power and conflict poetry

Question 1

Caesura

Answer 1

stop in the line

Question 2

“His sweat heavy”

Answer 2

Metaphor shows the physical impact of the soldiers fear

Question 3

“Bullets smacking the belly”

Answer 3

Metaphor creates a violent atmosphere and also alludes to someone being winded or unable to breathe

Question 4

“Shot-slashed furrows”

Answer 4

Rural imagery is subverted to create a juxtaposition between the nourishing connotations or farming and the life being taken away in the same place.

Question 5

“Cold clockwork”

Answer 5

mechanical imagery is emphasised by the harsh alliteration that the soldier has been dehumanised in his role

Question 6

“dem tell me dem tell me”

Answer 6

Use of repetition creates an accusatory tone showing the speakers anger

Question 7

“bandaged up me eye”

Answer 7

this has connotations of injury. This shows the reader has been hurt by his sheltered up bringing.

Question 8

“Toussaint”

Answer 8

italics here represent the two accounts of history being shown here. It also creates a oppressive tone.

Question 9

“De cow who jump over de moon”

Answer 9

This phrase from the semantic field of childhood implies that the speaker has lost his childhood and is stuck in the past

Question 10

Violent metaphors in checking out me history

Answer 10

To show the cruelty of colonialism.”Blind me to my own identity”. emphasise on the deliberate nature of the abuse of colonial control implies that his education has changed the way that he thinks

Question 11

Non phonetic spelling in checking out me history

Answer 11

“dem “De” “bout” Agards spelling shows that this is a from of oral poetry. This comes from Creole which is the native language of an area that is attempting to speak two different languages. Normally Agard writes in normal english so this stands out.

Question 12

Context behind bayonet charge

Answer 12

This poem was greatly inspired by wilfred owen who tries to expose the harsh realities of war. Here hughes wants to higlight the realities of trench warfare which attributed to his fathers suffering.

Question 13

Context behind exposure

Answer 13

Poem was written in 1917 whilst owen was fighting in the trenches. Owen dispelled the old lie that it was honourable and a great act to fight for your country

Question 14

“The merciless iced east winds that knife us”

Answer 14

Nature is personified in a sinister way to create fear in the listener.

Question 15

“Worried by silence sentries whisper, curious, nervous”

Answer 15

The use of asyndetic listing creates a rushed panicked pace and contrasts with the content of the poem

Question 16

“Sudden successive flights”

Answer 16

The use of sibilance and fricatives create a horrific image.

Question 17

“Pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our faces”

Answer 17

Nature is further personified to be evil here

Question 18

“For love of God seems dying”

Answer 18

This religious reference implies there is a lack of religiously imposed morality remaining in the situation highlighting the cruelty of it

Question 19

“But nothing happens”

Answer 19

emphasises the futility of war. The situation remains the same although immense suffering occurs.

Question 20

Context behind kamikaze

Answer 20

Uses people like John donne as her motivation to research why do people want to die for their country. (Insert context behind kamikaze pilots)

Question 21

“we embarked at sunrise”

Answer 21

Japan is known as the land of the rising sun. “Embark” means to begin something - he is beginning a new chapter of his life, both choices lead to a type of death.

Question 22

“One way journey into history”

Answer 22

Painful irony to his search for remembrance sought death to be remembered and immortalised by respect

Question 23

“A shaven head full of powerful incantations”

Answer 23

he is under the spell of patriotism and propaganda. Not making his own decisions. His decision would be to keep living,

Question 24

“Green blue translucent sea”

Answer 24

sibilance implies a sense of grace and peacefulness, as well as suggesting an elegant and graceful tone, also works to increase the speed of the poem and make it more emotional

Question 25

“A tuna the dark prince muscular dangerous”

Answer 25

imbalance of power between human and nature. Even a kamikaze pilot - an epitome of bravery - sense the danger of it. Pilot ( symbol of military power and determination isnt the most dangerous thing in the poem, a fish is! Metaphor to show it is a prince its important and significant and deserving of repsect like a soldier. emphasises its significance by using a full stop and showing it is deserving of notice.

Question 26

Context behind London

Answer 26

Blake tries to expose the authoritarian abuses of power in (arguably) the most important country in the world at the time. He wrote this in hope that the reader could improve London.

Question 27

“And mark in every face I meet”

Answer 27

The repetition of marks demonstrates that this permanent impact of place’s power with wide reaching and exception free extent. Also suggests cannot remove the impact of suffering they have experienced (weakness) and like the branding of cattle the citizens are branded by their experience.

Question 28

“Marks of weakness, marks of woe”

Answer 28

Breaks for iambic tetrameter used for most of the remainder of the poem, which could reflect that if people rise up against the institutions of power they can free themselves of social restraint.

Question 29

“Blackening church”

Answer 29

adjective blackened at surface level an acknowledgement of soot and smoke that is produced by industrial factories polluted every part of London in the 1700s. Figurative interpretation can be found through the negative connotations of immorality and evil. it is the moral blackening of the church that he is referring to. This can be perceived as criticism of organised religion and it’s failure to provide for the poor.

Question 30

“Mind forged manacles”

Answer 30

metaphor for internal oppression and weakness is also a culmination of the suffering experience in the preceding lines.

Question 31

“Marriage hearse”

Answer 31

juxtaposed connotations of new beginnings, joy and happiness of wedding with the end of life and grief of a hearse,

Question 32

“youthful harlots curse”

Answer 32

juxtaposition of innocence and youth with the morality of a harlot

Question 33

context of poppies

Answer 33

poppies grew in 1921 as a symbol of remembrance. And armistice sunday also became a time for remembrance and the writer uses this as a common theme throughout the play.

Question 34

“Three days before armistice sunday”

Answer 34

The use of temporal deixis establishes the theme of remembrance from the start.

Question 35

“crimped petals, spasms of paper red, disrupting a blockade…”

Answer 35

The use of asyndetic listing shows how detailed this memory is for the narrator.

Question 36

“The world overflowing like a treasure chest”

Answer 36

This metaphor creates the image of there being an outpour of emotion by the narrator

Question 37

“I listened hoping to hear your playground voice catching on the wind”

Answer 37

The poem ends in a sad metaphor.

Question 38

context Behind remains

Answer 38

armitage wrote this for ptsd awarness. This poem was based on a guy name tromans who fought in the iraq war in 2003 and had ptsd from it.

Question 39

“Probably armed possibly not”

Answer 39

Anaphora, “probably” is the justufaction that he uses for killing the person. shows the guilt and remorse that he feels for killing the looter.

Question 40

“sort of inside out”

Answer 40

gruesome imagery. transition from colloquial emotion. colloquial language is him trying to show that he hasn’t been impacted by what happened.

Question 41

“tosses his guts back into his body, then hes carted off into the back of a lorry.”

Answer 41

“tosses” connotates lack of respect. dehumanisation. this causes the devaluation of human life and a loss of sanctity. The rhyme between body and lorry shows that there is a levek of fluidity to it.