poetry Flashcards
Prayer Before Birth
Themes:
- suffering
- powerlessness
- dystopian
Links to War Photographer
Form: Dramatic Monologue
Structure - Anaphora establishes 1st person and prayer, asyndetic listing and paradoxes show the degree of chaos/nonsensical, lack of rhyme - chaotic, shape of the poem is like a dropping bomb which suggests suffering.
Language - colour and light imagery, imperatives, alliteration and assonance, the lexical field of nature - ironic as the corruption of mankind is not natural
- Fear of exploitation and objectification - ‘cog in a machine’, ‘with strength against those who…’
- The juxtaposition between newborn and war - shows war has taken away the child’s innocence and that the world wants him to suffer almost.
- man-made suffering - ‘human race may with tall walls wall me…’
- nature also suffers due to war - poem shows the terrible effects of war on nature
Blessing
Themes:
- suffering
- poverty
- culture and setting
- unusual experience
- powerful imagery
Links to La Belle Dame sans Merci and Half Past Two - unusual experience. Links to War Photographer - powerful imagery Links to Search for my Tongue - culture and setting.
Structure - no punctuation in lines emphasises chaos. 2nd stanza enjambment shows excitement and desperation. Listing also suggests chaos. Truncated lines shows lack of water.
Language - extended metaphor that water is a gift from god. metaphor liquid sun shows severe dehydration due to harshness of sun. Harsh consonants reflext harshness of sun and monosyllables small splash emphasise this - shows how sacred water is. hypebole ‘roar of tongues’ shows desperation.
- 1st stanza sets a scene of suffering - ‘never’, harsh consonants, similie - emphasises conditions, onamatopoeia, monosyllables- severe dehydration.
- 2nd stanza shows the excitement and desperation -silver crashes’, hypebole ‘roar of tongues’, no punctuation ‘every man woman child’ mimetic of chaos. listing also suggests chaos.
- 3rd stanza returns to suffering as this blessing is only a temporary relief. ‘small bones’, they are so deeply affected by lack of water that now, even though the blessing helps them temporarily, it cannot fix their situation. + poverty.
- poverty ‘naked children’, ‘highlights’
Poem at Thirty-Nine
Themes:
- love/relationship (father-child)
- growing up
- nostalgia
- learning
- poverty/hardship
Links to Piano, Hide and Seek
Structure - free verse develops stream of consciousness as the writer shares her memories. enjambment suggests a conuation of pain and memory. exclamatory - expresses sadness. refrain (repeated line) - nostalgic, emphasies how much she misses him. Juxtaposition- dancing in a yoga meditation emphasises his appearance and lively persona. colons in last stanza show they are connected deeply.
Language - first person reflection shows her exploring her sadness. ‘tired’ - tired of racism and poverty etc. similie shows his liveliness and his happiness. ‘craved’ shows how he put his family before himself due to poverty and love. ‘now’ time adverb, shows her celebrating how she has inherited his traits.
- exploring the sadness she feels due to losing her father.
- reminiscing, memories and what he taught her which makes her feel as if she learned a lot from him-this makes her happy. but makes her sad again - exclamatory.
- relationship - she has become like him, she has learnt from him and is celebrating how she has inherited his traits. - not feeling sad by the end.
War Photographer
Themes:
- grief
- suffering
- loss
- anger
- powerful imagery
- death
Links to Prayer Before Birth, Piano, Blessing.
Structure - rhyming couplet in a rigid order - contrasts with chaos and disturbance he faces through his job.
Language - ‘spools of suffering’ - metaphor and alliteration emphasises how much suffering these people experience and how their suffering is photographed for sales and for us to look at and do nothing about. light is red - connotes blood but also may connote hell which juxtaposes religion. Dark contrasting imagery ‘running children in a nightmare heat’ - end of innocence and suggests how desensitized British people are to the pain of others.
- destruction and bloodshed of war contrasted with uncaringness of the world.
- horror and agony of war - ‘spools of suffering’ etc
- man is a symbol of our reality - all human values are lost during the war. + hatred for his job and sadness he feels.
