English poems

The City Planners

1. Unnatural/ oppressive imposition of order

2. Revelation of the chaos underneath the mask of perfection - sickness + destruction of nature

3. The City Planners represent self-serving leaders and the instability and decline of humanity

The Planners

1. The fist stanza carefully reflect the mathematical/ intricate planning organised by the Planners

2. The building of this new city is shown to be almost painful in its creation, through the manipulative removal of history

3. It is suggested that there is no space for emotions in this modernising world, although this is implicitly undermined by the end of the poem.

The Man with Night Sweats

1. Focusses on loneliness which accompanies illness

2. Resents himself and his body because of its failure to protect him from this disease

3. The tone shifts towards the end of the poem to one of fear

Night Sweats

1. The speakers environment reflects the anxiety he experiences due to the writer’s block

2. His writing seems to be a life force for the speaker; without it, he seems to physically and emotionally wither away

3. The second part of the poem seems to be an ode to his wife, who is a force of goodness in his life

Rain

1. Solitude, as shown through the rain

2. Feels sympathy for both the living and the dead. Rain is shown to have a spiritual cleansing quality to wash away everyone’s sin

3. Inevitability of death

Spirit is too Blunt

1. Scientific language which is unusual of a poem admiring a baby

2. Intricate language runs throughout the poem

3. Stevenson sets the body against the spirit - suggests the body is superior

Long Distance

1. Grief of the father

2. Irrational continuation of love

3. The differing views between the father and son, which seems inconsequential by the end of the poem

Funeral Blues

1. The speaker tries to control his environment as a way to control and contain his grief

2. Auden seems to critique the public nature of mourning

3. Uses more sincere and inflated language towards the end to express his immense and all encompassing grief

He Never Expected Much

1. Cynical attitude towards life, lowering ones expectations and the impression that the world has unironically fulfilled what it had promised

2. Characterisation and personification of the world

3. End of poem: attitude that this cynicism has prevented a great dead of pain during the speakers life, but also implicitly suggesting that he hasn’t lived to his fullest because of it.

A Consumer’s Report

1. Life is described as a kind of product, in material, tangible terms

2. Language of commerce and capitalism infiltrates every part of the poem - reflects how life itself has become a kind product

3. The cynical and wry attitude of the speaker creates ironic humor but also leads to a somewhat ominous ending

On Finding a Small Fly Crushed in a Book

1. The description of the fly elevates it to an almost religious or spiritual importance

2. Turner moves to explore the universal yet still unexpected nature of death

3. Unlike the fly’s death, humans are described as being insignificant

Away, Melancholy

1. Mankind is no different from the other creatures in the natural world

2. Poem can be read as a prayer, using biblical language to banish negative emotions

3. Speakers desire to be rid of melancholy through descriptions of both the suffering and essential goodness of humanity

Ozymandias

1. Shelley uses the description of the statue, and its decaying state, to emphasise the inevitable crumbing of legacy over time

2. The words of Ozymandias are at the centre of the poem: although it is an attempt for him to establish power, his words are distorted through the numerous narrators, which allows Shelley to explore the lack of control anyone has over their legacy

3. The ending of the poem emphatically describes the destruction of legacy through the forces of nature, suggesting that nobody is a great as they percieve themselves to be