Power and Conflict Poem Analysis Flashcards
Ozmandias - Percy Bysshe Shelley
Poem’s about:
1) The narrator meets a traveller who tells him about him about a statue standing in the middle of the desert.
2) It’s a statue of a king who ruled over a past civilisation. His face is proud and he arrogantly boasts about how powerful he is in an inscription on the statue’s base.
3) However, the statue has fallen down and crumbled away so that only the ruins remain.
Form - The poem is a sonnet, with a turning-point (Volta) at line 9 like a Petrarchan sonnet.
However, it doesn’t follow a regular sonnet rhyme scheme, perhaps reflecting the way that human power and structures can be destroyed. It used iambic pentameter, but this is also often disrupted. The story is a second-hand account, which distances the reader even further from the dead king.
Structure - The narrator builds up an image of the statue by focusing on different parts of it in turn. The poem ends by describing the enormous desert, which helps to sum up the insignificance of the statue.
Irony - There’s nothing left to show for the ruler’s arrogant boasting of his great civilisation. The ruined statue can be seen as a symbol for the temporary nature of political power or human achievement. Shelley’s use of irony reflects his hatred of oppression and his belief that it is possible to overturn social and political order.
Language of Power - The poem focuses on the power of Ozymandias, representing human power. However is power has been lost and is only visible due to the power of art. Ultimately, nature has ruined the statue, showing that nature and time have more power than anything else.
5) Angry Language - The tyranny of the ruler is suggested through aggressive language.
Feelings and attitudes:
1) Pride - The ruler was proud of what he’s achieved. He called on other rulers to admire what he did.
2) Arrogance - The inscription shows that the ruler believed that he was the most powerful ruler in the land - nobody else could compete with him. He also thought he was better than those he ruled.
3) Power - Human civilisations and achievements are insignificant compared to the passing time. Art has the power to preserve elements of human existence, but it is also only temporary.
Structure:
Written in a sonnet with loose iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter is pairs (iams, of sounds da-dum) with 5 (pentameter, think of pent like in pentagon) in a line making 10 syllables overall. Sonnets were generally popular romantic or love poems, perhaps this being a love poem about Ozymandias, a joke about the rulers ego. Or simply to capture the romantic and exotic tone of a lost legend.The Rhyme scheme is irregular, perhaps symbolic of the broken statue itself, no longer perfect.
Context:
Written by Shelly in a collection in 1819, it was inspired by the recent unearthing of part of a large statue of the Egyptian Pharaoh, Rameses II. The Egyptian Pharaohs like Rameses believed themselves to be gods in mortal form and that their legacy would last forever. The reference to the stone statue is likely a direct reference to the statues and sculptures like the one which was unearthed, which the ancient Egyptians
made. On the base of the statue is written (translated) “King of Kings am I, Osymandias. If anyone would know how great I am and where I lie, let him surpass one of my works.”
Quotes: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone” “Half sunk, a shattered visage lies” “Sneer of cold command” “King of kings” “Colossal wreck, boundless and bare”
London - William Blake
Poem’s about:
1) The narrator is describing a walk round the city of London.
2) He says that everywhere he goes, the people he meets are affected by misery and despair.
3) This misery seems relentless. No one can escape it - not even the young and innocent.
4) People in power (like the Church, the monarchy and wealthy landowners) seem to be behind the problems, and do nothing to help the people in need.
Form - This is dramatic monologue - the first-person narrator speaks passionately and personally about the suffering he sees. The ABAB rhythm could reflect the sound of his feet as he trudges around.
Structure - The narrator presents relentless images of downtrodden, deprived people. The first two stanzas focus on people he sees and hears, before the focus shifts in stanza three to the institutions he holds responsible. The final returns to looking at people, showing how even newborn babies are affected.
Rhetoric - The narrator uses rhetorical language to persuade you of his point of view - he uses powerful, emotive words and images to reinforce the horror of the situation. Repetition is used to emphasise the number of people affected, and to show how society needs to change.
Use of the senses - The poem includes the depressing sights and sounds of the city - the first stanza is about what he sees, the second what he hears, and the last two stanzas combine the visual and aural.
Contrasts - These are used to show how everything is affected and nothing pure or innocent remains.
Feelings and attitudes:
Anger - Emotive language and repetition show the narrator’s anger at the situation. He mentions “every black’ning church” and “palace walls”, suggesting he’s especially angry at the people in power, who could do something to change things but don’t.
Hopelessness - The “mind-forged manacles” suggest that the people themselves are also to blame - they’re trapped by their own attitudes. They appear hopeless because they’re not able (or not even trying) to help themselves.
Structure:
Written in four stanzas with an regular alternate scheme. This may reflect the regular walking pace of the
narrator as he walks around London. The last line in each stanza tends to deliver a powerful statement which sums up the rest of the stanza. Stanza 1 focusses on misery, Stanza 2 on peoples refusal to stand tall, Stanza 3 about the way people are sacrificed for the rich and powerful, Stanza 4 how all this poverty is corrupting everything good about family and life.
Context:
William Blake was a poet in Victorian/Georgian England, he wrote a selection of poems in his anthologies songs of innocence and experience, most of those poems had a counterpart. The Experience poems were often more bitter or cynical whereas the innocence poems were often naïve and simple. London is one of the few without a counterpart. The poem is set during a time in England where there was poverty, child labour and a horrific war with France. Women had no rights, death rates from disease and malnutrition were high and the industrial revolution has resulted in many large oppressive factories. Blake’s poems often railed against these and how London, arguably the greatest city in the world at that time, was so dirty and corrupt.
