Poetry Flashcards

Question

mametz wood

Answer 1

power - devastating power of war and how soldiers are powerless war - soldiers in battle and the impact war has on the environment The poem reflects on the enduring impact of the Battle of Mametz Wood, a significant event during World War One, where nearly 4000 soldiers from the Welsh Division lost their lives. Sheers's poem is set many years later, and considers the way that, even a century after the conflict, the land around Mametz Wood is still filled with fragments of the dead soldiers' bodies. The poem opens with farmers discovering the bones of soldiers as they plough their fields, a haunting reminder of the past. Sheers explores the tension between nature’s ability to heal and the enduring scars left by human conflict. The poem is thus a consideration of the horrors of war, and is particularly effective in the way it places natural imagery side-by-side with the frightening and deadly power of human technology.

Answer 2

welsh poet visits site of slaughter of welsh soldiers in WW1 somme battlefields where there were 4000 Welsh casualties as generals thought it would take only hours to take whereas it took 5 days written 80 years after battle Welsh bravery was never really acknowledged response to a photo of 20 dead WW1 soldiers all with linked arms in a shallow grave

Answer 3

nature - shows how fascinating and beautiful nature and how disgusting and scary nature is time - a specific point in someone's life and the nostalgia for childhood This excerpt captures a childhood memory of ice skating on a frosty evening. Wordsworth’s nostalgic tone conveys the joy and freedom of youth and the connection between humans and nature. The poem explores the themes of innocence and the power of nature however the tone changes at the end to a more melancholic and nostalgic one looking back on the good times

Answer 4

romanticism; the sublime lived in the lake district ice skating was the new fashion but the English romantics made it an escape into solitude long autobiographical poem he worked on until his death romantics connected winter with a counter-Enlightenment response, being a place of instinct, emotion and memory

Answer 5

love - shows the love for women power - powerful emotions The poem is a lyrical celebration of a woman’s physical and spiritual beauty. The poem explores the idea that true beauty comes from an inner radiance and goodness that manifests outwardly. Unlike some of Byron’s other works, the poem presents a more restrained and reverential admiration of female beauty. The poem’s structure reinforces its theme of perfect harmony and grace. The speaker compares this woman to a lovely night with a clear starry sky, and goes on to convey her beauty as a harmonious "meeting" between darkness and light. After its discussion of physical attractiveness, the poem then portrays this outer beauty as representative of inner goodness and virtue.

Answer 6

romanticism's preoccupation with emotion, beauty and nature over reason Byron was a leading figure of the Romantic movement and liked to break conventions. Byron’s private life was very public and he was known for his many relationships with different women. alludes to the literary courtly love tradition of medieval period of placing a female on a pedestal, emphasising perfection

Answer 7

power - people living in the slums have no power however they have not given up hope places - shows people surviving and almost thriving in a difficult place man - about the people living in the slums As the title suggests, the poem describes someone’s living space, or home who is living in the slums of Mumbai. The poem conveys the fragility of these homes but more importantly, it celebrates them as a testament to human resilience. On the one hand, the poem highlights the precariousness of such homes. More significantly, however, it praises them as an expression of the miraculousness of life, seeing this living space as evidence of human resourcefulness and determination.

Answer 8

set in the Mumbai slums in India where up to a million people live in poverty as a community Dharker grew up in Scotland but was born in Pakistan so understands a range of cultures She films documentaries in India supporting work with women and children so has a in depth knowledge of mumbai

Answer 9

nature - describes the beauty of the season autumn time - describes how the summer fades and winter comes and that it is a perpetual cycle The poem is a celebration of the autumn season and the poem explores both its beauty and richness. ‘To Autumn’, is an ode(celebrates something). In ‘To Autumn’ the speaker takes the reader through the season in three stages: early autumn, mid-autumn and the approaching winter. Throughout the poem, Keats explores the beauty of nature, the passage of time and the cycle of life itself. The poem praises autumn, describing its abundance, harvest, and transition into winter, and uses intense, sensuous imagery to elevate the fleeting beauty of the moment

Answer 10

romantic poet - love of nature and emotional connection to nature very traditional poet composed after a countryside walk His family had died to illness and he died to Illness at only age 24 - had awareness of death Ode poem which celebrates beauty and sensuousness

