Poetry: Power and Conflict Anthology
Ozymandias
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Overview
Narrator meets a traveler who tells him about a statue standing in the middle of the desert
The statue is of a king and the inscription brags about how powerful he was when alive
The statue has now tumbled down and is half buried in the sand
Key Language Features
Powerful and angry
Shows the king's aggression: "Sneer of cold command"
Irony
The kings bold words mean nothing in the face of nature
Key Structural Features
Sonnet in structure, with a turning point on line 9.
The enormity of the desert rounds off the poem, showcasing the power of nature
Key Quotations
"Shatter'd visage"
"Sneer of cold command"
"Colossal wreck, boundless and bare"
Links/Themes
Power of nature/humans, pride
Power of nature can be found in
The Prelude
Exposure
Storm on the Island
Pride can be found in
My Last Duchess
London
William Blake
Overview
Narrator walks around London
Everywhere he goes he sees despair and inequality
The people in power (the Church, the aristocracy, etc.) do nothing to help
Key Language Features
Described using all the senses
Use of contrast between the youth and the lack of innocence
"Youthful harlot's curse"
Powerful and emotive descriptions
"Mind-forged manacles"
Indicates the people are trapped by their own attitudes
Key Structural Features
First person monologue gives us a very personal view
ABAB rhyme scheme shows the relentlessness of misery and corruption in the city
Key Quotations
"Earch chartered street"
"Marks of woe"
"Mind-forged manacles"
"Blights with plagues"
Links/Themes
Power of humans, individual experiences, inequality, corruption
Individual experiences can be found in:
The Prelude
The Charge of the Light Brigade
Alfred Tennyson
Overview
War in the Crimea
Tribute to the cavalry officers who died in the tragic charge against the Russians
The Light Brigade was ordered to advance into a valley even though it was surrounded by enemies
Key Language Features
Heroic language
"Boldly"
"Glory"
"Honour"
"Six hundred" repeated at the end of each stanza, reminding us of the numbers involved
"Valley of Death" references Psalm 23 of the Bible
Language becomes increasingly violent
"volley''d and thunder'd"
Dead and hell are personified with "jaws" and "death"
Key Structural Features
Third person, narrator clearly values the contributions of the soldeirs
Regular rhythm creates the impression of charging cavalry
Lack of rhyme scheme mimics the chaos of battle
Key Quotations
"The six hundred"
"Valley of Death"
"Theirs not to reason why"
"All the world wonder'd"
Links/Themes
Realism of war
Realism of war can be found in:
Exposure
Bayonet Charge
Remains
Storm on the Island
Seamus Heaney
Overview
About a storm on an island
Could be a metaphor for the troubles in Northern Island
The first eight letters of the title create 'Stormont' - the home of the Irish National Assembly
Key Language Features
Concentrates on the fear and violence of the storm
Nature personified as a "tragic chorus" and a boxer
Metaphor and simile used to describe the storm as it attacks the island
Onomatopoeic words such as
Blast
Exploding
Spit
Used to reflect the noises of the sea and wind
Key Structural Features
First person in which the narrator talks directly to the reader
Text is inclusive, as if 'we' are part of the action
Starts by showing confidence in the villagers, but later shows the fear caused by the "huge nothing" of the storm
Blank verse gives the impression of the conversation
Key Quotations
"We are prepared"
"Tragic chorus"
"Spits like a lame cat turned savage"
"Space is a salvo"
"It is a huge nothing that we fear"
Links/Themes
Power of nature, personal experience of a place
Power of nature can be found in:
Exposure
The Prelude
Personal experience of a place:
London
Remains
Simon Armitage
Overview
British soldier who served in Iraq
About the killing of a looter who had robbed a bank
Soldier did not know if the looter had a weapon
Soldier feels guilt
Key Language Features
Colloquial, as if written by the soldier
Nonchalant when his fried "tosses his guts back into his body"
"Blood shadow" foreshadows the death haunting the soldier
"Bloody life" and "Bloody hands" may refer to Lady Macbeth's imagined bloody hands
Key Structural Features
No rhyme scheme or regular line length
Changes from soldierly anecdote to deep confession, almost like an overheard therapy session
Key Quotations
"Legs it up the road"
"Three of a kind all letting fly"
"Sort of inside out"
"Blood-shadow stays on the street"
"Dug in behind enemy lines"
"Near to the knuckle, here and now"
Links/Themes
Effects of conflict
Effects of conflict can be found in:
Bayonet Charge
War Photographer
Tissue
Imtiaz Dharker
Overview
Importance of paper
Paper can control human lives
'Tissue' refers to human tissue too
Key Language Features
Light is referred to throughout
"Sun shines through their borderlines"
pages of the Koran are "turned transparent"
Simile references how life can be controlled by money and bills
Key Structural Features
No rhyme scheme or regular line length, gives the poem a sense of freedom
Short stanzas represent the thin sheets of paper
