Power & Conflict. Poetry Revision Guide

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2 1 Contents 2. What to expect in the exam 3. Ozymandias Shelley 4. London-Blake 5. Prelude Wordsworth 6. My Last Duchess- Browning 7. The Charge of the Light Brigade- Tennyson 8. Exposure Owen 9. Storm on the Island Heaney 10. Bayonet Charge Hughes 11. Remains Armitage 12. Poppies Weir 13. War Photographer Duffy 14. Tissue Dharker 15 The Émigrée Rumens 16. Checking Out Me History Agard 17. Kamikaze Garland 18. Poetic Glossary 19. What goes with what?

3 2 What to expect in the exam Paper 2, Section B: Power & Conflict Poetry. This question is worth 30 marks. (20%) AO1 A critical response using quotes = 12 marks AO2 Analyse language, sentence structures and form and the effect created = 12 marks AO3 Text relationship = 6 marks You are being tested on your knowledge of two poems from the anthology you ve studied. One poem will be printed on the exam paper and you will be asked to compare it to another poem in the anthology. You need to write 4-5 paragraphs pointing out the differences and similarities between the poems and their presentation of conflict or power.

3 Ozymandias Percy Bysshe Shelley The narrator of Shelley's poem says he met a traveller from an ancient land and then tells us the story the traveller told him.

4 3 Ozymandias Percy Bysshe Shelley The narrator of Shelley's poem says he met a traveller from an ancient land and then tells us the story the traveller told him. The man had seen the remains of a huge statue in the desert. At the foot of the statue were words which reflected the arrogance and pride of Ozymandias. Those words seem very hollow now as the magnificent statue is destroyed and none of the pharaoh's works have lasted. Shelley was part of the Romantic Poets. He was largely political and felt that the monarchy of the time King George III- were oppressive and war-mongering. The real-life Ozymandias was an Egyptian Pharaoh Rameses who ruled in Biblical times, he is known for protecting and extending the borders of Egypt. Shelley was inspired by a statue of Rameses at the British Museum. Sonnet which is a poem composed of 14 lines and written in iambi pentameter Narrator- The use of a traveller removes any opinions the poem expresses away from Shelley s. Alliteration Shelley litters alliteration through the poem, placing emphasis on phrases such as cold command ; boundless and bare and lone and level Metaphor The statur itself is a metaphor for the eventual death of power, it s Shelley s comment on how the powerful are not necessarily invincible. Key Quotes a shattered visage lies (4) sneer of cold command (5) king of kings (10) Nothing beside remains. (12) colossal wreck, boundless and bare (13) Power; Pride; Art

5 4 London William Blake The poem describes a journey around London, offering a glimpse of what the speaker sees as the terrible conditions faced by the inhabitants of the city. Child labour, restrictive laws of property and prostitution are all explored in the poem. Blake was a Londoner all his life, being born and raised in Soho. He was a poet, painter and printmaker. He published works called Songs of Innocence and Experience, which dealt with the moral observations in a simplistic way, making it accessible to the public. Blake himself was a faithful man but hated the organised Church of the time. Similarly he opposed those in power and the class structure of 18 th Century London. Snapshots each stanza offers a snapshot of a different person/part of the city Simplistic there s a consistent ABAB rhyme scheme which lends the poem a nursery rhyme quality Repetition Blake repeats several words throughout the poem such as charter d and every to highlight the inescapable suffering of the oppressed. Oxymoron Blake uses several oxymoron s throughout London, which exemplifies the parallels between those is power and the poor: marriage hearse ; black ning church and youthful harlot Key quotes each charter d street/ Near where the chartered Thames does flow (1-2) In every voice, in every ban/ the mind-forged manacles I hear (7-8) Runs in blood down palace walls (12) And blights with plagues the marriage hearse (16) Oppression; Poverty; Places

6 5 Extract from The Prelude William Wordsworth Taken from a larger poem, this extract describes how Wordsworth went out in a boat on a lake at night. He was alone and a mountain peak loomed over him; its presence had a great effect and for days afterwards he was troubled by the experience. Wordsworth was a Romantic Poet, he spent most of his life in the Lake District, surrounded by nature. Wordsworth very much believed in the power of nature and was against the vast Industrialisation of the countryside that was taking place in the 18 th Century. Wordsworth himself said this poem examines his views on man, nature and society. Epic Poetry- the form of epic poems generally tell tales of exciting adventures, usually featuring the one hero. Stream of Consciousness the use of enjambment and lack of stanzas make the poem flow as one immense thought, it echoes the sense of being overwhelmed that Wordsworth felt on the sight of the mountain. Imagery Wordsworth uses feminine imagery often juxtaposed with masculine imagery. e.g. boat, cove and moon are feminine. Chain and ridge are masculine. Magical Language- the poet s use of language such as elfin and glittering creates a tone of fantasy and wonder. It also conjures ideas of the supernatural powers of nature. Key quotes One summer evening (led by her) (1) like one who rows/proud of his skill (11-12) She was an elfin pinnace; lustily/i dipped my oars into the silent lake (17-18) a huge peak, black and huge (22) like a living thing/strode after me (28-29) huge and mighty forms, that do not live/like living men (43-44) Pride; Nature; Man