Answer 11

nature - uses nature as metaphor to show the passing of grief time - shows the effect of time on grief Explores the almost unnoticeable passing of time through the metaphor of the changing of the seasons. The disappearance of summer is gradual without a specific moment of transition, fading just as feelings of loss and grief diminish over time. By drawing a parallel between the end of summer and the fading of grief, Dickinson presents the idea that life and emotions are transient, like the seasons, and that loss is an inevitable part of both the human experience and the natural world. It suggests that people don't always notice the way that everything undergoes gradual change, even as nothing in life stays still and death is always lurking in the background. The poem contains many of Dickinson's most notable traits, including an apparent simplicity masking rigorous, complex thought and a deep questioning of what it means to be alive.

Answer 12

Lived in rural New England near a graveyard with lots of nature Lived most of her life in solitude as a recluse (avoids talking to others) had a livelong fascination of illness, death and dying

Answer 13

The irregular rhyme scheme begins with three regular rhyming couplets (AA BB CC), but from stanza 4 onwards, stanzas end in half-rhymes that are only “close” in sound: the breakdown of the initially harmonious rhyme scheme indicates the soldier’s emotional distance, the discovery of his mental and emotional trauma, and the struggle of the speaker to “come close” The poem consists of couplets that form 13 short stanzas which symbolically reflect the ladder, the “rungs” the speaker must “climb” to renewed intimacy.

Answer 14

The onion is an extended metaphor for the complexities of love constantly contrasts (or juxtaposes) traditional love concepts with more untraditional ideas The use of free verse, stanzas of different lengths and absence of rhyme scheme could represent the lack of stability in the speaker’s experience of love, but also the deliberately unconventional nature of this expression of love Short, one- or two-word sentences powerfully intensify the speaker’s emotions, adding immediacy and drama Enjambment creates an authentic, naturalistic conversational style Stanza and line lengths are frequently disrupted and changing, foregrounding the refreshingly unconventional, condensed voice of the speaker and the deliberately ‘unromantic’ style of this love poem

Answer 15

Onomatopoeia and sibilance are used in the first stanza (and later) to recreate the sounds of the flax-dam: “bubbles gargled” and “slap and slop” Words associated with decay such as “festered” and “rotted” foreshadow the shift in the child’s perception Alliteration is used throughout to emphasise the childlike quality of the descriptions: “jampotfuls of the jellied/Specks” Imagery of the frogs as metaphorical “great slime kings” making “obscene threats” gives them a menacing quality in the child’s eyes, emphasises by the military simile of them “Poised like mud grenades” Clear contrast in tone and imagery is evident in the second stanza conveying the speaker’s changed feelings towards nature The poem is written in free verse without a regular rhyme scheme reflecting the unstructured nature of childhood The poem is structured into two distinct parts, reflecting the shift in the speaker’s perspective from childhood innocence to a more mature understanding Enjambment reflects the child’s stream of consciousness and conveys the movement of nature

Answer 16

Nature has been personified as a woman who is isolated; it suggests a peaceful moment of introspection rather than something negative “Shone”, “Twilight”, “Dusk”, “Light”: these words allude to stages of days, seasons and the human experience; note that twilight and dusk are both times of transition in a day By using the personal pronoun “our” to describe summer, Dickinson outlines that the passing of time is inevitable for everyone The poem is presented without breaks between quatrains. However, it is written so that every fourth line is a natural break point in the content. It reflects the influence of traditional structures associated with ballads (this links to Dickinson’s religious background and appreciation of traditional poetry) Caesura, marked by the dashes at the end of lines, encourages reflection Enjambment contributes to the idea that time does not stop Dickinson creates a stable rhythm by writing in a mostly regular iambic metre with lines containing six or eight syllables. This reflects the predictable pattern of nature and life as time moves on With the exception of “shone”/”gone”, the other rhymes are slant rhymes, meaning that their sounds are similar rather than identical; examples include “away/perfidy”, "begun/afternoon”, “keel/beautiful”. This creates dissonance implying a sense of unease as Dickinson works through the poem towards a peaceful and hopeful conclusion

