“for love of God seems dying”
exposure
“tonight this frost will fasten…
…on this mud and us”- exposure
“the burying-party, picks and shovels in shaking grasp, pause over…
…half- known faces”- exposure
“all their eyes are ice”
exposure
“three days before armistice sunday”
poppies opener
“poppies had already been placed on…
…individual war graves”-poppies
“before you left”
poppies
“selotape bandaged around my hand, I rounded up as many white cat hairs as i could”
poppies
“crimped petals, spasms of paper red disrupting a blockade of…
…yellow bias binding around your blazer”-poppies
“smoothed down your shirts upturned collar”
poppies
“steeled the…
…softening of my face”-poppies
“i resisted the imulse to run my fingers through the gelled blackthorns of your hair”
poppies
“all my words flattened…
…rolled, turned into felt”-poppies
“slowly melting…
…i was brave, as i walked with you”-poppies
(to the front door) “ threw it open…
…the world overflowing like a treasure chest”-poppies
“a split second…
…and you were away, intoxicated”-poppies
“after you’d gone”
poppies
“i went into your bedroom, released..
…a song bird from its cage”-poppies
“I met a traveller from an antique land”
Ozymandias opener
“two vast and…
…trunkless legs of stone”-Ozymandias
“half sunk, a..
…shattered visage lies”-Ozymandias
“whose frown and wrinkled lip, and…
…sneer of cold command”-Ozymandias
“its sculptor…
…well those passions read”-Ozymandias
“the hand that…
…mocked them and the heart that fed”-Ozymandias
“my name is…
Ozymandias, king of kings”-Ozymandias
“look on my works…
…ye mighty and despair”-Ozymandias
“nothing besides remains”
ozymandias
“Round the decay of that…
…colossal wreck”-Ozymandias
“the lone and level sands stretch far away”
Ozymandias closer
I wander through each chartered street”
London opener
“and mark in every face i meet…
…marks of weakness, marks of woe”-London
“near where the…
…chartered Thames does flow”-London
“in every cry of every man”
London
“in every voice, in every ban”
London
“in every infant’s cry of fear”
London
“Every black’ning…
…church appalls”-London
“and the hapless soldiers sigh…
…runs in blood down palace walls”-London
“The mind-forged…
…manacles I hear”-London
“how the chimney-sweeper’s cry”
London
“but most through midnight streets I hear”
London
“how the youthful…
…harlot’s curse”-London
“Blasts the new-born…
…infant’s tear”-London
“and blights with plagues the …
…marriage hearse”-London closer
“there was once a country…i left it as a child”
Emmigree opener
“my memory of it is…
…sunlight clear”- Emigree
“for it seems i never saw it in…
…that november”- Emigree
“the worst news i receive of it cannot break my original view…
…the bright, filled paperweight”- Emigree
“it may be at war, it may be sick with tyrants but…
…i am branded by an impression of sunlight”- Emigree
“the white streets of that city, the graceful slopes glow even clearer as…
…time rolls its tanks”- Emigree
“and the frontiers…
…rise between us, close like waves”- Emigree
“that child’s vocabulary I carried here like a hollow doll, opens…
…and spills a grammar”- Emigree
“soon i shall have every coloured molecule of it”
Emigree
“it may be a lie now…
…banned by the state”- Emigree
“but i cant get it off my tongue…
…It tastes of sunlight”- Emigree
“my city comes to me”
Emigree
“It lies down in front of me…
…docile as paper”- Emigree
“i comb its hair and love its shining eyes”
Emigree
“my city takes me…
…dancing through the city of wall”- Emigree
“They accuse me of…
…absence, they circle me”- Emigree
“They accuse me of being…
…dark in their free city”- Emigree
“my city hides behind me…
…they mutter death”- Emigree
“and my shadow falls as…
…evidence of sunlight”- Emigree closer
“half a league, half a league, half a league onward”
COLB opener
” the valley…
…of death”-COLB
“rode the six hundred”
COLB
“forward the…
Light Brigade!”-COLB
“charge for the…
…guns! he said:”-COLB
“was there a…
…man dismay’d”-COLB
“not tho’ the…
solider knew”-COLB
“someone had…
…blunder’d”-COLB
“theirs not to make relpy…
…theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die:”-COLB
“canon to the right of them, canon to the left of them, canon in front of them”
COLB
“volley’d and…
…thunder’d “-COLB
“storm’d at with…
…shot and shell”-COLB
“boldly they rode…
…and well”-COLB
“into the jaws..
