‘Ozymandias’ – Percy Bysshe Shelley
Compare with: ‘My Last Duchess’ – human power;
‘Prelude’, ‘Exposure’, ‘Storm On The Island’ – power
of nature.
Sonnet
Reported speech
First person
Ironic
Power
Aggressive, angry language
Structured to reveal the
significance (or not) of the statue
Shelley disliked the oppression of
ordinary people.
He was interested in emotion and
the power of nature.
‘Half sunk, a shattered visage lies’
‘sneer of cold command’
‘the hand that mocked them and the
heart that fed’
‘Look on my works, ye Mighty and
despair’
‘Nothing besides remains’
‘The lone and level sands stretch far
away.’
‘London’ – William Blake
Compare with: ‘Prelude’, ‘The Emigree’, ‘War
Photographer’, ‘Remains’.
Published during a time of great
poverty – 1794
He believed in social and racial equality
Monologue
Repetition
First person
Alternate line rhyme
Fast pace
Alliteration/sibilance
Aggressive, angry language
Sensory words – sight and sound
Structured with four quatrains to
reveal the worst sights he sees in the
last stanza - volta
‘Marks of weakness, marks of woe’
‘in every…’/’in every…’/’in every’
‘mind-forg’d manacles’
‘black’ning church appals’
‘hapless soldier’s sigh’
‘youthful harlot’s curse’
‘blights with plague the marriage hearse.’
‘The Prelude’ – William Wordsworth
Compare with: ‘Exposure’, ‘Storm On The Island’,
‘Kamikaze’, ‘Ozymandias’ – powerful nature;
‘Remains’ – changed by personal experiences
Autobiographical – first person
Romantic poet – explored the
themes of nature and human
emotion and how humans are shaped
by their interaction with nature
Free verse – conversational
Enjambment – free-flowing and
natural
Structure - Happy and confident to
begin with, then afraid and fearful
and finally reflective
Volta – line 21 – ‘when’
Language is positive, beautiful,
dramatic, fearful
‘it was an act of stealth’
‘far above was nothing but the stars
and the grey sky’
‘I dipped my oars into the silent lake’
‘my boat went heaving through the
water like a swan’
‘ a huge peak, black and huge’
‘the grim shape towered up between
me and the stars’
‘with trembling oars I turned’
‘no familiar shapes remained’
‘huge and mighty forms…were a
trouble to my dreams’
‘My Last Duchess’ – Robert Browning
Compare with: ‘Ozymandias’ – the abuse of power;
‘Checking Out Me History’ – political and cultural
domination
 Browning may have been inspired by the Italian
story of the Duke of Ferrara whose wife died in
suspicious circumstances - poisoned
 First person monologue
 Sophisticated and complex language
‘that’s my last Duchess’
‘(since none puts by the curtain I have drawn for
you, but I)’
‘Sir, ‘twas not her husband’s presence only, called
 Control of grammar reflects his control of people that spot of joy into the Duchess’ cheek’
 Iambic pentameter, rhyming couplets – indicative ‘she had a heart – how shall I say? – too soon made
of his control
glad’
 Sinister mood – cold and controlling
‘she liked whate’er she looked on, and her looks went
everywhere’
 Enjambment
 Tight structure reflecting his tight control
 Lack of imagery is owing to his self-restraint
 Feelings of pride, jealousy, power
 Repetition
‘she thanked men, - good! But thanked’
‘she ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old
name with anybody’s gift’
‘I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together’
‘The Charge Of The Light Brigade’ – Alfred Lord Tennyson
Compare with: ‘Poppies’, ‘Kamikaze’, ‘Bayonet Charge’ &
‘Exposure’
He was Poet Laureate and so had to
inspire the nation and portray war in a
positive way
Third person narrative poem
Repetition emphasises the loss
Sibilance suggests the gun fire
Onomatopoeic
Violent and heroic language
Celebration of courage and obedience
A tribute to those who lost their life in
the pointless battle
Fast rhythm reflects the horses and
the marching
Personification of death and hell
‘into the valley of Death’
‘someone had blunder’d’
‘theirs but to do and die’
‘cannon…cannon…cannon…’
‘volley’d and thunder’d’
‘storm’d at with shot and shell’
‘into the jaws of Death’
‘into the mouth of Hell’
‘horse and hero fell’
‘honour the charge they made!’
‘Exposure’– Wilfred Owen
Compare with: ‘The Charge Of The Light Brigade’,
‘Poppies’ & ‘Bayonet Charge’ – the reality of war;
‘Storm On The Island’ – the power of nature;
‘London’ – the lack of hope
 Written during WW1, Wilfred Owen was an officer
in the war and wrote about ‘the pity of war’
 Nature is the main enemy rather than the opposition
 Explosion of the senses
 Use of ellipsis to convey the passing of time
 Repetition reveals the boredom
 present tense, first person
 Regular rhyme scheme reflecting the monotony of
war; half rhymes suggesting the jagged nature of a
soldier’s existence
 The structure reveals the lack of progress made with
the war
 The mood is unrelentingly bleak – sense of
hopelessness, boredom and suffering
 Alliteration reinforcing the tedious repetition of
their life
‘our brains ache’
‘but nothing happens’
‘we hear the mad gusts tugging on the wire’
‘what are we doing here?’
