Poetry Anthology

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  • Created by: simrik
  • Created on: 07-06-22 12:34

Genetics

  • Villanelle.. tight structure and rhyme scheme (rhyme scheme is aba CHILDLIKE)
  • Villanelles commonly used for love and loss
  • Wedding rings implied with cyclical structure
  • Refrain is a line repeated throughout poem at intervals
  • Cyclical structure showshow past and future areimportant at shaping lives
  • Refrain lines go from being about parents to future husband
  • Lexical field of hands present in poem 
  • Sinead Morrisey's parents separated when she was young and moved to different places 
  • Sinead Morrisey is now married with 2 children
  • Title is scientific which is ironic compared to poem text which is sentimental 

  • Connotations of 'magnetism' by using the word repelled skillfully blurring lines between emotion and science

  • "Steeple" Imitates a childhood game
  • "psalms" and palms anagram connects religious act of marriage with physical
  •  "body is marriage register" physical embodiment of love 
  • Anaphora of "take" and imperative shows her addressing her husband 
  • The change in personal pronouns of refrain show cycle of life and inheritance beginning again
  • Interlacing of rhyme and words show coexistence of separated parents in genetics of child
1 of 15

Belfast Confetti

  • In 1969 he narrowly missed a bullet tearing through the taxi he was in on the Falls road
  • Troubles was a violent 30 year conflict with 3600 deaths in NI 
  • Narrative structure of 2 stanzas but lines spill into eachother implying confusion 
  • Poem seems to be back to front by ending with the questions 
  • Odessa street (just off Falls road) is mainly Catholic and Crimea street (just off Shankhill) which is just over a mile away is mainly Protestant which shows the polarisation of groups so geographically close with "peace wall" between
  • Carson cannot complete a sentence as communication is broken down in society 
  • "Fusillade" is a metaphor for continuous shots being fired 
  • "laybrinth" is metaphor for greek mythology and monsters hiding in middle
  • Listing of streets denotes his actual geographical location but also refer to wars that have happened and connotes that society doesn't learn from it's mistakes 
  • "fount" and "raining" has water imagery which is suggesting the shrapnel of the the bomb
  • the soft "F" sound in title creates imagery of wedding celebration which is mixed with confetti is ironic or euphemistic
2 of 15

Kid

  • Simon Armitage likes to use Yorkshire dialect and different dialects in poetry
  • In the 1960's show when the sidekick Robin was kicked off Armitage was outraged because he thought Robin was cooler
  • Monologue with iambic pentameter which shows groth and maturity in Robin by the end 
  • Title is vague but could refer to young people who are hiding in shadow of someone they admire
  • The 5 sentences increases pace and gives a rambling tone- energy from freedom
  • "Holy" are spoofs of tabloid headings and is Robin mocking his old self which would say "holy smokes"
  • the negative description of his clothes also implies mocking the older Robin
  • "wander leewal" is naval slang "baby" is american slang "motor" is british slang which implies Robin is trying out a mixture of things before finding himself 
  • "wild blue yonder" positive dreamlike words which suggest positivity in leaving Batman behind
  • list of comparative adjectives "taller" "harder" "stronger" indicate how free he is from his ugly past with Batman.. internal rhyme climaxes at "real boy wonder"
  • "with the married woman, how you took her" juxtaposes the romantic view with the sordid truth scandalises Batman
  • calls Batman baby to infantalise him and show Robin's growth
3 of 15

Invictus

  • about survival in the face of adversity evoking Victorian stoicism
  • ambivalent setting not in a geographical location but in the setting of human spirit
  • contracted TB at 12 and leg amputated at 17 lived until 53
  • personal pronouns show tenacity of speaker and will to survive 
  • religious imagery although Henley was agnostic alludes to judgement in the afterlife
  • begins trochaic but is iambic pentameter and the rising rhythm increases optimism of poem
  • initially was without a title but was later given one 
  • nautical imagery in "pole to pole" and "captain" gives powerful tone
  • he has not allowed himself to be the victim of his situation
4 of 15

Docker

  • omniscient speaker describing a man in an unflattering way implying he is sectarian and an intimidating force at home
  • speaker is disconnected from subject implying the strong separation between C and P and also suggesting the dangers of sectarian assumptions
  • shipyard tools like "gantry" and "crossbeam" are harsh metaphors of his description implying his features mirror his personality
  • "smile" and"sleek" suggests his pleasure in his pint.. smile also refers to curvature on guinnesn and sleek referring to a shiny object. 
  • the intolerance for the "roman collar" refers to sectarian intolerance for any Catholic with a white collar over the black soutane and also dually means the white and black ofhis pint and how hewont tolerate it any other way.. pleased by his bigotry
  • cyclical structure giving insight into home life
  • his religious belief of seeing god as a"foreman" reflects his strict intimidating behaviour at work similar to his old testament god who is firm and daunting
  • Roman collar is prejorative way of referring to the Catholic church
  • no rhyme scheme gives a reflective style 
  • iambic pentametre but one short monosyllabic line "speech... clamped" suggests quiet and repressing behaviour
5 of 15

Mrs Tilcher's Class

  • Set in the poet's childhood classroom and culminates to the sky splitting open
  • Suggests the transitions from the security of childhood to the dangers of adulthood in the real world
  • Brady and Hindley were both murderers close to where Mrs T was set and this induced fear in many young children at the time but Duffy talks about rubber being able to make it fade away in the safe environment
  • Tadpoles implies reproduction but also growth as a person and punctuation imagery presents shock with exclamation marks suggesting the shocks of growing up
  • gates are symbollic of gateway out of innocence
  • tangible bell contrasts with the laughing bell in stanza one suggesting the sound of alarm and fear indicating the beginning of a new phase in life 
  • change in stanza form indicates a change in attitude
  • free verse gives a childlike effect
  • stanzaic free verse with enjambment suggests how growing up is uncontrollable and happens in stages and the fact that the reduction in lines wasn't noticible implies the change is gradual and smooth but still happens and feels sudden 
6 of 15

