Power and Conflict Poetry
- Created by: abbiedye
- Created on: 27-06-18 15:13
Ozymandias Themes
DEATH AND MORTALITY - desert symbolises the passing of time - erases the passing of time - erases the traces of Ozymandias - death comes to us all
POWER - Ozymandias's power was absolute - the face of the statue and the words on the pedestal reveal his character - no sympathy for him
ART - achievements of the sculptor outlive those of his subject
PRIDE - the vast size of the statue (ruler's pride) - pride demonstrated by the ruin of the statue - name = greek 'ozium' (air) and 'mandate' (rule) - meaning 'ruler of nothing'
Ozymandias Form, Language and Structure
- sonnet written in iambic pentameter - sonnets are usually love poems, but here political ideas are explored - metre changes in lines 11 and 13 (his boast)
- the poem can be divided into three sections - traveller creates a picture of Ozymandias in the first and final parts - middle part = sculptor's artistry endures - Ozymandias's power has not - declined
- Oxymoron in line 13 emphasises the destruction of the stature
- 'king of kings' - pride contrasts with the meaning of his name
Ozymandias Quotes
- 'antique' - ancient / old / lost
- 'sands' - nature is more powerful than man - hourglass - time runs out
- 'king of kings' - thinks he is the best
- 'shattered visage' - face has been forgotten - identity is gone
- 'decay' - decreasing - losing significance
London Themes
SOCIAL COMMENT - sees London as a place of despair - no hope for society - people have little power - different groups mentioned; chimney-sweepers, harlots and new-born babies - and institutions: church, army, royalty, and marriage
DESPAIR - chruch and state offer no help for the poor - Blake sees no hope for the future - newborns born into bad conditions - marriage blighted 'with plagues'
London Form, Structure and Language
- negative language to show the view of Londoners' plight - the juxtaposition of the innocence and experience shocks the reader
- repetition ('every', 'in every') - relentlessly to drive home the bleakness of Blake's message - emotive language to make the reader feel as angry
- use of simple, repetitive, rhyming structure of a ballad form - ballad = stuck in people's head - helped to share stories and ideas
- metaphor ('mind-forg'd manacles') - people are trapped as much by their own attitudes as by society - convicts wore manacles - image os powerlessness - 'forg'd' - fake / not real
- Juxtaposition - every hope of happiness is tainted with despair - repetitive metre reflects the idea that people's lives are monotonous
London Quotes
- 'marriage hearse' - an oxymoron - only the dead are happy
- 'chartered' - controlled / owned by someone
- 'runs in blood down palace walls' - reference to the French Revolution
- 'marks of woe' - sadness
- 'black'ning' - lies - corrupt
The Prelude Themes
POWER AND BEAUTY OF NATURE - nature initially presented as benign and beautiful - boy enjoys boat ride - mood changes - nature becomes frightening - peak only appears to grow ('as if') - subdued by nature's immensity - imagery reflects change ('small circles') to intensity of the peak ('the grim shape / towered up')
POWER OF MEMORY AND IMAGINATION - after-effects of his boyhood experience give purpose to the older poets recollection - after the experience, he was unable to shake off the feeling - older poet views and recalls this incident as a mind-forming moment in his life - when he first became aware of 'unknown modes of being'
The Prelude Form, Structure and Language
- similies - compare natural objects to living things - 'like a living thing' - 'like a swan'
- personification - imagery to convey the beauty but also the dangerous power and awesomeness of nature
- conjunctions - (and, but, or, for, since) link the events seamlessly - enjambment - encourage us to keep reading through
- iambic pentameter - close to the rhythm to the speaking voice - suitable for the personal poem
The Prelude Quotes
- '(led by her)' - refers to nature as a human
- 'proud of his skill' - a positive feeling
- 'a huge peak, black and huge' - intimidated by nature / threatened
- 'struck' - fear and intimidating
- 'trembling' - nature scared him
- 'towered up' - intimidating
My Last Duchess Themes
VIOLENCE, POWER, AND CONTROL - lack of remorse - having his wife murdered - has absolute power - her not meeting his standards - no one asks him about her portrait - he makes up what he thinks the questions would be - obsessed with controlling her
JEALOUSY AND PRIDE - Duke was jealous of the attention his wife gave to others - his own jealousy led him to suspect her of infidelity - the Duke boasts about the beautiful objects he owns, unaware of the effects of his words - proud of his name - felt that the Duchess didn't respect its value
My Last Duchess Form, Structure and Language
- dramatic monologue
- first person - to understand his actions and motivation
-description of the Duchess - sympathetic towards her - shows the depths of the Duke's need to control her
- repetition - the Duke's preoccupation with certain ideas and behaviour - narcissism and pride - possessive pronouns (mine, your)