‘shivering ranks of grey’
‘pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our
faces’
‘we turn back to our dying’
‘for love of God seems dying’
‘tonight, this frost will fasten on this mud and us’
‘all their eyes are ice’
‘Storm On The Island’– Seamus Heaney
Compare with: ‘Bayonet Charge’, ‘Prelude’ & ‘Exposure’ –
the power of nature;
‘London’ & ‘The Emigree’ – sense of place
Blank verse
Conversational tone
Structure – shifts from security to fear
Violent imagery – similes, metaphors,
personification
Forceful sounds – onomatopoeia
Sense of hopelessness
Volta – ‘but no:’
Simple vocabulary
Poem may be a metaphor for the political
unrest in Ireland at the time the poem
was written
The first eight letters of the title spell
out ‘Stormont’ – the name of Northern
Ireland’s parliament.
‘we are prepared’
‘nor are there trees which might prove
company’
‘leaves and branches can raise a tragic
chorus in a gale’
‘it pummels your house too’
‘exploding comfortably down on the cliffs’
‘the flung spray hits the very windows’
‘spits like a tame cat turned savage’
‘we are bombarded by the empty air’
‘strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear’
‘Bayonet Charge’– Ted Hughes
Compare with: ‘The Charge Of The Light Brigade’ &
‘Remains’ – the horrors of war;
‘Prelude’, ‘Kamikaze’ & ‘Exposure’ – the power of nature
Starts in the middle of the action
Short desperate burst of action
Caesura, enjambment, uneven line
length mirror the struggling soldier
Simile foreshadows potential
injuries
Dramatic pause for effect
Violent imagery
Tone of desperation
Contrasts idealism, patriotism and
the reality of war
Set in World War One but
published in 1957
‘suddenly he awoke and was running’
‘stumbling across a field’
‘bullets smacking the belly out of the
air’
‘he lugged a rifle numb as a smashed
arm
‘in bewilderment then he almost
stopped –’
‘he plunged past’
‘king, honour, human dignity, etcetera
dropped like luxuries’
‘his terror’s touchy dynamite’
‘Remains’– Simon Armitage
Compare with: ‘Poppies’, ‘Bayonet Charge’ & ‘War
Photographer’ – the horrors of war;
‘Kamikaze’– the power of memories
 PTSD – Iraq War – poem based on a real
soldier’s experiences – damaged by their
experiences in mind if not body
 Moves from we to I
 Begins as an anecdote and becomes a graphic
description of the death
 Volta – fifth stanza
 Graphic imagery
 Colloquial language
 Repetition reflecting the recurring image
 Casual tone replaced by guilty conscience
 Enjambment
 Reminiscent of Lady Macbeth trying to escape
her guilt through obsessive hand washing.
‘probably armed, possibly not’
‘somebody else and somebody else’
‘rips through his life’
‘sort of inside out’
‘tosses his guts back into his body’
‘carted off in the back of a lorry’
‘end of story, except not really’
‘his blood-shadow stays on the street’
‘the drink and the drugs won’t flush him
out’
‘he’s here in my head when I close my
eyes’
‘his bloody life in my bloody hands’
‘Poppies’– Jane Weir
Compare with: ’The Charge Of The Light Brigade’,
‘Exposure’ & ‘Remains’ – soldiers on active service;
‘War Photographer’ – the effects of conflict;
‘The Emigree’– loss
 First person narrative
 No regular rhythm, reflecting the mother’s
emotions
 Long sentences and enjambment – revealing the
mother’s thoughts
 Caesurae reflects her trying to hold it together
 Chronological structure with flashbacks
 Sensory words
 Symbolism
 Contrasts between busy preparations and
loneliness
 Written during the Iraq and Afghan war – but it
is deliberately ambiguous to be timeless
 Mood of sadness, longing, tenderness and fear
‘spasms of paper red’
‘sellotape bandaged around my hand’
‘ I wanted to graze my nose across the tip of your
nose’
‘gelled blackthorns of your hair’
‘all my words flattened, rolled turned into felt,
slowly melting’
‘the world overflowing like a treasure chest’
‘released a song bird from its cage’
‘my stomach busy making tucks, darts, pleats’
‘without a winter coat or reinforcements of scarf,
gloves’
‘I traced the inscriptions on the war memorial’
‘I listened, hoping to hear your playground voice
catching on the wind’
‘War Photographer’– Carol Ann Duffy
Compare with: ‘Exposure’ & ‘Bayonet Charge’ – horror of war;
‘Poppies’ & ‘Remains’ – the effects of conflict;
‘London’– indifference
 Inspired by a friend who was a war photographer
 Location is ambiguous and therefore universal
 Conceit – religion
 Volta – third stanza
