Poet 🌲

Question 1

Night Sweat Themes*

Answer 1

Self doubt toll of creative anxiety from WRITER’S BLOCK
Can’t do what he thinks his life’s purpose is
Drowning
Writers block poses existential threat to the speaker
worried he will be submerged beneath his self doubt
power and pain of relationships - wife: tempers his creative and existential anxiety but also depresses the speaker as she takes on his pain

Question 2

Night Sweat Literary Devices + Structure*

Answer 2

Structure:
very loose iambic pentameter with irregular metre (scattered like his mind, doubt deviates from regular rhythm)
has rhyme
Devices:
claustrophobic imagery(lines 6,7,8,9)
assonance and alliteration
symbolism of Drowning/water
Allusion to Rabbit and Hare story

Question 3

Night Sweat - Synonym*

Answer 3

Creative Anxiety, Submerged, Existential Threat/Crisis, Self-Doubt, Engulfing, Embalming, Burdened, Overwhelming, Claustrophobic, Suffocation

Question 4

The City Planners Themes*

Answer 4

Critiques humanity’s obsession of imposing order on the environment
rigidity and control as a sign of panic
Humanity is doomed in attempting to regulate an irrational world
snow, untamed nature
1960s America Suburban life
orderliness of suburbs sterile and sinister not peaceful and utopian. dystopian.
rebellion of the natural world popping up in cracks and glimpses

Question 5

The City Planners - Structure and Devices*

Answer 5

Structure:
Free verse, Unpredictable metre(contrast to the uniformity of city planning)
disjointed rhythm reflects discomfort
4 sentences
Stanzas get shorter
present tense immediacy and universality
Devices:
consonance sibilance and alliteration appear a lot
personification(end of 1st and start of 2nd stanza)
metaphor - spilt oil [is] a sickness
simile - like a rebuke
irony - due to suburban life being too perfect/too sane
semantic field of mental and physical illness
Snow storm - low vis like no foresight or no cohesion with co-planners
oxymoron

Question 6

The City Planners - Synonym*

Answer 6

obsession - compulsion, fascination, mania, infatuation
irrational - absurd, unreasonable, illogical, unjustifyable, baseless
control - command, authority, dominance, subjugate
mundane - menial, sane, humdrum, unremarkable, monotodous, tedious, unimaginative

Question 7

Ozymandias - Theme*

Answer 7

The poem implicitly critiques ultimate transience of political power through its suggestion that great “omnipotent” rulers and their kingdoms fall to the sands of time
the speaker uses example of Ozymandias to make a pronouncement about the ephemeral nature of power to critique tyranny
suggests humanity’s impotence compared to the natural world
Power of Art - capturing passion and leaving legacy far beyond the political power of a ruler

Question 8

Ozymandias Structure and Devices*

Answer 8

Structure:
Sonnet(broken rhyme scheme reflects the broken statue)
loose iambic pentameter
sand as a symbol of nature’s power which can destroy all human achievements ‘sands of time’
Devices:
Alliteration/sibilance lines 2-7 ish…
irony - how art lasts longer than political rule while showing the brutality of regime(shows the poet’s confidence that his own poem will stand the test of time)
caesura and enjambement

Question 9

Ozymandias - Synonym*

Question 10

From Long Distance - Themes

Answer 10

Death, Grief, Denial
The speaker finds some solace, in accepting that his father’s grief won’t always make sense
Speaker harbours no delusions about death that it is the end
persistence of love - love doesn’t fade away in death it lingers becoming a testament to the deep enduring bonds families share

Question 11

From Long Distance - Structure and Devices

Answer 11

Structure:
meredithian sonnet
structured stanzas and rhyme scheme(musical and easy to read)
direct colloquial language
loose iambic pentameter - tidy meter(father tidying up his things)
Devices:
enjambement and caesura
alliteration
Anaphora/repetition

Question 12

From Long Distance - Synonyms

Answer 12

grief: sorrow, torment, misery, lament, anguish, mourn
love: attachment, endearment, devotion, adoration, compassion
denial: rejecting, incredulous, repudiation

Question 13

TSITBAI - Theme

Answer 13

Perfection of body vs messiness of spirit
marvel at perfection
passions are rough and clumsy
spirit lacks nature’s ‘ignorant precision’
cold and mechanical description
Nature lacking self awareness and passion

Question 14

TSITBAI - Structure and Devices

Answer 14

Structure:
Free verse - conversational / natural / colloquial
No rhyme scheme(serious and reflective)
Devices:
alliteration, consonance, assonance(musicality / emphasis / poem’s rhythm)
asyndeton(exaggerate complexity)
metaphor

Question 15

TSITBAI - Synonyms

Question 16

He Never Expected Much - Themes and Context*

Answer 16

Themes:
realism pessimism acceptance
Speaking to the voice of the world admitting he has met the low expectations that it has set
random, neutral, unfair nature of the world/fate. Your experience is how you interpret it.
sober realism is a wise approach to life but can’t guarantee happiness
clear eyed realist, accepts life. Even since being a child where blind optimism should reign free.
although taking pride in wisdom, there is a serious undertone of regret that he was not more idealistic or emotionally invested in life
distance himself from emotions
Context:
86th Birthday