Quotes: "I wander through each chartered street" "marks of weakness, marks of woe" "The mind-forged manacles I hear" "chimney sweeper's cry... hapless soldier's sigh" "plagues the marriage hearse"
The Prelude - William Wordsworth
Poems about:
1) The extract begins on a summer evening when the narrator finds a boat tied to a tree. He unties the boat and takes it out on the lake.
2) Initially the narrator seems happy and confident, and he describes a beautiful scene. A mountain appears on the horizon and the narrator is afraid of its size and power.
3) He turns the boat around and goes home, but his view of nature has changed.
Form - This extract is a first-person narrative. It sounds personal and describes a turning point in the poet’s life. The use of blank verse (unrhymed verse in iambic pentameter) makes it sound serious and important, and the regular rhythm makes it sound like natural speech.
Structure - There are three main sections in the extract. In the first, the tone is fairly light and carefree. There’s a distinct change when the mountain appears - the tone becomes darker and more fearful. In the final section, the narrator reflects on how the experience has changed him.
Beautiful language - The poem begins with a series of pretty, pastoral images of nature.
Confident language - The narrator appears sure of himself at first - almost arrogant in his view of himself and his place in the world. He gives the impression of feeling powerful.
Dramatic language - The initial glimpses of threatening language become more intense after the mountain appears. The narrator comes to understand how powerful nature is.
Fearful language - The narrator is far less confident at the end of the extract. He’s troubled by the “huge and mighty forms” of nature he’s glimpsed. The experience has a lasting, haunting effect on him.
Feelings and attitudes:
Confidence - The narrator feels comfortable and in control to start with, but his confidence in himself and the world around him is shaken by this one event.
Fear - Nature is shown to be more powerful than a human being. The narrator is left with a feeling of awe and respect for nature, but he’s also scared by it.
Reflection - The poem ends with the narrator reflecting on how he’s been changed by the event. His thought and dreams are still troubled by what he’s experienced.
Structure:
Written as part of a much larger piece. This section is 44 lines in blank verse (no real structure). The work
is in iambic pentameter to give it a consistent pace.
As the poem progresses the journey the poet is on becomes rougher and words like ‘and’ are repeated to give it a breathless pace and feel.
Context:
William Wordsworth was a romantic poet, we don’t mean he wrote love poems, but he wrote poems about the world we live in which challenged people and the way they thought at the time. During this time ‘epic’ poems of large length were common, as were poems which looked at the world and man’s place within it. This extract is from a much larger poem, it looks at the spiritual and moral development of a man growing up.
Quotes:
“One summer evening (led by her)”
“troubled pleasure”
“a huge peak, black and huge”
“lustily I dipped my oars into the silent lake”
“there hung a darkness, call it solitude / or blank
desertion”
My Last Duchess - Robert Browning
Poem’s about:
1) The Duke proudly points out the Duchess (his former wife) to a visitor.
2) The Duke was angered by the Duchess behaviour - she was friendly towards everyone and he was annoyed that she treated him just like anyone else.
3) He acted to stop the Duchess’s flirtatious behaviour, but he doesn’t say how he did this. There was strong hints that he had her murdered.
4) The Duke and his guest walk away from the painting and the reader discovers that the Duke’s visitor has come to arrange the Duke’s next marriage.
Form - The poem is a dramatic monologue written in iambic pentameter. This reinforces the impression that the Duke is in conversation with his visitor. The rhyming couplets show the Duke’s desire for control, but the enjambment suggests that he gets carried away with his anger and passions. This creates a picture of a somewhat unstable character, whose obsession with power is unsettling.
Structure - The poem is framed by the visit to the Duke’s gallery, but the Duke gets caught up in talking about the Duchess instead of just describing the art. The poem builds towards a kind of confession, before the identity of the visitor is revealed, and the Duke moves on to talking another artwork.
Power and Objectification - The Duke felt the need to have power and control over the Duchess. He saw her as another of his possessions, to be collected and admired, just like his expensive artworks.
Dramatic Irony - They things the Duke says about the Duchess seem quite innocent, but they often have more sinister meanings for the reader. There’s a gap between what the Duke tells the listener, and what the poet allows us to read between the lines.
Status - Status is really important to the Duke. He cares about how others see him.
Feelings and attitudes:
Pride - The Duke is very proud of his possessions and his status.
Jealousy - He couldn’t stand the way the Duchess treated him the same as everyone else.
Power - The Duke enjoys the control he has over the painting. He didn’t have this power over the Duchess when she was alive.
Structure:
The poem is an example of dramatic monologue (a speech given by one character). It uses a large number of pauses
(caesuras) in the poem along with lines that flow into one another (enjambment) in order to try and capture the tone of the speaker talking away to the messenger and adding in tangents (small opinions and asides). The poem uses rhyming couplets and iambic pentameter this reflects the style of romantic poets at the time, despite how this poem is much more sinister and dark. It is another façade for the Duke of Ferrara’s character. You will note he is the only character that speaks despite the fact he is talking to someone, he never lets them speak.
Context:
Robert Browning was a poet in the 19th century. The son of a wealthy bank clerk, he didn’t fit in as
much in London society, he left the country and went to Italy to marry fellow poet Elizabeth Barrett
because of her over protective father. As a result they were both familiar with over controlling
patriarchs in the family as well as Italy itself.
The poem is loosely based on the Duke of Ferrara and is written from his perspective, talking to a
messenger about arranging his next marriage. The assumption being that he was dissatisfied with his
former wife and had her killed.
Quotes:
“my last Duchess”
“half-flush that dies along her throat”
“My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name”
“I gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together”
“Notice Neptune…/Taming a sea-horse”
The Charge of the Light Brigade - Alfred Tennyson
Poem’s about:
1) The poem describes a disastrous battle between British cavalry and Russian forces during the Crimean War (1853-1856).
