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Power
&
Conflict
Poetry Revision Guide
1
Contents
2. What to expect in the exam
3. Ozymandias – Shelley
4. London-Blake
5. Prelude – Wordsworth
6. My Last Duchess- Browning
7. The Charge of the Light Brigade- Tennyson
8. Exposure – Owen
9. Storm on the Island – Heaney
10. Bayonet Charge – Hughes
11. Remains – Armitage
12. Poppies – Weir
13. War Photographer – Duffy
14. Tissue – Dharker
15 The Émigrée – Rumens
16. Checking Out Me History – Agard
17. Kamikaze – Garland
18. Poetic Techniques Glossary
19. What goes with what?
2
What to expect in the exam…
Paper 2, Section B: Power & Conflict Poetry.
This question is worth 30 marks. (20%)
AO1 – A critical response using quotes = 12 marks
AO2 –Analyse language, sentence structures and form and
the effect created = 12 marks
AO3 – Text – Context relationship = 6 marks
You are being tested on your knowledge of two poems from
the anthology you’ve studied.
One poem will be printed on the exam paper and you will be
asked to compare it to another poem in the anthology.
You need to write 4-5 paragraphs pointing out the differences
and similarities between the poems and their presentation of
conflict or power.
3
Ozymandias – Percy Bysshe Shelley
Overview
The narrator of Shelley's poem says he met a traveller from an ancient land and then tells us
the story the traveller told him. The man had seen the remains of a huge statue in the
desert. At the foot of the statue were words which reflected the arrogance and pride of
Ozymandias. Those words seem very hollow now as the magnificent statue is destroyed and
none of the pharaoh's works have lasted.
Context
Shelley was part of the Romantic Poets. He was largely political and felt that the monarchy
of the time –King George III- were oppressive and war-mongering. The ‘real-life’ Ozymandias
was an Egyptian Pharaoh Rameses who ruled in Biblical times, he is known for protecting
and extending the borders of Egypt. Shelley was inspired by a statue of Rameses at the
British Museum.
Structure
 Sonnet – which is a poem composed of 14 lines and written in iambi pentameter
 Narrator- The use of a ‘traveller’ removes any opinions the poem expresses away
from Shelley’s.
Techniques
Alliteration – Shelley litters alliteration through the poem, placing emphasis on phrases such
as ‘cold command’; boundless and bare’ and ‘lone and level’
Metaphor – The statur itself is a metaphor for the eventual death of power, it’s Shelley’s
comment on how the powerful are not necessarily invincible.
Key Quotes
‘a shattered visage lies’ (4)
‘sneer of cold command’ (5)
‘king of kings’ (10)
‘Nothing beside remains.’ (12)
‘…colossal wreck, boundless and bare’ (13)
Power; Pride; Art
4
London – William Blake
Overview
The poem describes a journey around London, offering a glimpse of what the speaker sees
as the terrible conditions faced by the inhabitants of the city. Child labour, restrictive laws of
property and prostitution are all explored in the poem.
Context
Blake was a Londoner all his life, being born and raised in Soho. He was a poet, painter and
printmaker. He published works called ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience’, which dealt
with the moral observations in a simplistic way, making it accessible to the public. Blake
himself was a faithful man but hated the organised Church of the time. Similarly he opposed
those in power and the class structure of 18th Century London.
Structure
 Snapshots – each stanza offers a snapshot of a different person/part of the city
 Simplistic – there’s a consistent ABAB rhyme scheme which lends the poem a
nursery rhyme quality
Techniques
Repetition – Blake repeats several words throughout the poem such as ‘charter’d’ and
‘every’ to highlight the inescapable suffering of the oppressed.
Oxymoron – Blake uses several oxymoron’s throughout ‘London’, which exemplifies the
parallels between those is power and the poor: ‘marriage hearse’; ‘black’ning church’ and
‘youthful harlot’
Key quotes
‘…each charter’d street/ Near where the chartered Thames does flow’(1-2)
‘ In every voice, in every ban/ the mind-forged manacles I hear’ (7-8)
‘Runs in blood down palace walls’ (12)
‘And blights with plagues the marriage hearse’(16)
Oppression; Poverty; Places
5
Extract from The Prelude –William Wordsworth
Overview
Taken from a larger poem, this extract describes how Wordsworth went out in a boat on a
lake at night. He was alone and a mountain peak loomed over him; its presence had a great
effect and for days afterwards he was troubled by the experience.