- rhyming couplet - not end-stopped - rhyme is less obvious - pushes on - the Duke pursues his next bride
My Last Duchess Quotes
- 'will't please you sit and look at her?' - wants to show her off
- 'my object' 'commands' - power over her - controlling
- 'all smiles stopped together' - relationship went downhill - might have killed her
- 'my gift' - vain and materialistic - spending lots of money on gifts
Charge of the Light Brigade Themes
PATRIOTISM - celebrates the unthinking patriotism of the cavalry - facing almost certain death but obeying the order to change
CONFLICT - vividly evokes violence of the battle - cavalry faced enemy gunfire - emphasises the glory of the conflict, though it ended in defeat - praises the courage, heroism and patriotism - doesn't mention that the deaths were pointless - charge was a mistake
Charge of the Light Brigade Form, Structure and La
- third person - official account of the battle
- rhythm - evokes the sound of hoof-beats - two main stressed syllables and two unstressed syllables
- repetition - strong feature - relentless forward motion of the cavalry - unquestioningly follow the order
- personification - the danger the cavalry faces
- direct speech - real soldiers in a real battle - emotional response - first-hand
- Tennyson's pride and patriotism - shown by soldiers - reputation of the cavalry is sealed for all time
Charge of the Light Brigade Quotes
- 'All in the valley of Death' - biblical allusion - connotation of hell
- 'into the mouth of hell' - personifies death - the bravery of the soldiers
- 'while horse and hero fell' - glorifies the men - symbol of bravery
- 'sabres' - swords - reflecting light - shows the glory that they showed
Exposure Themes
WAITING AND SUSPENSE - waiting for conflict is almost worse than the conflict itself - soldiers have been forced into stasis by the snow and lack of military conflict - gunnery far of is like 'some other war' - 'nothing happens'
NIHILISM - extreme negativity - nothing in life has any meaning or value - death would be a relief from their present torture of waiting - we are all, whenever we are, in the process of dying - end of the world - apocalyptic vision
EXPOSURE - to leave unprotected - to be subjected to danger - to put on display: to suffer and eventually die from the cold
Exposure Form, Structure and Language
- half-rhymes - ABBAC - jarring and not perfect but rough and uncomfortable - conditions in trenches
- metre - jarring and un-pretty - describing a very unnatural situation
- alliteration and assonance - colour and sensory - imagery assail the reader
- repetition - the question that won't go away and can't be answered
- first person - gives the reader access to the speaker's thoughts - 'we' not 'I' - speaking on behalf of all soldiers
Exposure Quotes
- 'grey' - dark, depressing - symbolises death - meaningless
- 'the night is silent' - night is personified - worrying feeling
- 'we cringe in holes, back on forgotten dreams' - they feel alone
- 'it is that we are dying?' - questioning himself
Storm on the Island Themes
NATURE'S POWER - storm gathers pace as the poem develops - first tragic chorus and sounds humans - cry is a lament of sadness - then it becomes an explosive force similar to a military attack - exposed place - community's power is the strength of their resistance
COMMUNITY - community's defence preparations against the fury of the elements - the community will survive and ride out the storm - the speaker's words are calm, reassuring and uplifting - the Islanders are capable of withstanding assault - Franklin D. Roosevelt: ' the only thing we have to fear is fear itself' - Great Depression
Storm on the Island Form, Structure and Language
- alliteration and half-rhyme (squat/slate, cliff/hits, air/fear) tie the poem together - assonance - storm gather brutal force
- extended metaphor - military attack - a bombing raid
- present tense - the Islanders are doing what they have always done and what they always will do
Storm on the Island Quotes
- 'We are prepared' - feeling of safety
- 'sit tight' - powerless during the storm
- 'company' - isolated - trees are the company
- 'but there are no trees' - isolation - the storm has ruined them - dangerous
- 'bombarded' - can't escape
- 'nothing that we fear' - seems ironic - unknown power of the storm
Bayonet Charge Themes
REALITY OF CONFLICT - vividly describes the events of a conflict - impact on a soldier's mind - moments from the battlefield will never leave the speaker's mind - real conflict, nightmare? - bewilderment and panic - terror ('touchy dynamite')
PATRIOTISM - ideas about how conflict affects those involved in it - the motives that people claim for going to war are luxuries and have no place in the realities of war - reasons why the soldier is fighting and the sense of what he is fighting for are irrelevant - started as a patriotic soldier - motivation has transformed into fear
Bayonet Charge Form, Structure and Language
- verbs - movement in the poem - the soldier is frantic and not in control
- enjambment - 4 sentences - lack of control - the lull in the second verse - stops and contemplates what he is doing - physically/mentally stopping to think
