context Flashcards
as imperceptibly as grief
afternoons
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to autumn
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excerpt from the prelude
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sonnet 43
first - “How do I love thee?” uses archaic language and the rhetorical question to express a timeless, earnest devotion, reflecting the Victorian era’s idealisation of romantic love and devotion within the confines of marriage.
second - “Depth and breadth and height” reflects the Victorian belief in the infinite dimensions of love, connecting it to the era’s fascination with idealised affection, influenced by Christian and metaphysical themes.
third - “With my childhood’s faith” draws on the Victorian association of love with purity, suggesting that the speaker’s love remains steadfast, like the faith of a child, which would have been a common sentiment during the era.
fourth - ‘love thee better after death” echoes the Victorian concept of eternal love, suggesting an unwavering devotion that transcends even death, a theme often explored in both Victorian literature and the culture’s focus on moral purity
valentine
first - In “I give you an onion,” Duffy upends the symbol of romantic love to expose the emptiness of consumer‑driven Valentine’s clichés, reflecting post‑modern scepticism of mass‑produced sentiment.
second - “It is a moon wrapped in brown paper” contrasts lofty romantic ideal with a plain object, critiquing society’s superficial search for spectacle and recovering authentic feeling in the mundane.
third - By insisting she is “Trying to be truthful,” Duffy dramatises a challenge to patriarchal love‑stories, giving voice to a more honest, marginalised perspective that rejects sentimental illusions.
fourth - In “Cling to your fingers, cling to your knife,” she exposes love’s latent violence and possessiveness, reflecting 1990s anxieties and the poet’s aim to deconstruct universal myths about romance.
a wife in london
first - “She sits in the tawny vapour” – This sentence reflects the mood of confusion and uncertainty, tied to themes of loss and separation, commonly found in Victorian war poetry.
second - “Glimmer’s cold” – This suggests the fleeting nature of hope or joy, using the image of a brief, cold light to reflect the transient and often harsh realities of war, a theme often explored in war poetry.
third - “Firelight flickers” – Creates an image of fluctuating light, symbolising both the warmth and instability of life, drawing on Romantic and Victorian literature’s exploration of impermanence.
fourth - “His hand, whom the worm now knows” – Uses biblical allusion and funeral imagery to underscore the inevitability of death and decay, reflecting Victorian and Romantic preoccupations with mortality.
dulce et decorum est
first - In “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,” Owen reflects his own traumatic experiences in the trenches, illustrating how soldiers were physically broken and dehumanised by the harsh conditions of war
second - The exclamation “Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!” captures Owen’s firsthand experience of a gas attack during World War I, using the urgent, desperate tone to convey the sudden and horrifying nature of modern warfare.
third - “Misty panes and thick green light” symbolises the psychological trauma Owen endured from shell shock, reflecting how the horrors of battle linger long after the fighting ends, influencing his portrayal of war’s aftermath.
Fourth - In “Dulce et decorum est / Pro patria mori,” Owen directly critiques the pro-war propaganda of the time, famously used by poets like Jessie Pope, exposing the bitter irony of glorifying death, shaped by his own disillusionment with war.
the manhunt
first - “After passionate nights and intimate days” reflects the closeness that the speaker once shared with their partner before the devastating effects of war, emphasising the contrast between pre- and post-trauma intimacy.
second - “Blown hinge of his lower jaw” vividly describes the soldier’s physical injury, reflecting how war has not only damaged his body but also severed his ability to communicate, highlighting the dehumanising effects of violence.
third - “Parachute silk of his punctured lung” evokes the fragility of life through the comparison of a punctured lung to parachute silk, a delicate image that contrasts with the harsh reality of injury, symbolising vulnerability and the delicate nature of life after trauma.
fourth - “Foetus of metal” uses the metaphor of a foetus to describe a bullet embedded in the soldier’s body, underscoring how something as pure as a child is undermined by the brutality of war.
mametz wood
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the soldier
first - “Whom England bore, shaped” ties the soldier’s identity indelibly to his homeland, echoing Georgian-era patriotism and the idea that one’s character is moulded by England’s pastoral traditions.
second - “Her flowers to love, her ways to roam” evokes an idealised rural England, reflecting Brooke’s Romantic influence and the widespread pre‑war belief in the moral purity of the countryside.
third - “A pulse in the eternal mind” connects individual sacrifice to a universal, almost spiritual continuity, mirroring contemporary faith in empire and the belief that personal loss contributes to a greater national consciousness.
hawk roosting
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she walks in beauty
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living space
first - In “There are just not enough straight lines,” Dharker reflects Mumbai’s chaotic slum architecture, shaped by rapid urbanisation and informal settlement growth that defies planned geometry.
second - “Nails clutch at open seams” evokes the physical fragility of these dwellings, shaped by economic marginalisation and the constant threat of structural collapse.
third - “Someone has squeezed a living space” speaks to extreme overcrowding in Mumbai’s slums, where 41 percent of residents live informally, underscoring issues of sanitation.
fourth - “Dark edges of a slanted universe” frames the slum as its own world, tilted by social inequality, echoing Dharker’s mixed‑heritage perspective on the search for home.
london
first - In “Each charter’d street,” Blake condemns the enclosure of public spaces by commercial and legal powers, reflecting Romantic-era distrust of industrialisation and institutional control.
second - “Every cry of every man” amplifies the universal anguish caused by oppression, underlining Blake’s belief that unchecked authority inflicts widespread human suffering.
third - “Every black’ning church appalls” criticises the moral decay of religious institutions, reflecting Blake’s view that the established church had become hypocritical and complicit in social injustice.
fourth - “And blights with plagues the marriage hearse” combines oxymoron and biblical imagery to show how institutional corruption destroys both life and love, reinforcing Blake’s call for spiritual and social reform.
ozymandias
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death of a naturalist
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cozy apologia
first - In “I could pick anything and think of you,” Dove draws on her marriage to Fred Viebahn to reject romantic clichés, reflecting late 20th-century feminist ideas about emotional equality in love.
second - “A hurricane is nudging up, oddly male” references Hurricane Floyd (1999), a real event that left many isolated, which Dove uses to explore how secure, lasting relationships offer emotional shelter — reflecting her experience of weathering both storms.
third - With “Worthless boys,” Dove critiques the shallow infatuations of youth, shaped by her own experience as a Black woman navigating early relationships in a society dominated by male-centred romantic ideals.
fourth - “Twin desks, computers, hardwood floors” reflects Dove’s shared creative life with her husband, highlighting how modern love can thrive on intellectual equality and mutual support — a progressive view shaped by her feminine beliefs.