7 6 My Last Duchess Robert Browning (1842) The poem is a dramatic monologue, wherein a Duke shows an unnamed visitor a picture of his last, deceased wife. Robert Browning was heavily influenced as a child by his father's extensive collection of books and art. His father was a bank clerk and collected thousands of books, some of which were hundreds of years old and written in languages such as Greek and Hebrew. By the age of fourteen, he'd learned Latin, Greek and French. He married fellow poet Elizabeth Barrett but they had to run away and marry in secret because of her over-protective father. While this poem was written in the Victorian age it is set at the time of the Italian Renaissance, which took place some 150 years before. Socially and politically, at the time of writing the Women s Suffrage movement was starting, as women called for more power and control in a male dominated system. Dramatic Monologue- the poem is from the point of view of a fictional, controlling Duke. By using dramatic monologue Browning shows us the tight control he exercised over his wife. Also no one else speaks, making it an overwhelming tirade as the speaker ironically fails to control himself. The lack of similes and metaphors the lack of obvious language techniques is very much a technique in itself. By not including metaphors and similes, Browning mirrors real life speech. Iambic Pentameter this tightly controlled way of writing highlights the themes with in the poem. Key Quotes: Will t please you sit and look at her I said (5) (since none puts by/ The curtain I have drawn for you, but I) (9-10) She has a heart too soon made glad (21-22) She looked on and her looks went everywhere (24) she ranked/my gift of a nine hundred year old name/ With anybody s gift (33-34) I gave commands; Then the smiles stopped altogether (45) Notice Neptune, though/ Taming sea-horse (54-55) Masculine; Domestic Power; Control

8 7 The Charge of the Light Brigade Alfred Lord Tennyson (1854) Light Brigade deals with the real life event which took place during the Crimean War. The poem features a cavalry of soldiers riding into a doomed battle having only swords and bayonets against heavy artillery. The poem is based on the botched battle between to British and the Russian in Balaclava orders were mislaid and 600 men ran into heavy fire. 254 soldiers died. Tennyson was Poet Laureate at the time of the Crimean War, this poem was published 3 days after the event and circulated within the army in Crimea. Stanzas 1-3 the brigade approach the guns; the strong structure could mirror the formation of the cavalry Stanza 4-5 the battle, the longest stanza outlines the desperate attempt at retreat Stanza 6 a short conclusion, a memorial to the soldiers. Rhythm the beats of the poem resemble that of horses footfalls. Anaphora or Repetition the repetition of Cannon highlights the hopelessness of the situation creating a sense of inevitability and despair for the reader Personification- Death is stated as having jaws, suggesting an inescapability & predatory tone. Key Quotes All in the valley of Death (line 3) Theirs was not to make reply/theirs not reason why/theirs but to do and die (13-15) Cannon to right of them/ Cannon to left of them/cannon in front of them (18-20) Boldly they rode and well (23) Into the Jaws of Death/Into the mouth of Hell/ Rode the six hundred (24-26) Storm d at with shot and shell/while horse and hero fell (43-44) Honour the Light Brigade,/Noble six hundred! Patriotism; Warfare; Duty

9 8 Exposure Wilfred Owen (1917) Soldiers are waiting overnight in the trenches, while no fighting is happening; the weather conditions are extremely dangerous. The poem highlights the agony of waiting and demonstrates how war is not all about action. Wilfred Owen was a soldier in World War One, he wrote about his time in the trenches, his poetry contradicting the noble, patriotic propaganda happening at home in Britain. Owen set about highlighting the other dangers of war the boredom, the weather saw what was reported to be the coldest winter in living memory, soldiers in trenches were suffering with hypothermia and trench foot. Owen himself fought and suffered with shell shock (PTSD), spending time in an institution, on returning to war he was killed a few days before the war ended, he was 26 years old. 8 stanzas Each stanza relies on assonance/half-rhyme to unsettle the reader Stanza s end in either a rhetorical question or But nothing happens, emphasising the pointlessness of war over and over again. Sibilance the constant s sounds give the poem a melancholy tone Pronouns by repeating us and we the reader is drawn in Rhyme the ABBA rhyme/half-rhyme scheme fits the theme of monotony in war Punctuation- the first stanza s use of ellipsis again highlights the waiting and boredom involved in conflict Key quotes Our brains ache (1) incessantly the flickering gunnery rumbles like a dull rumour of some other war. (9-10) But nothing happens (6/21/39) Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence (17) Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow (18) We cringe in holes (24) Slowly our ghosts drag home (29) All their eyes are ice (38) Warfare; Despair; Weather

