Poetry Quotes

• "I am Ozymandias, King of Kings" - Ozymandias


  breaks iambic pentameter + changes pace of poem - not subject to rules

  irony - emphasises absolute authority but statue is crumbling
• "Lone and level sands stretch far away" - Ozymandias


  alliteration - statue's insignificance in vast desert + nature

  detached and callous image shows nature prevails
• "Look on my works, ye mighty and despair!" - Ozymandias


  personal pronouns - pride in legacy

  physical displays of power are futile but integrity of nature will last forever
• "The hand that mocked and the heart that fed" - Ozymandias


  'hand' - superior to citizens + violence, juxtaposing Shelley's views

  'heart' - sculptor bringing truth to life + also shows how people had no choice but to rely on the king
• "Sneer of cold command" - Ozymandias


  assonance - no contempt/sympathy

  human rule delegates needs of ordinary citizens

  references Napoleon's failed dictatorship
• "the youthful harlot's curse blasts the new-born infant's tear" - London


  harlot - prostitute, curse - euphemism for STDs

  youth taken away by wealth divide forcing her into the job

  most vulnerable suffering due to power abuse

  tear - emotive, innocence of youth taken away
• "every black'ning church appalls"


  symbolism - false promises + sinister side of church

  juxtaposes hopeful facade of church

  controversial - Christianity integral part of society during this period
• "hapless soldier's sigh runs in blood down palace walls" - London


  even those serving country are frustrated

  euphemism - royalty responsible for suffering

  blood - symbolism, have blood on their hands
• "in every face I meet marks of weakness, marks of woe" - London


  hyperbole - no exceptions to suffering apart from the small group of wealthy who don't help

  London seen as city of opportunity yet everyone is sad - appearance vs. reality
• "In every voice, in every ban, the mind-forged manacles I hear" - London


  chains - poor too scared to speak up in fears rich will attack them

  semantic field of restriction

  emotive language - evident struggle but no outlet to speak up evokes sympathy + emphasises vulnerability
• "My last duchess/looking as if she were alive. I call that piece a wonder" - MLD


  sinister - painting is life-like

  only admires her when she's gone

  personal pronouns - objectifies + controls her in death
• "She looked on, and her looks went everywhere" - MLD

  repetition - feels jealousy even though she's dead

  hyperbole - overly-critical when she is only being courteous

  emphasises her youth + how he misinterprets her actions
• "As if she ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name with anybody's gift" - MLD


  feels superior to everyone else + implying she doesn't owe anything to people below her socially

  boastful - trying to justify himself

  irony - jealous despite arrogance
• "This grew; I gave commands; then all smiles stopped altogether" - MLD


  euphemism - killed her using a hitman

  juxtaposes her happiness + innocence - displays patriarchy + how most kind suffer due to arrogance
• "Notice Neptune, though, taming a seahorse, thought a rarity" - MLD


  disturbing - switches from confession to casual talk

  metaphor - power imbalance + control

  irony - Neptune known for bad temper

  caesura - highlights sense of victory

  circular narrative - about to do same thing to next wife
• "Small circles glittering idly on the moon" - Prelude


  light imagery - calm before the storm

  repeating 'l' - boat moving gently, confidence

  admiring beauty but also suspensful
• "lustily I dipped my oars/heaving through the water like a swan" - Prelude


  otherworldly but not threatening

  in control + admits over-confidence

  juxtaposes sharply with next lines
• "a huge peak, black and huge/upreared its head" - Prelude


  personification - nature establishes dominance

  repetition - emphasises shock of speaker

  caesura - takes a while to comprehend, feelings of sublime emerges
• "with purpose of its own, and measured motion like a living thing, strode after me" - Prelude

  simile - being chased, confidence turns to fear

  enjambment - chaos emerges in speaker's mind at sight

  ironic - tried to control nature now being controlled by nature
• "no colours of green fields but huge and mighty forms" - Prelude


