Poetry; Relationships

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John Keats; La Belle Dame Sans Merci

Context;

Story; A knight narrates his encounter with an attractive women and how this lead to his love sickness/death

Themes; Love, Death, Enchantment

Comparisons;

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La Belle Dame Sans Merci; Language and Structure

Language;

Structure;

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Joanna Baillie; A Child to his Sick Grandfather

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A Child to his Sick Grandfather; Language and Stru

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Lord Byron; She Walks in Beauty

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She Walks in Beauty; Language and Structure

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Williams Wordsworth; A Complaint

Context;

Story;

  • The poet talks about lost love in his relationship

Comparisons;

  • Neutral Tones (both show heartbreaking feelings within the poem)
  • The Manhunt (both are lacking a lover)
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A Complaint; Language and Structure

Language;

Structure;

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Thomas Hardy; Neutral Tones

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Neutral Tones; Language and Structure

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Elizabeth Barrett Browning; Sonnet 43

Context; 

  • Sonnet 43 is part of a longer sonnet sequence of 44 sonnets. Sonnet 42 is the most famous of the 44 sonnets

Story;

  • The writer talks about her eternal love for her husband, Robert Browning

Comparisons;

  • Nettles (both show feelings of intense love and devotion)
  • I wanna be yours (both use imagery to help express their main ideas)
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Sonnet 43; Language and Structure

Language; the poem uses a lot of repetition, 'i love thee' is used many times and reflects the devotion the poet feels for her lover. 'Right' and 'Praise' start with capital letters, Browning's use of capital letters emphasises these words, shows they are important. The opening rhetorical question implies a conversation between lovers. The exclamation mark at the end of the first line makes the poem seem lighthearted and playful.

Structure; Sonnet 43 is the length of a traditional Sonnet (14 lines). There is a regular rhyme scheme, Browning often makes use of words which sound the same (assonance).

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Robert Browning; My Last Duchess

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My Last Duchess; Language and Structure

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Wendy Cope; 1st Date - She and 1st Date - He

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1st Date - She and 1st Date - He; Language and Str

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Carol Ann Duffy; Valentine

Context;

  • Duffy often tackles difficult subjects, encouraging the reader to explore alternative points of view.
  • Duffy's poetry is often feminist in its theme and approach.

Story;

  • Valentine uses an onion to describe the different aspects of love. The poem explains how it is a powerful gift of love, much more than a typical gift. The onion becomes a metaphor for love.

Comparisons; 

  • I wanna be yours (both use imagery to help express their main ideas)
  • Nettles (both have angry and violent language)
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Valentine; Language and Structure

Language; Quite simple and straight forward.The only alteration in this poem is 'cute card' and 'red rose', the typical valentines gift. Duffy maybe is implying something about the overuse of alliteration in love poems. The very first stanza of the poem shows the typical, normal gifts of love, indicating that this will be a different kind of valentine. The words 'lethal' and 'knife' are used which shows that love can be dangerous. 'careful un- dressing of love' suggests you must be careful with love to get its benefits, just like you must be with the onion. There is also uncertainty in the poem as to whether 'it' refers to the onion or love.

Structure; The poem is written in a free verse (a style of poetry that contains lines and verses of varying lengths and layout, usually without consistent rhyme pattern). Each stanza is very short, and several are only one line long. The poem is a first-person narrative, in the form of a direct address to 'you'.

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Elizabeth Jennings; One Flesh

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Elizabeth Jennings; One Flesh

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One Flesh; Language and Structure

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John Copper Clark; I Wanna be Yours

Context;

Story;

Comparisons;

  • Valentines (both use imagery to help express their main ideas)
  • Nettles (boht show feelings of intense love and devotion)
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I Wanna be Yours; Language and Structure

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Jen Hadfield; Love's Dog

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Love's Dog; Language and Structure

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Vernon Scannell; Nettles

Context;

  • Vernon Scannell fought in the war, a lot of his poetry echoes war experience, as in this poem.

Story;

  • A father talks about his son, who falls into nettles and seeks comfort from his parents. After attending to his son's injuries his mission is to destroy the nettles, only for them to keep returning.

Comparisons;

  • Manhunt (both use similar imagery, war imagery)
  • Sonnet 43 (both shows feelings of intense love and devotion)
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Nettles; Language and Structure

Language; Use war imagery, the nettles are described using the metaphor 'spears'. In the first 3 lines, the nettles are presented as violent and aggressive groups of soldiers to express the speakers need to protect his child. Within 'two weeks', 'tall recruits' have been 'called up' to replace the nettles, reference to soldiers being forced to join the army, and also communicating the idea of an enemy force that cannot be defeated. The child is presented using emotive language, 'white blisters beaded on his tender skin', the alliteration using the 'b' sound suggests the swelling, painful injuries. The 'watery grin' is another emotive description, implying the child is being helped to get over his painful experience by his loving parents. The father's reaction to the nettles is violent, 'slashed in fury', to punish them for injuring his son. Whatever the father does, the nettles grow back, just as wars will continue to occur.

Structure; Poem consists of a single stanza (a group of lines of poetry that make up a unit, like a verse) and has rhyming lines. The poem is focused on a father's perspective of an accident involving his son. 

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Simon Armitage; The Manhunt

Context;

  • Simon Armitage has worked on a documentary on permanently injured soldiers and their lives. This poem was first broadcasted as part of that documentary.

Story;

  • The Manhunt is written from the perspective of the wife who talks about her injured husband who returns from the war and isn't the same as he used to be.

Comparisons;

  • Nettles (both use similar feelings and imagery)
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The Manhunt; Language and Structure;

Language; the wife's search is for the husband she knew so well but who seems lost to her, metaphorically, after his experiences at war. Words and phrases like 'explore', 'handle and hold', shows careful treatment of her husband's injured body, as well as suggesting her patient care for him. The speaker refers to parts of the husband's body metaphorically, comparing them to objects. His jaw is a 'blown hinge', suggesting that he is no longer open to her, maybe unable to talk about his feelings and experiences. His collar bone is 'damaged, porcelain', a metaphor (an expression used to describe and/or compare something, by the way, it feels) showing he is fragile and delicate. He has a 'grazed heart' this could be from an injury. The metaphor of 'unexploded mine', shows the source of the problem is mental. 

Structure; series of couplets, mostly unrhymed. Creates a sense of fragmentation (breaking), this matches the feeling's of the soldier's wife as she tries to understand the man her husband has become. The poem describes the different phases of a wife's search for answers about her injured husband.

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Ingrid de Kok; My Father Would Not Show Us

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My Father Would Not Show Us; Language and Structur

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