AQA Power and Conflict

Ozymandias - Form

Sonnet, with a volta at line 9

Doesn't follow a regular sonnet rhyme scheme - symbolises destruction of human power and control

Iambic pentameter - control, although often disrupted - like time chipping away at the statue

Second hand account - distancing reader from Ozymandias and proving his irrelevance

Ozymandias - Structure

Focuses of different parts of the statue in turn, building up an image (and suggesting it's in pieces now)

Poem ends with description of enormous desert - statue is insignificant

Ozymandias - irony displaying the arrogance and powerlessness of humans

"Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair"

He intended 'despair' because of the grandeur of his statue, but now despair because of the temporary nature of power

Ozymandias - nature quote

"The lone and level sands stretch far away" - insignificance of statue vs size of nature

Final line - reader left with greater impression of nature than of man

Context - Shelley's thoughts and ideas

Romantic poet - against total power, hatred of oppression

London - Form

Dramatic monologue - first person narrator is passionate and personal

Unbroken ABAB rhyme scheme - relentless misery

Regular rhythm - sound of footfalls of poetic voice trudging

London - Structural features

Stanzas one and two focus on people (sights then sounds)

Stanza three focuses on who's to blame

Stanza four is back to people

London - emotive language

"every infant's cry of fear" - London is unsafe - even the young and innocent are trapped in this society

Sensory imagery

London - attitudes

"The mind-forged manacles I hear" - people's minds are restricted, confined, corrupted - unable to think properly

London - responsibility

"Every blackening church appals" - the verb "appals" applies to the chimney sweepers the line above - usually were orphans being cared for by the church

Church is blackened by the soot and the smoke - but is also black with corruption, could help society but doesn't

The Prelude - Form

First-person narrative

Personal account of a turning point in Wordsworth's life

Blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter) gives a sense of importance and seriousness

Regular rhythm makes it sound like natural speech

Turning point at line 21

The Prelude - Structure

3 main sections - light and carefree tone to darker and more fearful to reflection

The Prelude - beauty of nature

"sparkling light" - reflects the tone of the poem - positive and carefree - contrasts with later images of darkness

Alternatively - deception, sparkling light associated with that that isn't real - lulled into false happiness

The Prelude - power of nature

"strode after me" with "measured motion"

Nature is calm and in control, purposeful - calm, "m" sounds - slow sounds

The Prelude - power of man

"proud of his skill"

"trembling oars"

Experience has changed him, changed his pride to fear

William Wordsworth

Romantic poet, who liked to explore the relationship between humans and nature

My Last Duchess - Form

Dramatic monologue written in iambic pentameter - control of speech, arrogant - one-sided conversation

Rhyming couplets - control

Enjambment - not in control, carried away with anger and passions

My Last Duchess - Structure

Poem set in visit to Duke's gallery, but he gets caught up in talking about the Duchess

Becomes a confession - although he moves onto another piece of art before he can tell too much (control)

My Last Duchess - Arrogance

"Even if you had skill in speech (which I have not)"

He talks this whole, long poem - in iambic pentameter - he is clearly displaying false modesty

My Last Duchess - Power

"Will't please you look at her?" - Now she is dead he can control exactly who looks at her

Forceful towards guest - controlling of everyone he can

My last Duchess - Jealousy

"that spot of joy" - this is repeated to emphasised how much he was affected by this - he was unable to control her and her emotions

The Charge of the Light Brigade - Form

3rd person narrative - like a story

Regular, relentless rhythm creates a fast pace, imitating gallop and energy of battle

Rhyming couplets and triplets drive poem forward, but momentum is broken by unrhymed lines - soldiers falling and dying

Lack of overall rhyme scheme - chaos of war

The Charge of the Light Brigade - Structure

Charge of the men in the first 3 stanzas - build up

Battle in 4th - short and tense

Retreat in the 5th - highlights difficulty of situation

Shorter final stanza - summarises heroism

The Charge of the Light Brigade - Patriotism

"Theirs but to do and die" - Repitition in stanza of "theirs"

Respectful of their duty to the country, even though it was almost certain death

The Charge of the Light Brigade - Heroism

"All the world wonder'd" - double meaning

Marvelled at bravery of soldiers - Main focus of poem

Wondered why soldiers had been sent on charge (main focus of media)

The Charge of the Light Brigade - Reality of war

"storm'd at with shot and shell" - storm is pathetic fallacy used to display how unstoppable the opposition were

whooshing, "sh" sounds like the ammo coming at them

Exposure - Form

Present tense, first person plural - collective voice and invokes reader connection

Regular ABBAC rhyme scheme - monotnous, with half-rhymes to offer no satisfaction

Each stanza ends with a half line, a gap of activity or hope

Exposure - Structure

8 stanzas - no progression - nothing happens

- monotonous similarity between endings of stanzas

Exposure - criticism of war

"What are we doing here?"

