Conflict Poetry - FLIRTS

Form: Five Stanzas of three lines. A question is asked in the first stanza which will get answered in the second and third line. Up into the fourth stanza, enjambment is used across the second and third line. 

Language: Mostly simple but powerful words are used throughout the poems but they are very powerful. Example: "relent", "bleed", "bold". Personification used in the last line to symbolise how powerful a single object is. 

Imagery: Powerful images of war and destruction. This can be seen when it says, "brings a nation to its knees" and "makes the guts of men grow bold." 

Rhythm: Keeps in the same rhythm, similar to a group of soldiers marching (very precise beat.)

Tone: Very formal tone, no kindness in the tone of the poem. 

Subject: The poem is mostly about patriotism. The first four stanzas are about the good patriotism is, symboling what it can do. However, the last stanza picks out how it can stop people from thinking on their own. 

Form: Seven stanzas of four lines. Stanzas 2-5 are a flashback about the man considering to jump, stanza one and seven is about him falling. Lots of enjambment used throughout. 

Language: Lots of words ending in, "ing." Emotive language used, "my love." Metaphors, reptition, alliteration and rhetorical questions are also used. 

Imagery: A lot of imagery used in the fifth stanza about the man falling. The poem creates a lot of powerful imagery to do with the man falling and his inner turmoil to jump. At one point the man is defiant when it says, "but the white of surrender is not yet flying."

Rhythm: The poem flows well, gives the overall impression of being quiet slow, like everything has slowed down while the man is going through his options. 

Tone: The tone seems quiet distant as if only the man can understand how he truly feels about the situation. Can be seen when it says, "Are your eyes believing, believing, that here in the gills I am still breathing."

Subject: 9/11 attack; a man is about to jump out of the world trade center. It centres around a famous picture of a man jumping out of the building. 

Form: Seven stanzas that are three lines long containing a variety of length. Enjambment used over lines and stanzas.

Language: Metaphors used, "a relic of a finger," used to show that the dead bodies are treasures. Oxymoron, "nesting machine guns." Reference to nature and violence.

Imagery: Images of many dead bodies seen in the first stanza. A dance of death, "mid dance-macabre" and many of the soldiers joined together in death, "a broken mosaic of bone linked arm in arm." 

Rhythm: No set rhythm in this poem. However, assonance and alliteration is used, can be seen when it says, "farmers found" or "a chit of bone, the china plate of a shoulder blade."

Tone: The poem has a sombre tone; reminding the reader about all the dead bodies that are left to be found. 

Subject: Mametz Wood is about a fight in the Battle of the Somme in World War One. The poem itself is about how badly managed the battle was. This can be seen when it says, "they were told to run, not walk."

Form: Six stanzas each containing six lines. The poem itself is written like a ballad. Enjambment used throughout the poem. 

Language: Repitition used where it says, "slow and silver caravan, on its slow and silver mile." Senses are discussed a lot throughout the poem. Alliteration is also used when it says,"sweeter than salaams."

Imagery: Constant contrary images throughout the poem. The harmless beggars are seen to be sinister as they are described as "imperial guards." The sun is personified as being deadly, "barbarian sun"- this can be compared to other poems where the sun is seen as helpful. 

Rhythm: First line of every stanza is the same. Two to three words of each stanza will rhyme or half rhyme. The cheery rhythm contrasts with the meaning of the poem. 

Tone: The poem has a serious undertone.

Subject: It is about a street in Baghdad a little after the First Gulf War. Connections made between religion and violence. 

Form: Nine short stanzas. The poem itself centers around the confusion of the writer and this is mimicked in the form of the number of lines in a stanza. Each stanza gives one image.

Language: The poem uses mostly simple but clear words to get across what the writer wanted to say. Many of the words used are connotations of each other - "terrorist, freedom fighter, martyr."

Imagery: Each stanza has its own image, from a terrorist to a guerrilla warrior. Each image is used to display how people perceive each other and how everyones perception is different.

Rhythm: No set rhythm for the poem.

Tone: The tone of the poem goes from being dark to light and back to dark with each passing stanza. Otherwise the tone is very serious and sombre.

Subject: It shows that conflict and violence is based on fear and prejudice for other people. The poet tries to get across that this can be bypassed with love and offering friendship to the other side. It shows that labels can blind people from the truth. 