Context
Wordsworth was a Romantic Poet, he spent most of his life in the Lake District, surrounded
by nature. Wordsworth very much believed in the power of nature and was against the vast
Industrialisation of the countryside that was taking place in the 18 th Century. Wordsworth
himself said this poem examines his ‘views on man, nature and society’.
Structure


Epic Poetry- the form of epic poems generally tell tales of exciting adventures,
usually featuring the one hero.
Stream of Consciousness – the use of enjambment and lack of stanzas make the
poem flow as one immense thought, it echoes the sense of being overwhelmed that
Wordsworth felt on the sight of the mountain.
Techniques
Imagery – Wordsworth uses feminine imagery often juxtaposed with masculine imagery.
e.g. ‘boat’, ‘cove’ and ‘moon’ are feminine. ‘Chain’ and ‘ridge’ are masculine.
Magical Language- the poet’s use of language such as ‘elfin’ and ‘glittering’ creates a tone
of fantasy and wonder. It also conjures ideas of the supernatural powers of nature.
Key quotes
‘One summer evening (led by her)…’(1)
‘…like one who rows/Proud of his skill…’ (11-12)
‘She was an elfin pinnace; lustily/I dipped my oars into the silent lake’ (17-18)
‘a huge peak, black and huge’ (22)
‘like a living thing/strode after me’ (28-29)
‘huge and mighty forms, that do not live/Like living men’ (43-44)
Pride; Nature; Man
6
My Last Duchess – Robert Browning (1842)
Overview
The poem is a dramatic monologue, wherein a Duke shows an unnamed visitor a picture of
his last, deceased wife.
Context
Robert Browning was heavily influenced as a child by his father's extensive collection of
books and art. His father was a bank clerk and collected thousands of books, some of which
were hundreds of years old and written in languages such as Greek and Hebrew. By the age
of fourteen, he'd learned Latin, Greek and French. He married fellow poet Elizabeth
Barrett but they had to run away and marry in secret because of her over-protective father.
While this poem was written in the Victorian age it is set at the time of the Italian
Renaissance, which took place some 150 years before.
Socially and politically, at the time of writing the Women’s Suffrage movement was starting,
as women called for more power and control in a male dominated system.
Structure

Dramatic Monologue- the poem is from the point of view of a fictional, controlling
Duke. By using dramatic monologue Browning shows us the tight control he
exercised over his wife. Also no one else speaks, making it an overwhelming tirade as
the speaker ironically fails to control himself.
Techniques
The lack of similes and metaphors – the lack of obvious language techniques is very much a
technique in itself. By not including metaphors and similes, Browning mirrors real life
speech.
Iambic Pentameter – this tightly controlled way of writing highlights the themes with in the
poem.
Key Quotes:
‘Will’t please you sit and look at her I said’ (5)
‘’(since none puts by/ The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)’ (9-10)
‘’She has a heart…too soon made glad’ (21-22)
‘She looked on and her looks went everywhere’ (24)
‘…she ranked/My gift of a nine hundred year old name/ With anybody’s gift’ (33-34)
‘I gave commands; Then the smiles stopped altogether’ (45)
‘Notice Neptune, though/ Taming sea-horse’ (54-55)
Masculine; Domestic Power; Control
7
The Charge of the Light Brigade – Alfred Lord
Tennyson (1854)
Overview
‘…Light Brigade’ deals with the real life event which took place during the Crimean War. The
poem features a cavalry of soldiers riding into a doomed battle having only swords and
bayonets against heavy artillery.
Context
The poem is based on the botched battle between to British and the Russian in Balaclava –
orders were mislaid and 600 men ran into heavy fire. 254 soldiers died.
Tennyson was Poet Laureate at the time of the Crimean War, this poem was published 3
days after the event and circulated within the army in Crimea.