Question 17

He Never Expected Much - Structure and Devices*

Answer 17

Structure:
iambic trimeter and tetrameter
Ballad like
AAABCCCB rhyme scheme
swinging sound tempers pessimistic content
Echo (sound like a chorus or incantation, fitting for a pessimistic worldview)
Devices:
pedestrian language for dull pedestrian life
Alliteration Assonance (musicality and reinforce meaning)
Apostrophe - figure of speech in which it is talking to something not there
World given anthropomorphic character
Irony - wishing he had greater emotional investment though he is wise
allusion to previous poems Neutral Tones and Haps which reflect his grimness

Question 18

He Never Expected Much - Synonyms*

Question 19

The Planners Themes

Answer 19

The cost of Modernisation: Mathematical and exact precision to erase human “blemishes of the past”. The city stripped of humanity, making it seem too seamless and controlled. “history is new again” as the old is covered up or demolished.
Human progress vs Nature: Destruction of the natural world. People “grid”, and “fill” all spaces with “Permutations of possibilities”, people “build and will not stop”, “the drilling goes right through the fossils of the last century”. showing a relentless urbanisation. “Even the sea draws back // and the skies surrender” no stopping for nature

Question 20

The Planners Devices and Structure

Answer 20

Structure:
Free verse contrasted by the confining nature of the planners
27 short lines - stifling, rigid new landscape
No rhyme
Devices:
Anaphora - “They [verb]” shows the unyielding plans
Alliteration - “sea draws back / and the skies surrender”
“Dental Dexterity”
“gaps are plugged / with gleaming gold”
Asyndeton - efficiency and speed. smooth flow of poem.
Personification -
“The country wears perfect rows / of
shining teeth.”
Metaphor - “But my heart would not bleed / poetry.
Not a single drop / to stain the blueprint / of our past’s
tomorrow.” - ability to grieve the loss of nature and humanity taken away

Question 21

The Man with Night Sweats Themes*

Answer 21

Illness Vulnerability Mortality
Speaker implied to have HIV/AIDS (chronic illness usually resulting in death) - night sweats being a common symptom
Speaker laments his current vulnerability and loss of strength compared to his youth thus lamenting human mortality in general. The poem portrays a common story of those who have contracted AIDS through risky behaviours in their youth and regret it.
not sorry for how he lived his life and his sexuality
loneliness that he does not have others around him

Question 22

The Man With Night Sweats Structure and Devices*

Answer 22

Structure:
4x Quatrains ABAB and rhyming couplets. present past present future haunting sense of immediacy.
Strict form speaker feels confined emotionally and physically in his weak body.
1st person to connect. pathos.
iambic trimeter
Devices:
Metaphor: “Dreams of heat”, “flesh was its own shield”, “To hold off an avalanche”
Metaphor of the disease as the enemy - “shield”
Alliteration: risk - robust, world - wonders
Repetition: “reduced” 15-16 physical mental deterioration. repetition of “I”
imperfect rhyme at the end shows a break down in form and in the body
heat - cold past - present
arms around him as a physical shield as his body can no longer protect him

Question 23

Rain Themes

Answer 23

The Inevitability and relief of death
considers the dead “Blessed” and can be “washed clean”. Has no “love” except for that of death. Death is unavoidable and “Cannot […] disappoint”. The speaker seems welcome to his eventual death as a relief from the “solitude”
Solitude Sympathy and Alienation
expresses sympathy for and alienation from the world’s suffering people during WW1. feels cut off from the world but still hopes none of his (once) loved ones are dying or that they feel the same “Helpless” kind of “sympathy”. The speaker clarifies that he has only loved these people in the past but is now isolated and does not anymore. poem shows how deep solitude can cause internal conflict, leaving the victim alienated.

Question 24

Rain Structure and Devices

Answer 24

Structure:
blank verse (iambic pentameter no rhyme)
Devices:
Symbolism of rain - connections with death as it is somber, relentless, universal.
also symbolises misfortune and loss (of life through time)
also purification
Alliteration 15-16
Repetition of “Rain” “solitude” “dead” rhythm of rain itself
Assonance
Enjambment: not stopping at the end of a line makes it seem like cascading downpour of rain.
simile

Question 25

Funeral Blues Themes

Answer 25

Grief and Isolation: how grief and isolation make people out of sync with the world. The speaker mourns but the world will not stop and change just for them seeming like an affront to the speaker. The poem reveals that the speaker does not want to grieve alone and wants the world to know their suffering, part of the pain in the speaker grieving is the isolation it brings along with it.