  juxtaposition - pastoral imagery replaced by negative thoughts

  events haunt him making him depressed

  metaphor - unsettling imagery to help readers emphasise with speaker

  questions own morality + realises mistake
• "Into the valley of death rode the six hundred" - COTLB


  biblical reference - if you have courage god will save you

  metaphor - mission was destined to fail

  refrain - bravery emphasised
• "Theirs not to make reply, theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die" - COTLB


  anaphora - expected to give up lives for someone else's mistakes + follow orders without question

  unaware of mistake - being sent to their doom

  monosyllabic orders - simplicity of army life
• "Flash'd as they turn'd in air sabring their gunners there" - COTLB

  imagery - highlights brutality of hand-to-hand combat

  sword - symbolises bravery + suicide mission

  enjambment - highlights continuous courage through struggle
• "When can their glory fade?" - COTLB


  rhetorical question - sense of nuance, suggests glory does fade eventually

  should be commended for their chivalry
• "Honour the charge they made! Honour the Light Brigade!" - COTLB


  imperative - teaches readers to remember them

  charge made their sacrifice worthy

  war both heroic + tragic, brings out both the best + worst in humanity

  summarises heroism in shorter stanza
• "Smacking the belly out of the air/lugged a rifle numb as a smashed arm" - BC

  onomatopoeia - chaos of war

  feels winded

  gun part of body - men weaponised
• "In what cold clockwork of the stars and nations was he the hand pointing that second?" - BC


  rhetorical question - feels insignificant within big movement

  assonance - individual needs don't matter when patriotism is involved
• "His foot hung like statuary in mid-stride" - BC


  aimless + has no choice

  heightened senses

  existential crisis
• "King, honour, dignity etc. dropped like luxuries" - BC


  list of 3 - reasons for war no longer significant

  epiphany - doesn't want to die for country

  juxtaposes glory + horror
• "His terror's touchy dynamite" - BC

  overstimulation overrides patriotism

  metaphor - original principles gone, fighting for survival

  alliteration - desperation
• "Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us" - Exposure


  collective mental toll - 1st person plural

  sibilance - mimics wind sound + personifies wind attacking them

  caesura - slow death + lack of will to live
• "Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army attacks once more" - Exposure


  semantic field of military - nature bigger enemy

  juxtaposes fresh starts + hopes of new day

  stuck in an endless loop + no narrative progression
• "sudden successive bullets streak the silence" - Exposure


  volta - symbolises how soldiers are thrown into action

  sibilance - disruptive of psychological war within soldiers
• "We cringe in holes, back on forgotten dreams, and stare snow-dazed" - Exposure


  animalistic - hiding from cold

  war doesn't care for their desires

  snow-dazed - confusion, existential crisis, lack of significance
• "For God's invincible spring our love is made afraid" - Exposure


  feels abandoned by god + false promises of Christianity

  sacrifice isn't worth it
• "Is it that we are dying? Slowly our ghosts drag home" - Exposure


  assonance - already dead inside

  rhetorical question - war has lost meaning

  those back home lost interest in their fate
• "We are prepared: we build our houses squat" - SOTI

  caesura - intensifies arrogance + confidence

  thinks it's safe + made adaptations

  inclusive pronouns - humans believe collectively they are more powerful than nature
• "Leaves and branches can raise a tragic chorus in a gale/forgetting it plummets your house too" - SOTI


  chose to ignore warnings out of over-confidence + complacency

  Greek chorus explains negative events - island left on its own to navigate storm since it's so disconnected
• "Space is a salvo. We are bombarded by the empty air" - SOTI


  sibilance - nature can turn cruel at any moment + indiscriminate

  semantic field of war + island becomes firing ground - weather hidden enemy

  no longer arrogant
• "strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear" - SOTI


  don't know who to fear - neighbour vs. neighbour

  weather is true enemy

  condemnation of Troubles - conflict is unnecessary

  contrasts with solidness at start