Power And Conflict Poetry Flashcards
What’s a key theme throughout ‘My Last Duchess’?
Power and control
Who could the Duke be based on?
This poem is set in 1564 and is based on the real-life Duke Alfonso II who ruled Ferrara, Italy in the latter half of the 16th century. In the poem, he’s talking about his first wife Lucrezia de’ Medici, 3 years after she died under suspicious circumstances shortly after marrying the Duke.
How is the theme of isolation presented in ‘Storm On the Island’?
- the poem is set on an island ; geographically isolated.
* people are forced to endure tough storms alone
Give 2 quotations which highlight isolation in ‘Storm on the Island’
- ‘Nor are there trees which might prove company’
* ‘You might think that the sea is company exploding comfortably down on the cliffs but no’
How does ‘My last duchess’ link with ‘Ozymandius’?
The power of art; we see this in the quotations,
- ’notice Neptune though taming a sea horse, thought a rarity’
- ’Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!’
What is the opening line of ‘My last duchess’ and what does it connote?
‘That’s My last Duchess painted on the wall’
- It shows the Duke’s possessiveness with the possessive pronoun ‘My’
- the word ‘last’ is ominous as we don’t know if she was divorced or has died.
What’s the opening line of ‘Storm on the Island’?
‘ we are prepared: we build our houses squat’
- ‘we’ is a collective and this contrast with the isolation throughout the poem.
- ’squat’ shows the islanders need to defend/protect themselves.
What is the last line in the poem ‘Storm on the Island’ and what does it highlight?
‘Strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear’
- this is an oxymoron. The ‘nothing’ could be nature.
Context AO3: could represent the conflicts in Ireland and Heaney could be saying the fighting is for nothing , religion is minuscule ‘
What is the opening line of ‘The Emigrée ‘ and what does it show?
‘ there once was a country … I left it as a child’
- the ellipses suggests this ‘country’ is only a memory now.
- the child’s view suggests she could have been naive when she left her ‘country’
What are the key themes in ‘The Emigrée’?
- theme of memory
- power of identity/patriotism
- light vs shade
Give two quotations linking to the Duke’s control
‘ I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together’ ‘ since none puts by the curtain I have drawn for you but I’
What does the dramatic monologue show?
It shows the Duke’s power over the Envoy
