Love and Relationships Context (copy)

When We Two Parted (Lord Byron):

Lord Byron was an English poet and leading figure in the Romantic movement
Romanticism focused on natural, emotional, personal and artistic themes
Had numerous love affaris
The poem refers to Lady Frances Wedderburn Webster, with whom Byron had an affair in 1813
She was married, and was involved in a scandulous affair with the Duke of Wellington in 1816, which was why Byron wrote ‘When We Two Parted’

Love’s Philosophy (Percy Bysshe Shelley):

One of the most famous English poets of the Romantic period
Expelled from Oxford University for writing about atheism
Was married to Harriet Westbrook, but eloped with Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin in 1814
Got married to Mary after his first wife committed suicide whilst being pregnant
Romanticism drew inspiration from the natural world
Due to both Shelley and Byron dying early, Romantic poetry is usually associated with intense, youthful passion

Porphyria’s Lover (Robert Browning):

Victorian poet whose work was greatly influenced by Percy Shelley
Particularly famous for dramatic monologues in verse form, and are often narrated by very sinister characters
His poems reflect the social, spiritual and intellectual upheaval that took place in his lifetime
New scientific theories made the previously religious population question their faith - in particular, Charles Darwin’s ‘On the Origin of Species’ in 1859
Porphyria’s lover is Browning’s first short dramatic monologue, and the first of his poems to examine abnormal psychology
The woman in the poem is named after a disease called Porphyria. It is a rare type of disease, resulting in a madness of some kind

Sonnet 29 - ‘I think of thee’ (Elizabeth Barrett Browning):

One of the most prominent English poets of the Victorian era
Was a semi-invalid and suffered from health problems through her adult life
Eloped to Italy with Robert Browning in 1846, after which her father disinherited her
It is believed that the care and attention her husband paid to her lengthened her life
Sonnet 29 was composed during Elizabeth and Robert’s love affair, shortly before their marriage
She is mostly remembered for her sonnets, which were not intended to be published - she only published them at her husband’s insistence
During the Victorian era, women were expected to not experience or express strong emotions

Neutral Tones (Thomas Hardy):

Hardy married Emma Lavinia Gifford in 1874, and her death in 1912 greately affected him despite his later estrangement from her
He was known as being insecure, depressed and sensitive as a result of two unhappy marriages
He wished to be buried beside his first wife, Emma, so his heart was buried next to her, whilst his ashes were in Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey
His writing often exposes the inequalities and hypocrisy of Victorian society, and how constraints can lead to unhappiness
Other important themes in Hardy’s work are dissapointment, suffering, love, nature, fate and the supernatural
Raised an Anglican but began to question the traditional, Victorian views on God

The Farmer’s Bride (Charlotte Mew):

Many of Mew’s poems revolve around frustrated emotional attachments
She often wrote from the male point of view, wore masculine clothes and kept her hair short
Mental illness affected the writer and her family
Victorian Britain was a patriarchal society, and the woman’s place was considered to be in the home
Women who didn’t become mothers were considered inadequate, a failure or abnormal in some way
The poem was written at a time when issues were beginning to be raised about the way men possess women
The rural society in ‘The Farmer’s Bride’ is reminiscent of the nineteenth century
Farmers would typically choose a bride who had useful skills, and the bride would expect to be part of a working community

Letters From Yorkshire (Maura Dooley):

Has lived in multiple places throughout her life - she was born in Cornwall but has lived in London, Bristol and Yorkshire. The disparity between urban and rural life is reflected in the poem
Worked in Yorkshire for a period of time before moving to London
Dooley has written other poems which focus on the theme of communication
She often links her own experience to collective reflection and shared memory in her poetry

Before You Were Mine (Carol Ann Duffy):

In 1952, 75% of women were married
The average age of marriage was 21 years old
Contraception was not available to women in Britain until 1961
The social scene was slowly growing with the birth of rock & roll in America and the concept of ‘teenagers’
Marilyn Monroe was a famous Hollywood actress who was shown to live a glamorous and carefree lifestyle
Carol Ann Duffy was born in 1955 in Glasgow
She was raised in the 1950s as a Roman Catholic
She writes in everyday language, giving her poems an outward accessibility which hides the complicated nature of her poems
In the poem, the poet is talking to her mother, having seen a photo of her as a teenager

Mother, any distance (Simon Armitage):

Born in 1963 and brought up in Yorkshire
Was a probation officer before becoming a full-time writer
Most celebrated poems take the form of a monologue
Adolescence and growing up are common themes in Armitage’s work
His poems often focus on relatable situations in order to resonate and engage with the reader
From the collection ‘A Book of Matches’, in which poems were designed to be read in the time it takes to strike and burn out a match, and are around the length of a sonnet

Climbing my Grandfather (Andrew Waterhouse):

Was a keen environmental campaigner - much of his work focuses on the environment and even wrote a series of walking guidebooks
Gained a masters in Environmental Science
Struggled with mental illness and committed suicide in 2001, at the age of 42

Walking Away (Cecil Day-Lewis):

Born in 1904 in Ireland, but moved to England with his family when young
Poem is addressed to his son Sean, who went to boarding school from the age of 7
The poet himself was brought up by his father, who was a clergyman, as his mother died when he was young
His poetry is often romantic and uses nature and personal experience as its themes

Eden Rock (Charles Causley):

Causley was born in 1917 and was a Cornish Poet and writer
His father died when Causley was 6-7 years old, so he was brought up by his mother
Eden Rock was written after the deaths of both of his parents
Causley never married
His poetry often has deeper meanings hidden behind the simplicity
Causley was inspired by natural scenery of Cornwall
His early poems often contain strong spiritual and Christian references
River Styx in Greek Mythology formed the boundary between Earth and the Underworld

Follower (Seamus Heaney):

Heaney has always rooted his poetry in the personal and the local
He was the eldest of a large farming family in Northern Ireland
This meant that he would have had a lot of pressure to conform to the expectations of his environment and be adept at farming
Many of his poems are about rural life and traditions

Singh Song! (Daljit Nagra):

Nagra was born in London in 1966 to Sikh Punjabi Indian parents
His poetry explores the experiences of first generation immigrants to Britain, and those of their children and grandchildren, with a focus on the Indian working class in Britain
He moved to Sheffield as a teenager, where his family experienced racist attacks and repeated burglaries of their corner shop
Nagra often uses a hybrid, accented language which imitates the English spoken by Indian immigrants

Winter Swans (Owen Sheers):

In his poetry Sheers writes about places, landscapes and the people who live in them
His work explores history, identity and relationships
He likes to explore the difficulties people face in simply trying to live
Part of the poetry collection Skirrid Hill - ‘Skirrid’ means divorce, shattered mountain or seperation in Welsh
The collection has themes of disintegration and breakdown running through it