Power & Conflict Poetry

Question 1

Ozymandias: “My…”

Answer 1

“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:” (caesura, hyperbole).

Question 2

Ozymandias: “nothing…”

Answer 2

“Nothing beside remains.” (irony, caesura)

Question 3

Ozymandias: “half…”

Answer 3

“half sunk, a shattered visage lies,” (symbolism, adjective and characterisation)

Question 4

Ozymandias: Form

Answer 4

Sonnet: 14 line love poem (love for himself and power, mocks Ozymandias’ lack of support/love from the public).
Petrarchan Sonnet interrupted by Shakespearean Sonnet (irregular rhyme vs iambic pentameter = transient power vs eternal nature).
Volta: “nothing beside remains” (bathos, human power is ephemeral).

Question 5

Ozymandias: Context

Answer 5

Shelley was an atheist pacifist.
Part of Romantic poetry movement (sublime of Nature).
Anti-monarchy, rejected institutions of power (church/monarchy) and wanted social justice.
Oedipal pattern: human power’s id (greed) fights against masculine power of Nature (superego) - Shelley promotes son + mother relationship between humanity and Mother Nature (awe, respect).

Question 6

London: “each…”

Answer 6

“each chartered street near where the chartered Thames does flow” (repetition, juxtaposition of “chartered Thames”)

Question 7

London: “the hapless…”

Answer 7

“the hapless soldier’s sigh / runs in blood down palace walls” (juxtaposition of “hapless soldier”, enjambment, personification of “runs in blood”, colour palette = red)

Question 8

London: “every…”

Answer 8

“every black’ning church appalls” (oxymoron, colour palette = black)

Question 9

London: Form

Answer 9

Simple, 4 stanza dramatic monologue with alternate rhyme: accessible to all (equality, same miserable lives for all poor people in London).
Stanza 3 acrostic: “HEAR” (plead for change).

Question 10

London: Context

Answer 10

Blake wrote during the Romantic period (sublime nature corrupted).
Wanted social change, rejected organised religion (despite being a Christian - POLEMIC against institutions of power).
Supported the French Revolution.
Against the Industrial Revolution.

Question 11

Exposure: “our…”

Answer 11

“our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us…” (ellipses, collective pronoun, imagery of violent winds and aching brains)

Question 12

Exposure: “Dawn…”

Answer 12

“Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army” (emotive lang, symbolism of Dawn (alt: East=Germans in Somme), juxtaposition of Dawn vs melancholy)

Question 13

Exposure: “For…”

Answer 13

“For the love of God seems dying.” (juxtaposition of love of God (sempiternal) vs dying, biblical allusion)

Question 14

Exposure: “But…”

Answer 14

“But nothing happens.” (refrain, cyclical structure, irony)

Question 15

Exposure: Form

Answer 15

8 stanzas of 5 lines (eight quintains): monotony and futility of war.
Half rhyme: double threat of war (nature + weapons).

Question 16

Exposure: Context

Answer 16

Owen wrote from the trenches - a time of heavy censorship.
He fought in the Battle of the Somme (5 month bloody battle, 6 mile gain for Allies).
Owen worked in a church from 1911-13, but became disillusioned with religion after his experiences of war.
Owen was killed one week before the Armistice.
Criticised wartime propaganda - overwhelming and depicted war as epic (eg: poet Jessie Pope).

Question 17

Storm on the Island: “We…”

Answer 17

“We are prepared:” (collective pronoun, irony of confidence yet nature still overpowers humanity)

Question 18

Storm on the Island: “exploding…”

Answer 18

“exploding comfortably” (semantic field of war, juxtaposition of chaos vs serenity - fatalistic acceptance of the environment)

Question 19

Storm in the Island: “spits…”

Answer 19

“spits like a tamed cat turned savage” (zoomorphism, emotive lang - furious “spit” of a cat)

Question 20

Storm on the Island: “strange…”

Answer 20

“strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear.” (colloquial tone, juxtaposition + paradox “huge nothing” - futile nature of conflict / existential reflection = are fears/boundaries perceptions of the mind?)

