Poetry

Question 1

What is the context of ‘A Wife in London’ - Thomas Hardy (1900)

Answer 1

• Not a soldier but held an anti-war stance
• Second Boer war where 22k soldiers killed
• Use of telegrams to transmit urgent news
• The idea of fate features in his work

Question 2

What is the context of ‘Mametz Wood’ - Owen Sheers (2005)

Answer 2

• Not a soldier
• He had an interest in history
• Mametz Wood is in Northern France, a key setting background in the Battle of the Somme (WW1)
• 4000 men died

Question 3

What is the context of ‘The Manhunt’ - Simon Armitage (2007)

Answer 3

• Armitage is a poet not a soldier
• The poem is a dramatic monologue based on an ex-soldier turned peacekeeper - Eddie Beddoes
• The poem was written for a documentary that focuses on army veterans
• Eddie fought in the Bosnian war which was very violent
• Eddie suffered from PTSD

Question 4

What is the context of ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ - Wilfred Owen (1917)

Answer 4

• Owen enlisted to fight in WW1 in 1915 at age 18
• Owen was writing in direct opposition to WW1 propaganda as he didn’t want war to be glorified
• The poem relives a gas attack from a soldier’s perspective. Chlorine gas was a popular weapon
• Owen was famous for his vivid, disturbing poems that capture the horror of war

Question 5

What is the context of ‘The Soldier’ - Rupert Brooke (1914)

Answer 5

• He enlisted to fight when WW1 broke out
• Died of sepsis before seeing action on the front line
• Patriotic

Question 6

What is the context of ‘To Autumn’ - John Keats (1819)

Answer 6

• Written before his health began to deteriorate due to tuberculosis
• An ode is a lyrical poem usually written to express admiration
• Keats was a central figure in the Romantic movement
• Romantics believed in the power and beauty of nature seeing it as a source of inspiration, solace and truth
• The Sublime is a concept of experiencing awe and wonder through nature which is evident in his work

Question 7

What is the context of Excerpt from ‘The Prelude’ - William Wordsworth (19th Century)

Answer 7

• The Prelude embodies many characteristics of the Romantic movement, such as a focus on nature, the importance of individual experience and the exploration of human emotion
• Wordsworth saw nature as a teacher
• Poem is based on an autobiographical experience of ice-skating on a lake in his youth
• The poem touches on ideas of the sublime, where nature becomes a powerful force that can provoke awe and fear
• When he encounters the ‘darkness’ and the ‘mountain’ it represents a shift in his perception of nature from a source of beauty to a more complex, mysterious power

Question 8

What is the context of ‘Death of A Naturalist’ - Seamus Heaney (1966)

Answer 8

• He was an Irish poet, known for his exploration of rural life and personal memory
• Heaney’s younger brother died when he was young
• Written in the 1960s, a period of political unrest in Ireland, the poem reflects his broader concerns with the tension between the individual and the world around him
• The shift in tone of the poem can reflect his own transition into adulthood and his deeper awareness of societal complexities

Question 9

What is the context of ‘Hawk Roosting’ - Ted Hughes (1960)

Answer 9

• A dramatic monologue spoken from the perspective of a hawk who reflects on its power and dominance
• Hughes was an English poet known for his vivid and often dark depictions of the natural world
• In the poem, the hawk represents absolute power and authority, he uses the hawk as a symbol of unchallenged power and survival
• Written in post-war, it can be read as a commentary on the human desire for power and control, reflecting the darker side of human nature

Question 10

What is the context of ‘London’ - William Blake (1794)

Answer 10

• Written part of his collection ‘Songs of Experience’ which illuminate the challenges and suffering of life
• Blake is considered a Romantic poet. Many of his poems are song-like and focus on nature and emotion
• London had changed through the industrial revolution, children often worked in factories of terrible conditions, London became smoke-ruined
• He alludes to the French Revolution to perhaps suggest the British should do the same as he opposed established authority
• Blake rejected established religion and spoke out about the way children were treated by having to work

Question 11

What is the context of ‘Living Space’ - Imtiaz Dharker (1997)

Answer 11

• Dharker was born in Pakistan, raised in Scotland, lives in the UK and Mumbai
• Contemporary poet
• She uses her multicultural perspective throughout her writing
• As a poet, artist and filmmaker, Dharker tries to raise awareness of how people in other cultures live
• Mumbai slums: millions of people live however the actual population is unknown
• Limited access to food and water

Question 12

What is the context of ‘Ozymandias’ - Percy Bysshe Shelley (1817)

Answer 12

• Romantic poet
• Expelled from Oxford for sharing atheist views
• The poem is a sonnet, a form used for love, ironically contrasting the theme of decay and destruction
• Ozymandias was an Egyptian Pharaoh - Ramses II was known for his military conquests and monuments
• Many grand statues built in his honour

Question 13

What is the context of ‘Afternoons’ - Phillip Larkin (1959)

Answer 13

• Larkin was a post-war poet who shied away from publicity and wrote of everyday experiences and domesticity in an ordinary language
• In the 1960s, gender roles were more defined as women were expected to dedicate themselves to raising children, whilst men were expected to earn money and provide for the family
• He developed a gloomy and cynical persona; many of his poems were infected with a profound bleakness

Question 14

What is the context of ‘Valentine’ - Carol Ann Duffy (1993)

Answer 14

• Contemporary Scottish poet + former Poet Laureate
• Her writing explores ideas about gender, oppression and sexuality
• She is openly part of the LGBTQ+ community
• The poem was first written in 1993 when a radio station asked Duffy to write an original poem for Valentine’s Day

Question 15

What is the context of ‘Sonnet 43’ - Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1850)

Answer 15

• Born into a reasonably wealthy family: her father owned plantations in Jamaica
• Devoutly Christian, describing her faith as ‘the wild visions of an enthusiast’
• Ill and frail for most of her life. The medication she took may have resulted in her wild imagination
• Amongst their correspondence, Elizabeth wrote Robert a series of sonnets, 43/44
• They communicated, she knew her father wouldn’t approve, they then married and moved to Italy

Question 16

What is the context of ‘She Walks in Beauty’ - Lord Byron (1814)

Answer 16

• Romantic poet
• Famous for both his writing and his aristocratic excesses and involved in a number of sex scandals
• Many poets traditionally use nature to describe beauty like flowers and daylight, however Byron uses nature differently, comparing the woman to the night to make her stand out

Question 17

What is the context of ‘Cozy Apologia’ - Rita Dove (1999)

Answer 17

• Contemporary American poet + former US poet laureate
• Poem is dedicated to her husband Fred Viebahn
• Hurricane Floyd was a very powerful hurricane that struck the east coast of the USA in 1999
• People who lived in coastal regions as far North as North Carolina were evacuated
• 76 people died in total

Question 18

What is the context of ‘As Imperceptibly as Grief’ - Emily Dickenson (1880)

Answer 18

• At 13, a close friend died of Typhus and it traumatised her, so she became obsessed and afraid of death
• Dickenson did attend church for part of her life but she never formally committed to religion
• Recluse (n + adj)
• She cared for her ill mother, which added to her seclusion