Poetry

Question 1

What is love and a question about? What are possible lines of argument?

Answer 1

Whats it about? A bridegroom is interrupted on his wedding night by a stranger asking for shelter. He eventually decides turn him away but feels conflicted.
Lines of argument? Romantic vs compassionate love and how they conflict in society. Women as distractions to men. Societal attitudes to romantic love eg traditions.

Question 2

What is the context and structure of Love and a question?

Answer 2

Context? 1915 in WWI, romanticist poet.

Structure? Allegory, 8 line stanzas in ballad, alternating iambic and tetrameter. 3 major shifts, story like.

Question 3

What is A Quoi Bon Dire about? What are its lines of argument?

Answer 3

Whats it about? A couple’s love surviving death despite what everyone else thinks. They look on at new love from the afterlife.
Lines of argument? Mature vs young love. Love lasting forever. Whether love is affected by societal views. Letting go of the past.

Question 4

What is the context and structure for A Quoi Bon Dire?

Answer 4

Structure? Rhyme scheme: ABABCDCDEFEF. Past, present, future tenses used. Iambic pentameter in the last stanza vs varied line length in others.

Context? Romanticist content but modernist structure Mental illness. 1923 post war prosperity and new modernist values.

Question 5

What is One Flesh about? Potential lines of argument?

Answer 5

Whats it about? Jennings write of her parents whose love has gone cold but also of the intimacy of mature love.
Lines of Argument? Romantic love and passion. Maturing love as being more intimate. Love lasting in ever and importance of sexual desire.

Question 6

What is the context and structure of One Flesh?

Answer 6

Context? Lyric poetry, The Movement an anti-romantic movement. 1966, free love and hippy movement.

Structure? First two stanzas : ABCBDD, last stanza: ABABA. 3 six line stanzas, repetitive structure. However, change in rhyme scheme from first two stanzas can also show how love is lost/love changes. Long lines = dragging out relationship. Iambic pentameter. Beginning- Ambiguous, Ending- revealed that its her mother and father

Question 7

What is meeting point about? Potential lines of argument?

Answer 7

Whats it about? Two people meet in a cafe and metaphorically time stops and they go to a forest.
Lines of argument? Highlight living in the moment with regards to love and not reading into and obsessing over it as a society. Conflict of societal urbanization vs nature and just being. Idea of love not lasting forever or beating time.

Question 8

Context and structure of meeting point?

Answer 8

Context? Post WWI and leading up to WWII. Changing society- materialism of the 1920s.
Auden group of modernists.

Structure? Irregular rhyme scheme- conflict between real and the imagined world, repeated 1st and last line of stanza = cyclic nature of love + add to fairytale tone. Tetrameter = the constant of their love in changing world

Question 9

What is For my Lover Returning to his Wife about? Potential lines of argument?

Answer 9

Whats it about? A woman giving permission for their lover to go back to their wife.
What are potential lines of argument? Idea of mother and housewife vs free and independent are in conflict. Also affairs not considered as substantial as a marriage culturally. Idea of women fighting over a man, Sexton challenged this.

Question 10

Context and structure and of For my Lover Returning

Answer 10

Context? Mental health issues. ‘Counterculture’ against conservatism of 50s and Vietnam. Confessional poet.

Structure? No rhyme- long drawn out lines show almost submission to inevitable. Irregular stanza reflects stream of conscious so more intimate. Beginning and end ‘she’ vs ‘I’ reflect how whole poem is about narrator through binary opposition.

Question 11

What is Wild Oats about? Potential lines of argument?

Answer 11

Whats it about? A man goes out with a less attractive woman and spends loads of money on her only to have it fail.
Lines of argument? Materialism within love- blaming self vs blaming outside world. Focus and obsession with beauty and physical looks and negative effects of this.

Question 12

Structure and context of Wild Oats?

Answer 12

Structure? No rhyming reflects pragmatic view of love. 3 stanzas showing 3 parts of relationship. Starts and ends with ‘bosomy rose’
Context? Very private, pragmatic man and very English. 1962- reshaping expectations eg free love. Post-modernist poet- return to clarity, simple form and still description of modern life.

Question 13

What is Talking in Bed about? Lines of argument?

Answer 13

Whats it about? A couple whose love for each other has grown cold and been replaced with distance.
Lines of Argument? Modernism vs older romanticism. Does the silence mean a lack of intimacy or comfortability? Whole poem about failing to reach expectations of love. Casual relationships.

Question 14

What is the structure and context of Talking in Bed?

Answer 14

Structure? Most lines have 10 syllables. ABA CAC DCD EEE- last stanza stands alone as it reaches negative conclusion of whole relationship. ‘Emblem’ line has 10 syllables linking to idea of falsehood. Starts with what it ‘ought’ to be- sets up for disappointment, clear that title has also been a lie.
Context? Post-modernist poet- return to clarity, simple form and still description of modern life. Links to nature and love vs modernism and society. Very private, pragmatic man and very English. 1962- reshaping expectations eg free love.

Question 15

What is punishment about? Potential lines of argument?

Answer 15

Whats it about? A girl being punished for adultery as her lover looks on.
Lines of argument? Passivity in love and society. Double standards in love to infidelity. How fear is easily stronger than love, is love selfless? Link between death and love.

Question 16

Context and structure of Punishment?

Answer 16

Context? IRA and ‘The troubles’ and the body in the bog of a young girl killed for adultery. Seamus grew up near ulster, Catholic background.
Structure? Regular 4 line stanzas. No rhyme scheme- gives clarity. Short lines- holding himself back.
‘I can feel’- it is not about the girl and the badness of punishing her but of the badness of sitting and watching it happen. End comes full circle- has been no change even for girl who ‘understands’ her punishment.

