Poetry revision

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The Prelude

'I unloosened her chain'- personification- spritual relationship with nature

'troubled pleasure'- oxymoron- intimidating yet beautiful

'heaving through the water like a swan'- simile- calm before the storm. comparison to nature

'a huge peak, black and huge'- group- big impact on state of mind

'I struck and struck again'- repetition- nature is dominant and more force is needed to overcome it

'with trembling oars i turned'- emotive- fearful of nature. represents mankind

'call it solitude or blank desertion'- conscious of lack of power, feels isolated

'trouble to my dreams'- echoes troubled pleasure, switch in perspectives.

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Prelude structure and Comparison

Iambic pentameter- false control7

Storm on The Island- nature beats mankind

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Bayonet Charge

'suddenly he awoke and was running'- third person- part of thought process

'stumbling across a field'- verb-fear and uncertainty but obedience overrides doubt

'green hedge/ that dazzled with rifle fire'- personfication- enemy is unseen, unpredictable

'the patriotic tear that had brimmed in his eye'- metaphor- war destroyed partiotism

'sweating like molten iron from the centre of his chest'- simile- extreme pain from molten iron AND war, mentally and physically

'King, honour, human dignity, etcetera'- asyndetic list- neutralised idealism- choppy sentence- break down of idealism and mental health

'His terror's touchy dynamite'-personification- humans reduced to war weapons

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Bayonet Charge structure and comparisons

Stanza 1; 8 lines

Stanza 2; 7 lines      --- confusion, momentary break in obedience

Stanza 3; 8 lines      --- back to obeying orders

Compare to Remains or Exposure

Effects of war

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Storm on the Island

'we build our houses squat' 'good slate'- half rhyme- chaotic

'never troubled us' 'no stacks' 'nor are there trees'- enjambent- breathless, stress

'blows full blast:' - caesura- taking break to prepare for storm or war

'exploding comfortably'- oxymoron- making sense of the conflict

'spits like a tame cat'- simile- something comforting is now unsafe like society

'huge nothing that we fear'- nature wins and is ineveitable

'Blast' 'dived' 'salvo' 'bombarded' - semantic field of war- cumulative effect of danger. left to wonder if poem is of was or nature

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Storm on the Island structure and comparison

Iambic Pentameter- false control

Compare with Prelude

Nature wins

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Exposure

'our brains ache'- pronouns for unity. all are suffering the same. war is a war of becoming equal

'mericless east iced winds that knive us'- sibilance. what enemy will kill first? weather?

'but nothing happens'- repetition. little point to war

'twitching agonies of men among its brambles'- imagery. artificial and natural enemies

'poignant misery of dawn'- juxtaposition dawn for new beginnings. new deaths and suffering

'snow- dazed' 'sun dozed'- para rhyme. incomplete. confusion 

'we turn back to our dying'- ironically casual. death is now welcomed and expected

'our ghosts drag home'- heavy consonants. sadness. hallucinations of home.

'all their eyes are ice'- change in pronouns. no unity after death

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Exposure Structure and comparison

half rhyme unsettles reader

enjambents to show confusions, stopping to check safety

Unequal amount of lines in each stanza. shows injustice of war. millions die for what?

Compare with Charge of the Light Brigade or Bayonet Charge

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Kamikaze

'enough fuel for a one way journey into history'- not expected to come back. was a great honour for the family for him to die in the war

'like a huge flag' 'dark shoals of fishes flashing silver'- imagery. alliteration. shows repetition of doubt. should he go back? should he complete his mission?

'swivelled towards the sun'- peaceful imagery. juxtaposes idea of war

'and remembered'- flashback. wanted to see his children grow up like how he did, in peace

'that this was no longer the father we loved'- emotive. he has brought shame to the family

'he must have wondered/ which had been a better way to die'- he was dtill metaphorically dead. all of his family, the people that he went back for ignored him and treated him as if he was dead. Death in society and spirit

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Kamikaze structure and comparison

 uneven amount of stanzas for the dishonour the family faced

uneven amount of lines in the stanza where he is about to return home. shows doubt and acknowlegdment of consequences

Compare to The Emigree for isolation and outcast of society

War Photographer- detachment of society

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