Question 21

Storm on the Island: Form

Answer 21

Half rhyme on first 2 and last 2 lines: nature refuses human order and has ultimate power, cyclical = inescapable.
Swaps between troachic & spondaic meter: mimics how fast people turned on the Catholics during Troubles? / criticism of the back-and-forth, hateful nature of conflict.

Question 22

Storm on the Island: Context

Answer 22

Published in 1966 - early in the Troubles.
Heaney was a Catholic Nationalist (wanted the Irish to be one, separate from UK) - however his main ideology was abhorrence of violence (supported unification of humanity).
Used folklore and extended metaphors to describe conflict.

Question 23

The Emigrée: “there…”

Answer 23

“there was once a country… I left it as a child but my memory of it is sunlight- clear” (motif of sunlight = hope and solace but also blinding, temporal phrase “there was once…” = allusion to fantasy + child-like lens, tone change)

Question 24

The Emigrée: “I am…”

Answer 24

“I am branded by an impression of sunlight” (ambiguous connotations = lasting gaiety vs burnt by sunlight (can’t escape past - effect of conflict))

Question 25

The Emigrée: “that…”

Answer 25

“that child’s vocabulary I carried here like a hollow doll,” (simile = “doll” is fake (she feels hollow without her city / her memories are false))

Question 26

The Emigrée: “It tastes…”

Answer 26

“It tastes of sunlight.” (synaesthesia = blending of waves of joy / confusion of memories, epistrophe (opposite of anaphora) = sunlight is irrepressible and hope defeats anguish - power of nature and human unity)

Question 26

The Emigrée: Form

Answer 26

Regular structure: sense of order in memories - foil of the true descent into chaos of her city. Free Verse: exposes true nature of her city, but also the overwhelming stream of emotion and freedom for the narrator.

Question 27

The Emigrée: Context

Answer 27

Contemporary poem - focuses on modern challenges with exile, conflict and the power of memory and unity of humanity. Rumens has lived in the UK and around Europe - notably Russia (“hollow doll”). No city is named to make the poem universal of the emotions of emigration.

Question 28

Kamikaze: “full…”

Answer 28

“full of powerful incantations” (fricative “f” = undertones of agggression, metaphor = patriotism as indoctrinating)

Question 29

Kamikaze: “like…”

Answer 29

“like a huge flag waved […] in a figure of eight,” (allusion to the Japanese flag = even nature is perceived through a patriotic lens, symbolism of waving a flag = act of surrender (pilot’s internal surrender of either his patriotism and respect back home / his love for life and nature))

Question 30

Kamikaze: “fishing…”

Answer 30

“fishing boats strung out like bunting” (irony of bunting celebrating patriotic death, simile to represent distorted natural and order due to conflict and power)

Question 31

Kamikaze: “silver…”

Answer 31

“silver of whitebait […] a tuna, the dark prince” (biblical allusion - Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 silver pieces = emblematic of the Kamikaze pilots betrayed by his leaders as their deaths were futile, juxtaposition of “dark prince” = nobility is corrupt)

Question 32

Kamikaze: Form

Answer 32

Sestets: final 2 (/7) six-line stanzas focus on his return = compresses the rest of his life, it is insignificant as the one decision to turn back has almost buried him alive in social and familial stigma. Initially in free verse: mimics flight. Ends in iambus meter: melancholy tone (somber and harsh like a eulogy).

Question 33

Kamikaze: Context

Answer 33

By the end of WW2, there wasn’t enough volunteer Japanese Kamikaze pilots, so they had to recruit unwilling men with the threat of public shame if they return. Japanese soldiers were taught that self-sacrifice was the only means to win the war and respect their God (the Emperor). “Figure of Eight” = symbol of Japanese justification and ideology for imperial pursuits (why they should rule the world).

Question 34

Bayonet Charge: Lang

Answer 34

Simile: “rifle as numb as a smashed arm” - rifle is extension of a soldier, man is the true weapon of war for leaders. Symbolism: “hare” = suffering of soldiers, “threshing circle” = soldiers being harvested.

Question 35

Bayonet Charge: Structure

Answer 35

Asyndetic listing: “king, honour, human dignity” = become pale in barbaric war. Enjambment + Caesura: makes poem intermittent (irregular) = confusion.

