Poetry Flashcards
what is the stanza form of the Farmer’s Bride?
irregular stanzas - mimics strange relationship
what is the Rhyme scheme of the Farmer’s Bride?
AABB, ABAB, ABBA
what is the metre of the Farmer’s Bride?
- fairly regular iambic tetrameter
- persona loses regularity & control
what are the messages + wider ideas of the farmer’s bride?
- damaging effects of marriage
- exposes dangerous sexualisation of young women
- silent submission of women trapped in danger
- patriarchy enables men to objectify and possess women
- metaphor for societal expectations keeping women locked away
- presents obsession as a dangerous feeling, showing the destructive consequences of power in relationships and society
- explores dominance and the fear it creates within a relationship, criticising society’s acceptance of the subjugation and silencing of women
list as many quotes from the farmer’s bride as you can. [11]
- ‘farmer’s bride’
- ‘three summers since i chose a maid’
- ‘too young maybe’
- ‘frightened fay’
- ‘we chased’
- ‘hare’
- ‘church-Town’
- ‘fast’
- ‘over seven-acre field and up-along across the down’
- ‘one leaf’
- ‘the soft young down of her, the brown, the brown of her - her eyes, her hair, her hair!’
what is the form of sonnet 29?
- Petrarchan sonnet (2 quatrains, one sestet)
- volta is on the 5th not 8th line; non-conformist
- extended metaphor (conceit) of nature imagery for sexual passion
describe the metre in sonnet 29
- iambic pentameter
- traditional format shows the traditional nature of her love
- breaks iambic pentameter
- eg “put out broad leaves, & soon there’s nought to see’
- highlights unconventionality of love and suggests their love cant be constrained by rigidity of sonnet form
what are the wider ideas + messages of sonnet 29?
- overwhelming intensity of love
- different gender roles within relationship
- fantasy vs reality
- Fantasy is a poor substitute for reality when it comes to love.
- it’s hard to be apart when you’re in love
- Love, Vulnerability, and Freedom
- to experience love one must be vulnerable and willing to give oneself over entirely to passion - whether that means rejecting societal dictates of decorum and restraint, or simply one’s own familiar ways of being
- Only through vulnerability and passion may lovers experience the powerful freedom of real love.
list as many quotes from sonnet 29 as you can. [8]
- ‘renew thy presence; as a strong tree should’
- ‘rustle thy boughs and set thy trunk all bare’
- ‘new air…I do not think of thee - I am too near thee’
- ‘I think of thee! - my thoughts do twine and bud’
- ‘wild vines…put out broad leaves and soon there’s nought to see’
- ‘O, my palm-tree’
- ‘I will not have my thoughts instead of thee’
- ‘let these bands of greenery…drop heavily down - burst, shattered, everywhere!’
describe the form of when we two parted.
- Lyric poetry - is emotional and expresses thoughts & feelings not a story
- apostrophe - speaker directly addresses someone but they don’t reply
describe the metre of when we two parted.
Accentual verse - each lines contains same amount of stressed syllables, no matter how many syllables are in each line
what is the rhyme scheme of when we two parted?
- shakespearean sonnet - ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
- Just before ‘GG’ falls out of rhyme scheme, suggesting the persona felt the relationship was worthy of a sonnet before hearing of latest infidelity
what wider ideas + messages are suggested in when we two parted?
- breakups are not neat endings - characterised by lingering pain and anger
- how quickly lover’s perceptions of each other can change when they’re not together
- people move on but not always completely from past loves
- relationship breakdown can feel like death/grief
list as many quotes from when we two parted as you can [8]
- ‘in silence and tears’
- ‘half broken hearted’
- ‘pale grew thy cheek and cold’
- ‘shudder’
- ‘dew of the morning sunk chill’
- ‘thy vows are all broken’
- ‘knell in mine ear’
- in secret we met / in silence I grieve’
what is the structure of love’s philosophy?
2 stanzas which mimic a couple
describe the rhyme scheme and metre of love’s philosphy.
- trochaic metre which is connected to the usual ballad metre
- ABAB, CDCD alternate rhyme scheme had 3 interpretations - shows constant fluctuations and growth and progression of the relationship - something is separating them but they are still close - unbalanced relationship, as only one of them is dedicated
what wider ideas + messages are suggested in love’s philosophy?
