POETRY ENGLISH LIT

Ozymandias — Power / tyranny

sneer of cold command

Ozymandias — Arrogance / pride

King of Kings

Ozymandias — Power fades

colossal wreck

Ozymandias — Nature outlasting humans

Half sunk a shattered visage lies

London — Psychological oppression

mind-forged manacles

London — Control / restriction

charter’d street

London — Corrupt institutions

black’ning Church

London — Political abuse of power

Runs in blood down Palace walls

My last duchess - written in

Iambic pentameter, reflecting the tight control of the duke

My Last Duchess — Possession / control

Thats my last Duchess painted on the wall

My Last Duchess — Jealousy / insecurity about her behaviour

too soon made glad, too easily impressed

My Last Duchess — Abuse of authority

I gave commands

My Last Duchess - metaphor for women

Notice neptune though, taming a a seahorse

My Last Duchess — Death / control

all smiles stopped together

The Prelude — Conflicted emotions

An act of stealth and troubled pleasure

The Prelude — Peaceful nature

small circles glittering idly in the moon

The Prelude — Nature’s overwhelming power

a huge peak, black and huge

The Prelude — Lasting fear / trauma

There hung a darkness

Exposure — Nature as violent

merciless iced east winds that knive

Exposure — description of snow

Flowing flakes that flock, pause, and renew

Exposure — Futility of war - repeated throughout poem + cyclical

But nothing happens

Exposure — Death / emotional numbness

all their eyes are ice

Storm on the Island — False confidence

we are prepared

Storm on the Island — Nature’s unpredictability

spits like a tame cat turned savage

Storm on the Island — Normalised violence

exploding comfortably

Storm on the Island — Fear of the invisible

it is a huge nothing - space is a salvo - bombarded by empty air

What does the storm represent?

unseen political violence and fear during The Troubles.

Bayonet Charge — Sudden fear / panic

Suddenly he awoke and was running

Bayonet charge - soldier

Patriotic tear

Bayonet Charge — Extreme terror

terror’s touchy dynamite

Bayonet Charge — Loss of humanity

cold clockwork

Bayonet Charge — Pointlessness of war

King, honour, human dignity, etcetera

Remains — Moral uncertainty

probably armed, possibly not

Remains — trauma after

Sleep and he’s probably armed… dream and he’s torn apart by a dozen rounds

Remains — PTSD / memory

the drink and the drugs won’t flush him out

Remains - forceful memory

Dug in behind enemy lines

Remains - blame and guilt

His bloody life on my bloody hands

War Photographer — Suffering caused by war

spools of suffering

War photographer - censorship

A hundred agonies in black and white from which his editor will pick out five or six

War Photographer — Lasting effects of violence

blood stained into foreign dust

War Photographer — Public indifference

they do not care

War photographer - sunday supplement

Reader’s eyeballs prick with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers

Poppies — Protection / care

sellotape bandaged

Poppies — Letting go

released a song bird

Poppies — Memory / hope

hoping to hear

Checking Out Me History — Manipulation of education

Dem tell me

Checking Out Me History — Oppression

bandage up me eye with me own history blind me to me own identity

Checking Out Me History — Identity

carving out me identity

Checking out me history - fairy tale

Bout de man who discover the ballon and de cow who jump over de moon

Checking Out Me History — Personal history

I checking out me own history

Kamikaze — Shame / honour

a shaven head

Kamikaze — Beauty of nature

Shoal of fishes flashing silver as their bellies swiveled towards the sun

Kamikaze — Power of nature

A tuna, the dark prince, muscular, dangerous

Kamikaze - shaming return

To live as though he never returned

Kamikaze — Regret / reflection

he must have wondered which had been the better way to die

Tissue — Fragility of human power

paper that lets the light shine through

Tissue — Human vulnerability

turned into your skin

Tissue — Human connection

smoothed and stroked and turned transparent with attention

Tissue - maps

The sun shines through their borderlines

Tissue - power of nature

Let the daylight break through capitals and monoliths

Tissue — Fragility of life

Living tissue… a structure never meant to last

The Emigree — Positive memory

sunlight-clear

The emigrée - opening

There once was a country

The Emigree — Oppression

They accuse me of being dark in their free city

The Emigree — Political corruption

sick with tyrants

Emigree - connection to language

That childs vocabulary… tastes of sunlight

The Emigree — Lasting connection to place

my shadow falls as evidence of sunlight

Charge of the light brigade - what form

Ballad form dactylic dimeter

Charge of the light brigade - biblical imagery, making their bravery very respectable

Into the valley of death

Charge of the light brigade - break in form emphasis

Someone had blundered

Charge of the light brigade - context

Battle of Balaclava, where a miscommunication resulted in the death of ‘the 600’