Poetry (good luck lads)

Question 1

A Poison Tree: form

Answer 1

• The poem consists of four quatrains.This gives an illusion of regulairty which contrasts with the irregular content of the poem.Blake uses this form to make his poem as accessesible as possible so it can reach a wide audiance.
• Use of rhyming couplets throughout the poem, giving it a “sing-song” quality, mirroring that of a nursery rhyme.Nursery rhymes are used to teach kids about the world; this poem carries advice for all ages.

Question 2

A Poison Tree:structure

Answer 2

• Use of volta after the first two lines,focus switches from anger between friends to anger between enemies.
• The anger between friends is resolved it two lines (correrct way) whilst the other 14 lines after the volta explore the complicated and destructive results of harbouring anger.
• Line 15: second volta. Narrative voice reveales they are “glad to see their enemy poisoned, the redear finds it hard to identify with narrator.
• 14/16 lines: end-stopped.Gives poem measured quality with the impression that the poem is being recounted in a precise way.
• Lines 12 into 13: enjambment. Foe is invading narrator’s garden, as he trangresses boundaries so does the structure, suddenly breaking the the strucutre to flow into the next line.

Question 3

A Poison Tree:context

Answer 3

• Inspired by the works of Shakespeare
• Blake had a great interest in social reform , he used his poetry to try and improve the lives of all people.

Question 4

A Poison Tree: 3rd stanza

Answer 4

And it grew both day and night.
Till it bore an apple bright.
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine.

Question 5

A Poison tree: 2nd stanza

Answer 5

And I waterd it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears:
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.

Question 6

Belfast Confetti: form

Answer 6

• The lines a physically too long to fit into the width of a standard sheet, thus they are forced onto the line below.This creates a fragmented looking form, reflective of the fragmented society of Northen Island during the Troubles.
• The broken form creates cul-de-sacs on the page and mirrors the “dead ends the narrator encouters as they are trying to escape. These dead ends also symbolise the failed peace talks that went onn during this era of Irish history

Question 7

Belfast Confetti: structure

Answer 7

• The poem begins in media res, reflective of the fact that the narrator is caught up in a situation they were unaware of.
• The extra-long lines are combined with enjambment, highlighted the sense of confusion of the narrator.In addition, readers have to constantly move their eyes beack and forth and down the pages, this creates a sense of disorientation and gives the reader a sense of what it feels like to be the narrator.

Question 8

Belfast Confetti: context

Answer 8

• Poem is in first person: Carson experienced the Troubles firsthand
• Bombings were a feature of the violence seen during the Troubles
• The Troubles(1968-1998) was a conflict between Protestant unionists and Roman Catholic nationalists.

Question 9

Belfast Confetti: disorientation and inescapability

Answer 9

I was trying to complete a sentence in my head,
but it kept stuttering.
All the alleyways and side-streets blocked with stops and colons.

Question 10

Belfast confetti: confusion

Answer 10

What is
My name? Where am I coming from? Where am I going? A
fusillade of question marks.

Question 11

War photographer: form

Answer 11

• Contemperary form: not bound by strcit patterns in its meter, rhyme scgeme or stanza length
• This is reflective of how the photogropher is sharing memories

Question 12

War photogropher: structure

Answer 12

• Line sixteen “my finger pressed.” is endstopped, cutting off the structure and mirroring how history is cut off at that perticular moment, only capturing a single frame
• Enjambment alows stanza 1 to flow into stanza 2 and stanza 2 to flow into stanza 3, this is however cut off by the fullstop at the end of stanza 3.
• The pair of girls in stanza two are juxtaposed with the pair of girls in stanza 3, in order to highlight the fact that both heaven and hell are found on earth

Question 13

War photogropher: context

Answer 13

• No conflict is named in this poem, all we know is that it is a modern one
• The poem’s speaker, the photographer of the title, reflects on how the unnatural “frame” a photograph imposes on the world can distort the truth and make people complacent about others’ suffering.
• Highlights the growing divide between prosperous and poor countires

Question 14

War photogropher: last stanza

Answer 14

The picture showed the little mother
the almost-smile. Their caption read
‘Even in hell the human spirit
triumphs over all.’
But hell’ like heaven, is untidy,
its boundaries
arbitrary as a blood stain on a wall.

