Poems Flashcards
When we two parted
FORM-The poem consists of four 8-line stanzas, and has a strong ABAB rhyme scheme and regular rhythm. The rhythm emphasises certain syllables (e.g. “Cold” and “kiss” in line 6), which highlights the speaker’s pain.
STRUCTURE-The poem moves through time the narrator constantly shifts between past, present and future. The juxtaposition of the past and present emphasises that there’s no change in his feelings.
LANGUAGE ABOUT DEATH- To the narrator, the end of the relationship is like death this emphasises
his former lover’s lack of feeling for him. Now, even hearing her name reminds him of a
death “knell”.
LANGUAGE OF THE SENSES- Typical love poetry uses descriptions that are pleasing to the senses, but in this poem, the narrator uses negative descriptions, such as the sight of his lover’s “Pale” cheek, the cold touch of “dew” and the funereal sound of a “knell”. This emphasises how he’s lost love and is hurt by it.
LANGUAGE ABOUT SILENCE AND SECRECY - Silence is used to reflect how the relationship was secret
-the narrator and his lover are silent when they part and the narrator is silent about their affair both in the past and in the present. This silence contrasts with the voices of his friends in the third stanza, which draws attention to the fact that the speaker is unable to express how he feels he must stay silent about the affair.
Loves philosophy
FORM-The poem is short and apparently simple the narrator believes that what he’s saying is a simple truth. The poem has a regular ABAB rhyme scheme, but two lines in each stanza don’t fully rhyme-this reflects the way that all of nature is in harmony except for the narrator and his loved one.
STRUCTURE -The poem is tightly structured to be persuasive. The narrator uses the majority of each stanza to build up evidence to support his argument that everything in nature is supposed to come together. He uses a short line at the end of each stanza to ask a rhetorical question this line stands out from the rest of the stanza, which emphasises the contrast between nature and the narrator’s situation.
3 LANGUAGE ABOUT NATURE -The narrator uses personification to show the natural world giving.
receiving and benefitting from love this emphasises his point that love itself is natural and necessary.
4 REPETITION - Repetition is used to show how everything in nature repeatedly connects with everything else. Repeating words such as “mingle”, “kiss” and “clasp” emphasises the physical relationship he wants.
5 RELIGIOUS LANGUAGE Language to do with God suggests that love isn’t just natural, it’s also godly.
Porphyria lover
FORM-The poem is a dramatic monologue. The asymmetrical rhyme scheme (ABABB) and enjambment suggest that the speaker is unstable. However, the regular rhythm of the poem reflects his calmness. Porphyria has no voice in the poem - the speaker projects his own thoughts and feelings onto her in life and in death.
STRUCTURE-Events in the poem mirror each other. In the first half of the poem, Porphyria is active and dominant while her lover is passive, which is shown by the way she rests his head on her shoulder. These positions are reversed when the speaker kills her afterwards he places her head on his shoulder.
LANGUAGE OF POSSESSION-The speaker wants Porphyria to belong to him “for ever”, but he believes that her “pride” and “vainer ties” (possibly meaning her higher social status) are stopping her from being with him. He is desperate to possess her, and in death she becomes his object.
LANGUAGE OF LOVE AND VIOLENCE -The speaker combines love and violence to reflect the troubled and destructive nature of his lovee.g. “heart fit to break” and “burning kiss”.
Sonnet I think thee
FORM-Sonnet form is traditionally used for love poetry. This sonnet is loosely written in the Petrarchan form, with eight lines (an octave) followed by six lines (a sestet)- the octave usually presents a problem and the sestet provides a solution. However, in this poem, the solution arrives in the middle of line 7 having it come early and in the middle of a line reflects the narrator’s impatience to see her lover,
STRUCTURE -The transition from the problem to the solution reflects the difference between the narrator thinking about her lover and being with him. This is emphasised by the reversal of the first and last lines in the first line, the narrator says “I think of thee!”, but by the end of the poem, she imagines that when she’s with her lover, she’ll no longer think of him because she’ll be too near him.
LANGUAGE ABOUT NATURE - The narrator uses an extended metaphor throughout the poem-the narrator’s lover is a tree and her thoughts are “wild vines” which cover him. This shows how her thoughts are constantly growing and unrestrained. The image of the tree casting off the vines reflects how she wants her lover to be a strong, permanent part of her life.
3 EXCITED LANGUAGE-The use of exclamation marks shows how the narrator takes joy in thinking about her lover and feels excitement at the thought of being with him. Plosive sounds and dynamic verbs emphasise how much she wants to be with him.
Neutral tones
- FORM -The poem is written from the point of view of a man addressing a past lover. The first and last lines of each stanza rhyme - this reflects how the memory of a past experience returns to affect the narrator in the present. The indented final line of each stanza slows the pace of the poem by creating a pause - this hints at his sadness that the relationship failed.
STRUCTURE - The first three stanzas centre around a specific memory, then there’s a time jump To the final stanza where the narrator reflects on love in general. The poem ends where it began, with the image of a pond-this cyclical structure represents how he’s been repeatedly hurt by love since that day by the pond, and the way that these experiences always remind him of that day.
LANGUAGE ABOUT SUFFERING - Although the ‘neutral’ tone of the poem is never broken. it’s clear that the narrator feels strong emotions about that day by the pond he uses language he’s hurt by what happened.
LANGUAGE ABOUT LIFELESSNESS-The ‘neutral’ tone shows the lack of love between the narrator and his lover, and the pessimistic way the narrator now feels about love in general. The death of their relationship and his lack of hope are reflected in the landscape - it’s bleak, decaying and cold.
letters from yorkshire
FORM-The poem is written in free verse, which makes the poem flow like natural speech or a letter.