Form: Seven stanzas that all have varying number of lines. It does not follow a set poetic form and the lines are broke off at different points- sometimes on soft sounds and sometimes on harder sounds. 

Language: All of the language used conveys the emotions of the character that the writer is writing from. For instance, "comparing both sides of the border." This shows a sense of calm. 

Imagery: A family travelling through the desert to get to their homeland. Powerful images of people relieved that they are finally home, can be seen where it says, "A man bent down and kissed his muddy homeland." 

Rhythm: No set rhythm to the poem and the poet shifts focus of the poem onto all of the different characters of the poem but keeps the child in the poem constant. 

Tone: The tone is one of seriousness but has hints of confusion as the poem is through the eyes of a child. 

Subject: Poem is set at a border in Iran where the poet is returning to her homeland.

Form: Belfast Confetti has two stanzas with a variety of lines and uses lots of punctuation to vary the sentence structures. Enjambment is used in some of the lines along with ellipses. Very short sentences. 

Language: The language in the poem gets across the confusion of the poet. Adverb, "suddenly" is used to convey alarm. Lots of questions towards the end of the poem such as "My name?" to get across the poets confusion.

Imagery: Sound is used a lot in the poem to get across imagery. Lots of powerful images, for example, "A fount of broken type." 

Rhythm: The poet is too unstable to be able to craft rhymes and the poem appears to be quite jerky. Lots of snippets of what is happening, "Crimea Street. Dead end again."

Tone: The tone of the poem is one of confusion. The author does not know where he is. 

Subject: The poem is about a conflict between a Catholic minority protesting against a Protestant majority in the 1960s. Later, there were fights between the Irish and British troops. 

Form: Poppies contains four stanzas of varying amount of lines. 19 out of the 35 lines have breaks in the middle of them called caesuras. The variation in the form of writing suggests that the writer is trying to keep calm but is breaking with sadness. 

Language: A lot of the words used are to do with textiles such as "tucks," "pleats" and "paper." This contrasts with a lot of the words in the poem which are to do with pain, "bandaged" and "graze."

Imagery: Lots of symbolism in the poem, for instance, "released a songbird from its cage" is a way of saying that she set her child free." The dove in the poem is a symbol of peace.

Rhythm: The poem is a lot like a narrative or a story as it follows the woman's tale of her and her son. It is a very personal poem that gives off a lot of emotions. 

Tone: An emotional poem with the poet trying to stay calm while inside she is breaking down. 

Subject: Poppies is set in modern day but goes back to the first Armistice Sunday which marks the end of the First World War. It is about a mother who is remembering her son. 

Form: Two stanzas of seven lines, written a bit like a sonnet. The first stanza has the main theme of hope while the second stanzas main theme is despair. 

Language: Personification in what the sun can do, "Move him into the sun." Repitition in how the sun can be used. A question is used to challenge the reader and an imperative, "think" is used to tell the reader to do something. 

Imagery: Images of the dying soldier. Main focus on the different aspects of the sun. For instance, "fatuous sunbeams toil" and "clays of a cold star."

Rhythm: A lot of half-rhymes are used in this poem in a pattern to express a sense of broken harmony beneath a seemingly strong surface. 

Tone: At first the poem has quite a calm tone but by the second stanza the tone of the poem changes to one of anger. The poet demands to know why the sun decided to be made at all if all people are going to do is fight. 

Subject: The poem is about Wilfred Owen's feelings towards war and how he only seeswars as a way of expanding an empire. It reflects his feelings of patriotism throughout his life. 

Form: The poem has one stanza of twelve lines. Alternative syllables in every two lines 6 and 10. First half of the poem is very calm, contrast between leaves, the rider and snowflakes. Second half is more angry contrasting between the poet, snowflakes and the dead soldiers. 

Language: An extended metaphor is used throughout the whole poem to connect all of the pieces of the poem together. Adjectives, "withering" and "beauty strewed." 

Imagery: Line 6 contrasts snowflakes with total destruction, "They fell, like snowflakes wiping out the noon." Also use of biblical imagery and language, "Slain by no wind of age or pestilence."

Rhythm: Very set rhyming scheme: line 1 and 4, line 2 and 5, line 3 and 6, line 7 and 10, line 8 and 11, line 9 and 12. 

Tone: Poem splits into two tones, first half calm, second half angry. 

Subject: Falling Leaves is about a womans response to the amount of men that were being lost in the First World War.  