- accumulation (line 20) many reasons to go to war - all irrelevant
- semantic fields of war and nature juxtaposed - the impact of war on the land
- personification - air full of bullets
- third-person - the distance between the poet and reader - universal narrative - all soldiers experiences
Bayonet Charge Quotes
- 'suddenly he awoke' - vulnerable state, events seem like a nightmare
- 'dropped like luxuries' - reduced to a basic level
- 'rolled like a flame' - hints the danger the soldier is in
- 'he almost stopped' - paused action - questioning himself
Remains Themes
CONFLICT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES - first five verses is a soldier recalling or reliving a memory - poet uses the soldier's speaking voice to make the conflict vivid - phrasing mimics real, ordinary and familiar speech and contrasts with the brutality of the memory - the impact of conflict on one individual
POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER (PTSD) - revisit a traumatic incident in a vivid flashback but are unable to forget details that they desperately want to forget - for this soldier - the act of gunning down the looter and the sight of his wrecked body remains vivid
Remains Form, Structure and Language
- short clauses - mimic the patterns of unnatural speech - language is economical and unadored - real-life testimony
- verbs of violence - historic present tense, colloquial language, stark imagery - lend immediacy and impact
- half-rhymes and bouncy four-beat rhythms - ironic jollity, disrupted by shorter lines at key moments - enjambment - suspense and like real, direct speech
Remains Quotes
- 'tosses his guts back into his body' - worthless - not needed
- 'are all of the same mind' - all there for the same reason
- 'broad daylight on the other side' - light at the end of the tunnel - hope
- 'three of a kind all letting fly' - shooting or death - spirits flying
Poppies Themes
WOMEN AND CONFLICT - the poem explores the feeling of a mother left behind and the pain of loss she feels - a reminder of other women in that situation - women feel the effect of conflict despite not being directly involved
AMBIGUITY - is not clear whether the speaker's son is dead - opening - sending him off to 'school' - mother's pain is made clear - hard to speak - the poet shows the speaker is struggling to express emotions
DOMESTIC IMAGERY - contrasts with symbols of remembrance and peace and the maternal love - difficult to let go
Poppies Form, Structure and Language
- dramatic monologue (first person) - inner emotions - loss of her son - parting - a collection of memories to keep emotions in check
- mention of Armistice Sunday and war graves - ominous - juxtaposed with her son's departure
- similies and metaphors further heighten the emotional response of the reader
Poppies Quotes
- 'spasms of paper red, disrupting a blockade' - out of control - nothing is right
- 'on reaching the top of the hill' - reaching a breaking point
- 'I listened, hoping to hear your playground voice catching on the wind' - hoping that he comes home - not clear if the soldier has died or not
War Photographer Themes
MORAL DILEMMAS - explores the difficulties faced by someone who does a job that records human suffering - dangerous and emotionally draining - necessary to show the brutalities of conflict - photographs are in the supplement (marginalised)
WESTERN ATTITUDES TO FOREIGN CONFLICT - criticism of western attitudes to foreign conflict and the media's presentation of them - photographs are not in the main newspaper - editor discards a hundred images, choosing to publish 5 or 6
War Photographer Form, Structure and Language
- four verses of six lines - regular rhyme scheme (ABBCDD) - each verse -single frame of a photograph
- religious imagery in the simile ('through this were a church') - underlines that the photographer takes his job seriously
- metaphors - the photographs are a direct and vivid image of the conflict
- contrasts between war zones and the peaceful homeland where he develops them - between the brutality of war and the indifference of those who read about it
- second and third and fifth and six lines are rhyming couplets - neatness and precision - the disciplined way the photographer does his job
War Photographer Quotes
- 'all flesh is grass' - everyone dies in the end - despair
- 'he has a hob to do' - forced - doesn't want to
- 'sought approval' - has to take the picture - no choice
- 'Sunday's supplement' - not the whole truth
Tissue Themes
FRAGILITY AND POWER - poet suggests that paper has the power to alter and control our existence - used to record powerful, even sacred, knowledge and information - shop receipts have the power to control our lives, though they are worthless - geographical features become see-through when they are printed on maps
THE POWER OF HUMANS - final image - architect creates living human flesh out of all the types of paper that the poem has listed - grand design of layers of paper - human/living - if we let light through, we see things differently and we can be free to live - nothing is permanent
Tissue Form, Structure and Language
-imagery - explore ideas about solidity and certainty, buildings, countries, borders and the landscape
