Poems Flashcards
(30 cards)
The City Planners interpretation
City Planners try to control everything
However their attempts are futile as disorder and chaos takes over
Comments on mans destruction of the natural world
The Planners interpretation
The planners are building a modern perfect city
They are erasing the cites history and past
Author suggests progress is not always good
The man with Night Sweats interpretation
A portrayal of a mans isolation and powerlessness
The mans slow demise is described
Focuses on the joyful romance of his past contrasting his bodily corruption from AIDS
Rain interpretation
The speaker lies awake and alone listening to the rain
He feels lonely and detached from love
He instead feels the peaceful acceptance of mortality
Funeral Blues interpretation
A sorrowful, sad elegy discussing the speakers sorrow after loosing a loved one
It has an incredibly sad tone
The speakers seems to not be able to escape this sadness
He never expected Much interpretation
The speaker stoically accepts the reality of life’s pain on the surface
There is an ironic undertone that his attitude has restricted his joy
And, that he did in fact expect much from life
The telephone call interpretation
The poem depicts a prank phone call
The phone call is between a ‘corporation’ and the speaker who is oblivious to the prank at first
Highlights the power of anonymity and the delectate nature of human emotions
Request to a year interpretation
The poem presents a whimsical episode of family chaos musing on motherhood
The speaker claims to admire her Great-great-grandmothers stoic attitude to her children’s danger
However, the speaker realises she’ll never be the same as her
On finding a small fly crushed in a book interpretation
The poem somberly evokes the inevitability of Death
Also, nihilistically mourns the impermanence of human life
Ending with ideas of human existence being irrelevant
Ozymandias interpretation
Poem describes the crumbling statue of Rameses II also known as Ozymandias
Highlights the impermanence of man-kind and political power
Also emphasises the permanence of nature and the arts
Away, Melancholy interpretation
Writer describes mans persistent impulse to dwell on despair
Contrasts this with the joy in which we could access
Overall positive poem with a tragic undertone
Night Sweats interpretation
The speaker describes lying in a sweat at night
This captures a nightmarish vision of anxiety and mental-ill health
This leaves the speaker powerless to write and live ending with the idea of him being a burden to his wife
The spirit is too blunt an instrument interpretation
Speaker describes the meticulous perfection of a new-born baby’s body
Contrasts this with the unpredictable passions of the human mind
These passions both connect to and dwarf the cold scientific descriptions in the poem
From Long Distance interpretation
Speaker describes his fathers inability to accept his mothers death
Presents denial during grief as pitiful and melancholic
The end contradicts the poems initial ideas now understanding his fathers methods of coping through grief as it is revealed his father has died
A consumers report interpretation
Writer parodies a consumers response to a marketing survey
Muses on the flaws of life as if it were a product to be reviewed
The poem satirises the idea of human society to be hollow and meaningless
The city planners 3 topic points
City presented as artificial
Undertone of chaos begins
Presents the city as a place of insanity and destruction
The planners 3 topic points
Portrays the planners as inevitable and unstoppable
Suggests changes are unnatural and artificial
Suggests planners are destroying history
The man with Night Sweats 3 topic points
Presents speaker as alone and trapped
Portrays his prior life as wonderful
Devastatingly depicts his final efforts to live
Rain 3 topic points
Highlights speakers isolation
Suggests a pessimistic view on life due to war
Portrays life as bleak and welcomes death
Funeral Blues 3 topic points
Displays grief as both personal and public
Highlights speakers intense personal feelings of devastation
Ends on a sorrowful tone of desperation
He never expected Much 3 topic points
Highlights speakers stoic outlook on life
A morbid tone grows focusing on inevitability of death
Portrays the speaker as regretful and sad under stoic surface
The telephone call 3 topic points
Depicts speakers natural greed blinding them
Shows the cruelty of others playing on the speakers emotions
Suggests the power of luck and its effect on the speaker
Request to a year 3 topic points
Speakers playful admiration of GGG
Focuses on the nonchalant nature of her GGG seeing her kids in danger
Highlights GGG qualities
On Finding a Small Fly Crushed in a book 3 topic points
Highlights the flies sudden death and legacy
Presents death as inevitable and unexpected
Suggests that human existence is irrelevant and meaningless
