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English > Poetry > Flashcards

Poetry Flashcards

1
Q

‘The Captain of the 1964 Top of the Form Team’

A
  • definite article ‘the’= specifically one
  • concrete noun ‘captain’= leader, in charge, most popular/intelligent; natural selection means he’s at the top of the hierarchy
  • ‘1964’= temporal deixis, specifies period of time
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2
Q

‘Gargling with Vimto’
(Captain)

A
  • onomatopoeia ‘gargling’= present tense, brings memories to the present
  • proper noun ‘Vimto’= represents innocence and youth
  • enjambment= no pause in train of thought
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3
Q

‘The clever smell of my satchel. ‘
(Captain)

A
  • possessive pronoun ‘my’= egotistical?
  • caesura= pauses represent stream of consciousness and how quickly the thoughts are coming to him
  • personification of ‘clever smell’= narrator exudes intelligence
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4
Q

‘the white sleeve of my shirt saluted again and again’
(Captain)

A
  • repetition of frequency adverb ‘again’= he always knows the answers; too good for current life?, very confident, answers don’t change unlike everything around him
  • base adjective ‘white’= connotes innocence
  • material verb ‘saluted’= military connotations
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5
Q

‘The blazer. The badge. The tie.’
(Captain)

A
  • concrete nouns= seemingly insignificant details; wants to go back and is trying to remember everything as it was
  • caesura= stream of conscience
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6
Q

‘I want it back.’
(Captain)

A
  • volta= comparison between childhood and present
  • sudden change in tone from hopeful excitement to regret
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7
Q

‘stale wife’, ‘thick kids’
(Captain)

A
  • base adjective ‘stale’= believes he deserves a better life than the one he has
  • base adjective ‘thick’= treats everyone as inferior and believes his superiority in childhood should have gotten him a better position in life
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8
Q

What are Duffy’s intentions?
(Captain)

A

Duffy writes to show how fast people grow up and how to make the most of childhood.

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9
Q

‘Those early mercenaries, it made them ill’
(Nostalgia)

A
  • demonstrative pronoun ‘those’= particular group
  • concrete noun ‘mercenaries’= a soldier that is paid to fight for a country they do not belong to
  • pronoun ‘it’= not specifically saying ‘nostalgia’; sense of denial?
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10
Q

‘down down’
(Nostalgia)

A
  • repetition suggests that the soldiers are becoming more and more depressed; implies the decline of their mental conditions
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11
Q

‘dull crude coins clenched’
(Nostalgia)

A
  • consonance and dental alliteration
  • alliteration of the percussive ‘c’ implies harsh negativity
  • material verb ‘clenched’= suggests effort to keep hold of them; all they have left?
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12
Q

‘they pined, wept, grown men.’
(Nostalgia)

A
  • juxtaposition= questions the masculinity of men; links to gender values and stereotypes
  • plosives= intensifies the harshness the mercenaries face during the battle
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13
Q

‘the sad pipes’
(Nostalgia)

A
  • grammatically isolated= creates melancholic tone
  • base adjective ‘sad’= emphasises sombre tone
  • heightens multi- sensory concept
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14
Q

‘head in his hands, crying at the workings of memory’
(Nostalgia)

A
  • sense of despair
  • material verb ‘crying’= adds to despair nostalgia is causing everyone
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15
Q

‘It was spring when one returned’
(Nostalgia)

A
  • concrete noun ‘spring’= positive volta; spring symbolises new life/beginnings
  • pronoun ‘one’= no specific names
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16
Q

‘same street’, ‘same sign’, ‘same bell’
(Nostalgia)

A
  • repetition of base adjective ‘same’= emphasises how nothing is different, could show length of struggle
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17
Q

‘everything changed’
(Nostalgia)

A
  • contrasts ‘same’; syntax; new life?
  • material verb ‘changed’= emphasises how much harder life will now be to live for the mercenaries
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18
Q

What is the structure of Nostalgia?

A

The poem is told by a 3rd person omniscient narrator, although there are lots of characters throughout. The final stanza has 10 lines instead of 9, perhaps suggesting that order has been restored after returning from war.