Question 36

Bayonet Charge: Form

Answer 36

No regular rhyme scheme: discomfort / unpredictability. 3rd person singular: isolation, Hughes has no personal experience of war.

Question 37

Bayonet Charge: Context

Answer 37

Fascinated by his father’s stories of WW1. Father fought in Battle of Gallipoli - 22,000 Brits died. Heavily inspired by Wilfred Owen.

Question 38

The Prelude: Lang

Answer 38

Oxymoron: “troubled pleasure” = sublime Nature. Repetition: “huge and mighty forms” = imbues Nature with ethereal qualities. Lexis = simple: imitates scared child.

Question 39

The Prelude: Structure

Answer 39

Parallelism/Echo: “unswerving line” vs “heaving”. Hypotaxis (long string of sub-clauses): “when, from behind … upreared” = simultaneous impression of nature growing and man diminishing.

Question 40

The Prelude: Form

Answer 40

Single stanza: breathless (in awe/fear = sublime). Epic poem: nature is epic ‘hero’ defeating man’s hubris.

Question 41

The Prelude: Context

Answer 41

Romantic poet. Troubled childhood: Lake District was solace. Made to compete with Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’: both sets of poems explore man underestimating Nature.

Question 42

The Charge OTLB: Lang

Answer 42

Euphemism: “horse and hero fell” = true nature of war is indiscriminate killing. Anaphora: “theirs not to make reply, theirs not…” = lack of identity in war. Biblical allusion: “valley of Death” = died as martyrs, Psalm: ‘protection of God’ in “valley of Death” ironic as the soldiers aren’t protected by those in charge.

Question 43

The Charge OTLB: Structure

Answer 43

Epistrophe: “rode the 600” —> “left of the 600” = futility of suffering. End stops: finality.

Question 44

The Charge OTLB: Form

Answer 44

Ballad form: demarcates the immortalisation of the soldiers’ efforts. Rhyming couplets (irregularly): inevitability of death + chaos of war.

Question 45

The Charge OTLB: Context

Answer 45

Based on Battle of Balaclava of Crimean War: publicly unpopular. Tennyson was Poet Laureate: couldn’t outwardly criticise British war efforts - instead is mild + celebratory.

Question 46

My Last Duchess: Lang

Answer 46

Irony: “I chose not to stoop” = patriarchal, actions contradict this. Euphemism: “I gave commands” = lacks courage to commit improvise himself. Symbolism of artwork (wife as painting + statue of Neptune taming seahorse): (even in death) still owns his wife, taming his wife’s kindness because of his jealousy.

Question 47

My Last Duchess: Structure

Answer 47

Enjambment + Caesura: Duke seems unimpressive and disjointed, covers up insecurities with power.

Question 48

My Last Duchess: Form

Answer 48

Regular ABAB rhyme: startling regularity = absolute control. Dramatic monologue: biased, soliloquises his own thoughts and neglects others.

Question 49

My Last Duchess: Context

Answer 49

Written around time of the Industrial Revolution: patriarchal, more societal class mobility. Set during Renaissance: art values highly = boasting his wealth through the control over his wife.

Question 50

Remains: Lang

Answer 50

Colloquial language = atrocities are common place yet soldiers are expected to remain stoic and brave, casual nature of soldier’s vernacular shows he is desensitised. Anaphora: “probably armed, possibly not” = wracked with doubt.

Question 51

Remains: Structure

Answer 51

Caesura: PTSD pervades home life. Enjambment: memories mixed = discordant mind of a veteran.

Question 52

Remains: Form

Answer 52

Regular Quatrains: rigid, unrelenting control of PTSD (last stanza shorter = disintegration of soldier’s mind). Dramatic monologue: trauma from memory (act of ‘masculine’ soldier expressing emotions is against societal norms).

Question 53

Remains: Context

Answer 53

Current Poet Laureate: colloquial style + focuses on human voice. Loosely based on Guardsman Tromans, a soldier who Armitage interviewed as part of the documentary: ‘The Not Dead’ to raise awareness for PTSD.

Question 54

Tissue: Lang

Answer 54

Extended metaphor: “tissue” = human power (“paper thinned…” = power is ephemeral, “fly our lives…” = human power controls our lives) Light imagery symbolises hope + truth: “light” can shine through tyrannical power (translucent “tissue”).

