Poetry Anthology Flashcards
Given: The Manhunt
Theme: Love
Valentine- Carol Ann Duffy
Title: “Valentine” immediately contrasts to first line “Not a red rose or a satin heart.”
“I give you an onion.” → unexpected contrast with first line
“moon wrapped in brown paper” → emphasises the onion as a plain unsentemental gift and that its hiding the moon, a symbol of love and fertility
“It will blind you with tears / Like a lover → unclear as to what “it” is. Enjambment causes disjointed feel, like the persona is pained by this love and cannot form their emotions properly. Note also the common saying of “love is blind” in that love blinds people to the flaws of their spouse.
“wobbling photo of grief” → the persona only sees pain in their “reflection” as they see themselves badly
“I am trying to be truthful.” Persona holds honesty about love very highly.
“lethal” and “knife” indicate the onion is dangerous.
Duffy- feminist literature
Given: The Manhunt
Theme: War
Dulce et Decorum Est- Wilfred Owen
[Stanza 1]
- first half → physical effects of war
“Bent double” “coughing like hags” → physically broken by war - second half → mental effects of war
“trudge” “marched asleep” “drunk with fatigue” → mentally numbed by war
[Stanza 2]
- desperation
“Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!” -emphatic punctuation and capitalisation of “GAS” demonstrates desperation and panic
[Stanza 3]
- Stand alone stanza “guttering, choking, drowning”
[Stanza 4]
- smothering dreams → haunted by the trauma of the war
- “white eyes writhing”→writhing = escape like an animal- eyes escaping their skull “blood… gargling”, “froth-corrupted lungs”
- “incurable sores on innocent tongues,” → young in the war- imagery of being unable to speak of their suffering
Final lines the old lie → allows Owen to highlight how war is actually horrific
Dulce et decorum est / Pro partia mori→ “It is sweet and proper to die for one’s country”
Owen died 1 week before armistice of WW1- his mother recieved telegram about his death on Armistice Day
Given: The Manhunt
Theme: Pain / suffering
Dulce et Decorum Est- Wilfred Owen
[Stanza 1]
- first half → physical effects of war
“Bent double” “coughing like hags” → physically broken by war - second half → mental effects of war
“trudge” “marched asleep” “drunk with fatigue” → mentally numbed by war
[Stanza 2]
- desperation
“Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!” -emphatic punctuation and capitalisation of “GAS” demonstrates desperation and panic
[Stanza 3]
- Stand alone stanza “guttering, choking, drowning”
[Stanza 4]
- smothering dreams → haunted by the trauma of the war
- “white eyes writhing”→writhing = escape like an animal- eyes escaping their skull “blood… gargling”, “froth-corrupted lungs”
- “incurable sores on innocent tongues,” → young in the war- imagery of being unable to speak of their suffering
Final lines the old lie → allows Owen to highlight how war is actually horrific
Dulce et decorum est / Pro partia mori→ “It is sweet and proper to die for one’s country”
Owen died 1 week before armistice of WW1- his mother recieved telegram about his death on Armistice Day
Given: Sonnet 43
Theme: Love
Valentine- Carol Ann Duffy
Title: “Valentine” immediately contrasts to first line “Not a red rose or a satin heart.”
“I give you an onion.” → unexpected contrast with first line
“moon wrapped in brown paper” → emphasises the onion as a plain unsentemental gift and that its hiding the moon, a symbol of love and fertility
“It will blind you with tears / Like a lover → unclear as to what “it” is. Enjambment causes disjointed feel, like the persona is pained by this love and cannot form their emotions properly.
“wobbling photo of grief” → the persona only sees pain in their “reflection” as they see themselves badly
“I am trying to be truthful.” Persona holds honesty about love very highly.
“lethal” and “knife” indicate the onion is dangerous.
Duffy- feminist literature
Given: London
Theme: Power
Ozymandias- Percy Shelley
- “traveller” from an “antique land” suggests that the land is forgotten or old and the traveller suggests that it is far away- the persona hasn’t even physically seen Ozymandias’ statue- adding to the irony
- “Half sunk, a shattered visage lies” shattered reflects how Ozymandias’ physical statue has broken over time, but so too has his name
- “sneer of cold command” shows that Ozymandias was a ruthless leader at the time- but now he is nothing
- “…king of kings”
- “Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair! / Nothing beside remains.” emphatic punctuation contrast of long quote from Ozymandias with the blank short statement that nothing beside remains.
- “decay”
- “The lone and level sands stretch far away.” The consonance causes repetition emphasising the vast expansive desert that surrounds Ozymandias’ statue
Percy Shelley was considered a radical romantic writer for writing about this.
Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II was unearthed around the time this was written (1819). Egyptians were highly superstitious and believed that their legacy would continue to exist in the underworld.
Sonnet form tends to be about love- Ozymandias’ love for himself? and his ultimate hubris.
Given: London
Theme: Place
The Soldier- Rupert Brooke
“some corner of a foreign field / That is forever England”→serene natural imagery
“In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;” →imagery that the soil is rich and fertile
“Washed by rivers, blest by suns of home.”
“Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;”
“In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.”
Brooke was a soldier during WW1 that died of blood poisoning and was buried in a “foreign field” in Cyprus
Patriotic
Given: London
Theme: Suffering
Dulce et Decorum Est- Wilfred Owen
[Stanza 1]
- first half → physical effects of war
“Bent double” “coughing like hags” → physically broken by war - second half → mental effects of war
“trudge” “marched asleep” “drunk with fatigue” → mentally numbed by war
[Stanza 2]
- desperation
“Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!” -emphatic punctuation and capitalisation of “GAS” demonstrates desperation and panic
[Stanza 3]
- Stand alone stanza “guttering, choking, drowning”
[Stanza 4]
- smothering dreams → haunted by the trauma of the war
- “white eyes writhing”→writhing = escape like an animal- eyes escaping their skull “blood… gargling”, “froth-corrupted lungs”
- “incurable sores on innocent tongues,” → young in the war- imagery of being unable to speak of their suffering
Final lines the old lie → allows Owen to highlight how war is actually horrific
Dulce et decorum est / Pro partia mori→ “It is sweet and proper to die for one’s country”
Owen died 1 week before armistice of WW1- his mother recieved telegram about his death on Armistice Day
Given: The Soldier
Theme: War
Dulce et Decorum Est- Wilfred Owen
[Stanza 1]
- first half → physical effects of war
“Bent double” “coughing like hags” → physically broken by war - second half → mental effects of war
“trudge” “marched asleep” “drunk with fatigue” → mentally numbed by war
[Stanza 2]
- desperation
“Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!” -emphatic punctuation and capitalisation of “GAS” demonstrates desperation and panic
[Stanza 3]
- Stand alone stanza “guttering, choking, drowning”
[Stanza 4]
- smothering dreams → haunted by the trauma of the war
- “white eyes writhing”→writhing = escape like an animal- eyes escaping their skull “blood… gargling”, “froth-corrupted lungs”
- “incurable sores on innocent tongues,” → young in the war- imagery of being unable to speak of their suffering
Final lines the old lie → allows Owen to highlight how war is actually horrific
Dulce et decorum est / Pro partia mori→ “It is sweet and proper to die for one’s country”
Owen died 1 week before armistice of WW1- his mother recieved telegram about his death on Armistice Day
Given: The Soldier
Theme: Patriotism
Dulce et Decorum Est- Wilfred Owen
[Stanza 1]
- first half → physical effects of war
“Bent double” “coughing like hags” → physically broken by war - second half → mental effects of war
“trudge” “marched asleep” “drunk with fatigue” → mentally numbed by war
[Stanza 2]
- desperation
“Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!” -emphatic punctuation and capitalisation of “GAS” demonstrates desperation and panic
[Stanza 3]
- Stand alone stanza “guttering, choking, drowning”
[Stanza 4]
“white eyes writhing”, “blood… gargling”, “froth-corrupted lungs”
“incurable sores on innocent tongues,” → young in the war- imagery of being unable to speak of their suffering
smothering dreams → haunted by the trauma of the war
Final lines the old lie → allows Owen to highlight how war is actually horrific and full of suffering
Dulce et decorum est / Pro partia mori→ “It is sweet and proper to die for one’s country”
Owen died 1 week before armistice of WW1- his mother recieved telegram about his death on Armistice Day
Given: The Soldier
Theme: Pride
Dulce et Decorum Est- Wilfred Owen
[Stanza 1]
- first half → physical effects of war
“Bent double” “coughing like hags” → physically broken by war - second half → mental effects of war
“trudge” “marched asleep” “drunk with fatigue” → mentally numbed by war
[Stanza 2]
- desperation
“Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!” -emphatic punctuation and capitalisation of “GAS” demonstrates desperation and panic
[Stanza 3]
- Stand alone stanza “guttering, choking, drowning”
[Stanza 4]
- smothering dreams → haunted by the trauma of the war
- “white eyes writhing”→writhing = escape like an animal- eyes escaping their skull “blood… gargling”, “froth-corrupted lungs”
- “incurable sores on innocent tongues,” → young in the war- imagery of being unable to speak of their suffering
Final lines the old lie → allows Owen to highlight how war is actually horrific
Dulce et decorum est / Pro partia mori→ “It is sweet and proper to die for one’s country”
Owen died 1 week before armistice of WW1- his mother recieved telegram about his death on Armistice Day
Given: She Walks in Beauty
Theme: Love
Valentine- Carol Ann Duffy
Title: “Valentine” immediately contrasts to first line “Not a red rose or a satin heart.”
