Poetry Quotes Flashcards
Sneer of cold command.
- Ozymandias.
-Gutterals, “c”.
Creates a harsh sound, suggesting that his power was mainly created by fear.
Creates a distant presence, showing that he does not fully know the consequences on his people.
Hand that mocked and the heart that fed.
- Ozymandias.
- Juxtaposition.
Shows the opinions of the sculptor, that he “Mocks” the way that Ozymandias had ruled, by putting his passion
into going against the reign for something that he thinks will last forever in a kingdom that will meet it’s demise very soon.
Two vast and trunkless legs of stone.
- Ozymandias.
- Imagery “Trunkless”
Uses the trunk of the tree to describe the torso of Ozymandias. It connotes that he thought himself overly strong and powerful, even though he clearly was not.
Lone and level.
Boundless and bare.
- Ozymandias.
- Alliteration, “L”, “B”.
This repetition can suggest the continuity that his power is slowly being destroyed, and will always be “bare”.
-Plosives, “B”.
This soft sound that is created suggests that the remains that are left behind go unnoticed and will not accurately show how cold and destructive the kingdom was.
King of kings.
- Ozymandias.
- Repetition, “King”
Shows the self-inflation that he has created throughout his power and reign. His power has made him see himself as more important than others, hence being the “King of King”, and not taking others into account, Making himself distant, which the gutturals can suggest.
Colossal wreck.
- Ozymandias.
- Gutterals “C” sound.
The distance that he had created with his power from his people suggests that it lead to his demise.
A mark in every face I meet,
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
- London.
- Repetition “Mark”.
I wander thro’ each charter’d street,
Near where the charter’d Thames does flow.
- London.
The mind-forg’d manacles I hear
- London.
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse
- London
- Oxymoron, “Marriage hearse”.
Marriage represents the start of a new beginning in life,where as a hearse represents death and the end of life. - Violent Imagery, “Blights with plagues”.
Has negative images associated with them. “Plagues” are spread easily, throughout a large population. Illness is everywhere.
Runs in blood down Palace walls
- London
The dark shoals of fishes
Flashing silver as their bellies
Swivelled towards the sun
- Kamikaze
- Sibilance.
The constant “s” sound shows that there is a continuity of a struggle in what he sees around him and what he is doing. He debates whether what he is doing is right or wrong. It also shows that there is a constant amazement of what he sees around him.
With a flask of water, a samurai sword
- Kamikaze
Then the other in a figure of eight
- Kamikaze
- Symbolism.
A “figure of eight” is similar, if not identical to an infinity sign. It shows that the disdain from his family and his culture will always surround him. This can remain in the stories that is told to other generations that follows, for example, to his granddaughter who is the narrator.
Enough fuel for a one-way
Journey into history
- Kamikaze.
that this
was no longer the father we loved.
-Kamikaze.
- Repetition, “father”.
It was first mentioned within the first line of the poem and then, finally, within the last stanza . It give it a cyclical structure that could represent the (grand)father coming home. However this juxtaposes the way that the attitudes towards him after coming home changes.
My stomach busy
Making tucks, darts, pleats, hat-less.
- Poppies.
- Lexical field of sewing and clothes.
Both the mother and the son are making new memories, even though they are going different ways. For the mother, the old memories are coming back, as she has habits that has to be broken due to the loss of her son.
This also suggests that there are many things that she has made and now is reminiscent of what has happened. - Monosyllabic.
This suggests that the simplest things can be the most easily remembered about someone. Some time, these can be the most powerful of memories.
The simple words can suggest that the memories are too painful to describe a lot because they are so powerful.
I pinned one onto your lapel, crimped edges,
Spasms of paper red
-Poppies.
Released a song bird from its cage
- Poppies.
- The “songbird” represents her son. It connotes a free person, full of hope. Juxtaposes the effects of war, that it has on her and her son.
Straight I unloosed her chain, and stepping in
pushed from the shore.
- The Prelude (Extract)
- Colloquial/ informal feel.
For so it seemed, with purpose of its own
And measured over me like a living thing,
Strode after me.
- The Prelude (Extract)
One summer evening…
-Beginning
There hung a darkness…
- Ending
- The Prelude (Extract)
In his dark room he is finally alone
With spools of suffering set out in ordered rows.
- War Photographer
As though this was a church and he
Was a priest preparing intone mass.
Beirut. Belfast.
- War photographer
…Rural England.
Something is happening. A stranger’s features
Faintly start to twist before his eyes,
A half formed ghost.
- War photographer.
Enjambment in My Last Duchess.
- My Last Duchess
That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive.
- My Last Duchess
- Possessive pronouns.
This grew, I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped all together.
- My last Duchess
There she stands, as if alive.
- My Last Duchess.
Will’t please you rise?
-My Last Duchess.
- Rhetorical question.
He passively controls everyone around him, making those actions seem like the person’s own actions. It shows that he had control over his “Last Duchess” after she had died as he decides who he shows her portrait to. As well as that, her has control of the family members of all his wives, for example, he is controlling his next wife’s father.
Sleep, and he’s probably armed, and possibly not.
Dream, and he’s torn apart by a dozen rounds.
- Remains.
- Juxtaposition
So we’ve hit this looter a dozen times
and he’s there on the ground, sort of inside out,
- Remains.
- Colloquial language.
His bloody life in my bloody hands.
- Remains
- Repetition, “Bloody”.
This shows the violence that he has seen in what he has done. The repetition shows that it is a memory that is constantly there, and difficult to get rid of.
It also shows that he blames himself fully and completely for what he has done, even though he was given orders of what to do.
