Poetry - In depth Flashcards
Summarise Storm On the Island
What are the themes of Storm On the Island?
The storm is a metaphor for the Troubles in Ireland and Northern Ireland
Power of nature (power of humans, effect + reality of conflict, memory, anger, fear)
What is the context to Storm On the Island?
Written during the Troubles (tumultuous time between Britain + Ireland). Heaney was born on a farm in Northern Ireland, later lived in Republic of Ireland.
Troubles began in 60s - Derry Civil Rights march (1968), Battle of the Bogside (1969), deployment of British troops (1969). Written in 1966
What are your language quotes for Storm On the Island?
“exploding comfortably” -oxymoron (different opinions on nationalist debate), ‘exploding’ = IRA, ‘comfortably’ = Irish support + desensitisation
“spits like a tame cat turned savage” - simile, wouldn’t expect wind to be dangerous (need preparing) OR situation currently calm, warning not to spark
First 8 letters of title spell Stormont -official government building in Belfast, significant in Irish National debate
What is your structure quote for Storm On the Island?
Lots of enjambment - Troubles were relentless, Catholic / Protestant animosity would never end, OR power of nature would always be a threat
Summarise Ozymandias
What are the themes of Ozymandias?
Discusses the remains of a weathered statue in the desert - the old king is now powerless
Power of humans (power of nature, memory, loss and absence, identity, pride)
Give some context to Ozymandias
Part of the Romantic Movement, he came from a wealthy family but was against aristocracy, was expelled from Oxford for writing about atheism, was known as radical
Ozymandias was Rameses III, poem is a criticism of people that become huge + believe they’re invincible
What are your language quotes for Ozymandias?
“sneer of cold command” - alliteration - sounds like a chant/spell (following leaders blindly is like a cult), lacks empathy for people, unhappy in power
“Ozymandias, king of kings” - arrogance and pride, thinks himself a god, Shelley wrote about atheism (blasphemy), wanted to leave a legacy
What are your structure quotes for Ozymandias?
Form: sonnet - usually love poems, shows Ozymandias’ egotistical nature, a timeless form of poem - wants to be remembered + keep a legacy
One stanza - little information about him now, he holds no power, message to powerful people to not be so arrogant because everything dies
Summarise Exposure
What are the themes of Exposure?
Exposes the soldiers of WWI’s struggles against the weather - fighting wasn’t the worst part
War (power of nature + humans, effect + reality of conflict, fear, individual experiences)
Give some context to Exposure
In WWI, he and his fellow soldiers were left out in freezing conditions, wrote to show British people the horrors of life on the front line
Was hospitalised in 1917 from shell shock (PTSD) - met Siegfried Sassoon there who encouraged him to write
What are your language quotes for Exposure?
“slowly our ghosts drag home” - metaphor - soldiers are physically returning but so permanently scarred they aren’t themselves anymore, battling the propaganda
” dawn massing in the east her melancholy army” -metaphor / personification - paranoia (seeing threats in everything), nobody wants to fight, her = mother nature
“sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence” - sibilance, soft ‘s’ = comforting - attack is better than anticipation, might mean an end to life = good?
What is your structure quote for Exposure?
Repetition of “but nothing happens” at irregular intervals = uncertainty of when attack will come, builds tension - something will definitely happen
Summarise Remains
What are the themes of Remains?
Details the PTSD of soldiers that fought in the Gulf War
Memory (power of humans, effects + reality of conflict, loss and absence, guilt, individual experiences)
Give some context to Remains
He has a colloquial style, deals with personal relationships often drawing on his own experiences
“These are the poems of survivors - the damaged, exhausted men who return from war in body but never wholly in mind” - Simon Armitage
What are your language quotes for Remains?
“tosses his guts” - colloquial - should have been normal for his job - thinks others are nonchalant = embarrassment (toxic masculinity + men’s mental health stigma)
“his bloody life in my bloody hands” - neither are innocent - not fair for one to die and the other survive = guilt, hands still bloody = will never get over it
“image of agony” - hyperbole? most intense pain possible, watching it sparks narrator’s guilt, sympathy