10 9 Storm on the Island Seamus Heaney A small town community thinks it is well prepared for a storm. Their confidence starts to disappear as the storm develops. Seamus Heaney was born in Northern Ireland in 1939, the eldest child in what was to become a family of nine children. Much of Heaney's poetry is centred on the countryside and farm life that he knew as a boy. It could be read that this poem is about the power of nature however, there are hints that link it to political strife in Northern Ireland between the Catholics and the Protestants. Blank Verse Heaney uses blank verse rhyming iambic pentameter this gives the reader the effect that the poet is talking to them. Colons Heaney s use of colons separate the beginning, middle and end of the poem, giving it a narrative structure. Sounds Heaney uses the senses to show the full force of nature. Assonance and sibilance are used to have onomatopoeic effects Violent language the poet uses metaphors such as space is a salvo and strafes invisibly to emphasise danger Juxtaposition the language of safety used at the beginning of the poem is contrasted with the war like language towards the end. Key Quotes We are prepared (1) This wizened earth has never troubled us (3) tragic chorus 8) Exploding comfortably down on the cliffs (13) spits like a tame cat turned savage (15-16) it is a huge nothing that we fear (19) Nature; Fear; Places

11 10 Bayonet Charge Ted Hughes (1957) A soldier is charging into battle with a bayonet. He has a moment of uncertainty about his place in war, before seeing a hare getting shot and dying, resuming his charge. It can be seen as a comment on how soldiers are merely cogs in a war machine. Hughes was born after World War One and never saw combat, despite being part of the RAF. He was heavily influenced by war poets such as Wilfred Owen. Stanza 1- the soldier is awake and running, he is slowly starting to question why he is fighting this war Stanza 2- an almost slow motion look at the soldier s questioning Stanza 3- He sees a hare die in front of him; instinct kicks back in and he resumes his charge towards death Metaphors- Hughes uses lots of metaphors throughout the poem, creating a rich, sensual tone Active verbs- similarly the poet s choice of language is extremely active, giving a sense of action to the poem e.g. smacking smashed stumbling Punctuation- Hughes uses dashes in stanzas 1 and 2, this breaks the actions with the soldiers thoughts Key quotes Stumbling across a field of clods towards a green hedge (3) Bullets smacking the belly out of the air (5) The patriotic tear that had brimmed in his eye (7) In what cold clockwork of the stars and the nations (10) Like a man who jumps up in the dark and runs (12) King, honour, human dignity etcetera/dropped like luxuries in a yelling alarm (20-21) Warfare; Duties; Abandoned Ideals

12 11 Remains Simon Armitage This poem is from the perspective of a soldier retelling a memory of shooting a looter who may or may not have been armed. Further on the soldier thinks about the shooting when he walks down the street. It concludes that the soldier is suffering under the memory of war and has not left the violence in a foreign land. This poem comes from a book called The Not Dead, Armitage made a documentary of the same name which interviewed the surviving soldiers from the Gulf War. It is largely believed that it is this war that Armitage is referring to. Monologue: the tone of the poem is very conversational; legged it carted off and mates Stanza 5 is where the narration becomes more inward and personal. The last stanza is only two lines, adding to the impact of this soldiers guilt, making it stand out in the readers mind. Enjambment the used of continuous lines adds to the conversational tone of the piece. Repetition- probably armed, possibly not the way this line is repeated shows how the guilt of the killing plays on the narrators mind First Person the reader is placed directly into the guilt ridden mind of the narrator making the poem very personal and emotive. Key Quotes On another occasion (1) Well myself and somebody else and somebody else/are all of the same mind (5-6) I see every round as it rips through his life (9) End of story, except not really (17) he s here in my head when I close my eyes,/dug in behind enemy lines (25-26) distant sun-stunned, sand-smothered land (27) his bloody life in my bloody hands (30) Guilt; Conflict; Memory

