English Literature Paper 2: Poetry Anthology - Power and Conflict

Poem which has an ironic look at misery in the greatest city of the world and has a plea for the people around the poet to break free of their establishment's entrapment.

London by William Blake

London (________)

* Tightly organised - 4 line stanzas throughout
* Repetitive ABAB _____ scheme
* __________ structure of focus on those suffering
* Iambic _________ throughout with off-examples. Line “marks of weakness, marks of woe” weak in syllable count
* Structure shows how the life of suffering is ________ and inescapable

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structure / rhyme / cyclical / tetrameter / repetitive

"I wonder through each ___________ street near where the _________ Thames does flow"

London / "chartered"

"Every ____________ Church appalls"

London / "black'ning"

"Plagues the ___________ ___________"

London / "marriage hearse"

Poem which shows the obedience soldiers have toward orders and the bravery they portray despite foolish orders from their command.

Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Tennyson

__**Charge of the Light Brigade (**__**____**__**)**__

* _____ (Musical poem which tells a story with a refrain used to help remember stories) creates a sense of folklore about the awe-inspiring bravery or to never forget the stupidity of the aristocratic leadership

form / ballad

__**Charge of the Light Brigade (**__**____**__**)**__

* Dactylic dimeter- to fully appreciate bravery of soldiers and make us feel like we were there at the battle (sound mirrors galloping hoof beats of horses), helping us sympathise with the soldiers.
* With the ________ dimeter, slow ______ echoes battle where they started off slow and sped up
* falling rhythm reflects falling soldiers
* “Someone had blundered” doesn’t conform to dactylic _____ which subtly draws attention to the Poet ________’s disgust for the blunder for fatalities. Also, the horse beat _____ping mirrors dramatic _____of peoples lives.

structure / dactylic / pace / dimeter / Laureate / stop

"rode the _____" → "not the _____" → "noble ____"

Charge of the Light Brigade / "600"

"someone had _________. theirs not to make _____, theirs not to reason ____, theirs but to do and ____"

Charge of the Light Brigade / "blundered" "reply" "why "die"

"Valley of _________"

Charge of the Light Brigade / "death"

Poem which focuses on the weather and boredom in the trenches rather than the actual fighting. This educates the audience about the unknown horrors of war.

Exposure by Wilfred Owen

__**Exposure (_______)**__

* Reflects build up of _______ (adrenaline whilst waiting during battle) and then the _________ when “nothing happens”
* Each stanza begins with blunt, powerful sentence
* This is followed by highly ______ vocabulary choices
* ______ is built up
* Owen wants us to empathise with how the soldiers felt
* 8-verse _______ reflects daily emotional rollercoster of the soldiers, leading to exhaustion
* Rhyme scheme being built up and then broken down shows build up of momentum and anticipation of battle which is never realised
* _________ (end of line words contain same consonant sounds, but not vowels) gives the poem a permanent sense of being nervously on edge
* Lines do not rhyme. They answer each other : “what are we doing here?” “Is it that we’re dying?” “We turn back to our dying.” “It seems like the love of god is dying.” This could suggest that people are losing their ______ ______ are dying when exposed to the horrors of war. Alternatively, this could be a _______ _______ to Jesus dying on the cross.

structure / intensity / anti-climax / emotive / tension / repetition / pararhyme / religious beliefs / biblical allusion

"The poignant misery of dawn begins to grow… We only know ____ ______, rain _____, and clouds ____ ________."

Exposure / “war lasts” “soaks” “sag stormy”

“Watching, we hear the mad gusts tugging on the wire, _____ __________ ___ ______ among its brambles.”

Exposure / “like twitching agonies of men”

"___________ iced east winds that ______ us"

Exposure / "merciless" "knive"

"but __________ happens"

Exposure / "nothing"

Poem which describes a soldier's charge which is such like an animal and part of a 'war machine', however each soldier has an inner turmoil and has confusion around battle.