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19
Q

‘I’m ten years away from the corner you laugh on’
(BYWM)

A
  • temporal deixis= stanzas begin with a reminder of distance in time between mum and daughter
  • adverb ‘away’= daughter is becoming mum?
  • material verb ‘laugh’= connotes happiness
  • preposition ‘on’= present tense creates vivid image
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20
Q

‘Marilyn.’
(BYWM)

A
  • proper noun= Marilyn Monroe; figurehead of the 1950s; mother is a figurehead of her life?
  • caesura= emphasises importance of name
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21
Q

‘whose small bites on your neck, sweetheart?’
(BYWM)

A
  • concrete noun ‘bites’= connotations of lust and young love; represents mum’s past life that she’s not experiencing anymore?
  • proper noun ‘sweetheart’= role reversal, daughter babying mother
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22
Q

‘stamping stars from the wrong pavement’
(BYWM)

A
  • sibilance= creates musicality; links to mum dancing in the line before
  • Hollywood Walk of Fame?= slight hint of the past in mum’s step but it’s the ‘wrong pavement’, which signifies the change of having kids; guilt from child?
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23
Q

‘where you sparkle and waltz and laugh before you were mine.’
(BYWM)

A
  • syndetic list= repetition emphasises all the qualities she imagined her mum had
  • cyclical structure= establishes possessive tone
  • possessive pronoun ‘mine’= mother has little freedom from child?
  • caesura= memory is final
  • semantic field of happiness, glamour
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24
Q

What are the themes in Before You Were Mine?

A
  • love/romance
  • memories
  • time
  • identity
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25
Q

What is the form of Before You Were Mine?

A
  • 4 stanzas with 5 lines= steady passing of time
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26
Q

What is the importance of the present and past in Before You Were Mine?

A
  • set in the past but written in the present tense= tries to bring memory to life and is almost grieving a loss so is carrying it with her
  • keeping memory alive in the present
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27
Q

‘If you think till it hurts’
(Beachcomber)

A
  • pronoun ‘you’= 2nd person; narrator is speaking to someone
  • mental verb ‘think’= suggests extreme concentration
  • colloquial language ‘till’= conveys Duffy’s colloquial style; person finds it difficult to recall memories
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28
Q

‘How old are you now?’
(Beachcomber)

A
  • interrogatives= suggest weakened memory
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29
Q

‘In her bucket, a starfish, seaweed, a dozen alarming crabs’
(Beachcomber)

A
  • semantic field of seaside objects
  • triplet= represents stereotypical objects you’d find at the beach
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30
Q

‘Don’t move.’
(Beachcomber)

A
  • imperative= instruction to themself to try and recall memory?
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31
Q

‘You remember that cardigan, yes?
You remember that cardigan.’
(Beachcomber)

A
  • adjacency pair= shows memories are coming back slowly
  • rhetorical question= prompting themself to remember
  • mental verb ‘remember’= memory
  • declarative= fact
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32
Q

‘But this is as close as you get.’
(Beachcomber)

A
  • volta
  • conjunction ‘but’= stops the progress they’re making with the memory
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33
Q

What are the themes in Beachcomber?

A
  • memory
  • loneliness
  • reflecting
  • age
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34
Q

What is the structure of Beachcomber?

A
  • graphically, the poem looks like a wave
  • stream of consciousness style
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35
Q

‘Waking, with a dream of first love’
(First Love)

A
  • material verb ‘waking’= new day?; new found feeling in first love
  • abstract noun ‘dream’= surrealism associated with first love; emphasis on memory- these feelings are heightened and unattainable in real love
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36
Q

‘I speak your name, after a silence of years’
(First Love)

A
  • material verb ‘speak’= memory is so vivid she speaks their name
  • brings memory into the present and is experiencing the love again
  • abstract noun ‘silence’= hasn’t said the name in years
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37
Q

’ in windows of a changing sky, in mirrors, my lover’s eyes’
(First Love)

A
  • concrete noun ‘windows’= divide between inside and outside?
  • pathetic fallacy ‘changing sky’= emphasises how long she will hold on to the love
  • concrete noun ‘mirrors’= persona is a reflection of her first love?
  • ‘my lover’s eyes’= comparison between current and past lover?
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38
Q

‘And later a star, long dead’
(First Love)

A
  • concrete noun ‘star’= appears every night; can refer to people
  • metaphor= sense of sadness and acceptance; no longer present but still felt
39
Q

‘a lover letter out of a dream’
(First Love)

A
  • abstract noun ‘dream’= receiving something from the past that you haven’t experienced in years; same emotions still there
  • concrete noun ‘love-letter’= cherishes memories, even if they aren’t at the forefront of her mind all the time
40
Q

‘Unseen flowers suddenly pierce and sweeten the air’
(First Love)

A
  • concrete noun ‘flowers’= represent long-lost memories and how they ‘sweeten the air’ with their surprising presence; typical valentine’s gift
  • manner adverb ‘suddenly’= unexpected and surprising
  • material verb ‘sweeten’= brings happiness to current life
41
Q

What is the structure of First Love?