Structure
 Stanzas 1-3 – the brigade approach the guns; the strong structure could mirror the
formation of the cavalry
 Stanza 4-5 – the battle, the longest stanza outlines the desperate attempt at retreat
 Stanza 6 –a short conclusion, a memorial to the soldiers.
Techniques
Rhythm – the beats of the poem resemble that of horses’ footfalls.
Anaphora or Repetition– the repetition of ‘Cannon’ highlights the hopelessness of the
situation creating a sense of inevitability and despair for the reader
Personification- Death is stated as having ‘jaws’, suggesting an inescapability & predatory
tone.
Key Quotes
‘All in the valley of Death’ (line 3)
‘Theirs was not to make reply/Theirs not reason why/Theirs but to do and die’ (13-15)
‘Cannon to right of them/ Cannon to left of them/Cannon in front of them’ (18-20)
‘Boldly they rode and well’ (23)
‘Into the Jaws of Death/Into the mouth of Hell/ Rode the six hundred’ (24-26)
‘Storm’d at with shot and shell/While horse and hero fell’ (43-44)
‘Honour the Light Brigade,/Noble six hundred!’
Patriotism; Warfare; Duty
8
Exposure – Wilfred Owen (1917)
Overview
Soldiers are waiting overnight in the trenches, while no fighting is happening; the weather
conditions are extremely dangerous.
The poem highlights the agony of waiting and demonstrates how war is not all about action.
Context
Wilfred Owen was a soldier in World War One, he wrote about his time in the trenches, his
poetry contradicting the noble, patriotic propaganda happening at home in Britain.
Owen set about highlighting the other dangers of war – the boredom, the weather. 1917
saw what was reported to be the coldest winter in living memory, soldiers in trenches were
suffering with hypothermia and ‘trench foot’.
Owen himself fought and suffered with ‘shell shock’ (PTSD), spending time in an institution,
on returning to war he was killed a few days before the war ended, he was 26 years old.
Structure
 8 stanzas
 Each stanza relies on assonance/half-rhyme to unsettle the reader
 Stanza’s end in either a rhetorical question or ‘But nothing happens’, emphasising
the pointlessness of war over and over again.
Techniques
Sibilance – the constant ‘s’ sounds give the poem a melancholy tone
Pronouns – by repeating ‘us’ and ‘we’ the reader is drawn in
Rhyme – the ABBA rhyme/half-rhyme scheme fits the theme of monotony in war
Punctuation- the first stanza’s use of ellipsis again highlights the waiting and boredom
involved in conflict
Key quotes
‘Our brains ache’ (1)
‘…incessantly the flickering gunnery rumbles…like a dull rumour of some other war.’ (9-10)
‘But nothing happens’ (6/21/39)
‘Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence’ (17)
‘Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow’ (18)
‘We cringe in holes’ (24)
‘Slowly our ghosts drag home’ (29)
‘All their eyes are ice’ (38)
Warfare; Despair; Weather
9
Storm on the Island – Seamus Heaney
Overview
A small town community thinks it is well prepared for a storm. Their confidence starts to
disappear as the storm develops.
Context
Seamus Heaney was born in Northern Ireland in 1939, the eldest child in what was to
become a family of nine children. Much of Heaney's poetry is centred on the countryside
and farm life that he knew as a boy. It could be read that this poem is about the power of
nature however, there are hints that link it to political strife in Northern Ireland between
the Catholics and the Protestants.
Structure


Blank Verse – Heaney uses blank verse – rhyming iambic pentameter – this gives the
reader the effect that the poet is talking to them.
Colons – Heaney’s use of colons separate the beginning, middle and end of the
poem, giving it a narrative structure.
Techniques
Sounds – Heaney uses the senses to show the full force of nature. Assonance and sibilance
are used to have onomatopoeic effects
Violent language – the poet uses metaphors such as ‘space is a salvo’ and ‘strafes invisibly’
to emphasise danger
Juxtaposition – the language of safety used at the beginning of the poem is contrasted with
the war like language towards the end.
