Power and Conflict Poetry

Power and Conflict Poetry

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  Poem Summary/context LanguageStructure Tone/feelings/themes Ozymandias Written in 1818 by Percy Shelley. The poem refers to the statue of Ozymandias (an Egyptian pharaoh). Recounts a story told by a traveller about the remains of a vast ruined statue and explores the idea that with the passing of time, all great rulers and empires will crumble like a statue. • The statue is a metaphor which reveals the foolishness of Ozymandias – just as the statue is ruined and destroyed, so is Ozymandias’ power. • Analogy (like an extended metaphor). Time will challenge any great civilisation or ruler, just like it will a statue. • Sonnet form – can be divided into three parts: 1. The traveller creates a picture of Ozymandias. 2. The middle part celebrates the sculptor’s artistry and explores the idea that whilst the sculptor’s art has lasted, Ozymandias’ power has not. 3. The destruction of the statue represents the destruction of Ozymandias’ power. Pride – Ozymandias thought his achievements would last for ever and was boastful (shown by the inscription on the statue) – but this was not true and is shown by the ruin of the statue. Death – The desert symbolises the passing of time. It erases all traces of Ozymandias and reminds us that death comes to us all – nothing lasts forever. London Written in 1794 by William Blake. Blake lived in London during the Industrial Revolution when the city was expanding and at a time of political unrest. Wealth and poverty existed side by side. Blake witnessed daily the problems caused by the Industrial Revolution and he didn’t like that nobody was doing anything to help. • Negative language to show Blake’s dislike for what Londoner’s are going through. • Repetition of ‘every’ emphasises that the speaker sees nothing but suffering on the streets of London. • Metaphor of ‘mind-forg’d manacles’ shows that people’s minds are not free and they are trapped by society. • Strict abab rhyme scheme shows that people are trapped in an unpleasant existence. • Juxtaposition shows that every hope of happiness is tainted with despair. Social comment – Blake doesn’t see any hope for society because people have so little power and they lack the imagination to change their lives. Despair – The church and the state offer no hope for poor people and in fact, Blake thinks they take away people’s freedom and keep them powerless. The Prelude Written as long sections between 1798 and 1850 by William Wordsworth. Autobiographical poem based on Wordsworth’s schooldays and boyhood in the Lake District. In the poem, he describes how, as a young boy, he stole a boat and was taught a lesson by nature. The experience gave him a lasting impression of nature’s power and mystery. • Personification (‘her’ in the poem is nature) is used to show the beauty but also the dangerous power and awesomeness of nature. • Similes compare natural objects to living things to create the impression that nature is alive. • Light and dark shows that nature is beautiful but also shows the troubling effect it has on the narrator. • The writing is continuous and gives us the effect of a story. • Written in blank verse which is often used in epic poems and highlights here a very personal experience. The power of beauty and nature – Nature is presented as beautiful as the boy enjoys hi ride in the boat. But then as he rows, he fixates on a ‘huge peak’ which makes him feel ab it frightened in terms of nature’s immensity. Imagination and memories – The narrator was unable to shake of the feeling and the memory of the peak. It left a lasting impression and shaped his view of nature from then on.
