Poetry

Question 1

What is the context for ‘When We Two Parted’? (Lord Byron)

Answer 1

The poem is based off of a true story about Byron’s feelings for Lady Francis Webster. He engaged with an affair with her, she was married, so he broke it off.
Byron was involved in multiple scandals: having an illegitimate child with his half sister, engaged in affairs and getting in debt
Byron lied about the year the poem was wrote to protect Webster’s reputation (He said it was written before they broke up)

Question 2

What is the Form and Structure for ‘When We Two Parted’?

Answer 2

Follows the rhyme scheme of a sonnet, but falls out of this at ‘thy vows are all broken’
Written in accental verse which is very common in Old English literature
The line lengths are irregular
Repetitive rhythm to the poem

Question 3

What is the context for ‘Love’s Philosophy’? (Percy Bysshe Shelley)

Answer 3

Shelley was born into a very wealthy family and attended Eton and Oxford University
He was expelled from Oxford for contributing to a pamphlet about aethiesm
Shelley died by going on a boat during a storm, he drowned at 30 years old
Due to Shelley and Byron dying early, romantic poetry is usually associated with intense, youthful passion - this is evident in Love’s Philosophy

Question 4

What is the Form and Structure in ‘Love’s Philosophy’?

Answer 4

The poem is short and concise and has a persuasive tone
It follows a regular form of two octaves, they both end with a rhetorical questions
The rhetorical questions are separated into different stanzas
Full rhyme is used throughout the poem, but is disrupted by half-rhyme

Question 5

What is the context for ‘Porphyria’s Lover’? (Robert Browning)

Answer 5

Robert Browning often focused on morbid, twisted psychological states
He was a famous Victorian poet and this poem was one of his earliest dramatic monologues
Porphyria is a disease that causes hallucinations
Porphyria’s Lover was printed with another poem about a psychotic speaker
The poem was written in the Victorian era - sexuality was very repressed and hidden from public view, especially for women. They were frowned upon and socially outcast if they went against these social conventions.

Question 6

What is the Form and Structure for ‘Porphyria’s Lover’?

Answer 6

The poem is a dramatic monologue
There is a lack of stanzas
The poem is written in first person
The poem contains an ABABB rhyme scheme which is an intense, patterned style. Creates a sense of cohesion, that the enjambment undermines.
There is an extended use of enjambment

Question 7

What is the context for ‘Sonnet 29 - ‘I think of thee!’’? (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

Answer 7

Elizabeth Barret Browning lived in her father’s mansion under his watchful eye. She developed a serious illness at 15 and had lingering health issues.
Her collection of poems was published and gained the attention of famous poet Robert Browning, they exchanged 575 letters over the next 20 months.
Their relationship was kept secret and they met outside a church and married secretly - Elizabeth was cut off from her family for this.
The poem was written in the Victorian era - women were expected not to express strong emotions so the end of the poem may be representative of her casting off these restraints.

Question 8

What is the Form and Structure for ‘Sonnet 29 - ‘I think of thee!’’?

Answer 8

The poem is one singular block of text
The poem is in the form of a sonnet so it is 14 lines long (made up of an octave and a sestet), written in Iambic Pentameter (each line has 10 syllables, 5 are stressed, 5 are unstressed), the octave rhyme scheme is ABBAABBA and the sestet rhyme scheme is CDCDCD
Traditionally, Petrarchan sonnets contain a volta after the eighth line
References to nature are prominent in the poem
Barrett Browning’s use of language creates the impression of intimacy between the speaker and her lover

Question 9

What is the context for ‘Neutral Tones’? (Thomas Hardy)

Answer 9

Thomas Hardy was known as being insecure, despressed and sensitive as a result of two unhappy marriages. This lack of happiness is well-reflected in “Neutral Tones”.
Hardy was known to have a disappointing life, so it’s difficult to tell whether in this poem, he is talking about a specific event or these are the general feelings he has towards relationships and women.
This was one of the last poems he wrote before deciding to stop writing poetry.
The dismal tone of the poem is similar to that of his books in which the characters often experience great difficulty.

