Poetry Key Quotes Flashcards
Time
To Autumn: “While barrèd clouds bloom the soft-dying day”
“The redbreast whistles from a garden croft; And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.”
“Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless”
“To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells with a sweet kernel”
Where the Picnic Was: “Where we made the fire/ In the summer time”
“Now a cold wind blows, And the grass is grey”
“Last relic of the band/ Who came that day!”
“And one - has shut here eyes for evermore.”
Location/Meaningful Places
London: “I wander through each charter’d street/ Near where the charter’d Thames does flow”
“And the hapless Soldier’s sigh/ Runs in blood down Palace walls”
ABAB (alternate) rhyme scheme with four quatrains shows unchanging situation of poverty of London
“thro’ midnight streets I hear/ How the youthful Harlot’s curse/ Blasts”
Composed: “This City now doth, like a garment, wear/ The beauty of the morning”
Petrarchan Sonnet, which is a love poem, shows Wordsworth’s love for the city
“The river glideth at his own sweet will”
“Never did sun more beautifully steep/ In his first splendour”
Change
Hurricane Hits England: “Tell me why you visit/ An English coast?”
“I am aligning myself to you, I am following … I am riding”
“It took a hurricane, to bring her close/ To the landscape”
“Come to break the frozen lake in me, Shaking the foundations of the very trees within me”
Where the Picnic Was: “Where we made the fire/ In the summer time”
“Now a cold wind blows, And the grass is grey”
“Yes, I am here/ Just as last year … - But two have wandered far”
“And one - has shut her eyes/ For evermore”
Strong emotions
Absence: “the thoughtless birds that shook out the trees, Singing an ecstasy I could not share”
“Surely in these pleasures there could not be a pain to bear”
“Under all the gentleness there came an earthquake tremor”
“That made your absence seem a savage force” - structure breaks showing break in emotion and heightened emotions”
Nothing’s Changed: “and the hot, white, inwards turning/ anger of my eyes.”
“Hands burn/ for a stone, a bomb, to shiver down the glass.”
“Brash with glass, name flaring like a flag, it squats”
“No sign says it is: but we know where we belong.”
Nature
To Autumn: Praising- Ode is a lyric poem sung in praise. Typically 10 lines per stands, TA has 11. Shows abundance of life and nature, poet’s praise unable to be contained.
“While barred clouds bloom the soft dying day”
“To well the gourd and plump the hazel shells/With a sweet kernel”
“The redbreast whistles from a garden croft; And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.”
Home Thoughts from Abroad: “Hark, where my blossomed pear tree in the hedge/ Leans to the field”
“The buttercups, the little children’s dower/ — Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!”
“And after April, when May follows, And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!”
“The first fine careless rapture!”
Grief/Loss
Absence: “Nothing was changed, the gardens were well tended, The fountains sprayed their usual steady jet”
“The thoughtless birds that shook out of the trees,/ Singing an ecstasy I could not share,”
“Surely in these/ Pleasures there could not be a pain to bear/ Or any discord shake the level breeze.”
“That made your absence seem a savage force … under all the gentleness there came/ An earthquake tremor”
Where the Picnic Was: “Now a cold wind blows, And the grass is grey”
“Last relic of the band/ Who came that day!”
“Yes, I am here/ Just as last year”
“But two have wandered far … And one - has shut her eyes/ For evermore.”
Identity/Belonging
Nothing’s Changed: “and the hot, white, inwards turning/ anger of me eyes.”
“Hands burn/ for a stone, a bomb, to shiver down the glass.”
“No sign says it is: but we know where we belong.”
“Brash with glass, name flaring like a flag, it squats”
Hurricane Hits England: “Tell me why you visit/ An English coast?”
“I am aligning myself to you, I am following … I am riding”
“Talk to me Huracan/ Talk to me Oya/ Talk to me Shango”
“Come to break the frozen lake in me, Shaking the foundations of the very trees within me”
Memories/Nostalgia
Adlestrop: contrast between short sentences to start “Unwontedly. It was late June.” And flowing natural imagery shows inconsistency of memories “And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry”
“The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat. No one left and no one came/ On the bare platform”
“And for that minute a blackbird sang/ Close by, and round him”W
Where the Picnic Was: “Where we made the fire/ In the summer time”
“Now a cold wind blows, And the grass is grey”
“Last relic of the band/ Who came that day!”
“Yes, I am here/ Just as last year … -But two have wandered far”