Piano

  • Lawrence romatacises and sentimentalizes his childhood which was upsetting because his mother was in financial ruin and he grew up being more suspectible to illness than others and being frail which led to other boys not liking him
  • this zooms into a specific part of his memories with his mother
  • lyric poem (song like and narrative)
  • 3 quatrains with constant pace and particular rhythm although some linesare long suggesting his memories cannot be contained
  • enjambment frequently emphasises the overwhelming nature 
  • soft sibilant sounds and alliteration
7 of 15

Sonnet 29

  • 14 lines of iambic pentameter ending in rhyming couplet
  • in 1592 London theatres closed due to severe outbreak of plague which left him in poverty seen in "disgrace and fortune"
  • scathing attack on his work by dramatist Robert Greene, in his deathbed diary calling him pompous and scheming which was distressing for Shakespeare implied in line 8 
  • wordplay on "haply" with happily and meaning by chance
  • trochee on "heav'n" is opposite of soothing iambic sounds implying irregular hearbeat and despair 
  •  intense couplet climaxes the volta with determination to change his fate 
  • volta addresed to possibly dear friend "sweet love" the mystery fair youth
  • the sonnet is a 14 line love poem so this is possibly a love poem beginning w an octet of determination and finishing w a seset of professing love
  • anastrophe of contended least 
8 of 15

Here

  • he was an aglican priest (religious)
  • realities of rural life and struggle to hold onto faith during metaphysical crisis
  • biblical allusions
  • doubted existence to god frequently as a priest 
  • welsh nationalist so opposed war and murder and was also opposed to materialism
  • he IS NOT SPEAKER- many of thomas' poems feature a male struggling character in suburbs (PRYTHERC)
  • present tense so creates immediacy and monosyllabic is a solemn tone
  • 7 tercets.. 7 deadly sins??? ireegular rhyme and odd number of lines per stanza creates an unsettling tone linking to lack of faith implying the confusion is unsettling and dark
9 of 15

Prayer before Birth

  • prayer structure with repeated use of first person followed by imperatives to God
  • last stanza is different to put emphasis on it and it is set apart from all the others with RHYMING COUPLET and imperative 
  • water imagery correlates with the shape to imply fragility 
  • juxtaposes horrors ofwarto that of an unborn child to show vulnerbility of soldiers and citizens suffering 
  • deliberate repetition of "me" sets rhythm despite free verse
  • reflects MacNeice's fear of war and worry that another war will bring an apocalypse
  • the religiousness overall suggests the purpose of teaching that safety and happiness can only be achieved through god
  • MacNeice experienced war in early years
10 of 15

I Remember

  • comically echoes thomas hood's poem with the same name.. mocks and deflates
  • written in first person
  • father was tyrannical and mother was ghost like which is why he hated his childhood
  • free verse so imitates the irregular speech between two people
  • 1st 2 stanzas are fast paced suggests how quickly he is travelling as well as his desire to leave and then next stanzas slow down implying how he is stuck in past 
  • rhyming gradually becomes less and less regular implying the gradual disconnect from his childhood
11 of 15

Efface

  • suggested sonnet but not 
  • last stanza doesn't rhyme which reflects everything falling apart
  • 1st line alludes to 'Dr Faustus' which is a play about a man selling his soul to the devil
  • Swan lake reference made about Odette who is turned into a swan by an evil sorceror (her husband maybe) which implies that this life is no better than just a dream or a figment of his imagination
  • final stanza is shorter implying the faded memories and last line rhymes with the first implying he is stuck in the past
  • When he was at university Maddern was struggling to come to terms with his sexuality and he admired Nora but not in a way which would suggest a relationship
  • the theatrical movement of Nora contrasts with this new suburban lifestyle which makes Maddern question if she is truly happy entertaining accountants
  • Title foreshadows self deprecation and 'living a lie' with how in an Efface the dancers begin by facing away from the audience which connotes that Maddern only saw a self created image ofNoraand not what she truly had to give
  • speaker is hypnotised and the reference to terpsichore- goddess of dance and music 
  • the 'report' is drab and sterile and implies her life is boring
12 of 15

Catrin

  • two stanzas where first is of past birth and second is of present conflict.. sudden leap creates room for audience to ponder the time interval between
  • irregular but gentle rhythm shows love mother has for child and free verse to show natural thought process and short lines create tension
  • enjambment emphasises how two individuals were once one body and now are poles apart in comparison
  • title suggests main focus of mothers life
  • Clarke often writes about observations on other people
  • poem is on Clarkes daughter
13 of 15

Dover Beach

  • focuses on loss of faith and spirituality of new industrial Victorian era
  • his father was a clergyman so he grew up surrounded by religion which is why poem focusses on tension between science and religion
  • dramatic monologue, lamenting tone
  • metre is trochaic but on "alarms" metre stumbles implying desperation and wordly chaos
  • no set rhyme scheme implies chaos and half rhyme suggests dysjunction
  • literary allusion to Antigone by Sophocles which was a tragedy so Arnold,who was well versed in literature, saw himself in Sophocles... also mention of Agean sea isalsoan allusion to Antigone
14 of 15

The Road Not Taken

  • iambic tetrameter
  • first person narrative
  • inside joke with friend Edward Thomas who always regretted not taking the other path
  • originally titled "2 roads" so new title emphasises how it is about regretting choices 
  • stanza four changes to future tense to ponder on whether impact of regret will remain in future
  • anapest in rhyme scheme implies departing from what is normal like the speaker taking the path less trod on  
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