Poetry Anthology: Power and Conflict Quotes

Everything highlighted in red is a technique, probably.

‘half sunk’

Ozymandias - the statue is in the ground, this is a symbol of the mortality of humans and their power

‘sneer of cold command’

Ozymandias - this is a metaphor and alliteration as it shows how harsh and cruel this ruler was.

‘king of kings’

Ozymandias - this is a biblical reference → suggests that Ozymandias believed himself to be like a god → dramatic irony but also emphasise the mortality of humans and the power of nature

‘Round the decay’

Ozymandias - this a symbol for human power and morality, references biological decomposing

‘nothing beside remains’

Ozymandias - showcases human mortality with the word ‘nothing’

‘sand’

Ozymandias - this is a symbol for the power of nature and the immortality of it as sand is often used in relation to hourglasses and time

‘each charted street’

London - shows how everything is mapped out and how humans don’t like nature

‘infant’s cry of fear’

London - ‘infant’ shows how everyone is affected and ‘fear’ juxtaposes ‘infant’ as we associate joy with babies.

‘marks of weakness, marks of woe’

London - repetition of ‘marks’ emphasises the feeling of bleakness and hopelessness of change

‘woe’ means great sorrow or distress

‘blights with plague’

London - use of biblical reference and how the poor are affected by this because of the rich

‘plague’ suggests disease which suggests suffering. Also the poor are often the most affected by disease

‘glittering’ ‘stars’ ‘sparkling light’

The Prelude - lexical field of peace and celestial imagery (relates to the sublime)

‘black and huge’ ‘trembling’ ‘towered’

The Prelude - lexical field of fear

‘huge’

The Prelude - use of repetition and emphasises the power of nature

‘my last Duchess’

My Last Duchess - use of possessive pronoun which suggests control

‘that piece’

My Last Duchess - objectifies and dehumanizes his dead wife’s portrait which suggests control

‘a heart’

My Last Duchess - this is a symbol for love and care and suggests he doesn’t want her to love and care for other people, highlighting his control

‘I gave commands’

My Last Duchess - suggests he killed her, but still had control over the situation.

‘valley of Death’

The Charge of the Light Brigade - use of repetition and a biblical allusion which suggests danger

‘someone had blunder’d’

The Charge of the Light Brigade - Context: The Author was a government poet at the time so it’s a surprise that he does recognise in the poem that it was ‘someone’ who is to blame.

‘mouth of Hell’

The Charge of the Light Brigade - use of personification and biblical reference which shows danger

‘Honour’

The Charge of the Light Brigade - suggests admiration of them even though they died because of a mistake (aka no reason)

‘What are we doing here?"‘

Exposure - use of a rhetorical question, questions the point of war

‘But nothing happens’

Exposure - use of repetition and how the soldiers are forever waiting for conflict, the reason they joined the war

‘sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence’

Exposure - use of sibilance which mimics gunfire

‘For the love of God seems dying’

Exposure - use of a double meaning: The soldier’s love of god is dying or God’s love for them is dying

‘We are prepared: we build our houses squat’

Storm on the Island - showcases how the people on the island think they are ready for the storm but they are not.

‘exploding comfortably’

Storm on the Island - use of a oxymoron: danger and safety.

‘like a tame cat turned savage’

Storm on the Island - use of a simile and how familiar things can quickly turn scary/dangerous. Emphasizes the power of nature.

‘strafes’ ‘salvo’ ‘bombarded’

Storm on the Island - use of a lexical field of war

‘bullets smacking’

Bayonet Charge - use of violent imagery which emphasise the reality of conflict

‘patriotic tear’

Bayonet Charge - showcases how patriotism has turned to fear

‘cold clockwork’

Bayonet Charge - use of alliteration which emphasies how the people in power have no care for the soldiers

‘clockwork’ suggests something man-made and without feeling which suggests that the people in power have no care for the soldiers

‘the stars and the nations’

Bayonet Charge - emphasises the insignificance of the soldiers

‘stars’ is celestial imagery which has the effect of something that feels out of reach, never to be understood, like how the soldiers are never able to understand their superiors and why they are even fighting a war.

Also, ‘stars’ being used alongside ‘nations’ suggests they are two similar things, suggesting that the ‘nations’ are out of reach, suggesting that the soldiers are insignificant compared to them.

‘King, honour, human dignity, etcetera’

Bayonet Charge - criticises and dismissive towards excuses for war

‘probably armed, possibly not’

Remains - use of repetition which suggests the soldier is replaying the memory because of guilt.

‘probably’ suggests a high chance of certainty but there is still uncertainty if the person was armed or not.

The word ‘possibly’ emphasises this uncertainty as it suggests a lower chance of certainty that the person wasn’t armed but that the soldier can’t be sure of it or not.

‘I see every round as it rips through his life’

Remains - use of a violent metaphor which emphasise his guilt

‘rips’ suggests tearing which suggests violence

‘I’ emphasise how it is his own experience and how guilty he feels for it

‘somebody’

Remains - use of repetition which suggests that it doesn’t matter who he was with because that’s not the focus. It could have been anyone with him.

‘his bloody life in my bloody hands’

Remains - ‘bloody’ is a symbol of guilt

Repetition of ‘bloody’ emphasises his guilt

‘hands’ is a symbol for action which, along with the symbol of ‘bloody’, suggests he feels personal responsibility for the dead person’s life, emphasising how this poem is about PTSD.