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  Poem Summary/context LanguageStructure Tone/feelings/themes My Last Duchess Written by Robert Browning in 1842. The poem is set in Italy and is based on a real historical figure – Alonso, the Duke of Ferrara. The painting that is referred to, is a portrait of his first of three wives. She died only two years after their marriage in suspicious circumstances. In the poem, the Duke talks about her whilst he is making arrangements for his next marriage • Descriptions of the Duchess show a kind and gracious woman which makes us feel sympathetic towards her. • Possessive pronouns ‘mine’, ‘your’ suggest the Duke’s pride and how much he likes to control things. • Dramatic monologue - the first person narrative allows us to fully understand the Duke’s actions and motivations. • Circular structure – begins and ends with the Duke talking about his possessions which show how he like to own and control things – even people. Violence, power, control – the Duke has no remorse at having his wife murdered. He has absolute power and is so obsessed with controlling his wife that he has her killed. Jealousy and pride – the duke was jealous of the (innocent) attention his wife gave to others. His own jealousy led him to suspect her of infidelity and his pride would not allow him to even talk to her about it. The Charge of the Light Brigade Tells the story of a famous charge during one of the battles of the Crimean War in 1854. A confusion in the orders relayed to the brigade led to the lightly armoured cavalry unit charging a battery of guns in a hopeless attack. The poem is Alfred Lord Tennyson’s reaction to that story when it was reported in the newspapers. He celebrates the bravery of the soldiers. • Repetition shows the relentlessness of the charge and the dangers faced by the brigade. • Language of glory is used to celebrate the brigade and graphic descriptions shows the dangers they faced. • Rhetorical question ‘When can their glory fade?’ followed by repetition of how honourable they are, suggests that we must never forget them. • Narrative poem with each of the stanzas progressing the story of the attack. • Repeated rhyme scheme and rhythm convey the horsemen galloping forward courageously. Disgust at the treatment of the men of the light brigade and the fact that blundered orders meant that many were killed. Honour – presents the view that taking orders and serving for one’s country is honourable and should be commended.. Exposure Written by Wilfred Owen in 1917 based on his experiences as a soldier on the front line in the trenches in the First World War. He describes the freezing cold conditions in which soldiers appear trapped between life and death.. The last verse was written two months before Owen was killed – in the week before the war ended. • Noun ‘exposure’ is linked to the verb ‘to expose’ and could suggest that the men were left unprotected (from the weather) and were subjected to danger and unimaginable horrors.. • First person point of view using ‘we’ and ‘our’ makes the poem very personal. Owen uses these words rather than ‘I’ suggesting that he is speaking on behalf of all soldiers. • Repetition ‘But nothing happens’ suggests emptiness. The soldiers are suspended between life and death and are just waiting. • The rhymes are jarring and not perfect but rough and uncomfortable like the condition in the trenches and like the mental stain the men are under. Waiting and suspense – waiting for conflict is almost worse than conflict itself. It feels futile for the soldiers – why are they even there? Extreme negativity – the speaker feels like death would be a relief from the torture of waiting. He has lost his faith in God and wonders if this is what the end of the world feels like.
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  Poem Summary/context LanguageStructure Tone/feelings/themes Storm on the Island Seamus Heaney’s poem is about our relationship with nature and how vulnerable we are in the face of its power. It can also be seen to be about his experience of growing up under the shadow of conflict in Northern Ireland. • Extended metaphor of a military attack. The islanders are a community under attack from the storm which is likened to a bombing raid. • Present tense – suggests the islanders are doing what they have always done and what they always will do – to prepare to weather the storm. • Conversational phrases ‘You know what I mean’ suggests he is speaking to the reader specifically • Blank verse – follows the patterns of spoken English so we feel like Heaney is talking to us. Nature’s power – The storm gathers pace as the poem develops. The poem describes an islander’s thoughts on living in an exposed place where they are at the mercy of the storm’s natural power. Community – The poem describes the community's defence preparations against the fury of the elements. The speaker concentrates on describing how the islanders are capable of withstanding assault and that they will survive and ride out the storm. Bayonet Charge Written 1957 by Ted Hughes. Hughes had been fascinated by his father’s stories of fighting in the First World War. The poem is about the experience of a soldier ordered to ‘go over the top’ from the trenches • Verbs give a clear sense of movement in the poem. It feels frantic as the solider makes his charge. Many of the verbs suggest that he isn’t in control of the situation. • Listing ‘King, honour, human dignity, etcetera’ shows that there are many reasons for going to war but when a person is in the middle of it, they all seem irrelevant. • Metaphor at the end suggests just how terrified the soldier is. Enjambment adds to the sense of forward movement and the soldier’s lack of control. There is a lull in the second stanza as the soldier stops and contemplates what he is doing there. Reality of conflict – The poem vividly describes the events of a conflict and the impacts on the soldier’s mind. And his sheer terror. Patriotism – Expresses ideas about how conflict affects those involved in it. The poet suggests that the reasons people claim for going to war are luxuries and have no place in the realities of war – during the conflict they seem irrelevant. Remains Written by Simon Armitage, the poem comes from a collection of poems called ‘The Not Dead’ (2008). Armitage based his poems on interviews conducted with servicemen returned from duty in a number of conflicts. This poem is about a solider who fought in Iraq and concerns an event that happened when he was on patrol in Basra that now haunts him and causes him to have flashbacks. • Repetition ‘probably armed, possibly not’ suggests the speakers guilt and give us an idea of why he is so haunted. • Colloquial language makes the speaker relatable and shows that he is just a normal person dealing with the horrific effects of war. • Graphic descriptions of the shooting conveys the disturbance and trauma that the speaker carries with him long after he has returned home. • Poem ends in a couplet suggesting that the speaker cannot rid himself of the memory of the man he shot. • Written as a monologue and has the feel; of fast- paced natural speech which adds to the effect of someone telling their story. Conflict and its consequences – in the poem, a soldier is reliving a memory. Armitage allows us to understand the trauma the soldier is feeling. The poem explores the impact of conflict on one individual – we see how haunted and guilt ridden he is. Post-traumatic stress disorder – the speaker of the poem suffers vivid flashbacks and is unable to forget the details of shooting dead a looter.
