P&C POEMS ON ONE PAGE

Enter your text here...

Ozymandias - Context

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822) was known as a 'radical' during his lifetime and some people think "Ozymandias" reflects this side of his character.

"Ozymandias" was published in January 1818. It was written about a pharaoh called Ramses II, also known as "Ozymandias"​.

The poem also makes the implied comparison between the Egyptian empire, ruled over by Ozymandias, (and how the power of this empire eventually crumbled) and the growing power of the British empire at the time that Shelley was writing.

Ozymandias - Analysis of Key Lines

I met a traveller from an antique land.

The poem is a second-hand account or a report of someone else's words. The word 'antique' has subtle differences of meaning to the word ancient as it may imply something perhaps collectible but which has no use.

wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command

We are not meant to look kindly on this ruler. He was harsh and tyrannical. The phrase 'cold command' has alliteration of the hard c sound, perhaps reflecting the harshness of his rule.

'Look on my works ye mighty and despair'

The inscription on the pedestal of the monument's remains is ironic since very little is left of his power.

the decay / Of that colossal wreck

The oxymoron reflects the power that Ramses once had and the ruin that is all that is left.

London - Context

William Blake (1757-1827)

Blake was radical poet and painter.

London at the time was the centre of what was becoming the biggest empire in history.

It was also a city of contrasts with rich and poor living close together. Blake was concerned with the suffering of ordinary people in the mist of immense wealth and power.

In 1789 the French Revolution happened. People rose up against the ruling class and seized power. This inspired radicals in Britain, including Blake, to ask whether it could happen there.

So in this poem, Blake is challenging authority and the abuse of power.

London - Analysis of key lines

I wandered through each chartered street

The word 'chartered' here suggests that the streets have been bought and in the second line event he river has been bought, implying humans attempting to control nature as they do to other humans in the following lines.

The mind-forged manacles I hear.

These are mental chains, as if society can create prisons of the mind that stop even from thinking freely.

The hapless soldier's sigh runs in blood down palace walls.

Soldiers, often considered heroic, are here seen as unfortunate, since they are sent out to be sacrificed by the powerful who sit in palaces (the monarch and the politicians). The soldier's blood runs down the walls of the powerful, suggesting their guilt.

And blights with plagues the marriage hearse.

This last phrase is an oxymoron that suggests that the hypocritical gentlemen who frequent prostitutes (the youthful harlot two lines before) will marry a young lady and the marriage, which should be joyful and lead to new life, will lead the bride to their grave when the husband passes on sexually transmitted disease (which, in Blake's time, could prove fatal).

The Prelude - Context

William Wordsworth - (1770-1850)

Wordsworth was radical poet who grew up in the Lake District.

Like other Romantic Poets, (such as Shelley and Blake) he was concerned with subjects such as nature and the imagination and opposed the industrialisation of England.

The Prelude is a long poem that Wordsworth started working on at the age of 28 and continued to work on it throughout his life. It was published a few months after he died in 1850.

It was an autobiographical poem, and was subtitled "The Growth of a Poet's Mind".

The Prelude - Analysis of key lines

One summer evening (led by her)

The third person pronoun may refer to Nature personified as a kind of guide. This demonstrates the influence nature has on the young mind. Wordsworth lost his mother at a young age and nature here may act as a surrogate. It takes on a comforting, protective guise at this point.

a huge peak, black and huge,... upreared its head.

Ironically, Wordsworth, the poet, is unable to describe the sight and resorts to repeting the monosyllabic 'huge.' But it is also fitting as point of view is, to an extent, the child's, and the experience then seems overwhelming.

no pleasant images of tress, ... but huge and mighty forms,... were a trouble to my dreams.

The last line of the passage indicates that the boy's view of nature has changed. He now sees it as a threat, powerful and dangerous and it causes him nightmares. The impact of the experience stays with him. The poem is as much about growing up (moving from innocence to experience) as it is about his encounter with nature.

My Last Duchess - Context

Robert Browning (1812-1889)

Browning grew up in London and moved to Italy when he was 24 years old.

He was married the poet Elizabeth Barrett in 1846 and they eloped to Italy. This was because her father was extremely possessive and authoritarian (he cut her out of his will because she married!). They had to meet in secret.