2) A misunderstanding meant that the Light Brigade were ordered to advance into a valley surrounded by enemy soldiers.
3) They cavalry were only armed with swords, whereas the Russian soldiers had guns. The Light Brigade were virtually defenceless against their enemies, and many of them were killed.
Form - The poem’s narrated in third person, making it seem like a story. The regular, relentless rhythm creates a fast pace, imitating the cavalry’s advance and the energy of the battle. Rhyming couplets and triplets drive the poem forwards, bu the momentum is broken by unrhymed lines, which could mirror the horses stumbling and soldiers falling. The overall lack of rhyme scheme hints at the chaos of war.
Structure - The poem tells the story of the battle in chronological order, from the charge of the men in the first three stanzas, to the battle in the fourth and the retreat in the fifth. The final stanza is shorter and summaries the heroism of the brigade.
Repetition - Repetition creates a sense of impending doom and inevitability. Repetition of “six hundred” at the end of each stanza reinforces the idea of the large numbers of men involved, with references to them summarising the story of the battle.
Heroic Language - Adverbs like “Boldly” and verbs like “Charging” emphasise the men’s bravery. Respectful language shows how the narrator feels the soldiers should be remembered.
Violent Language - The narrator chooses powerful verbs and adjectives to give a strong sense of the violence if the battle, and uses sounds to create a vivd, noisy, hellish setting.
Feelings and attitudes:
Admiration - The narrator admires the bravery and sacrifice of the men because they obeyed orders even though they knew death was likely. He thinks the world should recognise their bravery and appreciate their sacrifice.
Patriotism - The men followed the orders because of their duty to their country, and the speaker portrays them as heroes for doing this.
Horror - There’s a suggestion that they narrator is horrified by the violence of the battle.
Structure: Written in dimeter and dactylic. Basically that means there are two (di-) stresses in each line, that means
two beats or syllables which you read with a bit more force. The syllables after are then unstressed. So when there are six syllables you would read it ONE-two-three, ONE-two-three. The drop in stress is perhaps to show the sudden charge and then collapse, or the sound of horses galloping. The poem is divided into 6 stanzas and uses a lot of repetition. Some of this is to show the different stages of the battle but also give it a structure. It has a very military rhyme and can be similar to the sound of marching drums of horse hooves. This is used to reflect the military nature of the conflict in the poem.
Context:
The Crimean war saw British troops fighting in Russia. At this time, while there were basic guns and cannons, people would still also fight or horses, to rush in and
attack before they could reload or stop them. However the light brigade were very lightly equipped, more for scouting or attacking from the back or sides rather than charging straight in. During a battle, a miscommunication sent the light brigade charging head first into the cannons of the other side, it was a huge catastrophe and many died. It showed to the British that even mistakes can happen. The men were respected for following orders, even though they knew they may be wrong. Some however have criticised the way they blindly followed orders. Lord Tennyson was the poet who was asked to write about their glorious sacrifice.
Quotes: “valley of death” “theirs not to make reply/ theirs not to reason why/ theirs but to do and die” “jaws of Death/…mouth of Hell” “someone had blunder’d” “Noble six hundred”
Exposure - Wilfred Owen
Poem’s about:
1) Soldiers in the trenches of World War One are awake at night, afraid of an enemy attack.
2) However, nature seems to be their main enemy - it’s freezing cold, windy and snowing.
3) The men imagine home, but the doors there are closed to them. They believe that sacrificing themselves in the war is the only way of keeping their loved ones at home safe.
4) They return to thinking about their deaths in the icy, bleak trenches.
Form - The poem’s written in the present tense using first person plural (e.g. “Our, “We”, “us”). This collective voice shows how the experience was shared by soldiers across the war. Each stanza has a regular rhyme scheme (ABBAC), reflecting the monotonous nature of the men’s experience, but the rhymes are often half-rhymes (e.g. “snow” and “renew”). The rhyme scheme offers no comfort or satisfaction - the rhymes are jagged like the reality of the men’s experience and reflect their confusion and fading energy. Each stanza ends with half line, leaving a gap which mirrors the lack of activity or hope for the men.
Structure - The poem has eight stanzas, but there’s no real progression - the last stanza ends with the same words as the first one, reflecting the monotony of life in the trenches and absence of change.
Questions - The poem uses rhetorical questions to ask why the men are exposed to such dreadful conditions, and whether there’s any point to their suffering.
Bleak Language - The poem includes lots of bleak imagery to remind the reader of the men’s pain, the awful weather and the lack of hope of the soldiers. Assonance, onomatopoeia and carefully chosen verbs add to the bleak mood and make the descriptions vivid and distressing.
Personification - Nature is repeatedly personified, making it seem the real enemy in the war.
Feelings and attitudes:
Suffering - There are reminders of the real, physical pain that the soldiers experience, as well as their exhaustion and fatigue. Even thinking about home is painful for the men as they’re not welcome there.
Boredom - There’s a sense of frustration at their situation - they are “Worried”, “Watching” and waiting, but “nothing happens” and the men are left to contemplate their own deaths.
Hopelessness - The soldiers are helpless against the power of nature and there is nothing they can do to change their situation. The poem offers little hope of a future for the men.
Structure:
The poem uses a large amount of ellipses, caesuras and repetition to create an on-going sense of
waiting and boredom. The poem is made of eight stanzas with a consistent use of a half line to end. This reinforces the sense of stasis or sameness throughout the poem that nothing is happening. There is use of para-rhyme showing words which appear to rhyme yet sound wrong when read to create the sense of unsettledness in the poem the soldiers are feeling. Owen also uses a huge amount of onomatopoeia and alliteration in the poem to emphasise the atmosphere and the sound of weather.
