Poetry quotes analysis Flashcards
Ozymandias title
Simple title focuses the poem on a single person or entity.
Ozymandias was the Greek name for Rameses II, who was known for his abuse of power and use of slave labour. Fathered over 100 children and lived to be 92
Ozymandias ‘antique land’
The legacy of the land is so insignificant that it is only known by travellers and is not given a name - ironic for Ozymandias’ great land
Ozymandias ‘desert’
Lifelessness
Ozymandias ‘a shattered visage lies’
Ironic, a king who tried to not be forgotten and tried to present his greatness through this image, only for it to be forgotten and destroyed
Ozymandias ‘wrinkled lip’
Disgust, lack of empathy for his subjects (Rameses II slave use)
Ozymandias ‘sneer’
Contemptuous, connotes cruelty
Ozymandias ‘cold command’
Reflective of Shelley’s stand on violence (he was against all military exploits and therefore whoever committed them)
Ozymandias ‘The hand that mocked them’
The artist is mocking the king, but the king overlooked everything aside from the grandeur
Ozymandias ‘Pedestal’
Irony of pedestal message - presents power as undeserved through idiomatic connotation
Ozymandias ‘King of kings’
Ironic to a reader, who knows he has been forgotten. Also possibly a religious reference, links to his later ‘Ye Mighty’ - sacreligious (how use of slaves is forbidden in most religions)
Ozymandias ‘Look on my works, Ye Mighty, and despair!’
He expects his kingdom to survive and thrive (dramatic irony)
Ozymandias ‘Bound and bare, the lone and level’
Alliteration
Ozymandias ‘lone and level’
Level - monotonous and featureless, no sign of any legacy.
Lone - isolated, nothing other than a memory of his cruelty remains
Ozymandias ‘sands’
Literal vs sands of time covering the memory and legacy of Ozymandias, this great king
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Romantic poet, for power of imagination over mechanical approach to life. Believed poetry was the purest source of imagination, which is the source of artistic desire
London ‘chartered street’ and ‘chartered Thames’
chartered streets are a system of commercial management (owned by the wealthy)
the chartered Thames has been mapped
London ‘In every’ repeated x3 at the start of stanza 2
Anaphora
London ‘marks of weakness, marks of woe’
Break from the iambic tetrameter used for most of the rest of the poem
London ‘mind-forged manacles’
Londoners’ belief in their own weakness due to years of oppression from the rich.
Culmination of suffering from previous lines
Manacles implies slavery and entrapment
London ‘in every infant’s cry of fear’
emotive - children are born innocent and should not have to suffer
London ‘How the chimney-sweepers’s cry every black’ning church appalls’
How powers take advantage of those with nothing in order to maintain appearances eg. churches should be associated with purity but here they are not
London ‘the hapless soldier’s sigh runs in blood down palace walls
Soldier’s sacrigice that helps the rich
London ‘midnight streets’
Romantic ideas of the power of the imagination - midnight associated with powers of the unconscious
London ‘the marriage hearse’
Contrast - oxymoron
New beginnings, joy, versus sorrow and death
How marriage can be the death of freedom, especially for women
London violent plosives in stanza 4
Show how the rich keep control and emphasises the pain and suffering
London as a title
Isolates London as the issue
London poet WIlliam Blake
Romantic ideas
The Emigree ‘child’s vocabulary’
Infantile imagery, like the author has not moved on from her childhood
The Emigree ‘white streets’, ‘graceful slopes’, ‘glow’
Celestial imagery - the place she is in now was meant to be a place of salvation or her to escape from fear
The Emigree ‘time rolls its tanks’, ‘frontiers’
Militaristic imagery contrasts with celestial imagery. Suggests that she views time as her enemy: it affects and threatens her memory
The Emigree ‘sunlight’
Repeated thoughout poem, most noteable at the end of each stanza
optimism
The Emigree ‘soon I shall have every coloured molecule of it’
‘coloured’ - not monochrome, full of life
the speaker reclaims their identity through language
The Emigree ‘It tastes of sunlight’
synaesthesia, narrator’s delight in the memory
The Emigree ‘I have no passport’
Man-made borders contain her, so she cannot return to her home
The Emigree ‘its own white plane’
‘white’ - purity
having your own plane suggests status and riches - the city’s place in her mind
The Emigree ‘docile as paper’
She can manipulate paper in order to remember her city as it was, through a child’s eyes - innocence
The Emigree ‘they accuse me’
Repeated in stanza 3, in reference to the original citizens of the city. Violent tone
The Emigree ‘they accuse me of being dark in their free city’
‘being dark’ - racism
‘free city’ - Irony, as she is not allowed or encouraged to display her heritage. Ironic both with the walls and the circling people
The Emigree ‘my city hides behind me’
She protects her identity - her language has been banned, but they can’t take her memories of the city away
The Emigree ‘they mutter death’
secrecy? veiled views towards immigrants. Subtle racism and prejudice
The Emigree ‘my shadow falls as evidence of sunlight’
Ends the poem on a hopeful tone
Narrator refuses to let the people who oppress her have the last word.
