Poetry Anthology Flashcards
(96 cards)
1
Q
Manhunt: Character roles
A
He is silent voice and passsive, she is active (also shown by enjambment - continuously tracing him)
2
Q
Manhunt: Title meaning
A
Personal manhunt - speaking is trying to reconnect post-trauma
3
Q
Manhunt: Ending
A
The speaker is only just beginning to understand the real impact of war on her love, that is difficult to overcome
4
Q
Manhunt: Structure
A
- Couplets - Action,reaction and intimacy
- Mix of rhymes and half-rhymes - relationship is fragmented and they’re recovering
5
Q
Manhunt: Context
A
- Soilder coming home from Bosnian war
- UN Peacekeeper
- Trauma of PTSD
- Modern warefare
- Impact on the wife, Laura
6
Q
Manhunt: Repetition of ‘only then’
A
Gradual tentative process of getting used to her husband
7
Q
Manhunt: Verbs associated with speaker
Te
A
Tender, active verbs
8
Q
Manhunt: Imagery of ‘scan’ and ‘foetus of metal’
A
Pregnancy imagery - Permenantly changed the relationship
9
Q
Manhunt: ‘blown hinge of his lower jaw’
A
He has no jaw - metaphor for how he can’t use his words to explain how he feels
10
Q
Manhunt: ‘where the bullet had finally come to rest’
A
Personification of bullet shows how it’s always with him now
11
Q
Manhunt: ‘unexploded mine buried deep in his mind’
A
Violent, military imagery - PTSD could go off at any time
12
Q
London: Atmosphere, Semantics and tone
A
Gloomy and depressing semantic field + Speaker has melancholy tone
13
Q
London: Repetition of ‘every’
A
Inescapeable human condition - everyone is victim in a city of woe
14
Q
London: Rhymescheme
A
- ABAB rhymescheme, iambic tetrameter
- Unforgiving and relentless nature of life + routine in the capital
15
Q
London: Structure
A
- Quatrains - unbroken misery
- Enjambment in S1 to show everyone is linked by misery
- Repetition in S1+2 to show how no one is unaffected
16
Q
London: Context
A
- Industrial revolution - workhouses for children and capatalist use of slavery
- French revolution
- Hypocricy of church, prostitution
- Early romantic
- Radical political views
17
Q
London: ‘Mind-forg’d manacles’
A
Image of entrapment - mentally impriosned in London
18
Q
London: ‘every infant’s cry of fear’
A
Everyone has misery from birth
19
Q
London: ‘Chimney-sweeper’s cry’ and ‘Harlot’s curse’
A
Poverty-striken
20
Q
London: ‘Runs in blood down palace walls’
A
Very emotive image - class attack
21
Q
She Walks in Beauty: Form and who written to
A
Ode to lover
22
Q
She Walks in Beauty: Rhyme-scheme
A
ABABAB - Beauty is constant and perfect
23
Q
She Walks in Beauty: ‘A heart whose love is innocent’
A
- Unaffected by struggled
- Exists in her own bubble of beauty
- Her beauty is innocent
24
Q
She Walks in Beauty: ‘serenely sweet’ and ‘pure’
A
Emphasis on innocence - her beauty is innocent
25
She Walks in Beauty: Semantics of light and dark
* Beauty is harmony between 2 distinct elements
* Contrast shows the woman is perfect balance of opposites
* Emphasise innocence and radiant purtiy, which shines through
* Antithesis
26
She Walks in Beauty: Balance of language
Sensual language of body is balanced against moral language of goodness
27
She Walks in Beauty: Tone
* Lyrical
* 3rd person - only talks about woman
* Conveys speakers adoration, but possibly objectifying her as no more than a vessel of beauty
28
She Walks in Beauty: Structure
* Three stanzas of equal length
* Sense of fluidity, and reflects her effortless grace, poise and elegance
* Iambic tetrameter
* Speakers thoughts are convicting
29
She Walks in Beauty: Progression of focus
* Begins to focus on woman's physical/external beauty
* Concludes by considering inner goodness which is outwardly manifested
30
She Walks in Beauty: Context
* Lord Byron slept with countless men and women
* English Romantic
* Apreciated aesthetic beauty
* Emotive tribute to perfection
31
She Walks in Beauty: Examples of light and dark
* 'night' and 'starry skies'
* 'best of dark and bright'
* 'tender light'
* 'One shade the more, one ray the less'
32
Living Space: First line echoing structure
Line breaks in unexpected, giving irregular form ('There are just not enough straight lines')
33
Living Space: Form
* Irregular
* Stanzas and lines of different lengths
* Mirrors random construction and chaos of the bulding
* Also mirrors precarious nature of life
34
Living Space: No rhyme/rhythm
* Reflects disorder of living space
* Look isjointed on page with lines sticking out, broken and short
* Just like the building it describes
35
Living Space: First stanza structure
