POEMS

• OZMYANDIAS - Sonnet:

  • Typically about love
  • Perhaps about Ozymandias' love for himself
  • Perhaps about love for nature as nature always wins
  • Irregular rhyme scheme symbolises a lack of control and the irregularity of power, conveying how power never lasts
• OZYMANDIAS - Themes:

  • Power of humans and nature
  • Deluded belief that power is everlasting
  • Nature as the only true power that defeats all
  • Pride and abuse of power
• OZYMANDIAS - Key Quotes:

  • 'Half sunk, a shattered visage lies':
  • Metaphor showing the power of nature taking over
  • Ozymandias is long forgotten and unidentifiable, useless
  • Reinforces the idea that power is transient and fleeting
  • 'Shattered' symbolises how power has been obliterated and shattered too
  • 'King of Kings':
  • Reveals arrogance and narcissism, belief in omnipotence
  • 'Sneer of cold command':
  • Reflects harsh ruling style and treatment of subjects
  • 'Of that colossal wreck':
  • Unidentifiable and insignificant, reflecting past destruction
• LONDON - STRUCTURE

  • ABAB rhyme scheme

  • The repetitiveness reflects the relentless and inescapable suffering in the city

  • Sense of rhythm like steady walking

  • Juxtaposes the steady flow of the poem and the jarring inequality between the rich and poor

  • Cyclical structure

  • Stanza four returns to focus on those who are suffering

  • Shows the repetitive cycle of suffering

  • Iambic tetrameter (lines with 8 syllables with alternating stressed/unstressed syllables)

  • An example of the repetitive life

  • Except line four and stanza three to reflect the weakness of those who are suffering
• LONDON - THEMES

  • Abuse of power

  • Control
• LONDON - KEY QUOTES

  • 'In every infant's cry of fear'

  • Children have no hope of a future of freedom as the cycle of poverty will never end

  • Repetition of 'every' portrays an overwhelming sense of oppression and unfairness

  • 'Marks in every face I meet, marks of weakness, marks of woe'

  • Repetition of 'mark' stresses how indelible the suffering was

  • Shows they were weakened by the government's control and unable to fight back
• LONDON - KEY QUOTES

  • 'Mind forged manacles I hear'

  • Shows how the poor were stereotyped to be criminals

  • Symbolises how they had no free thinking or the ability to fight against the government

  • Blake can 'hear' the chains symbolises how he could hear the oppression and the people trying to fight it
• THE PRELUDE - STRUCTURE

  • Blank verse

  • No breaks makes the audience overwhelmed

  • Symbolises how young Wordsworth was overwhelmed with his experience in nature

  • Enjambment

  • Reflects Wordsworth's desire to communicate and tell the story

  • Shows his eagerness

  • lambic pentameter (Lines of ten syllables with alternating stressed and unstressed syllables)
• THE PRELUDE - THEMES

  • Views of man

  • Power of nature

  • Dominance and pride
• THE PRELUDE - KEY QUOTES

  • 'It was an act of stealth and troubled pleasure'

  • Connotes sneakiness and slyness - it is morally wrong

  • Shows he is selfish, there is no thought for the consequences

  • 'Troubled pleasure'

  • Shows his arrogance, he feels entitled to enjoy it but is worried about getting caught

  • 'The grim shape towered up between me and the stars'

  • Personification of the mountain implies that nature is dangerous and uncontrollable

  • Wordsworth's confidence has disappeared and he no longer has power

  • Portrays man's inability to escape nature's power and influence
• THE PRELUDE - KEY QUOTES • 'And through the meadows homeward went, in grave and serious mood'

  • The peaceful meadows juxtaposes the deadly mood

  • 'There hung a darkness"

  • Represents Wordsworth's change to a darker and melancholy mood at the end of his journey

  • The juxtaposition of the calm/peaceful start and the harsh ending symbolises the cruel extremes of nature
• MY LAST DUCHESS - STRUCTURE

  • First person (Perspective of The Duke of Ferrara)

  • The Duke being the only voice in this poem reveals how controlling he is as he doesn't allow anyone to interrupt his narrative

  • lambic Pentameter

  • Highlights the Duke's obsession with his reputation and his need for control
• MY LAST DUCHESS - THEMES

  • Oppression of women

  • Highlights the oppression and objectification of women during the 16th century

  • Arrogance, pride and power
• MY LAST DUCHESS - KEY QUOTES

  • 'That's my last duchess painted on the wall'

  • The possessive pronoun 'my' throughout the poem show that the Duke still views the Duchess as his property

  • Objectification of women - typical in the 16th century

  • 'Will't please you sit and look at her?'