Question 15

War photogropher: critique of people’s motivated perception

Answer 15

The reassurance of the frame is flexible
-you can think that just outside it
people eat, sleep, love normally
while I seek out the tragic, the absurd,
to make a subject.
Or if the picture’s such as lifts the heart
the firmness of the edges can convince you
this is how things are

Question 16

Poppies - context

Answer 16

• Unique speaker pov: Large amount of poetry exploring war as someone directly involved, much less poetry about how those leeft behind feel.
• Universal feelings, everyone can tranpose the emotions of the poem onto a personal relationship
• Poppies are a symbol of remembrance for military personnel killed serving the UK,Australia,Canada and New Zealand in war
• Poppies was written afterCarol Ann Duffy asked Jane Weir (and other poets) to
  compose poems to raise awareness of the mistreatment and deaths of British soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Question 17

Poppies - form

Answer 17

• Irregular stanza length
• No rhyme scheme
• This gives the poem a natural feel which helps express the complex and turbulent emotions of the narrator

Question 18

Poppies-structure

Answer 18

• Never explicitly stated that the son is going to war
• The title and opening stanza set up the connotations of war, this is done at the start as much of the emotional value relies on the reader wondering if the son has merely gone to school of has indeed gone to war
• In the final stanza the poet introduces the image of a war memorial which frames the entire poem with the idea of war and death
• Juxtaposition of war and school serves to enhance the ambiguity e.g the mother is leaning against the war memorial hoping to hear the son’s “playground voice”

Question 19

Poppies - 1st stanza

Answer 19

Three days before Armistice Sunday
and poppies had already been placed
on individual war graves. Before you left,
I pinned one onto your lapel, crimped petals,
spasms of paper red, disrupting a blockade
of yellow bias binding around your blazer

Question 20

Poppies- last stanza

Answer 20

On reaching the top of the hill I traced
the inscriptions on the war memorial,
leaned against it like a wishbone.
The dove pulled freely against the sky,
an ornamental stitch. I listened, hoping to hear
your playground voice catching on the wind.

Question 21

Exposure - context

Answer 21

• Wilfred Owen fought in WW1 himself, he wanted to express the reality through poetry
• The Western front of ww1 was characterised by trench warfare
• Owen explores the themes of faith and patriotism, questioning what motivates humans to endure suffering
• Challenged pro-war poetry
• Modernist poem-abandonning the fixed point of view and traditional structur of 19th century realism
• His pre-war poetry conformed to romanticism and was influence by the Bible

Question 22

Exposure - form

Answer 22

• Every stanza has four full lines, followed by a half line, so nothing happens to the stanza throughout the poem just as “nothing happens” within the poem
• Rhyme scheme with the pattern ABBAC, howver this is often strained with half rhymes.
• These discordant rhymes create a tension withing the poem, reflecting the tension the soldiers feel

Question 23

Exposure-structure

Answer 23

• Each stanza ends with half-rhyme
• In stanzas 1,3,4 and 8 “but nothing happens is repeated”.The refrain emphasizes the crushing feelings of despair the soldiers fell whilst waiting to die
• Stanza 2 ends in the rhetorical question “what are we doing here?”
• This is answered by another rhetorical question in stanza 5 “is it we are dying?”
• Reflects the loss of faith and patroitism
• Most lines are endstopped, slowing down the pace and mirroring the sense of torpor the soldiers feel

Question 24

Exposure- loss of faith/nihilism

Answer 24

Since we believe not otherwise can kind fires burn;
Now ever suns smile true on child, or field, or fruit.
For God’s invincible spring our love is made afraid;
Therefore, not loath, we lie out here; therefore were born,
For love of God seems dying.

Question 25

Exposure-death/homesickness

Answer 25

For hours the innocent mice rejoice: the house is theirs;
Shutters and doors, all closed: on us the doors are closed,—
We turn back to our dying.

Question 26

No problem-context

Answer 26

• After WW2 many people moved from the Caribbeans to Britain after being promised a better life.
• On arrival, they were met with racism
• Zephaniah experienced racism first hand whilst growing up
• He sasys that society has come a long way but racism still exists
• (language)the use of phonetic spellings indicate the narrators heritage

Question 27

No problem-form

Answer 27

• Poem is formed in two stanzas
• Stanza one envelopes 4 quatrains, within each one lines 2 and 4 rhyme
• This strict form could reflect the way black people were forced into strict stereotypes
• Stanza two has a much less restricted form, reflecting the general message that we should see above racist stereotypes

Question 28

No problem-structure

Answer 28

• “I am not de problem” is repeated 4 times in first stanza, reinforcing that its society that is imposing racist values on black people.
• Repetition also creates a sense of strength in the poem, showing how to narrator wont be silenced
• Heavy use of enjambment means that lines relentlessly flow into each other.Thsi gives the poem an insistent feel, highlighting the narrators important message
• Poem has a positive open tone however it ends with a wry,movking jike “some of me best friends are white” which is an inversion of the phrase “some of my best friends are black” highlighting how patronising the phrase is

Question 29

No problem- second stanza

Answer 29

An I am positively sure
I have no chips on me shoulders,
Black is not de problem
Mother country get it right,
An just for de record,
Sum of me best friends are white

Question 30

No problem - stereotypes

Answer 30

I am a born academic
But dey got me on de run
Now I am branded athletic,
I am not de problem
If yu give I a chance
I can teach yu of Timbuktu