Poetry - Part 1 (8 poems) Flashcards
FORM
A Poison Tree
iambic tetrameter ‘I told my wrath, my wrath did end.’:
* combo between trohaic tetrameter in the first line: ‘I was angry with my friend,’ sounds like stamping, adding to anger
* iambic tetrameter has a sense of movement to it, which helps with adding to theme of the writer’s growth of anger ‘a poison TREE’
* iambic tetrameter has a childish sound to it, contrasting w/ the themes of wrath and anger within the poem, ‘my wrath did grow’, this may represent how ppl attempt to cover up their feelings of anger with positive feelings
* alternatively, it may show how anger is a key emotion, something that kids may even feel
CONTEXT
A Poison Tree
- written during the romantic era - focused on nature (the growth of the tree, the apple), intense emotions (doing it right first time, however bottling it up, letting it grow (nature link)), wanting ppl to understand emotions better, use of everyday language
- religion - blake: devout christian, however he dislike the insitution of the Church = poison tree mimics this bc it criticises chruch’s view on suppresing emotion
STRUCTURE
A Poison Tree
anaphora - conjuction ‘and’ is used at start of many stanzas:
* mimics the growth of the writer’s anger (both metaphorically + literally bc tree)
* when combo with trohaic meter which creates a sense of obsession & reflects stamping, presents an idea of uncontrollable wrath, which warns ppl of supressing emotions
LANGUAGE
A Poison Tree
ambiguity of lang - ‘When the night had veil’d the pole’:
* ‘pole’ =pole star or tree, alternatively may show darkness covered the their malicious relationship meaning the ‘foe’ had managed to sneak in
* shows uncertainty of feelings, warns readers to understand their emotions
* other ambigious words (‘stole’ & ‘glad’) r also in last stanza - highlights loss of control at end
FORM 2
A Poison Tree
themes of anger:
* simple structure + easy to read = more accesible for readers
* first 2 lines shows talking abt feelings helps deal w/ them, however rest of poem
* the length of which supressing anger is talked abt = it makes things more complex + more uncontrollable
CONTEXT
From The Prelude
- romantic movement - focused on nature, intense emotions, wanting ppl to understand emotions better, use of everyday language
- Wordsworth - both parents died in adolescence, split up from siblings, his mother’s relatives mistreated him to the extent of consideration of suicide, spent a lot of time outside to escape his problems, attemping to warn contemporary society as ppl move into factories
FORM
From ‘The Prelude’
- blank verse - makes it sound serious & important, mimicking the end and change in tone ‘And serious mood’
- regular rhythm - makes it sound like speech = more accesible, however can somewhat downplay what happened
- first-person - makes it feel more personal, making readers feel more connected, attempting to enlighten them in what happened
STRUCTURE
From ‘The Prelude’
- epic poem - intended to be an epic, epics usually have a hero: in this case it may be Wordsworth - the adventure is growing up and spiritual growth and a young boy experiences this - or it is nature itself - ‘with purpose of its own’ calm, controlled has something to do and a reason to exist -
- single stanza - emphasises overwhelming power of nature bc no breaks given no time to regain breath and overwhelms readers w/ intensity: nature’s power
LANGUAGE
From ‘The Prelude’
personifcation of nature - ‘led by her’:
* idea of mother nature
* pronoun ‘her’ = feminity, trad associated with creation, growth, emotional love, which teaches reader that it is nature sustains life and has loving power over us all
* speaker may not be in control of his actions, as it nature that controls him, showing superiority of nature and lifting blame of what happens from speaker
LANGUAGE 2
From ‘The Prelude’
similies - ‘like a swan’, ‘like a living thing’:
* trying to share knowledge gained from nature and nature’s power
* warning society against contributing to industrial revolution
CONTEXT
The Destruction of Sennacherib
sympathetic views upon the jewish:
* exploration upon the conflict against Jews & how they’re oppressed
* this poem shows how despite their hardships, God will protect them in the end
FORM
The Destruction of Sennacherib
