conflict poetry analysis

a poison tree

* AABB rhyme scheme
* “my wrath my wrath” - repetition shows how destructive emotion grows
* “sunned with smiles” - sibilance creates the nostalgic feeling of happiness, growing emotion and missing peace
* “bore an apple” - metaphor, garden of eden, and his wrath is like the devil and will end in bad fallout.
* Blake was religious and shows morality in his work

the destruction of Sennacherib

* AABB rhyme scheme
* “like the wolf on the fold” - sense of tension from the beginning, soldiers are ready to attack (on the fold)
* “angel of death..face the foe” - asking god to engage in this miraculous rescue
* “melted like snow” - god rescued the people of Jerusalem, the fighting melted like snow.
* He was one of the earliest “celebrities”

extract from the prelude

* blank verse
* “troubled pleasure” oxymoron emphasises that he is embracing breaking the rules - initial confidence which we see turn to fear
* “huge peak, black and huge” - repetition exaggerates his fear, especially of something bigger than him
* “no pleasant images of trees…sea…sky” - showing the dark side of nature, semantic perception of nature
* Wordsworth drew a lot of inspiration from the Lake District

the man he killed

* ABAB rhyme scheme
* “many a nipper kin!” saying they could have been friends having met under different circumstances, so he may see a similarity in each other, emphasising his grief.
* “shot at him…my foe of course” - tying to justify by saying he is his foe (does not know him personally)
* “quaint and curious war is!” - the speaker is still young and does not fully understand war, it is unfamiliar. it is an anti-war poem.
* would often touch on themes on inequality in his writing

cousin kate

* ACBC rhyme scheme
* “his plaything and his love” juxtaposition emphasises how she was exploited and used by someone she loved
* “you grow more fair than i” unfairness and possibly jealousy (through comparative language) that the lord chose her cousin because of her innocence
* “my son..my shame and pride” even though the son came of a bad situation and people look down on her because of him, she loves and is proud of him. Kate can’t bear a child
* spent time volunteering with church groups 

that helped "fallen women" 

half-caste

* free verse
* “you say half-caste” repetition evokes anger and the direct address calls out the listeners and exaggerates how he doesn’t understand his mistreatment
* “mix a black key…a white key” mixing creates a beautiful thing, like piano pieces, also idea of he is completing society like how the black and white keys alone would make an incomplete piece
* “de whole of yu” - patois, he is not ashamed of his culture or the way he speaks even though he is ridiculed, juxtaposition of the people actually being half a person because they are so closed minded
* Guianese father and a Portuguese mother, so he is of mixed race.  

exposure

* ABBA rhyme scheme
* ‘merciless…winds that knife us” - dark side of nature and idea that the weather is killing the soldiers more so than the actual war
* “snowflakes flat flop pause and renew” - the never ending, cyclical idea of war. most of the time it is just waiting around and anticipation is killing them
* “but nothing happens” - breaks the stigma of what people at home think is happening at war (it is not constant fighting) and the futility of war.
* The winter of 1916-1917 was said to be the coldest in living memory

the charge of the light brigade

* dactylic dimeter
* “the valley of death” - bravery of the soldiers, reference to the psalm, like satan is hovering over them (danger waiting to strike)
* “storm’d…shot and shell” - alliteration, and emphasising the nobility of dying fearlessly with patriotic values
* “the noble 600” - reminder to never forget the service they gave us and their honourability of fighting for the country selflessly
* his job was to write poems to commemorate significant events

catrin

* free verse
* “i can remember you” - powerful and blunt sentence opener, inner conflict of letting her daughter grow up
* “our struggle to become/separate” the enjambment reflects the inner conflict and struggle she is facing as a mother (rising emotion)
* “that old rope” - umbilical cord - almost as if a knot in her stomach tightens when she thinks about her daughter leaving her and breaking their metaphorical tie
* "Why did my beautiful baby daughter have to become a teenager?" 

war photographer

* free verse
* “i seek out the tragic” - almost like a predator hunting its prey - the exploitation of the men who are fighting so brutally for the enjoyment of others
* '“sun gilded girls…small girls staggering” - oxymoron of the comfort of the people living in the west who will never understand the futility and brutality of war
* “dark scream” - how war has robbed soldiers of innocence - equally, like a child screams shows the immaturity of war
* his poem was written in 1987, at the time of several major conflicts including: the Iran/Iraq war

belfast confetti

* free verse
* “it’s raining!” - short sentence, war has hurt him so much that he has been robbed of his ability to articulate his thoughts (mind scattered like the confetti)
* “i know this labyrinth” - juxtaposition of familiarity and something like a maze. he knows it - it is his home but he no longer can recognise it. also greek myth - danger can strike at any given moment.
* “why can’t i escape” - rhetorical question, war has consumed him and the futility of it has overtaken his life
* he narrowly missed death when a bullet tore through a taxi he was sitting in on the Falls Road

the class game

* free verse
* “how can you tell what class im from?” - rhetorical question emphasising the prejudice views that society especially middle and upper class have about her. direct address makes listeners self criticise
* “cos we live in a corpy” - informal speech, society judging her but he speaks the way she already does shows she is not ashamed
* “stained with toil…perfume and oil” - juxtaposes the middle/upper class existence. working class are more hard working ironically. (rhyming cuplet)

poppies

* free verse
* “my words…turned to felt” - reflecting on final goodbye and how her words practically melted because of he inner conflict with sending her child to war
* “overflowing like a treasure chest” - simile - like a childish thing, shows innocence of child that she wants to preserve
* “the stomach…making tucks, darts, pleats” - ambiguous we din’t know if he is dead or not. is the conflict turning into grief?
* The poppy is an important symbol of remembrance in our society

no problem

* ABCB rhyme scheme
* “i am not de problem” - non standard english, he is reflecting societies prejudices and de-stigmatising them by using this figure of speech regardless of what they think.
* “born academic labelled athletic” - juxtaposition, society assumes things about him and he is not given opportunities to showcase his potential
* “some of me best friends are white” - comedic relief, irony of a black man saying it rather than someone white. reflecting racist views back onto them so they can self critique
* He was dyslexic and was sent to an approved school but left at 13 unable to read or write

what were they like

* free verse
* “lanterns of stone?” - ignorance and narrow idea of Vietnamese culture, almost patronising
* “their light hearts turned to stone” - metaphor in response to arrogance, showing that war really took a toll on the Vietnamese society
* “who can say its silent now?” - rhetorical question. innocent lives were destroyed by war and even though the war itself is over, the repercussions are still being suffered. (anti-war poem)
* new **counterculture** sprang up which valued political, racial and sexual equality as a result of the war