“I give you an onion.” → unexpected contrast with first line
“moon wrapped in brown paper” → emphasises the onion as a plain unsentemental gift and that its hiding the moon, a symbol of love and fertility
“It will blind you with tears / Like a lover → unclear as to what “it” is. Enjambment causes disjointed feel, like the persona is pained by this love and cannot form their emotions properly.
“wobbling photo of grief” → the persona only sees pain in their “reflection” as they see themselves badly
“I am trying to be truthful.” Persona holds honesty about love very highly.
“lethal” and “knife” indicate the onion is dangerous.
Duffy- feminist literature
Given: Living Space
Theme: Sense of Place
The Soldier- Rupert Brooke
“some corner of a foreign field / That is forever England”→serene natural imagery
“In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;” →imagery that the soil is rich and fertile
“Washed by rivers, blest by suns of home.”
“Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;”
“In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.”
Brooke was a soldier during WW1 that died of blood poisoning and was buried in a “foreign field” in Cyprus
Patriotic
Given: As Imperceptibly as Grief
Theme: Nature
Death of a Naturalist- Seamus Heaney
[perception of nature]
- “sweltered”, “festered”, “gargled” the child revels in the vile smells of the dam
- “Then one hot day”demonstrates the child has grown up as the poem changes tone → hot also = discomfort
- “mammy frogs” before become “angry frogs”
- “coarse croaking” illiteration creates discomfort and reflects the coarse sounds the persona is hearing
- “slap” and “plop” onomatapoeia reflect how the persona now sees the violence in nature as it jumps out at them
- “invaded” “mud grenades” “obscene threats” military threat of nature
- “spawn would clutch it” vs “warm thick slobber”
Seamus Heaney
earlier education in countryside before getting scholarship to school in Derry- lots of work exploring contrast between nature and urban landscape
death of younger brother Christopher aged 4 near their farm
Irish, brought up in rural countryside
written in 1960s- effects of industialisation
Given: As Imperceptibly as Grief
Theme: Passage of time
Afternoons- Philip Larkin
- “Afternoons” suggests the day coming to an end and time passing. Furthermore it is the liminal between the start of a day and the end. It feels that although time has passed, it has not truly come to an end.
- “Summer is fading:” at the opening line suggests → chang in seasons = the change in the lives of the young mothers in that they now have responsibilities
- “hollows of afternoons” create sense of mundane and the idea of emptiness
- “At swing and sandpit / Setting their children free.” Irony in that their children are fenced in. Reflecting how society has trapped the mothers to their responsibility.
- “husbands in skilled trades” and “young mothers” reflect 1960s gender roles
- “Our Wedding, lying / Near the television:“ looks at changes in not just the young couple’s lives, but in society as the television was new invention
- “courting-places / (But the lovers are all in school)” cynical views on young love and the cycle that the young mothers’ children too will end up like their parents
- Their children want to find “more unripe acorns” could relate to the mothers not being ready to take responsibility of their children
- Final lines of “Something is pushing them / To the side of their own lives.” sees the mothers losing their identity in the narrators eye as time passes and their “beauty has thickened.”
Given: As Imperceptibly as Grief
Theme: Negative emotions / suffering
Dulce et Decorum Est- Wilfred Owen
[Stanza 1]
- first half → physical effects of war
“Bent double” “coughing like hags” → physically broken by war - second half → mental effects of war
“trudge” “marched asleep” “drunk with fatigue” → mentally numbed by war
[Stanza 2]
- desperation
“Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!” -emphatic punctuation and capitalisation of “GAS” demonstrates desperation and panic
[Stanza 3]
- Stand alone stanza “guttering, choking, drowning”
[Stanza 4]
- smothering dreams → haunted by the trauma of the war
- “white eyes writhing”→writhing = escape like an animal- eyes escaping their skull “blood… gargling”, “froth-corrupted lungs”
- “incurable sores on innocent tongues,” → young in the war- imagery of being unable to speak of their suffering
Final lines the old lie → allows Owen to highlight how war is actually horrific
Dulce et decorum est / Pro partia mori→ “It is sweet and proper to die for one’s country”
Owen died 1 week before armistice of WW1- his mother recieved telegram about his death on Armistice Day