Browning is best known for writing dramatic monologues. These are speeches spoken by a single character to a specific audience (who doesn't speak!). They usually reveal something about the character of the speaker. My Last Duchess is a dramatic monologue.

Just as with Ozymandias, there are two contexts operating here.: The time when the poem is set - Italy in the middle ages. When the Duke was alive. And the time when the poem was written, Victorian England.

Wikipedia says: "The poem is preceded by the epigraph "Ferrara:", indicating that the speaker is most likely Alfonso II d'Este, the fifth Duke of Ferrara (1533-1598), who, at the age of 25, married Lucrezia di Cosimo de' Medici, the 14-year-old daughter of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany..."

My Last Duchess - Anaylsis

That's my last duchess painted on the wall...

The duke points to the painting of the woman that he had tried to posses and objectify in life. He now has her literally objectified in the form of a painting. He goes on to say that he is the only person who can reveal the painting, demonstrating his complete control over her in death that he failed to achieve in life.

I gave commands; the all smiles stopped together

The euphemistic admission that he had her killed is blatant and subtle at the same time. He uses the metonymy of 'smiles' to represent his late wife, seemingly obsessed with her smiling at others.

Notice Neptune, though, taming a sea-horse.

The duke points the envoy to his sculpture as they descend to meet the other guests. Neptune may represent his power and dominance over his late wife.

Charge of he Light Brigade - Context

Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)

From 1850 he was the Poet Laureate. His job was to write poems to commemorate important occasions.

The Charge of the Light Brigade was a failed military action involving the British light cavalry led by Lord Cardigan against Russian forces during the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854 in the Crimean War.

Charge of the Light Brigade Analysis

Half a league, half a league, half a league onward

The rhythm of these lines echoes the rhythym of the horses and creates an onward motion suggesting the charge of the horses towards the cannon.

the valley of death.... the mouth of hell

These metaphors imply the horror of the battle but also have religious connotations. The soldiers will be consumned by the valley.

When can their glory fade? ... Noble six hundred.

Tennyson praises the bravery of the soldiers (whilst implying criticism of the generals). The solders are seen as heroic. Compare with other war poems in the collection where the speaker is a soldier who had taken part in the battle.

Exposure - Context

Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)

Written in 1917 before Owen went on to win the Military Cross for bravery, and was then killed in battle in 1918: the poem has authenticity as it is written by an actual soldier.

Owen was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare stood in contrast to the public perception of war at the time.

Of his work, Owen said: "My theme is war and the pity of war".

Exposure - Analysis

in the merciless iced east winds that knive us...

The poem suggest that the weather and the condiitons in the trenches are as much a threat as the enemy. It begins with personificaiton of the wind that attachks the soldiers as if in a bayonet charge.

What are we doing here? ... But nothing happens.

The refrain asks the question that many of Owen's comrades may have asked in private. The implied answer (see the end of the poem) is that they are there to die.

Slowly our ghosts drag home...

As with some of the other poems in the collection there is a clear contrast between the horrific conditions of war and the comfort and safety of home. Owen focuses on the 'dark red jewels' in teh hearth to contrast with the freezing conditions the men endure.

Storm on the Island - Context

Seamus Heaney (1939 - 2013)

Seamus Heaney was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Among his best-known works is Death of a Naturalist (1966), his first major published volume.

Ireland has been caught up in conflict for many centuries. Invaded by the Vikings and then the Normans it was then ruled by Britain until the war of Independence in 1921.

Since then the North of Ireland has remained part of the United Kingdom while the rest of Ireland has been an independent state. This has created further conflict and civil war, known as the Troubles. (Especially from 1968-1998)

Heaney's poetry is often about the countryside, recalling his childhood in Northern Ireland. This poem describes the experience of being on an island during a storm. However, on another level it could be an extended metaphor for the troubles in Northern Ireland.

Storm on the Island - Analysis

We are prepared: we build our houses squat

The poem opens with the first person plural pronoun showing that the islanders work as one against the elements. Suggestion that they have experienced extreme weather before.

Spits like a tame cat turned savage.

The simile described the suddenness of the transformation of the calm sea into a destructive force and includes onomatopoeia.

Strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear.