Caesuras emphasise the building is under stress, and how loosely connected different parts are
36
Living Space: Last 2 stanzas
One enjambed sentence - shows how such fragile structures sustain life and give hope
37
Living Space: 'nails clutch'
* Desperate verb
* Emphasise instability of building
* Personify it's desperation to stay upright
38
Living Space: 'miraculous'
* Shifts the tone
* When it becomes someones home. the tone becomes one of wonder
39
Living Space: Key symbolism of the egg
* Symbolises faith and new life
* They are miracles like the buildings
* The contain new life like the buildings hold people, the eggs hold chiks
40
Living Space: Sparseness of poem
Paralleled with how the living space is sparse
41
Living Space: Context
* Dharker born in Pakistan, raised in Glasgow
* Her poetry often expoles life in India
* Probably about slums in Mumbai
* Millions of people live in slums as a community
42
Living Space: 'leans dangerously towards the miraculous'
People creating something out of nothing
43
Living Space: 'thin walls of faith'
Community built on faith
44
Cozy Apologia: Name meaning
Poem of defense - defending the ordinary
45
Cozy Apologia: Who is it written to
Her husband - Fred
46
Cozy Apologia: Comparing Fred to 'lamp', and 'rain' in S2
Saying mudane is beatiful
47
Cozy Apologia: 'I could choose any hero, any cause or age'
Any hero reminds her of him - she is constantly reminded of him
48
Cozy Apologia: 'shooting arrows to the heart'
Romantic image - connotions to cupid
49
Cozy Apologia: 'sissy names', 'thin as licorice and as chewy
No ex can compare to Fred
50
Cozy Apologia: 'We're content, but fall short of divine' + 'when has the ordinary ever been news?'
* They're not heavenly or a perfect couple but she's embarisingly happy to be with him
* As who was ever happy with the ordinary
51
Cozy Apologia: 'There you'll be' + 'chain mail glinting'
Imagining Fred as a fictional, stereotypial hero/knight
52
Cozy Apologia: S1, constant comparison of Fred to others
So besotted by Fred that everything reminds the speaker of him
53
Cozy Apologia: Tone + Speaker
* Free verse - converstaional tone
* Number of syllables vary in each line, acting like a chain of thought
* Thoughts running away with her (like hurricane)
* S2 - S3
* First person - personal feeling
54
Cozy Apologia: Rhyme-scheme
* S1 is regular rhyming couplets - conforms to traditional presentation of their love an intimacy
* S2 rhyme-scheme is distrupted as she thinks of past relationships she regrets
* ABAB rhyme-scheme returns when domestic harmony is restored
55
Cozy Apologia: Structure
* Present tense talking about feelings
* When reflecting on previous relationships, there's a contrast of past tense
* Returns to present when thinking of Fred again
56
Cozy Apologia: Context
* Response to post-modern collapse of meaning
* Written when Hurricane Floyd hit east coast of USA in 1999
* Very domestic - writer so autobiographical
57
Cozy Apologia: Significane of line 15
* Storm hits
OR
* Thinking and reminicing on past
58
Valentine: Comparison to traditional love poems
Rejects cliches and typical forms like sonnets
59
Valentine: Form
* First person
* Stanzas of irregular length
* Some stanzas one line
* Doesn't conform to traditional love forms
* Love isn't perfection
60
Valentine: Rhyme and rhythm
* Lacks rhyme and rhythm
* Disjointed feel
* Free verse - more genuine
61
Valentine: Single word lines
* Forceful and aggressive in tone
* 'Lethal'
62
Valentine: Onion
* Extended metaphor - layers of love
* Gradually reveals deterioration of love over time
* Hopeful to threatening as when looses layers makes you cry
63
Valentine: Tone
Starts playful and optimistic, then forceful and optimistic and hostile at end
64
Valentine: Repetition
Adds element of coercion
65
Valentine: Direct address
* 'I give you'
* Combined with imperative verbs like 'Tke it'
* Honest, personal tone
* Also commanding and forceful
66
Valentine: Negative/threatening language
* 'it will bling you' + 'wobbling photo of grief'
* Unusual for a love poem
* Hints at the dangerous and possessive side to love
67
Valentine: 'It is a moon wrapped in brown paper. It promises light'
* Metaphor
* How the mundane can be beautiful
68
Valentine: 'I am trying to be truthful'
* Feels abrupt
* Sincere and to the point
* Gives a gift whih reflect tumultious nature of life
69
Valentine: 'possessive and faithful'
Summaries the tine of poem
70
Valentine: platinum loops shrint to a wedding-ring'
Symbol of love and devotion
71