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  Poem Summary/context LanguageStructure Tone/feelings/themes Poppies Written in 2009 by Jane Weir. The poem tackles the subject of war by presenting the feelings of a mother whose son is at war. It shows the effects this had on her life and the fears and worries she lives with. The poem is open to interpretation and it is not clear if the speaker’s son has died or is still alive. • Symbolic images associated with the speaker’s son being little and going off to school.. The emptions she felt on his first day of school are similar to those she feels as he leaves home to join the army. They also suggest that she wishes he was little again so that she could protect him and keep him safe. • Metaphors ‘…walked with you, to the front door, threw it open, the world overflowing like a treasure chest’ –the son sees joining the army as an adventure, whereas the speaker feels anxious and as though she has no control. • The songbird and dove are metaphors for the speaker setting her son free – this could be in terms of accepting his decision to join the army and letting go, or because he has died at war. • Dramatic monologue allows the reader into the inner emotions of the of the speaker – the worry and sadness she feels about her son going to war. • Narrative structure – the time sequence changes frequently to mirror the speaker’s anxious and uncontrollable emotions. Women and conflict - the poem explores the feelings of a mother left behind and the pain she feels. We see the effects of conflict on their lives and emotions even though they are not directly involved in war. Ambiguity – it is not clear whether the speaker's son is one of the dead in the war graves or if she is stood at the memorial hoping that she won’t ever see his name there. This highlights the impact conflict has had on her life and the state of panic and stress she exists in . War Photographer Written by Carol Ann Duffy, the poem provides a set of images or snap shots of a war photographer that he is developing in his darkroom. As the photos develop, we learn more about his thoughts and feelings about what he does. • Religious imagery in which the photographer is compare to a ‘priest preparing to intone a Mass’ suggests that the photographer takes his job very seriously and that he realises the photos need to be dealt with sensitively. • Contrasts made between the war zones where he works and the peaceful homeland where he lives, highlights how brutal war is but how people in the photographer's home country don’t really care because they are not directly affected. • Each stanza of the poem seems like a single frame of a photograph, each revealing a little bit more about the way the photographer feels about his work. • Regular rhyme scheme and rigid structure contrasts to the chaos that the photographer witnesses daily. This could suggest that his method of coping with what he witnesses is to try to create order and calmness. Moral dilemmas – poem explore the difficulties faced by someone who does a difficult job that records human suffering. The photographer makes a living out of the horrors he captures on film and his job is emotionally draining. Western attitudes to foreign conflict – the poem provides a criticism of the lack of care that readers of the newspapers in which the photos of published have towards what is happening in other countries. Tissue Imtiaz Dharker was born in Pakistan, and moved to Glasgow when she was a year old. She now divides her time between London and Mumbai. She has often described herself as feeling ‘stateless’. The poet muses on the fragility of human existence, sparked by the examination of tissue paper. • Imagery of types of paper to explore ideas about solidity and certainty, change and the impermanence of buildings, countries and landscapes. • Modal verbs ‘could’ express uncertainty and possibility. • Adjectives express the fragility and delicate nature of paper. • Constructed in unrhymed, irregular quatrains, suggesting the irregularity of life and the flimsy nature of paper. • Enjambment adds to the flowing, delicate nature – both of paper and the human lives the poet compares the tissue to. Fragility and power = the poet suggests that paper, which is a fragile tissue, has the power to alter and control our existence.