Context:
Wilfred Owen was a soldier and officers in World War 1. He died before the end of the war but during his time he saw the full horror of conditions on the front line. He wrote a number of poems about this, published after the war with the help from fellow poet Siegfried Sassoon. The war itself was often criticised because of a huge loss of life for very little gain. During the Somme over 60,000 British soldiers died in one day, and in all they only gained 6 miles by the
end of the war. Owen’s poems were often angry that the soldiers were in muddy dangerous trenches while the generals behind the lines were living in comfort. Owen’s poems tried to show the truth of conditions to people back home. He was no against fighting, but was angry about the
conditions soldiers had to live with in order to do so.
Quotes:
“Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that
knive us…”
“But nothing happens”
“forgotten dreams, and stare, snow-dazed”
“we turn back to our dying”
“sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence”
Storm on the Island - Seamus Heaney
Poem’s about:
1) The narrator describes how a community thinks it’s well prepared for a coming storm.
2) As the poem goes on, their confidence starts to disappear as the storm develops. The power and the sounds of the storm are described.
3) The ending of the poem describes the fear as the storm hits the island.
Form - The poem is written in blank verse, which mirrors the patterns of everyday speech and makes the poem sound like part of a conversation. The first person plural (“We”) is used, showing how this is a collective, communal experience. The poem is all in one stanza - it’s compact and sturdy, like the house.
Structure - The poem shifts from security to fear. “But no”” seems to be a turning point (volta), with the slow pace of the monosyllabic phrase and the caesura reflecting the last moments of calm before the storm.
Contrasting Descriptions of Safety and Fear - The narrator uses a lot of words to do with safety and security at the beginning of the poem. The tone changes though, and the sense of danger increases as familiar things become frightening during the storm.
Direct Address - The narrator involves the reader in his fear by speaking directly to “you”.
Violent Imagery - The storm is described in violent, often warlike terms, with smilies, metaphors and personification combining to emphasise the danger and effects of the storm.
Use of Sounds - Forceful sounds (e.g. “Blast”) are used to demonstrate the strength of nature, and the poem also uses assonant and sibilant sounds to reflect the noise of the wind and waves.
Feelings and Attitudes:
Safety - The first part of the poem shows that the community feels safe, and prepared for the storm.
Fear - This sense of security soon changes to fear, as familiar things change and become frightening.
Helplessness - The people can’t do anything about their fear except wait for the storm to finish. Nature is presented as a powerful, relentless force.
Structure:
The poem is in blank verse with 19 lines. There are 5 feet (10 syllables) in each line. The verses are unrhymed and it gives it a very conversational tone. This is added to by the use of asides ‘you know what I mean’. The poem is in present tense to suggest the storm is occurring at the time. The poem uses a great deal of enjambment to help add to the conversational tone.
Context:
Seamus Heaney was a poet in Ireland, he grew up in a farming community and many of his poems were about very normal and homely subjects. He uses a large number of agricultural and natural images in his work as metaphors for human nature. The poem is set around a story of a small isolated cottage near the sea in a storm and the
exposure to the elements.
Quotes: “We are prepared” “spits like a tame cat/ turned savage” “exploding comfortably” “But there are no trees, no natural shelter” “We are bombarded by the empty air”
Bayonet Charge - Ted Hughes
1) The poem focuses on a single soldier’s experience of a charge towards enemy lines. It describes his thoughts and actions as he tries to stay alive.
2) The soldier’s overriding emotion and motivation is fear, which has replaced the more patriotic ideals that he held before the violence began.
Form - The poem uses enjambment and caesura, and has lines of uneven length. This creates an irregular rhythm, which mirrors the soldier struggling to run through the mud. The narrator uses the pronoun “he” rather than naming the soldier to keep him anonymous. It suggests that he is a universal figure who could represent any young soldier.
Structure - The poem starts in medias res (in the middle of the action) and covers the soldier’s movements and thoughts over a short space of time. The first stanza see the soldier acting on instinct but time seems to stand still in the second stanza, when the soldier begins to think about his situation. In the final stanza, he gives up his thoughts and ideals and seems to have lost his humanity.
Violent Imagery - There is some shocking imagery which brings home the sights and sounds of war. This helps to strongly convey the sense of confusion and fear.
Figurative Language - The poem includes powerful figurative language to emphasise the horror and physical pain of the charge, and also to question the point of war.
Natural Imagery - The repeated references to the “green hedge” and the mention of a “field” and “threshing circle” show the natural, agricultural setting of the war. The painful image of the “yellow hare” reminds the reader of how the natural world is also damaged by war.
Feelings and Attitudes:
Terror - The poem challenges patriotism and shows how desperate terror becomes the overriding emotion in battle.
Confusion - The soldier is physically disorientated by the gunfire, but he’s also questioning what he’s doing there at all.
Structure:
There are three stanzas and the work is largely blank verse with no set structure. In part the different lines help
show the pace of the charge, sometimes fast, sometimes stumbling. Towards the end it picks up speed, perhaps as he approaches his destination or doom. The poet uses a lot of enjambment and caesuras to give a bizarre and erratic speed to the poem. This helps again give a structure to the speed of the charge but also the confusion and intensity of the battle with explosions and gunfire as well as the jumbled thoughts of the soldier.
