Ozymandias Percy Bysshe Shelley Compare with: My Last Duchess human power; Prelude, Exposure, Storm On The Island power of nature. Sonnet Reported speech First person Ironic Power Aggressive, angry language Structured to reveal the significance (or not) of the statue Shelley disliked the oppression of ordinary people. He was interested in emotion and the power of nature. Half sunk, a shattered visage lies sneer of cold command the hand that mocked them and the heart that fed Look on my works, ye Mighty and despair Nothing besides remains The lone and level sands stretch far away.
London William Blake Compare with: Prelude, The Emigree, War Photographer, Remains. Published during a time of great poverty 1794 He believed in social and racial equality Monologue Repetition First person Alternate line rhyme Fast pace Alliteration/sibilance Aggressive, angry language Sensory words sight and sound Structured with four quatrains to reveal the worst sights he sees in the last stanza - volta Marks of weakness, marks of woe in every / in every / in every mind-forg d manacles black ning church appals hapless soldier s sigh youthful harlot s curse blights with plague the marriage hearse.
The Prelude William Wordsworth Compare with: Exposure, Storm On The Island, Kamikaze, Ozymandias powerful nature; Remains changed by personal experiences Autobiographical first person Romantic poet explored the themes of nature and human emotion and how humans are shaped by their interaction with nature Free verse conversational Enjambment free-flowing and natural Structure - Happy and confident to begin with, then afraid and fearful and finally reflective Volta line 21 when Language is positive, beautiful, dramatic, fearful it was an act of stealth far above was nothing but the stars and the grey sky I dipped my oars into the silent lake my boat went heaving through the water like a swan a huge peak, black and huge the grim shape towered up between me and the stars with trembling oars I turned no familiar shapes remained huge and mighty forms were a trouble to my dreams
My Last Duchess Robert Browning Compare with: Ozymandias the abuse of power; Checking Out Me History political and cultural domination Browning may have been inspired by the Italian story of the Duke of Ferrara whose wife died in suspicious circumstances - poisoned First person monologue Sophisticated and complex language Control of grammar reflects his control of people Iambic pentameter, rhyming couplets indicative of his control Sinister mood cold and controlling Enjambment Tight structure reflecting his tight control Lack of imagery is owing to his self-restraint Feelings of pride, jealousy, power Repetition that s my last Duchess (since none puts by the curtain I have drawn for you, but I) Sir, twas not her husband s presence only, called that spot of joy into the Duchess cheek she had a heart how shall I say? too soon made glad she liked whate er she looked on, and her looks went everywhere she thanked men, - good! But thanked she ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name with anybody s gift I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together
The Charge Of The Light Brigade Alfred Lord Tennyson Compare with: Poppies, Kamikaze, Bayonet Charge & Exposure He was Poet Laureate and so had to inspire the nation and portray war in a positive way Third person narrative poem Repetition emphasises the loss Sibilance suggests the gun fire Onomatopoeic Violent and heroic language Celebration of courage and obedience A tribute to those who lost their life in the pointless battle Fast rhythm reflects the horses and the marching Personification of death and hell into the valley of Death someone had blunder d theirs but to do and die cannon cannon cannon volley d and thunder d storm d at with shot and shell into the jaws of Death into the mouth of Hell horse and hero fell honour the charge they made!
Exposure Wilfred Owen Compare with: The Charge Of The Light Brigade, Poppies & Bayonet Charge the reality of war; Storm On The Island the power of nature; London the lack of hope Written during WW1, Wilfred Owen was an officer in the war and wrote about the pity of war Nature is the main enemy rather than the opposition Explosion of the senses Use of ellipsis to convey the passing of time Repetition reveals the boredom present tense, first person Regular rhyme scheme reflecting the monotony of war; half rhymes suggesting the jagged nature of a soldier s existence The structure reveals the lack of progress made with the war The mood is unrelentingly bleak sense of hopelessness, boredom and suffering Alliteration reinforcing the tedious repetition of their life our brains ache but nothing happens we hear the mad gusts tugging on the wire what are we doing here? shivering ranks of grey pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our faces we turn back to our dying for love of God seems dying tonight, this frost will fasten on this mud and us all their eyes are ice
Storm On The Island Seamus Heaney Compare with: Bayonet Charge, Prelude & Exposure the power of nature; London & The Emigree sense of place Blank verse Conversational tone Structure shifts from security to fear Violent imagery similes, metaphors, personification Forceful sounds onomatopoeia Sense of hopelessness Volta but no: Simple vocabulary Poem may be a metaphor for the political unrest in Ireland at the time the poem was written The first eight letters of the title spell out Stormont the name of Northern Ireland s parliament. we are prepared nor are there trees which might prove company leaves and branches can raise a tragic chorus in a gale it pummels your house too exploding comfortably down on the cliffs the flung spray hits the very windows spits like a tame cat turned savage we are bombarded by the empty air strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear
Bayonet Charge Ted Hughes Compare with: The Charge Of The Light Brigade & Remains the horrors of war; Prelude, Kamikaze & Exposure the power of nature Starts in the middle of the action Short desperate burst of action Caesura, enjambment, uneven line length mirror the struggling soldier Simile foreshadows potential injuries Dramatic pause for effect Violent imagery Tone of desperation Contrasts idealism, patriotism and the reality of war Set in World War One but published in 1957 suddenly he awoke and was running stumbling across a field bullets smacking the belly out of the air he lugged a rifle numb as a smashed arm in bewilderment then he almost stopped he plunged past king, honour, human dignity, etcetera dropped like luxuries his terror s touchy dynamite