The Emigree collection
‘Thinking of Skins’ - focus on racial issues, physical culture / identity - overall a comment on the treatment by society
My Last Duchess title
‘My’ - possessive
always from the Duke’s point of view - the duchess never gets a word in
suggests the duchess was one in a line, worries the reader for any future duchesses, especially once they learn the visiter is there to meet with the duke for the prospect of the marriage of a young lady to him
My Last Duchess “That’s my last Duchess, painted on the wall”
‘that’s’ - objectification
immediately sparks reader’s interest and curiosity - why is she dead? is this going to be a love message or something else?
use of the Duchess’s title rather than name, which is not mentioned anywhere in the text - he controls the memory of her, and he chooses to present the worst apparant sides to justify his implied murder of her
Ekphrasis - the only way we see the duchess is through the eyes of the biased narrator and through the description of her painting
My Last Duchess form
Written as a dramatic monologue in order to present the speaker’s thoughts directly.
Rhyming couplets throughout
My last Duchess “For never read strangers like you that pictured countenance”
The Duke is extremely condescending, immediately heightening our dislike of him.
He enjoys emphasising his importance and status
My Last Duchess “If they durst”
Implies he is a dangerous character because people fear to ask him questions. This is reinforced by his later implication that he had his last duchess murdered
My last duchess “‘twas not her husband’s presnece only, called that spot of joy into the duchess’ cheek”
Throughout, he tries to present her as disloyal, when an audience sees her as she probably was: young, happy and kind, with a generous nature, enjoying her life
My last duchess “half-flush that dies along her throat”
‘dies’ ominous foreshadowing
‘throat’ connotes strangulation and through that oppression
My Last duchess “my favour at her breast”
She lived in a gilded cage, but still managed to enjoy life and appreciate the gifts that people gave her, sparking jealousy in her husband
My Last Duchess “She ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old ame with anybody’s gift”
The Duke thinks that she should value him over everything else - very controlling and demanding
My Last Duchess “Even had you skill in speech - (which I have not) - to make your will quite clear to such a one […] then would be stooping; and I choose never to stoop”
‘which i have not’ is self effacing, trying to justify why he never addressed his jealousy with her
He refuses to tak to her because to do so would be like grovelling in his eyes, which he believes is below his station
‘I choose never to stoop’ he reveales his insecurities - he killed his wife because she undermined his complete power over her
My last duchess “Who passed without much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together. There she stands”
Slight break in rhyming style, brings attention to the described action of the duke ordering the murder of his wife.
Shows how their relationship was not one of mutual respect or love, but of control and envy on his part
quick change of topic ‘there she stands’ to draw attention away from what he just confessed to - he got too drawn into his monologue, justifying the murder to himself.
My last duchess “his fair daughter’s self […] is my object”
continues to objectify women - mysoginistic, suitable for the time period, but particularly cruel
Implies she may come to the same fate if she does not act the way he wants her to
My last duchess “notice neptune, though, taming a sea horse”
‘neptune’ the duke suggests a comparison between himself and neptune (violent temper, lustful urges).
‘sea horse’ being tamed by neptune shows his aspiration for total control over his wife. Depiction a reference to how he ‘tamed’ his last duchess
Poppies ‘crimped petals, spasms of paper red”
‘crimped’ - crumpled links to dead bodies or the mother’s life after she learns her son is dead
‘spasms’ - movements of a dying body, pain
Poppies “sellotape bandaged around my hand”
bandaged instead of wrapped suggests a wound, possibly the emotional wound of the mother.
bound by sellotape - everyone can see the wound, not effective at healing
Poppies “steeled the softening”
sibilance - soft sounds show the mother’s anxiety and sorrow for her son
Poppies “the gelled blackthorns of your hair”
‘gelled’ smart and rigid
‘blackthorns’ - horns, spikes, pain. generally sharp, showing the relentless pain the mother feels, knowing she will never be able to see her son again
Poppies “all of my words flattened, rolled, turned into felt”
Words cannot express her emotions any more, she can only put together a textual image
her mind is losing its form?
Poppies “front door […] the world overflowing like a treasure chest”
Front door acts as both a literal and metaphorical boundary between the domestic space and the world where her son dies
treasure chest implies adventure, pirates, the excitement many young men were enticed with when they joined, only to die miserable
Poppies “a single dove”
doves connote peace - the speaker may not be happy about her son’s death, but she has come to terms with her son’s choice to go to war
Poppies “the top of the hill”
Biblical imagery of Golgotha - the hill where Jesus was crucified, suggesting sacrifice
Poppies “the dove pulled freely against the sky, and ornamental stitch”
dove here could be seen as the image of the christian holy spirit, implying her son has reached an ethereal afterlife
interpretations: she has made her peace, or she will never not be haunted by the memories of the last time she saw her son - her life unravelling
‘ornamental’ - the efforts made by officials to recognise the sacrifice were not genuine and do not help ease the pain the mother feels remembering her son
Poppies “hoping to hear”
Soft alliterative sounds while she listens for her son’s voice
Poppies “your playground voice”
Childhood, linking to the whole poem’s nostalgic, melancholic feel