- assonance and alliteration to convey complex, intricate ideas and images
- modal verbs - express uncertainty and possibility through the words are easy to understand - the subtle meanings are elusive
- repetition - used to imitate the layering of paper - 7th verse - the lines in each verse have a regular line length and appear as blocks on the page - layering effect - enjambment
Tissue Quotes
- 'the sun shines through' - nature over-powers
- (enjambment throughout) - lacks control, order - symbolises the difference between the power of God and man
- 'maps' - divided by man
- 'let the daylight breakthrough' - nature breaks through
The Emigree Themes
THE POWER OF MEMORY - the speaker left the country of her birth as a child but her memories of the city are vivid - conveyed in the present tense - she remembers the city how it used to be - powers of memory becomes a source of strength - brings city to life - 'that city' to 'my city' shows personal feeling and defence
DISPLACEMENT AND LOSS - the speaker has been displaced from her own country - clings onto things she has lost: language and identity - she has adopted a new nationality ('I have no passport') - her city coming to help her in a white plane: paper plane and then something with hair and eyes - city - memory though fragile represents personal freedom and power
OPPOSITION - full of contrasts and oppositions - 'then' - city she lived in - 'now' - city full of threats
The Emigree Form, Structure and Language
- soliloquy - musing as if to herself
- longer, more lyrical sentences - memory - city - shorter, tenser sentences - current, difficult situation
- metaphors - different types of isolation ('frontiers rise between us')
- repetition of 'sunlight' - freedom
- repetition of 'city' - the importance of her childhood
- repetition of unnamed 'they' - menace and oppression
The Emigree Quotes
- 'in that November' - remembrance - when she left - when the war started
- 'evidence of sunlight' - she still sees it like it was before the war
- 'the bright filled paperweight' - metaphor - held down
- 'my city' - close to her / bond - possessive nature - attachment
Kamikaze Themes
CHOICE AND DECISIONS DURING CONFLICT - he had chosen death on a kamikaze mission - but on the way he changes his mind - poem makes it clear that the choice he made was between honourable suicide and living with dishonour - ostracised by society
FOUR GENERATIONS - parallel and a contrast between his mission and his father's life - fisherman in dangerous missions but returned safe - prompted him to think about his own children
JUDGMENT - the speaker is careful not to judge her father's decision, nor to offer excuses - she speculates about his reasons for turning back but leaves the readers to make up their own mind about his decision - final two lines - her father might not have been happy with his choice
Kamikaze Form, Structure and Language
- italics to show mother's direct speech - impact to her words
- colour imagery - the vibrancy of life that the pilot didn't want to lose
- metaphors and similies - vivid images of the beauty, energy, and freedom of ocean life
- repetition and connectives - the narrative flow of the speaker - train of thought
- alliteration (f, sh, s) - sense of energy and freedom in the natural world - echoes of military mission (sun - Japanese flag)
Kamikaze Quotes
- 'like a huge flag' - sea - seeing the beauty of nature - signaling the right thing
- 'black' 'silver' 'white' - positive and negative sides of nature - torn in two directions
- 'as though he no longer existed' - made an outcast - disgrace to the family
- 'which had been a better way to die' - died in a worse way - unloved
Checking Out Me History Themes
POWER - he feels as if his power was taken away from him by the history he was taught - figures from white history - carefully chosen - real people and fictional characters - questions authenticity - Agard wrestled power back- doing the 'checking' of his own history
CONTRAST AND METAPHOR - longer italicised verses - respect for his history - positive imagery and metaphor - 'yellow sunrise' - full of hope and promise - structure - contrasts official and non-official history
ANGER - speaker is clearly angered when being prevented from knowing about his own history - 'dem' - 17 times - drum or hammer - speaker's outrage
Checking Out Me History From, Structure and Langua
- non-standard English - speaker's own culture
- repeated quatrain - forgotten black figures in history - ignored
- rhyme - mocking tone
- free verse - own culture - detail
- enjambment - replicate the rhythm of natural speech - lack of punctuation represents his rejection of white history
- repetition - prominent - expression of the speaker's powerful emotions
Checking Out Me History Quotes
- 'dem tell me bout' - phonetic spelling - shows characteristics - his language is important
- (italics when discussing his history) - speaks passionatley about it - exagerated - more important than British history to him
- 'dem tell me... me identity' - volta (dramatic change) - encouraging people to learn about their history (END)
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