A
  • short
  • 5 lines in each stanza
  • reflection of how long Duffy thinks first love is meant to last?; however it is full of meaning and emotion that the person will look back on, like the poem
42
Q

What are Duffy’s intentions?
(First Love)

A

To show how first love could have happened, how long it would’ve lasted and the effects it can have on a person; possibly leaving them with a happy memory to look back on and dream about

43
Q

‘Not a red rose or a satin heart.’
(Valentine)

A
  • adverb ‘not’= clear from the start that her love is not traditional, and that a traditional gift will not do to represent her love
  • concrete nouns ‘red rose’ and ‘satin heart’= speaker immediately reveals she chooses to reject the traditional and expected Valentine’s Day gifts; traditional gifts suggest traditional love
44
Q

‘I give you an onion.’
(Valentine)

A
  • concrete noun ‘onion’= unconventional and humble gift
45
Q

‘It promises light like the careful undressing of love’
(Valentine)

A
  • pronoun ‘it’= onion is a metaphor for love itself
  • base adjective ‘careful’= you have to carefully peel the skin of an onion to avoid tears
  • concrete noun ‘light’= connotations of happiness
46
Q

Here. It will blind you with tears’
(Valentine)

A
  • proximal deixis ‘here’= lover is unwilling to accept gift?; has to try and give it again
  • pronoun ‘it’= what will blind you with tears?
  • material verb ‘blind= another reason an onion is an acceptable gift?
47
Q

‘a wobbling photo of grief’
(Valentine)

A
  • unpleasant description
  • abstract noun ‘grief’= love brings tears and sadness; onion is an appropriate representation of love
  • base adjective ‘wobbling’= connotations of unsteady emotions
48
Q

‘Its scent will cling to your fingers, cling to your knife’
(Valentine)

A
  • repetition of material verb ‘cling’= love is not easily washed away
  • concrete noun ‘knife’= represents the cutting off of the relationship?; warning that when you end a relationship, feelings of love still linger like the scent of an onion
49
Q

‘The Biographer’
(The Bio)

A
  • definite article ‘the’= someone specific; sense of pride, duty, importance?
  • proper noun ‘Biographer’= writing about someone else’s life; focus on someone else- obsession? hint at loss of own identity?
50
Q

‘Because you are dead’
(The Bio)

A
  • conjunction ‘because’ at the start of a sentence= unusual syntax; confusion?
  • pronoun ‘you’= person deixis makes it seem speaker is focusing on this idol’s work, while forgetting the world around them; Duffy commenting on identity?
  • base adjective ‘dead’= sets gloomy tone for poem
  • declarative sentence with epistemic force
51
Q

‘my fingers caressing the wood’
(The Bio)

A
  • material verb ‘caressing’= personal, invasive action
  • concrete noun ‘grooves’= trying to get as close to him as possible; wants to know all the intricate details
52
Q

‘your wallpaper green and crimson and gold’
(The Bio)

A
  • base adjectives ‘green’, ‘crimson’, ‘gold’= christmas colours; A Christmas Carol?
53
Q

What are the themes in The Biographer?

A
  • identity
  • unhappiness
  • isolation
54
Q

How is the speaker presented in The Biographer?