Context:
The poem is about a nameless soldier going over the top in the trenches. Soldiers would have bayonets attached to the end of their rifles and would use them to stab enemy soldiers. The nameless soldier in the poem seems to become more a weapon than a man, rushing toward the enemy. It is not clear at the end whether he dies but there is definitely a change in him. His actions are very raw and primal, much like an animal, suddenly pausing, preparing to react. The poet, Ted Hughes, was a former RAF serviceman and includes a great amount of natural and historical ideas in his poems and he often looks at man’s impact on nature.
Quotes:
“bullets smacking the belly out of the air-“
“he lugged a rifle numb as a smashed arm”
“patriotic tear”
“a yellow hare that rolled like a flame/ And crawled in a
threshing circle”
“king, honour, human dignity, etcetera”
Remains - Simon Armitage
Poem’s about:
1) A group of soldiers shoot a man who’s running away form a bank raid he’s been involved in. His death is described in graphic detail.
2) The soldier telling the story isn’t sure whether the man was armed or not - this plays on his mind.
3) He can’t get the man’s death out of his head - he’s haunted by it.
Form - There’s no regular line length or rhyme scheme, making it sound like someone telling a story. The speaker starts with the first person plural (“we”), but changes to first person singular (“I”) and the poem becomes more personal, sounding like a confession. In the final couplet, both lines have the same metre - this gives a feeling of finality and hints that the guilt will stay with the soldier.
Structure - The poem begins as if it’s going to be an amusing anecdote, but it quickly turns into a stanza, where the soldier’s tone, thoughts and emotions are changed by his guilt.
Graphic Imagery - The man’s death is described in gory detail, with the implication that his “guts” have split out onto the ground. The imagery reminds the reader of the horrors of war, but also shows how desensitised to violence and death the speaker was at the time - they had become part of his everyday life.
Colloquial Language - The first four stanzas have lots of chatty, familiar language, which helps make the poem sound like someone telling a story. However, this language also trivialises the man’s death.
Repetition - Words are repeated to reflect the way that the killing is repeated in the speaker’s mind.
Feelings and Attitudes:
Nonchalance - Initially, there’s a very casual attitude towards the death of the man - the tone at the start of the poem is anecdotal. He’s shot without warning and his body is just thrown into a lorry and “carted off”.
Guilt - The speaker can’t get the memory of the killing out of his mind. He is tormented by thoughts of the man, and wondering whether he was armed or not. The poem ends with the speaker acknowledging that he has blood on his hands - he knows he’s guilty.
Structure:
The poem is written in 8 stanzas, the last of which is a couplet which leaves the poem on a dramatic end
note. It does not rhyme and the poem is a monologue, using very conversational asides and syntax to structure the sentences into a very conversational tone “end of story, not really”. There is also a lot of enjambment and caesura used to emphasises the natural speech patterns of the speaker. Another key factor in this poem is the use of colloquialism (slang) and personal pronouns to give it a sense of realism, “One of my mates,”. There is a loose set of rhymes in the poem, often internal and used to give an almost childish aspect to the horror of the warzone. It perhaps suggests how numb this soldier is to what is happening.
Context:
The poem is written from the perspective of a soldier stationed in Iraq or Afghanistan (or any warzone really). They are on patrol and fire on some bank robbers. One of the looters appeared to possibly have a gun so they open fire. The rest of the poem is looking at the fact the solider,
even long after this event, cannot leave the memory behind and carries this dead man with him in his mind.
Post traumatic stress and mental illness is very common in soldiers who struggle to come to terms with some part of their duty, normally a horrific memory of killing or being in danger which gives them nightmares and panic attacks as well as depression and sometimes suicidal tendencies.
Simon Armitage is a famous UK poet who is known for being very direct in his work. His recent poems have looked at the experiences of war and soldiers.
Quotes: “On another occasion” “probably armed, possibly not” “rips through his life” “tosses his guts back into his body” “his bloody life in my bloody hands”
Poppies - Jane Weir
Poem’s about:
1) A mother describes her son leaving home, seemingly to join the army.
2) The poem is about the mother’s emotional reaction to her son leaving - she feels sad, lonely and scared for his safety.
3) She describes helping him smarten his uniform ready to leave. After he leaves, she goes to places that remind her of him, desperately trying to find any trace of him.
Form - The first-person narrative means that the reader gets a stronger impression of the mother’s emotions. There is no regular rhyme or rhythm, which makes it sound like the narrator’s thoughts and memories. Long sentences and enjambment give the impression that the narrator is absorbed in her own thoughts and memories, whilst caesurae show how she tries to hold her emotions together.
Structure - The poem is chronological, describing preparations for the son leaving, his departure and then what the mother does afterwards. However, the time frame is ambiguous - memories of the son’s childhood are intermingled with the memories of hime leaving, and they’re often not clearly distinguished.
Use of the Sense - The mother’s separation from her soon is emphasised by the way she can’t touch or hear him. She touches other things and listens for his voice “on the wind”, but this can’t replace her son.
War Imagery - Images of war and violence symbolise the son’s new identity and the danger that he’s in. References to “Armistice Sunday” and the “war memorial” make the reader question whether he still alive.
Domestic Imagery - The images of war are mixed with poignant images of home and family life.
Feelings and Attitudes:
Loss - The mother acts as if she’s lost her son - she is struggling to move on and accept the changes. There are hints that the son may even be dead. References to the son starting school allude to a different kind of loss that the mother has previously experienced.
Fear - The mother is anxious and fearful for her son’s safety. Her anxiety has a physical effect on her. The poem focuses on the bravery and restraint of the people left behind when their loved ones go to war.
Freedom - The poem shows the contrasting perspectives between the loss the mother feels and the freedom and excitement her son experiences.
