POETRY ANTHOLOGY Flashcards
1
Q
The Manhunt - Start
A
• “the frozen river which ran through his face”
2
Q
The Manhunt - Middle
A
• “parachute silk of his punctured lung”
3
Q
The Manhunt - End
A
- “sweating, unexploded mine”
* “Then, and only then, did I come close”
4
Q
The Manhunt - Context
A
- Author - Simon Armitage
- The soldier, Eddie Beddoes, has physical and mental scars of war.
- Laura Beddoes, his wife, is the narrator.
5
Q
Sonnet 43 - Start
A
- “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”
* “I love thee to the depth and breadth and height”
6
Q
Sonnet 43 - Middle
A
• “Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight”
7
Q
Sonnet 43 - End
A
- “I love thee” - anaphora
* “but love thee better after death”
8
Q
Sonnet 43 - Context
A
- Author - Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- She escapes from societal pressures through her relationship.
- Her love is extremely strong for Robert Browning.
9
Q
London - Start
A
- “I wander thro’ each charter’d street”
* “every face I meet / Marks of weakness, marks of woe”
10
Q
London - Middle
A
• “mind-forg’d manacles I hear”
11
Q
London - End
A
- “blackening Church appalls”
- “Runs in blood down Palace walls”
- “youthful Harlot’s curse”, “Infant’s tear”
12
Q
London - Context
A
Author - William Blake
• In the poem, he describes walking through London and remarking on the horrible conditions.
• He rejects the people in power (“Church”/”Palace”) ignore the people’s problems.
13
Q
The Soldier - Start
A
• “some corner of a foreign field / That is forever England”
14
Q
The Soldier - Middle
A
• “England bore, shaped, made aware”
15
Q
The Soldier - End
A
• “all evil shed way”; “pulse in the eternal mind”; “an English heaven”
16
Q
The Soldier - Context
A
- Author - Rupert Brooke
- Written in 1914 before the start of the war - perhaps was so influenced by propaganda.
- He treats England as a ‘mother’ or even a divine being.
17
Q
She Walks in Beauty - Start
A
• “all that’s best of dark and bright”
18
Q
She Walks in Beauty - Middle
A
• “her face; / Where thoughts serenely sweet express”
19
Q
She Walks in Beauty - End
A
• “A heart who’s love is innocent!”
20
Q
She Walks in Beauty - Context
A
- Author - Lord Byron
- About Anne Wilmot, wife of Byron’s cousin
- Takes each body part in turn to suggest she has good qualities
21
Q
Living Space - Start
A
• “Nothing is flat / or parallel.”
• Beams /
balance crookedly”
• “nails clutch at open seams”
22
Q
Living Space - Middle
A
• “someone has squeezed / a living space”
23
Q
Living Space - End
A
- “eggs in a wire basket”
- “fragile curves of white”
- “slanted universe”
- “bright, thin walls of faith”
24
Q
Living Space - Context
A
- Author - Imtiaz Dharker
- She wants to show the Western world the reality of the slums found in Mumbai or elsewhere.
- There is despair in the slums yet there are messages of hope, thanks to the people.
25
Hawk Roosting - Start
* "I sit in the top of the wood"
| * "The convenience of the high trees!
26
As Imperceptibly as Grief - Start
• "As Imperceptibly as Grief / The Summer lapsed away"
27
As Imperceptibly as Grief - Middle
• "The Morning foreign shone"
28
As Imperceptibly as Grief - End
• "Summer made her light escape / Into the Beautiful"
29
As Imperceptibly as Grief - Context
* Author - Emily Dickinson
* She was a recluse in her adult years and would send even send letters outside her home to communicate.
* In the poem, "Summer" comes to an end gradually - symbolises the slow end of grief.
30
Cozy Apologia - Start
• "with furrowed brow / And chainmail glinting"
31
Cozy Apologia - Middle
* "post-post-modern age"
| * "sweet with a dark and hollow center"
32
Cozy Apologia - End
• "I fill this stolen time with you."
33
Cozy Apologia - Context
* Author - Rita Dove
* In this poem, Rita and her husband, "Fred", are taking refuge during a storm.
* She says her love is ordinary but genuine - and the poem is 'in defence of coziness'.
34
Valentine - Start
• "Not a red rose or a satin heart / I give you an onion"
35
Valentine - Middle
* "It will bind you with tears / like a lover"
| * "I am trying to be truthful"
36
Valentine - End
* "Take it." - command
* "Lethal."
* "cling to your fingers, / cling to your knife"
37
Valentine - Context
* Author - Carol Ann Duffy
* In the poem she criticises cliché presentations of love such as "rose"s or a "cute card".
* She justifies why onions are a better or more "truthful" representation of love - but warns against them at the end of the poem, "Lethal."