Talks about ways that paper influences our lives but moves onto talking about living tissue
Key Quotations
"This is what could alter things"
"Pages smoothed and stroked and turned"
"Sun shines through their borderlines"
"Might fly our lives like paper kites"
"A grand design with living tissue"
Links/Themes
Power of nature/humans
Power of nature/humans can be found in:
Ozymandias
Storm on the Island
The Emigree
Carol Rumens
Overview
Discusses the feelings of someone who had to leave her own country as a child
Her home was under attack and she cannot return
She remembers the city with longing, even though an unknown entity threatens it
Key Language Features
Begins like a fairy tale, reminding us that its a set of memories
The city is personified as coming to her "in its own white plane"
Language relates to sunlight and the glow of her city
References to the problems in her home city:
"Sick with tyrants"
"Banned by the state"
"They mutter death"
Key Structural Features
No regular rhyme scheme or rhythm making it feel like their disjointed memories
Caesura and end stops in the final stanza reflect the city walls and closed borders
Each stanza ends with phrases about sunlight, reflecting her positive view on the city
Key Quotations
"There was once a country"
"Sick with tyrants"
"Time rolls its tanks"
"My city comes to me in its own white plane"
"They accuse me of absence"
Links/Themes
Power of memory
Power of memory can be found in:
The Prelude
Poppies
/
My Last Duchess
Robert Browning
Overview
Set in 15th century Italy
Relays the imagined conversation of the Duke of Ferrara with an envoy
Envoy visited to arrange the Duke's next marriage
In the course of discussion, the Duke shows the envoy a picture of his past wife and indicates that he had her killed
Key Language Features
Conveys the power and control he had over his past wife
He saw her as one of his possessions
She is a picture in his gallery
The way the Duke speaks seems innocent at first, but phrases like "I gave commands" are not
Key Structural Features
Dramatic monologue
Rhyming couplets and iambic pentameter show the Duke's control
Control is loss when he is angered, and can be seen with enjambment
Key Quotations
"My last Duchess"
"None puts by the curtain"
"My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name"
"I choose never to stoop"
Links/Themes
Power of humans, pride, control
Pride can be found in:
Ozymandias
The Prelude: Stealing the Boat
William Wordsworth
Overview
Autobiographical poem that explores key moments in Wordsworth's life
He steals a boat and rows out into a lake
Enjoys the surroundings before a mountain appears and scares him
He hastily returns to shore
Key Language Features
Almost fairy-like impression of nature at the start
Contrasts the later, more dramatic language and personification as the poet finds the mountain scary
Poets initial confidence in nature is lost by the end
Key Structural Features
First person narrative, in line with an autobiography
Regular rhythm and blank verse makes the poem sound like natural speech
Poem is organised into three sections
1: Fairy-tale like opening
2: Darker tone when the mountain appears
3: Final reflection on the effect of the experience
Key Quotations
"Act of stealth and troubled pleasure"
"An elfin pinnace"
"A huge peak, black and huge"
"Upreared its head"
Links/Themes
Power of nature, personal experience
Power of nature can be found in:
Ozymandias
Storm on the Island
Tissue
Exposure
Exposure
Wilfred Owen
Overview
Written from the trenches in 1917-1918
He had become disillusioned with the war and his anger at the huge loss of life
Focuses on the horrific conditions which the men lived for months on end
Key Language Features
Pathetic fallacy, weather is bleak and the pain of the men is reflected
Dawn is personified as an army readying to charge
Highlights the sense nature is readying to attack
Sibilance and assonance are used to show the whistling sound of bullets and the painful journey
Key Structural Features
First person, present tense
Action seems like we are involved with words like "our" and "we"
"Each of the eight stanzas ends with similar short half lines, like the monotony of trench life and lack of action
Rhetorical questions meant to make the reader ponder the purpose of war and the suffering of the men
Key Quotations
"East winds that knive us"
"But nothing happens"
"Dawn massing in the east"
"Sudden successive flights"
"All their eyes are ice"
Links/Themes
Power of nature, personal experience, realities of war and loss of hope
Nature can be found in:
Storm on the Island
Realities of war can be found in:
Remains
Exposure
Charge of the Light Brigade
Bayonet Charge
Ted Hughes
Overview
World War One
Feelings of a soldier going over the top
Feelings of patriotism replaced as he charges with an overriding sense of fear
Key Language Features
Pain of the soldier and his youth and inexperience are indicated in words like "raw" and "bewilderment"
Similes are used to express the hare's flight and irrationality of the soldier
"Cold clockwork" indicates the soldier's lack of control and his small part in the bigger machinery of war
