English literature

'Cannon to the right of them, Cannon to the left of them, Cannon in front of them'

·        Anaphora

·        Merism - surrounded

·        Symploce (words at the start and end the same)

·        sounds explosive like the words

·        words after cannon speed up replicating the sounds of shells

'Into the jaws of Death, Into the mouth of Hell'

·        Anaphora

·        Zoomorphism

·        Personification

·        Not many made it home

·        Cannot escape

·        Death has a hold over the men

‘Plunged in the battery-smoke, Right thro’ the line they broke’

• ·        Force -  ‘plunged’ – bravery or patriotism – depressing mood – creates fast pace/no plan
• ·        Broke through enemy lines
• ·        Unable to see – blurred vision
• ·        Gunpowder
• ·        Onomatopoeia – consumed by smoke – appreciate bravery
• ·        Successful

‘volley’d and thunder’d; storm’d at with shot and shell’

• ·        Verbs – emotive
• ·        Triad
• ·        Cannons actions
• ·        Repeat fire
• ·        Noisy
• ·        Sibilance – war is evil
• ·        Being charged at

‘our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us…’

• ·        Triad
• ·        Nature is attacking them – Most dangerous – increased vulnerability
• ·        Painful experience
• ·        Personal perspective
• ·        Can’t think straight
• ·        Ellipsis – waiting for something to happen
• ·        Personification

‘Like twitching agonies of men among its brambles’

• ·        Natural imagery – appealing to people who were not at war
• ·        Barbed wire / black berry bush – sharp, tough, prickly
• ·        Cannot escape

‘Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army Attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of grey, But nothing happens’

• ·        Weather as an enemy
• ·        No colour – lifeless
• ·        Repetition – ranks – rain or hail
• ·        Onomatopoeia – chattering teeth and trembling bodies

‘sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence’

• ·        Sibilance – bullets flying
• ·        Reference to death
• ·        Plosive – sound of bullet hitting a body
• ·        Contrast of silence and sudden gun fire
• ·        ‘streak’ – speed, suddenness and harsh sound

‘probably armed, possibly not. Dream, and he’s torn apart by a dozen rounds And the drink and the drugs won’t flush him out’

• ·        Repetition – reliving past events
• ·        ‘dream’ – destroying soldiers life – Macbeth – ‘Macbeth doth murder sleep’ – disturbed sleep – guilt
• ·        ‘torn’ fragility of life
• ·        Lost count of how many times he shot him
• ·        Nothing takes away bad dreams – mentally trapped

‘near to the knuckle, here and now his bloody life in my bloody hands’

• ·        Curse? – anger
• ·        Death and danger
• ·        Repetition
• ·        Plosives – angry about killing someone
• ·        No pause – non-stop like dreams
• ·        The body is resurrected each time he thinks about it
• ·        Guilt lingers within him
• ·        Cannot cope with life – tormented by nightmare
• ·        Macbeth – ‘will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood from my hand? – blood isn’t there – guilt
• ·        Macbeth – Lady Macbeth’s bloody hands – guilt

‘I pinned one onto your lapel, crimpled petals, spasms of paper red, disrupting a blockade of yellow bias binding around your blazer’

• ·        Ironic as foreshadows a time when she would wear one in remembrance of her son OR unknowingly marking him for dead
• ·        ‘crimpled petals’ suggests torn or damaged poppy – implies war damages people
• o   Theme of death – crippled poppies represents withering remains of funeral wreaths
• ·        ‘Spasms’ suggests injury – thinking about sons possible death – pain OR span of time
• ·        ‘Red’ – connotations of blood and emotive image
• ·        ‘disrupting’ like disrupting family life
• ·        ‘blockade’ refers to military action but also the barrier between the mother and son
• ·        ‘bias binding’ – alliterative and rhythmic sound suggests smartness of his uniform or nervousness and worry.
• o   Plosives could show anger of the mother that the he has to leave her
• ·        ‘binding’ – metaphor for the compulsory requirement to fight for the country
• ·        ‘blazer’ – refers to his uniform or could be reminiscing about his childhood

‘sellotape bandaged around my hand, I rounded up as many white cat hairs as I could’

• ·        ‘bandaged’ – metaphor for bandaged limbs caused by war injuries
• ·        ‘white’ symbolic of innocence – sounds motherly but ironic contrast to the injuries sustained in war and need treating. Suggests she’ll always look after him, To her he never grew up.
• ·        Mothers hands are tied and she cannot stop her son from going.
• ·        ‘rounded up’ gives the idea of conscription

‘released a songbird from its cage. Later a single dove flew from the pear tree’

·        ‘songbird’ – metaphor indicates mother is crying. Shows she was afraid to cry in front of him as she thought he might feel guilty

·        ‘releasing’ – metaphor shows she is letting him go into the world but sad he might not come back. She’s finally trying to overcome the emotional attachment.

·        Dove – symbol of peace, suggests her son has died and gone to a peaceful world. Ironic as he died fighting.

·        Pear tree – symbol of long life and strength, ironic as he dies prematurely

·        ‘twelve days of christmas’ doves are a pair symbolising isolation as her son has left her by dying

‘in every cry of every man, in every infant’s cry of fear. In every voice, in every ban’

• ·        Emphasise childs fear – made to care for the young
• ·        ‘ban’ – announcement in church that people are getting married
• ·        Poverty affects everyone
• ·        Anaphora
• ·        Repetition
• ·        Build sympathy

‘marriage hearse’

• ·        Oxymoron
• ·        Religious control
• ·        Death and disease
• ·        Beginning and end of life – circuit of life
• ·        Funeral car