Question 10

What is the Form and Structure for ‘Neutral Tones’?

Answer 10

The last line of each stanza is indented, which slows down the rhythm of their poem
The poem is written in meter but it’s awkward and inconsistent. The fourth line of each stanza appears to have been cut off and abrupt.
The rhyme scheme is ABBA
The poem has a cyclical structure
The quatrains are in tetrameter, which gives a faster pace than iambic tetrameter. This contrasts with the stagnant atmosphere of the poem

Question 11

What is the context for ‘Letters from Yorkshire’? (Maura Dooley)

Answer 11

Maura Dooley was born in Cornwall in 1957 and grew up in Bristol
She worked in the Yorkshire countryside but has lived in London for the past 25 years
Her poems often focus on the theme of communicatuon, which may be the result of her connections around the country

Question 12

What is the Form and Structure for ‘Letters from Yorkshire’?

Answer 12

The poem contains 5 tercets which reflects the brief nature of their communicaton
Enjambment works to tie the poem together, making up for the lack of rhyme scheme
The pronouns change from ‘he’ to ‘you’ to ‘our’ in the final stanza, which means that the speaker is moving from individual to the combined narrative of writing
The poem has a joyful tone, created by Dooley’s use of metaphorical language
Dooley uses weather to show the unconventionality of their relationship

Question 13

What is the context for ‘The Farmer’s Bride’? (Charlotte Mew)

Answer 13

Charlotte Mew was born into an upper-middle class family of seven children, but three died young and two experienced mental illness when they were young.
The impact of these experiences influenced her work heavily and is reflected in the darker undertones of her poetry.
Mew apparently made a pact with one of her sisters to never marry out of fear of becoming mentally ill or passing mental illness to their children
The poem was written at a time where suffrage was beginning to gain prominence, so Mew could be expressing her view that women shouldn’t have their identity tied to their husband

Question 14

What is the Form and Structure for ‘The Farmer’s Bride’?

Answer 14

The poem is a dramatic monologue from the farmer’s perspective, which means the bride is voiceless
The farmer tells the story of the marriage failing through the first two stanzas, then goes on to discuss how the bride is now and how he feels towards her
There are six, uneven stanzas
Mew mixes couplets (AABB) with alternate (ABAB) and arch (ABBA) which creates an unnatural rhythm that doesn’t flow properly
The poem contains elements of dialect, which gives a strong sense of the farmer’s voice and character

Question 15

What is the context for ‘Walking Away’? (Cecil Day-Lewis)

Answer 15

Cecil Day-Lewis was brought up by his father as his mother died when he was young which may explain the emphasis he places on the father-son relationship.
He had a very successful career during his life and was Poet Laureate until he died in 1972.
It is thought that Walking Away is about his first son Sean who was born as a result of his first marriage. He went to boarding school at age seven and the original poem is subtitled “for Sean”.
Walking Away is semi-autobiographical and considers the effect that separation can have on a still developing parental relationship

Question 16

What is the Form and Structure for ‘Walking Away’?

Answer 16

The poem employs a consistent ABACA rhyme scheme which gives the poem a stable structure and contrasts the theme of change and individual development - could also reflect the stable nature of paternal love.
Dashes are used to add extra information to make the description more vivid for the reader and also has the effect of mirroring the shift in time and setting described.
Day-Lewis employs direct address to place the reader in the position of the speaker’s son, to engage the reader and try to help them relate to the poem in their own familial relationship.
Passive language is used to describe the speaker, active language is used to describe the son. This may suggest the speaker is jealous of his son’s lifestyle - unhealthy trait
Equal length stanzas which may also show the stable nature of paternal love

Question 17

What is the context for ‘Eden Rock’? (Charles Causley)

Answer 17

Charles Causley’s father died when he was 7, due to complications after fighting in the first World War, then his mother died in 1971.
Causley worked as a coder for the navy during the second World War.
His poetic style is iconic for his simplicity and direct messages.
Causley is from Cornwall and drew many inspirations for his poems from Cornish folk tales as well as the landscapes he grew up in.

