Poetry Flashcards
Power and Conflict Anthology
1
Q
Remains - Plot
A
- group of soldiers made to shoot man running from bank raid in war
- soldier not sure if man was armed or not
- soldier can’t get man’s death out of his head
- may be getting help, may not
2
Q
Remains - Context
A
- based on Guardsman Truman who fought in Iraq - Battle of Basra in 2003
- psychological effects of war - PTSD which is very common for soldiers returning from war
3
Q
Remains - Form
A
- No regular rhythm/rhyme scheme - sounds like a story being told
- starts with 1st person plural but switches to 1st person singular - shows him blaming himself
- both lines in final couplet have same meter - suggests guilt will stay with him
4
Q
Remains - Structure
A
- media res opening - reflects chaos of war and not knowing the whole story
- enjambment - adds to sense of story being told
5
Q
Remains - Themes
A
- effects of conflict
- reality of conflict
- memory
- guilt
- individual experiences
6
Q
Remains - Key Quotes
A
- “on another occasion we got sent out”
- “I see every round as it rips through his life”
- “one of my mates goes by and tosses his guts back into his body”
- “and the drink and the drugs won’t flush him out”
- “but near to the knuckle, here and now his bloody life in my bloody hands”
7
Q
“On occasion we got sent out”
A
- media res middle of conversation, maybe with therapist/reporter
- ’occasion’ suggests this was the worst, was building up to it
- ’sent out’ suggests being deployed was punishment, suggests negativity, exclusion (from identity)
8
Q
“I see every round as it rips through his life”
A
- volta switched from collective to personal terms, taking blame
- ’rips’ not just killing, destroying, emphasised by harsh alliteration of ‘r’
- ’see’ present tense, plays in his memory, can’t get rid
- ’round’ means bullet but suggest memory keeps coming back
9
Q
“One of my mates fired by and tosses his guts back into his body”
A
- ’mates’ and ’tosses’ juxtaposed colloquial and horrific language
- ’goes by’ not what he does, represents narrator trying to ‘go by’ the memory
- sibilance creates sinister mood to something trying to be passed off as normal
- ’tosses his guts’ metaphor for being sick at what he is describing as a casual action
10
Q
“And the drink and the drugs won’t flush him out”
A
- repetition keeps turning to ‘drink and ‘drugs’ maybe for addiction, trying to escape memory
- ’flush him out’ military metaphor for exposing enemy
- ’flush’ gives idea of excrement, want to flush away memory that is excrement, alludes to self-disgust
11
Q
“But near to the knuckle, here and now, his bloody life in my bloody hands”
A
- discordance poem doesn’t end in rhyming couplet, lack of control
- ’bloody hands’ literary allusion to Lady Macbeth, blood represents guilt and tragic consequences
- ’my’ personal pronoun, taking blame
- ’here and now’ could suggest he can stay in present, could suggest he can’t escape from memory
- ’bloody’ could be used as a swear word, expressing anger for what he’s done
- ’near to the knuckle’ metaphor for breaking social construct - soldiers always brave, may be fighting guilt and seeking help
12
Q
War Photographer - Plot
A
- war photographer develops photos back from war in darkroom
- as photos develop, he remembers man’s death and horrors of war
- discusses nonchalance of England when war is happening overseas
- may be taking strange pleasure in what he is doing – psychologically damaged from being exposed to war conflict
13
Q
War Photographer - Context
A
- war photographers go to armed conflicts to take photos
- often killed – either accidentally or seen as a threat to the enemy
- Duffy inspired by her friend who was a war photographer
- references – The Irish Troubles, The Siege of Beirut, The Cambodian Genocide
14
Q
War Photographer - Form
A
- 4 equal sized with a regular rhyme scheme – shows photographer takes care in his work
- enjambment – reflects gradual revealing of developing photo
15
Q
War Photographer - Structure
A
- very rigid – contrasts chaos of war
- volta in 3rd stanza when remembering man’s death
16
Q
War Photographer - Themes
A
- effects of conflict
- reality of conflict
- memory
- anger
- guilt
- individual experiences
17
Q
War Photographer - Key Quotes
A