38
A Wife in London - Start
* "tawny vapour", "waning taper"
| * "messenger's knock cracks smartly"
39
A Wife in London - Middle
* "the fog hangs thicker", "by firelight flicker"
| * "His hand, whom the worm now knows"
40
A Wife in London - End
* "Page-full of his hoped return"
| * "brake and burn / In the summer weather"
41
A Wife in London - Context
* Author - Thomas Hardy
* He criticises war as pointless and destructive.
* The poem was written during the Boer War - a wife getting a telegram/message about a dead husband was very common - partly why half of the poem is "Irony".
42
Death of a Naturalist - Start
* "bubbles gargled delicately"
| * "But best of all was the warm thick slobber"
43
Death of a Naturalist - Middle
• "Miss Walls", "daddy frog", "mammy frog"
44
Death of a Naturalist - End
* "Then one hot day"
* "slap and plop were obscene threats"
* "poised like mud grenades"
* "I sickened, turned, and ran"
45
Death of a Naturalist - Context
* Author - Seamus Heaney
* He grew up in Northern Ireland - known for its rich countryside available to the children in schools.
* Reflects on changing viewpoints as a growing child as he had a son of his own in 1966.
46
Hawk Roosting - Middle
* "I hold Creation in my foot!"
| * "My manners are tearing off heads"
47
Hawk Roosting - End
* "The sun is behind me"
| * "I am going to keep things like this."
48
Hawk Roosting - Context
* Author - Ted Hughes
* He had a rural upbringing and so was well aware of the reality and violence of nature.
* His father was a WW1 veteran and he was aware of the violent nature of humans - depicted by the brutality of the hawk.
49
To Autumn - Start
• "Seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness"
50
To Autumn - Middle
• "Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind"
51
To Autumn - End
* "Where are the songs of Spring?"
| * "light wind lives or dies"
52
To Autumn - Context
* Author - John Keats
* He writes an 'ode' to Autumn as it is full of "fruitfulness" and a generally good time for harvest etc.
* He was near the end of his life due to Tuberculosis - explores "death" in terms of drastic change in the poem.
53
Afternoons - Start
* "Summer is fading
| * "Young mothers assemble"
54
Afternoons - Middle
* "husbands in skilled trades"
| * "'Our Wedding', lying"
55
Afternoons - End
• "Something is pushing them/
| To the side of their own lives"
56
Afternoons - Context
* Author - Phillip Larkin
* He criticises the structure of family and its affect on those who are part of one - he himself had a poor relationship with his parents.
* Mothers have lost their freedoms yet the fathers continue to work in their "skilled trades".
57
Dulce et Decorum Est - Start
* "Bent double, like old beggars"
* "Drunk with fatigue"
* "Men marched asleep"
58
Dulce et Decorum Est - Middle
* "Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! - an ecstasy of fumbling"
| * "I saw him drowning > guttering, choking, drowning"
59
Dulce et Decorum Est - End
* "His hanging face, like a devil sick of sin"
* "Obscene as cancer"
* "incurable sores on innocent tongues"
* "The Old Lie: Pro patria mori"
60
Dulce et Decorum Est - Context
* Author - Wilfred Owen
* He fought in WW1 and suffered immensely.
* Poem written to counter pro-war propaganda and expose it as horrific as it truly was.
61
Ozymandias - Middle
* "The hand that mocked them, the heart that fed"
| * "'Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'"
62
Ozymandias - End
* "Nothing beside remains"
* "Boundless and bare"
* "The lone and level sands stretch far away"
63
Ozymandias - Context
* Author - Percy Bysshe Shelley
* He was a romantic poet who was inspired by a real statue of Ramses II.
* In the poem, the power of nature prevails over the arrogance of even 'King Ozymandias' - somewhat of a hubris.
64
Mametz Wood - Start
* "the wasted young"
| * "broken bird's egg shell of a skull"
65
Mametz Wood - Middle
* "nesting machine guns"
* "even now the earth stands sentinel"
* "like a wound working a foreign body"
66
Mametz Wood - End
* "skeletons paused mid-dance macabre"
| * "notes they had sung" > "from their absent tongues"
67
Mametz Wood - Context
* Author - Owen Sheers
* He attacks the results of war due to their profound effect on the young soldiers that fought.
* Obvious negatives yet subtle melancholic positives through natural metaphors.
68
The Prelude - Start
* "through the twilight blaz'd /
| * I heeded not the summons"
69
The Prelude - Middle
* "proud and exulting, like an untir'd horse
| * "The Pack loud bellowing"
70
The Prelude - End
* "sent an aliens sound"
| * "orange sky of evening died away"
71
The Prelude - Context
* Author - William Wordsworth
* He wrote an autobiography of his childhood ice skating - before the death of his parents.
* Evaluates nature versus humans and change as the industrial revolution developed.
