Poetry

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Exposure - Wilfred Owen

  • ''But nothing happens'' - Short Sentence
  • repeated to show how bored he is and death doesn't change anything
  • "winds that knive us" - Personification
  • the weather is attacking them
  • "black with snow" 
  • turn something pure to dark and negative (death)
  • "Sudden Successive" - Sibliance 
  • imitates the sound of bullets
  • Half lines
  • emphasise the lack of hope
  • First person plural
  • Regular Rhyme 
  • Theme - Bordem & Hopelessness
  • Soldiers suffered hypothemia
  • 1917 he was suffering 'Shell Shock'
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Storm on the Island - Seamus Heaney

  • "We are prepared" 
  • strong opening to show confidence
  • "you know what I mean" - Direct address
  • to the reader making them think
  • "pummels" - Violent Imagery
  • show house being attackked with agression
  • "Exploding comfortably" - Oxymoron
  • to show the change between safety and fear.
  • "We are bombared" 
  • storm is trappping them and they are scared 
  • Volta
  • "But no" 
  • Blank Verse
  • Extendend Metaphor
  • Theme - Fear & Saftey
  • 8 letters 'Stormonet' -Northen Ireland parliment bulidings
  • Storm indicates violance between Irish Republicas wanting Independence 
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Bayonet Charge - Ted Hughes

  • "patriotic tear"- Metaphor 
  • his heroic ideas have turned into painfully reality
  • "Bullets smaking the belly out of air"- Violent Imagery & Onomatopoeia
  • to show sight & sound of war
  • "His terror's touchy dynamite" - Metaphor
  • the fear overwhelmed him
  • "Dropped like luxuries" 
  • doesn't care about patroism at the moment
  • Third person plural
  • "he" - name for the soldier. He represents every soliders in battle
  • Emjambment
  • Irregular line length
  • Hughes father served in WW1
  • Hughes was a mechanic in RAF
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Poppies - Jane Weir

  • "play like eskkimos like we did" 
  • missing her son and shows a close bond between 
  • "like a wishbone" 
  • wishing he didn't go away & searching for support
  • "the dove pulled freely againg the sky"
  • reflect allowing her son to be free 
  • "the inscriptions" & "on the wind" & "playground voice" - Senses 
  • First person
  • Theme - Loss & Fear & Freedom
  • Enjambment
  • thought of the memories
  • Mothers have contacted Weir to thank her for writtimg her poem that they could relate to
  • She wrote the poem to address female experiences of war
  • Weir had 2 sons
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Checking Out Me History - John Agard

  • "Dem tell me" - Anaphora 
  • phonetic spelling gives a carribbean accent shows narrator's voice
  • "Blind me" - Methaphor
  • not allowed to se his own history
  • "de cow who jump over de moon"
  • 'british' nursey rhyme is insignificant
  • "a healing star" 
  • reference black figures as light to show postivity 
  • Rhyme
  • strong rhythm gives poem upbeat to celebrate black history
  • Enjambment
  • Uneven structure
  • Theme - Anger & Celebration
  • Agard was born in Guyana, Caribbean
  • Move to Britian in 1977
  • Writes about being black to challenge racist attitudes 
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Kamikaze - Beatrice Garland

  • "been the better way to die" 
  • family are ashamed and treat him as if he was dead
  • "my mother never spoke"
  • denial of everything that happeed 
  • "yes, grandfather's boat" - Direct speech
  • emphasise the impact of war
  • "feathery prawns" - Lists
  • detail to show the trigger to change his mind - power of nature
  • "into history" - Patriosm
  • Shift from third to first person
  • 3rd person shows distance between daughter and father
  • Dramatic monologue 
  • not hearing the pilot voice shows how hes cut off from society
  • Theme - Patriosm & Shame & Regret 
  • Japanesse Kamikaze pilots were used in WW2
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Ozymandias - Percy Shelly

  • "vast" - Adjective
  • emphaises his power
  • "king of kings" 
  • shows how arrogant he was and how amazing he though he was
  • "the decay of that colossal wreak" 
  • the statute has "deacy" like his achivements
  • Enjambment
  • Sonnet
  • doesn't follow rhyme scheme indicates how human power can be destroyed
  • Theme - Power & Pride 
  • irony - his achivements are insignificant told others to "look" "despair" his "works" but theres nothing left
  • French revolution 1789-1799 Napoleon had France in a Dictorship
  • "Ozymandias" name for Egyptain Pharaoh Ramesses II
  • "Romantic" poet
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London - William Blake