…of Death”-COLB
“into the mouth…
….of hell”-COLB
“flash’d all their sabres…
…bare”-COLB
“flash’d as they turn’d in air”
COLB
“sabring the gunners there”
COLB
“All the world wonder’d”
COLB
“plunged in the….
…battery smoke”-COLB
“right thro the line they broke…
…;cossack and russian Reel’d from the sabre-stroke”-COLB
“shatter’d…
…and sunder’d”-COLB
“but not…
…Not the six hundred”-COLB
“fought so well”
COLB
“Came thro’ the…
…jaws of death”-COLB
“back from the…
…mouth of hell”-COLB
“all that was left of them,…
…lef tof six hundred”-COLB
“when can their…
…glory fade?”-COLB
“honour the…
…charge they made!”-COLB
“honour the…
…light brigade”-COLB
Noble six hundred!
COLB closer
Dem tell me
Dem tell me
Wha dem want to tell me
Checking out me history opener
“bandage up me…
…eye with me own history”-Checking out me history
“bind me to…
…me own identity”-Checking out me history
“1066..
…and all dat”-Checking out me history
“dick whittington …
…and he cat”-Checking out me history
“no dem…
…never tell me about dat”-Checking out me history
“de man who discovered the balloon…
…and de cow who jump over the moon”-Checking out me history
“lord nelson and waterloo”
checking out me history
columbus and 1492
checking out me history
“dem tell me about florence nightingale and she lamp and how…
…robin hood used to camp”-Checking out me history
“but dem never tell me bout Mary Seacole”
checking out me history
“dem tell me what…
…dem want to tell me”“-Checking out me history
“but know i checking…
…out me own history I carving out my own identity”-Checking out me history closer
“one summer evening (led by her)
Prelude opener
“straight i…
…unloosed her chain”-prelude
“It was an act of stealth and
…troubled pleasure”-prelude
“small circles glittering..
…idly in the moonlight”-prelude
“until they melted all into one track…
…of sparkling light”-prelude
“like one who rows, proud of his skill…
…to reach a chosen point”-prelude
“with an unswerving line..
…i fixed my view upon the summit of a craggy ridge”-prelude
“horizon’s utmost boundary”
prelude
“far above was nothing but…
…the stars and the grey sky”-prelude
“heaving through the water…
…like a swan”-prelude
“a huge peak….
…black and huge”-prelude
“as if with voluntary…
…power instinct , upreared its head”-prelude
“i struck…
…and struck again”-prelude
” and growing still in stature the grim shape…
…towered up between me and the stars”-prelude
“with purpose of its own and…
…measured motion like a living thing”-prelude
“strode after me”
prelude
“with trembling oars…
…i turned and through the silent water stole my way”-prelude
“in grave and …
…serious mood”-prelude
“for many days, my brain …
…worked with a dim and undetermined sense of unknown modes of being”-prelude
“o’er my thoughts there hung a…
…darkness, call it solitude or blank desertion”-prelude
“no familiar shapes remained…
…no pleasant images of trees, of sea or sky, no colours of green fields”-prelude
“but huge and might forms, that do not live…
…like livng men”-prelude
“moved slowly through the mind by day and were a…
…trouble to my dreams”-prelude closer
“thats my last duchess painted on the wall”
my last duchess opener
“looking as if…
…she were alive”-my last duchess
“i call that piece…
…a wonder now”-my last duchess
“fra pandolf”
my last duchess
“will’t please…
…you sit and look at her?”-my last duchess
“for never read strangers like you that…
…pictured countenance”-my last duchess
“the depth and…
…passion of its earnest glance”-my last duchess
“(since none put by the curtain…
…i have drawn for you, but it)”-my last duchess
“if they durst”
my last duchess
“sir, ‘twas not her husbands presence only…
…called that spot of joy into the Duchess’ cheek”-my last duchess
“her mantle…
…laps over my lady’s wrist too much”-my last duchess
“paint must never hope to reproduce the…
…faint half flush that dies along her throat”-my last duchess
“such stuff was courtesy she thought…
…and cause enough for calling up that spot of joy”-my last duchess
“she had a heart-how shall i say-?…
…too soon made glad, too easily impressed”-my last duchess
“she liked what’er she looked on…
…and her looks went everywhere”-my last duchess
“‘twas all one!…
…my favour at her breast, the dropping of the daylight in the west, the bough of cherries some officious fool broke in the orchard for her, the white mule she rode with round the terrace”-my last duchess
“all and each would…
…draw from her alike apporving speech, or blush at leat.”-my last duchess
“as if she ranked..