Valentine: 'Lethal, Its scent will cling to your fingers, cling to your knife'
image of marriage with 'lethal' and 'knife' feels contradictory
72
Valentine: Context
* Radical poet
* Interested in feminism
* Response to a challenge from radio presenter who asked her to write a original poem for Valentine's day
* Conceit - reminiscent of metaphysical poeets like John Donne who used object to explore ideas of love
* At a young age she had a love affair with poet Adrian Henry, many years her senior
73
Death of a Naturalist: Form
* First person
* Blank verse (no rhyme)
* Sounds conversational and personal
74
Death of a Naturalist: Structure
* Iambic pentameter not always secure with often over-spilling into 11 syllables
* Reflects richness of nature and unpredictability of change
* Enjambment coveys speakers enthusiasm and nature's inability to be constrained
75
Death of a Naturalist: Stanzas
* S1 focus on childhood wonderment and secure relationship with nature
* Hints of negative language and ominous tone like 'rotted' foreshadows change at end
* Seems to captivate, not scare the speaker
* S2, shifts in tone for more fractured relationship with nature
* Nature in unfamilar and threatening
76
Death of a Naturalist: Quotes to show nature as threataning
* 'air was thick' - Stifling atmosphere
* 'invaded' + 'grenades' - military language and personification weaponises frogs
* 'I sickened'
77
Death of a Naturalist: Synaesthesia
* Combines all 5 senses at once
* Wealth of sensory qualaties conveys richness and abundance of nature
78
Death of a Naturalist: How is contrast used
* Reveal the troubled relationship that develops with nature
* Imagery of life and beauty contrasts imagery of decay, repulsion and death
* 'gargled delicatley'
* 'punishing sun'
79
Death of a Naturalist: Speaker involvement
* Active participant (I would fill jampots)
* Passive and horrified observer - Conditional 'if'
80
Death of a Naturalist: Title
His view of nature as joyful is tarnished = death of his views
81
Death of a Naturalist: 'I would fill jampots full of the jellied specks'
Collecting tadpoles (childhood innocence) - positive experience with nature
82
Death of a Naturalist: Context
* Irish poet
* From farming community
* Romantic poet - from childhood innocence to adulthood experiance
* Strong Roman Catholic upbringing - sexual maturity and church's repulsion
* Only sees troubles with IRA now
83
Hawk Roosting: Form
* Dramatic monologue from perspective of hawk
* First person voice gives hawk authority and commands poem without debate/interuption
* No rhyme (no lyrical quality) - cold, harsh and blunt
* Quatrains - decisive, controlling nature of hawk
84
Hawk Roosting: Structure
* Begins with hawk perched high in tree, happy being top of hierarchy
* Develops to consider it's own perfection
* Ends on assured statement of complete future control
85
Hawk Roosting: Brutal and violent imagery
Dominates the poem and conveys the destructive power of hawk.
86
Hawk Roosting: Pronouns
* Use of 'I'
* Repetition of 'my'
* Formal and complex
* End-stopped lines contribute to its uncompromising nature
87
Hawk Roosting: 'Nothing has changed since i began' + 'I am going to keep things like this'
Natural world and cycle of life will always be the same in past, present and future
88
Hawk Roosting: Context
* British poet
* Famous for poems on animals
* Grew up in rural Yorkshire
* Enjoyed hunting and fishing
89
Prelude: Form
* First person autobiography focused on a specific memory
* Blank verse and iambic pentameter makes it sound natural and unforced - like a personal and intimate conversation with the reader
* Steady rhythm creates impression that memory is clear and certain
90
Prelude: Structure
* Enjambment creates a spontaneity to the memory and sense of joy
* Caesuras pause to emphasise glory of moment
91
Prelude: 'evening died away'
Passing of time is unstoppable just like growing up
92
Prelude: Volta in Line 16
* Older voice reflects of childhood in serious and mature tone
* Pessimistic diction like 'melancholy', 'alien', and 'died' is introduced adding a sombre tone
93
Prelude: Sibilance
* 'hiss'd', 'polished', 'ice'
* Recreate active memories of ice skating
94
Prelude: Sibilance
* 'hiss'd along polish'd ice'
* Activly reliving the memory
95
Prelude: Pace
Active verbs such as 'wheel'd' and 'flew' creates speed and youthful energy
96
Prelude: Context
* Early romantic powet
* Grew up in idyllic setting of Lake District
* Comes from a longer autobiographical poem
* Belives nature was the 'Great Universal Teacher'