Remains Simon Armitage Compare with: Poppies, Bayonet Charge & War Photographer the horrors of war; Kamikaze the power of memories PTSD Iraq War poem based on a real soldier s experiences damaged by their experiences in mind if not body Moves from we to I Begins as an anecdote and becomes a graphic description of the death Volta fifth stanza Graphic imagery Colloquial language Repetition reflecting the recurring image Casual tone replaced by guilty conscience Enjambment Reminiscent of Lady Macbeth trying to escape her guilt through obsessive hand washing. probably armed, possibly not somebody else and somebody else rips through his life sort of inside out tosses his guts back into his body carted off in the back of a lorry end of story, except not really his blood-shadow stays on the street the drink and the drugs won t flush him out he s here in my head when I close my eyes his bloody life in my bloody hands
Poppies Jane Weir Compare with: The Charge Of The Light Brigade, Exposure & Remains soldiers on active service; War Photographer the effects of conflict; The Emigree loss First person narrative No regular rhythm, reflecting the mother s emotions Long sentences and enjambment revealing the mother s thoughts Caesurae reflects her trying to hold it together Chronological structure with flashbacks Sensory words Symbolism Contrasts between busy preparations and loneliness Written during the Iraq and Afghan war but it is deliberately ambiguous to be timeless Mood of sadness, longing, tenderness and fear spasms of paper red sellotape bandaged around my hand I wanted to graze my nose across the tip of your nose gelled blackthorns of your hair all my words flattened, rolled turned into felt, slowly melting the world overflowing like a treasure chest released a song bird from its cage my stomach busy making tucks, darts, pleats without a winter coat or reinforcements of scarf, gloves I traced the inscriptions on the war memorial I listened, hoping to hear your playground voice catching on the wind
War Photographer Carol Ann Duffy Compare with: Exposure & Bayonet Charge horror of war; Poppies & Remains the effects of conflict; London indifference Inspired by a friend who was a war photographer Location is ambiguous and therefore universal Conceit religion Volta third stanza Structure ordered and controlled Unrhymed lines create a sense of unease Rhyming couplets to end each stanza Ambiguous Contrast/paradox Sibilance PTSD Sombre mood Conversation tone spools of suffering set out in ordered rows all flesh is grass solutions slop in trays did not tremble then though seem to now running children in a nightmare heat a half-formed ghost the blood stained into foreign dust a hundred agonies in black-and-white the reader s eyeballs prick with tears he stares impassively at where he earns his living and they do not care
Tissue Imtiaz Dharker Compare with: Kamikaze & The Emigree light; Poppies family identity; Ozymandias nature more powerful than humans Born in Pakistan and grew up in London The poem questions how well we understand ourselves and the fragility of humanity Contrasts between control and freedom Free verse no rhyme scheme Conversational tone Language of light and creation Direct address Enjambment reflects the poet s freedom to express her opinions Short stanzas layering, just like life Symbolic paper, that lets the light shine through pages smoothed and stroked and turned the sun shines through their borderlines fly our lives like paper kites find a way trace a grand design with living tissue raised a structure never meant to last paper smoothed and stroked turned into your skin
The Emigree Carol Rumens Compare with: Kamikaze & Remains memory; Poppies loss; London sense of place; Tissue - light Published in 1993 The home country of the persona is not revealed Ambiguity gives the poem a timeless relevance Relevant to all displaced people Nostalgia Themes memory, exile, belonging, loss Story-like tone Positive vocabulary to begin with Language of conflict Repetition of light Contrasts Suspense there once was a country my memory of it is sunlight clear it may be at wat, it may be sick with tyrants the frontiers rise between us, close like waves that child s vocabulary I carried here it may now be a lie, banned by the state it tastes of sunlight I have no passport, there s no way back at all I comb its hair and love its shining eyes my city takes me dancing through the city of walls they accuse me of being dark in their free city
Checking Out Me History John Agard Compare with: Kamikaze cultural expectations; Ozymandias & My Last Duchess power & exploitation; London sense of anger; The Emigree language and identity Agard was born in the Caribbean and moved to the UK in the 1970s Angry & assertive mood Contrasts Historical figures and fictional characters Structured to alternate between two cultures Inconsistent stanza lengths and style revealing his new freedom he does not have to conform Dialect/accent phonetic spellings Challenging racism and prejudice Repetition Italics for emphasis Rhythm drives the poem dem tell me wha dem want to tell me bandage up me eye with me own history blind me to me own identity no dem never tell me bout dat de beacon of de Haitian Revolution dem tell me bout de dish ran away with de spoon Nanny see-far woman of mountain dream a healing star among the wounded but now I checking out me own history I carving out me identity
Kamikaze Beatrice Garland Compare with: The Charge Of The Light Brigade welcome death rather than choosing life; Bayonet Charge lack of patriotism, fear of dying; Remains traumatised by killing someone, ostracised for not killing someone Cowardice was a great shame in wartime Japan. Pilot has no voice Free verse Third person narrative Reported speech vs direct speech Italics first person direct address Ironic Themes of patriotism, duty, family, love of life, exile Structured to convey the different feelings stanzas 1, 6 & 7 have ordinary language, stanzas 2-5 are descriptive, celebrating the joys of life Punctuation for effect - find the full stop a shaven head full of powerful incantations fishing boats strung out like bunting arcing in swathes like a huge flag bringing their father s boat safe a tuna, the dark prince, muscular, dangerous my mother never spoke again in his presence they treated him as though he no longer existed gradually we too learned to be silent he must have wondered which had been the better way to die