Poetry Context Flashcards
What is the context to Adlestrop?
- Written after a real train journey when Thomas’s train stopped unexpectedly in the Cotswolds
- Inspired by Romantic poetry
- Disliked urbanisation
- Died in WW1 a few years after writing Adlestrop
- The poem shows the peaceful nature of England before the war
What is the context to Westminster Bridge?
- Industrial revolution
- Romantic poet, focused on nature and strong emotions
- Wordsworth and his sister were travelling to France and stopped in London temporarily in the morning
What is the context to Home Thoughts?
- Inspired by Romantic poetry
- Love of nature, strong emotions
- Poem written whilst Browning was in Italy, homesickness and appreciation of English countryside in spring
What is the context to Absence?
- Jennings was part of “The Movement” which opposed modern, obscure poetry
- Most of her poems written in plain English so can be universally understood
- Her poems became increasingly autobiographical
What is the context to Picnic?
- Opposed industrialisation
- Part of a sequence of elegies written by Hardy about his wife’s death
- Written to make amends after his ill-treatment of her
What is the context to London?
- Romantic poet
- Wanted to prioritise creativity and individuality
- Was interested in social justice
- Wanted to highlighted poor’s suffering
- Influenced by the French Revolution
What is the context to Nothing’s Changed?
- Written shortly after apartheid ended in South Africa
- Spent much of his life in District Six, in 1966 made whites-only and forced to leave
- Imprisoned in 1987 for anti-apartheid campaigning
What is the context to Postcard?
- Class divide - rich went on gap years abroad, and working class went on package holidays
- Leisure travel become more accessible, the speaker laments this
- Contemporary poetry at this time was usually free verse
What is the context to Hurricane?
- Nichols was part of the Windrush generation - born in Guyana
- Inspired by the Great Storm in 1987
- Reminded her of home - unusual for such weather to happen in England
What is the context to Romney Marsh?
- Influenced by Romantic poetry
- Industrial revolution saw mankind damaging nature
- Inventions such as telephones and cameras, Davidson almost wanted to return to simpler times
What is the context to First Flight?
- Fanthorpe worked in a psychiatric hospital
- Written in 1988, when commercial flights became cheaper
- Poet was a people-watcher
What is the context to To Autumn?
- Romantic poet
- Inspired by a walk
- Written shortly before Keats died of TB - appreciative of nature, and end of poem = related to death / ending
What is the context to Presents from my Aunts?
- Alvi had a Pakistani dad, English mum
- Felt she didn’t belong to either culture
- Born in Pakistan
- Alludes to India-Pakistan conflict, British Empire, etc.
What is the context to Stewart Island?
- Adcock born in New Zealand, moved to England, then returned at 13 yrs old
- Struggled with her sense of identity
- Many of her poems written from outsider’s perspective
Who wrote To Autumn?
Keats
Who wrote Stewart Island?
Adcock
Who wrote Presents from my Aunts?
Alvi
Who wrote London?
Blake
Who wrote Westminster Bridge?
Wordsworth
Who wrote Home Thoughts?
Browning
Who wrote Adelstrop?
Thomas
Who wrote Picnic?
Hardy
Who wrote First Flight?
Fanthorpe
Who wrote Hurricane?
Nichols
Who wrote Nothing’s Changed?
Afrika
Who wrote Postcard?
Hannah
Who wrote Romney Marsh?
Davidson
Who wrote Absence?
Jennings