Piano
Themes:
- loss
- sadness
- grief
- emotional suffering
- love
Links to Poem at 39, War Photographer
Structure - warm home contrasted with coldness of winter shows how his mothers presence made the atmosphere of his home warm. Rhyming couplets mimetic of close relationship with his mother.
Language - onamatopoeic tingling strings adds to soft gentle mood. ‘Taking me back’ - memory transports him back, he seems powerless to prevent this. ‘A child’ highlights distance between him and his memory. ‘in the flood of remembrance’ indicates sheer power of this memory that floods away his manhood - melancholic. perhaps a flood of his own tears. ‘I weep like a child’ - simile shows his longing to relive this memory causes him great emotional pain.
- gentle mood - nice memory at first
- trying to fight with his inner self as memory betrays him and makes him feel depressed.
- memory becomes passionate and makes him suffer and is melancholic at the end. He wants those times to come back.
Half-Past Two
Themes:
- powerlessness
- abandonment (feeling)
- child experience
Links to Hide and Seek, Piano.
Structure - Capitalisation conveys harsh tone of condemnatory voices + juxtaposes sense of importance given to the event. Parenthetical brackets suggest that long time has passed and childish fears have been left behind. Repitition shows childs confusion and suggests alarm of his own ignorance. End stopped lines in lines 6 and 15 create abrupt pause as child contemplates the meaning and severity of punishment. Enjambement - ‘ever’ lingers in air creating feeling of falling as child slips into world of imagination.
Language - Compounded words create a charming illustration of the child’s innocent view of the world. ‘the little eyes’ - personification used to anthropomorphise the clock. ‘couldnt click its language’ - metaphor, creates sense of disconnection. Verb ‘slotted’ suggests order has been reestablished and he has been encased once more into real world and its set of obligations. Connective ‘but’ offers alternative perspective that child experienced an epiphany, he escaped the confines of the real world ruled by adults.
- Initial feelings upon isolation - imprisoned in detention. Fear and confusion - capitalization.
- Transition and reversal of feelings - connective ‘but’ - offers alternative perspective…
- Final thoughts about experience of abandonment - positive now compared to beginning of poem, ‘escaped into the clockless land of forever’, he was able to discover his imagination. verb ‘slotted’…
Hide and Seek
Themes:
- anger
- alienation/loneliness
- power of authority
Links to Half Past Two and War Photographer.
Structure - abrupt sentence conveys how his discomfort is now tangible ‘The floor is cold’. Reinforced by monosyllables. Short simple sentences reflect delusions that distort our perceptions in adult life as well as in childhood - the child doesn’t know as of yet that he’s been betrayed. Rhetorical question - no one is there to answer, uneasy and lonely.
Language - Strong imperatives suggest determination and energetic child. Metaphor ‘blindness’ shows the child’s innocence and ignorance, he is blind to the betrayal about to come. alliteration and personification dd and through your coat indicates the child is becoming uncomfortable. the personification of the garden is a sign of the child’s imagination but also ominous and menacing. symbolism ‘sun’ has gon as has his hope.
- initial feelings upon isolation - Excitement, confidence - exclamation marks, direct speech, imperatives.
- Transition and reversal of feelings - rhetorical question, realization that he has been abandoned.
- Final thoughts about abandonment - negative feelings of abandonment. Short simple sentences.
Search for My Tongue
Themes:
- identity
- culture
- suffering
- conflict (inner conflict)
Links to Half-Caste, Blessing and War Photographer.
Structure - mother tongue is in the middle of the poem, surrounded by English as if guarding her language because it is valuable to her or how English overpowers her language and her language is deeply rooted in the centre of her brain but she forgets it because she is surrounded by English all the time. parenthetical brackets show how it is engraved in the back of her mind even if she feels as if it’s diminishing. the pronoun ‘you’ shows inner conflict.
Language - extended metaphor - tongue is a metaphor that shows language is as much a part of our identity as any body part is. the plant is then a metaphor of language- blossoming is a powerful symbol of the life and energy of her language.
- losing her language because of English and her opinion on that.