Key Quotes
‘We are prepared’ (1)
‘This wizened earth has never troubled us’ (3)
‘…tragic chorus’ 8)
‘Exploding comfortably down on the cliffs’ (13)
‘…spits like a tame cat turned savage’ (15-16)
‘it is a huge nothing that we fear’ (19)
Nature; Fear; Places
10
Bayonet Charge – Ted Hughes (1957)
Overview
A soldier is charging into battle with a bayonet. He has a moment of uncertainty about his
place in war, before seeing a hare getting shot and dying, resuming his charge. It can be
seen as a comment on how soldiers are merely cogs in a war machine.
Context
Hughes was born after World War One and never saw combat, despite being part of the
RAF.
He was heavily influenced by war poets such as Wilfred Owen.
Structure
 Stanza 1- the soldier is awake and running, he is slowly starting to question why he
is fighting this war
 Stanza 2- an almost slow motion look at the soldier’s questioning
 Stanza 3- He sees a hare die in front of him; instinct kicks back in and he resumes
his charge towards death
Techniques
Metaphors- Hughes uses lots of metaphors throughout the poem, creating a rich, sensual
tone
Active verbs- similarly the poet’s choice of language is extremely active,
giving a sense of action to the poem e.g. ‘smacking’ ‘smashed’ ‘stumbling’
Punctuation- Hughes uses dashes in stanzas 1 and 2, this breaks the actions
with the soldiers thoughts
Key quotes
‘Stumbling across a field of clods towards a green hedge’ (3)
‘Bullets smacking the belly out of the air’ (5)
‘The patriotic tear that had brimmed in his eye’ (7)
‘In what cold clockwork of the stars and the nations…’ (10)
‘…Like a man who jumps up in the dark and runs’ (12)
‘King, honour, human dignity etcetera/Dropped like luxuries in a yelling alarm’ (20-21)
Warfare; Duties; Abandoned Ideals
11
Remains – Simon Armitage
Overview
This poem is from the perspective of a soldier retelling a memory of shooting a looter who
may or may not have been armed. Further on the soldier thinks about the shooting when he
walks down the street. It concludes that the soldier is suffering under the memory of war
and has not left the violence in a foreign land.
Context
This poem comes from a book called ‘The Not Dead’, Armitage made a documentary of the
same name which interviewed the surviving soldiers from the Gulf War. It is largely believed
that it is this war that Armitage is referring to.
Structure



Monologue: the tone of the poem is very conversational; ‘legged it’ ‘carted off’ and
‘mates’
Stanza 5 is where the narration becomes more inward and personal.
The last stanza is only two lines, adding to the impact of this soldiers guilt, making
it stand out in the readers mind.
Techniques
Enjambment – the used of continuous lines adds to the conversational tone of the piece.
Repetition- ‘probably armed, possibly not’ the way this line is repeated shows how the guilt
of the killing plays on the narrators mind
First Person – the reader is placed directly into the guilt ridden mind of the narrator making
the poem very personal and emotive.
Key Quotes
‘On another occasion…’ (1)
‘Well myself and somebody else and somebody else/are all of the same mind’ (5-6)
‘I see every round as it rips through his life’ (9)
‘End of story, except not really’ (17)
‘he’s here in my head when I close my eyes,/dug in behind enemy lines’ (25-26)
‘…distant sun-stunned, sand-smothered land’ (27)
‘…his bloody life in my bloody hands’ (30)
Guilt; Conflict; Memory
12
‘Poppies’ – Jane Weir (2009)
Overview
This poem is the narrative of a mother sending her son off to war told from a first person
perspective. It offers a female perspective of a typically male subject.
Context
Weir wrote this poem as part of Poet Laureate’s Carol Ann Duffy’s take on Remembrance
Sunday for The Guardian newspaper. It harks back to the tradition of wearing poppies while
addressing modern warfare and the fact that soldiers are still dying in wars across the world.
Weir has stated that she was ‘subliminally’ thinking of Wilfred Owen’s mum when she wrote
this.
Structure




The key to structure in this poem is the mention of time: ‘Three days before’
becomes ‘Before you left’ which becomes ‘a split second’ and then ‘Later’ this is
demonstrating how the narrator is living with her son’s life all at once, both past
and present.
Stanza 1 deals with the boy as a child. Stanza 2 is the child leaving for school
Stanza 3 is the child leaving for war
The narrator is eventually ‘led’ to the war memorial, hinting that her son died in
combat.
