Power and Conflict Poetry Anthology

• ‘Near where the charter’d Thames does flow’


  London- Shows how everything form the ‘infant‘ to the ’man’ is owned and exploited.
• ‘Runs in blood down palace walls’

  London- Gruesomely highlights the suffering caused by those in power.
• ‘And mark in every face I meet

  Marks of weakness, marks of woe’

  London-The antanaclasis (double meaning of) ‘mark’ first means ‘notice’ then a symbol that everyone is effected by the suffering in London.
• ‘Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

  And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command’


  Ozymandias- The ‘visage‘ has been damaged however, what shows still shows expressions of disgust and scorn.
• ’My names Ozymandias, King of Kings;

  Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!’


  Ozymandias- Ironically, these words are on Ozymandias’ statue which is in ruins which implies that he- who thought all others would quake in his memory- has been forgotten.
• ‘Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

  The lone and level sands stretch far away.’


  Ozymandias- Since the desert has destroyed everything human made, Shelley is implying that everything human made will end up lost and forgotten including humans themselves. The ‘sands‘ give connotations of hourglasses and time so implies that all tyrannical reigns or any reigns will end with time.
• ‘This grew; I gave commands;

  Then all smiles stopped together’


  My last duchess- The use of concise sentences echos the idea of the Duchess’ life being clipped short. Browning has the Duke deliberately intimidate the emissary to get a higher dowry in exchange for the bride.
• ‘as if she ranked

  My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name

  With anybody’s gift’

  My Last Duchess- The duke believes that his own aristocratic status is proof of his inherent superiority to everyone else and as a result should be treated in a superior fashion.
• ‘Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er

  She looked on, and her looks went everywhere’

  My Last Duchess- The duke believes the duchess’ desires are excessive. However the duke may be mistaking her kindness and warm-heartedness for infidelity- the duke may be sexually insecure.
• ‘The horizons bound, a huge peak, black and huge’


  Extract from the Prelude- Repetition of the monosyllabic ‘huge’ spotlights the speaker‘s inability to articulate his thoughts and feelings, his response to the sheer immensity of nature.
• ‘The horizon‘s utmost boundary; far above’


  Extract from the Prelude- Trochees ‘utmost boundary’ disrupt the horizon and almost seem to be exceeding its natural environment by fading into space. This mirrors how young Wordsworth was at the limit of his childhood wonder and he wasn’t psychologically ready for this transformation.
• ‘in grave

  And serious mood’


  Extract from the Prelude- ‘grave’ mirrors the death of innocence, youth and arrogance as the speaker understands his insignificance, morality and vulnerability in comparison to the infiniteness of nature.
• ‘The poignant misery of dawn begins to grow…’


  Exposure- The hope of seeing a new day is shattered as the soldiers realise their fate- the weather is more of an enemy for the soldiers.
• ‘Our brains ache, in the merciless iced winds that knive us…’


  Exposure- In medias res, we’re cast into the mental state and physical environment of the battle field. Sitting in the frigid trenches, the soldiers are exhausted.
• ‘All their eyes are ice.’


  Exposure- Disturbing imagery is metaphorical and horrifyingly literal. The soldiers eyes have literally frozen in the cold but they are also figuratively like ice as they are unmoving unfeeling and inhumane.
• ‘He remembers the cries of this man’s wife’


  War photographer- Auditory memory, despite not directly killing someone, the general war photographers experience is that they feel guilt and helpless.
• ‘how he sought approval’


  War photographer- Feels guilt as he’s not sure whether he should have documented this man’s death.
• ‘the readers eyeballs prick

  with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers’


  War photographer- The internal rhyme, much like a nursery rhyme, trivialises the experience, much like the audiences response to war photography. The fast speed of the rhyme mirrors the way the west, after feeling a small ‘prick’, automatically return to normal life after seeing the photos with no change.
• ‘And the drink and drugs won’t flush him out’


  Remains- Depicts the intoxicants as relief or coping mechanisms from the PTSD for soldiers following conflict. This also shows soldiers inability to articulate their feelings and recover from irrepressible flashbacks prolonging their suffering more than mere ’weeks after week’ but years after year and probably for the rest of their lives, especially once they have left war. ‘flush‘ demonstrates the futile attempt to detoxify a mind at war.
• ‘I see every round as it rips through his life-‘


  Remains- Not only ‘rips’ through the ‘looters’ aspirations, relationships and family but also the ex-soldiers ability to live without the gut-wrenching remorse. Visual memory to depict how the traumatic sights of war stay with ex-soldiers.
• ‘his bloody life in my bloody hands’


  Remains- Individual responsibility, the ex-soldier owns and deserves the guilt and trauma and doesn’t know if he’ll ever live without it. It’s dismissive of other opinions contrasting to ‘probably armed, possibly not’.
• ‘I carving out me identity’

  Checking out me history- Agard is optimistic about uncovering his own history. ’carving’ Artistically Agard designed his identity as he shapes, moulds and discovers it. Idea of permanence- he overturns the Eurocentric ideals that he’s been taught and now longs for a deep footed knowledge of his own culture.
• ‘But now I checking out me own history’


  Checking out me history- Turning point for Agard as he overcomes the oppression of his childhood education. Grammatically, by becoming the active agent in the sentence, Agard implies he is making his own decision to find out about the history of his culture, knowledge which he was denied of in his childhood.
• ‘Bandage up me eye with me own history

  Blind me to my own identity‘


  Checking Out Me History- The educational system has denied Agard access to his own history, he implies Britain want to make amends for past errors in history by keeping it hidden. ’blind’ cover, shade, shield, prevent
• ‘but I am branded by an impression of sunlight’

  The Émigrée- Rumens can’t help but be optimistic about her former country- the memories from her childhood are still alive even when the ideal place she remembers no longer exists. ‘branded’ stamped, scarred, marked, engraved
• ‘but I can’t get it off my tongue. It tastes of sunlight.’


  The Émigrée- Emigrants cannot escape the positive memories and experiences from their former country. Synesthesia- the tongue, the main part of language, but also where we derive please. So associating pleasure with a place which cannot visit juxtaposes the good memories.
• ‘and the frontiers rise between us, close like waves’


  The Émigrée- The emigrants are separated from their home country. The ‘frontiers’ are the separation of two lands and the ‘waves’ may imply a metaphorical sea or that the new country is drowning her old beloved culture.
• ‘We are prepared’


  Storm on the island- Despite completely adapting their lives to resist nature, they are arrogantly overconfident. Physically they are prepared, they are trying to be emotionally ready. ‘We’ shows togetherness and community.
• ‘it blows full

  Blast:’


  Storm on the island- Plosives gives a sense of violence and aggression and suggests nature is attacking the island and also resemble bullets implying weather is a deadly weapon.
• ’spits like a tame cat

  Turned savage’


  Storm on the island- Mistaken belief that they had tamed nature, replicates how they never owned nature, it was always more powerful than them.