Power and conflict context

Question 1

Give three pieces of context for London.

Answer 1

• William Blake was a poet writing in the Romantic era.
• He lived in London for most of his life and saw the corruption, greed, dirt and inequality.
• Anti- monarchy, money spent on buildings rather than poor, anti-establishment (French Revolution “Reign of Terror”).

Question 2

Give three pieces of context for Ozymandias.

Answer 2

• Percy Shelley was a romantic poet who was anti-establishment (expelled from Oxford).
• Pharoah Rameses II was a tyrant similar to that of King George III the monarch at the time. Throne title of Ozymandias.
• He built statues of himself and thought that he saved his subjects (1200s BC).

Question 3

Give three pieces of context for Kamikaze.

Answer 3

• Garland explores why people wanted to die for their country.
• Kamikaze named after storm that wiped out ships in 13th century, power of nature.
• Kamikaze pilots were ordered to commit suicide or be shunned by society.

Question 4

Give three pieces of context for My Last Duchess.

Answer 4

• The different era (16th century) and setting (Ferrara) of the poem helps to disguise Robert Browning’s criticism of society.
• Duke of Ferrara is Alfonzo II; first wife died under suspicious circumstances.
• Robert Browning eloped with Elizabeth Barret without her strict father knowing.
• Written during industrial revolution in Britain (class, women’s rights)