A
  • dedicated
  • doesn’t prioritise himself
  • unrequited love; anger, family
  • anger towards subject; affair, can only access now he’s dead
55
Q

‘Litany’
(Litany)

A
  • series of petitions for use in church services or processions
  • tedious recital or repetitive series
56
Q

‘The soundtrack then was a litany’
(Litany)

A
  • concrete noun ‘soundtrack’= freedom and enjoyment
  • juxtaposition of ‘soundtrack’ and ‘litany’= child speaker conflicting adult world with women; women want to be a soundtrack, when in reality they are the litany- Duffy commenting on the fact we should have freedom and that it is OK to be rebellious to challenge corrupt societal conventions?
57
Q

‘the code I learnt at my mother’s knee’
(Litany)

A
  • concrete noun ‘code’= hiding behind their language, not saying things explicitly
58
Q

‘where no one had cancer, or sex, or debts, and certainly not leukaemia, which no one could spell.’
(Litany)

A
  • juxtaposition of concrete nouns ‘sex’ and ‘debts’= equally as horrifying; highlights ridiculousness
  • material verb ‘spell’= adults are spelling words out loud, so kids don’t know what they’re saying; ironic that people only suffered from diseases people could spell- mocking their falsehoods and education
59
Q

‘salted my tongue like an imminent storm’
(Litany)

A
  • concrete noun ‘tongue’= can taste the power of her language
  • base adjective ‘imminent’= metaphor for ensuing chaos
60
Q

‘Only there, the afternoons could suddenly pause’
(SA)

A
  • spatial deixis ‘there’= isolates the place
  • material verb ‘pause’= naivety; time can’t pause, prolonging of time
  • concrete noun ‘afternoons’= immediate indication of time; sense of isolation and sadness
  • temporal adverb ‘suddenly’
61
Q

‘In a cul-de-sac, a strange boy threw a stone’
(SA)

A

-concrete noun ‘cul-de-sac’= represents the children’s safety net
- base adjective ‘strange’= foreshadows danger that lies ahead

62
Q

‘The green silence gulped and swallowed me whole’
(SA)

A
  • base adjective ‘green’= adds to the semantic field of nature created throughout the poem
  • material verbs ‘gulped’ and ‘swallowed’= connotations of eating; links to danger?
  • material verb ‘swallowed’= personification of silence
63
Q

‘Touch, said the long-haired man’
(SA)

A
  • material verb ‘touch’= emphasised by the syntax Duffy has created; emphasises the importance of it
64
Q

What are the themes in Stafford Afternoons?

A
  • growing up
  • memories
  • reflection
  • time passing
  • childhood
65
Q

What do the stanzas represent in Stafford Afternoons?

A

1+2= represent innocence
3+4= innocence has been stripped away

66
Q

‘The Cliché Kid’
(Cliché)

A
  • definite article ‘the’= specifically about one person
  • base adjective ‘cliché’= phrase or stereotype that is overused; typical person- conformity
  • concrete noun ‘kid’= colloquial language
  • contrasting; one person, but is a cliché?
67
Q

‘I can’t forget the rustle of my father’s ballgown’
(Cliché)

A
  • enjambment= emphasises start of next line
  • concrete noun ‘ballgown’= reversed gender stereotypes
  • concrete noun ‘father’s’= identity issues; unaccepted?
68
Q

‘Big Bertha pissing out from the porch’
(Cliché)

A
  • plosives= harsh tone suggests anger
  • material verb ‘pissing’= reversed gender stereotypes; vulgar, uncomfortable memories
  • exposure to unfiltered reality
69
Q

‘This kid is so unpopular even my imaginary friend left me’
(Cliché)

A
  • base adjective ‘unpopular’= worthless?
  • intensifier ‘so’= emphasises unpopularity
  • material verb ‘left’= lonely
  • base adjective ‘imaginary’= never had friends; had to create his own
70
Q

‘Distraught in autumn, kneeling under the chestnut trees’
(Cliché)

A
  • mental verb ‘distraught’= extreme sadness
  • semantic field of autumn= time for a change
  • material verb ‘kneeling’= begging, praying?
71
Q

‘Don’t let me pine for that first love’
(Cliché)

A
  • material verb ‘pine’= link to pinecones?
  • abstract noun ‘love’= not looking for love, just wants to get over pain
  • imperative= sets tone for the stanza?
  • softer tone= more fondness?
72
Q

‘the fresh-baked grass, dammit, the new-mown bread’
(Cliché)

A
  • ‘dammit’= American blasphemous language; brings readers’ attention due to informal nature
  • cliches wrong way round= thoughts still jumbled
73
Q

Why is enjambment used in The Cliché Kid?

A
  • trailing off of thoughts; struggling to stay focused
74
Q

What are the themes in The Cliché Kid?