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  Poem Summary/context LanguageStructure Tone/feelings/themes The Emigree Written by Carol Rumens in 1993. An emigree is a person who has been forced to emigrate from their country, usually for political reasons. In this poem, the writer is recalling a place she left many years ago. The place has left a very strong impression on her. The poem explores isolation and absence. • Metaphors ‘bright filled paperweight’ shows the positive memories the speaker has of her city, despite the news she hears of it now. Other metaphors are used to explore types of isolation and absence, ‘frontiers rise between us’, ‘time rolls its tanks’. Physically, she is distant from her city but emotionally, her memory of it remains strong • Repetition of ‘sunlight’ shows that light is very important to the speaker and it represents freedom. • Repetition of the unnamed ‘they’ suggests menace and gives us an idea as to why the speaker had to leave. • First person account of an emigree’s relationship with her homeland. Since the place is not named, the poem seems to offer a more general exploration of people and the places they left behind from childhood. The power of memory – the speaker left the country of her birth when she was a child, yet her memory of it is so vivid. In her memory, her city continues exactly as it was even though in reality it is no longer as she remembers. Displacement and loss – the speaker has been displaced from her own country and her reaction to this is to cling harder to the things she has lost – her language and identity. There are suggestions in the poem that there is no way back for her – all she has are her memories. Kamikaze Written by Beatrice Garland. The word ‘Kamikaze’ is the unofficial name for the suicide attacks made by Japanese pilots in the Second World War, when pilots would fly bombs into ships. Flying a kamikaze mission was seen as great honour. In this poem a Japanese woman explains to her children what happened to their grandfather in the war when he aborted his kamikaze mission and how he was shunned as result. • Images and metaphors that suggest life, colour, beauty and energy – all things seen by the pilot on his suicide mission that he realised he didn’t want to lose by dying. • Descriptions of childhood memories suggests the pilot chose the importance of life over certain death. • Narrative poem in which some sections of the poem are presented in italics in which the storyteller speaks directly for herself. This has the effect of heightening the sense of sadness that she feels. • Lack of rhyme and no regular rhythmic pattern allows the story to be told simply and lets the tragedy and the emotion shine through. Choice and decisions during conflict - the speaker’s father had a choice to live or die and had chosen death by going on the kamikaze mission. However, on the way he changes his mind. His choice meant that he lived but he was not seen as honourable and was shunned from society and his family. Judgement – the speaker is careful not to judge her father’s decision. She speculates on his reasons for turning back and allows readers to make up their own minds about his decision. At the end of the poem, she suggests that in the end, her father may not have been happy with his decision.
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  Poem Summary/context LanguageStructure Tone/feelings/themes Checking Out Me History John Agard is a black British poet, originally from Guyana, in the Caribbean. At school in Guyana, he was taught a version of British history. In this poem, he explores the relationship between history, identity and language. He feels that he was not taught about his own history and about the important people relating to this. • Non-standard English is used to show the speaker’s own culture and difference from the history of white culture taught to him. • References to nursery rhyme characters to suggests that not only is the speaker not taught the history of black culture, but the history that he is taught is not necessarily accurate either. • Natural metaphors in the sections about black historical figures, ‘thorn’, ‘beacon’ ‘healing star’, suggests the strength and power of these figures and that the speaker absolutely should have been taught about them. • Alternates between two structures marked by two different fonts: the first uses the repeated phrases ‘Dem tell me’ to indicate the white version of history the speaker was taught. The second is stories of black figures from history who have been ignored. • Rhyme gives a mocking tone suggesting how silly it is that people are not taught about the history of their own cultures and identity. Power = Agard powerfully reclaims his own history in this poem, taking back the power he feels was taken from him by the history he was taught. By the end of the poem, he is ‘checking’ out his own history and ‘carving’ out his own identity, rather than relying in what he is taught. Anger – the speaker is clearly angered by being prevented from knowing about his own history.