power and conflict

• Remains


  To expose the after effects of war on individuals who participated in it
• Remains


  Compares to Kamikaze - to show the after effects on the pilot and his family
• Remains


  Compares to Exposure - to make us sympathize with the soldiers and the hardships of war
• Remains


  Compares to Checking out my History - to make a wider political point that one culture can't fairly impose itself on another
• Kamikaze


  • To show that a culture can abandon life and glorify death
  • To show the after-effects of war on those who participate
  • To portray cultural celebration of patriotism and the warrior sacrifice
  • To show that time can heal and generations form new perspectives
  • To show that war creates a sense of nihilism
  • To explore the importance of memory
• Kamikaze


  Compares to Remains - to show the after-effects of war on individuals
• Kamikaze


  Compares to Charge of the Light Brigade - to show patriotic propaganda that promotes the cult of the warrior and death as a noble sacrifice
• Kamikaze


  Compares to Poppies - to explore the consequences of a warrior culture and the death cult on women
• Kamikaze


  Compares to Bayonet Charge - to question the typical justification of war and protest against it
• Kamikaze


  Compares to London - to show the damaging effects on society when it exploits its children
• London


  • To show that cities are inherently corrupt
  • To show that the problems within society are caused by those in power represented by the church, the king and an undemocratic Parliament
  • To show the damaging effect of male sexual desire and the exploitation of young prostitutes
  • To show the damaging effect on society when it exploits its children
• London


  Compares to Emigres - to explore the difficulties faced by people, like migrants living in a foreign environment
• London


  Compares to Kamikaze - as a counter-argument, showing the opposite of the cultural celebration of patriotism and sacrifice
• London


  Compares to My Last Duchess - to show the corrupt power of patriarchal society and the nobility
• London


  Compares to Checking out my History - to show the corrupt power of British and French imperialism, and how political power can be resisted by the oppressed
• the mark scheme wants me to write about the form and structure of the poems, so any comparison that makes that easy is going to be the comparison that I favor in the exam
• wanders freely in comparison to everybody else who doesn't and it's also to celebrate poetry as a form of protest and a way to acquire political power or gain social change at both about that and there are also strong links in terms of the structure both are partly written in a kind of nursery rhyme childlike structure
• Purposes of exposure


  • To explore patriotism and suggest that it is an illusion
  • To focus on the hardships of war which are dehumanizing
  • To explore the importance of memory
  • To celebrate the power of metaphor
  • To show that war creates a sense of near lism
• Exposure


  Contrasts with charge of the Light Brigade which supports patriotic propaganda
• Exposure


  Explores similar themes to kamikaze and remains
• Exposure


  Explores similar themes to war photographer in terms of the damaging effect of war on those who report on it
• Charge of the Light Brigade is written to support patriotic propaganda
• Charge of the Light Brigade is written at a time when people routinely memorized poems and so he's absolutely obsessed with the sound of his poem and writes it in order to be read aloud
• War photographer explores the damaging effect of war on those who report on it
• Ozymandias is written to show how the power of art transcends history
• Ozymandias is written to promote democracy and criticize tyrants and dictators
• Ozymandias is written to promote the poet's own poetic skill
• Ozymandias


  Compares to my last Duchess in terms of the power of art and the poet's own artistry
• My last Duchess is written to expose the corruption of the nobility
• My last Duchess is written to celebrate the poet's own poetic skill and a new form of poetry
• My last Duchess


