english lit - poetry

If - x4 important quotes + themes + 1x form + 1x structure

• ‘if you can keep your head’ = ‘if’ = refrain + idiom = adds to immediacy and intimacy of tone

• 'If you can trust yourself' = conveys self-confidence and personal integrity, emphasizing the importance of self-reliance.

• 'If you can wait and not be tired by waiting' = polyptoton highlights the virtue of patience, suggesting the need to endure challenges without despair

• ‘if you can force you heart and nerve and sinew’ = polysyndeton emphasises the qualities necessary for strength and self-belief - heart = emotions, nerve = bravery and sinew = strength

• 'If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster' = highlights the duality of success and failure, urging balance and perspective in life.

  'Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it' = conveys the ultimate reward of perseverance, celebrating achievement and fulfillment.

  form :

• written in iambic pentameter = adds momentum + heroic verse - links to masculinity + apostrophe

• conditional statement + conclusion at end

  themes :

• resilience, comment on societal values, masculinity

prayer before birth - x4 important quotes + themes + 1x form + 1x structure

• ‘I am not yet born’ = conveys innocence and vulnerability, emphasizing the speaker's awareness of the dangers of life.
  ‘Let not the bloodsucking monsters’ = metaphor highlights the destructive forces in society, urging protection from corruption.
  + ‘I fear more than the killers’ = juxtaposes fear against physical threats, focusing on psychological anxieties.
  ‘Bring me to the world’ = plea signifies hope for a safe existence, anchoring the poem's existential themes.

  ‘lethal automaton’ + ‘cog in a machine’ = military = comment on society
  Form: written in irregular stanza lengths = enhances emotional turmoil and chaos of life. + dramatic monologue, apostrophe

  structure: enjambement= mirrors movement of river in stanza 3, polyptoton, layout of poem reflects speaker’s desire

• Themes: innocence, societal corruption, desire for protection.

sims + differences between Prayer Before Birth and Hide and Seek

• both written from perspective of vulnerable children

• both poet also seek to foreground the fears and feelings of children but in different ways e.g rhyme, setting, perspective

sims + differences between Prayer Before Birth and If

• both poems present the speakers’ views on life and their fears e.g speakers, apostrophe, assonance

• although both poets explore the speakers’ views on lilfe, their poems offer a different perspective, from pessimism to optimism e.g structures, refrain vs anaphora, caesura and enjambement vs enjamebent and iambic pentameter

Blessing - x4 important quotes + themes + 1x form + 1x structure

• ‘the skin crack like a pod’ = simile that describes dehydration + repetition of plosive = harsh + minor sentence after

• ‘imagine the drip of it’ = imperative = reader empathises with the feelings of those suffering from dehydration + onomatopoeic words = v. scarce

• ‘every man woman child’ = no commas = mimics rush of water

• ‘frantic hands’ = final line of stanza = emphasis + hysteria

• ‘naked children’ + ‘screaming’ + ‘small bones’ = reminds the reader of suffering + fragility of children

  structure = of stanza 3 = mimics the movement of water, deliberately short lengths

  form = free verse+no rhyme scheme - mimics movement of water,

• Themes: survival, desperation, the power of nature.

Blessing vs war photographer sims + difs

• both poems highlight the poverty and struggle of a group of people living in a deprived part of the world e.g speakers, enjambement, religious language

• although both poems address issues of poverty, both have different perspectives and outlooks e.g benefits of water vs feelings, free verse vs consistent structure

Blessing vs Tyger sims + difs

• both poems present a sense of wonder by exploring religion and their ideas about God e.g third person perspective, wonders of water + God, tone

• although both poems explore the idea of God, both have different perspectives e.g burst pipe = act of mercy from God vs Tyger is questioning how God could create such a fearsome creature, kindly God vs Creator God, structure