  • Posed as a question but is really a command, shows the Duke trying to exert his power

  • Forcing people to notice his wealth and admire his possessions
• MY LAST DUCHESS - KEY QUOTES

  'Since none puts by the curtain I have drawn for you but I'

  • The curtain symbolises how the Duke gets to control the Duchess even in death, allowing her to be only his property

  '-as if she ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name with anybody's

  gift'

  • Use of punctuation reveals how the Duke is getting angry and has to consciously calm himself down

  • Reveals his true jealousy despite his arrogance
• MY LAST DUCHESS - KEY QUOTES

  'This grew; I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together.'

  • Use of short sentences and caesura highlight the coldness and ruthlessness at which the Duke disposed of her life
• COTLB - STRUCTURE

  • Six stanzas

  • Each stanza acts like a memorial for 100 soldiers

  • Rhythm dactylic meter (a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables)

  • Mimics the galloping of the horses

  • Gives the poem an unstoppable feeling and driving beat
• COTLB - THEMES

  • Honour

  • Violence and the chaos of war

  • Helplessness
• COTLB - KEY QUOTES

  'Cannon to the right of them; cannon to the left of them'

  • Repetition

  • Highlights the violence

  • Highlights how helpless the soldiers are to defend themselves against the onslaught of enemy fire

  • Shows how their fate is inescapable

  'Theirs not to make reply'

  • Anaphora

  • Suggests the soldiers lack control over their fate

  • Repetition of 'theirs' emphasises the true heroes of the story

  • Highlights the heroism of the soldiers

  'Volley'd and thunder'd;'

  • Onomatopoeia

  • Thudding/ echoing quality like distant guns or cannon fire
• EXPOSURE - STRUCTURE

  • Rhythm - Five line stanzas

  • Represents the repetitive and never-ending nature of war

  • Broken ABBAC rhyme scheme (Pararhyme)

  • Repeated rhyme scheme reveals the monotony of war

  • Symbolises the men barely holding on

  • The cycle continues as expected but gets gradually worse and deteriorates like the men
• EXPOSURE - THEMES

  • Misery in war

  • Reveals the horrific day-to-day misery experienced by those who went to war

  • Weather - Presented as the real enemy of the soldiers

  • Loss of humanity
• EXPOSURE - KEY QUOTES

  'Our brains ache in the merciless iced east winds that knive us'

  • Sibilance

  • Highlights the intensity of the pain and the brutality of weather

  • Represents the onomatopoeic sound of the wind

  • Personification

  • The weather is personified throughout the poem to make it sound menacing and deadly

  • Characterizes the weather as the real enemy

  'Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow'

  • Personification

  • The nature is presented as more damaging and deadly than the bullets
• EXPOSURE - KEY QUOTES 'Black' - connotes the imagery of death - foreshadowing the soldiers end

  'Slowly our ghosts drag home'

  • Suggests that war has sucked the life out of the soldiers, and reminds readers they are on the brink of death

  '..But nothing happens'

  • Repetition of this phrase gives the readers a sense of boredom caused by waiting and hints at the pointlessness of war
• SOTI - STRUCTURE

  • Unpredictable rhythm and rhyme scheme

  • Reflects on the unpredictable nature of the storm

  • Structural change

  • The poet moves from creating images of safety, to danger and destruction

  • Direct address

  • Heaney directly addresses the reader in the poem which involves the reader more
• SOTI - THEMES

  • Violence of nature

  • cruelty of nature

  • Man is presented as being insignificant compared to the natural world
• SOTI - KEY QUOTES

  'We are prepared: we build our houses squat'

  • The strong opening emphasises the confidence and sense of security of the Islanders

  • The use of caesura reinforces the confidence as it conveys the speaker's certainty and the sense that they are safely barricaded in their homes

  "You can listen to the thing you fear forgetting that it pummels your house too'

  • Dangerous imagery

  • Suggests the reader is just as vulnerable as those affected in the poem

  • Allows the reader to feel more connected and personal to the poem

  • Supports the idea of human vulnerability
• SOTI - KEY QUOTES 'Strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear'

  • Juxtaposition

  • Highlights how strange the situation is, despite the physical preparations, ultimately it is only air that is frightening

  • Makes the storm seem even more menacing as human preparation is insufficient

  'The very windows spits like a tame cat turned savage'

  • Gives the impression that the storm is wild and uncontrollable

  • Reminds the readers that something which seems so innocent can be deadly