…my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old-name with anybody’s gift”-my last duchess
“who’d stoop…
…to blame this sort of trifling”-my last duchess
“if she let…
…herself be lessoned so”-my last duchess
“i choose…
…never to stoop”-my last duchess
“oh sir she smiled no doubt when’er i passed her;…
…but who passed without much the same smile?”-my last duchess
“i gave commands;…
…then all smiles stopped together”-my last duchess
“as if alive”
my last duchess
“dowry will be disallowed;… though his fair daughter’s self as i avowed at starting…
…is my object”-my last duchess
“notice neptune though, taming a sea horse, thought a rarity, which Claus of Innsbuck cast in bronze…
…for me!”-my last duchess closer
“we are prepared:…
…we build our houses squat”- storm on the island opener
“this wizened earth has never…
…troubled us with hay, so, as you see, there are no stacks or stooks that can be lost”- storm on the island
“nor are there trees…
…which might prove company”- storm on the island
“when it blows full blast:…
…you know what i mean”- storm on the island
“tragic chorus”
storm on the island
“you can listen to the thing you fear…
…forgetting that it pummels your house too”- storm on the island
“no trees…
…no natural shelter”- storm on the island
“you might think that the sea is company…
…exploding comfortably down on the cliffs”- storm on the island
“the flung spray..
…hits the very windows, spits like a tame cat turned savage”- storm on the island
“we just sit tight”
storm on the island
“bombarded…
…by the empty air”- storm on the island
“strange…
…it is a huge nothing that we fear”- storm on the island closer
“paper that lets the light shine through”
tissue opener
“this is what could alter things”
tissue
“paper thinned…
….by age or touching”-tissue
“the kind you find in…
…well used books”-tissue
“the back of the….
…Koran where a hand has written in the manes and histories, who was born to whom”-tissue
“the height and weight…
…who died where and how, on which sepia date”-tissue
“pages smoothed and stroked…
….turned transparent with attention”-tissue
“if buildings were paper..
…i might feel their drift”-tissue
“maps too. …
…the sun shines through their borderlines”-tissue
“fine slips from…
….grocery shops”-tissue
“might fly our lives…
….like paper kites”-tissue
“luminous script”
tissue
“and never…
…wish to build again with brick”-tissue
“but let the daylight break through capitals and monoliths…
…through the shapes that prude can make”-tissue
“with living tissue…
…raise a structure never meant to last”-tissue
“of paper smoothed…
…and stroked and thinned to be transparent”-tissue
“turned into your skin”
tissue closer
“her father embarked at sunrise”
kamikaze opener
“with a flask of water…
…a samurai sword in the cockpit”- kamikaze
“a shaven head full…
….of powerful incantations and enough fuel for a one-way journey into history”- kamikaze
“recounting it later to her children”
kamikaze
“little fishing boats…
…strung out like bunting on a green-blue translucent sea”- kamikaze
“like a huge flag…
…waved first one way then the other in a figure of eight”- kamikaze
“the dark shoals of fishes flashing silver as their bellies swivelled towards then sun”
kamikaze
“remembered how he and his brothers…
….waiting on the shore built cairns of pearl-grey pebbles”- kamikaze
“and though he came back…
….my mother never spoke again in his presence”- kamikaze
“and once a tuna…
…the dark prince, muscular, dangerous”- kamikaze
” nor did she…
…meet his eyes”- kamikaze
“and the neighbours too…
…they treated him as though he no longer existed”- kamikaze
“only we children..
…still chattered and laughed”- kamikaze
“till gradually…
…we too learned to be silent, to live as though he had never returned”- kamikaze
“this was no longer the father we loved”
kamikaze
“and sometimes she said…
…he must have wondered which had been the better way to die”- kamikaze closer