- greatest happiness comes from relationships
- it is natural to be in love
- physical consummation is an important part of a relationship - romance is both physical and spiritual
- love is essential to life
- love is a force so strong it transcends the limits of the world and is beyond the limits of man’s powers
list as many quotes from love’s philosophy as you can [7]
- ‘why not I with thine?’
- ‘mountains kiss high heaven’
- ‘and the sunlight clasps the earth and the moonbeams kiss the sea’
- ‘thou kiss not me?’
- ‘fountains mingle with the river … rivers with the ocean’
- ‘winds of heaven mix forever … sweet emotion’
- ‘all things by a law divine’
what is the structure of porphyria’s lover?
dramatic monologue
describe the rhyme scheme of porphyria’s lover.
- clear scheme - ABABB - which mirrors calmness of speaker - shocking murder
what wider ideas + messages are suggested by porphyria’s lover?
- society wants methods of control to remain distinct but people’s emotions can be strong enough to break (class) boundaries which are unnecessary & immaterial to true passion
- women are punished as scapegoats for other parts of society (class)
- obsession with purity and control in victorian society
- punished for not being a pure good woman - society’s rules are so ingrained people kill those they love
- society uses religion to justify oppression
- presents obsession as a dangerous feeling, showing the destructive consequences of power in relationships and society
list as many quotes from porphyria’s lover as you can [11]
- ‘porphyria’s lover’
- ‘porphyria worshipped me’
- ‘one long yellow string’
- ‘burning kiss […] I propped her head up as before’
- ‘god has not said a word’
- ‘tore the elm-tops down for spite […] vex the lake’
- ‘glided in porphyria […] she shut out the cold and the storm’
- ‘kneeled and made the cheerless grate blaze up’
- ‘soiled gloves […] let the damp hair fall’
- ‘she put my arm’
- ‘set its struggling passion free […] pride […] vainer ties […] give herself to me forever’
describe the rhyme scheme of neutral tones.
- ABBA
- Straightforward - neutral
- highly controlled though - thinks of this memory often
how is neutral tones structured?
4 quatrains
describe the metre of neutral tones
- tetrameter - faster pace than iambic tetrameter - contrasts stagnant atmosphere
- 3 tetrameter lines them final trimeter line creates an irregular combination of iambs and anapaests, creating an irregular pace to symbolise the uneven emotional ground
what messages and wider ideas are suggested in neutral tones?
- love is deceitful and causes harm - loss can change a person’s perception of the world
- relationship breakdown diminishes colour and vitality of life
- lasting power of memory and its impact on life and views
- relationship ending can be positive (after time has passed)
list as many quotes from neutral tones as you can [5]
- ‘we stood by a pond that winter day’
- ‘sun was white…chidden of god’
- ‘fallen from an ash’
- ‘tedious riddles of years ago’
- ‘your face and the god-curst sun’
describe the rhyme scheme and metre of letters from yorkshire
- no end rhymes
- enjambment, suggesting normal speech patterns
describe the structure of letters from yorkshire
- constant semantic field of winter/early spring, light and dark, communication/messages
- free verse shows everything is changeable, just like the seasons
- 5 tercets
what wider ideas and messages are suggested in letters from yorkshire?
- communication is essential in a relationship
- it is possible to be connected whilst separated by distance
list as many quotes as you can from letters from yorkshire [7]
- ‘in february, digging his garden, planting potatoes’
- ‘knuckles singing’
- ‘it’s not romance, simply how things are’
- ‘my heartful of headlines’
- ‘pouring air and light into an envelope’
- ‘same news in different houses’
- ‘our souls tapped out messages across the icy miles’
describe the structure of walking away
4 quintains which clarify how the speaker’s response to memory develops - from recollection, resistance, acceptance, to reflection
describe the rhyme scheme and metre of walking away
- ABACA monosyllabic rhymes show the uncomplicated and raw feelings to create a melancholic tone
- stable scheme mimics their relationship
- irregular metre creates a conversational tone
- final 2 lines are end-stopped - this control and precision creates confidence and finality
- measured pace shows gradual separation
what wider ideas an messages are explored in walking away?