Structure:
Written as a monologue in 4 stanzas and no rhyme scheme. The stanzas are structured along events in the
life of mother and child. 1st the mother looks back at remembrance day and the idea of the poppy which has helped trigger the memory. 2nd the mother talks about helping her son get ready and seeing him off. 3rd the poem explores the emptiness that is left in his absence, finally the mother feels drawn to a war memorial bringing the story back to where it started, yet now with no son around. The suggestion of the dove being that he has died. The poem uses a lot of enjambment and familiar nouns to enhance the idea of natural tone and the mothers voice.
Context:
The poem looks at a mother of a son who has grown up and gone to war. The poem contains many clues that this is a more modern conflict, however the poem ends at the
memorial, suggesting the son died at war or has at least not yet returned home and is now missed by the mother who fears the worst. The poem is based very heavily around the idea of Poppies as memorials and therefore the idea of memory. The poem flashes back to key moments of the life of the mother and son. The poem also contains a range of emotions. There is genuine sadness but also pride. The poem doesn’t seem to comment heavily on the war itself.
Quotes:
“tucks, darts, pleats”
“the world overflowing/ like a treasure chest”
“released a song bird from its cage”
“leaned against it like a wishbone”
“hoping to hear. Your playground voice catching on the
wind”
War Photographer - Carol Ann Duffy
Poem’s about:
1) A war photographer is in his darkroom, developing pictures that he’s taken in war zones across the world. Being back in England is a big contrast - it’s safe and calm compared to where he’s been.
2) A photo begins to develop, and the photographer remembers the death of the man, and the cries of his wife.
3) The final stanza focuses on the people in England who will see his photographs in their Sunday papers. The speaker thinks they don’t really care about the people and places in the photographs.
Form - The poem has four stanzas of equal length and a regular rhyme scheme - it is “set out in ordered rows” like the photographer’s spools, echoing the care that the photographer takes over his work. The use of enjambement reflects the gradual revealing of the photo as it develops.
Structure - The poem follows the actions and thoughts of the photographer in his darkroom. There’s a distinct change at the start of the third stanza, when the photographer remembers a specific death. In the final stanza, the focus shifts to the way the photographer’s work is received.
Religious Imagery - The references to religion make it sound almost as if the photographer is a priest conducting a funeral when he’s developing the photos - there’s a sense of ceremony to his actions.
Contrasts - The poem presents “Rural England” as a contrast to the war zones the photographer visits. The grieving widow is compared with people in England whose eyes only “prick / with tears” at the pain. Ironically, the photographer is detached in the war zones but deeply affected at home.
Emotive Language - The poem is full of powerful, emotive imagery which reflects the horrors of war seen by the photographer and captured in his photos.
Feelings and Attitudes:
Pain - The photographers depict real pain (“A hundred agonies”) and there’s also the emotional pain of the woman who’s lost her husband. The horrific pain of war is contrasted with the “ordinary” life in England.
Detachment - The photographer is from his emotions in the war zones so he can do his job. The words “finally alone” and “impassively” suggest that he’s also detached from “ordinary” life in England.
Anger - The poem ends with a sense of anger at the people who don’t care about the suffering of others.
Structure:
Written in 4 stanzas the poem features rhyming couplets interspaced with non rhyming lines. The regular structure can represent the order he is giving to the chaos in his photos, perhaps also the almost mechanical process he is
going through and putting that distance between himself and the context. The poem is written as a narrative, leading us through the act of the photographer processing his photos, this again helps create a sense of detachment or even cynicism about what this action reflects, that people suffer and lose lives and the end
result to us is a few pictures chosen for the newspaper.
Context:
The poem is written about a war photographer who has returned home and is developing his photos. The process of developing old style film photos is rather unusual for many to understand today. Old style film is very sensitive to light, so it must be done in a dark room lit with red light. The photo itself is developed using chemicals which slowly bring out the photo, it is then hung to dry. All of this can create quite a sinister atmosphere, red light, surrounding by hanging photos and chemical smells.
The poem is also looking at the contrast between the war zones and safety of being back home and the way people just do not understand the truth, after all a single photo cannot show everything. War photographers do a very dangerous job, many are killed and injured as they must get in harms way to get the photos they are after.
Quotes:
“as though this were a church and he a priest preparing to intone a mass.”
“ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel”
“A hundred agonies in black-and-white from which his editor will pick out five or six”
“beneath his hands, which did not tremble then though seem to now.”
“set out in ordered rows”
Tissue - Imtiaz Dharker
Poem’s about:
1) The first three stanzas talk about the importance of paper as a means of recording our history.
2) Stanzas four to six focus on the paradox that paper is fragile, yet it still controls our lives.
3) The final thirteen lines look at creating things, particularly human life. Life is more complex and precious than the other things we create. It’s also temporary, but forms part of a bigger and ongoing story.
Form - The poetic voice is elusive, with the focus on humanity in general rather than a specific person or speaker. The lack of regular rhythm or rhyme and the enjambment across lines and stanzas gives the poem a freedom and openness, reflecting the narrator’s desire for freedom and clarity. The short stanzas mean that the poem is built in layers, just as it suggests human life is.
Structure - There are three main parts to the poem, moving through ideas about history, human experience and the creation of human life. Then final, single line stands out and focuses on the reader on their own identity and how it’s created.
Language about Light - Light is presented as a positive force - it enables people to see and understand, it can move through and beyond boundaries and it can break through objects.
Language about Creation - There are lots of references to things being created. Man-made constructions like buildings and borderlines are compared with the creation of humans.
Different Types of Tissue - The homonyms of ‘tissue’ create a link between paper and humans - both tissue paper and human tissue are fragile, but powerful. The word ‘tissue’ originally meant something that had been woven, which reinforces the idea that human lives are built up in layers.
