poetry antho

• mametz wood (2005) WAR 


  context: battle of sommee (wwi), written in retrospect, welsh won. modern view of war, realist image.Each stanza focuses on a different part of the battle.
• 'wasted young'

  • wasted their life on a pointless battle, could have had a life, farmers years later are still digging up the past.
• 'china plate of shoulder blade'

  • metaphor, conveys the violence and the terror they went through, condition they were left in, damaged beyond repair.
• 'broken birds egg of a skull'

  • very fragile, egg shatters in a biny pieces their skulls were left like that.
• 'absent tongues'

  • silenced,the excavation of their remains brings them once more to the awareness of the living, and they become a memory of the slaughter of Mametz Woods.
• The soldier (1914) WAR


  context: commissioned into the navy but did not see any action- romantisied war, gives us what ppl used to believe in. patriotism. propagandistic+naive+innocent view.
• the soldier structure

  • sonnet,regular rhyme
• 'for ever england'

  • if he dies they should think its honorable- the earth will become englands, earth will be richer bc he's there.
• the soldier context 2

  • talks about england as a mother- gave him everything so he should be prepared to give everything back ( his life)
• 'eternal mind'

  • cannot be forgoten even if he dies, cant be destroyed in any way.metaphor.
• 'english heaven'

  • england is heaven, dying is just a continuation,England is perfect,reference to god.returning home after death.
• The Romantics were a group of artists who lived in Europe around the 18th century. They loved nature, emotions, and individuality, and they didn't like following strict rules. They wrote poems and stories about feelings, imagination, and the beauty of the natural world. Idea that uneducated people are just as intense and worth recording as a rich person( french + industrial revolution)

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• love


  Poem title
• valentine


  1993
• Margaret Thatcher's gourment got richer, paber gor poder
• Consumerism increased
• Mass-produced goods don't reflect people's real experiences
• Can be seen as a reaction to inequality and commercialism
• Emphasis on maximising profit
• Attempt to make space for more diverse understandings of love
• 'I give you an onion': 'Onion makes you cry, not a perfect relationship'
• I find love in simple things
• "I am trying to be truthful": 'Explains being honest'
• Love is what you do for as long as we are 2
• Loyalty is not permanent, you can love several people in your life
• Endings happen but not every relationship has to end like that
• Wounds can go deeper, torture can go wrong
• Cozy apologia


  Poem title
• Storm daydreaming about her partner enjoying time together, everything reminds her of him
• "I could pick anything and think of you": 'Memories of him'
• Through any ordinary item she can remember him
• Hero


  Contracts to Sissy, signifies immature boys and mature
• They were content, but haven't been blessed by god
• The last word links back to the beginning, everything back to him
• living space ( 1997) context

  • born in Pakistan moved to India- people move to slums for a better life, she celebrates the beauty of human hope
• structure

  • not consistant= uneven buildings, unstable
• 'miraculous'

  • miracle things stay up, recognises beaty -blessing
• 'squeezed a living space'

  • line is also squeezed in between- people live there- challenges expectations
• 'faith'

  • act of faith to live there, celebrates life, fragility walls of faith, still strong, implication og god, faith ends the poem- holds everything up, its the foundation
• a wife in london (1899) context

  • wife is waiting for her husband to come home from war - fog sets in when a message is delivered to her- grounded in reality