english lit

• cotlb context


  Tennyson made Poet Laureate, a post which bound him into not making criticism of british aristocracy and glorifying the war.
• cotlb structure


  Dactylic dimeter to mimic sound of horses hooves charging into battle. repetition of this thrusts reader into battle to make them feel the charge.
• "half a league"

  • begins in media res to thrust reader into brutal nature and suddenness of the charge, repetition, emphasise relentless advance of cavalry. Cotlb presents intriguing picture of war whilst portraying it as a noble cause. galloping - impression of being unstoppable.
• "horse and hero fell"

  • euphemistic language - avoid criticising higher powers and portraying true nature of war. avoids exposing barbaric truth to reader about who were mercilessly slaughtered. alliteration - continuous nature of this massacre.
• "mouth of hell" "jaws of death"


  personification of hell and death pared with biblical allusion of "death expands it jaws" despite their death was imminent, they died as a martyr to religion and their country. personification also seems to make death and hell possess a human like power, exacerbates how soldiers were powerless to these concepts yet still selflessly sacrificed themselves. sacrifices contributed to nothing.
• poppies structure

  • Caesura - visual and audible depiction of emotional restraint, mother doesn't want to completely submit herself to fear.
  • Weir captivates bravery of mother in doing this, pays homage to a type of bravery often over looked during war - bravery of families who had to say goodbye.
• poppies context

  • lived through the Troubles of 1980s - period defined by conflict and violence,
  • poppies - symbol of remembrance in 1929 after growing in the battlefield that had been used during world war 1,
  • published in 2009, First World War fleeting from people's living memory, may have seen it as her duty to keep enforcing importance of remembrance,
• "graze my nose across the tip of your nose"


  Speaker recalls a desire to "graze my nose..." which juxtaposes maternal act of an Eskimo kiss with battle imagery of "graze" - as if even innocent acts are contaminated by notions of a battle.
• "sellotape bandaged around my hand"

  • domestic act of collecting hairs and lint from surface of clothes,