Poetry, power and conflict Flashcards
Ozymandias, Percy Shelley
What is the first line from this poem?
List main themes
Give key points from quotes :
“Half sunk, a shattered visage lies”
“boundless and bare”
What poem can this be compared to?
“I met a traveller from an antique land”
Main themes :
Power - might and power does not last but art and nature does
Time - time is true power, not man
Religion
Nature is an overwhelming force
Quotes :
Irony - his statue crumbles while Ramesses II didn’t survive, but the power of nature does
nature is an inescapable force that outlives man
Alliteration
Emphasis on the vastness - vastness and power of nature compared to the crumbling statue that represents the power of man
all that remains is nature - again highlights how it is a powerful, inescapable force
This poem can be compared to :
Extract from, The Prelude, William Wordsworth
My Last Duchess, Robert Browning
Extract from, The Prelude, William Wordsworth
What is the first line from this poem?
List main themes
Give key points from quotes :
“a huge peak, black and huge”
“For so it seemed, with purpose of it’s own And measured motion like a living thing Strode after me”
What poem can this be compared to?
“One summer evening (led by her) I found”
Main themes :
Power - the power of nature is overbearing and overwhelming
Nature - nature is exposing the vulgarity of man - man is bad and shouldn’t control nature
Quotes :
“huge” - repeated twice, reflecting how overwhelmed the narrator is by the sight of the mountain
“black” - silhouette of mountain in distance or something more? could present nature as an evil force that is looming over him, an inescapable power
strode - filled with purpose could reflect how nature is angry at man and is striding after him to make him pay
so it seemed - his fear of nature is overwhelming him and making him irrational, nature isn’t as powerful as its made out to be?
This poem can be compared to :
Ozymandias, Percy Shelley
My Last Duchess, Robert Browning
What is the first line from this poem?
List main themes
Give key points from quotes :
“(since none puts by, The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)”
“I gave commands, Then all smiles stopped together.”
“Will’t please you rise?”
What poem can this be compared to?
“That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,”
Main themes :
Significance of power, male power
Women’s sexuality regarded as dangerous
Browning shows patriarchal problems with society
Quotes :
Duke has the ultimate control - he can choose who sees her, stop people seeing her
Ambiguous, did he kill her? she was happy but he wasn’t
Framed as a question but is a demand towards his inferior
Envoy would have been looking up at him, reflects dukes superiority and control
This poem can be compared to :
Ozymandias, Percy Shelley
Exposure, Wilfred Owen
What is the first line of this poem?
List main themes
Give key points from quotes :
“…in the merciless iced east winds that knive us”
“pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our faces”
What poem can this be compared to?
“Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds hat knive us…”
Main themes :
Exposes harsh realities of war
Owen thought war was futile, this echoes in the poem
Weather is more damaging than enemy soldiers - soldiers are ‘exposed’ to the weather
Power of nature and weather
Quotes :
Knive - pain and agony inflicted physically by weather and metaphorically by enemies
‘Us’ is exposed on new line, reflects how soldiers are exposed and vulnerability of sitting and waiting
merciless - shows how nature is an unrelenting force that will never give up, never show mercy
Stealth - like nature is sneaking up on them, less of an aggressive attack and more measured and sinister
Feeling or our faces - nature makes a personal attack, invasive
This poem be compared to :
Storm on the Island, Seamus Heany
Storm on the Island, Seamus Heaney
What is the first line of this poem?
List main themes
Give key points from quotes :
“it pummels your house too”
“Raise a tragic chorus in a gale”
What poem can this be compared to?
“We are prepared: we build our houses squat,”
Main themes :
Power of nature
Political? conflict in Ireland and Northern Ireland
Quotes :
Your house - nature batters the narrator’s home - not just attacking him but his home too, invasive
Tragic - could be foreshadowing of the damage the storm will create, reflects the strong power of nature - no one can stand against it
gale also shows the power of the storm, power of nature
This poem can be compared to :
Exposure, Wilfred Owen
exposure, ozymandias
London, William Blake
What is the first line of this poem?
List main themes
Give key points from quotes :
“I wander through each chartered street”
“The mind-forged manacles”
What poem can this be compared to?
“I wander through each chartered street”
Main themes :
Suffering of people - it’s inescapable, abuse of power
Power of a place - London is a dismal and bleak city
Quotes :
Chartered street - a real place but has symbolic values of industry and power
Wander - narrator could be walking in a dreamlike state, trying to block out the suffering around them
Mind-forged - internalised suffering that is inflicted by themselves
Manacles - connotations of pain and suffering, the power of the place is used to oppress people
This poem can be compared to :
The Emigrée, Carol Rumens
The Emigree, Carol Rumens
What is the first line from this poem?
List main themes
Give key points from quotes :
“There once was a country”
“there’s no way back at all, but my city comes to me in it’s own white plane.”
