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English IGCSE > Poems > Flashcards

Poems Flashcards

1
Q

In Praise of Creation, Elizabeth Jennings

Plot:
Summary:
Themes:
Structure/Form:
Key annotations:
A

Plot:

  1. Bird - order
  2. Sky - time
  3. Tiger - Sin
  4. The world/Earth - Purity
  5. Man

Summary:

  • Everything in nature happens naturally
  • Order and precision of nature
  • biblical
  • awe and appreciation of creation

Themes:

  • Nature
  • Natural beauty, rhythm, precision, order
  • Purity
  • Creation
  • Destructive nature of Man
Structure/Form:
- 5 stanzas
- 4 lines per stanza (quatrains)
- end rhyme
(representative of the patterns and uniform structure of events in nature) 
- volta in paragraph 3 and 4

Key annotations:

  • “one” and “pure”, innocence and purity
  • “without ceremony”, not in need of glorification just is
  • “How the”, x2 awe
  • “cut thinly”, ref to passing of time
  • “cage of skin”, metaphor (trapped feeling of life on earth)
  • “turning, turning”, repetition of nature
  • “Man”, first and only reference to man (negative)
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2
Q

The Poplar-Field, William Cowper

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Summary:
Themes:
Structure/Form:
Key annotations:
A

Plot:

  1. The poplar field being cut down
  2. Reminiscing on past and loss of trees
  3. The loss of birds
  4. Passing of time, death
  5. Pessimism and reflecting on mans flaws

Summary:

  • The loss of Poplar trees
  • Loosing happy memories with time
  • Parallels between life and death, man and nature and past and present
  • Things change with time as well as perspective

Themes:

  • Destruction (Man)
  • Ageing
  • Loss
  • Grief
  • Mortality
  • Parting
  • Man connecting with nature

Structure/Form:

  • 5 stanzas
  • 4 lines per stanza (quatrains)
  • End rhyme
  • Anapaestic tetrameter
  • volta in last 2 lines

Key annotations:

  • deceiving title
  • “felled farewell”, fricative alliteration
  • “whispering sound”, onomatopoeia
  • “elapsed”, passing of time
  • “favourite field”, fricative alliteration
  • “black bird”, connecting human emotion with nature
  • “charming” and “sweet-flowing ditty” positive nature
  • “fugitive years”, wanting to hide in youth
  • “long lie…”, consonant “l” sound
  • “stone at my head”, tombstone
  • “perishing pleasures”, oxymoron
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3
Q

Ode on Melancholy, John Keats

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Summary:
Themes:
Structure/Form:
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A

Plot:

  1. Danger and warning not to give in to Melancholy
  2. The depth and sadness of Melancholy in contrast with some natural imagery
  3. The wonders of all emotions

Summary:

  • Melancholy is a burdening and powerful emotion
  • Poisonous nature of it
  • Melancholy has its own course that must be taken and there is no way to avoid it
  • Getting through it is a long process
  • Melancholy must be experienced and embraced to understand the positives in life
  • All things good and bad will come to an end eventually

Themes:

  • Death
  • Extreme sadness and suffering
  • Grief
  • Loss
  • Suicide
  • Complexity of emotion

Structure/Form:

  • 3 stanzas and 10 lines per stanza
  • 3 stanzas representative of journey through Melancholy and its stages

Key annotations:

  • Poison (Wolf’s bane, wine, nightshade, beetle, death moth)
  • Proserpine (Goddess of underworld)
  • Sibilant hushing sound “shade” author calming reader
  • Positive imagery “heaven”, “flowers” “green hill” “rainbow” “salt sand-wave”
  • assonance “feed, deep, …” elongated “e” sound represents longevity and depth of melancholy
  • Capitalisation of emotions shows the power and strength of all emotions and how they are intertwined
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4
Q

Coming, Philip Larkin

Summary:
Themes:
Structure/Form:
Key annotations:

A

Summary:

  • Battle between sinister dark tone and positive light hearted tone
  • Spring is “Coming”
  • change associated with a change of season

Themes:

  • Childhood innocence and naivety
  • Hope vs. false hope
  • Love
  • Change
  • Mystery
  • Nature

Structure/Form:

  • 1 stanza
  • 19 lines
  • No rhyme scheme
  • Lack of form and structure
  • Conversational
  • No iambic pentameter
  • Normal, dull boring cynical tone

Key annotations:

  • “Coming” title suggests change but gives a sense of mystery as it doesn’t reveal much
  • Alliteration of “l” longevity representative of time passing slowly “longer” “light” “chill” “yellow”
  • “It will be spring soon” x2 repetition could be sinister or simply like a child excited for spring to come
  • “feel like a child” the happiness and joy of a child but also the lack of understanding and blindness
  • “understand nothing” the tension of parents trying to mask an argument from a child
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5
Q

