Summaries Flashcards
(15 cards)
Ozymandias
Narrator meets a traveller, who tells him about a statue in the desert. It is the statue of a past ruler who was a tyrant. The statue has now been neglected and has crumbled.
London
The Narrator describes a walk around London in the Georgian era. Everyone is miserable, including the young and innocent. People with power seem to be behind the problems but do nothing to change them.
The Prelude: Stealing the Boat
The narrator finds a boat and steals it and takes it out on the lake, initially the narrator is happy and confident until he sees a mountain which changes the narrator’s perspective on nature.
My Last Duchess
The Duke points out the portrait of the Duchess (former wife) to a visitor. The Duke was angered by her behaviour as she treated the Duke just like everyone else. The Duke then finds out the visitor came to arrange a marriage.
The Charge of the Light Brigade
The poem describes a battle between the British and Russian forces, a misunderstanding caused the Light Brigade to advance into a valley surrounded by enemy soldiers. The British were slaughtered as the Russian’s weaponry was much more advanced.
Exposure
Soldiers in trenches during WWI were awake at night, afraid of enemy attack. Nature was more of an enemy during the night, as it was freezing, windy, and snowing. The men imagined returning home but could not physically do so and could only sacrifice themselves to keep their loved ones safe at home.
Storm on the Island
The Narrator describes how a community believes it’s well prepared for a storm, but later on, their confidence starts to fade and the storm develops. In the end, fear is described as the storm hits.
Bayonet Charge
The poem focuses on a soldier’s experience of charging towards enemy lines in no man’s land and trying to stay alive, mostly in fear with some patriotic power still within him.
Remains
A group of soldiers shoot a man who took part in a bank robbery, with a very graphic death. The soldier narrating was not sure if the man had a weapon or not. After, the death haunts him.
Poppies
A mother describes her son leaving home to join the army, the poem shows the mother’s sad emotions. She describes helping him smarten his uniform ready to leave. After leaving, the mother goes to a place that reminds her of him.
War Photographer
A war photographer is in his darkroom developing photographs of war zones across the world. He recalls the death of a man and the cries of his wife. Finally, the poem reflects on the people in England reading the newspaper containing the pictures showing how the people do not care.
Tissue
The poem highlights the importance of paper and its uses, the poem later shows the paradox that paper is fragile yet it still controls our lives. The poem then describes creating things and that human life is complex and precious yet temporary.
The Emigrée
The speaker talks about a city in a place she left as a child, she has a completely positive view of it. The city seems to be under attack and unreachable and an unknown ‘They’ accuse and threaten the speaker, but still sees the city as positive.
Kamikaze
The poem describes a kamikaze pilot setting off on his mission. It was a great honour to serve your country on these suicide missions. However, the pilot turned around and returned home because of the views of nature he saw reminding him of his innocent childhood. When he returned his family pretended he was not there as he failed his mission.
Checking Out Me History
The narrator talks about his identity and how it links to the education of history, he was only taught about British history and not about his Caribbean roots. In the end he says he will create his own identity based on his heritage.
