E Power and Conflict

K5 - Ozymandias: AO3

• Shelley was a romantic poet, a critic of the monarchy, and a sympathiser of the French revolution

• Shelley wrote the poem to warn leaders that wanted their name to live on that the cruel passing of time would make their empire fall and fade away

• Ozymandias is the Greek name of Pharoah Rameses II, whose statue was found in 1816 with words at the base bragging of his great and undefeatable power, and shows how he thinks power can only lie within people

K5 - Ozymandias: AO2 (3)

• The language shows how Ozy thought of himself to be powerful (King of kings) but the contrast in his destroyed statue (shatter'd visage) shows how ridiculous the notion is, and that true power lies in nature (trunkless legs of stone) and art (the hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed;)

• ! At end of statement then 'nothing beside remains' show how despite ego he is insignificant, . After 'nothing beside remains' shows bluntness and brutal truth

• Does not follow regular rhyme scheme showing destruction and fragility of human power, constant use of irony reflects hate of oppression, story is told through multiple accounts showing how the Pharoah became more significant over time

K5 - London: AO3

• Blake was a romantic poet, critique of the monarchy and capitalism, and supporter of the French Revolution

• At the time, Britain had begun to industrialise and more people moved to cities for jobs, but there was not enough space or safety laws in place to properly protect them, children were often subject to long hours of work and STDs grew rampant

• Marriage was very controlled, with most having women have little say, often used for financial or political advantages, many were abusive and divorce became expensive uncommon and shameful

• Blake wanted to remind people of how technological advancements had no consideration for the people, and that the importance of emotion and individual happiness should be preserved

K5 - London: AO2 (3)

• 'Mind forg'd manacles' refers to how these limits are put on people by themselves and further shows how he calls for them all to rise up and break out of them

• 'Runs in blood down palace walls' shows how the monarchy and excess luxury is preserved whilst everyone else suffers

• Repetition of 'in ev'ry' and ABAB rhyme structure re-inforce the relentless and inescapable nature of the city's environmental and social pollution

• Capitalisation of 'Marriage' similar to Church and Monarchy, shows how all institutions become affected and ruined

• Dramatic monologue shows how the narrator is passionate about all of the destruction

• Presentation of how this affects every corner from churches to babies shows how  total the destruction is

• 'black'ning Church' shows industrial pollution spread, and how even places meant to be moral and sacred have become corrupted

• First shows what he sees, second and third shows what he hears, last is a combination of overwhelming

• Rhetoric - emotive words are used like 'cry of fear' 'infants tear' are used to persuade the reader that the system needs to change

• 'Youthful harlot's curse' shows either how young prostitues are swearing or how some new evil force has put a curse on the city for it to become this way

K5 - Exposure: AO3

• Lots of poetry at the time was propaganda for the war being great, but this was a sharp contrast as it highlighted the brutal reality

• Owen fought in the Manchester Regiment and experienced shellshock and returned to Britain to recover, was then sent back to France and died on the 4th November 1918 whilst leading his men across the Sambre canal

• The winter of 1917 was one of the coldest in living memory, soldiers often developed hypothermia, frostbite, trench foot and subsequently gangrene, all of which were fatal

• Owens works were published in 1920 and are considered some of the most important pieces of WW1 poetry

K5 - Exposure: AO2 (3)

• “Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knife us…” Abrupt opening, ellipsis, sibilance

• “Dawn masking … her melancholy army” Irony in personification

• “Pale Flakes with fingering stealth come feeling our faces –” Fricative alliteration shows harsh conditions

• “Shutters and doors all closed: on us the doors are closed” Metaphor shows acceptance of trap

• “All their eyes are ice / but nothing happens” Metaphor shows literal freeze and emotionless state of buriers + refrain shows nothing achieved

K5 - Remains: AO3

• PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is an anxiety disorder caused by a particularly distressing event and can cause nightmares/flashbacks, insomnia, difficulty concentrating, and feelings of isolation guilt and irritability, and often leads to substance abuse

• The Not Dead - The poem comes from a collection released alongside a film documenting soldiers and their post-war psychological struggles

• Armitage worked as a probation officer before his writing career picked up

• The poem details the real-life experience of a soldier fighting in the Iraq war

• Lacks the humour and deadpan tone of his other poems, showing importance of the subject matter

K5 - Remains: AO2 (3)

• “On another occasion” - Shows how this sort of violence was done so often, and even casually

• “I see every round as it rips through his life” - Reminds himself that its an actual human he’s killed and every round emphasises focus on the moment

• “here in my head when I close my eyes” - PTSD forces him to constantly relive the moment and is haunted by it

• “His bloody life in my bloody hands” - Colloquial? Puts blame on himself whilst trying to convince self the man was bad too

• “probably armed, possibly not” - Tries to figure out if he did the right thing, attempt to justify murder shows cruelty of war

• Fast paced natural speech style monologue with lots of enjambment reminds the reader this happened to an actual person

• Even spread of stanzas during and after show the negative effects in the moment are just as impactful as the one after - conflict between death vs torture

K5 - COMH: AO3

• John Agard was born in British-controlled Guyana and was sent to a school where he was taught British history rather than his own, he later toured and wrote books encouraging education of Caribbean and other non-European histories

• Mary Seacole went, independently, to the Crimean War to help soldiers, but is often overshadowed by Florence Nightingale

• Shaka the Zulu was a tribal warrior who united tribes all over Africa and led over 40K soldiers but is often replaced with tales of Lord Nelson defeating Napoleon

• The Caribs and the Arawaks were the tribes living in the Americas when Columbus arrived and wiped them out with foreign diseases

• Nanny of the Maroons was a Jamaican revolutionist who led a guerrilla war against British colonisers and established Nanny Town for slaves to become free in, freed over 800 people, on the $500 Jamaican bill

• Toussaint Louverture led the Haitian Revolution, the only revolt of slaves that led to the founding of an independent state, often referred to as a Black Napoleon, highlight Eurocentrism and even Racial focuses in history teaching

K5 - COMH: AO2 (3)

• “Bandage up me eye… blind me to my own identity” - Juxtaposition of bandage and blind shows how they are unaware of the damage of this focus

• “no dem never tell me bout dat” colloquialism shows reclaim of culture and creation of “dem” implies this was a choice made and not just bad luck

• “Dem tell bout ole King Cole was a merry ole soul” sung in performance and shows how childish focus ignore important stories

• “Carving out me identity” - Went out himself and discovered his own culture and no one else would help him

• “Napoleon… and first Black” - Links to Toussaint referred to as the “Black Napoleon” and emphasises just how far Eurocentrism goes

• Designed for spoken word and lacks traditional punctuation to encourage the audience to experience the passion in the anger + Written in Caribbean Creole

• British history put in rigid rhyme and simple rhythms to show how its forced, Caribbean history put in free verse with no rigid rhyme, showing power and sense of identity

• Angry at “dem” (who forced British history on him") and proud of his own history and culture