Question 18

What is the Form and Structure for ‘Eden Rock’?

Answer 18

Causley uses exclamatory punctuation to connote enthusiasm, which juxtaposes the morose tone of the poem
Causley uses a fixed structure of quatrains, but the final line is separated from the other lines
Each quatrain has roughly ten syllables per line (Iambic Pentameter) which creates a steady tone
Causley uses half-rhymes
Poem includes colloquialisms which create a sense of nostalgia
The poem includes a variety of natural language

Question 19

What is the context for ‘Follower’? (Seamus Heaney)

Answer 19

Seamus Heaney came from a rigid farming community and was born in Northern Ireland into a tradition which values physical labour
He was the eldest of 9 children, meaning he had a lot of pressure to conform to the expectations of his environment and be adept at farming.
The poem was written in the 1960s, just before a 30 year period of political violence in Northern Ireland
Especially rural life would be very traditional, which is reflected in the poem

Question 20

What is the Form and Structure for ‘Follower’?

Answer 20

The poem includes a cyclical structure
Has a mostly stable rhythmic pattern which reflects their stable relationship. Full rhymes represent the father, half-rhymes represent the son.
The stanzas are quatrains which gives the poem a neat and stable structure - could mirror the well-ploughed fields or the tight knit environment Heaney was brought up in
Their intense relationshup is highlighted through a semantic field of admiration which is amplified through his depiction of his dad an an ‘expert’
The poem is written in first person and is mainly in past tense

Question 21

What is the context for ‘Mother, any distance’? (Simon Armitage)

Answer 21

Simon Armitage is a playwright, novelist and poet. He attended the University of Manchester and worked in a number of occupations.
His poetry often relates back to his Yorkshire heritage and often focuses on relatable situations in order to resonate with and engage the reader.
The poem was from a collection of poems called “Book of Matches” where all the poems are designed to be read in the brief time it took for a match to burn out, and most of the poems included are around the length of a sonnet.

Question 22

What is the Form and Structure for ‘Mother, any distance’?

Answer 22

The poem is loosley based on the format of a sonnet. The loose format may suggest uncertainty as to how he feels towards his mother. If it’s read like a sonnet with emphasis placed on the final line, this can perhaps suggest how nervous he feels about moving out onto a new stage in his life.
The uneven rhyming structure may suggest the uneven relationship between mother and son, the son clearly relies a lot more on his mother than vice versa.
Armitage uses enjambment, which gives the poem a conversational tone which may suggest they have a healthy, unforced relationship.
The use of colloquial language displays the intimate and comfortable bond the pair have.
Colloquial language contrasts with the formal address of ‘mother’, which suggests it is the speaker who is keen and trying to distance himself from his parent

Question 23

What is the context for ‘Before You Were Mine’? (Carol Ann Duffy)

Answer 23

Duffy’s mother died about a decade after this poem was written. The impact her mother had on her life is evident as she told the Guardian about the ‘bereavement following close behind the heartbreak she chronicles with such searing brilliance in Rapture’.
She was raised as a Roman Catholic by her parents, which helps explain the religious references within her work. The poem explores the strong conventions of society women were expected to adhere to during the 1950s.
Generationally, she would have been separated from her mother by the second World War, which may contribute the the percieved distance between them in the mother-daughter relationship.

Question 24

What is the Form and Structure for ‘Before You Were Mine’?

Answer 24

The poem is semi-autobiographical, so the speaker could be seen as Duffy addressing to her mother.
A mix of first and second person narrative is used in the poem - creates an intimate tone
Duffy uses colloquial language to demonstrate the close bond she experienced with her mother.
Colloquial language juxtaposes with the formality of ‘mother’
The structure is very uniform and has four stanzas of five equal lines
The poem uses a lot of caesura, which creates a conversational tone to the poem

Question 25

What is the context for ‘Winter Swans’? (Owen Sheers)

Answer 25

Owen Sheers often writes about places, landscapes, and the people who live in them.
He is an award winning poet, novelist, playwright, and TV presented
Sheers often writes about identity and relationship.
His work explores history, identity and relationships and he likes to explore the difficulty people face in simply trying to live and also how people live together in society.