anapestic tetrameter ‘And the sheen of their spears were like stars on the sea’:
* significantly increases the pace in an attempt to make readers focus on what the Angle of Death has done rather than what has happened with the dead Christian soldiers
* mimics a horse’s hooves, creating a war-like atmosphere = more personal for readers = presents a fearful reality of a war = puts readers on edge = making them celebrate or feel relieved once God wins (suspense)
STRUCTURE
The Destruction of Sennacherib
extended metaphor:
* stanza 1 - assyrian army are a ‘blue wave’ - waves have connotations of power, destruction & sense of being unstoppable
* stanza 4 - deaths of horses ‘cold spray’ & ‘rock beating surf’ - cold spray = weak, pathetic, mildly noticeable = God is ulitmately the most powerful, magnitudes greater than a ‘wave’ = readers must respect him and not doubt his power = more devout readers
LANGUAGE
The Destruction of Sennacherib
alliteration:
* sibilance in stanza 1 - ‘spears like stars on the sea’ - sinister + elevates the assryians as a threat to be aware of, it also emphasises ‘stars on the sea’ presenting Sennacherib as smth which holds great power, so great it controls the elements
* ‘hearts once heaved’ helps make the idea of a final death, the ‘h’ noise forces readers to pause and relfect on the etxten of what has occured, phrase followed by caesura which adds to this
FORM 2
The Destruction of Sennacherib
themes - death:
* 1st interpretation: Byron overshadows that of what has happened w/ the glory for the Jews –> would fit into his ideas of religion and his personal views ==> this is done thru a rhyme scheme and meter which makes readers not think too much abt the death
* 2nd interpretation: the poem is a metaphor for war as the glory for Jews overshadows those who have lost (often found irl) = the widows of the army ‘wail’, a stark and emotional contrast between silence beforehand + ‘distorted and pale’ rider
CONTEXT
The Man he Killed
- boer war - colonised sa against uk, uk destroyed civilian areas
- hardy - disliked boer war & politics & politicians of the time, used to be lower class, succesful novelist
FORM
The Man he Killed
- first person - more personal, makes readers feel connected, heightens emotions, creates more sympathy - ‘he and I’
- conversation-like - sounds like a story being told in a pub, idea of pub seems homely while discussing smth so brutal = contrast = emphasis on brutality/senselessness of war
STRUCTURE
The Man he Killed
ABAB rhyme scheme - ‘met, inn, wet, nipperkin’:
* mimics nursery rhyme - disturbing contrast between ABAB & violent content of poem
* metaphor for how war is presented - politicians & patriotism may be trying to sugarcoat the brutality of war
* metaphor for politicians in war - to many politicians may be more like playing rather than risking human lives
LANGUAGE
The Man he Killed
repition of the word because: ‘I shot him dead because – Because’:
* speaker stutters here - v noticeable as poetry is often elegant with words
* suggests an inability to find a reason as to why he has shot this person dead
also repeats ‘Because he was my foe, Just so: my foe’
* also signals that the only reason he shot him because he was the enemy
* he is repeating it to himself in order to console and justify it
STRUCTURE 2
The Man he Killed
cyclical structure - starts in pub, ends in pub:
* destructive cycle of war - no answer to speakers moral dilemmas
* conflict has no end goal - and is therefore pointless - will forever be trapped in a loop
CONTEXT
The Charge of the Light Brigade
- poet laureate - had to glorify war & british government’s desicions to british public & defend upper-class
- crimean war - uk, france, ottoman empire vs russia, light brigade usually had lower-class ppl w/ light armour
CONTEXT
The Charge of the Light Brigade
- poet laureate - had to glorify war & british government’s desicions to british public & defend upper-class
- crimean war - uk, france, ottoman empire vs russia, light brigade usually had lower-class ppl w/ light armour
FORM
The Charge of the Light Brigade
dactylic dimeter - ‘Half a league, half a league’:
* imitates horses running
* soldiers have no choice but to run into battle as this meter sounds v unrelenting - noble, desperate, heightened emotions
