English : Poems Flashcards

Question

Why is the Poem titled "Poppies"

Answer 1

the title (poppies are a symbol of remembrance) and the 1st line (Armistice Day is a day in which people lost in war are remembered. The narrator in this poem recalls with fondness memories from her son's childhood.)

Answer 2

“War Photographer” most potently references the photographer's relationship to the victims of war in the third stanza. The photographer remembers “how he sought approval / without words to do what someone must” from the wife of a man who was bleeding out on the ground.

Answer 3

The title could be referring to thin paper which is easy to destroy or a human tissue which ages and eventually dies. Society can be viewed as a tissue as it is made from a collection of cells and is intrinsically fragile but it could also become more like tissue by becoming more flexible.

Answer 4

Someone who emigrates is often known as an emigrant, however in this poem Rumens employs the feminine form of the word – Emigree – to provide a voice to a female speaker. Emigrants may leave their home country for many reasons, including to escape war, tyranny, poverty, or simply to seek a better life abroad.

Answer 5

The title "Checking Out Me History" is a phrase that highlights the speaker's discontent with the history lessons they've been taught and their desire to learn about their own heritage. It uses the informal language of the Caribbean (Guyanese Creole) and implies that the speaker is actively seeking out their own history, rather than passively receiving it from a colonial perspective.

Answer 6

During the Second World War, the term 'kamikaze' was used for Japanese fighter pilots who were sent on suicide missions. They were expected to crash their warplanes into enemy warships. The word 'kamikaze' literally translates as 'divine wind'.

Answer 7

Shelley was a radical, romantic poet; he was vegetarian, strongly anti-monarchy, a pacifist, an atheist, anti-religion, and supported social justice. He wanted to end the oppression of ordinary people, inspired by the French Revolution.

Answer 8

William Blake was an English poet and artist, who was writing during the Romantic literary era. He lived in London for most of his life, and saw it as corrupted by greed and inequality. He thought his city was dirty and corrupt, both literally and metaphorically, and as he thought this was largely due to the political situation, lots of his poetry was about political subjects. Poetry was his passion and he would use it to try and instigate change.

Answer 9

William Wordsworth was a Romantic poet born in Cumberland in the Lake District. He had a difficult childhood as he had a troubled relationship with his father and other relatives. Both his parents died during his adolescence and, as a result, he was split up from his siblings and sent to live with different relatives. He spent a lot of time avoiding his mother’s family, who treated him so badly he considered suicide. He developed a deep affection for the Lake District as he spent so much time outside to escape his problems.

Answer 10

Browning was born in London, but spent most of life in Italy, and eventually died in Venice. He disliked school so was homeschooled, but was also fluent in many languages and started writing poetry when he was a child. In 1845 he married Elizabeth Barret against her father’s permission, keeping the wedding secret from her domineering father. He had visited Italy shortly before writing the poem “My Last Duchess”.

Answer 11

Tennyson had an unhappy childhood caused by his abusive father who left his mother and her children fearful for their safety. He did, however, receive a good education through his middle class family and rich relatives who allowed him to attend excellent grammar schools. After a period of experiencing intense poverty, Tennyson was given the role of poet laureate. In this position, he was duty bound to glorify war to the British public to defend the positions of the aristocracy.

Answer 12

Originally, Owen pursued a career in the church however, he felt that it was hypocritical as it failed in its duty to care for its dependants. He became a soldier and was killed in battle one week before the armistice in 1918. War poetry was a new form at the time as there hadn’t been a major war in more than 100 years.

Answer 13

Heaney is a Northern Irish poet who was born in Northern Ireland but Catholic and moved to the Republic (nationalist). He wrote mostly about the landscape and rural life of Ireland, and grew up in a village as part of a farming community, leading to most poems about normal rural life. His early poems focused on ancestry, identity and nature, with nature as a metaphor for human nature, using it to explore identity.

Answer 14

Ted Hughes was a famous war poet. However, as he wasn’t alive during WW1 and was a child during WW2, he never fought or saw war firsthand. Instead, Hughes grew up in the post-war era and saw its influence in his home in Yorkshire. This rural upbringing is evident in his poetry which usually focuses on animals. Hughes studied mythology which is shown in the image of the yellow hare as well as anthropology which is shown through the poem’s fixation on instinctual behaviour.

Answer 15

In 2019, Armitage became the new Poet Laureate, following Carol Ann Duffy in the post. He is a playwright and novelist as well as a poet, and attended the University of Manchester as well as studying in Portsmouth. His poetry is accessible as he often focuses on relatable situations and uses accessible language combined with complex structures to explore themes

Answer 16

Weir was born in 1963 and lived in Northern Ireland during the troubles in the 1980’s. She has two sons which may have influenced her desire to explore what caused young boys to go to war and fight. Weir was also a textile designer which explains her use of related imagery.

Answer 17

Duffy is a very popular Scottish playwright and poet, who served as the Poet Laureate. Her work often subverts traditional structures and tackles themes such as love, loss and death with an unconventional twist. She is gay and was with the poet Jackie Kay for 15 years, and had a child with her.

Answer 18

Dharker was born in Pakistan but grew up in Glasgow and describes herself as “Scottish, Pakistani, Muslim, Calvinist”. Most of her poetry concentrates on identity and home which is significant given her ability to reconcile her conflicting identities as well as dividing her time between Wales, India and London.

Answer 19

Rumens was born in London but also lived in Belfast and Wales as well as travelling widely throughout Russia and eastern Europe. This aspect of her life is reflected in her writing which is largely about foreign customs, cultures and language.

Answer 20

Agard was born in Guyana and received a British education due to the country being colonised up until 1966. He was therefore given a eurocentric view of history whilst being denied his own cultural identity.

Answer 21

Garland includes John Donne, John Clare and Seamus Heaney as some of her writing inspirations, and has won prizes for her poetry. When writing the poem Kamikaze, she was inspired into looking into the motivations as to why people wanted to die for their country.

Answer 22

"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings" "Ye Mighty and despair" "A shatter'd visage lies" "Sneer of Cold Command" "The hand that mocked them" "I met a traveler from an antique land" "Of the colossal wreck, boundless and bare" "The lone and level sands stretch far away"

Answer 23

"I wander through each chartered street" "mark in every face I meet, Marks of Weakness, Marks of Woe" "In every cry of every man, In every infant's cry of fear" "mind-forged manacies" "black'ning church appalls" "Runs in blood down palace walls" "Youthful Harlot's curse" "Plagues the marriage hearse"

Answer 24

"One summer evening (led by her)" "a little boat tied to a willow tree" "I unloosened her chain" "It was an act of stealth and troubled pleasure" "Of mountain echoes" "Until they melted into one track" "She was an elfin pinnace" "I dipped my oars into the silent lake" "heaving through the water" "Craggy steep till then the horizon's bound" "Upreared it's head. I struck and struck again" "Towered up between me and the stars" "Like a living thing, Strode after me" "Covert of the willow tree" "There hung a darkness, call it solitude or blank desertion" "But huge and mighty forms, that do not live like living men" "trouble to my dreams"

English : Poems Flashcards

(90 cards)