13 12 Poppies Jane Weir (2009) This poem is the narrative of a mother sending her son off to war told from a first person perspective. It offers a female perspective of a typically male subject. Weir wrote this poem as part of Poet Laureate s Carol Ann Duffy s take on Remembrance Sunday for The Guardian newspaper. It harks back to the tradition of wearing poppies while addressing modern warfare and the fact that soldiers are still dying in wars across the world. Weir has stated that she was subliminally thinking of Wilfred Owen s mum when she wrote this. The key to structure in this poem is the mention of time: Three days before becomes Before you left which becomes a split second and then Later this is demonstrating how the narrator is living with her son s life all at once, both past and present. Stanza 1 deals with the boy as a child. Stanza 2 is the child leaving for school Stanza 3 is the child leaving for war The narrator is eventually led to the war memorial, hinting that her son died in combat. Textured language Weir repeatedly uses the sense of touch and metaphors involving fabrics, this lends an air of domesticity and texture to the poem Alliteration disrupting a blockade/of yellow bias binding around your blazer, this alliteration uses both the language of war while being a scene of domesticity Symbolism the poem centres on a shared awareness of the symbolism of the poppy as a sign of peace, similarly the narrator sees a single white dove another peaceful symbol. Key Quotes I was brave as I walked/with you 18-19) After you d gone I went into your bedroom,/released a song bird from its cage (23-24) The dove an ornamental stitch (33-34) Grief; Time; Memory

13 War Photographer Carol Ann Duffy A war photographer in developing pictures in a dark room, as the pictures start to develop he remembers the death of the people in the photo.

14 13 War Photographer Carol Ann Duffy A war photographer in developing pictures in a dark room, as the pictures start to develop he remembers the death of the people in the photo. The last stanza tells the reader how the photo will be printed in newspapers. Duffy was inspired to write this poem by her friendship with a war photographer. She was especially intrigued by the peculiar challenge faced by these people whose job requires them to record terrible, horrific events without being able to directly help their subjects. The poem follows the thoughts and actions of the photographer in four regular six line stanzas, each ending in a rhyming couplet this is very clinical compared to the chaos of his job. Third Stanza: He remembers the death of his subjects Fourth Stanza: addresses the world outside the darkroom and how his work is received. Emotive language Duffy s use of metaphors such as a hundred agonies in black and white stress the suffering in war, whilst juxtaposing with the photographers/society s apathy. Religious imagery the references to religion gives the photographer s job a sense of ceremony, almost funeral-like. Contrasts The presentation of Rural England in comparisons to war zones is notable, as well as the sense of detachment and horror. Key Quotes spools of suffering set out in ordered rows (2) all flesh is grass (6) running children in nightmare heat (12) blood stained into foreign dust (18) he earns his living and they do not care (24) Memory; Conflict; Individual Experience

15 14 Poetic A Glossary Allusion: Unacknowledged reference and quotations that authors assume their readers will recognize. Anaphora: Repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of a line throughout a work or the section of a work. Assonance: The repetition of identical vowel sounds in different words in close proximity. Caesura: A short but definite pause used for effect within a line of poetry. Couplet: two successive rhyming lines. Enjambment: A line having no end punctuation but running over to the next line. Iambic pentameter: Iamb (iambic): an unstressed stressed foot.the most natural and common kind of meter in English; it elevates speech to poetry. Image: Images are references that trigger the mind to fuse together memories of sight sounds, tastes smells and sensations of touch. Imagery refers to images throughout a work or throughout the works of a writer Internal rhyme: An exact rhyme (rather than rhyming vowel sounds, as with assonance) within a line of poetry: "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary." Juxtaposition: an act or idea of placed close together or side by side, especially for comparison or contrast. Metaphor: A comparison between two unlike things, this describes one thing as if it were something else. Does not use "like" or "as" for the comparison Rhyme: The repetition of identical concluding syllables in different words, most often at the ends of lines. Example: June moon Stanza: A group of poetic lines corresponding to paragraphs in prose

16 15 What Goes With What? You need to be able to link the poem before you in the exam to another poem from the anthology. They need to be linked by theme. While the decision is yours in the exam, here are some of the poems that fit together best, can you see how and why? The Charge of the Light Brigade Exposure Remains My Last Duchess London Tissue Bayonet Charge Poppies London Poppies Tissue Storm on the Island My Last Duchess Kamikaze Bayonet Charge Remains War Photographer Ozymandias Checking Out Me History Kamikaze Exposure War Photographer Prelude The Émigrée Ozymandias Exposure Checking out Me History The Émigrée

AQA poetry anthology. GCSE English. Teachit sample

AQA poetry anthology. GCSE English. Teachit sample AQA poetry anthology GCSE English Literature 9-1 03 Introduction 03 Summary of themes for revision Ozymandias Percy Bysshe Shelley 06 Revision notes 07 Revision activities London William Blake 15 Revision