“There once was a country … I left it as a child”
Main themes :
Power of memories
Power of a place - depicted as bright, ‘sunlight clear’, a fantastical place
Quotes :
Once - its a metaphorical and symbolic place that she remembers which no longer exists, could be a city of her own creation - she remembers it differently as a child and has recreated it in her head as a bright and ‘sunlight clear’ place, fantastical
No way back at all - she is tortured by the positive memories of her home that she cannot return to
It comes to me in it’s own white plane - she is trapped in a new place and all that she has are memories of her home that can ‘fly to her in a plane’ that she can use to recreate her home/city in her mind
This poem can be compared to :
London, William Blake
Remains, Simon Armitage
What is the first line of this poem?
List main themes
Give key points from quotes :
“On another occasion, we get sent out”
“Sleep, and he’s probably armed, possibly not.”
“His blood shadow stays on the street”
What can this poem be compared to?
“On another occasion, we get sent out”
Main themes :
Soldiers have no choice but to follow orders from those in power
Psychological effect on soldiers after traumatic events in war
Guilt
Quotes :
Get sent out - soldiers have to follow orders from those in power, and potentially kill people, they have no choice
Another occasion - suggests that this is a common occurrence - soldiers are ordered to do things that can cause them trauma and effect their lives in the future (PTSD), and this happens all the time (for COTLB/Bayonet Charge)
The narrator can’t stop thinking about what happened - it haunts him and he can’t escape it, his life has been destroyed by this traumatic event (for COTLB/Bayonet Charge/War Photographer)
The imprint of the man they killed, even though his body has been taken away, there’s no way to forget what happened, the guilt he feels (for War Photographer)
This poem can be compared to :
The Charge of the Light Brigade, Alfred Lord Tennyson
Bayonet Charge, Ted Hughes
War Photographer, Carol Ann Duffy
The Charge of the Light Brigade, Alfred Lord Tennyson
What is the first line of this poem?
List main themes
Give key points from quotes :
“Some one had blunder’d: Theirs not to make reply”
“While horse and hero fell”
What poem can this be compared to?
“Half a league, half a league”
Main themes :
Mistakes from those in power - soldiers were ordered into the ‘valley of death’ without a reason
Soldiers following orders - soldiers had no choice but to ride to their deaths
Quotes :
Blunder’d - one person in charge affects/is in control everything, a mistake at a high level can cost hundreds of lives
Not to make reply - soldiers have little power but show courage, soldiers had no choice but to ride to their deaths
Alliteration - highlights those involved in conflict
Hero - glorifies the soldiers, evokes a sense of sympathy
Fell - the soldiers did not survive this blunder
This poem can be compared to :
Remains, Simon Armitage
Bayonet Charge, Ted Hughes
List main themes
Give key points from quotes :
“his terrors touchy dynamite”
”- raw, in raw-seamed hot khaki”
What poem can this be compared to?
“Suddenly he awoke and was running - raw”
Main themes :
Confusion and disorientation
Trauma from events in war
Being ordered to do something that he cannot back out of
Quotes :
he is destroyed by his own fear, terror making him run not duty
raw is separated on different lines - soldier stands alone, raw repeated tells us something is unfinished, raw also has connotations of repeated suffering or pain, could reflect how the soldier is constantly in terror
This poem can be compared to :
Remains, Simon Armitage
War Photographer, Carol Ann Duffy
What is the first line of this poem?
List main themes
Give key points from quotes :
“A stranger’s features faintly start to twist before his eyes”
“Blood stained into foreign dust”
What can this poem be compared to?
“In his dark room he is finally alone”
Main themes :
conflict witnessed abroad
psychological effect conflict and war can have on a person, whether involved directly in war or not
guilt
Quotes :
He can’t forget what he’s seen - the memories will haunt him forever, he can never be free of them
An imprint of those who died are stained into his mind, he’s trying to forget the guilt but can’t
This poem can be compared to :
Remains, Simon Armitage
Poppies, Jane Weir
What is the first line of this poem?
List main themes
Give key points from these quotes :
“released a song bird from it’s cage”
“I traced the inscriptions on the war memorial”
What can this poem be compared to?
“Three days before Armistice Sunday”
Main themes :
loss
memories
trying to let go of her son
guilt
Quotes :
reflective or her tears - she finally has the freedom to cry, she is trying to let go of her son, grieve over him because she knows he won’t come back
she feels guilt for letting her son go, its ambiguous - he could be dead and that is why she feels so guilty
This poem can be compared to :
War Photographer, Carol Ann Duffy
How do you write an introduction?
short and to the point
show you understand meaning of question
mention poems you are comparing
give key themes that you will discuss from the poems
How do you write a conclusion?
sum up what you have said to address title
mention key words
make sure personal response has come across