Question 26

What is the Form and Structure for ‘Winter Swans’?

Answer 26

The poem is written in tercets, which suggest something has came between the couple and signals an imbalance between the two.
The final couplet resolves this and conveys togetherness and recoupling, but it doesn’t rhyme which implies there is still some tension in the relationship.
The poem includes no rhyme scheme, which contributes to the couple’s discordant state and suggests that some form of unity has been left out of the poem.
The poem has varying line lengths, which allows the poem to move gracefully through its chronological discussion of the walk.
Sheers uses caesura to reflect the break in the relationshuos and to arguably symbolise the cracks.
Natural imagery could suggest that relationships and conflict should be embraced and are a natural part of human life
Swans are symbols of enduring a timneless love, also seen as symbols of purity and light. In alchemy, the swan symbolises the melding of opposites. Therefore, it could be suggested that the two individuals have very different personalities, which is perhaps why they aren’t getting on well

Question 27

What is the context for ‘Singh Song’? (Daljit Nagra)

Answer 27

Daljit Nagra’s parents came from India to the UK in the late 1950s/early 1960s.
He was born in 1966, a second generation immigrant.
In the early 1980s, the family moved to Sheffield and opened a corner shop, where his family experienced repeated attacks motivated by race, such as burglaries.
The name ‘Singh’ is a common Sikh name and comes from the Punjabi word ‘lion’.
The concept of “Britishness” is a central theme to his work, and he has previously said he uses traditionally English formats in his poetry.

Question 28

What is the Form and Structure for ‘Singh Song’?

Answer 28

He talks about his wife instead of directly addressing her. The poem is narrated with a humourous tone.
To reflect the title of the poem, there is a melodic form to the poem with a stable rhythm and song-esque pace. Refrains such as “in di worst Indian shop”, “on di whole Indian road-“, and “my wife”, somewhat mimic the chorus of a song.
Using the repeated format of “she say”, “I say” in the final four couplets sets up a sense of dialogue and connection between the couple. Alternatively, it could be argued that because they are separated stanzas, the structure reflects the adversity the coiple faces when trying to spend time together.
Nagra’s use of couplets, which are typical of a love poem structure reaffirms the idea that the couple have a loving relationship.
(Refrain - a repeating phrase/line, typically at the end of a stanza)
The dialect and colloquial language used in the poem reflects the typical language used by Indians living in Britain, again to situate the poem in the context of a specific community.
Juxtaposing language suggests that the speaker is aware he has a multifaceted and complex wife, but he finds this combination positive in their relationship.
The speaker often references time to highlight the time pressure he faces and how he struggles to schedule in time for himself, time with his wife and time for the shop.
Nagra uses a range of upbeat, childish language like “red”, “silver”, “lemon”, “lime”, and these reflect both the new nature of the couple’s marriage and the immature tone of the poem.

Question 29

What is the context for ‘Climbing My Grandfather’? (Andrew Waterhouse)

Answer 29

Andrew Waterhouse struggled with mental illness, and eventually took his own life at the age of 42. He spent his childhood in the north-east of England, and much of his work focuses on the environment - he even gained a masters in Environmental Science, and wrote a series of natural walk guidebooks. Much of Waterhouse’s work focuses on the environment, and this is continued very much so in “Climbing My Grandfather”.

Question 30

What is the Form and Structure for ‘Climbing My Grandfather’?

Answer 30

The format of the poem is one single, unbroken stanza which could symbolise the mountain extended metaphor used throughout the poem. The simple structure of the poem as in one complete stanza also reflects the child-like nature of the speaker and his memories. It could also reflect the daunting, relentless journey of climbing a mountain. Moreover, the poem is void of specific syllable lengths per line or a rhyming scheme which helps it to mirror a natural conversation.
Enjambment is used by Waterhouse, perhaps to reflect a natural pace of a conversation or exploration, or to portray the change of direction taken whilst climbing.
Waterhouse employs a semantic field of mountaineering, associated with the apparent care he has for his grandfather, suggesting he enjoys the activity.
Waterhouse uses oxymoronic language such as “warm ice” and “easy scramble” in order to demonstrate the complex nature of memory and nature, and perhaps the grandson-grandfather bond here.

