Power and Conflict Poetry

Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land

Ozymandias

whose frown

And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command

Ozymandias

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'

Ozymandias

Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

London

charter'd

London

Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

London

In every cry of every Man

London

And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse

My Last Duchess

(since none puts by

The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)

My Last Duchess

Even had you skill/In speech - (which I have not)

My Last Duchess

as if she ranked

My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name

With anybody's gift.

Storm on the Island

We are prepared: we build our houses squat

Storm on the Island

you know what I mean - leaves and branches

Can raise a chorus in a gale

Storm on the Island

spits like a tame cat

Turned savage.

Bayonet Charge

rolls like a flame / And crawls in a threshing circle

Bayonet Charge

'King, honour, human dignity etcetera'

drop like luxuries

Bayonet Charge

Bullets smacking the belly out of the air

Exposure

merciless iced east winds that knive

us...

Exposure

But nothing happens. (repeated consistently in 1st stanza)

Exposure

Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army

Remains

On another occasion

Remains

probably armed, possibly not

Remains

he's here in my head when I close my eyes

Remains

his bloody life in my bloody hands.

War Photographer

spools of suffering

War Photographer

a half-formed ghost

War Photographer

A hundred agonies in black and white

War Photographer

blood stained into foreign dust.

The Prelude: Stealing the Boat

One summer evening (led by her)

The Prelude: Stealing the Boat

Small circles glittering idly in the moon

The Prelude: Stealing the Boat

my boat

Went heaving through the Water like a swan

The Prelude: Stealing the Boat

Towered up between me and the stars

Kamikaze

full of powerful incantations

Kamikaze

enough fuel for a one-way

journey into history

Kamikaze

fishing boats

strung out like bunting/ arcing in swathes

Kamikaze

my mother never spoke again/nor did she meet his eyes

Tissue

This is what could alter things

Tissue

place layer over layer, luminous

Tissue

and never wish to build again with brick

The Charge of the Light Brigade

Forward, the Light Brigade!

Charge for the guns!

The Charge of the Light Brigade

Cannon in front of them

Volleyed and thundered

The Charge of the Light Brigade

Flashed all their sabres bare,

Flashed as they turned in air

The Charge of the Light Brigade

When can their glory fade?

Poppies

I pinned one onto your lapel

Spasm of red

Poppies

The world over flowing like a treasure chest

Poppies

Released a song bird from its cage

Poppies

A single dove flew from the pear tree

Checking Out Me History

Dem tell me

Dem tell me

Wha dem want to tell me

Checking Out Me History

Bandage up me eye with me own history

Blind me to me own identity

Checking Out Me History

Dem tell me bout de man who discover de balloon

and de cow who jump over de moon

Dem tell me bout de dish ran away with the spoon

but dem never tell me bout Nanny de maroon