Question 55

Tissue: Structure

Answer 55

Enjambment (despite restrictive, rigid quatrains): freedom and truth triumphs and mocks tyrants who believe their power is all-mighty and eternal.

Question 56

Tissue: Form

Answer 56

Lack of rhyme: fewer steadfast rules = exerting control is futile as human power is transient.

Question 57

Tissue: Context

Answer 57

Dharker’s husband died after an 11 year fight with cancer: knows the importance of hope and the fickleness of life 1st-hand. Dharker describes herself as a “Pakistani-Scottish Muslim Calvinist”: reflected in use of religion in poem (“paper thinned by age or touching” = religious texts are the most transparent, therefore the most truthful and the true source of hope).

Question 58

Checking Out Me History: Lang

Answer 58

Motif of light: sources of hope, figures who illuminated and carved a way out of colonialism, oppression and suffering. Colloquialism: “1066 and all dat” = derides the Battle of Hastings and education systems as it is arbitrary to him.

Question 59

Checking Out Me History: Structure

Answer 59

Juxtaposition: “bandage up me eye… blind me” = education systems’ abuse of power and influence to create a distorted view of history. Dialect: refusal to conform to the lexis of those who miseducated him, strong sense of identity.

Question 60

Checking Out Me History: Form

Answer 60

Political Diatribe: emotional and chaotic verbal attack of education systems. Free verse with rhyming quatrains (undulates between European rhyme and free verse to praise his heroes): against segregation and the diminished and uncivilised portrayal of his heritage.

Question 61

Checking Out Me History: Context

Answer 61

Grew up in British Guyana so received a British education. Agard was born in 1949, Guyana was colonised until 1966 = large part of his life.

Question 62

Poppies: Lang

Answer 62

Extended metaphor: leaving for school and going to war are parallel = mundane vs grave. Colour palette: “spasms of paper red” = graphic image of blood/loss, “spasm” is an uncontrollable reflex (mother’s uncontrollable fear)

Question 63

Poppies: Structure

Answer 63

Juxtaposition: “graze my nose…” (maternal love vs pain and battle = innocent acts are contaminated by violence in wartime societies).

Question 64

Poppies: Form

Answer 64

Dramatic monologue: imbued with personal emotions. 2nd person / direct address: gives a voice to the overlook wartime sufferers - mothers and people back home.

Question 65

Poppies: Context

Answer 65

Weir herself has 2 sons: empathy for mothers during WW1. Weir lived in Belfast for some time during the Troubles in the 1980s. Poppies are symbol of remembrance for WW1 losses: sets a somber and grieving tone.

Question 66

War Photographer: “spools…”

Answer 66

“spools of suffering… in ordered rows” (paradox = chaotic suffering is wielded into order and placated for the viewers of the West.)

Question 67

War Photographer: “priest” vs “explode”

Answer 67

“priest” + “Mass” vs “explode” + “tremble” (Semantic field of RELIGION vs Semantic field of VIOLENCE = juxtaposition shows hypocrisy of Western world (claim to be Christian, yet allow indiscriminate suffering to occur) + photographer must act like a “priest” to ceremonially make the concept of suffering palatable for those in the West)

Question 68

War Photographer: “half-“

Answer 68

“half-formed ghost” (euphemism for the annihilated body = ominous and harrowing effects of war / “half-formed” = faded image in the Western mind, tragic individual deaths are merged into one superficial “tear” for a Westerner)

Question 69

War Photographer: Structure

Answer 69

Cyclical structure: ends as photographer returns to war zone by “aeroplane” = cycle of war continues, feels alienated from heartless Western society (therefore “aeroplane” emblematic of liminal zone away from war, but also not assimilated to the impassive English)

Question 70

War Photographer: Form

Answer 70

Equal stanzas: order and structure imposed over horrors of foreign war = link to war profiteering (newspaper company). Regular rhyme: imposed order / softened reading (violence made palatable for the West).

Question 71

War Photographer: Context

Answer 71

Published 10 years after Vietnam War: still in public’s mind. “Running children in nightmare heat”: allusion to ‘Napalm Girl’ photo by Nick Ut. Poet Laureate (2009-2019): strongly feminist style, challenges patriarchy.