Bayonet Charge by Ted Hughes

__**Bayonet Charge (**__**_______**__**)**__

* Starts in ______ ___ ("suddenly”) which creates sense of confusion, similar to soldier
* ___________ between lines and verses which creates disjointed, unordered effect on reader
* Two examples of _______, both in 2nd verse which makes us to stop and think
* Creates chaotic structure
* Deliberate _______ of “raw” shows difficulty to articulate the events due to stress. Alternatively, an allusion to _______ _____’s ‘spring offensive’ which is used as an account for an inexplicably horrific war experience
* Difficulty of getting through poem reflects struggle soldier faces

structure / media res / enjambment / caesura / repetition / Wilfred Owen

"__________ tear"

Bayonet Charge / "patriotic"

"...Dropped like __________ in a yelling alarm"

Bayonet Charge / "luxuries"

"King, honour, human dignity, __________..."

Bayonet Charge / "etcetera"

"Bullets __________ the belly out of the air "

Bayonet Charge / "smacking"

“In what cold __________ of the stars and the nations // was he the hand pointing that __________?”

Bayonet Charge / “clockwork” “second”

Poem which shows the events of a soldier's life and how they can trigger and become PTSD

Remains by Simon Armitage

__**Remains (**__**______**__**)**__

* Starts in _____ ___ which puts the reader on the back foot, we don’t know the whole story
* ________ used to deflect blame and puts focus on the other soldiers
* End of poem, shift to ______ person perspective which shows how he deals with consequences alone
* _________ between stanzas shows the life-changing moment when the soldier shot the looter. Forced break of line and stanza reflects the crisis of the soldier that has come after this event took place
* Sentence ______ shows trauma. Short sentence of “then I’m home on leave.” supposing to suggest finality contrasted by PTSD.
* ________ structure of “probably armed, possibly not” which suggests trauma is inescapable
* There is a _____________ of the structure: the final stanza has only two lines

structure / media res / repetition / first / enjambment / length / cyclical / disintegration

"_________ armed, possibly not"

Remains / "probably"

"My mate __________ his guts back"

Remains / "tossed"

"And he ________ _____ through the doors of the bank"

Remains / "bursts again"

Poem which contrasts rural England and warzones which emphasises the difference and disconnection of the publics' lives toward those affected by conflicts.

War Photographer by Carol Ann Duffy

__**War Photographer (**__**____**__**)**__

* _________ which leads us through the act of processing the photos. Creates a sense of detachment or cynicism that people suffer and lose lives, and the end result is us taking a few _______ for the newspaper

form / narrative / photos

__**War Photographer (**__**______**__**)**__

* Well organised (6 lines per the 4 stanzas in an abbcdd ______ scheme) which reflects the job of the photographer, trying to make the structure of war more palatable for the reader
* Juxtaposition between ______ and structure which alerts us on the difference between how we view war VS reality of war
* Alternatively, unchanging structure could show how the photographers efforts are futile
* ________: “.Rural England.” reflects separation from reality of situation
* There is _____ _______ of “tears” and “beers” mid-line which quickens ____, representing speed of forgetting the horrors of war
* _______ structure of photographer coming to-and-from a warzone which links to themes of ____ and futility

structure / rhyme / theme / caesura / half rhyme / pace / cyclical / fate

"Spools of __________ set out in ordered rows"

War Photographer / "suffering"

"Sunday's ___________" "Reader eyeballs _____ ____ _____between the bath and pre-lunch beers"

War Photographer / "supplement" "prick with tears"

"A _______ preparing to intone a mass. _______. _______. _______. All flesh __ _____"

War Photographer / "priest" "Belfast" "Beirut" "Phnom Penh" "is grass"

Poem which shows how nature is quintessentially the most powerful force, and criticises how man foolishly attempts to manipulate it- only causing it to become more daunting.

Extract from 'The Prelude' by William Wordsworth

Extract from 'The Prelude' (____)

* ____ poem: long narrative poem which focuses on a singular 'hero' (power of nature?)