Owen's first-hand experience of war - futile, pointless, he believed it to be a waste of life

NO ANSWER

Exposure - suffering

"Merciless iced east winds that knive us"

Personification of nature - the real enemy

Exposure - loss

"All their eyes are ice" - eyes of the living and the dead are empty - life is futile in war, hope and soul alike are lost

Storm on the Island - Form

Written in blank verse - mirrors pattern of everyday speech

Collective first person - collective experience

1 compact stanza - like the houses

Storm on the Island - Structure

Shifts from security to fear - turning point at line 14 "But no:"

Caesura indicates final calm before the storm

Storm on the Island - Safety

"We are prepared:" - short phrase gives sense of definition which isn't the case later - a change of opinion

Link to political unrest- Stormont - 3 years before IRA became active - modern reflection as ready for unrest caused

Storm on the Island - Fear

"It pummels your house too" - could be you to mean 'one', but could also be a direct address to the reader - they feel involved

Violent personification of wind

Storm on the Island - animalistic imagery

"spits like a tame cat turned savage" - Familiarity turns to fear

Harsh sounding "spits"

Could definfitely link this to political unrest

Bayonet Charge - Form

Enjambment, caesura, uneven line length - irregular rhythm mirrors soldier struggling through mud

use of "he" creates universal experience - could be any soldier

Bayonet Charge - Structure

Starts 'in medias res' - in the middle of the action

1st stanza - acts on instinct - not very human

Time stands still for soldier's thoughts in 2nd stanza

Loses thoughts and ideas by 3rd stanza - no humanity

Bayonet charge - Futility of war

"King, honour, human dignity, etcetera dropped like luxuries"

Not worth going to war

Attacking out of desperation, not principle

Bayonet charge - terror

"His terror's touchy dynamite"

Weapon, not a human

Fuelled by terror

alliterative 't' sounds gives a sense of bursts, like his terror, and perhaps gunfire

Remains - Form

No regular line length or rhyme scheme - like a story

'We' to 'I' - collective experience to personal emotions

Remains - Structure

Turns quickly from light anecdote to brutal death

Turning point at 5th stanza - tone, thoughts and emotions changed by experience

Remains - Death

"I see broad daylight on the other side"

Through his body - gory

Into the afterlife? - Death is good?

Remains - Memory

"His blood-shadow stays on the street"

Physical embodiment of the soldier's memories

Remains - Guilt

"his bloody life in my bloody hands" - Feels sole responsibility for looter's death (he was shot by all 3 of them)

Reference to Lady Macbeth's unbalanced guilt - the blood

Remains - context

Story of a British soldier in Iraq - taken from interviews

Poppies - Form

1st person narrative - mother's emotions

No regular rhyme or rhythm - narrator's thoughts and memories

Long sentence and enjambment - absorbed in thoughts and memories

Caesura - trying to hold her emotions together

Poppies - Structure

Chronological - ambiguous time frame - memories entwined with no clear distinctions

Poppies - Connotations of death

"spasms of paper red"

Beauty of a poppy corrupted with militaristic language

Narrator is fearful (foreshadowing) of son's fate

Spasms connote injury

Poppies - Loss

"After you'd gone"

Ambiguous - is 'gone' a euphemism for death?

War Photographer - Form

4 stanzas of equal length - suffering in poem set out in ordered rows

Use of enjambment reflects revealing of photo as it develops (or unfolding emotions"

3rd person narrative highlights reader's distance from the horrors of war

War Photographer - Structure

Follows actions and thoughts of photographer in the darkroom

Flashback in stanza 3 - emotive and powerful description of reality of war

War Photographer - Death

"half-formed ghost"

Photo isn't formed completely

Soldier's features are mutilated, affecting his form

War Photographer - Society

"they do not care"

Ambiguity - readers of newspaper or general society

Last words of the poem - the reader will be affected, realising that they don't care

War Photographer - Reality of conflict

"Children running in a nightmare heat"

Children running is usually a happy image - playing

Brutality of nightmare heat suggests otherness of war society

Reference to famous "Napalm girl" photo from Vietnam war

Tissue - Form

No specific narrative - general reflection upon society

No regular rhythm or rhyme and enjambment - narrator's desire for freedom and clarity

Short stanzas - poem built in layers (like Ogres/life)

Tissue - Structure

3 main parts - history, human experience, creation of human life

Final line focuses reader on personal identity

Tissue - money

"Fly our lives like paper kites" - humans are controlled by money, which is restricting us

Tissue - human creation

"A structure never meant to last"

Our lives and buildings are overpowered by time

The Emigree - Form

1st person - personal experience

1st 2 stanzas have enjambment - freedom of childhood

More end stopping in final stanza - confinement of new city/adulthood

The Emigree - Structure

Memory grows and strengthens as poem progresses - physical presence in final stanza

Each stanza ends in sunlight

The Emigree - memory

"It tastes of sunlight"

Vivid sensory image (sensory image used elsewhere"

The Emigree - reality

"sick with tyrants"

Referring to either city or reality of adulthood - learning and coming to terms with the evils of the world

The Emigree - Confinements of adulthood

"time rolls its tanks"

Kamikaze - Form

Mostly 3rd person - reported speech - stories that want to be hidden

Pilot is voiceless in poem and society

3rd person highlights distance between pilot daughter

Kamikaze - Structure

First 5 stanzas are 1 sentence - flight

End of sentence = landing

Final 2 stanzas - fallout of actions

Kamikaze - childhood memory

"Father's boat safe" - childhood associated with security and safety

Memory of childhood safety may have worried pilot

Kamikaze - Nationalism

"Shaven head full of powerful"

No longer an individual - loses individual identity (similar to end of poem)

Nationalistic propaganda

Checking Out Me History - Form

Stanzas about English education in traditional stanza form - confinements of education

Simple rhymes - mocking, sounds like a nursery ryhme

Stanzas about his culture have shorter lines and broken syntax - importance

Checking Out Me History - Structure

Alternating stanzas - British and Caribbean

Detail and imagery differences

Checking out Me History - British education example

"Columbus and 1492" - European coloniser who was responsible for slavery and murder of indigenous people - taught as a hero

Checking Out Me History - Personal education example

"de Caribs and de Arawaks too" - Native Caribbean people who resisted slavery and European colonialism

Shows that only 1 side of history is taught