A
  • isolation
  • memories
  • identity
  • loneliness
  • mental illness
75
Q

Why is rhyming used in The Cliché Kid?

A
  • half rhyme and full rhyme suggests instability
  • speeds up poem; panicked, complete dumping of thoughts
76
Q

‘With some surprise, I balance my small female skull in my hands.’
(SFS)

A
  • abstract noun ‘surprise’= implies she is unfamiliar with her skull; unable to describe or identify how she feels about it
  • material verb ‘balance’= reflects upon belief that life is a balancing act
  • base adjective ‘small’= less intelligent or insignificant?
  • ‘small female skull’= objectifies her skull, disassociating it from her body
77
Q

‘It cannot cry, holds my breath only as long as I exhale’
(SFS)

A
  • material verb ‘cry’= humanity has been removed as it’s no longer part of the body
  • material verb ‘exhale’= trying to breathe life back into the skull
78
Q

‘It feels much lighter that I’d thought’
(SFS)

A
  • comparative adjective ‘lighter’= assumes skull is heavy due to intelligence and weight of thought
  • mental verb ‘thought’= overestimated own intelligence?
79
Q

‘take it to the mirror to ask for a gottle of geer?
(SFS)

A
  • concrete noun ‘mirror’= object of reflection; trying to understand herself through the skull
  • guttural alliteration= imitates what skull would sound like without lips; ventriloquism- still drunk?
80
Q

What are the themes in Small Female Skull?

A
  • memory
  • reflecting back
  • the past
  • death
  • detachment
  • identity
81
Q

‘In the bar where the living dead drink all day’
(NGB)

A
  • concrete noun ‘bar’= only way people pass their time
  • oxymoron ‘living dead’= metaphor for the people of this town; entrapment- aren’t living just existing
  • material verb ‘drink’= immediately creates sense of stagnation and emptiness; use of senses to stimulate senses
82
Q

‘The house where you were one of the brides has cancer.’
(NGB)

A
  • personification
  • concrete noun ‘cancer’= house is plagued with bad memories
  • pronoun ‘you’= direct address
  • juxtaposition of ‘brides’ and ‘cancer’= life vs death?
83
Q

‘A taxi implying a hearse’
(NGB)

A
  • concrete noun ‘hearse’= previous life has died?
  • concrete noun ‘taxi’= journey from the past where she’ll never return again
84
Q

‘The driver looks like death.’
(NGB)

A
  • metaphor= Grim Reaper?
85
Q

‘Sly sums of money’
(NGB)

A
  • metaphor for prostitutes?
  • base adjective ‘sly’= devious
  • sibilance creates feeling of unease
86
Q

What are the themes in Never Go Back?

A
  • alienation
  • despair
  • decay
  • memories
  • helplessness
87
Q

‘Close’
(Close)

A
  • can relate to proximity or end of something
  • homonym; 2 different ways of saying it
  • ambiguous; shut off or nearby?
88
Q

‘Lock the door.’
(Close)

A
  • imperative verb ‘lock’= monosyllabic
  • caesura= supports abruptness of action
89
Q

‘you have me like a drawing, erased, coloured in, untitled, signed by your tongue’
(Close)

A
  • semantic field of art= links to childhood
  • asyndetic list
  • concrete noun ‘tongue’= innocence of childhood stripped away by sexual connotation
90
Q

‘The clocks slid back an hour’
(MT)

A
  • material verb ‘slid’= immediate personification of time
91
Q

‘mourning our love’
(MT)

A
  • collective pronoun ‘our’= shared blame
  • material verb ‘mourning’= grief, absolute sadness; struggling to come to terms with events
92
Q

‘unmendable rain fell to the bleak streets’
(MT)

A
  • base adjective ‘unmendable’= constant sorrow
  • pathetic fallacy ‘bleak streets’= mirrors grief
93
Q

‘These are the shortened days and the endless nights’
(MT)

A
  • base adjective ‘shortened’= days are short because all light has been taken from her life
  • sibilance= emphasises base adjective ‘endless’; elongates word
  • caesura at end of each stanza emphasises message; finality- mortality, relationships
94
Q

What are the themes in Mean Time?

A
  • death
  • depression
  • time
  • regret
  • love
  • loss

English (5 decks)

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