Poetry anthology context

Wind: Ted Hughes

1956: Hughes met and married poet Sylvia Plath

• marriage = troubled (violent on H part)

• High regard for each others work

The moment

• references European style of claiming ownership ‘flag in the ground’ = ownership

• ‘Long voyage’ = Canadian heritage = reference original settlement of Canada by British and french colonisers

• Americanisation of Canadian culture

Storm on the Island

• published in first collection in 1966, before the outbreak of troubles conflict = tension and violence between those who wanted Northern Ireland to join ireland and those who wanted to stay part of UK

• Tensions in 1960’s

• “Stormont” = name of building that houses the government of N. Ireland

• Ireland is an island = homophones of eachother

Hurricane hits england

• Nichols born in Guyana + Caribbean culture, folklore and oral traditions

• Came to england in 1977, contexts of Caribbean diaspora who emigrated from former British colonies to the UK

• ‘Hattie’ name of big hurricane that hit Caribbean in 1961

• Hurucan, Oya, Shango = natural gods of weather, storms, and chaos in Yoruba + West Indian cultures

• ‘Old tongues’ = old languages

London

• published in 1794 = poverty in London

• Blake english poet and artist, work influenced by radical political views = believed in social and racial equality

• Part of ‘Songs of Experience’ collection, which focuses on how innocence is lost and society is corrupt

• Questions teachings of church and decisions of gov

The planners

• BKC was born in Singapore in 1965, the year that the country became an independent republic

• Boey emigrated to Australia - displacement became a major theme in Boey's work: he first felt there was no place for him as a poet in Singapore, then felt like an outsider in his adopted country.

• Since the 1950s, Singapore's population has grown swiftly, 1m → 6m million in 2021

• During this period, Singapore has invested heavily in its infrastructure, speaker of this poem is skeptical of all this rapid (and rigid) planning, many see Singapore's development into an urbanized country as a success story.

Futility

• Written in 1917 before Owen went on to win the Military Cross for bravery, and was then killed in battle in 1918

• The poem has authenticity as it is written by an actual soldier.

• Of his work, Owen said: “My theme is war and the pity of war”. -Despite highlighting the tragedy of war and mistakes of senior commanders, he had a deep sense of duty: “not loath, we lie out here” shows that he was not bitter about his suffering.

In a London drawing room

• George Eliot, pseudonym of Mary Ann, was an English novelist.

• Eliot known for the realism and psychological insights to characters in her novels

• She moved away from religion in favour of a love and appreciation of nature.

• A Drawing Room was a room where visitors may be entertained and came from the term ‘Withdrawing Room’, to which somebody could withdraw for more privacy.

• The Victorian period is a time of great advancement and loss.

• The urbanisation and population growth led to social problems such as child labour and divisions in rich and poor.

Blessing

• Imtiaz Dharker, an English poet moved to Bombay, a city in India.

• explores how water is a blessing to those who lived there

• = during the dry season temp can reach 40 degrees

• poem set in a vast area of temporary accommodation called Dharavi, on the outskirts of Bombay = millions of migrants gathered from other parts of India.

• = not an official living area = shortage of water.

The Road Not Taken

• poem was inspired by friend Edward Thomas, the Welshpoet.

• Thomas was forced to choose whether to enlist and fight in WW1 or whether to follow Frost’s advice and emigrate to America

• Thomas joined the war and was killed in action. Thomas’ death and friendship had a great impact on Frost.

• wrote poem at the start of World War I, before returning to the United States from England

• poem about the impossibility of understanding thesignificance of one's life choices, it can be read in the context of Frost's personal life, as he moved his family overseas, just as easily as it can be read in the context of world history.

The Journey

• born in Ohio in 1935.

• She grew up in an abusive home = would often retreat to the nearby woods, where she would build huts of sticks and grass and write poems.

• When she left home, she never returned.

The Door

• Miroslav Holub is a scientist and poet who lived through the restrictive Communist era of politics in the Czech Republic.

Where I Come From

• born in the small logging community of Chipman, New Brunswick, in 1922.

• impoverished background = dropped out of public school at a young age because she did not have warm clothing to wear during the winter

• attended the University of New Brunswick from

• 1942–46.

• The themes of place, memory, and emotion are at the center of her work.

Below the Green Corrie

• Scottish teacher and a poet who lived mostly in the West Highlands and in the city of Edinburgh

• married once, and they had two children

• he made his living as a primaryschool teacher.

• MacCaig was very interested in the relationship people have with nature. How it can be at once beautiful and on the other overwhelming and terrifying

poem at thirty nine

• her father being ‘so tired’ = real

career of Alice Walker's father, who

was a sharecropper (a kind of tenant

farmer)

• refused to put a specific

label on her sexuality, she has been

involved in romantic relationships with

both men and women throughout her

life = a radical lifestyle

during her own generation, let alone

her father's generation. When she

refers to “my truths”, it could be a

reference to this.

Homeland

• Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen was born on 6 November 1919 in Porto, Portugal.

• Raised in a mix of bourgeois and old Portuguese aristocracy and educated with traditional Christian morality.

• In 1946, she married journalist, politician and lawyer Francisco Sousa Tavares.

Winter swans

• welsh poet

• Published in 2012 collection ‘skirrid hill’

At castle boterel

• Written in 1913 after the death of his wife, Emma.

• Castle Boterel is in Cornwall- a place visited with his wife, Emma.

The great storm

Based on a real event: the Great Storm of 1987, In May 2003, she was diagnosed with breast cancer – could the chaos of the storm be a metaphor for this diagnosis? The flippant tone and nonchalant attitude towards death could have been her way of coping

This morning

• poetry collection called grace