- structure, inner conflict and dream - the difficulty of remembering her language.
- her mother tongue will always stick with her as it is a key part of her identity, even if she fears she has lost it she hasn’t bc it is so important.
Half-Caste
Themes:
- identity
- culture
- oppression
- prejudice
Links to Search for My Tongue
Form - performance poem
Structure - free verse - no pattern to rhyme or rhythm or stanza shape - doesn’t need to follow and accept prejudices, saying freely how he feels. Doesn’t follow rules of English grammar and spelling - legitimises west Indian dialect and also an act of defiance against western rules and culture - showing pride. and it suggests a rebellious attitude towards established rules. repetition - forms an assertive refrain which increases emphasis of him questioning the disrespectful stereotypes.
Language - imperatives address and challenge reader. Reference to Picasso and Tchaikovsky shows that mixing is used to create something beautiful that adds to culture, Personification of clouds show that they are deliberately blocking out the sun’s attempts to get past them, therefore people that hold such prejudices are also spiteful. Irony - suggests the audience hasn’t been fully formed because of ignorance and prejudice, they have one-sided opinions.
- Mocks western rules and rebels against them due to prejudices.
- Shows the beauty of being of mixed race. Tchaikovsky and Picasso.
- Serious ending about prejudices to conclude the stupidity of such opinions. Final stanza… The reader is asked to consider their opinions.
Sonnet 116
Themes:
- Love
- time
Links to Remember, La belle dame sans merci and My Last Duchess
Structure - sonnet - about love. Iambic pentameter is memetic of a heartbeat which shows the power of love. Interjection ‘O’ shows real love cannot change with time or any other factor. Volta at the end of the poem suggests if true love isn’t real, he never wrote and nobody has ever loved which shows how powerful and real true love is.
Language - ‘true minds’ - true love can only be true if the people relate intellectually. ‘alters’, ‘alteration’ suggests love isn’t love if you have to change yourself or the other person + real love will not change when changes arise. ‘ever-fixed mark’ is a metaphor which compares love to something that lasts forever. ‘star to every wandering bark’- metaphor of north star - love is guidance and will not fade, love gives people direction and empowers a person to move ahead and prosper. An alternate interpretation of star - love is fated, you reach it when god has fated you to reach it. ‘edge of doom’ - doomsday cannot destroy true love. Love is more powerful than time, it is not ‘times fool’
- love is a strong bond that can’t be broken.
- love is eternal.
- volta emphasises the speaker’s view of love.
- True love is intellectual and should make a person move ahead, not make them weak.
The Tyger
Themes:
- power (of god)
- anxiety
- fear
- alienation
- suffering
- destruction
- love
Links to My Last Duchess, Prayer before birth, Sonnet 116
Structure - trochaic - shows how Tyger is mystical. the circular structure shows the cycle of nature and how it shouldn’t be disturbed and should return to how it is supposed to be. Questions the nature of god - why did God allow such a thing (industrial revolution) to damage nature. Repetition of ‘dare’ implies audacity of the human race in order to spoil the natural world + emphatic of his hatred towards the creation of god.
Language - blames industrial revolution on god, for letting Prometheus, a rebel, take the fire and creating life, which caused the industrial revolution ‘ burnt the fire of thine eyes?’. ‘furnace’ - imagery of forge shows Tyger (industrial revolution) made by fire - made by a rebel. ‘Stars’ personified- nature is angry at god creation and angry at the industrial revolution itself. ‘Lamb’ - religious symbol - questioning how god made something weak (Jesus) but also make something as strong as a Tyger (ir).
- power of the creator - questioning but not directly addressing because of gods power.
- Gods power should not make him content - ‘did he smile his work to see?’ - Gods work is destructing nature.
- God puts power in the wrong hands (Prometheus) - hence why the industrial revolution was created and nature therefore destroyed.