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form / epic

__**Extract from 'The Prelude' (**__**_______**__**)**__

* ________, long verse: Replicates the overwhelming sensation that has affected Wordsworth
* Blank verse: Iambic ________ (gives a consistent ____), no ______ scheme

structure / singular / pentameter / pace / rhyme

"it was an act of _______ and _______ ________"

Prelude / "stealth" "troubled pleasure"

"the horizon's ______ __________"

Prelude / "utmost boundary"

"a ______ peak, black and ______, As if with ________ ______ ________. Upreared its head."

Prelude / "huge" "voluntary power instinct"

“Like living men, moved _______ through the mind // By day, and were a ______ to my ______. “

Prelude / “slowly” “trouble” “dreams”

Poem which shows the power of our education which provides our Eurocentric cultural ‘norms’ in society. However, the speaker educates us on the wider world’s identity.

Checking Out Me History by John Agard

__**Checking Out Me History (**__**______**__**)**__

* irregular rhyme and short, mixed _________ creates a frustrated tone
* Rhythm captures _____ of Caribbean ethnicity
* Stories of the people he promotes are spoken like a _____ which suggests they are stories passed down to a song or a beat. This shows that not only the history, but ___ it is passed on is integral in the speaker’s identity, which contrasts repetitive names and dates he was taught at British Schools
* Lack of _________: symolises refusal to accept restrictions placed on him
* Brits don't understand how it is meant to be read (such like how history has been misread)

structure / enjambment / accent / song / how / punctuation

"But now I checking out me history I __________ ____ __ _______"

Checking out my history / "carving out me identity"

"Dem tell me Dem tell me Wha dem want to tell me _________ ___ __ ____ with me own history"

Checking out my history / "Bandage up me eye"

Poem which displays moral turmoil that those involved in conflicts entail, which is manipulated by external, overwhelming factors (as seen through social pressure, power of nature)

Kamikaze by Beatrice Garland

__**Kamikaze (**__**_______**__**)**__

* Tight structure reflects military expectations of soldiers.
* However, written in _____ verse with __________ which contradict control and show how soldier has individual thought
* Change of ____ shows the change of narrator to the daughter who passes it on to her own children
* Consistent structure with ________ patterns going up and down in length which gives a sense of nostalgia ans well as reflecting the rhythm of waves (symbolic of helplessness and inevitability of death)
* ______ give a personal tone on major event

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structure / blank / enjambment / font / syllable / asides

"A shaven head full of _________ _________ and enough fuel for a ___ ___ __________ ____ ______"

Kamikaze / "powerful incantations" "one-way journey into history"

"little fishing boats ______ ___ ____ ________ on a green-blue translucent sea"

Kamikaze / "strung out like bunting"

"to live as though he ___ ______ ________"

Kamikaze / "had never returned"

Poem which show the conflict between nature and man- tearing up a community. The entirety of the poem can be interpreted as a metaphor for the conflicts in Ireland.

Storm on The Island by Seamus Heaney

Storm on the Island (_______)

* Single ______ shows relentless nature of storm
* _____ tense suggests that the storm is occuring at the time
* Unrhymed verse, enjambment and asides create conversational tone

structure / stanza / present

"We are _________: We build our houses _______"

Storm on the Island / "prepared" "squat"

"This ________ earth has _______ __________ ___"

Storm on the Island / "wizened" "never troubled us"

"spits like a _____ ____
________ _____."

Storm on the Island / "tame cat Turned savage'

"We are __________ by ________ ____. Strange it is a _______ __________ ___ _____."

Storm on the Island / "bombarded" "empty air" "huge nothing we fear"

Poem which brings awareness to the holistic effects of conflicts, providing an empathetic response for the mother- who has a sad and reflective tone.

Poppies by Jane Weir

Poppies (____)

* ________ _______ - emphasises focus of those left behind from war physically. Shows isolation since the son is not there.

form / dramatic monologue

Poppies (_______)

* Stanzas have ______ lengths - create a chaotic structure - reflect the way the mother's pain cannot be contained

structure / varying

"Hoping to hear your __________ _____ catching on in the _____"

Poppies / "playground voice" "wind"

"All my words __________, _______, _________ _____ ______, slowly melting."

