WJEC Poetry Anthology Key Quotes Flashcards
Quotes for ‘The Manhunt’ by Armitage
mental and physical impact of war on the wider community
- ‘the fractured rudder of shoulder blade’
- ‘sweating, unexploded mine buried deep in his mind’
- ‘every nerve in his body had tightened and closed’
permenent affect:
- ‘foetus of metal beneath his chest’
- ‘frozen river which ran through his face’
although the affect of war in family relationships can be permanent, the mental trauma can be mitigated and overcome through love.
- ‘handle and hold’
- ‘bind the struts and climb the rungs’
Quotes for ‘Mametz Wood’ by Sheers
brutal consequences of war:
- ‘chit of bone, the china plate of a shoulder blade’
- ‘broken bird’s egg of a skull’
- ‘jaws, those that have them, dropped’
permanent consequences of war:
- ‘years afterwards’
- ‘turning up under their plough blades’
- ‘nesting machine guns’
effects of war cannot be mitigated and must not be forgotten:
- ‘working a foreign body to the surface of the skin’
- ‘only now’ ‘slipped from their absent tongues’
disregarded by society:
- ‘twenty men buried in one long grave’
- ‘only now’ ‘slipped from their absent tongues’
Quotes for ‘Sonnet 43’ by Barret Browning
asserting her right to articulate her feelings:
- ‘how do i love thee? let me count the ways’
- ‘i love thee’ anaphora
passionate about a deep and multifaceted love, which seems to transcend life:
- ‘depth, breadth and height’
- ‘every day’s most quiet need’
- ‘breath / smiles, tears of all my life’
- ‘i shall but love thee better after death’
love offers resilience in times of hardship
- ‘passion put to use in my old griefs’
- loves him with her ‘childhood’s faith’
idolises her lover:
- with her ‘childhood’s faith’
- ‘i loved thee with a love i seemed to lose’
Quotes for ‘Valentine’ by Duffy
distorts the view of traditional love
- ‘not a red rose or a satin heart’
- ‘a wobbling photo of grief’
love that is deep and multifaceted:
- ‘onion’ symbolism
- ‘moon wrapped in brown paper’
- ‘promises light’
distorts love into something violent and dangerous
- ‘it’s fierce kiss will stay on your lips’
- the onion’s scent will ‘cling to your knife’
Quotes for ‘Death of A Naturalist’ by Heaney
unrestrained and exhilarating experiences with the natural world
- ‘flax had rotted there, weighed down by huge sods’
- ‘wove a gauze of sound around the smell’
- ‘warm thick slobber’
shift in power dynamic, as speaker realises the immense and overwhelming power of nature, for heaney this shift is abrupt
- ‘then one hot day’
- ‘angry frogs invaded the flax dam’
- ‘great slime kings’
all admiration lost, concludes with fear and trepidation
- ‘obscene threats’
- ‘if i dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it’
Quotes for ‘The Prelude’ by Wordsworth
unrestrained and exhilarating experiences in the natural world as children
- ‘it was a time of rapture’
- ‘all shod with steel’
- ‘i heeded not the summons’
shift in power dynamic as speaker realises the power of nature infinitely surpasses that of man
- ‘woodland pleasures’ disappear as he is aware of ‘the pack loud bellowing’
- ‘alien sound of melancholy’
maintains sense of awe and admiration despite awareness of dangers
- ‘sparkling clear’ stars
- ‘orange sky of the evening died away’
Quotes for ‘London’ by Blake
uneven distribution of wealth and injustices placed on people in society:
- ‘marks of weakness, marks of woe’
- ‘in every’ anaphora
- ‘each charter’d street’
- ‘every blackening church appals’
willful ignorance of mankind, and how suffering is a cause of their own ignorance
- ‘mind forg’d manacles’
- ‘blood down palace walls’
uses children as a symbolism of inescapable corruption (while dharker uses them as a symbol of optimism)
- ‘chimney sweeper’s cry’
- ‘new born infant’s tear’
Quotes for ‘Ozymandias’ by Shelley
decaying power of a leader
- ‘i met a traveller who said’
- ‘two vast trunkless legs of stone’
both rulers are selfish and complacent, lacking regard for their subjects
- ‘sneer of cold command’
- ‘look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’
power as fleeting
- ‘nothing beside him remains’ juxtaposed to previous arrogant boast
- ‘boundless and bare’
Quotes for ‘Hawk Roosting’ by Hughes
indestructable power
- ‘i sit in the top of the wood’
- ‘the sun is behind me’
the hawk as an ignorant and complacent ruler:
- ‘my eyes are closed / inaction’
- ‘through the bones of the living’
power as fleeting
- ‘my feet are locked upon the rough bark’
- ‘i am going to keep things like this’ (delusional)
Quotes for ‘Living Space’ by Dharker
dangerous conditions:
- ‘beams balance crookedly’
- ‘nails clutch at open seams’
children as symbol of hope for better future:
- ‘dared to place these eggs in a wire basket’
- ‘fragile curves of white’
admiration not pity:
- ‘squeezed a living space’
- ‘whole structure leans dangerously towards the miraculous’
