Power and conflict poetry - quotation and meaning

“run my fingers through the gelled blackthorns of your hair”

Poppies - thorns➡pain➡emotional pain, Is it comforting him or her?,

“steeling the softening of my face”

Poppies - repressing emotions

“I was brave”

Poppies - Normally soldiers are brave not mothers

“my stomach busy making tucks darts and pleats”

Poppies - feels physical pain, fear for his life

“tremble”

War photographer - deeply affected by the “hundred agonies”

“ ordinary pain of england”

“running children in nightmare heat”

War photographer - contrast each other, forces the reader to compare them nightmare➡unimaginable

“they do not care”

war photographer- desensitised to suffering

“spools of suffering”

war photographer- ongoing, repeated, drawn out

“twitching agonies of men”

exposure - vivid imagery of wounded

“winds that knive us”

exposure - even get wounded by weather

“What are we doing here?”

“Is it that we are dying?”

exposure - rhetorical questions second answers first

exposure - rhetorical questions second answers first

“slowly our ghosts drag home”

exposure - hopelessness

“But nothing happens”

Exposure - futility, repetition x 4, inevitable death

“Suddenly he awoke and was running”

Bayonet Charge - confused, always has to be alert

“He was running like a man who has jumped up in he dark and runs”

Bayonet charge - confusing doesn’t make sense mimics his train of thought

“stumbling”

Bayonet Charge - no control

“raw-seamed hot khaki, his sweat heavy” he “lugged” his rifle

Bayonet Charge - discomfort

“bullets smack the belly out of the air”

Bayonet Charge - violent imagery could suggest he is in pain

“King, honour, human dignity, ectetera” were “dropped like luxuries”

Bayonet charge - heroic ideals were replaced by cruel reality

“patriotic tear” was now “sweating like molten iron”

Bayonet Charge - patriotism replaced by fear and pain

“A half-formed ghost”

War photographer - haunted by the memories, half developed photo (AO3)

“Which did not seem to tremble then though do now”

war photographer - relive his trauma

“ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel”

War photographer - feels guilty about the ease of life in england

“probably armed possibly not”

Remains - the possibility haunts him

“the drink and the drugs won’t flush him out”

remains - unhealthy coping mechanism

“his bloody life in my bloody hands”

remains - colloquial or literal?, guilt

“here in my head when i close my eyes”

remains - guilt eats away at him, ptsd

shift from “we” to “I”

remains - feels personally responsible

“valley of death”

Charge of the light brigade - psalm 23 bible, repetition

“into the jaws of death

into the mouth of hell”

charge of the light brigade - running into a monster

“six hundred”

charge of the light brigade - reminds reader of the extensive loss of life

“theirs but to do and die”

charge of the light brigade - they have to do it and they’ll have to die no choice

“on another occasion”

remains - implies it happens often and is normal

“carted off”

“sort of inside out”

“tosses his guts back into his body”

remains - colloquial conflict can devalue human life

the last stanza has two lines and all the others have four

remains - mimics the soldiers breakdown

“myself somebody else and somebody else”

“same mind”

“all three”

“three of a kind”

remains - trying to justify his actions

“his bloody life in my bloody hands”

remains - guilty

sees him when he “sleeps” “dreams” “blinks”

remains - ptsd

“merciless iced eat winds that knive”

exposure - nature is personified to attack them

snowflakes “come feeling” for their faces with “fingering stealth”

exposure - men think they’re more likely to die from the elements

“mad gusts pulling on the wire”

exposure - bad weather

“war lasts, rain soaks, clouds sag stormy”

exposure - sibilance, war and weather being grouped together

“this wizened earth has never troubled us with hay”

storm on the island - (AO3 troubles) positive negative enjambmenf hard to follow

“there are no stacks / or stooks that can be lost”

storm on the island - positive negative enjambment

the sea “spits like a tame cat / turned savage”

storm on the island - similie, weather is dangerous

“we are bombarded by empty air”

storm on the island - attacked by elements

“the wind dives and stafes invisibly”

storm on the island - attacked by wind

“was there a man dismay’d”

charge of the light brigade

“boldly they rode and well”

charge of the light brigade - bravery and did exactly what they were told for their country

“plunged”

“charging”

charge of the light brigade - active tone shows certainty

“yellow hare” which crawls “in an threshing circle”

bayonet charge - could represent the soldier, mimics the soldiers isolation

“cold clockwork of the stars and the nation”

Bayonet charge - tiny insignificant part of a system, fees useless

“finally alone”

war photographer - hints a guilt for escaping the suffering

he photographed a “strangers features” and “sought approval without words”

war photographer - he’s distant from them despite being with them

“they do not care”

war photographer - how he feels different ambuity around “they” assumed to be everyone

sneer of cold command

ozymandias abused his power as a ruler

a shattered visage

ozymandias symbolises loss of power hes unrecognisable his power is useless as he is unable to communicate it (mouth)

sun shines through their borderlines

tissue - paper symbolises human power , human power is stopped by nature

day light break through capitals and monoliths

tissue - natural power > human power “capitals and monoliths” represent government and buildings which are temporary compared to nature

paper that lets the light shine through this is what could alter things

tissue - paper is allocated a large amount of power by humans despite its weaknesses which are made visible by nature

i gave commands then all smiles stopped

my last duchess - lack of explanation shows he doesn’t feel he has to give any account for his actions

will’t you please sit and look at her

my last duchess - forcing people to look at her and is having control over her image even when she is dead

blind me to my own identity

checking out me history - metaphors of blindness (caused by humans) feels he has been badly treated by those incharge

dem told me wha dem what to tell me

checking out me history - pick and choose what they want to share

“Frà Pandolf” and “Claus of Innsbruck”

my last duchess - name dropping in vain to show off

as if she ranked my gift of a nine hundred year old name with anybody’s gift

my last duchess - jealous of her and wants her to value him over anybody else

I choose never to stoop

my last duchess - killed her instead to talking to her

one summer evening (led by her”

the prelude - shows nature exists as a higher power and can make the narrator steal the boat, personifies nature as a her, summer creates a warm feeling creating a pathetic fallacy of calm and idyllic which is how the poems tone begins

“circles glittering” and “ sparkling light”

the prelude - show the beauty, narrator seems inspired and relaxed

“upreared its head” and “strode after”

mountain is personified as a monster forcing him to return the boat, nature influences our behaviour creates a monstrous imagery

for many days

the prelude - the affected him for a long time

“stature” and “measured motion” “trembling”

the prelude - the mountain is “stature” and has “measured motion” which contrasts the narrators “trembling”

“strode after me”

the prelude - he is completely alone and isolated

“struck””still””stars”

the prelude - sibilance creates a threatening mood

“small””still””melted all”

the prelude - consonance ‘l’ shows gentle movement