Enjambment allows lines and stanzas to flow into each other - this continuous movement reflects the way the seasons are constantly changing. The use of three-line stanzas instead of an even number of lines makes the poem look disjointed-this reflects how the narrator feels disconnected from the man.
STRUCTURE- In the first three stanzas, the narrator shows how she and the man live different lives. Despite this, it becomes clear in the final two stanzas that they have a deep connection.
PHYSICAL VERBS A series of active verbs (eg. “digging”, “planting”) describe the letter writer’s physical work in his garden. They are ordinary but satisfying actions that emphasise his connection with nature.
CONTRASTS The narrator presents her lifestyle as different to the letter writer’s - he works outside while she sits at a computer. Whilst he sees his life as ordinary, she romanticises it and sees her own life as inferior. Alliteration emphasises the contrast between her “heartfelt of headlines” and his “seeing the seasons” - the word “headlines” sounds melodramatic and artificial compared to the natural “seasons”.
5 LANGUAGE ABOUT COMMUNICATION - Communication bridges the distance between them and emphasises the things they have in common. Figurative language suggests their connection is almost spiritual
FORM -The poem is made up of five stanzas, mostly four lines long and nearly every line has ten syllables this regular structure reflects the steady nature of the narrator’s relationship with his parents. The final line is separated from the rest of the stanza - this could emphasise the narrator’s current separation from his parents, or it could show that he has now crossed the stream and is looking at what’s beyond. The poet mainly uses half-rhymes, which create a gentle, natural rhythm.
2) STRUCTURE-In the first three stanzas the narrator affectionately describes his parents, showing his love for them. In the last two stanzas, his parents turn their attention to him and encourage him to join them.
3 LANGUAGE ABOUT MEMORY-The narrator uses childhood memories to create a vivid scene. The beautiful and peaceful descriptions of his parents reflect how special his childhood is to him.
4 LANGUAGE ABOUT LIGHT-References to light and the colour white may suggest a heavenly setting.
LANGUAGE ABOUT ORDINARINESS RINESS-Specific details such as the “H.P. Sauce bottle” show the narrator’s nostalgia for the details of everyday life when he was a child. The use of ordinary language reflects how life was simple and uncomplicated back then and shows the narrator’s fondness for this time.
FORM-The poem is made up of six stanzas, each four lines long, and is written mostly in iambic tetrameter. This neat structure and steady rhythm mimics the action of ploughing. There’s a regular ABAB rhyme scheme, but some are only half-rhymes - this reflects how the boy falls short of being like his father.
STRUCTURE -The first three stanzas focus on the father. The next two stanzas focus on the boy’s struggle with his identity - he admired his father and wanted to be like him, but failed. There is a role reversal in the last stanza - now the father is “stumbling/Behind his son.
NAUTICAL IMAGERY -The narrator uses language of the sea and sailing to describe his father’s ploughing. This emphasises the father’s strength and skill and the admiration the boy felt for him. The narrator describes his father as the sails, the captain and the ship itself-he’s everything to his son.
REFLECTIVE LANGUAGE - The narrator sees himself as a “nuisance”, and maybe a failure, but at the end of the poem he understands that the father he admired so much as a boy is now dependent on him.
Winter swans
1) FORM-The poem is mostly written in tercets (three-line stanzas), which makes each stanza look unbalanced. The uneven line lengths and lack of rhyme scheme also contribute to a feeling of disjointedness -this reflects the troubled nature of the couple’s relationship. However, frequent enjambment emphasises its continuity. The final stanza is a couplet, which shows that they’ve been reunited as a couple.
2 STRUCTURE The narrator and his partner are separated for the first five stanzas, but they reunite in the final two. The swans provide a turning point at the start of stanza three- they’re beautiful and inspirational, in contrast to earlier descriptions of nature as a place of suffering. This reflects how the couple have reached a turning point in their relationship.
3 NATURAL IMAGERY Natural imagery reflects how their relationship struggles and then improves. Swans are a metaphor for their relationship as they’re part of the natural world, they show that love is natural. This influences the couple they hold hands so naturally that they don’t even notice it happening.
4) CONTRASTS - Language about disturbance and peace, separation and togetherness, leaving then returning is used to show how a couple are making up after a period of conflict in their relationship.
DIRECT SPEECH One small piece of dialogue is used in the poem, which shifts the focus back there’s hope for their relationship. onto the couple. It also breaks the silence.
Singh song
FORM-There’s no regular rhyme scheme, but the poet uses some rhymes to create a light-hearted tone The poem features the voices of the narrator’s wife and customers, showing how he fits into the community. It’s like a song, with verses and a chorus, which makes it sound lively and rhythmic. There’s little punctuation this makes the poem flow in a way that sounds confident and cheerful.
STRUCTURE The poem alternates between descriptions of the narrator’s marriage and his customers’ complaints. The repeated complaints emphasise how often he neglects his work. At the end of the poem, the pace slows down to reflect the intimate scene, and the couple’s similar language emphasises their closeness
HUMOROUS DESCRIPTIONS - The narrator uses entertaining images to describe his wife and family. He also mixes humour with romantic descriptions, which adds to the light-hearted feel.
CONTRASTS-Lots of seemingly contradictory things are brought together in the characters within the poem. The narrator shows that people can embrace elements of different cultures to form their own identity.
PHONETIC INDIAN ENGLISH The words in the poem are spelt the way they sound when spoken aloud-this helps to give a strong impression of the characters. The voices in the poem combine Indian and English words and accents, which shows the influence of both cultures on the characters
