Poetry 📄 Flashcards
Ozymandias
• king of kings
• colossal wreck
• the sculptor, whose passions read
• structure/ form
• allusion to Jesus= ironic. Paired with juxtaposition in next line reflects corruption and despair, reflecting the running theme that humans falsely empower themselves. Critical of instability of tyranny, that it cannot last. Attack of time reflects anger, and therefore purpose is power of time, that it transcends and is beyond human understanding (much like Jesus) compliments the romantic purpose, showing the overbearing power of nature and the weakness of dictatorship
• colossal wreck= size causes downfall, showing that power cannot last
• celebration of sculptor, outlived ozy. Idealism of art OR that political characters who understand morality will be allowed eternal life through their legacy. (link to ‘never meant to last’)
• rhymescheme= incomplete Petrichan sonnet, interlinking octave and sestet
• could show clash between nature and man OR corruption as sonnet is a love poem and ozymandias loves himself
The prelude
• troubled pleasure
• ‘nothing’ ‘heaving’
• romantic
• there hung a darkness, call it solitude
• form
• oxymoron reflects a disturb to peaceful human mentality and structural link to the end, that ideas will be changed. complement paper that lets the light shine though. Political porpoise to show insignificance of humans
• struggle for air= metaphorical struggle between mans need for power and nature. Desire for human power restricts freedom and ultimately nature overwhelms human interventions
• NATURE IS A MORAL TEACHER and a divine loving spirit (maps thing). Willy influenced by rousseau
• there hung a darkness, call it solitude or blank desertion= lf of death and punishment for underestimate power of n. Vague language is vulnerability of mind (old ideas) repetition of ‘no’ is focus on what’s not real. Black= loss of colour. MA= colour= power
• blank verse= serious and important, narrative= epic adventure
MLD
• taming
• Neptune
• disgusts
• pentameter + form
• animalistic, zoomorphism = desperation for control and segregation. Reflects immorality
• Neptune= control nature for his own physical gain= reflects extent of corruption
• disgusts= highly critical of patriarchal society and its effects on women
• until 1, dramatic monologue
• attacks private collector of art, sign of wealth. Sees women as art, possessions, liabilities
Exposure
• nothing + tugging
• ache + on us the doors are closed+ nothing happens
• exposure
• rhymescheme
• awful irony that they recognise vulnerability to nature. Tugging= horse saddle= animalistic and dehumanising
• long poem + ache to reflect prolonged suffering, as well as knife to reflect acceptance of fate and permanency. As a result, lost faith in God= nothing happens. Alt, understand the right thing to do is to die, despite futility
• exposure= lies of propaganda, emphasised by ‘mad’ loss of life
• pararhyme= sense of being on edge= unnatural situation
Storm on the island
• tamed cat
• name
• no natural shelter
• imagery of war ‘bombarded’
• rhymescheme and structure and sound
• can you ever really ‘tame’ a cat as part of nature? Human attempts for control and power. Alt, animalistic connotations suggest lack of control and dignity, that humans create conflict though their thirst for power. (Maps thingy)
• could be Heaney verbalising about the conflicts in Northern Island, name is a pun for stormont= mansion in Belfast the parliaments are in. Criticising governments thirst for control and attacks for power
• no natural shelter = nature is rejecting man for their corrupt ideologies
• military imagery of bombarded by empty air= insignificance of human thirst for control. It only burdens us, if we could accept fragility we would be happier
• no regular rhyme scheme but unsettling half rhymes and iambic pentameter with wrong rhythm to show human control falling apart. 5 stanza lines expect four at end= lack of harmony.