- parenthood/parental love and the pain that comes with it
- letting go/separation - necessary and natural
- the passage of time
- gaining independence
- nature
- the act of reminiscing
list as many quotes from walking away as you can [9]
- ‘it is eighteen years ago, almost to the day -‘
- ‘a sunny day with leaves just turning’
- ‘your first game of football, then, like a satellite / Wrenched from its orbit, go drifting away / Behind a scatter of boys’
- ‘the pathos of a half-fledged thing set free / into a wilderness’
- ‘that hesitant figure, eddying away’
- ‘like a winged seed loosened from its parent stem’
- ‘nature’s give and take - the small, the scorching ordeals which fire one’s irresolute clay’
- ‘gnaws at my mind still’
- ‘what god alone could perfectly show - / How selfhood begins with a walking away / And love is proved in the letting go’
describe the structure of eden rock
- quatrains
- at the end, the last line is separate, mirroring his division from his parents
- most phrases are shorter or longer than a single line, causing tension with the quatrain form, suggesting the speaker is focussed on their parents rather than the poetic form
describe the rhyme scheme and metre of eden rock
- some iambic pentameter, but not rigid
- last line is in iambic pentameter, giving it a rigid, stately feel which sets it apart so it feels almost elegiac
- ABAB but with half-rhymes - slant rhymes - unreliable - hard to know what is real and what isn’t
what wider ideas and messages are explored in eden rock?
- love can transcend death
- family ties are strong and everlasting
- death does not have to be feared
- dealing and coping with loss
list as many quotes from eden rock as you can [8]
- ‘eden rock’
- ‘in the same suit / Of Genuine Irish Tweed’
- ‘ribbon in her straw hat, / has spread the stiff white cloth over the grass’
- ‘her hair, the colour of wheat, takes on the light’
- ‘she pours tea from a Thermos’
- ‘the same three plates, the tin cups painted blue’
- ‘the sky whitens as if lit by three suns’
- '’See where the stream-path is! / Crossing is not as hard as you might think.’ / I had not thought that it would be like this.’
describe the structure of mother, any distance
- free verse
- stanzas 1 + 2 are quatrains, though 2 has more enjambment - unspooling
- begins as a sonnet but the sestet has an extra 7th line - could represent their connection or separation
what is the rhyme scheme in mother, any distance?
not traditional ABBA showing the ambivalence of the speaker’s feeling
what wider ideas and messages are explored in mother, any distance?
- weakening of parent child relationship
- support
- supportive parent-child relationships can become stifling and so inevitabily separate
- the freedom that separation can bring
- distance
- growing up
list as many quotes from mother, any distance, as you can [7]
- ‘mother, any distance greater than a single span’
- ‘windows, pelmets, doors’
- ‘acres of the walls, prairies of the floors’
- ‘you at the zero-end, me with the spool of tape’
- ‘unreeling years between us. Anchor. Kite.
- ‘space-walk’
- ‘endless sky / to fall or fly’
describe the structure of follower
- chronological, mimicking his life
- cyclical, showing the passing on of knowledge
- past tense, as it is grounded in his childhood memory
- 6 quatrains - neat and stable, mirroring the well-ploughed fields and the claustrophobic environment the speaker grew up in
describe the rhyme scheme and metre of follower
- all lines are 8 syllables, creating a steady rhythm, mimicking their stable relationship
- mostly iambic tetrameter, mimicking the father’s speed of working
- not consistent metre, showing the tension in the relationship
- tight ABAB scheme, each stanza containing a perfect rhyme and a slant rhyme, mirroring the feeling that Heaney won’t live up to his father
what wider ideas and messages are explored in follower?
- cyclical relationship between parent and child
- how admiration can materialise into a sense of inferiority and pressure
- the importance for children of finding a role model in their parents - can encourage children to be better people
- parents can help to support children in exploring the world, without controlling what they do
list as many quotes from follower as you can [5]
- ‘shoulders globed like a full sail strung’
- ‘an expert’
- ‘all I ever did was follow / In his broad shadow round the farm’
- ‘the sod rolled over without breaking’
- ‘I stumbled in his hob-nailed wake’
describe the structure of before you were mine
- 4 quintains
- repetitive and mirrors the inevitability of the future life/women’s role in society
- short simple sentences are childlike which contrasts with polysyllabic diction, suggesting she is talking about her childhood through an adult lens
- enaleptic frames, apostrophe, narrative structure
what is the rhyme scheme and metre of before you were mine?
blank verse with no rhyming pattern
what messages and wider ideas are suggested in before you were mine?