Form: Eight stanzas with a varying amount of lines in it. The poem is written in free verse which means that it has no clear form. This gives the poem a strange, uneasy feel to it. 

Language: Many of the words in the poem are hard to understand, for example, "M.L.5." A strong metaphor is used for the first line of the poem, "Left by the ebbing tide of battle." Also foreshadowing for later in the poem. Oxymoron, "adorable lake." Lots of contrasts and symbolism throughout the poem.

Imagery: A lot of the imagery in the poem is reference to the moonlight and the lake. Also there is a lot of images to do with secrecy and memory giving the poem a dream-like quality. 

Rhythm: As the poem is written in free verse it has no strict rhyming scheme. Each stanza tells part of the story about Vaudevue. 

Tone: The tone is very calm and relaxing despite the morbid meaning to the poem. 

Subject: The poem is about a future war, however, it uses some events which are real such as the battle in Austerlitz which was a famous Napoleonic War. 

Form: One stanza containing thirteen lines with another stanza containing one line. It is a mix of modern style with traditional themes. Very little punctuation and all in lowercase.

Language: The language of the poem is very strange with some spoken language features such as "by jingo by gee"; these words are also hyperbole. Simile, "rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter," is also used. 

Imagery: The poem is satirical and references lots of important ideas such as God, America and liberty. However, the grammar shows us that we should not take these ideas seriously.Many of the statements used are actually cliches, "love you land of the pilgrims."

Rhythm: A strict rhyming scheme separating the poem into three sections, line 1-4, 5-8 and 9-14. The first 13 lines are spoken by a politician while the last line is there as a contrast and acts as a kind of let down. 

Tone: The poem is satire and at points comes off as being almost sarcastic. 

Subject: E.E.Cummings wrote this poem as a way of making a joke out of others who encourage patriotism in their country. 

Form: Six stanzas that have four lines each. The point of the stanzas is to give of the impression of strength and control. The poem is a dramatic monologue.

Language: The poem uses a lot of repitition of the words "my," "I" and "me" to show how egocentric and important the hawk sees itself. All of the words in the poem have been selected as they show off its confidence. The hawk thinks that he is master of the world, "earth's face upward for my inspection."

Imagery: The pictures of nature contrast with the violent images used later on in the poem, for instance, "bones of the living." The last stanza is a metaphor for the behaviour of some political leaders; the other contrast in the poem tries to show that the leader is trying to be a calm politician when actually he is just a violent thug. 

Rhythm: Formal, no rhyming scheme. 

Tone: Serious and calm tone with an undertone of being violent and brutal. 

Subject: Literally, the poem is about how the hawk is the best hunter in the wild and it praises the hawk on its abilites. Metaphorically, it is about dictators and how they run. 

Form: Six stanzas (each one referencing to 100 of the 600 cavalrymen) with a varying amount of lines. The first three stanzas are of them approaching the guns while the other three are about how they didn't return. 

Language: Many military words are used in the poem to underline the fact the battle. Personification used, "Into the mouth of Hell." Lots of verbs are used in the stanza four (action scene.) Repitition used a lot throughout the poem to highlight parts of the poem. 

Imagery: Strong image, "the valley of Death." This comes from a famous poem - Psalm 23 - in the bible. This shows how important the even that took place is. 

Rhythm: The poem has a strong rhythm throughout, two light beats followed by a heavy beat, which could be a reference to the galloping of horses. 

Tone: The tone used is one of seriousness and conviction that this event should not be forgotten.

Subject: About a battle in the Crimean War - about dealing with loses in war as well as triumphs. It cares more about making war heroes than mourning the dead/arguing about war.

Form: Three stanzas; stanza one and three has eight lines while the second stanza has seven lines. The first and third stanza is very fast paced while the second stanza is almost in slow motion. 

Language: Many adjectives are used to convey lots of poweful images. "King, honour, human dignity," are personified as luxuries. Adverb, "suddenly," is used to grab the readers attention. 

Imagery: A rich amount of description to contrast with where the soldier is going, "across a field of clods towards a green hedge." The imagery is also used to contrast nature to war. The poem tries to step into the shoes of a soldier to understand how they feel. 

Rhythm: No set rhythm.

Tone: A serious tone that manages to get into the mind of a soldier that by war has changed from a human being into a weapon of war. 

Subject: The poem focuses on a nameless soldier in World War One. It describes the feelings of a soldier going over the top of a trench.