 Structure – ordered and controlled
 Unrhymed lines create a sense of unease
 Rhyming couplets to end each stanza
 Ambiguous
 Contrast/paradox
 Sibilance
 PTSD
 Sombre mood
 Conversation tone
‘spools of suffering set out in ordered rows’
‘all flesh is grass’
‘solutions slop in trays’
‘did not tremble then though seem to now’
‘running children in a nightmare heat’
‘a half-formed ghost’
‘the blood stained into foreign dust’
‘a hundred agonies in black-and-white’
‘the reader’s eyeballs prick with tears’
‘he stares impassively at where he earns his living
and they do not care’
‘Tissue’– Imtiaz Dharker
Compare with: ‘Kamikaze’ & ‘The Emigree’ – light;
‘Poppies’ – family identity;
‘Ozymandias’ – nature more powerful than humans
Born in Pakistan and grew up in London
The poem questions how well we
understand ourselves and the fragility
of humanity
Contrasts between control and freedom
Free verse – no rhyme scheme
Conversational tone
Language of light and creation
Direct address
Enjambment reflects the poet’s
freedom to express her opinions
Short stanzas – layering, just like life
Symbolic
‘paper, that lets the light shine through’
‘pages smoothed and stroked and turned’
‘the sun shines through their borderlines’
‘fly our lives like paper kites’
‘find a way trace a grand design with
living tissue’
‘raised a structure never meant to last’
‘paper smoothed and stroked’
‘turned into your skin’
‘The Emigree’– Carol Rumens
Compare with: ‘Kamikaze’ & ‘Remains’ – memory;
‘Poppies’ – loss;
‘London’ – sense of place;
‘Tissue’ - light
 Published in 1993
 The home country of the persona is not
revealed
 Ambiguity gives the poem a timeless
relevance
 Relevant to all displaced people
 Nostalgia
 Themes – memory, exile, belonging, loss
 Story-like tone
 Positive vocabulary to begin with
 Language of conflict
 Repetition of light
 Contrasts
 Suspense
‘there once was a country…’
‘my memory of it is sunlight clear’
‘it may be at wat, it may be sick with tyrants’
‘the frontiers rise between us, close like
waves’
‘that child’s vocabulary I carried here’
‘it may now be a lie, banned by the state’
‘it tastes of sunlight’
‘I have no passport, there’s no way back at all’
‘I comb its hair and love its shining eyes’
‘my city takes me dancing through the city of
walls’
‘they accuse me of being dark in their free
city’
‘Checking Out Me History’– John Agard
Compare with: ‘Kamikaze’ – cultural expectations;
‘Ozymandias’ & ‘My Last Duchess’ – power & exploitation;
‘London’ – sense of anger;
‘The Emigree’ – language and identity
 Agard was born in the Caribbean and moved
to the UK in the 1970s
 Angry & assertive mood
 Contrasts
 Historical figures and fictional characters
 Structured to alternate between two
cultures
 Inconsistent stanza lengths and style
revealing his new freedom – he does not
have to conform
 Dialect/accent – phonetic spellings
 Challenging racism and prejudice
 Repetition
 Italics for emphasis
 Rhythm drives the poem
‘dem tell me wha dem want to tell me’
‘bandage up me eye with me own history’
‘blind me to me own identity’
‘no dem never tell me bout dat’
‘de beacon of de Haitian Revolution’
‘dem tell me bout de dish ran away with de
spoon’
‘Nanny see-far woman of mountain dream’
‘a healing star among the wounded’
‘but now I checking out me own history’
‘I carving out me identity’
‘Kamikaze’– Beatrice Garland
Compare with: ‘The Charge Of The Light Brigade’ – welcome death rather than
choosing life;
‘Bayonet Charge’ – lack of patriotism, fear of dying;
‘Remains’ – traumatised by killing someone, ostracised for not killing someone
 Cowardice was a great shame in wartime
Japan.
 Pilot has no voice
 Free verse
 Third person narrative
 Reported speech vs direct speech
 Italics – first person direct address
 Ironic
 Themes of patriotism, duty, family, love of
life, exile
 Structured to convey the different feelings
– stanzas 1, 6 & 7 have ordinary language,
stanzas 2-5 are descriptive, celebrating the
joys of life
 Punctuation for effect - find the full stop…
‘a shaven head full of powerful incantations’
‘fishing boats strung out like bunting’
‘arcing in swathes like a huge flag’
‘bringing their father’s boat safe’
‘a tuna, the dark prince, muscular,
dangerous’
‘my mother never spoke again in his
presence’
‘they treated him as though he no longer
existed’
‘gradually we too learned to be silent’
‘he must have wondered which had been the
better way to die’