Poetry Anthology Flashcards
List some of the methods for funeral blues.
Imperatives: “stop all the clocks”
Desperate, all controlling
Tonal shift: public to personal
Starts with wanting everyone to know, then becomes more personal and emotional
Caesura: “I thought love would last forever. I was wrong”
Emphasis
Celestial imagery: “The stars are not wanted now, put out every one”
Typically used in romance. End of stars -> end of romance
Simplistic rhyme scheme: ABAB
Easy to read and understand. Keeps his emotions in check as he writes.
Repetition: “My” this “My” that
Selfish, self centred.
Spacial imagery: “My North, my south, my east and west”
All encompassing, everything.
Colour symbolism: “black cotton gloves”
Black, associated with death and funerals.
Outline some of the context for funeral blues.
Written by W H Auden
Originally written as a satire, a commentary on how great people are lionised after their death.
List some methods for remember.
Repetition: “Remember me”
Future tense: “It will be”
Euphemism: “Silant land”
Tonal shift: “Yet if you should…”
Light imagery: “Darkness and corruption”
Imperative: “Do not grieve”
Outline the context for remember
Written by Christina Rossetti
She was the youngest of 4 children, and when her fathers heath and eyesight deteriorated when she was 13 she spent months as his companion.
She was taught values of self denial, self discipline, and the duty of women to be subordinate to the needs of men.
She was engaged to James Collinson, but broke off the engagement at 19 as he couldn’t abandon his Roman Catholic faith.
She wrote the poem during the first half of her engagement. It’s strangely morbid for a young woman who is planning to get married.
She never married, later turning down another suitor Charles Cayley for religious reasons.
List some methods for Before you were mine.
Informal, chatty language: “Pals”
Metaphor: “Marilyn”
Repetition: “I’m”
Positive Language: “Fizzy”
Colour symbolism: “high heeled red shoes”
Sensory appeal “clear as scent”
Outline some context for before you were mine.
Written by Carol Ann Duffy
She wrote the poem about looking at old photos of her mother. She realised her mother was happier before she came along.
List some methods used in long distance II
Enjambement: no full stops
Thermal imagery: “Warming”
Simplistic rhyme scheme at first, but changes stanza 4: ABAB to ABBA
Informal, chatty language: “couldn’t just drop in”
Metaphor: “still raw love”
Onomatopoeia: “scrape in the rusted lock”
Outline the context for long distance 2
Written by Tony Harrison
Born in 1937 in Leeds, to a working class northern English family.
Wanted to create poems anyone could relate to.
This poem is essentially autobiographical.
List the methods used in Clearances 7
Title used in stanza: “Clearances”
Highlights that the stanza is significant.
Direct speech: “You’ll be in new row on Monday night…”
Personal, creates more relatable characters.
Alliteration: “Good and girl”
Emphasis
Caesura: “then she was dead.”
Sudden, dramatic pause.
Metaphor: “High cries were felled”
Connotations of trees falling.
Tonal shift: first 8 lines (octave) descriptive, cinematic while last six line (sestet) philosophical
Allows multiple ideas in one poem. Parents carry on in you.
Outline the context for clearances 7.
Written by Seamus Heaney
He came from a big farming family in County Derry/Londonderry. Roman Catholic.
Written in memory of his mother.
He lost his little brother to a car crash when he was 4, so the family understands pain and suffering.
List the methods used in Wild Oats
Euphemism, “shooting match”
Projects love as something violent.
Statistics/lists “seven years after that wrote over four hundred letters, gave a ten Guinea ring…”
Cold, factual tone. Bored to love, no longer emotionally invested.
Lack of names “her friend in specs”
Dehumanising, judging on physical appearance.
Simple, casual language “useful to get that learnt”
Like he wasn’t affected, brushing it off
Metaphor “English rose”
Traditional English beauty, again judging on appearance. She has no other qualities.
Title “wild oats”
Term for young men being sexually active ‘sowing your wild oats.’ No commitment, toxic masculinity
Outline some of the context for wild oats.
Written by Phillip Larkin
Written in the 60s, about the 40s, seemingly prompted by photographs.
Very honest self-critical poem.
He did not sleep with “friend in specs”, as ‘sexual intercourse began in 1963.’
List some methods for On my first son
Primogeniture- title
Value of first son. Misogynist take to us now. No mention of dead daughter.
Religious language- “my sin”
Sons death is a punishment from god. Paired with legal language “tho’ went lent to me” signed a contract with god.
Exclamatory tone “O”
Intense emotion, mostly grief.
Tonal shift “rest in soft peace”
Becomes more gentle, acceptance.
Rhetorical question “he should envy?”
Pleading, begging for Gods mercy.
Singular possessive pronouns “my right hand”
Selfish, no mention of mother or anyone else. More about his grief than his son, we don’t know anything about him.
Describe the context of On my first son
Written by Ben Johnson
Written in early 1600s.
Son died of bubonic plague, daughter died ten years earlier at 6 months of age. Infant mortality was common, perhaps why he never wrote a poem, daughters death was likely.
Very religious times
List some methods for I am very bothered
Simple, casual language “I am very bothered when…”
Juvenile, sense of immaturity
Direct address to the reader “your name”
Poem made for the person he hurt, communicating with them directly
‘O’ exclamatory tone
Expresses strong emotions, regret? Emphasises
Animal imagery “branded skin”
Brutal, possessiveness. Like he now owns her. Loop of tongs like a ring, marriage.
Sensory appeal “stench”
Vile imagery
Play on words “butterfingered”
Butter eases burns.