The final line is a paradox in that the islanders seems to dear nothing, bit of course it s is that the wind is invisible, until its effects are seen. The nothingnesss might connote death.

Bayonet Charge Context

Ted Hughes (1830-1998)

Ted Hughes was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. He was appointed Poet Laureate in 1984 and held the office until his death. In 2008 The Times ranked Hughes fourth on their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".

Bayonet Charge was written and published in 1957 but concentrates on the battles of First World War. Hughes had spent time in the military as a mechanic before going to university but his father had served in and survived the First World War.

Referred to as 'going over the top' in WW1, solider were expected to fix bayonets to their rifles and charge at the enemy, leading to close quarter combat. As we saw with Wilfred Owen, during WW1 writers began to question the reasons for fighting and what it would achieve when they were aware of the human cost of conflict.

Bayonet Charge - Analysis

Suddenly he awoke and was running

The opening in medias res gives a sense of suddenness to the action. This, and the fact that the soldier has just woken suggests a dreamlike quality to the poem.

In what cold clockwork of the stars and the nations Was he the hand pointing that second?

An external force seems to be acting on him. The stars suggests fate. The nations might suggest politics. Both the cold and the second hand implies he hs a sense of his own insignificance in the midst of a global conflict.

Threw up a yellow hare that rolled like flame And crawled in a threshing circle.

As with The Prelude and Kamikaze, the encounter with nature is transformative. The hare seems shocked, terrified, perhaps also in pain. The description of the hare here might equally apply to the soldier. The experience seems to provide the soldier with a moment of reflection in which he questions the reasons for being at war.

Remains - Context

Simon Armitage Born 1963

Armitage was involved in a film for Channel 4 in 2007 called The Not Dead and has a collection of poems of the same name, from which this poem is taken. In preparation for this work, he interviewed veteran soldiers of different wars, including the Gulf War. The reference to 'desert sand' in this poem suggests that it reflects the experiences of soldiers in the Gulf War.

In one section of the programme, guardsman Tromans speaks about his experiences in Iraq. Armitage takes his words and turns them into a poem.

Remains - Analysis

On another occasion we get sent out to tackle looters

In medias res givesthe reader s sense that the speaker is in the middle of a story and that this kind of epidose has happened before. The colloquial style in line 3, 'legs it' also gives a sense of speaking voice.

pain itself, the image of agony

The metaphor implies the intensity ofthe experience and the intensity of the suffering inflicted.

He's here in my head when I close my eyes, dug in behind enemy lines.

The lasting impact of the experience is indicated by the memory having infiltrated the mind, as if the war is still being fought, even though the soldier is back home.

His bloody life in my bloody hands.

The repetition emphasises the ambiguity of the word bloody. The mild taboo suggest the resentment about having to deal with the experience and the is a reminder of the physical impact of the encounter as well as implying an intense feeling of guilt.

Poppies Context

Jane Weir Born 1963

In 2009, the poet Carol Ann Duffy (author or War Photographer) asked other poets to contribute to a collection on the impact of war on people left behind, to try to present the human consequences on wars. Consider Wilfred Owen's mother hearing of her son's death in a telegram delivered as the bells signalling the end of WW1 rang out. Weir lived in Northern Ireland during the troubles in the 1980s. She also had two teenage sons when she wrote this poem.

Poppies - Analysis

Three days before Armistice Sunday

The opening positions the poem firmly in time. But there are at least three different times referred to in the poem. The present, the departure of her son for war, and the departure of her son for school. All of these seem to merge in the speaker's mind.

released a songbird from its cage.

After the military language, used to describe a domestic scene, there is a poetuic image of the mother releasing a bird, signifying either freedom or death.

your playground voice catching in the wind.

By the end, the speaker arrives at the war memorial and, in a very emotive moment, she hears the echo of her son's childhood voice in the wind.

War Photographer - Context

Carol Ann Duffy Born 1955

Duffy may have been 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.

The subject of the poem could well be Don McCullin, who had a long career as a photojournalist in several fields of conflict including Belfast, Beirut and Cambodia, as mentioned in the last line of the first stanza. However, knowing this is not essential for understanding the poem, which could apply to any number of photographers who have had similar careers.

