Poetry Analysis

Question 1

Ozymandias

Answer 1

• Form: Petrarchan sonnet but no rhyme scheme. Iambic pentameter.
• Structure: builds up image of statue, then describes enormous desert = insignificance
• Irony
• Semantic field of power
• Agressive language

Question 2

London

Answer 2

• Form: dramatic monologue. ABAB rhyme. Mostly iambic.
• Rhetoric: emotive language, repetition
• Sensory language
• Contrast: oxymoron, corruption

Question 3

The Prelude

Answer 3

• Form: first-person narrative, blank verse, regular rhythm
• Structure: three distinct sections
• Semantic fields of nature, confidence, drama and fear

Question 4

My Last Duchess

Answer 4

• Form: dramatic monologue, iambic pentameter, rhyming couplets
• Structure: builds towards revelation
• Power-oriented tone
• Dramatic irony and euphemisms
• Attitude of pride in status

Question 5

Charge of the Light Brigade

Answer 5

• Form: narrative, regular rhythm (dactyls), inconsistent rhyming couplets and triplets
• Repititon: inevitability, emphasis
• Heroic and respectful semantic fields
• Violent language: onomatopoeia

Question 6

Exposure

Answer 6

• Form: present tense, first person plural, regular rhyme, each stanza ends in half line
• Structure: no progression, first and last stanza end the same
• Rhetorical questions
• Bleak language: assonance and onomatopoeia
• Personification of nature

Question 7

Storm on the Island

Answer 7

• Form: blank verse, first person plural, all one stanza
• Structure: shift from security to fear with volta, caesura
• Contrast: safety vs fear
• Direct address
• Violent imagery: similes, metaphors, personification
• Use of sounds: sibilance, forceful

Question 8

Bayonet Charge

Answer 8

• Form: enjambment, caesurae, uneven lines, irregular rhythm. Universal narrator ‘he’
• Structure: ‘in medias res’ start, time is inconsistently passing
• Violent imagery: sensory
• Figurative language
• Natural imagery

Question 9

Remains

Answer 9

• Form: uneven lines, no rhyme scheme, shift from ‘we’ to ‘I’
• Structure: begins like amusing anecdote, becomes graphic description of death after volta due to guilt
• Graphic imagery
• Colloquial language
• Repetition

Question 10

Poppies

Answer 10

• Form: 1st person narrative, no rhythm or rhyme, long sentences + enjambment, caesurae towards end
• Structure: chronological, ambiguous time frame
• Sensory appeal
• War imagery
• Domestic imagery

Question 11

War Photographer

Answer 11

• Form: equal stanzas, regular rhyme, enjambment
• Structure: actions and thoughts change to specific death and then the reception of his work
• Religious imagery
• Contrast: places, people
• Emotive language

Question 12

Tissue

Answer 12

• Form: open form, free, short stanzas
• Structure: history > human experience > creation of human
• Semantic field of light: positive force, facilitates
• Language about creation
• Homonyms of ‘tissue’: link humans and paper, idea of woven

Question 13

The Emigrée

Answer 13

• Form: first person, no rhythm or rhyme, enjambment shifts to end-stopping
• Structure: growing memory, becoming physical, each stanza ends with ‘sunlight’
• Semantic field of conflict: defiance, imperfection
• Language about light: bright, colourful
• Personification of the city

Question 14

Kamikaze

Answer 14

• Form: third person, absence of pilot’s voice
• Structure: Five stanzas make one sentence, final two show consequences
• Irony: act as though he’s dead but he chose to live
• Natural imagery: similes, metaphors
• Direct speech: personal, specific

Question 15

Checking Out Me History

Answer 15

• Form: mixture of stanza forms, shorter Caribbean history ones than British, British stanzas have simple rhymes
• Structure: alternation and contrast, more detail on Caribbean figures
• Metaphors of vision and blindness
• Oral poetry features: repetition, strong rhythms, chanting, phonetic spellings; traditional