Poetry notes. Flashcards
What is the poem about?
- It describes the experiences of a group of soldiers in WW1.
- They are freezing and exhausted.
- They feel attacked by the weather.
Key aspects.
- Repetition emphasises the monotonous experience the soldiers are having to endure.
- The viewpoint Owen chooses shows the soldiers as a united force.
- The use of half-rhyme has a considerable effect.
- Owen uses alliteration.
Key setting.
- Owen doesn’t describe the immediate setting of the trenches but their wider surroundings.
- The reader sees the soldiers’ “cringe in holes” which are compared with “grassier ditches”.
- It evokes the experience.
Key technique.
- Owen’s use of the present tense throughout the poem has the effect of creating immediacy for the reader.
- The tense makes the soldiers’ experiences seem never-ending.
Key quotation.
- Owen focuses on the soldiers’ readiness for action and the repeated dashing of their expectations.
London.
Summary:
- The speaker notices how oppressed people in London have become now that everything is chartered.
- This is apparent in all kinds of people.
- The speaker refers to child workers and soldiers, and connects them to institutions such as the Church and the palace, both of which are presented as dramatically stained.
- Finally, the speaker reflects on the pitiful state of the streets at night, linking the ideas of prostitutes, new born babies, disease, marriage and death
Key aspects.
- The repetition in the first half of the poem is a key language technique, emphasising the speaker’s initial unhappiness with the situation in London and building up to a strong picture of universal oppression with the five-fold repetition of ‘every’.
- Blake uses a regular rhythm and rhyme scheme.
- Some of Blake’s vocabulary choices are worth noting.
Key setting.
Eighteenth-century London was developing rapidly under industrialisation which resulted in considerable poverty and extremely poor living conditions. Child labour was commonplace, and poorer children in particular worked long hours in dangerous environments. Blake’s poem outlines his concerns about Londoners’ lack of personal freedom by underscoring the way the city was being controlled by charters at the time, and suggesting that even the River Thames was controlled by the powerful.
Key theme.
Blake states that everyone he sees is affected by weakness and woe.
Key context.
Blake was a supporter of the French revolution.
Extract from the Prelude.
Summary:
The speaker comes across a boat and uses it to row into a lake at night.
- The boy is pleased with his skill in rowing and describes how he fixes his point on a ‘craggy ridge’ in the distance.
- The boy suddenly becomes scared and turns the boat around.
- He is haunted by the experience afterwards.
Key aspects.
- Wordsworth uses the first person viewpoint.
- Personification of nature is used throughout.
- It is in the epic tradition.
Key setting.
- Wordsworth presents the reader with realistic descriptions of the lake and its surroundings at night.
Key technique.
Wordsworth makes considerable use of figurative language to show the power of nature in ‘The Prelude’. He focuses on the speaker’s attention on small details to demonstrate the beauty in tiny things.
My Last Duchess.
Summary:
- The speaker, a duke, points out a portrait of his former wife, inviting the implied listener to admire its lifelike quality.
- The Duke implies that his wife may have been flirting with Fra Pandolf, the painter, and it quickly becomes clear that the Duke believed his wigfe was too friendly or flirtatious with everyone and did not appreciate her husband enough.
Key aspects.
- The poem is a dramatic monologue.
- Browning uses iambic pentameter.
- Browning presents the Duke as having no ‘skill in speech’.
Key setting.
- This poem is about the Duke of Ferrara, in Northern Italy, whose first wife died at the age of 17.
- At the time, women’s sexuality was often regarded as dangerous.