Question 26

Funeral Blues Structure and Devices

Answer 26

Structure: an elegy - meant to memorialise someone almost 4 elegaic stanzas iambic pentameter (with variation) normally alternating rhyme scheme but actually rhyming couplets Devices: Hyperbole end stopped lines and Asyndeton- listing demands Alliteration consonance - /k/ sounds Assonance Metaphor - cardinal directions, pack up the moon... , interpretting the "funeral"

Question 27

The Telephone Call Themes

Answer 27

Hope and Disappointment: the speaker is swept up in hope even when they know it is almost too good to be true and are then disappointed as a result "I just... I can't believe it", "cry" -> "I'll believe it when I see the cheque" Illusion vs Experience the "prize" is an "experience" the speaker never falls for the trick but the illusion of hope is always there. The speaker is happier staying in the illusion that they created for themselves rather than experiencing disappointment. Hope can be dangerous.

Question 28

The Telephone Call Structure and Devices

Answer 28

Structure: six octaves free verse no rhythm or rhyme. conversational and easy to read, lots of dialogue, almost a short story rather than a poem Devices: Symbolism of the Lottery - luck, hope, wild dreams. To put it another way: mere "experience," as opposed to blissful happiness, is all that most of us ever win from the "lottery" of life. irony - led to believe they won something but they don't win anything but a memorable yet disappointing phone call Rhetorical Questions used to make a point Repetition - words that have to do with winning a jackpot/money to build up hope Cliché - conversational and natural

Question 29

A Consumer's Report Themes*

Answer 29

Consumerism and cynicism: satirizes consumerism/capitalism making life itself a commodity. tricks us into thinking it will give happiness Lived in 1970s England where people were rich and consumer culture was growing. The speaker, immersed in the culture and language of consumerism, launches into a lengthy and cynical diatribe against the unsolicited product which is life. being disappointed at life life is expensive both in time and in money critiques religion. "One of my friends says it's just to keep its maker in a job" mass production vs individuality suicide capitalism shapes the fabric of our lives

Question 30

A Consumer's Report Structure and Devices*

Answer 30

Structure: free verse 2 stanzas short and long, no meter no rhyme scheme. First person. free verse like a parody of a real consumer's report Devices: irony - the premise of metaphysical conceit(highly elaborate metaphor of strained comparison). don't know if kids should have life. the maker of life only doing it to have a job. "Do we really need it now", life is a "small thing" Extended metaphor that life is a "product" and can be "gift[ed]" Repetition: "I", "It", "Product" list like. Emphasis on key themes *asyndeton* listing complaints

Question 31

Request to a Year themes

Answer 31

Role of Artists in Difficult Times: While the second son is stuck on the ice floe the great grandmother, by the "firmness of her hand" documents the situation through art using "the artist's isolating eye". Although seemingly useless if the child dies, the art is there to commemorate the event by being one of the many values of art Motherhood and Female Strength: how gender norms can restrict women and praising the ability to overcome them. "eight children", "little opportunity for painting pictures", the "petticoats"

Question 32

Request to a Year Structure and Devices

Answer 32

Structure: 5 quatrains and a rhymig couplet. Ballad form to tell a story. rhyming couplet almost like a sonnet. irregular meter but some use of iambic pentameter. first two stanzas no rhyme but becomes an ABCB rhyme scheme Devices: Enjambment = conversational tone like a story. long sentence Alliteration: musicality and intensity Personification and apostrophe of the "year"

Question 33

On Finding a Fly Crushed in a Book Themes

Answer 33

Death and Legacy: human lives are just as fragile as the fly's and urges readers to think about what they will leave behind when the metaphorical book of life slams shut. reminds the reader that death often comes without warning as "Some hand, that never meant to do thee hurt" killed it. Remind us to leave behind something good like the fly's wings from a "blameless life"

Question 34

On Finding a Fly Crushed in a Book Structure and Devices

Answer 34

Structure: Sonnet with irregular rhyme. cross between shakespearean and petrarchan. Devices: Metaphors: wings to monument/relic, the Book of Life, Simile Repetitions help to deliver the speaker's views on mortality in a grand tone. Alliteration, Assonance for important moments and musicality Apostrophe in talking to a dead fly seeing it as equals or higher

Question 35

Away, Melancholy Themes*

Answer 35

Despair and Hope: Poet depicts the struggle to find beauty in an often terrible world, but the human mind willl always try to find something good like "virtues" or "love". The speaker looks to nature, but it cannot help him, he feels consoled that even through "tyranny, pox, wars," humans can still find goodness Humanity vs. Nature: Suggests humans are both part of nature and not. There is no difference in that we need to eat, reproduce etc. but are different in that we reflect on our actions

Question 36

Away, Melancholy Structure and devices*

Answer 36

Structure: free verse. no steady rhyme scheme. chaotic, unpredictable nature. Devices: Refrain: a phrase repeated at the end of each stanza. musicality and seeing the speaker try to grapple and find his way out of his sadness a defense against despair trying to find a way out of melancholy Rhetorical Questions: trying to convince himself there is good Asyndeton for exhaustion Alliteration: "good, God" God missing an O O of praise Assonance: Enou*gh* stu*ff*ed exhaspirated sigh