Power and conflict poetry

• Ozymandias- Percy Bysshe Shelly's constant internal rhymes mirror the power of storytelling but simultaneously paradoxically perpetuate his power poem blends the Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnets love for oneself or literary conventions of the romantics

  use of symbols strip him of his legacy
• London - William Blake's "songs of experience"

  ABAB rhyme scheme and in the final stanza there is an eye rhyme. The speaker has just heard a harlot curse this ambiguity is intentional

  the symbol of "mind-forged manacles" suggests suffering is internalised having origins in the brain society can reform

  The cause of suffering is institutions of power "chartered" suggests privatisation 1700s legislation gave land to the powerful. Organised religion is also demonised
• The Prelude - William Wordsworth "The Recluse Wordsworth overruns the meter from iambic pentameter with a stressed hyperbeat it is almost paradoxical The poem is a single stanza that makes the reader breathless one can empathise with the vastness of the peak there is constant enjambment could be an allusion to John Milton's paradise lost

  With the loss of eloquence, the language of the speaker becomes less sophisticated as the poem continues the language becomes simplistic and clumsy the devolved vocabulary focuses on size and colour his limits have been redefined
• Poppies-Jane weir

  The dramatic monologue is written in the second person to address her son but there is no answer there is no rhyme scheme or meter and variety in stanza length this is cathartic the chaotic structure mirrors the chaos induced by war

  Weir is an unusual war poet who explores emotional suffering in "I Was Brave" which opposes conventional ideas of soldiers

  Weir interweaves domestic imagery with military metaphors maternal affection is juxtaposed with injury like connotations
• War Photographer - Carol Ann Duffy

  uses sestets and an ABBCDD rhyme scheme juxtaposed with chaos, his lack of power or how he works but his emotions threaten to take over Cyclical structure with futile repetition their indifference contrasts with his sense of vocation

  struggles reconciling his life can only view home through the comparative lens duty-bound to enlighten people like a priest is alienated "they" creates an accusatory tone
• Exposure- Wilfred Owen

  "Our Brains Ache" resembles Keates' poem "Ode to a Nightingale" The psychological impact.

  "But Nothing Happens" cyclical structure soldier's paranoid idleness and the anaphora show the futility of war the situation is static despite their suffering

  Nature is the antagonist "Dawn massing her army in the east" juxtaposes the nurturing role of nature and also minimises the significance of WW1 with auditory imagery
• Storm on the island- Seamus Heaney

  frequent enjambment a barrage of information the poem is in the shape of enforced huts the breathless panic suggests the source of paranoia of redundant defences—semantic field of military images plosives.

  half rhyme "squat/slate" and "air/fear" create a cyclical structure cycle of preparation storm and recovery always a chance of decimation

  Personification of the storm "pummels" malicious no indicators
• Checking out Me History - John Agard

  the use of italics with a black historical figure highlights their significance and could suggest how the curriculum gives them less prominence to decolonise the education system juxtaposed with the childish lexis "Dick Whittington"

  writes in Creole of British Guyana colonial powers and literary conventions can be resisted Oral poetry

  Violent metaphors to highlight the cruelty active verb "carving" painful connotations continual process connotations to wood no longer has the plasticity of a child
• The Emigree - Carol Rumens

  The title is indicative of the poem the English and French emigree establishes the idea of conflicting cultures, forced literary conventions

  The repetition of "they" creates an aggressive tone and makes the city seem hostile and their racism a new threat; social rejection she can't return yet experiences no sunlight Rumen feels segregated

  Epistrophe every stanza ends with a reference to sunlight and juxtaposes the positive connotations to "branded" showing her patriotism despite the obvious corruption
• MLD- Robert Browning

  Written in heroic couplets but a spelling rhyme "she liked whate'er and her looks went everywhere" wrenched rhyme with an elision mirrors the control of his wife

  he moves seamlessly between his last wife to his new and moves from a painting to a statue "Notice Neptune" taming a seahorse like how he tames her

  The use of enjambment and caesura make it conversational he goes on tangents use of dashes "-how shall I say-" lack of skill in speech he is emotional which is ironic or loves himself
• Charge of The Light Brigade - Alfred Lord Tennyson

  a Ballard a form of historical poetry to commemorate a story acts to immortalise the use of dactylic dimeter to mirror the rhythm of a horse running this unrelenting rhythm meant the soldiers had to obey this meter creating a heavy tone "Evangeline" anaphora "theirs not to make reason why" reiterates the obedience needed in Victorian times' lack of individualism also a reprise for Ballard.

