Power and Conflict Quotations Flashcards
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings”
Ozymandias - we hear this phrase from Ozymandias himself, there is a superlative quality to it and he sees himself as being more important than others
“Look upon my works ye mighty and despair”
Ozymandias - imperative command giving a sense that he is powerful, there is irony here as “nothing beside remains” as the poetic voice shifts back to the narrator
“A shattered visage lies”
Ozymandias - symbolism exploring how the facade that Ozymandias had as a ruler has crumbled away over time reinforcing the temporal nature of power
“Sneer of cold command”
Ozymandias - plosive sounds suggest a tone that is cruel and cutting - this quote tells us he was not a nice ruler
“The hand that mocked, the heart that fed”
Ozymandias - on the surface he is a cruel leader who abuses his power but internally there is a sense of love for his people that he wants to look after
“Round the decay of that colossal wreck”
Ozymandias - juxtaposition between the size of the statue and its current situation having eroded over time
“Near where the chartered Thames does flow”
London - the verb “chartered” means controlled - Blake could be criticising how mankind control nature and abuse their power
“Marks of weakness, marks of woe”
London - there is a rhythm established within this poem shown in this line - could represent the continual suffering or the footsteps of the poet. “Weakness” and “woe” are both creating a sense of pain and misery
“The mind-forged manacles I hear”
London - “mind-forged manacles” suggests that people are trapped in their thoughts and minds in London - they cannot escape their suffering
“Runs in blood down palace walls”
London - very graphic imagery and metaphor which could have a connection to the French Revolution - perhaps Blake is calling for a similar revolution in London
“Blights with plagues the marriage hearse”
London - oxymoron at the end of this quote which could suggest how short life is - blights and plagues gives a sense of disease and death
“One summer evening (led by her)”
The Prelude - Nature is personified as a temptress - it causes Wordsworth to want to sail across the lake
“Straight I unloosed her chain”
The Prelude - there is a confident tone established at the start - the poet feels secure in his ability
“With an unswerving line”
The Prelude - again the poet shows his confidence in his rowing ability
“Lustily, I dipped my oars into the silent lake”
The Prelude - calming tone, shows that he is being at one with nature - there is almost a sexualised undertone, as a romantic poet this could be showing how nature has had an impact on him
“The horizon bound a huge peak, black and huge”
The Prelude - there is a Volta here where nature becomes more dangerous and deadly - it is seen as being more visibly powerful and threatening
“I struck and struck again”
The Prelude - we see how there is a shift in the way that he rows as a consequence of his changing perspective of nature
“With trembling oars I turned”
The Prelude - a final Volta where the poetic voice now becomes afraid and fearful - this causes him to reflect on how he now sees nature
“O’er my thoughts, there hung a darkness, some call it solitude”
The Prelude - The poetic voice now cannot escape his thoughts on the layers to nature and how threatening it can be
“That’s my Last Duchess painted on the wall, looking as if she were alive”
My Last Duchess - the poem opens with a threatening tone - the simile “as if she were alive” creates a haunting tone
“(Since none puts by the curtain I have drawn for you but I)”
My Last Duchess - The duke controls who gets to look at his last duchess and also who she gets to look at by drawing the curtain - shows his power and control
“Must never hope to reproduce the half flush that dies along her throat”
My Last Duchess - a reference that could suggest that the Duke had her killed due to the fact that she was flirting with other individuals rather than focusing on him
“Her looks went everywhere”
My Last Duchess - a subtle criticism that the duke is stating to be able to criticise her flirtatious behaviour - we do only see this poem through his perspective though!