Answer 17

The title suggests that the soldier is an archetype and links to the idea of selflessness and sacrifice “some corner” suggests an insignificance that is juxtaposed with repeated references to “England” and “English” to highlight the centrality and importance of his patriotism The words “for ever” highlight the longevity and significance of the nation, contrasted with the fleeting and inconsequential nature of human existence Sibilance creates a soothing effect reflecting an overall sense of tranquillity Pastoral imagery of “flowers” and “rivers” idealise England and create a sense of tranquillity in juxtaposition to the reality of war Petrarchan sonnet showing love for England By dividing 14 lines into an octave and a sestet, Brooke divides the thematic focus; the octave explores all that England has bestowed upon the soldier, while the sestet focuses on the soldier’s contribution to his country The volta signifies a shift from the physical (“bore”, “body”, “breathing”) in the octave to the spiritual (“eternal mind”, “dream”, “heaven”) in the sestet. The structure mirrors the movement from evil to peace By writing in iambic pentameter, Brooke adopts a traditional poetic form that gives a sense of formality and timelessness. The rhythmical pattern aligns with the contemplative tone The alternating rhyme scheme within each quatrain creates a musicality, which complements the Romantic imagery The simplicity of the rhymes (“me/be”, “field/concealed”) are reflective of Brooke’s surety; the words fit together as neatly as his moral conviction The rhyme scheme shifts at the volta, signalling the transition between life — “bore”, “made” “roam” — and the afterlife, “A pulse in the eternal mind”

Answer 18

Sensory language renders the descriptions vivid and impactful; visually, Owen portrays men “bent double”; audibly he captures the “hoots” of gas shells, and the phrase “ecstasy of fumbling” conveys the physical sensation of panic Similes comparing soldiers with “old beggars” and “hags” juxtaposes sharply with the idea of soldiers as strong and fit The diction “blood-shod” and “cud” evokes animal imagery to highlight the dehumanising impact of war. The words “devil’s”, “writhing”, “froth-corrupted” and “vile” evoke imagery reminiscent of hell Stanza one maintains a consistent rhyme scheme, connoting an orderliness and discipline as the soldiers march. This pattern is interrupted in the second and third stanzas, reflecting the chaotic scene The line beginning “Knock-kneed” deviates from the typical iambic pentameter pattern, thus reflecting the challenges of the soldiers’ movement By using the first person, Owen compels the reader to envision witnessing the harrowing events described

Answer 19

lots of enjambment makes the lines run into each other showing how the rooms of the slums all join together Short sentences in the first stanza reflect the lack of space and physical awkwardness of the weird way the sentences fit together. There is no regular rhyme scheme but there are rhymes in (“Beams”, “seems”, “space”, ”place”, “white” light”. In this way, the rhymes reflect the irregularity of the space, providing just enough to hold the poem together phonologically, in the same way that the nails only just hold the structure together each line is a different length mirroring how all of the rooms in the slums are different sized but somehow fit together

Answer 20

Regular ABAB (alternating couplets) rhyme scheme could represent the relentless monotony of living in this city Simplistic rhymes contrast with the complex ideas explored Deviation from iambic tetrameter here places the stressed syllable first to punctuate the metre with Blake’s anger Enjambment conveys the speaker’s intensity and sense of outrage, adding force to the listing of horrors The use of four quatrains could be symbolic of the rigidity of London’s hierarchy at the time Blake was writing

Answer 21

Repetition of the first person “I” and “my” reinforce the hawk’s dominance The language is blunt and monosyllabic reflecting the hawk’s brutal nature Each stanza focuses on a different aspect of the hawk’s existence and perception of its power End-stopped lines and enjambment create a balance between assertive statements and flowing thoughts, which echoes the bird’s flight The poem begins and ends with references to inaction, creating a circular structure which reinforces the hawk’s desire for control 6 4 lined stanzas creates regular structure mirroring the how the hawks power is natural and will always keep happening

Answer 22

The structure progresses from the speaker’s initial excitement to a more reflective, melancholy tone at the end denoting the passing of time Descriptions of the sky, at the start and end of the stanza, symbolically enclose this memory Enjambment is used to create momentum and to reflect the continuous motion of skating Wordsworth uses blank verse written in iambic pentameter which reinforces the authenticity and naturalism of the speaker’s voice, like an inner monologue This extract from the poem is a single stanza, creating a sense of breathlessness to convey the overwhelming intensity of the experience he depicts

Poetry Flashcards

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