Question 17

What is Vergissmeinnicht about? Lines of argument?

Answer 17

Whats it about? A soldier goes over to visit a battle ground finding a dead soldier’s picture of his lover.
Lines of argument? Can a lover and soldier be one in the some? Complexity of a person, cannot be black and white. Idea of just following orders and human responsibility. Is the soldier cold-hearted and unloving or not?

Question 18

Structure and context of Vergissmeinnicht?

Answer 18

Structure? Starts of just seeing soldier as part of war in verses 1 and 2. Change as he discovers Steffi, and it comes to the conclusion of soldier and lover being in one person. 8 syllables a line- tetrameter. Conclusion at the end very different to hardened stance at the start.
Context? Post-war, soldier. Written during the battle of El-Almein, between Germany and allies in which Douglas was present. Postmodern works are seen as a response against Enlightenment thinking and Modernist approaches to literature. War poetry.

Question 19

What is Timer about? Lines of argument?

Answer 19

Whats it about? A son goes against his fathers wishes and retrieves his dead mothers wedding ring.
Lines of argument? Does love last forever? Do you need material things to hold onto love? Is love between family more important than romantic love? Hypersexulisation of mother-son-bond.

Question 20

Structure and context of Timer?

Answer 20

Structure? ABAB rhyme scheme- with 4. Tone becomes reflective of nature of life here. Iambic pentameter except lines 10, 11 and 12- the crucial part. Ending becomes more profound concluding with nature of life and similarly start is more profound about nature of love juxtaposing trivial and domestic middle part.
Context? Conflict in Middle East, Al Qaeda. Sitcoms criticizing middle class, Margret Thatcher PM. Polemical poetry- political poetry which undermines and overturns some preconceptions of poetry as purely aesthetic and private.

Question 21

What is the Love Poem about? Lines of argument?

Answer 21

Whats it about? The conflict between past and present ideas, especially about love, in poetry.
Line of Arguments? Romanticist ideas vs modernism. Does Duffy disagree or agree with the poets idea of love? Poetry’s role in idolizing love- context shaping society. The art of writing poetry.

Question 22

Structure and context of the Love Poem?

Answer 22

Structure? Fragmentation. Lack of rhyme scheme. Short lines, use of enjambment.
Context? Uses older poets from Romanticist period eg Shakespeare, Elegy XIX and the bible. Postmodernism, minimalism and metapoetry. Modernist response to romanticism.

Question 23

Whats Long Finish about? Lines of argument?

Answer 23

Whats it about? A long marriage, and the tenderness that has grown with it.
Lines of argument? Mortality vs immortality, the effects of time on marriage. Focus on personality and imperfections and criticizing societies focus on beauty. Concept of death and loss making love more beautiful or more futile? Societal expectations of love and not overthinking it.

Question 24

Structure and context of Long Finish?

Answer 24

Context? Play Matusukze about spirts and being left behind. Influenced by other Irish poets like Heaney. Metafiction. Postmodernist influences.
Structure? Ballad. Long poem with alternating long and short lines. Internal monoluge in bracets. Rhyme scheme ABACDECF.

Question 25

Whats To John Donne about? Lines of argument?

Answer 25

Whats it about? A response to Elegy XIX dealing with the mapping of the genome, women and colonialism.
Line of argument? Women as property to be divided up.Trying to quantify the human body and immoarlity f selling the body. Criticism of colonialism. He encourages people to reclaim their bodies

Question 26

Structure and context of To John Donne?

Answer 26

Structure? Defined structure vs new ideas and arguments. 14 tercerts, uneven syllables and use of half rhymes. Ends with breast cancer genome- becomes steadily more explicit in meaning.
Context? Poets transition from atheism to religion. Lyrical poet with philosophical and metaphysical concerns. 9/11, UK very nonreligious, gay rights, Iraq War and New Millennium. Meta modernism and post-post modernism. Written after convos about big business owning the genome.

Question 27

Whats After the Lunch about? Lines of argument?

Answer 27

What its about? A couple saying goodbye at Waterloo Bridge.
Lines of argument? Is it a mocking paradoy? Is it overly simplistic or a criticism of older poetry? Does it present partings as being bad or good?

Question 28

Structure and context of After the Lunch?

Answer 28

Structure? The stanzas role in building narrative. Internal monologue in italics. Hendecasyllable- used by Greeks and medieval poets. Repetition of ‘On Waterloo Bridge…’
Context? Self-reflective and accessible. Modernist as critical of inaccessible poetry, advocates feminism. Perhaps a parody of the idea of love. Waterloo Bridge film in 1940, has wide cultural effect on idea of love but women also helped build it.

Question 29

Whats I being born a woman and distressed about? Lines of argument?

Answer 29

Whats it about? A woman dumping her lover and being harsh
Lines of argument? Physicality of love- use of parts of the body such as brain/blood/breast/pulse, love as oppressive- weight bearing, being born a woman, societal expectations of women in love, sexuality doesn’t equal love, the mind vs heart

Question 30

Structure and Context of I being born a woman and distressed?

Answer 30

Structure? Sonnet which is associated with love- satirical because it depicts the complete opposite
Beginning- opening with the title, outlines poems meaning and point, sarcastic attack on female inferiority, end- finds topic of oppression boring, perhaps lover doesn’t satisfy her sexually? Beginning and end reinforce oppressive nature of love towards women
Context? Feminist and bi. Women getting the vote but denied equal pay. Women culturally change eg wear trousers.