Power & Conflict Poems English Literature GCSE (6-7)

**PARTY SIZE** - Includes 15 unique different poems!

Ozymandias - 'Sneer of cold command'

Shows the king's arrogance and the cruelty of absolute power.

Ozymandias - 'The lone and level sands stretch far away'

Nature outlasts human power and ego; the statue is forgotten.

London - 'Mind-forged manacles'

People are imprisoned by their own thoughts and the city's social restrictions.

London - 'Runs in blood down palace walls'

The poor suffer for the mistakes and greed of the wealthy monarchy.

The Prelude - 'A huge peak, black and huge'

Nature is personified as a powerful, predatory force that humbles man.

The Prelude - 'Troubled pleasure'

An oxymoron showing man's arrogance in thinking he can control nature.

My Last Duchess - 'I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together'

A chilling euphemism for the Duke having his wife murdered.

My Last Duchess - 'Notice Neptune… taming a sea-horse'

Symbolizes the Duke's desire for total control over beautiful things.

Charge of the Light Brigade - 'Into the valley of Death'

Biblical allusion used to make the soldiers' sacrifice feel epic and holy.

Charge of the Light Brigade - 'Someone had blunder'd'

A subtle criticism of the leaders who caused the fatal error.

Exposure - 'But nothing happens'

Repetition emphasizing the boredom, futility, and psychological torture of war.

Exposure - 'The merciless iced east winds that knive us'

Nature is presented as the primary, most cruel enemy of the soldier.

Storm on the Island - 'Exploding comfortably down on the cliffs'

Oxymoron showing that nature's violence is 'normal' and indifferent to humans.

Storm on the Island - 'It is a huge nothing that we fear'

The wind is invisible and intangible, yet it has total power over us.

Bayonet Charge - 'Suddenly he awoke and was running'

In media res; reflects the disorientation and sudden terror of battle.

Bayonet Charge - 'His terror's touchy dynamite'

The soldier is no longer a human; he has become a weapon ready to explode.

Remains - 'Probably armed, possibly not'

The doubt that fuels the soldier's guilt and psychological trauma (PTSD).

Remains - 'His bloody life in my bloody hands'

A literal and metaphorical stain of guilt that cannot be washed away.

Poppies - 'A blockade of yellow bias binding'

Domestic imagery used to describe the emotional barriers of grief.

Poppies - 'Hoping to hear your playground voice'

Shows the mother's desire to return to a time before her son was a soldier.

War Photographer - 'Spools of suffering set out in ordered rows'

He tries to organize the chaos of war to make it 'make sense' to the public.

War Photographer - 'They do not care'

The final sentence highlights the indifference of the comfortable Western public.

Tissue - 'Paper that lets the light shine through'

Suggests that human structures (like maps or money) are fragile and transient.

Tissue - 'Raise a structure never meant to last'

Human life is temporary, and we should accept our fragility.

The Emigrée - 'My memory of it is sunlight-clear'

The speaker refuses to see her lost home as anything but perfect.

The Emigrée - 'They accuse me of being dark in their free city'

The conflict between the speaker's past identity and her present reality.

Kamikaze - 'A shaven head full of powerful incantations'

Refers to the patriotic propaganda and 'spell' of national honor.

Kamikaze - 'Which had been the better way to die'

Explores the pain of being 'dead' to your family vs. dying in battle.

Checking Out Me History - 'Dem tell me wha dem want to tell me'

Criticism of a Eurocentric education system that erases black history.

Checking Out Me History - 'I carving out me identity'

An active, forceful verb showing he is taking control of his own story.