“My gift of a nine-hundred year old name”
My Last Duchess - The Duke believes he gave he some of his power by passing on his title to her - therefore expected her to respect him and the title
“I choose never to stoop”
My Last Duchess - the Duke reminds us of his power and states that he is higher status and will not lose that status
“I gave commands then all smiles stopped together”
My Last Duchess - there is an imperative power within this quotation but also an allusion to him having ordered her to be killed
“Our brains ache in the merciless iced-east winds that knive us”
Exposure - Nature is personified as a deadly force - the use of the words “ache” and “knive” and “merciless” creates a sense of inescapable and unrelenting suffering
“But nothing happens”
Exposure - repeated throughout the poem to show a frustrating reality of the soldiers situation - it never improves
“Like twitching agonies of men among its brambles”
Exposure - there is a mixed metaphor here - brambles may be a natural reference again showing natures power - it could also be a reference to the barbed wire which presents a very graphic image of death
“Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army”
Exposure - Dawn is personified - it should bring warmth and comfort but instead brings further misery for the soldiers - showing how bad their situation is
“Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence”
Exposure - shows the unpredictability of the war and nature - the sibilant sounds make it seem more realistic and deadly
“Pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our faces”
Exposure - Alliteration creates a sluggish tone making their suffering heard - snowflakes are personified almost making them seem like they’re the enemy they’re having to fight
“Slowly our ghosts drag home”
Exposure - a Volta where the soldiers minds turn to home, where it is warm and safe. The metaphor “ghosts” may suggest that they already view themselves as being dead
“We turn back to our dying”
Exposure - there is another Volta at the end of that stanza that refocuses our attention back on to war and their suffering
“All their eyes are ice”
Exposure - this very visual metaphor creates a stark reality of war - the death of soldiers from nature is frozen so you can see the moment they died
“We are prepared. We build our houses squat”
Storm on the Island - the islanders build the houses to defend themselves against the oncoming storm - shows nature in a powerful way
“Blast: you know what I mean”
Storm on the Island - Volta - the onomatopoeia ‘blast’ is a sudden explosion, connects to war and also shows the power of nature. The colloquial nature of ‘you know what I mean’ suggests normality and repetitive destruction of nature
“leaves and branches
Can raise a chorus in a gale”
Storm on the Island - Personification of nature - the metaphor ‘chorus’ makes it sound like a song - could connect to a battle hymn
“Exploding comfortably down on the cliffs”
Storm on the island - Oxymoron ‘exploding comfortably’ gives nature a sense of normality and ease by which it causes destruction
“spits like a tame cat
Turned savage”
Storm on the Island - simile - shows the way that the storm can change suddenly and cause destruction when needed. Can look calm but acts violently
“Strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear”
Storm on the Island - Ending is presented as a conflict - the oxymoron ‘huge nothing’ gives a powerlessness against nature but also a confusion
“Suddenly he awoke and was running – raw”
Bayonet Charge - Starts in media res, establising a very quick pace. The idea of the soldier ‘running - raw’ suggest an inexperience and innocence
“Bullets smacking the belly out of the air”
Bayonet Charge - the bullets are personified - this makes the environment seem deadly but also makes it seem real through the verb ‘smacking’ creating aural imagery
“The patriotic tear that had brimmed in his eye”
Bayonet Charge - A potential criticism of war, this metaphor could be alluding to individuals who went to war to fight for their country without realising the reality of war
“In bewilderment then he almost stopped –”
Bayonet Charge - Volta - the pace slows to focus in on the hare. The caesura (-) causes the poem to stop
“Threw up a yellow hare that rolled like a flame”
Bayonet Charge - the hare is a symbol of an imminent tempest in British folklore - a sign that you are doomed. Could be symbolic for the solider and nature being destroyed by war
“His terror’s touchy dynamite”
Bayonet Charge - ends with the fear of the soldier about to overwhelm him.