Remember
Themes:
- death
- love
- suffering
Links to Do not go gentle and Sonnet 116
Form: Petrarchan sonnet - sacrifices personal desires out of love
Structure - octave - remembrance, sestet- instructing him to move on. rhyme of ‘had’ and ‘sad’ - had is in past tense so perhaps message that she wants him to leave his sadness in the past because it is what is best for him. Volta - she gives up the need to be remembered and imagines him getting over her death. Ends in peace as she wants to be remembered positively, not sadly. the juxtaposition of ‘forget’ shows true love and self-sacrifice as she doesn’t want him to ‘remember’ and suffer.
Language - Imperative ‘remember’ - telling her loved one how she wants him to behave after her death, also emphasises distance that will exist between them when she dies. Alliteration of ‘better by’ shows how she thinks it is important for the other person to move on. Alternative reading - the speaker is trying to break free from the unnamed male as she is controlled by him, repetition of pronoun ‘you’ suggests he is dominant and perhaps controlling. ‘silent land’ - she wants to be alone, ‘nor I half turn to go yet turning stay’ is ambiguous - she wants to leave?
- love is a strong bond between people that requires self-sacrifice.
- love isn’t eternal, death is a barrier as after death, the other person may forget the loved one at times, or move on.
- Volta shows love will change after death.
- Perhaps death is her escape from this toxic love.
If-
Themes:
- life
- masculinity
- control
Links to Prayer before birth
Structure - 4 octaves - read like one continuous thought. Conjunctions ‘but’ and ‘yet’ balances the need to achieve balance. Conditional clauses (beginning with if), suggests it will be a challenge, he recognizes life’s injustices but needs to rise above the common man. caesura highlights the importance of what is about to be said - don’t lie. Use of hypermeter throughout the poem reflects the unpredictability of life due to the unevenness of syllables.
Language - ‘ dream – and not make dreams your master’ - metaphor - ambition is good but you must not lose sight or become obsessed. ‘twisted’ - pejorative lexis which suggests others will lack virtue or misinterpret you. gambling imagery - life involves risks and you cannot always win. anaphora of ‘and’ suggests continuous hardships throughout life or the collective virtues needed to succeed. hyperbole ‘nothing in you’ is emphatic of how life will bring you to your lowest point sometimes. ‘run’ is a metaphor of life as a race - make the most of every second. hyperbole ‘yours is the earth’ - you will be ahead of the human race and everything will come to you.
- people will bring you down in life, sometimes to your lowest point.
- Control and balance are required throughout life.
- Life is a race/challenge in which you have to be the best man to survive.
My Last Duchess
Themes:
- power (political and social)
- Madness
- Jealousy
- hatred
Links to The Tyger, La Belle Dame sans Merci
Structure - Rhetorical questions show the dukes commanding nature because he feels so powerful. Rhyming couplets - Duke has to really control what he is saying about his wife as he may be a calculative killer, planning his plots beforehand. Parenthetical brackets - he controls who gets to see her and doesn’t need to be jealous of other men because of his power. Caesura emphasises blatant stop to the Duchess’ happiness by the hands of the duke ‘This grew; I gave commands…’.
Language - name-dropping ‘Fra Pandolf’ as he is eager to show his wealth and connections. Alludes to her death by a knife to throat ‘Half-flush that dies along her throat’. Plosive ‘b’ in ‘bough’ and ‘Broke’ sounds contemptuous and shows he has little respect for acts of kindness. Duke believes his title to be of utmost prestige and is offended and jealous that duchess doesn’t acknowledge his power. ‘Neptune’ - a metaphor of himself as a dominating figure, taking control over nature and beauty with his unlimited power as he sees himself as god-like.
- Power of the duke - the form of the poem supports his power.
- Duke was dissatisfied with his wife as he couldn’t take full control, even with the power he has. ‘This grew; I gave commands’ - violent, threatening and dangerous.
- Power is in the wrong hands (Duke). Last 2 lines are an irrelevant aside which hint at the Duke’s madness as after showing his obsessive nature for the majority of the poem, he easily changes the subject. + Duke’s new goal is the daughter, implies that she will merely become another artwork.
La Belle Dame Sans Merci
Themes:
- love
- time
- death
- manipulation
- powerlessness
Links to My Last Duchess, Sonnet 116
Form: Ballad - love, death and supernatural usually.
Structure -