Stormcock in Elder, Ruth Pitter

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Summary:
Themes:
Structure/Form:
Key annotations:
A

Plot:

  1. Being alone in a cottage and finding spiritual fulfilment
  2. Catching sight of the stormcock
  3. Seeing the bird from afar
  4. Idolising the bird and its features
  5. Appreciation and description of the bird
  6. Bravery and courage of the bird (reflective)
  7. Praise and learning from the bird

Summary:

  • Finding sustenance through a spiritual awakening
  • Strength and courage of bird
  • Appreciation of stormcock
  • Studying and examining the details on the stormcock

Themes:

  • Splendor of Nature
  • Faith
  • Spirituality
  • Resilience
  • Optimism

Structure/Form:

  • 6 lines
  • 7 stanzas
  • ABABCC rhyme scheme symbolic of bird song

Key annotations:

  • Title revealing thrush and its home in a large tree
  • “found celestial food instead” spiritual journey awakened by sighting of thrush
  • “loud loud” suffering coming to an end like silence
  • “breast”, “tongue”, “bill” listing birds features in awe
  • consonant “f” sound in 4th stanza representative of bird song
  • “bright” “colour” “silver” colour imagery listing
  • “bagpipes crack” personification of bird being like a sturdy strong soldier
  • “Gabriel” religious reference bird like a spiritual messenger
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6
Q

The Caged Skylark, Gerard Manley Hopkins

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Summary:
Themes:
Structure/Form:
Key annotations:
A

Plot:

  1. Courage of skylark and skylark and bird being trapped
  2. Taste of freedom
  3. Freedom once leaving soul and earth (cage)

Summary:

  • Earth is like a cage
  • Feeling trapped and restricted by cage or body
  • Industrial revolution (work like imprisonment)

Themes:

  • Relationship between body and soul
  • Human connection with nature
  • Freedom through art (singing)

Structure Form:

  • (octet) 8 lines, 3 lines, 3 lines
  • 3 stanzas
  • volta from 8 line stanzas to 3 line stanzas
  • octet problem (negative) , sestet response (solution)
  • ABBA, CCD rhyme scheme (end) B and D lines indented

Key annotations:

  • “dare-gale” skylark like daredevil
  • “bone-house” skeleton/ribcage/cage trapping
  • “day-labouring” ref to industrial revolution
  • juxtaposition between “sing” “droop” pos/neg
  • “sweet-fowl…” sibilance shows of feeling of freedom
  • “wild” v “prison” juxtaposition
  • line 12, man and bird free when soul not caged by body
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7
Q

Cetacean, Peter Reading

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Summary:
Themes:
Structure/Form:
Key annotations:
A

Plot:

  1. Leaving the wharf
  2. Observing whales
  3. Precision of whales
  4. Great size of whales
  5. Leaving of whales
  6. Whales gone
  7. Mystery of whales

Summary:

  • Nature is great and powerful in comparison to man
  • Colossal size and grace of whales
  • Whales as a collective
  • awe of whales

Themes:

  • Relationship between human and nature
  • Mystery and wonder of nature
  • Awe of nature

Structure:

  • first 4 stanzas 3 lines
  • last 3 stanzas 2 lines
  • lineation (long) representative of whale size
  • no rhyme scheme (whales free and wild)

Key annotations:

  • Cetacean and other specific language showing poet not romanticising whales very matter of fact (factual)
  • “some 63 feet” boat size insignificant compared to whales
  • “rose … angle” sibilance grace and calamity of whales
  • “simile “straight… columns” precision and skill of whales
  • “they” whales a collective
  • “Then” recount style anaphora
  • “shallow angle” link to stanza 2 whales left as quick as they appeared
  • “deep” mystery masters of their own destiny
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8
Q

Kraken, Alfred Lord Tennyson

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Summary:
Themes:
Structure/Form:
Key annotations:
A

Plot:
1. Not much of a plot (description of Kraken and its size and mystery)

Summary:

  • Mystery of Kraken
  • Kraken is unknown
  • Kraken the antagonist and something to be feared
  • Kraken’s vast size, monster and ancient
  • Kraken a mythical creature that may or may not exist

Themes:

  • Eeriness of unknown
  • History of the sea
  • Power and strength of nature

Structure/Form:

  • 1 stanza (representative of Kraken’s size)
  • short poem, keeping it unknown?
  • end rhyme but interesting rhyme scheme

Key annotations:

  • “thunders” auditory imagery threatening
  • “faintest sunlight flees” personification of sunlight , sun afraid of kraken too
  • “sleepeth” archaic language showing age of kraken
  • “sickly light” oxymoron
  • “giant arms” anthropomorphism
  • “man and angels” viewed by man and spiritual being (sight of kraken powerful enough to send you to the angels)
  • “roaring” auditory prolonged cry, link to “thundering”
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9
Q

Watching for Dolphins, David Constantine

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Summary:
Themes:
Structure/Form:
Key annotations:
A

Plot:

  1. Describing setting leaving for dolphin watching
  2. Everyone searching for dolphins
  3. Loosing hope but looking for signs of dolphins
  4. Desperation to see them
  5. What it would’ve been like seeing the dolphins
  6. Returning without seeing dolphins

Summary:

  • disappointments in life
  • searching for purpose meaning
  • spiritual enlightenment through viewing dolphins
  • universal experience
  • negative tone

Themes:

  • Role of imagination in daily life
  • desired meaningful encounters with nature, connection
  • Nature
  • Spirituality
  • Purpose
  • Isolation and longing

Structure/Form:

  • 6 stanzas of sestets (6 lines)
  • enjambment flow of poem like story and disappointment
  • volta in last stanza too negative and grief stricken tone

Key annotations:

  • sibilance in first stanza sets positive tone mood
  • “lovers…fat man…children” universal experience
  • “gulls a sign” desperation for help from above to see dolphins
  • “reverberate…cymbal etc.” auditory imagery, violent sounds, cacophony harsh sound
  • “on the climax” building to height of desperation
  • “smiling,,,” all the positive happening at once
  • “on grace” magical movement of dolphins (dolphins spiritual)
  • “black water” reinforcing disappointment, negative tone
  • “B” plosive harsh sound symbolic of returning to the harsh reality
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10
Q

Afternoon with Irish Cows, Billy Collins

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Summary:
Themes:
Structure/Form:
Key annotations:
A

Plot:

  1. Noticing the cows outside
  2. Further acknowledgement of cows and description
  3. Beginning to introduce their struggles and suffering
  4. Pain and suffering of a cow
  5. Return to peace, fading cows suffering (death of cow)

Summary:

  • Simplicity of nature
  • Resistance of man vs. nature
  • Mundane and monotonous routine of cows
  • Lack of excitement and emotion except suffering
  • Plain calmness

Themes:

  • Observing nature
  • Mindsets and perception
  • Simplicity and plainness
  • Admiration of nature

Structure/Form:

  • 5 stanzas
  • 7 lines per stanza
  • no evident rhyme scheme
  • 1st person narrative

Key annotations:

  • “ft” flowing sound suggests peace and calmness as well as lack of happening
  • “as … taken wing” boring attempting to add excitement
  • “munching”, “waiting”, “lying” “facing” the sense that everything is moving but the cows
  • “sound so phenomenal” attempt to add excitement
  • “knife, cutting, spear, torched” brutal harsh, unpleasant language suggesting the negative nature of going “inside”
  • “bellowing” strong sense of power
  • “darkness of her belly” mysterious element
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11
Q

The Buck in the Snow, Edna St Vincent Millay

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Summary:
Themes:
Structure/Form:
Key annotations:
A

Plot:

  1. Introducing setting and Buck, hinting danger
  2. Death of Buck
  3. Power and mystery of death, Doe now free of Buck

Summary:

  • Speed and power of death
  • Unescapable and unstoppable force of nature , death
  • Mysterious ways death acts
  • Sneaky cunning nature of death
  • Beauty of nature, Buck

Themes:

  • Life is fleeting and unpredictable
  • Death is sudden merciless
  • Beaty of nature
  • Power of death

Structure/Form:

  • 3 stanzas
  • 5, 1, 6 lines
  • consistent rhyme scheme in first stanza

Key annotations:

  • Title misleading
  • “hemlocks bowed in snow” poison masked by pure innocent white
  • “antlered buck and his doe” , strength and vast size of buck and his doe, his possession
  • “l” alliteration symbolic and grace and beauty of Buck
  • 1 line second stanza showing speed and power of death
  • “How strange a thing” x2 emphasis of mysteriousness of death
  • last line, shock death of Buck brings to doe
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12
Q

London Snow, Robert Bridges

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Key annotations:
A

Plot:

  1. Dawn snow beginning to fall
  2. Snow covering the impurities of London
  3. Snow slowing down time and the people’s routine
  4. Children enjoying the snow
  5. Sun slowly melting away the snow
  6. Revealing the impurities once again and going back to normal

Summary:

  • Soft flowing peace of snow
  • Nature masking grit and grime of London
  • Snow slowing time and allowing the people to stop take it in and enjoy it
  • Snow bringing London to a standstill

Themes:

  • Effortless beauty and awe of nature
  • Human destruction of beauty and nature
  • Restoration beauty
  • Nature’s power and harmony

Structure/Form:

  • 1 stanza
  • poem like narrative or story line
  • End rhyme, A B A B C D C D…

Key annotations:

  • “stealthily, perpetually” continuous flow of snow
  • “deadening… incessantly” snow fall starting to set in, the silent nature and tranquility
  • “unaccustomed brightness” rare new, abnormal sight for Londoners and beauty
  • “No” “nor” obstruction of monotonous normal routine
  • “O look… trees” x2 excitement of a child pleasantness
  • “l” alliteration lightness and beauty and flow of snow
  • “white deserted way” v “long brown path” effect after snow has left
  • “charm they have broken” charm gone with snow, return to normality
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13
Q

The Sea Eats the Land at Home, Kofi Awoonor

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Summary:
Themes:
Structure/Form:
Key annotations:
A

Plot:

  1. Sea description
  2. Destruction of sea
  3. Impact on humans
  4. Loss of individuals
  5. The sea has taken away

Summary:

  • Chaos
  • Destruction
  • Impact on people
  • Loss, invasion
  • Empty, nothing, gone, lost

Themes:

  • Colonialization
  • Destruction
  • Raging power of the sea

Structure/Form:

  • 1 stanza, destructive force of relentless sea coming and going all at once
  • no rhyme scheme, chaos lack of pattern, predictability

Key annotations:

  • entire poem extended metaphor British Empire rain
  • refrain, sea eats the land at home, whole (consumption, simple language, sea has left nothing behind)
  • “Home” safe place
  • “Running.. Collecting.. Sending” happing now present tense
  • “town” “cooking places” domestic
  • “day at the dead of night” juxtaposition, narrative suggests sea consciously decided to come at night
  • “raging, struggling” present participles
  • “and…and” continuous pain and suffering
  • “dowry, joy” future hope robbed too
  • “Aku” “Adena” affected everyone empathy , personal
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14
Q

You Will Know When You Get There, Allen Curnow

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Summary:
Themes:
Structure/Form:
Key annotations:
A

Plot:

  1. Mystery of beach at night
  2. Developing contrast between light and dark
  3. Boys exploring
  4. Man and tide as one
  5. Powerful abrupt violent end (death)

Summary:

  • Incomprehensiveness and ambiguity
  • Water and light imagery
  • Contrast - confusion
  • Sinister ending, powerful violent and ominous
  • Solitude and darkness

Themes:

  • Isolation
  • Loneliness
  • Desertion
  • Solitary journey

Structure/Form:

  • no rhyme scheme
  • 11 stanzas
  • all stanzas couplets

Key annotations:

  • “nobody” begins with isolation
  • “late” time beach mysterious at night
  • “nobody.. down” cycle with in it self time rotating ticking
  • “shower.. shredding.. light” contrasting ideas light rain with light and violence
  • “dammed reservoir” builds up contrast between man and nature
  • “sun” positive hopeful connotations and ref to time
  • “earth rolling back and away” continuous movement of earth and cyclic nature of the passing of time
  • “three point seven meters” cyclic precise nature of tides
  • “hour’s light left” time passing and signifying the ending
  • “slams., heavy, shudders” , “down alone surge-black” sinister dark eerie ending
  • contrast between unpredictability of life and predictability of tides and time passing
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15
Q

Written Near a Port on a Dark Evening, Charlotte Smith

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Summary:
Themes:
Structure/Form:
Key annotations:
A

Plot:

  1. Description of time and place
  2. Sea and watchmen
  3. Doomed voyage

Summary:

  • Life is unpredictable and unknown
  • Disorienting mysteries of the ocean and night
  • Good things won’t last
  • Ocean associated with remoteness and distance

Themes:

  • Life’s uncertainty
  • Limitations of human reason
  • Loneliness

Structure/Form:

  • 1 stanza
  • end rhyme
  • calm iambic rhythm

Key annotations:

  • Pathetic fallacy “vapours brood” establishes tone mood
  • “Night ocean settles” contrasting emotions created in the reader night ocean disturbing, settles calming
  • “repercussive, roar, drowsy rugged” r sound replicates violent lapping sound of waves
  • “Of” anaphora symbolic of cyclic nature of waves and time passing
  • “lucid, line, light “ assonance representative of hope or calm in the near future
  • “life’s… way” hope of light in the distance creates uncertainty and false hope
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English IGCSE (5 decks)

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