“Into the valley of Death”
The Charge of the Light Brigade - The metaphor has a biblical undertone to it - also suggests that the soldiers are charging to their death
“Their’s not to make reply,
Their’s not to reason why,
Their’s but to do and die”
The Charge of the Light Brigade - Rhythm and Rhyme in these three lines represents that horses hooves and rhythm of the soliders - shows their powerlessness and innocence in war
“Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell”
The Charge of the Light Brigade - The metaphors make it seem as though the soldiers are going to be trapped within their own fates and deaths
“Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade”
The Charge of the Light Brigade - The poet shifts the tone of the poem to become more imperative - instructing the reader to remember the sacrifice of the soldiers
“disrupting a blockade
of yellow bias binding around your blazer”
Poppies - A juxtaposition of language between domestic role of a mother smoothing the sides of her son’s blazer with language associated with war suggesting her inner conflict
“Sellotape bandaged around my hand
Poppies - Metaphor - the verb ‘bandaged’ suggests she feels wounded, potentially by letting her son leave
“All my words
flattened, rolled, turned into felt”
Poppies - Language associated with textiles and domesticity - her emotions have crumbled following her son leaving
“A split second
and you were away, intoxicated.”
Poppies - The verb ‘intoxicated’ connects to propoganda and may be used to suggest that her son was blinded by what he needed to do in war
“released a song bird from its cage”
Poppies - Symbolism - her son is innocent and she allowed him to leave, exposing him to dangers
“without a winter coat or reinforcements of scarf, gloves”
Poppies - Metaphor - She once could protect her son from the wind and cold but can no longer protect him from war
“leaned against it like a wishbone”
Poppies - Simile - The poetic voice is wanting to simply find out whether her son lives or has died - the unknown is consuming her
“Probably armed, possibly not”
Remains - Juxtaposition - expresses doubt and uncertainty alluding to his guilt and worry for his actions
“I see every round as it rips through his life”
Remains - Metaphor - Violent imagery - makes a really disgusting picture of this man’s death - contextually, the soldier states that he could see this in the bank robber
“End of story, except not really”
Remains - Volta - Creates a shift and change, even though he has returned home, the soldier cannot escape his thoughts and fears of his actions
“his blood-shadow stays on the street”
Remains - Metaphor - He is haunted by the killing of the robber and the shadow has a double meaning, following him but also the dried blood on the street
“But I blink”
Remains - Volta - Reminded of his actions
“His bloody life in my bloody hands”
Remains - Connects to the idiom ‘blood on my hands’ - he feels responsible for the death of the robber and cannot get rid of the guilt from his hands
“Spools of suffering set out in ordered rows”
War Photographer - Metaphor - Order within chaos, trying to select which photos to develop and show to others
“He has a job to do”
War Photographer - Monosyllabic utterance - a blunt reminder of the role of the photographer and what they must do - not to get involved in war
“his hands which did not tremble then though seem to now”
War Photographer - could be suggesting that the photographer is struggling to regain control over what he has seen in war
“A Half-formed ghost”
War Photographer - Metaphor - Looking at the photo serves as a physical reminder of the death of the robber
“blood stained into foreign dust”
War Photographer - Connects to Remains and the blood shadow - the memory of their death is stained in his memory”
“A hundred agonies in black and white”
War Photographer - Metaphor - A physical representations of the fear and struggle that the photographer witnessed in war
“I am branded by an impression of sunlight”
The Emigree - Metaphor - Juxtaposition between branded and sunlight - their identity is not from the environment they are within
“like a hollow doll opens and spills a grammar”
The Emigree - simile - shows the fragility of the speaker and how they view themselves as being childlike
“It tastes of sunlight”
The Emigree - A pattern of sunlight - they feel like they can’t touch or be in their old environment but they can remember how it felt
“They accuse me of being dark in their free city”
The Emigree - Shows their feelings of isolation and unfair treatment. Highlight themselves as being a social outcast
“A shaven head full of powerful incantations”
Kamikaze - Metaphor - Suggests that he is full of propoganda and indoctrinated
“little fishing boats strung out like bunting”
Kamikaze - Natural imagery through the simile - shows tranquility and helps to build a reflective quality through nature
“A tuna, the dark prince, muscular, dangerous”
Kamikaze - could be symbolic for himself, not following the crowd and being decisive in viewing his life a different way
“And sometimes, she said, he must have wondered which had been the better way to die”
Kamikaze - Dramatic ending that makes it seem uncertain as to the future of the soldier.