Juxtaposition between the events and the surroundings
"green hedge"
"yellow hare"
Key Structural Features
Uneven, enjambment and caesura to create an irregular rhythm to reflect the soldier's panic
Enjambment: lack of punctuation at the end of the line
Caesura: stop or pause in the middle of the line
Third person, shows how the soldier is merely a person on the battlefield
Key Quotations
"Bullets smacking the belly out of the air"
"Patriotic tear"
"Cold clockwork of the stars and the nations"
"Rolled like a flame"
"King, honour, human dignity, etcetera dropped like luxuries"
"Terror's touchy dynamite"
Links/Themes
Realities of war, fear
Realities of war can be found in:
Exposure
Charge of the Light Brigade
War Photographer
Carol Ann Duffy
Overview
Effects of trauma on photographers who take pictures of famine and war
Reflects the practice of preparing real film in darkroom
Image at the end could be a reference to an important photo from Vietnam
Key Language Features
Emotive language
"Spools of suffering"
the photos are "a hundred agonies"
Pictures contrast to the rural England he has returned to
Religious imagery shows the seriousness of the photographers work
Key Structural Features
Four stanzas, set out in equal length and with a regular rhyme scheme
Reflects the "ordered rows" of his photos in the darkroom
At stanza three, a clear volta occurs
Shows how the photos have developed and show individual images
Key Quotations
"Spools of suffering"
"He has a job to do"
"Between the bath and the pre-lunch beers"
"They do not care"
Links/Themes
Personal experience and the effects of war
Effects of war can be found in:
Remains
Bayonet Charge
Poppies
Jane Weir
Overview
Weir took Susan Owen, mother of Wilfred Owen, as her inspiration
Imagines sending one of her own sons off to war
Weir is a textile artist and the language of textiles is seen throughout
Key Language Features
Juxtaposes the words of war
"Blockade", "War graves", "memorial", and "reinforcements" replaced with textile words
Textile words like "Yellow bias binding", "Tucks, darts, pleats" etc
Creates a comparison between the domestic environment of home and the cruel realities of war
Mothering images show how she wants her son to return to being a young and protected, however the man sees the world as "Overflowing like a treasure chest"
"Smoothed down your shirt"
Key Structural Features
First person narrative helps us feel the mother's emotions
Lack of regular rhyme or rhythm emphasizes the poem as a memory or thoughts
Story follows the son preparing to go off to war, however we don't know when the events took place and whether the son is even alive
Key Quotations
"Spasms of paper red"
"I was brave"
"You were away, intoxicated"
"My stomach busy making tucks, darts, pleats"
"An ornamental stitch"
Links/Themes
Loss, Effects of Conflict
Loss can be found in:
The Emigree
Effects of Conflict can be found in:
War Photographer
Kamikaze
Beatrice Garland
Overview
Repercussions of a World War Two Kamikaze pilot from Japan changing his mind on a suicide mission
Kamikaze pilots were honoured by their families if they died in battle
The pilot sees the sea below him and reminisces about his childhood, changing his mind and returning home
His family ignores him and treat him as an outcast
Key Language Features
References to samurai traditions
"sword", "shaven head", "powerful incantations"
Makes his actions seem spellbound
Simile and metaphors are used to describe the fishing boats and fish he sees
Key Structural Features
First five stanzas are one sentence, showing the fluidness of his memory and recounts
Most of the poem is seen from the perspective of the pilot's daughter
Later on her voice becomes clear
The pilot's voice is missing, which shows how he was isolated from society
Key Quotations
"Full of powerful incantations"
"A one-way journey into history"
"Strung out like bunting"
"The dark prince"
Links/Themes
Nature, memories
Nature can be found in:
Storm on the Island
The Prelude
Memories can be found in:
My Last Duchess
Checking Out Me History
John Agard
Overview
About how the Guyanese education system taught him about British history but not his own
At the end, he determines to learn about his own heritage and create and individual identity
Key Language Features
Caribbean accent used throughout the poem
"Dem", and "me" shows the separateness of the poet and the British education he received
Language related to blindness or partial sight appears throughout the poem, referencing how his education hid the truth from Agard
Key Structural Features
Focuses on the contrasts between European historical figures and Caribbean cultural icons
The British stanzas sound childish and reference nursery rhyme figures alongside real historical individuals
Repetition, chanting, steady rhythm are like oral story telling traditions in the Caribbean
Key Quotations
"Dem tell me"
"Bandage up me eye"
"No dem never tell me bout dat"
"See-far woman"
"I checking out me own history, I carving out me identity"
Links/Themes
National identity, anger of the narrator
National identity can be found in:
Kamikaze
Anger of the narrator can be found in:
London