‘poppies’ ‘graves’ ‘petals’

Poppies - use of a lexical field of remembrance

‘blinding’ ‘blockade’ ‘war’

Poppies - use of a lexical field of war

‘released a song bird from its cage’

Poppies - use of a metaphor which suggests the mother has accepted her child has gone now

‘playground voice catching on the wind’

Poppies - use of a metaphor which emphasises that the mother is still nostalgic for the past

‘playground’ is an area which children play in which suggests a child-like nature but her child is grown up now which suggests she longs for the past, when her child was young.

‘wind’ suggests forever movement which suggests something that can not be kept forever which suggests that she cannot keep her child young forever and has to let go of the past.

‘spools of suffering set out in ordered rows’

War Photographer - ‘spools of suffering set’ is sibilance which gives the effects of gunfire. ‘Rows’ suggest war graves. ‘Ordered’ juxtaposes what we think of war (chaotic not orderly)

‘running children in a nightmare heat’

War Photographer - ‘nightmare’ is a metaphor to highlight the extremeness of this photo. Could be a possible reference to the ‘Napalm Girl’ photo.

‘a half formed ghost’

War Photographer - use of a double meaning: The photo hasn’t fully developed yet and the man in the photo is dead.

‘they do not care’

War Photographer - the people back at his home only on the surface level care

‘rivers make, roads, railtracks’

Tissue - use of alliteration which gives it a flowing effect and a sense of freedom

‘with living tissue, raise a structure never meant to last.’

Tissue - use of a volta which shifts focuses on human morality

‘turned into your skin’

Tissue - suggests humans are influenced by paper and that we will be forgotten but not our influence.

Extended metaphor for Life

What is Tissue’s extended metaphor?

Extended metaphor for nostalgia

What is The Emigree’s extended metaphor?

‘it may be sick with tyrants’

The Emigree - use of personification of the city which links to the extended metaphor of nostalgia

‘sunlight’

The Emigree - use of repetition and is a symbol for positivity

‘it tastes of sunlight’

The Emigree - use of sensory imagery which suggests the vividness of experiences

‘Dem tell me’

Checking Out Me History - use of anaphora and repetition in which he writes out his accent, showing how he’s proud of his identity and emphasises how someone else have told him about history.

‘bandage’ blind’

Checking Out Me History - use of a lexical field of hiddeness and metaphors which emphasizes how history has been hidden from him.

‘sunrise’ ‘healing star’

Checking Out Me History - this juxtaposes the blinding of history at the start and suggests hope

‘identity’

Checking Out Me History - this is the final word of the poem and sums up the main theme

‘full of powerful incantations’

Kamikaze - use of a metaphor which shows the influence of patriotic propaganda and how it is difficult to go against society.

‘strung out like bunting’

Kamikaze - use of a simile which contrasts with war. It also uses irony as the father should be focusing on the warships, not the boats.

‘bunting’ suggests celebration which suggests a celebration of life, not death, emphasizing how the father doesn’t want to be a kamikaze pilot.

‘never spoke again in his presence’

Kamikaze - shows how the father was dishounered

‘he must of wondered which had been the better way to die’

Kamikaze - shows how the father was alive but treated as dead. If he died on the mission, he would have been remembered as a war hero

‘A little boat tied to a willow tree'

The Prelude - The word ‘little’ suggests insignificance which suggests that humanity as a whole is insignificant compared to nature, which suggests that nature is powerful which links to the sublime.

‘But huge and mighty forms, that do not live like living men’ ‘and were a trouble to my dreams’

The Prelude - ‘huge’ and ‘mighty’ have a lexical field of grandness which suggests the sublime and emphasises the power of nature

The word ‘men’ suggests mortality and eventual death but the word ‘not’ suggests immortality and that nature will live on when man has died, emphasising the power of nature.

The word ‘trouble’ suggests great cause of worry or stress which suggests that after that experience, the poet kept thinking about it which suggests it had a profound impact on him and his life going forward which emphasises the theme of Coming of Age.

‘my city comes to me in its own white plane’

The Emigree - ‘white’ is a symbol for purity and innocence → suggests nostalgia for the past and how she still sees her city in a positive light, no matter what.

-Romantic poet = hated the monarchy’s absolute power and celebrated the beauty of nature

Ozymandias - CONTEXT

-Romantic poet = hated those in power and celebrated the beauty of nature

London - CONTEXT

-Romantic poet

-Biography of poet’s life

-Coming of age poem

The Prelude - CONTEXT

-based of Duke of Ferrara (16th Century) who's wife died of mysterious circumstances

My Last Duchess - CONTEXT

-Poet was poet laureate at the time

-Crimean War

The Charge of the Light Brigade - CONTEXT

-Poet was a soldier during WWI and had developed PTSD

-died a few days before the war ended

Exposure - CONTEXT

-could be about the political troubles in Ireland at the time

Storm on the Island - CONTEXT

-Poet never fought in a war but his father did fight in WWI and was now traumatised for life

Bayonet Charge - CONTEXT

-Based on the stories of a British soldier who fought in the Iraq war.

Remains - CONTEXT

-poem was part of a collection commissioned by Carol Ann Duffy to raise awareness of the deaths of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Poppies - CONTEXT

-refers to a famous photograph called ‘The Terrors of War’ taken from the Vietnam War

War Photographer - CONTEXT

-poet often use themes of journeys, freedom and communal conflict in her work.

Tissue - CONTEXT

-Poet grew up in British Guiana (now Guyana) → British were colonial rulers

Checking Out Me History - CONTEXT

-Kamikaze pilots were Japanese suicide pilots that were used during the end of WWII → this was seen as an honour

Kamikaze - CONTEXT