- how life changes after having a child
- the societal pressures put upon women to have children
- how the regret of motherhood can transform into guilt for the child
- motherhood
- the past
- inheritance
- guilt passed onto children
- the role of women in society
describe the structure of winter swans
- 7 stanzas - 6 tercets, 1 couplet
- the tercets show the obstacle between the couple and the couplet shows their reconciliation
describe the rhyme scheme and metre of winter swans
- irregular and unrhymed (even in the couplet) - shows that everything is not perfect
- disjointed rhythm shows their conflict and the unpredictability of relationships
what messages and wider ideas are explored in winter swans?
- relationships can be difficult but love keeps people together
- the strangest/simplest things can bring us together
- critical role of nature in society due to its impact on people, by offering reminders of simplicity
- love is dependent on partnership and communication
- relationships go through ups and downs; this is natural, but relationships do require work/effort/perseverance/dedication
list as many quotes from winter swans as you can [9]
- ‘icebergs of white feather’
- '’they mate for life’ you said’
- ‘slow-stepping through the lake’s shingle and sand
- ‘somehow / swum the distance’
- ‘pair of wings settling after flight’
- ‘clouds had given their all
- ‘waterlogged earth / gulping for breath’
- ‘winter swans’
- ‘porcelain’
describe the structure of singh song
- refrains and repetitions create a lyrical structure mimicking a song
- 58 lines, 38 stanzas of varying lengths
- couplets
- dramatic monologue
describe the rhyme scheme and metre of singh song
- stable rhythm with a song-esque pace
- free verse communicates the casual tone and giddiness
what wider ideas and messages are suggested in singh song?
- overwhelming love and passion
- love brings joy and passion to life and has the power to transform the everyday world
- young immigrants may form hybrid identities causing tensions with older generations
- love can make people obsessive and irresponsible
describe the structure of climbing my grandfather
- 1 long stanza
- mimics the climbing of a mountain - daunting, relentless, awe-inspiring
- extended metaphor
describe the rhyme scheme and metre of climbing my grandfather
- no rhyme scheme or metre creates a natural feel
- unpredictable line breaks using caesura, enjambment, and end-stopped lines
- free verse
what wider ideas and messages are explored in climbing my grandfather?
- it can be difficult trying to get to know your family, especially with generational divides or memory can be difficult
- admiration for family members
list as many quotes from climbing my grandfather as possible [9]
- ‘I decide to do it free, without a rope or net’
- ‘the old brogues, dusty and cracked’
- ‘by the overhanging shirt I change / directions, traverse along his belt’
- ‘an earth-stained hand’
- ‘the skin of his finger is smooth and thick like warm ice’
- ‘the glass ridge of a scar’
- ‘at his still firm shoulder, I rest for a while’
- ‘watching clouds and birds circle’
- ‘feeling his heat, knowing / the slow pulse of his good heart’
list as many quotes from BYWM as you can [5]
- ‘i’m ten years away from the corner you laugh on’
- ‘marilyn’
- ‘I remember my hands in those high-heeled red shoes, relics’
- ‘and now your ghost clatters towards me’
- ‘where you sparkle and waltz and laugh’
list as many quotes from singh song as you can
- ‘I run just one ov my daddy’s shops’
- ‘like vee rowing through Putney’
- ‘in di worst Indian shop / on di whole Indian road’
- ‘above my head high heel tap’
- ‘she netting two cat on her Sikh lover site’
- ‘tiny eyes ov a gun / and di tummy ov a teddy’
- ‘my bride’
- ‘she wear a tartan sari’
- ‘how much do yoo charge for dat moon baby […] is priceless baby’
describe the structure of climbing my grandfather
- 1 long stanza
- mimics the climbing of a mountain - daunting, relentless, awe-inspiring
- extended metaphor
describe the rhyme scheme and metre of climbing my grandfather
- no rhyme scheme or metre creates a natural feel
- unpredictable line breaks using caesura, enjambment, and end-stopped lines
- free verse
what are some wider ideas in climbing my grandfather
- it can be difficult trying to get to know your family, especially with generational divides or memory can be difficult
- admiration for family members
list as many quotes from climbing my grandfather as you can
- ‘I decide to do it free, without a rope or net’
- ‘the old brogues, dusty and cracked’
- ‘by the overhanging shirt I change / directions, traverse along his belt’
- ‘an earth-stained hand’
- ‘the skin of his finger is smooth and thick like warm ice’
- ‘the glass ridge of a scar’
- ‘at his still firm shoulder, I rest for a while’
- ‘watching clouds and birds circle’
- ‘feeling his heat, knowing / the slow pulse of his good heart’