- “In his darkroom he is finally alone with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows”
- “a priest preparing to intone a mass. Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass”
- “a half formed ghost. He remembered the cries of this man’s wife, how he sought approval”
- “The reader’s eyes prick with tears between the bath and the pre-lunch beers”
- “From the aeroplane he stares impassively at where he earns a living and they do not care”
18
Q
“In his dark room, he is finally alone with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows”
A
- change in rhythm - trochaic to iambic pentameter immediately unsettles reader
- “dark room” film was developed with red lights, symbolic for photographer, suggests purpose is dark, questioning moralality
- “finally” relieved to be alone, he may not like humanity after what he has seen in war
- sibilance - creates sinister sense suggesting he is doing something sinister - observing but not interfering
- “ordered rows” alludes to death, graveyards are set out in ordered rows, semantic field of death
19
Q
“A priest preparing to intone a mass. Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. all flesh is grass”
A
- half rhyme – mass/grass unsettled audience
- change in rhythm – Iambic to trochaic pentameter unsettles reader
- alliteration of ‘p’ feels violent, plosive sounds, link to how people died
- “priest” ironic metaphor, he is recording death
- “intone a mass” ironic as a priest would help the soul into heaven, photographer is not helping people only recording, ironically could suggest there is no God as there is mass slaughter, makes reader question if God exists
- listing – Starts closer and moves further away, Northern Ireland Middle East, Southeast Asia, conflicts get bigger
- “All flesh is grass” biblical illusion meaning ‘we are born to die’, excuses death, if Duffy has suggested no God this means death is tragic, deaths don’t matter to killers, could suggest death doesn’t matter to photographer, ironic as he wants the reader to care, consequently he no longer feels this pain, sacrificing his humanity to change the world
20
Q
“a half-formed ghost. He remembered the cries of this man’s wife, how he sought approval”
A
- “half-formed ghost” metaphor, photo is half formed and ghostly but man is dead
- “cries” at end of line to emphasise pain of people affected by conflict
- “wife” can’t focus on dead man, maybe to painful, focuses on wife
- “sought approval” also at end of line contrasted to wife’s feelings, focuses on his, like he is asking for permission to take photo, like he is pointing camera at him and looking at wife, approval not given, takes photo anyway, moral dilemma is it to raise awareness or voyeurism
21
Q
“The reader’s eyes prick with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers”
A
- internal rhyme - makes line field jolly, ironic as they should be shocked, contrasts with the appropriate reaction
- “prick” tiny and suggests tears don’t form
- “bath” suggests they wash away what they have seen forget
- “beers” they could be medicating themselves with beer so they don’t have to face their conscience and what happens in 3rd worlds, wars, photographs have no impact, portrays man’s life as a tragedy
22
Q
“From the aeroplane he stares in impassively at where he earns his living and they do not care”
A
- rhyming couplet - ending with this suggests completeness, ironic as photographer doesn’t feel complete
- “stares” ambiguous, staring at Britain when leaving or staring when going home to Britain
- “impassively” without feeling, destroyed by his job, can’t feel pleasure at coming home or serving country with war, making no affect
- “earns his living” ironic as he is living and they are dying
- rhythm changes - trochaic to iambic pentameter, unsettling
23
Q
Bayonet Charge - Plot
A
- soldier charges enemy lines
- he freezes and considers why he is fighting
- he loses his patriotic values from before the conflict
- he begins to fight from fear
24
Q
Bayonet Charge - Context
A
- set in WW1
- bayonet is a rifle with a spear on the end for close combat
- going over the top – soldiers coming out of trenches and charging enemy lines
- written to highlight brutality of trench warfare
- written to honour his father who fought in WW1
- may be a depiction of one of his father’s experiences
