POETRY THEMES

Question 1

CAGED BIRD

Answer 1

• Freedom versus captivity
• Being passive versus helping
• Despair / helplessness
• Determination / perseverance
• Slavery / colonisation
• Greed
• Ignorance
• Dreams versus reality
• Song and the power of song

Question 2

THE THREE FATES

Answer 2

• Fate!
• Being careful what you wish for
• Regret
• Passivity – not acting in your own life
• Torment / torture
• The role of the fates themselves in deciding the man’s fate
• Inevitability / inescapabilty
• The pain of romantic love

Question 3

LITTLE BOY CRYING

Answer 3

• Parenting
• Choices / difficult decisions
• Vulnerability / helplessness
• Perspective
• Discipline
• Violence
• Manipulation / deception
• Stories / the influence of fairy tales
• Pain / hurt

Question 4

THE PLANNERS

Answer 4

• Change (for the sake of change)
• Appearance versus reality
• Wealth and power
• Tradition versus innovation
• Nature versus the manmade
• Loss – the cost of progress
• Deception
• Corruption
• Trying to remake the past / erase history

Question 5

SONNET 43 - HOW DO I LOVE THEE

Answer 5

• The nature of love
• Belief / faith
• Eternity
• Devotion (romantic and religious)
• Extremes
• The ordinary versus the extraordinary
• Freedom / choice
• The way that love can transform somebody
• Innocence

Question 6

SONNET 29 - PITY ME NOT

Answer 6

• Emotion versus reason
• Transience
• The nature of love
• Resignation / acceptance
• Desire / love / passion
• Inevitability
• Pity
• Loss
• The fragility of love / desire
• How the past leads to cynicism and hurt

Question 7

MARRYSONG

Answer 7

• Learning
• Determination
• Frustration versus hope
• Change
• Journeys / discovery
• Romantic love / marriage / relationships
• Humility – accepting you have to be patient sometimes
• The unexpected

Question 8

NOT WAVING BUT DROWNING

Answer 8

• Helplessness / vulnerability
• Miscommunication and misunderstanding
• Ignorance
• Resignation
• The sense of it being too late
• Appearance versus reality (i.e. he appeared happy but wasn’t)
• Ongoing pain (the dead man is still moaning)

Question 9

SHE DWELT AMONG THE UNTRODDEN WAYS

Answer 9

• Loss / grief / mourning
• Isolation
• Perspective
• Beauty
• The nature of life passing by / the scale of one human life in the grand scheme of things

Question 10

AMENDS

Answer 10

• Human versus the manmade
• Ignorance / passivity versus being active / nature trying to make a difference
• Damage / destruction versus beauty
• Futility / helplessness
• Hope
• ‘Amends’ – making up for something, trying to atone for something
• Relishing the beauty of the world and nature
• Human obliviousness

Question 11

RISING FIVE

Answer 11

• Time
• Carpe diem
• Life / cycle of life and death
• Anticipation
• Beauty
• Urgency (and how that’s not always needed)
• Not fully appreciating our lives
• Innocence versus experience
• Transience

Question 12

PLENTY

Answer 12

• Contrast between childhood and adulthood
• Poverty / hardship / struggle
• Family – community, relationships
• Parenting
• Strength (the mother’s emotional strength)
• Growing up / maturing
• What it really means to have ‘plenty’ – ‘plenty’ in what sort of sense?
• Siblings

Question 13

MULIEBRITY

Answer 13

• The power of the ordinary
• Writing and the difficulty of presenting things faithfully
• Memory
• A particular place and time
• The lives of women
• Honour / pride
• Simplicity

Question 14

MID-TERM BREAK

Answer 14

• Loss / death / mourning
• Community
• Innocence
• Shock
• Parenting / roles of parents
• The nature of life and death
• Siblings

Question 15

THOSE WINTER SUNDAYS

Answer 15

• Ignorance
• Love
• Selflessness
• Perspective / opinion changing as you grow
• The nature of home
• Anger and hostility
• Secrets within the family