  "Valley of Death" biblical allusion Psalm 23 protection from God criticism of Lord Cardigan playing God trapped allusion to the harrying of hell
• Remains- Simon Armitage

  Writes as a dramatic monologue and in the present tense with present participles like an account from memory flashbacks are a symptom of PTSD cathartic colloquial

  caesura in the line "then I'm home on leave. But I Blink" provides a finality but the conjunction "but" suggests he will continue to experience it

  The stanza length breaks down just as Trumans seems to break down. Hands in literature symbolic of guilt Lady Macbeth throws herself off her battlements so guilt catalyses infliction
• Kamikaze- Beatrice Garland

  poem is structured in tightly controlled stanzas and sestets that reflect the expectations placed on soldiers to be stoic juxtaposed with the free verse and enjambment attempts of freedom her father has individuality. Conflicting roles "Kamikaze" and "Father" one is military one is domestic he chooses his family yet is rejected "Her Father embarked at sunrise" alludes to Japan seeing his nation even in nature, but there is a volta and he appreciates nature rejecting death "Cloud marked mackerel" angelic beauty rejection of power death is woven into his family
• Bayonet Charge- Ted Hughes

  written in 3rd person singular limited perspective individualism the reader finds its vivid descriptions intolerable and the isolation the subject is the only human "he" despite fighting self-preservation

  Asyndetic listing "King, honour, human dignity" when faced with death they are abandoned etc

  Consonance "Cold Clockwork" calculated conflict physical tools

  "yellow hare" is only sign of violence personified innocent unconnected the soldiers revert to primitive the fluid relationship
• Tissue- Imtiaz Dharker

  the fixed stanza is undermined by free verse proving freedom can be achieved in restrictive institutions' enjambment unifies lines mirroring how we should be united mocking those who think they hold power

  Metaphor of Buildings fall away on a sigh Buildings are a symbol of permanence society should be transparent consonance "turned transparent"

  Symbol of light motif "paper that lets light shine through" enlightenment God the poem is a source of enlightenment and allows God to permeate through no reference to a God criticism of fundamentalism
• Ozymandias - context

  Rameses II his bust has just been discovered

  "Ode to The West Wind" melodramatic emotion

  King George III's tyrannical 13 American colonies revolted

  Romantic
• London Context - "Songs of Experience"

  Romantic anarchist

  "reign of terror" how the oppressed seized power

  The Industrial Revolution led to urbanisation, pollution
• The Prelude- Epic poem first part in the intended 3 "The Recluse"

  1757 Edmund Burke the sublime fear and awe

  "The strange Fits of Passion I have known" As the moon descends the narrator becomes panicked as Lucy the woman he loves is dead

  "Ode To The West Wind"

  Resisting Industrialism idyllic and pastoral past
• MLD- context set in Italy during the Renaissance but a comment on society In Victorian Britain the suffrage movements began women were firmly situated in the domestic sphere
• SOTI - Context

  "Death of a Naturalist" focuses on the Aran Islands' symbol of Irish culture Heaney is an Irish poet who writes about his pastoral life

  The Troubles "Storm on the Island" phonetically sounds like "Stormont Ireland" name of the government building
• Exposure- Context pursued a career in the church however thought it was hypocritical he became a soldier and was killed a week before Armistice day he was inspired by Siegfried Sassoon and John Keates War was romanticised Owen dispelled "the old lie"
• Bayonet Charge- "Hawk in the rain" war poet who never saw conflict saw its influence in his home studied mythology has a pastoral past Inspired by Owen dedicated to his wife Sylvia focussed on animals
• Poppies- "Exit Wounds" commissioned by Carol Ann Duffy

  Weir has two sons who lived in Northern Ireland during the troubles and is a textile designer "I was specifically thinking of Susan Owen"

  "I wrote this poem from a woman's perspective"

  War on Terror Wotton Basset "The Town that Weeps"
• Remains - "The Not Dead" also a Channel 4 documentary about the impact of war on soldiers returning from PTSD Armitage is the current Poet Laureate based on Guardsman Truman coincided with changing Public opinion on The War On Terror.
• The Emigree - "Thinking of Skins" Rumens travelled frequently to Eastern Europe and Russia and her poetry is about alternate Cultures and customs
• War Photographer - "Standing Female Nude" friends with Sir Don Mccullin who described his vocation as Powerless and has appalling memories Carol said "I'm more interested in the photographer"
• Checking Out Me History- British Guyana and received a Eurocentric curriculum the poem was inspired when Agard read a book describing how West Indian history began in 1492 "Half-caste "focuses on race and identity
• Kamikaze-"The Invention of Fireworks" focussed on Eastern culture and specifically the motivation to die for one's country Kamikaze means Divine Winds During WWII Japanese pilots would go on suicide missions Japanese culture is very much honoured based "Bushido"
• Charge Of The Light Brigade - Tennyson was the poet Laureate and duty bound to glorify war to defend the aristocracy Crimean War between the British and Russians Newspapers talked about the mistakes made by Lord Cardigan gave orders for lightly armed soldiers to charge artillery
• Tissue- "The Terrorist at My Table" focus on Global Politics and extremism born in Pakistan and raised in Glasgow describes herself as "Scottish, Pakistani, Muslim, Calvinist"