Poetry Anthology P2 (35mins) Flashcards
What are the strong family relationships relationship poems you have studied?
Walking away Letters from Yorkshire Eden rock Follower Mother, any distance Before you were mine Climbing my grandfather
What is walking away about?
The speaker(the father) is remembering about his child’s first day of school, when he first let his child go. He feels sad about it but thinks it was the best thing for him.
What is the context of walking away?
Walking away was dedicated to Cecil Lewis’s first son.
His poetry is often autobiographical .
What are key quotes from Walking Away?
“Like a satellite/wrenched from its orbit”
“Selfhood begins with the walking away/and love is proved in the letting go”
“Nature’s give and take”
What is follower about?
Follower is about a relationship between father and son, shifting in perspective from past to present
Giving the sons reaction to the passing of time and his father growing old
What is the context of Follower?
It is an autobiographical poem, that throws a light on the speakers observations as a child and the influence of the father as he worked the land with the child following
What are key quotes from Follower?
“His shoulders globed like a full sail strung”
“His eye/ Narrowed and angled at the ground/ mapping the furrow exactly”
“But today/ it is my father who keeps stumbling/ behind me, and will not go away”
What is Before you were mine about?
It is a love poem that Duffy is addressing to her mother, she is recreating how she imagines her mother’s life must have been like when she was a young woman.
What is the context of Before You Were Mine?
Duffy said the poem was written in response to an old photo of her mother with her friends.
-the title plays with the idea of possession
What are key quotes from Before You Were Mine?
“Marylin.”
“That glamorous love lasts/
where you sparkle and waltz and laugh before you were mine”
“The decade ahead of my loud possessive yell”
What is Mother, Any distance about?
On face value this is a poem about a young man whose mother is helping him decorate his house.
On a deeper level it is also about the affectionate and sometimes trying relationship of a mother and her child.
What is the context of Mother, any distance?
From the book of matches. It is to be read by the light of a single burning match.
-this focuses on the passage of time
What are the key quotes from Mother, any distance?
“Anchor. Kite.”
“Mother. Any distance greater than a single span/
requires another set of hands”
“I reach/
towards a hatch that opens on an endless sky/
to fall or fly”
What is Eden Rock about?
The speaker is imagining about his childhood memories when he was on a picnic with his family and likens this to his perception of heaven.
-the moral of the poem is that leaving your parents is hard
What is the context of Eden Rock?
Carsley’s father died when he was very young so this could be one of his very last memories with him.
His parents are dead- poem about loss
What are the key quotes of Eden Rock?
“They are waiting for me somewhere beyond Eden Rock”
“The same three plates”
“Crossing is not as hard as you might think”
What are the poems about loss you have studied?
When we two parted
Neutral Tones
The Farmer’s bride
What is When we two parted about?
The speaker recalls the day he and his lover parted (she didn’t seem to have any affection for him)
Although time has passed he still finds it hard, he thinks he will always feel hurt
What is the context of When we two parted?
Byron had an affair with Lady Frances Webster, this poem is believe to be about it
What are the key quotes from When we two parted?
“When we two parted /In silence and tears,”
“Why wert thou so dear?”
“Thy spirit deceive”
“How should I greet thee? - /With silence and tears.”
What is Porphyria’s lover about?
A man sits in his cold cottage on a stormy night, Porphyria arrives and makes the cottage warm and comfortable
He decides that she loves him and she belongs to him, he wants to preserve this so he strangles her with her hair
He opens her eyes and spends the rest of the night sitting with her dead body
What is the context of Porphyria’s lover?
Porphyria is a disease which can result in madness
What are the key quotes from Porphyria’s lover?
“She shut the cold out and the storm”
“From pride, and vainer ties dissever, /And give herself to me forever”
“I found a thing to do”
“No pain felt she; /I am quite sure she felt no pain”
“And yet God has not said a word!”
What is Neutral tones about?
The speaker remembers an unpleasant day when he and his lover stood by a pond
He describes his lovers behaviour, he believes she has fallen out of love with him
Whenever he has been hurt by love since, he remembers that day by the pond
