English Poems

• "Bullets smacking the belly" - Bayonet Charge


  This metaphor creates a tense, violent atmosphere and also alludes to someone being winded and unable to breathe.
• "Cold clockwork"- Bayonet Charge


  Mechanical imagery is emphasised by the harsh alliteration and implies that the soldier has been dehumanised in his role.
• "Shot-slashed furrows" - Bayonet Charge


  Rural imagery is subverted to create a juxtaposition between the nourishing connotations of farming and the life being taken away in the same place.
• "Raw"- Bayonet Charge


  The use of repetition creates a sense of desperation. The connotations of "raw" are animalistic which denotes a lack of humanity in the situation
• "On another occasion"- Remains


  Starts of with in media res

  confuses the reader as they dont know what is going on

  mirrors confusion of the soldier as they aren't ready for the emotionally challenging experience that will occur

  Armitage making a societal comment suggesting that soldiers are launched into situations they dont fully understand
• "Pain itself, the image of agony"- Remains

  Gruesome imagery

  Transition from colloquial to emotional

  His colloquial language comes from trying to pretend that he has not been impacted

  Writing the poem is a process of going over his memories and letting his actual emotions release
• "Blink and he bursts"- Remains


  Enjambment across stanzas separating reality from memory

  Lots of plosives used because they have a violent sound

  Flashbacks are becoming impossible to distinguish between what is being awake and what is a dream
• "as though this were a church and he a priest preparing to intone a mass"- war photographer


  religious simile

  aware of the impact that his photos have had to the public

  parallel between the priests job and the war photographer job as they both experience suffering and death
• "All flesh is grass"- war photographer


  phrase from old testament

  life is transitory
• "half-formed ghost"- war photographer


  Metaphor - Image is faint as it is developing so too does a ghost have a fluid shape. Ghost haunts his memories

  dying agonies

  spirit may still be alive whereas the actual body is dead
• "the reader's eyeballs prick"war photographer


  use of eyeballs instead of eyes suggests that the act of crying after seeing the photos is mechanical, a reflex

  not truly affected by the photos

  doesn't have a non-superficial response
• "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings"


  Cesura (comma) - encourages reader to pause perhaps to attempt to recognise and revel in his presense. The plosives, repition of "k" sounds creates a reassuring tone. This adds to the tone of pride, arrogance and hubris. Believes he is omnipotent as other kings can't rule according to him
• "Sneer of cold command" - Ozymandias


  mocking smile which connotes malicious cruelty. represents his arrogance to his subjects and people below him. reflective of shellys anti violence stance as he was against all military exploits
• "look on my works" - Ozymandias


  dramatic irony. a king who believed so strongly in his own power and superiority how now been forgotten about and destroyed. all that remains is his cruelty as rememberance. he is insignificant and monotonous.
• "black'ning church appalls" - London


  adjective "blackning suggests the smoke produced by the factories. negative connotations of immortality and evil derived from blackning. criticised of organised religion and its failure to provide for the disadvantaged members of society
• "In every infants cry of fear" - London

  children are born innocent which incites sympathy in the reader and also known pessimistically how every life is destined for misery. links with the juxtaposition "marriage hearse". wedding is happy and grief of hearse is bad.
• "mind-forged manacles" - London


  internal oppression and weakness. culmination of the suffering experienced in the preceeding lines
• "for love of god seems dying"- Exposure


  religious reference implies the lack of religiously imposed morality remaining in the situation. highlights the cruelty of it
• "the merciless iced east winds that knive us" - Exposure 


  personification of the wind. highlights how the soldiers have multiple enemies. the soldiers are as likely to die from the opposing army as nature. adjective "merciless" indicates the relentless way nature attacks, it is a constant battle which they cant escape. plural pronoun "us" shows how the broad experience
• "silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous"- exposure


  asyndetic listing creates a rushed, panicked pace. contrasts with the content of the poem. their brains have gotten the better of them and are slowly becoming an enemy too,
• "troubled pleasure" - Prelude


  oxymoronic phrase. no right to steal but feels entitles to it. insinuates the delusions of humans, think less of nature. use of the noun "pleasure" shows how he is considering to romanticize the moment in order to hide his sinful actions
• "trouble to my dreams" - Prelude

  nature transcends mankind and is not bound by any restrictions. it takes many forms to demonstrate its powers. the phrase shows the long term impact it has had on him. transformative effect could be considered humbling yet haunting. "trouble" is repeated through the poem, suggests that he is bound to receive the trouble he emitted towards nature.
• "Blows full blast" - Storm on the island

  plosives give sense of violence and aggression. suggests nature is attacking the island. plosives resemble the bullets - weather is as deadly as a weapon
• "you know what i mean" - storm on the island

  heavily relies on conversational colloquialism to connect the reality of the islanders lives to the readers. perhaps an opportunity to create hope and a relaxed environment as they know that the situation is only getting worse
• "turned savage" - Storm on the island


  mistaken belief that they had tamed nature. as if the cat has turned against its owner. replicates how the islanders have never owned nature. their extreme arrogance and confidence has led to their downfall
• "there was once a country" - emigree


  use of temporal deixis from the outset creates a child like tone to the poem
• "it tastes of sunlight" - emigree

  gustatory imagery shows the narrators delight in the memory. it makes the image seem vivid and real to perhaps create that sense of being there
• "accuse me" - emigree


  use of emphatic repetition shows the persecution the narrator endures in their new home by creating a violent tone. the oxymoron "shadow" supports this as depression contrasts with the nostalgia of her city
• "led by her" - prelude


  allusion to the idea of mother nature. feminine task of creating, sustaining and nurturing life. personification contrasts role of nature and humans
• "full of powerful incantations" - kamikaze


  suggests that the pilot is under a kind of spell which hints at the influence of patriotic propaganda that kamikaze were exposed to
• "one way journey into history" - kamikaze


  painful irony to his search for rememberance. sought death to be remembered and immortalised respect
• "they treated him as though he no longer existed"


  cruel irony. conveys family identity vs national identity. family identity is more important to the pilot hence why he fails his mission but the family patriosm is too strong
• "figure of eight" - kamikaze


  symbol for infinity. nature is infinite, war will be forgotten yet nature will remain