Techniques
Textured language – Weir repeatedly uses the sense of touch and metaphors involving
fabrics, this lends an air of domesticity and texture to the poem
Alliteration – ‘disrupting a blockade/of yellow bias binding around your blazer’, this
alliteration uses both the language of war while being a scene of domesticity
Symbolism – the poem centres on a shared awareness of the symbolism of the poppy as a
sign of peace, similarly the narrator sees a ‘single white dove’ – another peaceful symbol.
Key Quotes
‘I was brave as I walked/with you…’18-19)
‘After you’d gone I went into your bedroom,/released a song bird from its cage’ (23-24)
‘The dove…an ornamental stitch’ (33-34)
Grief; Time; Memory
13
‘War Photographer’ – Carol Ann Duffy
Overview
A war photographer in developing pictures in a dark room, as the pictures start to develop
he remembers the death of the people in the photo. The last stanza tells the reader how the
photo will be printed in newspapers.
Context
Duffy was inspired to write this poem by her friendship with a war photographer. She was
especially intrigued by the peculiar challenge faced by these people whose job requires them to
record terrible, horrific events without being able to directly help their subjects.
Structure



The poem follows the thoughts and actions of the photographer in four regular six
line stanzas, each ending in a rhyming couplet – this is very clinical compared to the
chaos of his job.
Third Stanza: He remembers the death of his subjects
Fourth Stanza: addresses the world outside the darkroom and how his work is
received.
Techniques
Emotive language – Duffy’s use of metaphors such as ‘a hundred agonies in black and white’
stress the suffering in war, whilst juxtaposing with the photographers/society’s apathy.
Religious imagery – the references to religion gives the photographer’s job a sense of
ceremony, almost funeral-like.
Contrasts – The presentation of ‘Rural England’ in comparisons to war zones is notable, as
well as the sense of detachment and horror.
Key Quotes
‘spools of suffering set out in ordered rows’(2)
‘all flesh is grass’ (6)
‘running children in nightmare heat’ (12)
‘blood stained into foreign dust’ (18)
‘he earns his living and they do not care’ (24)
Memory; Conflict; Individual Experience
14
Poetic Techniques – A Glossary
Allusion: Unacknowledged reference and quotations that authors assume their
readers will recognize.
Anaphora: Repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of a line
throughout a work or the section of a work.
Assonance: The repetition of identical vowel sounds in different words in close
proximity.
Caesura: A short but definite pause used for effect within a line of poetry.
Couplet: two successive rhyming lines.
Enjambment: A line having no end punctuation but running over to the next
line.
Iambic pentameter: Iamb (iambic): an unstressed stressed foot .The most
natural and common kind of meter in English; it elevates speech to poetry.
Image: Images are references that trigger the mind to fuse together memories
of sight sounds, tastes smells and sensations of touch. Imagery refers to
images throughout a work or throughout the works of a writer
Internal rhyme: An exact rhyme (rather than rhyming vowel sounds, as with
assonance) within a line of poetry: "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I
pondered, weak and weary."
Juxtaposition: an act or idea of placed close together or side by side, especially
for comparison or contrast.
Metaphor: A comparison between two unlike things, this describes one thing
as if it were something else. Does not use "like" or "as" for the comparison
Rhyme: The repetition of identical concluding syllables in different words,
most often at the ends of lines. Example: June—moon
Stanza: A group of poetic lines corresponding to paragraphs in prose
15
What Goes With What?
You need to be able to link the poem before you in the exam to
another poem from the anthology. They need to be linked by theme.
While the decision is yours in the exam, here are some of the poems
that fit together best, can you see how and why?
The Charge of the Light Brigade
Bayonet Charge
Exposure
Remains
Remains
War Photographer
My Last Duchess
Ozymandias
London
Checking Out Me History
Tissue
Kamikaze
Bayonet Charge
Exposure
Poppies
London
Poppies
Tissue
Storm on the Island
My Last Duchess
Kamikaze
War Photographer
Prelude
The Émigrée
Ozymandias
Exposure
Checking out Me History
The Émigrée