Feelings and Attitudes:
Control - The poem mentions different things that control human life - there are references to money, religion, nature, pride and governments (“capitals’).
Freedom - The speaker imagines a world that breaks free of some of these restrictions, where human constructions are less permanent and important.
Structure:
The poem is written as an on-going monologue with some internal rhyme through the poem (though with no real pattern to it). It uses enjambment to create a very human and calm tone. The poem starts looking at the joy of simple things like well used paper and wonders what the world would be like if it had the same qualities. The final part of the poem is both hopeful and a warning. Against pride but in favour of growth and acceptance.
Context:
Imtiaz Dharker is a poet and film maker, she has Pakistani origins and was raised in Glasgow. A great number of her poems look at issues such as religion, terrorism
and global politics/identity. As a result her work can be difficult to grasp. The poem is written from the point of view of someone today looking out at the conflict and troubles of the modern world; destruction, war and politics, money and wealth as well as issues like terrorism and identity. The poem remarks how nothing is meant to last, that it would be better not to hold too tightly to that and
instead we should be willing to let go and pass things on in their time to be remade. In short, that the world would be better if it shared more qualities with ‘tissue’.
Quotes:
“Paper that lets the light shine through”
“where a hand has written in the names and histories”
“this/ is what could alter things.”
“might fly our lives like paper kites”
“how easily they fall away on a sigh,’ ‘turned into your skin”
The Emigrée - Carol Rumens
Poem’s about:
1) The speaker talks about a city in a country she left as a child - she has a purely positive view of it.
2) The city seems to be under attack and unreachable, but in the third stanza it appears to the speaker. An unknown “They” accuse and threaten the speaker, but still sees the old city in a positive way.
3) The city may not be a real - it could represent a time, person or emotion that the speaker has been forced to leave.
Form - The poem is written in the first person, with three eight-line stanzas but no regular rhythm or rhyme scheme. The first two stanzas contain lots of enjambment, but there’s more end-stopping in the final stanza. This reflects the speaker’s feelings of confinement in her new “city of walls”.
Structure - The speaker’s memory of the city grows and solidifies as the poem moves on - the city becomes a physical presence for the speaker in the final stanza. Each stanza ends with “sunlight”, reinforcing the fact that the speaker sees the city in a positive light.
Language of Conflict - Vocabulary associated with war, invasion and tyranny shows that the city may not be perfect as the speaker remembers it. In the second stanza, there’s the sense that the speaker is defying the authorities by accessing her “child’s vocabulary” that’s been “banned”.
Language about Light - The city is described in bright, colourful terms, emphasising the speaker’s feeling that it’s a beautiful, positive place. The repeated link with “sunlight” suggests a vitality to the city.
Personification - The city is initially personified as being “sick with tyrants”. In the final stanza, it appears to the speaker, lies down and then later takes her dancing. Describing the city in human terms emphasises the strength of the speaker’s love for it.
Feelings and Attitudes:
Nostalgia - The speaker’s positive memories of the city are unwavering - nothing she hears will change her view of it. There’s a sense of yearning for the city and the past, which is partly fulfilled by the city appearing to the speaker in the final stanza.
Threat - There are suggestions that the city has been invaded or taken over by a tyrant, but the speaker chooses to ignore these things. She is threatened in her new city, and seems to have to protect her old city. The poem ends with “sunlight”, but this doesn’t entirely remove the sense of threat.
Structure:
The poem follows a three stanza structure with repetitive elements such as the idea of ‘sunlight’. The opening of the poem seems to encompass the speaker trying to capture the memory, the second stanza builds on the details of this, fleshing out the city in her mind, finally the poem seems to veer towards an idea of facing up to the modern dark place her city of memory has become. A large amount of imagery is used within the poem to try and capture the concept of the city, including personification, though much of this is deliberately vague. The poem does not have a particularly consistent structure or any use of rhyme, this perhaps encapsulate the still uncertain understanding of the speaker about her city, this is further enhanced by some of the unusual and unnatural links between ideas and choice of metaphors. The poem uses enjambment to create a flowing pace to the work of a narrative speaker.
Context:
The poem explores the memory of the poet and their experiences in a far off city they spent time in as a child. The poet is looking at this city through the eyes of a
child and the happy memories she had, she compares these to the truths she knows as an adult which is much harsher. Emigrée relates to the word emigrate, the idea that a person goes and settles in another country, sometimes not feeling welcome to return. The poet bases many of the ideas on modern examples of emigration from countries like Russia or the Middle East where people are fleeing corruption and tyranny, or those countries change in their absence to some from of dictatorship.
Quotes:
“It may be at war, it may be sick with tyrants”
“but I am branded by an impression of sunlight.”
“I comb its hair and love its shining eyes.”
“the frontiers rise between us, close like waves”
“The white streets of that city, the graceful slopes glow”
Kamikaze - Beatrice Garland
Poem’s about:
1) The poem opens with a kamikaze pilot setting off on his mission. Kamikaze pilots were specially trained Japanese pilots, who were used towards the end of World War Two. They flew their planes on suicide missions into enemy ships - it was seen as a great honour to serve your country in this way.
2) It becomes clear that the pilot turned around and didn’t complete his mission - his daughter imagines that this was because on the way he saw the beauty of nature and remembered his innocent childhood.
3) The pilot was shunned when he got home - even his family acted as if he wasn’t there.
Form - The poem is mostly narrated in the third person using reported speech of the pilots daughter, but her voice is heard directly in the later stanzas. The absence of the pilot’s voice shows that he’s been cut off from society, and the use of the third person emphasises the distance between the pilot and daughter.
