poetry context

Question 1

Elizabeth barrett browning

Answer 1

took drugs that enhanced her imagination because father was overprotective and didn’t let her get married after brothers death

Question 2

William Blake

Answer 2

poem is one of the ‘songs of experience’ reflecting the more negative aspects of life
lived and worked in London during victorian era- great poverty and industrial change

Question 3

Rupert Brooke

Answer 3

he was never actually involved in activee service and died of food poisoning

Question 4

Lord Byron

Answer 4

“mad, bad and dangerous to know”
involved in a number of sex scandals- married women, men and teenage boys

Question 5

Imtiaz Dharker

Answer 5

lived in Mumbai slums- personal experience

Question 6

Emily Dickinson

Answer 6

Obsessed and afraid of death as several family and friends died and from ages 10-25 her room looked over the cemetery were 5 of her friends were buried.

Question 7

Rita Dove

Answer 7

former poet laureate
combines historical with personal

Question 8

carol anne duffy

Answer 8

gay
written when gay marriage was illegal
criticising society’s views of being materialistic

Question 9

Thomas Hardy

Answer 9

was a novelist in the Boer War

Question 10

Seamus Heaney

Answer 10

irish poet
younger brother died- reflected in his work
won a nobel prize

Question 11

Ted Hughes

Answer 11

father was a ww1 veteran
admired and watched animals
spent lots of time outside

Question 12

John Keats

Answer 12

both parents dead before age 14
lived with grandma
struggled with money inspired by real life event- walking along the river itchen

Question 13

Phillip Larkin

Answer 13

unmarried man with no children
never left the uk
homeschooled until 18

Question 14

Wilfred Owen

Answer 14

Owen was a soldier in World War I who was injured by a shell and later diagnosed with shell shock.
a protest against the idea that it is honourable to die for one’s country. He wanted to show the reality of war to the public and to dispel the false idea that war is “sweet”.

Question 15

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Answer 15

Went against the constitiution
went against authority

Question 16

Owen Sheers

Answer 16

Sheers was inspired to write the poem after visiting Mametz Wood in 1995.
He was also influenced by the stories of two soldiers who survived the war.

Question 17

William Wordsworth

Answer 17

both parents dead by 13
lived with grandparents and uncle-didn’t like
explored lake district for comfort
died at sea with his brother

Question 18

Simon Armitage

Answer 18

he poem is based on the experiences of Eddie Beddoe, a peacekeeper in the 1990s Croat-Bosniak conflict
the poem is written from the perspective of Eddie’s wife, Laura,