War Poetry Flashcards
(30 cards)
A wife in London (1899)
CONTEXT
- Husband has died in Boer War, South Africa
- discusses grief & irony when wife receives telegram
- 3rd person
- Victorian poet/novelist
- simplistic, but many layers
- poet did controversial work
A wife in London
STRUCTURE
- 2-part structure (broken heart/life)
- ‘the tragedy’, ‘the irony’ (creates a sense of foreboding before stanza)
- ABBAB rhyme scheme (fate was planned out, creates sense of inevitability)
- asymmetric structure (distraught mess)
- present tense (story unfolding in front of reader = more dramatic/emotional)
A Wife in London
QUOTES
‘Tawny vapour’ ‘Street lamp glitters cold’ ‘He-has fallen’ ‘The fog hangs thicker’ ‘Of new love that they would learn’
‘Tawny vapour’ (AWIL)
- pathetic fallacy: oppressive weather creates sense of darkness/gloom, reflecting mood of wife
‘Street lamp glitters cold’
- Oxymoron
- ‘Glimmer’ = faint, fading light, symbolic of soldier dying away
- shows hope diminishing
- ‘cold’ = no warmth, comfort
‘He-has fallen’ (AWIL)
- ‘fallen’ = euphemism: softens blow of terrible news
- dash = reflects how she can not process the tragic info, life now broken
‘Fog hangs thicker’
- pathetic fallacy: mood has become more intense/melancholy as weather worsens
- ‘hangs’ = oppressive & over-bearing
‘Of new love that they would learn’
- heightens tragedy/heartbreak of death, would never get to rekindle their relationship
- more powerful than ending with widow’s grief, shows lasting impact, different angle
The Manhunt
CONTEXT
- soldier served in Bosnia as a peacekeeper in 1990s, discharged due to injuries
- written as an account for someone else’s experiences (wife)
- wife overlooks husbands impact from war and their fragmented relationship
- explores his mental & physical suffering
- wife tried to understand/help him
(Simon Armitage, 2007)
The Manhunt
STRUCTURE
- some rhyming couplets (reflect wife’s attempt to bring them back together)
- broken-rhyme (struggled attempt, relationship has become disjointed, fragmentation)
- short, disjointed stanzas (looks like ladder/broken ribs)
- enjambment (runs through poem, reflects & reinforces ongoing struggles/consequences of war)
The Manhunt
QUOTES
‘Frozen river that ran through his face’
‘Parachute silk of his punctured lung’
‘Foetus of metal’, ‘scan’
‘Only then, did i come close’
‘frozen river which ran through his face’
- imagery symbolises physical & psychological torment inflicted upon man
- physically, ‘frozen river’ metaphor for scar/tears
- psychologically, ‘frozen’ represents drying up/loss on man’s emotions
- ‘through’ = internal scarring
‘Parachute silk of his punctured lung’
- ‘punctured lung’ = war imagery
- silk = precious/delicate/fragile nature
- if broken, parachute is useless, could reflect how husband feels
- plosives alliteration on ‘p’ = reinforces violence of war
‘Foetus of metal’ ‘scan’
- metaphor for buried bullet/shrapnel
- semantic field of new life: juxtaposes death/horror of war, circle of life, sense of hope, fresh start
‘Silk’ ‘porcelain’ ‘foetus’ ‘mine’
Semantic field of world related to delicacy and fragility/vulnerability
- soldiers fragile state of mind
- psychological torment, scarring
- contrasts with words usually used to describe soldiers
‘Only then, did i come close’
- emphasises the fact that she might never reconnect with her husband
- own wife can’t even begin to understand how he feels
- simple, incomplete ending: heightens impact
- husband is unrecognisable
- commas create tension
The soldier
CONTEXT
- takes on persona of a soldier during WW1
- he never fought = war propaganda? (Some criticise genuine nature, others admire the passion/patriotism
- upper class citizen, privileged
- promotes fighting for England
- talks patriotically of the honour of dying for your country
The soldier
STRUCTURE
- sonnet (expressing love for England)
- 1st person narrative
- repetition of ‘England’ & ‘English’ emphasise pride, patriotism
- rhyming couplets, strong rhythm = secure faith
The soldier
QUOTES
‘Body of England’
‘Richer dust’
‘A pulse in the eternal mind’
‘English heaven’
‘The soldier’ ‘body of England’
= generic title, as if it is applicable to anyone
‘Body’ = vital part of you, can’t escape your destiny
‘Pulse of eternal mind’
= permanent memory of war
- his presence will live on forever, immortal even if he dies
- place in heaven
- eternal heart for England
(Semantic field of peace/afterlife = England will continue to cherish him, positive reflection of death, unusual)
‘Richer dust’
suggests the remains of his body are superior to the ground he lies in because he is English not foreign
Religious
‘England heaven’
Semantic field of piece/afterlife
= positive/romanticised reflection on war
England will continue to cherish him, honour
Dulce et Decorum Est
CONTEXT
- poet fought & died in war, personal experience
- unglamorous reality of WW1
- concept of lie (challenges propaganda/title)