  Compares to London in terms of the damaging effects of male power and exploitation of children
• London also explores the damaging effect of male sexual desire exercised without conscience
• last Duchess to understand that they both show the damaging effects on society when it exploits its children we saw that in the analysis of London earlier you might have forgotten that when he marries he marries much younger women and these are both children of men who offer up their daughters because it's a patriarchal society in the case of the count who this monologue is spoken for in the case of the count he's expecting the count to give up his daughter to marry the Duke even though he's just confessed to killing his last wife I mean that's how corrupt the patriarchal society is he's expecting a powerful man the Duke to sacrifice the happiness of his daughter just so that she can marry a more powerful man in the Duke so that really is how a society damages here it's female children
• poppies also explores the power of the patriarchy and what this does to the mothers role as opposed to the fathers that I've just discussed it breeds naivety and overconfidence in men as we see with her son going off to war and that's a contrast to the Duke who has complete overconfidence because he even confesses to a murder but he's not naive he knows he's going to get away with it because his patriarchal society is so corrupt and they both explore the importance of memory so this whole poem is about her memories and that's what the art is for in my last Duchess it's all to preserve his memories of what he's owned
• emigres is a really interesting poem it's easy when you see it on the page kind of thinking it's not really very much good but when you start to analyze a number of purposes the poet has this are not in it so number one to explore the difficulties faced by migrants fleeing corrupt political systems in the countries they leave and in the countries they settle in so there's two cities in the poem one that she's left than one that she's living in now and both appear potentially hostile to show that cities are corrupt and dangerous and to show how a lone voice can try to achieve political change that's my interpretation of the last couplet of the poem and to show how the past is reinterpreted and how memory is precious even though in this case it changes the facts that's quite unusual for the poems that we face but that does work here to show how the oppressed can resist tyrannical power and to show the importance of metaphor cos the whole poem is told through metaphor
• London also shows that cities are inherently corrupt here that private ownership excludes the ordinary man and it makes everybody miserable that's a really close parallel with the city she's left the problems with society it caused by those in power an exact parallel here it's the church the King and Parliament they're its tyrants we could argue that it's the patriarchy in both because we've got a female voice here who's being as oppressed and the tyrants are presumably male to show the damaging effects on society when it exploits its children well that's why this poem is all about her childhood memories and she has been exploited by having to leave her country and become a migrant
• checking out my history to show how political power can be resisted by the oppressed that links again to the final line of emigres to celebrate poetry as a form of protest and a way to acquire political power or gain social advantage so that's the purpose of writing this poem and we can consider whether this poem is also written in order to protest against the way we discriminate against foreigners who need to come here because of war a very topical one that I wouldn't be surprised if this one in our days of brexit didn't come up as the chosen poem and to explore the immigrant experience and ask for greater acceptance
• tissue and I'm going to advise you obviously not to do tissue because it doesn't have a strong form or structure however if this is the named poem in the exam then why not use emigrate to compare it to so to ask for tolerance and cultural and religious understanding well this is definitely to ask for tolerance and understanding to ask for equality for all people that would definitely resonate with the two cultures one that she's left and one that she's moved to to explore the importance of family and family history and in this poem it's noticeable that she is a child on her own there's no reference to mother or father and we get the sense that she's lost them either been orphaned before she came over or her parents are still stuck in whatever the old city was and they've only been able to smuggle her out and the other thing is this is a poem full of metaphor just like that one and so there is a stylistic and structural connection
• poppies this poem is written to explore the power of the patriarchy again and what this does to define a mother's role so this mother has to hide her emotions from her son put aside her misgivings and respect his desire presumably to go off to war although I have two videos on poppies so you do not have to read this as a war poem at all it could simply be about motherhood anyway that's up to you what's the videos if you wish how it breeds naivety and overconfidence in men you know it's really clear that the Sun is going off to a future that he thinks is going to be magnificent and which the mother fears is going to be tragic and to explore the consequences of a warrior culture and the death cult you know that's what enlisting and going off to war as a noble and adventurous activity suggests you can only have a warrior culture to make men happy joining it and she explores the effect this has on women in particular mothers and to explore the importance of memory you know the whole poem is told through the mothers memories and in the past tense
• my last Duchess this again is about the patriarchy and how its corrupt but here women are the victims of it and they're very the very definite victims the men in power seem not to suffer there's an interesting parallel here because if the son has died he has suffered and that's similar to the idea that the Duke is executed not just his ex-wife the Duchess but somebody else in that line all smiles stopped together very strongly suggests a plural it's written to criticize the compromise between artists and those in power well this is the con the compromise between women and men's aspirations so it's not about art but it's very definitely about compromise and it also explores the importance of memory and at the end of the poem we've got this feeling of impending tragedy at the end of this poem where we think the Sun has probably died and we've got another feeling of impending tragedy at the end of my last Duchess when the tragedy is that the count will probably still marry his daughter to the Duke even though he knows the Duke is a murderer oh this again is a society that celebrates the power of men and the culture of death you know as long as it's done on a male's terms and that's very similar to the culture of death that the son lives in and celebrates in poppies and of course we have the title itself which is a memento mori a reminder of death and you could say a celebration of it you know we all wear it in our lapels every November not just to commemorate the dead but also to celebrate their sacrifice and so we perpetuate the idea that it is a noble thing to die for your country