  • "in every" - Repetition
  • emphaise there's no hope
  • "blood down palace walls" & "black'ning church"
  • people in power are not doing about the people suffering "blood" in their hands 
  • "marriage hearse" - Oxymoron
  • future brings nothing but death and decay
  • "cry" "woe" "weakness" "blood" - Negative words
  • Imagery & Senses
  • 1st stanza - what he see 2nd stanaza - what he hears 3rd stanza - mixture of both
  • ABAB rhyme 
  • Dramatic monologue - First Person 
  • Theme - Anger and Hopelessness
  • Blake believed in social and racial equality
  • he lived and worked in "London"
  • Rejects the work of religion
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The Prelude - William Wordsworth

  • "troubled pleasure" - Oxymoron
  • hints guilt
  • "upreared its head" & " strode after me" - Personification
  • mountain is powerful shows narrator's fear 
  • "troubed to my dreams" - Philosophical mood
  • nature not just beautiful and gentle - describing life in genreal
  • Blank verse & First person narrative
  • maks it sound serious and personal - inspired by nature as the lake has a "sparking light"
  • Volta
  • changes mood from "its usual home" to "trembling"
  • Born in Lake District
  • "Romantic Poet"
  • Both Parent died at young age
  • 3 out 6 children died
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My Last Duchess - Robert Browing

  • "which i have not"
  • he is always right - arrogant 
  • "then all smiles stopped" & "I gave command"
  • obessed with power and may have killed his wife
  • "stoop" - Repetition
  • shows how he felt his wife was benth him
  • "that spot of joy" 
  • his wife blushes annoyed him
  • Rhyming Couplets 
  • create rigid form - the duke controls the poem like he controlled his wife
  • Enjambment
  • show a long speech and he carried away with anger
  • Theme - Jealousy & Power
  • The Duke of Ferrara Wife died in suspious circumstances
  • Browing lived in Italy
  • Intrested in Italian Renaissance (Art)
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The Emigrée - Carol Rumens

  • "the bright, filled paperweight" - Metaphor 
  • speaker memories are bright and solid
  • "sick with tyrants" - Personification
  • shows city being damage 
  • "child's vocabulary" - Metaphor
  • describing 'precious' childhood
  • "They accuse me" - Repetition
  • "they" are a treat to the speaker
  • "There once was a country..." 
  • memory is not how it used to be
  • Strong ending
  • "sunlight" shows speaker is positive
  • Theme - Nostalgia & Threat
  • Lack of Detail
  • might be fictional
  • she was born in south london
  • ‘fascination with elsewhere’
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The Charge Of The Light Brigade - Alfred Tenyson

  • "Half a league" - Anaphora
  • like galloping the soliders are going into battle unstable
  • "valley of Death" - Biblical allusions
  • shows siginificance of having faith in winning
  • "jaws of Death" - Repetiton
  • theres no escape
  • "thunder'd" "volley'd" - Onomatopoeia
  • emphasis the soliders bravery
  • "six hundred" - Repetiton
  • large number of men involved 
  • Irregular form 
  • reflect chaos in war
  • Chronological Order & Third Person
  • Theme - Patriotism & Horror
  • Crimean War - Britain vs Russia 1853-1856
  • Missundering which lead Britain to be surrounded
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Remains - Simon Armitage

  • "probably armed, possibly not" - Repetition
  • to remind him about the events 
  • "all three" - Repetition 
  • show reader he wasn't alone
  • "rips through his life" - Metaphor
  • to explain in detail how the loother died
  • "sort of inside out" "legs it" - Colloquial language
  • telling a story - makes the loother death not important
  • Volta
  • "End of the story, expect not really" change to gulit & "my" takes full responsability
  • No Rhyme Scheme
  • First Person Plural changes to First Person Singular
  • Theme - Nonchalance & Gulit
  • Soldiers suffered PTSD
  • Testimonies for ex-soldiers 
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War Photographer - Carol Duffy

  • "All flesh is grass" - Bible refrence
  • human life is temporary
  • "which did not tremble then" - Irony
  • the pictures are now affecting him
  • "ordinary pain" 
  • life is different in England than in War Zones
  • "Sunday's Supplement" - Sibilance 
  • reader has to spit out words suggesting speaker fustration
  • "they do not care" 
  • society focuses on their own lives
  • "hundread agonies"  Emotive metaphor
  • Enjambment
  • gradual revealing of photo
  • Theme - Anger & Pain
  • Vietham War
  • Children running away from bomb picture published in New York Times
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Tissue - Imtiaz Dharker

  • "attention" 
  • becomes before a full sentence - emphaises the importance of what comes next
  • "layer over layer"
  • mirror work of architects - suggests human life bulids up like "layers"
  • "these shapes that pride can make"
  • critising human life - we create bulidings that are unimportant
  • "a structure never meant to last" 
  • human liffe is temporary
  • "shift" "drift" - Rhyme
  • idea of movement - on different lines suggest they've been blown by the wind
  • Enjambment
  • delicate of nature
  • Extended Metaphor
  • Theme - Control & Freedom
  • Born in Pakistan but raised in Glasgow
  • Writes about identity
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