Poppies / "flattened, rolled, turned into felt"

"___________ _ ____ ____ _____ __ _____. Later a single dove flew from a pear tree, and thus us where it has left me"

Poppies / "released a song bird from its cage"

Poem which criticises power struggles in marriage and politics allowing man to exploit others.

My Last Duchess by Robert Browning

__**My Last Duchess (**__**____)**

* Dramatic monologue, iambic pentameter + strict rhyme scheme
* This tight control of the form reflects the controlling character of the Duke.

form

My Last Duchess (_______)

* _________ reflects how the poem is real speech ; reflects how the Duke has not got real control, he is unable to control himself
* Poem is one _____ _____ showing his lack of care for his listener which shows how the Duke is narcissistic

structure / enjambment / long verse

"Much the same smile? This _____; _ ____ ______; ____ __ _____ ______ ________."

My Last Duchess / "grew; I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together"

"Will't you please ____ and _____ at her?"

My Last Duchess / "sit" "look"

"___ _______ by design”

My Last Duchess / “Fra Pandolf”

Poem which alludes to an Egyptian pharaoh who was known for many battles to extend Egypt’s borders. This is similar to King George III. However, it criticises the hubris of those in power believing in being omnipotent, but their power never lasts. Alternatively, it could be a critique of Christianity and how it won't last.

Ozymandias by Percy Shelley

Ozymandias (______)

* Written by Shelley, second generation _________ who often based their poetry in foreign lands in past periods
* _________ (poem about love). Could be suggestive of how leaders are vain + in love with themselves.
* Poem is in form of both Italian and Shakespearean sonnet and a whole knew kind. This shows that power (in the form of the poem) gives way to new power, nothing remains forever.

form / romanticist / sonnet

Ozymandias (________)

* Poem has a _____ length, which is like the power of the leaders and their little legacy
* Single ______ which similarly shows how futile the leader’s power in the scheme of existence
* Entire poem is dialogue from a person that the narrator met which disconnects Shelley from accusations of his anti-monarch, pacifist, atheist beliefs

structure / short / stanza

What does ‘ozy’ mean? What does ‘mandias’ mean?

air / to rule

My name is Ozymandias. ______ __ ______"

Ozymandias / "king of kings"

"Nothing beside ______. Round the decay of that _________ ______"

Ozymandias / "remains" "colossal wreck"

Poem which explores memory through the perspective of an emigrant’s life. There is a conflicted opinion of the past and idyllic new life which identity’s confused which shows how the positive memory has been tainted.

The Emigree by Carol Rumens

The Emigree (________)

* Free ____, enjambment, caesura create a chaotic tone and encapsulates the speaker’s uncertainty
* The stanza ______ is regular (to show how the speaker tries to comprehend the disarray). However the final stanza is the ____est which shows how she is in love and does not want to leave the place she is currently.

structure / verse / length / long

"That ______ vocabulary, I carried here, _____ _ ____ ___, opens and spills a ________"

Emigree / "child's" "like a hollow doll" "grammar"

"It may be at ____, it may be _____ ____ ________, but I am branded by an impression of _________"

Emigree / "war" "sick with tyrants" "sunlight"

“They accuse me of _________. They ______ me. They ________ me of being ______ in their _____ city.”

Emigree / “absence” “circle” “accuse” “dark” “free”

Poem which manifests the fragile lives of humans- where their problematic greed, pride and legacy is passed through as a futile document

Tissue by Imitaz Dharker

Tissue (________)

* Poem has nine ______ (4-line stanzas) with a 1-line stanza to finish
* There is no regular ______ scheme, and the lines are short but varied in length to reflect the meaning of man’s power being fragile.
* The poet uses _________ within the stanzas and linking one stanza to the next when conveying complex ideas.
* Lines have the following meanings: 1-12 = importance of paper; 13-24 = paper is fragile but controls our lives; 25-37 = life is complex, precious and temporary but part of a big ongoing structure

structure / quatrains / rhyme / enjambment

"A paper that ____ ____ _____ ______, this is what could ____ ____"

Tissue / "lets light shine through" "alter things"

"_________ and _________ and ________ transparent"

Tissue / "smoothed" "stroked" "turned"