Poetry Anthology Flashcards
When We Two Parted
D, C, T, P
• Dramatic monologue
• Cold, Sever, Silence and tears
• Thy vows are all broken
• Past, present and future. Cyclical structure. Starts and ends with - silence and tears
Love’s Philosophy
T, P, T, W, R, S
• Love’s philosophy – title
• Persuasive and arrogant speaker wearing the listener down or desperate and rushed due to the listener using their silence against the speaker.
• Two stanzas. 5 statements followed by a rhetorical question. Stanza 1 is one long sentence. Consistent rhyme.
• Water imagery – fountains, river, ocean, sea. mix, mingle.
• Religious language – divine, heavens,
• Sexual language – clasp, kiss.
Porphyria’s Lover
T, R, G, S, I, C, I, O
• Porphyria’s lover as a title.
• “Rain” “sullen wind” “tore” “spite” “vex” – Angry before she arrived.
• “glided in” ,”soiled” “fall” “And, last, she sat down by my side” – Dramatic monologue. His perspective. Gap.
• “She put” “She made” “murmuring” – She has agency.
• “its” “mine” “little throat” “without a stain” “my kiss” “my shoulder bore”
After the murder they become “we”.
• “cottage” and “feast” – class divide. Power imbalance. He is inside. She is outside.
• “I debated what to do” – premeditated.
• 1 stanza. Rhyming couplets. Iambic tetrameter. Inversion “When glided in,”
Sonnet 29
T, M, A
Sonnet 29 (title) sonnet form - octave, sestet and volta
My thoughts do twine and bud about thee as wild vines around a tree
All bare
Letters from Yorkshire
T, L, Y, F, T, T
Letters from Yorkshire - title
“Lapwings”
“You”, “Me”, to “our”
“Feeding words into a blank screen”
“tap out messages across the icy miles”
Tercets. Enjambment. No rhyme. Caesura.
The Farmer’s Bride
T, D, F, O, N, T, A, D
The Farmer’s Bride - title
Dramatic Monologue
“fay”, “hare”, “mouse”, “leveret”, “young larch tree”
“Out among the sheep her be” “they said” “we chased her” “we caught her” “fetched her home” “turned the key upon her, fast”
“not near, not near!” “her eyes beseech” “I’ve hardly heard her speak at all”
“the short days shorten” “smoke rises” “magpie” “berries redden up”
“attic” “maid” “stair betwixt is” “soft young down of her” “her hair”
Different verse length. Regular rhyme.
Walking Away
T, T, L, H, W, S, A, Q
Walking Away - title
“Touch lines new ruled”
“Like a satellite wrenched from its orbit, go drifting away
Behind a scatter of boys” - enjambment
“Half-fledged” “wilderness” “no path where the path should be”
“winged seed loosened from its parent stem”
“Small scorching ordeals which fire one’s irresolute clay”
“And love is proved in the letting go”
Quintets. Regular rhyme scheme.
Eden Rock
T, T, R, B, S
Eden Rock - title
“They” “my”
Religious imagery - “white” “three suns” “takes on the light”
Biblical imagery of water “steam” “Crossing is not as hard as you think”
Structure - first half about the parents. Second half about his reaction. Quatrains to tercet and a single line stanza. Half rhyme.
Follower
T, e, s, s, f
Follower - title
Expert. Globed like a full sail strung. Broad shadow.
Single pluck… …of reins.
Stumbling and will not go away.
First and second half - full and half rhyme. I at the beginning of the last three verses.
Mother, any distance
T, S, S, A
Mother and distance - title
Sonnet form/ Dramatic Monologue
Still feeding, unreeling
Anchor. Kite.
Before You Were Mine
D, C, 1, R, M, R, C
Dramatic Monologue
Cyclical Structure - Life before and after children. Start and end on a “pavement” “Before you were mine” mentioned at the start and end.
1950s Catholic context.
Repetitive structure of quintain. Fated/ inescapable role of women to lose their dreams and stay at home with children.
“Marilyn” “red shoes, relics” “ghost” “clear as scent” “bold” “somewhere” “sparkle and waltz and laugh
“Right walk home could bring” Dance”
“ “cha cha cha” “wrong pavement”
Winter Swans
W, g, s, i
Waterlogged Earth - flooded capacity, can’t accept more.
Gulping - desperation dealt with - time is an issue.
Skirting - avoidance - don’t want to deal with it.
Icebergs, dark water, afternoon light somehow
Climbing my grandfather
E, f, n, d, r, g, g, c
Extended metaphor - climbing
“Free” “without a rope” “scramble” “grip” “traverse”
“Nails are splintered and give good purchase” “pull myself up the loose skin of his neck”
“discover the glassy ridge of a scar”
“Rest” “Smiling mouth” “Refreshed”
“Gasping for breath I can only lie”
“Good heart”
Caesura. One long verse.