• assonance and plosives= anger that people are connected though violence and greed
Bayonet charge
• lugged + yellow hare+ jumped up
• raw + charge (back to cowardice)
• sounds
• yellow= cowardice, vulnerable as a hare (assonance of eye as I)
• despite jumping up and awakening from ignorance, still headed for darkness
• arguably poet highly critical of propaganda:
• raw= uncooked/ unprepared/ fresh open wound
• ‘charge’= ask for fee. Angry writer, is I moral to ask for young lives? Crime against humanity
• cowards are nations who ‘threw up’ this soldier
• sibilance= vulnerability and dehumanisation
• plosives of guns= inevitability of death xx
• no rhythm or rhymescheme= disjointed injustice of war
Remains
• all of the same mind
• I see broad daylight on the other side/ guts
• ‘dozen’= dirty dozen, good man who turns immoral
• I see
• sand/land
• structure
• loss of identity/ dehumanisation. Works like clockwork, perhaps been brainwashed
• tone: I see broad daylight on the other side= apathetic and colloquial, tosses guts= animalistic. Quatrains to mimic natural speech further shows this
• still seeing. Without sound= cannot rid of visual image which shows mental degeneration
• rhyming couplets where he would like it to end but no
• 8 stanzas with first 7 unrhymed. Fast paced and anecdotal to haunt. CONFESSION and potential allusions to Macbeth
Poppies
• yellow bias and intoxicated
• resisted
• softened/ steeled
• thorns
• structure/ rhyme
• cowardice from colour= CRITICISING SYSTEM of propaganda.
• intoxicated= been drugged by those in power; betrayed.
• resisted= death or life without him. Loss of control and tone of regret reflecting that was strips away everything and leave all vulnerable
• softened and steeled, syntax of steeled first shows that war has left her vulnerable and voiceless. Juxtaposition shows subconscious disapproval further shown through lexical fields of war vs innocence
• allusion to Jesus is heavy irony. Patriotism yet not
• first person narrative= archetypal for all sons. Removes dehumanisation and shows impacts on others. Reveals different kind of conflict to cause readers to reflect
War photographer
• Earns living/ flesh is grass
• red light
• Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. + mass
• solutions slop
• structure
• earns living= money OR right to live. Sense of survice and duty. Implies that greatest tragedy is not war but human indifference. Still uneasy though though internal random rhymes and red light
• flesh is grass= biblical, duty to bear witness and show that life is brief.
• omniscient third person NARRATOR aligns with character and is critical of war- Beirut. Belfast. Phnom Penh. Throbbing trochaic rhythm reflects the injustice that identity had been stripped and generalised as a location. ‘Mass’ is what these people are seen as, greatly dehumanising.
• solutions slop= mankind tries to solve problems with war, being critical of this notion
• 4 stanzas with equal length and ordered rows= theme of order. However, lots of enjambement reflects the chaos and injustice of war. Duty to exploit the belief that war is not the answer.
The émigrée
• my
• sunlight, it lies
• shadow, branded
• sounds + rhythm
• sunlight
• sick
• sees identity as driving force: ‘my’= ownership. So imp, CONSCIOUSLY allows herself to be blinded by this; sunlight distorts senses, it lies= knows it’s not true
• AUTHOR arguably aligns with tissue : shadow= desperation to hold onto her identity HAUNTING HER + branded by sunlight= THIS OBSESSION with identity could perhaps be harming her; can sound painful. Internal rhyme of ‘o’s shows that memory is ghostly and haunts her. No regular rhythm but pattern of five stresses= uneasy conflict
• doesn’t let conflict compromise happiness- optimism will override human intervention of tyranny
• sick can be cured
Checking out me history
• language
• bandaged up me eye to me own identity
• rhyme and free verse
• ‘star’
• subverts from standard English to show that he is overcoming British oppression OR human intervention of ‘culture’ and ‘identity’
• his culture is seen as a blemish, they believe that they are helping him by covering it up
• begins with oppressive restrictive rhymes but transforms into free verse to reflect freedom of embracing cultural diversity
• not belittling white people, just advocates for equality, seen though mixing of calypso (w.i political form of music) with British rhymes, and standard English with non standard English
• ‘star’ alludes to Jesus, that we can heal and achieve salvation through breaking down artificial boarders
• empowered ending through rhyming couplet
