AQA English - CONTEXT Power & Conflict Poetry: Main Poems

Ozymandias

Poet: Percy Shelley

Shelley is a romance poet who is anti-monarchy and anti-religion. Her radical poetry tends to be emotion rather than reasoning.

Ozymandias is the throne name of Ramesses II, ruler of Ancient Egypt.

Form: A no-rhyme sonnet using iambic pentameter (10 syllables a line) which is often disrupted, which distances the reader from the king.

London

Poet: William Blake

Blake is an anti-monarchy poet who has extreme political views.

Blake grew up in London, which he saw was full of greed and inequality, especially after the Industrial Revolution.

Form: Dramatic monologue, unbroken ABAB rhyme scheme echoes the relentless misery of the city. Regular rhythm mimics the sound of his feet as he trudges around.

My Last Duchess

Poet: Robert Browning

Victorian view of women being only domestic.

Poem is based upon the Duke of Ferrara, Alfonso II, who’s first wife died of suspicious circumstances. It’s believed that he killed her with poison.

Form: Dramatic monologue in iambic pentameter to reinforce his conversation with the visitor. Rhyming couplets shows desire for control but enjambment symbolises him getting carried away by jealousy.

The Charge of the Light Brigade

Poet: Alfred Tennyson

Tennyson was a Poet Laureate, so many of his poems were propaganda and heavily biased.

A disastrous battle between British cavalry and Russian forces during the Crimean War. The Light Brigade were defenceless because of a miscommunication and many were killed.

Form: Third-person rhyming couplets and triplets drive the poem forward, but the momentum is broken by unrhymed lines to mimic the stumbling of horses. The overall lack of rhyme scheme hints at the chaos of war.

Bayonet Charge

Poet: Ted Hughes

Hughes’ father fought in WW1.

The poem highlights the brutality of war as a tribute to his father’s suffering without influence of patriotism.

Form: Lines of uneven length creates an irregular rhythm, mirroring the soldier struggling to run through the mud. Use of pronoun “he” keeps him anonymous to show that it mimics all young soldiers. Begins in media res.

Remains

Poet: Simon Armitage

Armitage was a Poet Laureate.

Published this poem for “The Not Dead” Channel 4 Documentary to raise awareness of soldier’s suffering with PTSD after returning home.

Form: Second person plural to first person singular makes it sound like a confession. Last line references Mabeth, mirroring Lady Macbeth’s consuming guilt. There is a volta (turning point) at the fifth stanza - “end of story…”

Poppies

Poet: Jane Weir

Weir’s two sons influenced her desire to explore young men going into war.

The title resembles the poppies that grew on the battlefield that became a symbol of remembrance for WW1. This reinforces the theme of remembrance in her poem.

Form: First-person narrative, no rhyme to mirror the narrator’s thoughts. Time frame is ambiguous to show how memories of childhood and current time are intermingled.

War Photographer

Poet: Carol Ann Duffy

Duffy was one of the UKs Poet Laureates, and was interested in the responsibilities and difficulties of the roles of war photographers.

Form: four stanzas of equal length and a regular rhyme scheme “in ordered rows” like the spools, echoing the care taken in work for the public.

Kamikaze

Poet: Beatrice Garland

Garland was inspired to look into why people died for their country. The poem explores the inner turmoil in Japanese individuals and the societal expectations placed upon them.

Kamikaze pilots were considered to be cowardly if they did not die for their country, and would usually be shunned by their families if they refused.

Form: Absence of the pilot’s voice mimics how he was cut from society. Third person emphasises distance between daughter and pilot.