War Photographer - Analysis

In his darkroom he is finally alone.

The darkroom is literally the place (lab) where the photos are developed. There is also connotations of something sinister or disturbing. The room is transformed into a confession box in the following lines when the photographer is compared to a priest.

A hundred agonies in black and white.

The photos metaphorically become the image of pain (reminiscent of Remains). This contrasts with the editor's cold selection procedure and the apathy described towards the end of the poem.

and they do not care

The third person plural pronoun leavces the reader of the magazine anonymous but also accuses them of apathy in the face of the suffering of those in the warzone.

Tissue Context

Imtiaz Dharker Born 1963

Born in Lahore, Pakistan, 1954. Moved to Scotland when 1 year old. Grew up in Glasgow. Has referred to herself as Scottish Calvinist Muslim. Also documentary filmmaker, animator, artist (line drawings).

The book is ostensibly about the aftermath of 9/11 and the war on terror. But Dharker may also have had her husband's illness in mind (he was being treated for cancer at the time) when writing the poems that make up this collection and some of the poems deal with this.

Tissue - Analysis

Paper that lets the light shine through

The first form of tissue in the poem, paper , thin and fragile, is associated with light, and metaporically, truth.

might fly our lives like paper kites

After the references to books and maps, paper receipts are another example of something thin and fragile, which has a powerful influence on our lives.

turned into your skin

The final form of tissue in the poem, the cells that make up the tissue of the human body are also individually fragile, and are 'never meant to last,' but together provide living tissue.

Checking Out Me History - Context

John Agard Born 1949

John Agard is a Guyanese poet who moved to Britain in 1977. His mother was Portuguese and his father was Black. He often looks at black history in his poetry. This poem deals with how the Guyanese education system taught him about British History but not about his own heritage. At the end of the poem, Agard determines to learn about his own heritage and create an individual identity.

In this poem Agard refers to many historical characters. The chances are you will not have heard of the black historical characters. This is the point of the poem.

Nanny de Maroon, Toussaint L'Ouverture and Mary Seacole are heroes of black history who are only now beginning to be recognised as important historical figures.

The poem's theme is especially relevant given the recent campaigns to the reveal hidden aspects of British history and connections to slavery.

Checking out me History - Analysis

Dem tell me wha dem want to tell me

The creole language is a way for the speaker to assert their identity. The third person pronoun 'Dem' represetns the powerful who determine which aspects of history will be known.

Blind me to me own identity

The metaphor of bandaging and blinding suggests an inversion of what bandgaing is normally used for - healing. Here it is used as a form of oppression. The link between history and identity is established and will return at the end.

I carving out me identity.

The end of the poem is affirmative, almost celebratory. The poem itself, with its references to L'Ouverture, Seacole etc is a way in which Agard is uncovering and celebrating black history.

Kamikaze - Context

Beatrice Garland Born 1938

During WWII, Japanese kamikaze pilots flew manned suicide missions into military targets (e.g. ships), using planes filled with explosives. Soldiers and pilots were taught it was the only way to change the direction of the war (Japan losing), and they had to take part in this last resort. Very well trained pilots would volunteer to die, but towards the end of the war the military would have to recruit people and shun those who refuse.

The poem reflects the immense social pressure brought to bear on the pilots to carry out kamikaze missions as part of Japan's war effort during World War Two. Although we may think of this poem as being about a specific military practice carried out by Japanese pilots during wartime, the poem also has a strong contemporary relevance. Instead of simply thinking of the poem as being about a military strategy in the distant past, it might also prompt the thought that suicide missions are part of contemporary conflicts too and are very much in the news.

Kamikaze - Analysis

Her father embarked at sunrise

The story is told in third person but the perspective is complicated by first person interjections (in italics). The pilot is linked to Japan by the word sunrise and later by samurai sword, implying that his actions are placed within the heroic traditions of the country.

on a green-blue translucent sea

The beauty of the natural scene seems to have a revelatory effect on the pilot. It also makes him think about waiting for his own father to return and ultimately helps himn to decide to abort his mission.

he must have wondered which had been the better way to die.

'Die' here is an example of ambiguity. The pilot could have died physically on his mission. On returning home, he feels like he is dead to his family as they shun him for dishonouring them.