Structure - The first five stanzas form one sentence which covers an account of the pilot’s flight as the pilot’s daughter imagines it. The end of the sentence represents the plane landing, and the final two stanzas deal with the fallout of the pilot’s actions.
Irony - There are ironic reminders of how the pilot has abandoned his mission. The way he’s treated when he returns to his family is ironic because they act as if he’s dead, even though he chose not to die.
Natural Imagery - Similes, metaphors and detailed descriptions are used to emphasise the beauty and power of nature. The pilot’s daughter hints that this beauty was one of the main triggers for his actions.
Direct Speech - The addition of direct speech makes the poem seem more personal. Hearing the daughter’s voice emphasises the impact of war on a specific family.
Feelings and Attitudes:
Patriotism - The opening stanza is full of suggestions of patriotic pride and duty - the pilot has the chance to fly “into history”. The patriotism of the family and neighbours is show in their reaction to his return - they treat him as if he’s dead because he has failed in his duty to his nation.
Shame - The reaction of the pilot’s wife is one of deep shame- she never speaks to him again.
Regret - The pilot’s daughter’s words in the final stanza are tinged with a sense of regret and loss. The repetition of lines 9 and 41 of “he must have” also hints at her empathy with the pilot.
Structure:
The poem changes to italic/font during the penultimate stanzas and a previous line to indicate the change of speaker, from the narrator/translator to the daughter it appears as if the daughter is passing on the story to her own children and the narrator is explaining this process.
The final couplet hits home the themes of the poem quite dramatically in a very sombre tone but does not offer opinion, challenging the reader to come to their own decision. The consistent structure uses quite regular syllable patterns drifting up and down in length, this gives the poem a tone of nostalgia, but also
the rhythm of the waves which can represent a helplessness, that things will happen, whatever you do, he will still ‘die’ in one way or another. The use of asides and calm rural language juxtaposes the setting of war, giving the poem a much more personal scope on a major event.
Context:
The poem is set around the events of a kamikaze pilot flying to war and then turning back before it was too late. Kamikaze pilots were expected to use up all their weapons and then suicide by flying into their targets as a final act of destruction. It was considered a great honour in Japan to die for your country. The pilot in this poem returns home and is rejected by his family forever after, his own wife refusing to speak to him. The poem is written both from a narrator and the daughter of the pilot. The narrator explains the events, almost translating the story, while the speaker gives a first person account of how they excluded her father. The poet questions at the end which death would have been better, to die as a kamikaze pilot young or to grow old with a family who shut you out.
Quotes:
“enough fuel for a one-way journey into history”
“they treated him as though he no longer existed”
“And sometimes, she said, he must have wondered which had been the better way to die.”
“Her father embarked at sunrise with a flask of water, a samurai sword”
“and remembered how he and his brothers waiting on the shore”
Checking Out My History - John Agard
Poem’s about:
1) The narrator is talking about his identity and how it links to his knowledge of history.
2) He was taught about British history but wasn’t taught about his Caribbean roots. He lists famous figures from
history and questions why he doesn’t know about people from other cultures who did great things.
3) He mentions men and women from diverse backgrounds who should be celebrated.
4) At the end, he says he’s going to create his own identity based on his heritage.
Form - The narrator uses a mixture of stanza forms, suggesting he’s breaking the confining language rules he’s been taught. The Caribbean history stanzas have shorter lines and more broken syntax than the British history stanzas - this emphasises them and makes them seem more serious. The rhyme schemes are also different - the British stanzas have lots of simple rhyme, making them sound childish.
Structure - The poem alternates between historical and fictional figures form Caribbean and British culture, emphasising the difference between them. The British figures are skipped over quickly, with little respect, whereas the Caribbean figures are covered in more detail.
Metaphors of Vision and Blindness - The narrator says that his education kept his true heritage hidden from him. Images of light are positive because they suggest an awareness of your own identity.
Oral Poetry Features - The narrator uses techniques from oral poetry, such as repetition, strong rhythms, chanting and phonetic spellings. This links the poem to the oral tradition of reciting poetry aloud and telling stories, which are used as ways to communicating history. The use of Caribbean phonetic spellings creates a sense of pride in his background, and the use of standard English in lines 46-49 emphasises that the figures from his Caribbean heritage should feature in the teaching of history.
Feelings and Attitudes:
Anger - The narrator’s angry because the education system didn’t teach him about his culture. He was unaware of his heritage even though it’s an important part of who he is.
Admiration - He respects the Caribbean figures he describes in the poem. He admires their achievements and wants to tell their stories to show the important role they played in history.
Celebration - At the end he says he will embrace his own identity in a positive way.
Structure:
Written in irregular rhyme and with short mixed enjambment in verses the work creates the tone of a man speaking out and angry frustrated. It also however captures the accent and rhythm of the Caribbean ethnicity of the poet and the parts of the work in italic are
almost song like with a rhythm that seems to suggest stories passed down in song or to a beat. This is done to emphasise that not just the history, but the way it is passed on is very much a part of the poets identity and draws on his own Caribbean background, at conflict with the repetitive names and dates he was apparently being taught at English schools.
Context:
The poem looks through the voice and experiences of the poet at our understanding of identity through history. We look at how history is taught and the conflict between fact and truths which is sometimes obscured by race or gender. The poem gives examples of powerful black figures from history, often involved in conflicts themselves in one way or another. Noticeably the poet emphasises how we often celebrate our national or cultural history, without looking at the history and culture of those we were in conflict with.
Quotes:
“Bandage up me eye with me own history”
“dem tell me bout Dick Whittington and he cat”
“Toussaint de beacon of de Haitian Revolution”
“a healing star among the wounded a yellow sunrise to the dying”
“But now I checking out me own history I carving out me identity”
