Context + Form for extra poems not properly revised Flashcards
Context for The Soldier (1914)
By Rupert Brooke
Georgian Poetry
Brooke’s fifth and final sonnet
Presents English country as a paradise - romanticised view
Brooke was idealistic + patriotic
British Imperialism rooted in his upbringing
Poem written in early 1914
Contrasts with other WW1 poems
Brooke died from sepsis 1915 on his way to war - never fought
Buried in Skyros, Greece
Form for The Soldier (1914)
Almost perfect sonnet - 14 lines
Reflects persona’s opinion of how perfect England is
Mostly iambic pentameter
Love poem - admiration for England
Volta occurs - conventional for a sonnet
Jingoistic view of war - propaganda poem to encourage reader to go to war
Context for She Walks in Beauty (1813)
By Lord Byron
Romantic poem - believes in nature, emotion and beauty over reason
Byron ‘she’ he refers to in the poem is either a poetic muse (Anne Beatrix) or the goddess huntress (Artemis)
Published in Hebrew Melodies
Intended to be a set of music
Emphasis on perfection throughout the poem - harkening back to the literary courtly love tradition of the medieval period
Placed females on a pedestal
Context for As Imperceptibly as Grief (1886)
By Emily Dickinson
Published in 1886
Poem is written in response to poet’s mother
American 19th Century Poet
Lived in rural New England (US) - surrounded by nature
Reclusive poet - very few poems published in her lifetime due to mother’s weakening health
Brought up on strict Calvinist tradition
Obsessed and afraid of death
Sent away to an asylum after her best friend died
Form for As Imperceptibly as Grief
Title is a simile foreshadowing death - implying it is subtle, unnoticeable and inevitable
Poems opens with the title in the first stanza with a simile
Shows order is reversed and takes a long time to fade away
Use of dashes is typical of Dickinson’s style - creates a disjointed and hesitant pace reflecting her own fragile state of mind
Context for Cozy Apologia (2004)
By Rita Dove
Former poet Laureate of the US
Love Poem
Autobiographical and domestic; written to husband - ‘Fred Viebahn’
Poem occurs during event of Hurricane Floyd (US storm in 1999)
Response to technological modernity and postmodern collapse of meaning
Context for A Wife in London (1899)
Written by Thomas Hardy
Set during the time of the Boer War between 1899-1902
Fought by Imperialist Britain in South Africa
Poem is a biased perspective by positive media accounts
Urban London at time was smoggy and recruitment for Boer War revealed poor health of men
Thomas Hardy was a novelist writing narratives of tragedy and fateful events
He had a tragic style
Conext for Death of a Naturalist (1966)
Written by Seamus Heaney
Published 1966
Died 2013
Irish Poet connects landscape and rural areas with personal memories and Irish history
Post-romantic response to nature and the natural world becoming part of cultural life
Born in Northern Ireland - modern political protest poet
Interest in Irish struggles
2009 2/3 of all poetry collections in the UK were sold by Seamus Heaney
Form for Death of a Naturalist
Theme of growing up and change over time
Death of a child who loves nature
End of innocence and interest
Imbedded personal anecdotes in poem
Poem written as a stream of consciousness no rhythm, natural, not restricted by rhyme schemes
Context for To Autumn (1819)
Written 1819
Romantic poem - themes of nature, beauty, truth, morality
Keats’ refers to an ancient Greek, Arcadian past when focusing on sensuousness and the beauty of imagination
Keats’ had a sense of awareness for death - nursing brother who died to tuberculosis
Lost his parents and also died of tuberculosis - parents had no will
Died aged 26 in 1821
Harsh upbringing
Had no money as an adult
Form for To Autumn (1819)
Celebration of nature - enchanting
Mixture of 10 syllable iambic pentameter - natural heroic line
And some 11 syllable lines
Suggesting poem overflowing and cannot be controlled by iambic pentameter
Ode poem ‘to’
Nature = timelessness, sense of relaxation
Semantic field of melancholy and sadness at the end of the poem
Context for Mametz Wood (2005)
By Owen Sheers
Written in 2005
Welsh poet visited site of Welsh soldiers in WW1 somme battlefield
4000 Welsh soldiers died in Battle of Somme 1916
Agricultural and mining significance of land as history for Welsh men
Response to a photograph of 20 dead WW1 soldiers all linked arms in a shallow grave
Farmers digged up and found many bones and limbs
Sheers war reporter in Afghanistan
Form for Mametz Wood
Hauntingly peaceful poem
Theme of memory of war
Nurturing motif of guarding bodies
Nostalgic, reflective poem
Context for Sonnet 43
By Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Over-protective father
Poet eploed against father’s wishes with Robert Browning
Beloved brother drown and died at 32
She became recluse for 5 years
Sonnet form - traditional love poetry
Autobiographical poem
Part of series of sonnets for her lover Robert
Poems were deeply intimate - too intimate for the 19th century
Form for Sonnet 43
Sonnet written in iambic pentameter
Strong rhyme scheme
Sonnet contains no volta - symbolizes that love is perfect
