English Literature Paper 2 - Poetry - Conflict

POETRY IS SO DRY

A poison tree

• AABB

• “I was angry with my friend” “I told my wrath, my wrath did end” “I was angry with my foe” “I told it not my wrath did grow”

• “sunned it with smiles and soft deceitful wiles”

• “bore an apple bright”

The Destruction of Sennacherib

• AABB

• “like the wolf on the fold”

• “angel of death … face the foe”

• “trumpets unblown”

• “hath melted like snow”

Extract From the Prelude

• Blank verse

• “Troubled pleasure”

• “little boat” → “bark”

• “Huge peak, black and huge”

• “No pleasant images of trees … sea … sky”

The Man He Killed

• ABAB

• “Many a nipperkin!”

• Punctuation to show confusion

• “shot at him … my foe of course”

• “quaint and curious war is!”

Cousin Kate

• ABCB

• “His plaything and his love”

• “You grow more fair than I”

• “My son … my shame, my pride”

Half Caste

• Free Verse

• “You say half-caste”

• “mix a black key … white key” →

• “De whole of you”

Exposure

• ABBA

• “Merciless east iced winds that knive us”

• flakes [that] flock, pause and renew”

• [tab] “But nothing happens” → exposed repetition

The Charge of the Light Brigade

• Dactylic Dimeter → Horse

• “Valley of death”

• “Jaws of hell”

• “Storm’d shot and shell”

• “Noble six hundred”

• “Cannon to the left … right .. infront”

Catrin

• Free Verse

• “I can remeber you”

• “Our struggle to become // Separate” → Enjambment

• “That old rope, tightening” → mom doesn’t wanna let daughter go

War Photographer

• Free Verse

• “I seek out the tragic, the absurd” → predator

• “Sun gilded girls small girls staggering” → Western people are oblivious

• “dark scream”

Belfast Confetti

• Free verse

• “raining exclamation marks”

• “I know this labyrinth”

• asyndetic listing of streets named after wars

• “Why can’t i escape” “A fusillade of question-marks” → it’s attacking him, his identity and confuising him

The Class Game

• Free verse

• “How can you tell what class i’m from”

• “Cos we live in a canopy”

• “Do i have a label on me head and another on me bum?”

• “stained with toil? … perfume and oil?” → class differences

Poppies

• Free verse

• “my words, flattened, rolled turned to felt”

• “world overflowing like a treasure chest”

• “stomach … making tucks, ducks, pleats”

No Problem

• ABCB

• “I am not de problem”

• “born academic … branded athletic”

• “sum of me best friends are white” → mocking

What Were They Like?

• Free Verse

• Question, Answer

• “use lanterns of stone”

• “Their light hearts turned to stone”

• “Sir, laughter is bitter to the burned mouth”

• “Who can say? it is silent now”