Question 31

Who wrote ‘When We Two Parted’?

Answer 31

Lord Byron wrote ‘When We Two Parted’

Question 32

Who wrote ‘Love’s Philosophy’?

Answer 32

Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote ‘Love’s Philosophy’

Question 33

Who wrote ‘Porphyria’s Lover’?

Answer 33

Robert Browning wrote ‘Porphyria’s Lover’

Question 34

Who wrote ‘Sonnet 29 - ‘I think of thee!’’?

Answer 34

Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote ‘Sonnet 29 - ‘I think of thee!’’

Question 35

Who wrote ‘Neutral Tones’?

Answer 35

Thomas Hardy wrote ‘Neutral Tones’

Question 36

Who wrote ‘Letters from Yorkshire’?

Answer 36

Maura Dooley wrote ‘Letters from Yorkshire’

Question 37

Who wrote ‘The Farmer’s Bride’?

Answer 37

Charlotte Mew wrote ‘The Farmer’s Bride’

Question 38

Who wrote ‘Walking Away’?

Answer 38

Cecil Day-Lewis wrote ‘Walking Away’

Question 39

Who wrote ‘Eden Rock’?

Answer 39

Charles Causley wrote ‘Eden Rock’

Question 40

Who wrote ‘Follower’?

Answer 40

Seamus Heaney wrote ‘Follower’

Question 41

Who wrote ‘Mother, any distance’?

Answer 41

Simon Armitage wrote ‘Mother, any distance’

Question 42

Who wrote ‘Before You Were Mine’?

Answer 42

Carol Ann Duffy wrote ‘Before You Were Mine’

Question 43

Who wrote ‘Winter Swans’?

Answer 43

Owen Sheers wrote ‘Winter Swans’

Question 44

Who wrote ‘Singh Song’?

Answer 44

Daljit Nagra wrote ‘Singh Song’

Question 45

Who wrote ‘Climbing My Grandfather’?

Answer 45

Andrew Waterhouse wrote ‘Climbing My Grandfather’

Question 46

What are the 5 quotes for ‘Mother, any distance’?

Answer 46

‘Mother, any distance’
‘the acres of the walls, the prairies of the floors’
‘recording length, reporting metres, centimetres back to base’
‘Anchor. Kite’
‘a hatch that opens on an endless sky to fall or fly’

Question 47

What are the 4 quotes for ‘Walking Away’?

Answer 47

‘like a satellite wrenched from its orbit, go drifting away’
‘with the pathos of a half-fledged thing set free into a wilderness’
‘like a winged seed loosened from its parent stem’
‘gnaws at my mind still’

Question 48

What are the 4 quotes for ‘Climbing My Grandfather’?

Answer 48

‘place my feet gently in the old stitches and move on’
‘At his still firm shoulder, I rest for a while’
‘for climbing has its dangers’
‘watching clouds and birds circle’

Question 49

What are the 5 quotes for ‘Singh Song’?

Answer 49

‘I run just one ov my daddy’s shops’
‘vee hav made luv like vee rowing through Putney’
‘my bride’
‘ven I return from di tickle ov my bride’
‘in di worst Indian shop on di whole Indian road’

Question 50

What are the 5 quotes for ‘Letters from Yorkshire’?

Answer 50

‘he saw the first lapwings return’
‘his knuckles singing as they reddened in the warmth’
‘who sends me word of that other world’
‘pouring air and light into an envelope’
‘our souls tap out messages across the icy miles’

Question 51

What are the 5 quotes for ‘Winter Swans’?

Answer 51

‘The clouds had given their all - two days of rain and then a break’
‘the waterlogged earth gulping for breath at our feet’
‘like boats righting in rough weather’
‘porcelain over the stilling water’
‘slow-stepping in the lake’s shingle and sand’