Poetry context Flashcards
LONDON
1794 - William Blake >Romantic poet with revolutionary views >Hatred of the establishment >From songs of innocence >Innocence leading the blind >Spent his life mostly in London
THE PRELUDE
1799 - William Wordsworth
>Critique of the corruption caused by the industrial revolution
>Romantic poet
>Enthusiast for the ideas of the French revolution
>Autobiographical poem published after his death
SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY
1814 - Lord Byron
>Patriarchal society
>Allegedly written after he saw a women in mourning
>Romantic poet
>His sensual imagery evokes a sense of the sublime
>Celebrates the transcendental power of the imagination
OZYMANDIAS
1818 - Percy Bysshe Shelley
>Inspired by contemporary archaeological discoveries in Egypt
>Ozymandias was another name for the great pharaoh Remeses II
>Romantic poet
>Anti-autoritarian radical thinkers
>Expelled from Oxford for atheism
>disapproval of the monarchial government of George III
TO AUTUMN
1819 - John Keats
>Written after a beautiful autumnal walk
>Might have known he was dying because he trained as a doctor, so could be considered as a meditation on mortality
>Romantic poet
>Exploration of the sublime
>Exemplifies the concept of negative capability
When was the industrial revolution?
This process began in Britain in the 18th century. Late 17hundred to mid 18hundred.
SONNET 43
1845 - Elizabeth Barrett Browning
>Victorian poet
>Tried to imply they were translations - Sonnets from the Portuguese
>Appropriates the classic masculine form
>Addressed to Robert Browning
>Interested in women’s rights
AS IMPERCEPTIBLY AS GRIEF
1860? - Emily Dickinson
>American poet
>Lived in isolation for the last 30 years of her life
>Her house overlooked a cemetery and spent much time brooding over her death
>Used metaphysical conceit (title)
>Admired Keats for his concept of negative capability
A WIFE IN LONDON
1899 - Thomas Hardy
>Written during the Boer War
>The poem could reflect his cynical attitudes towards the idea of an Empire
>Victorian poet
>key theme of inexorability of human destiny (the idea that we can’t escape our fate)
>Focused on individual tragedy rather than greater glory
THE SOLDIER
1914 - Rupert Brooke
>Written about WW1
>Brooke died from a mosquito bite in 1915
>Could be considered a love poem for England - the ultimate patriotic hymn - viewed as propaganda
>Georgian poet
DULCE ET DECORUM EST
1917 - Wilfred Owen
>Written during WW1
>The poem was written while Owen was recovering from ‘shell shock’
>Poem is a riposte to the jingoistic poems like Jessie pope’s who glorified the war
>Owen was killed just 2 weeks before the end of the war
AFTERNOONS
1959 - Philip Larkin
>Written in the post-war period of austerity
>Known for celebrating the ordinary
>Movement poet
>Refused to accept poet Laureate due to writer’s block
>Pessimistic attitude towards marriage
>Used the changing seasons to reflect the changes in their lives - marriage is negative because it brings an end to youthful pleasures
HAWK ROOSTING
1960 - Ted Hughes
>A Yorkshire man
>He began writing poems about nature in his adolescence (teenage years)
>Hawk could symbolise post war appraisal of dictators
>Movement poet (embraced Englishness with realism and honesty)
>Infamous for his poetry of violence
DEATH OF A NATURALIST
1966 - Seamus Heaney
>Northen Irish poet
>Influenced by his surroundigs and upbringing
>Sense of conflict is evident - metaphor for a nation at war with itself
>Traditional poet, influenced by movement poets who helped him to realise he could write about his childhood experiences
>Gives voice to the voiceless
VALENTINE
1993 - Carol Ann Duffy
>First female LGBT+ poet laureate
>Famous feminist poet
>Challenges conventional gender expectations
>Use of metaphysical conceit - compares love to an onion - reflects her desire to change conventional ways