STRUCTURE
The Charge of the Light Brigade
irregular rhyme scheme & rhyming couplets - ‘shell & well’:
* irregularity creates a sense of chaos
* couplets creates a sense of inevability
STRUCTURE
The Charge of the Light Brigade
irregular rhyme scheme & rhyming couplets - ‘shell & well’:
* irregularity creates a sense of chaos
* couplets creates a sense of inevability
LANGUAGE
The Charge of the Light Brigade
symbolism - ‘valley of death’:
* references bible psalm 23 - person goes into valley of death however is aware god will protect them - v ironic/dramatic irony
* subtle criticisim of how upper class made lower class engage in doomed conflict bc they had a lower social status
* symbolises inevitability of what will happen (can combo w/ rhymin couplets)
DIDI IS LONG
The Charge of the Light Brigade
CONTEXT
Exposure
owen:
* he was a soldier
* many poems romanticised war to an extremem point of nobility
* owen was a great contrast and wrote about the brutality/horrors of war instead
FORM
Exposure
pararhymes - ‘winds the knife us’:
* subtle atmosphere of unease & incompletion
* imitates soldiers feelings
* readers also left anticipating next rhyme - same way soldiers anticipate next battle
* feeling that rhyme scheme is barely kept together - same way w/ soldiers
STRUCTURE
Exposure
anaphora - ‘but nothing happens’:
* senselessness of war & fruitlessness - repetition of nothing happening despite the brutality they face in earlier paragraphs
‘what are we doing here’:
* objecting to generals, coordination & leaders
LANGUAGE
Exposure
personfication of nature - ‘less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow’:
* battle is less significant than the force of nature
* ‘black’ - colour often associated w/ death
* army is going to fight w/ nature instead of the enemies
* army represented as unimportant - ‘gunnery rumbles’
LANGUAGE 2
Exposure
religious references - ‘for love of God seems dying’:
* emphasises soldiers’ selflessness
* relates to Jesus dying in order to save humanity
* may show a slow loss of faith, as their faith in God’s ability to protect them is ‘dying’
CONTEXT
Cousin Kate
- never married
- devoutly religious (christian)
- went thru depressive episodes
- outspoken abt gender & sexuality in work
STRUCTURE
Cousin Kate
ABCB ‘true, sand, you, stand’:
* stable pace
* mirrors constant anger felt to Kate, noblemen of society bc of her situation
LANGUAGE
Cousin Kate
oxymorons, ‘my shame, my pride’:
* talking about her son
* ‘shame’ - had sex before marriage, had a baby, her baby is not legitamite, society has shunned her bc its proof of sex before marriage
‘shameless, shameful life’:
* relfects society’s view on the relationship
* the lord himself is shameless, however the speaker is shameful
* speaker feels shameless when w/ lord
LAUNGUAGE 2
Cousin Kate
zoomorphism
* ‘sit and howl’ - speaker is referred to as a wolf, wolves are usually pack animals, however speaker is alone, outcast by society, feels powerless
* ‘sing’ & ‘wing’ - kate reffered to as a bird, perhaps like a prize, or forced to sing like a caged bird, may link to an earlier refernce of ‘dove’, kate is like a dove, she didnt have sex outside of marriage
CONTEXT
The Class Game
- casey was housewife from liverpool
- post-war uk was still divided by class
- magazine published in only published poets who were working class
FORM
The Class Game
first person + direct address:
* dramatic monologue - emotional, personal
* direct address - gets readers to reconsider their views on class
* no clear stanzas - like an angry rant
STRUCTURE
The Class Game
rhyming couplets, ‘way’ & ‘day’:
* simple rhyme scheme - reflects simple way of life of working class + lightheartedness of being a ‘game’
* half rhyme occasionally used - stereotype view of working class being ‘half’ as intelligent etc
* regular beat - argument sounding
LANGUAGE
The Class Game
contrasting language, ‘not like’ & ‘instead’:
* shows 2 diff ways of life
* highlights how diff middle class vs speakers class
directly contrasting phrases, ‘stained with toils’ vs ‘soft-lily white’:
* urban vs suburban life
* emphasis to catch attention
STRUCTURE
The Class Game
enjambment, ‘unemployment card // sitting on your patio’:
* occasionally used
* mimics human speech = informal & conversational = engages reader
