Poetry anthology: Power and Conflict key quotes

‘his bloody life in my bloody hands’

Remains - pronoun ‘my’ marks a change in the soldier’s perception, showing that he is taking personal responsibility

‘myself and somebody else and somebody else’

Remains - deflects blame from th soldier, suggests that the speaker wnats to minimise his role

‘Three of a kind all letting fly and I swear / I see every round as it rips through his life

Remains - enjambent is used to show the life changing moment when the looter was shot and the forced break of line and stanze represents the broken man the soldier has become. Enjambment is exaggerated as the line continues into the next stanza emphasising the moment

‘won’t flush him out’

Remains - ‘flush’ connotes sickness and here it is used to represent cleansing

‘Then I’m hime on leave’

Remains - short sentance and full stop suggests its over and that the soldier will be able to recover and move on

‘dug in behind enemy lines’

Remains - The soldier is not able to move and this quote shows that conflict is inescapable even in a domestic setting

‘probably armed, possibly not’

Remains - repetition of this phrase on lines 4 and 22 suggests the soldier’s trauma is inescapable

‘sort of inside out’

Remains - vague language represents the indescrible horror of war

‘marriage hearse’

London - oxymoron, London is being destroyed

‘marks of weakness, marks of woe’

London - the line itself could been seen as weak in term of syllables as it only has 7 while to rest of the lines have 8

‘hapless soldier’s sigh / Runs in blood down palace walls

London - referring to the French Revolution which was violent and at the time the phrase ‘runs in blood down walls’ was popular. Blake is suggests that unhappy soldiers could lead to an uprising

‘palace walls’

London - here Blake is suggesting that the monarchy is to blame for the unhappiness of the soldiers

‘mark in every face… / marks of weak … woe

London - repetition of ‘mark’ reflects the inescapeable suffering however the changing meaning could reflect Blake’s frustration with London’s changing nature

‘chartered streets … chartered Thames’

London - repetition of chartered shows humans forcing power and control onto nature and it also juxtaposes the power of nature and man.

‘One way journey into history’

Kamikaze - metaphor, indicates the significance and honour of the act

‘Strung out like bunting’

Kamikaze - simile, positive, celebratory image, ironic considering what the pilot is about to do

‘embarked at sunrise’

Kamikaze - Japan is also known as the land of the rising sun therefore this could be a reference to heritage and symbolic of hope

‘a tuna, the dark prince, muscular, dangerous’

Kamikaze - threatening, intense image, poet uses the first full stop in the poem after this, signaling its significance. The poet could be suggesting that true power belongs to nature and the pilot sees this and this is what prompts him to turn back.

‘And remembered how he / and his brothers waiting on the shore built cairns of pearl-grey pebbles‘

Kamikaze - image of innocence and childhood contrasts with what the pilot is about to do

‘cold command’ ‘Kings of Kings’

Ozymandias - alliteration of the harsh ‘k’ sound creates an aggressive tone and this indicates Ozymandias’ cruelty and oppressive nature

‘Kings of Kings’

Ozymandias - religous imagery, Ozymandias is comparing himself to God, this could indicate that the poem is criticising the Church and organised religion

‘shattered visage’

Ozymandias - metaphor, ruined statue and it is a message for political power and how nature will always overtake/destroy it

‘Nothing beside remains’

Ozymandias - caesura, Ozymandias’ power has come to an end.

‘colossal wreck’

Ozymandias - juxtaposition between ruler’s past power and the statue’s current state

‘All flesh is grass’

War Photographer - intertexual reference to the Bible and Isaiah which talks about the fleeting nature of human life however we ignore this message even though it has been told for thousands of years

‘spools of suffering … in ordered rows’

War Photographer - alliteration shows the speaker trying to control the uncontrollable nature of war

‘Rural England’

War Photographer - phrase is placed between 2 full stops which completely separates it form the description of war zones and this reflects how the people reading the newspaper can separate themselves from the reality of war

‘Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh.’

War Photographer - plosives, quick fire pace like gunfire and the full stops act as a caesura forcing the reader to stop and focus on the meaning of the words.

‘tears … beers’

War Photographer - mid-line rhyme reflects how quickly people forget the horrors of war

‘sunlight clear’ ‘it tastes of sunlight’ etc

The Emigree - sunlight imagery symbolises happiness and positivity and this shows that the speaker feels overwhelmingly positive about the plae she is writing about

‘the bright filled paperweight’

The Emigree - positive, natural imagery and the idea of a paperweight indicates that the place has a hold on the speaker and is weighing her down

‘There once was a country …’

The Emigree - caesura, the ellipsis slows down the pace of the poem

‘sick’ ‘comes to me’ ‘lies down’ ‘takes me dancing’

The Emigree - personification of the country and this suggests the speaker has a loving relationship with the place

‘saw it in that November / … comes to the mildest city.’ etc

The Emigree - enjambent in the first stanza creates a first pace

‘branded with the impression of sunlight’

The Emigree - juxtaposition of ‘branded’ and ‘sunlight’ shows the inner conflict of the speaker

‘I comb its hair and love its shining eyes’

The Emigree - last stanza is the longest, showing the speaker’s overwhelming love for her city and suggests show wants to savour the moment and doesn’t want to leave

‘I have no passport’

The Emigree - the speaker cannot go to her home country and this lack of power is reflected by the chaotic structure