Love Through the Ages: A Poetry Anthology - Historical and Biographical Contexts, Exercises of Poetry

Download Love Through the Ages: A Poetry Anthology - Historical and Biographical Contexts and more Exercises Poetry in PDF only on Docsity! Love  Through  the  Ages  –  Poetry  Anthology:  CONTEXT  (AO3)   Poem   Date   Social  Context   Biographical  Context     ‘Love  and  a   Question’     Robert  Frost     (American)   1913   • The  year  before  WW1  started   • The  fin-­‐de-­‐siècle  (turn  of  the  century)  in  1900  had  been  the  end   of  an  era  and  the  start  of  a  new  hope  for  society.  There  was  a   growing  belief  that  civilisation  needed  to  reject  consumerism   and  the  middle  classes.   • Modernist  poetry  was  characterised  by  a  self-­‐conscious  break   from  traditional  styles,  experimenting  with  literary  form  and   expression.   • Slavery  had  been  abolished  in  the  US  in  1865  –  12  million  black   people  were  still  living  in  the  States  and  suffering  enormous   discrimination   • The  USA  was  predominately  Protestant;  the  Bible  teaches  the   importance  of  compassion  to  others.   • His  father  died  of  tuberculosis  when   Frost  was  11,  leaving  the  family  with   just  $8.   • His  mother  and  sister  both  suffered   from  depression,  with  the  latter  being   committed  to  a  mental  hospital.  His   wife  also  had  depression.   • Although  Frost  had  six  children,  only   two  outlived  him.  The  others  died  to   illness,  suicide,  and  childbirth.   ‘A  Quoi  Bon  Dire’     Charlotte  Mary   Mew     (British)   1916   • Two  years  into  WW1   • Conservative  attitudes  towards  women’s  dress,  behaviour,  and   sexuality.  Women  still  expected  to  get  married  and  have   children.   • Some  unforgiving  attitudes  towards  mental  illness   • Mew  had  a  history  of  mental  illness  in   her  family;  a  brother  and  a  sister  were   committed  to  a  mental  institution.  She   vowed  never  to  marry  so  as  not  to  pass   her  genes  on.   • She  wore  men’s  tailored  suits  and  cut   her  hair  short.  Is  speculated  to  have  had   lesbian  tendencies.   • Her  sister  Anne  died  of  cancer;   Charlotte  had  been  nursing  her  fulltime   prior  to  this  event.   • Charlotte  committed  suicide  in  1928  aged  59.   ‘I,  being  born  a   woman  and   distressed’     Edna  St  Vincent   Millay     (American)   1923   • WW1  had  ended  five  years  earlier   • The  Roaring  Twenties  –  prosperous  for  some,  but  a  decade  of   poverty  for  many  too,  particularly  minority  groups.   • Changing  role  of  women  as  a  result  of  the  work  they  did  in   WW1   • In  1920,  all  women  given  the  vote   • ‘Flappers’  smoked  in  public,  danced  the  new  dancers,  and  were   sexually  liberated   • Most  women  were  still  housewives  and  not  as  free  as  men   • Raised  by  a  strong,  independent   mother  who  divorced  her  father  when   Edna  was  eight  (divorce  was  still   discouraged)   • Edna  Millay  engaged  in  several  affairs   with  both  men  and  women         Love  Through  the  Ages  –  Poetry  Anthology:  CONTEXT  (AO3)   ‘Meeting  Point’     Louis  MacNeice     (British  /  Northern   Irish)   1939   • The  outbreak  of  WW2  –  3rd  September  1939   • Rise  in  political  tension  across  Europe   • Britain  had  been  trying  to  recover  from  the  Depression  after   WW1  and  had  made  great  strides  to  reduce  unemployment   • Food  importation  into  the  UK  halted  in  late  1939   • Born  in  Belfast  –  lived  in  London  most  of  his   life  but  was  proud  of  his  Irish  heritage   • Worked  as  a  writer  and  BBC  radio  producer   • His  wife  Giovanna  left  him  after  six  years  of   marriage,  leaving  him  to  raise  their  son   alone   • A  member  of  the  Auden  Group  (a  group  of   Modernist  poets  including  W.  H.  Auden,  and   Ezra  Pound)       ‘Vergissmeinnicht’     Keith  Douglas     (British)   1943   • Two  years  before  the  end  of  WW2   • The  Holocaust     • Life  in  the  trenches  involved  food  shortages,  lack  of  hygiene,   living  amongst  rats,  and  boredom   • Soldiers  had  to  live  with  constant  danger  of  enemy  shelling  and   snipers   • Attended  Oxford  University.  Enlisted   as  soon  as  he  could  during  WW2   • Spent  27  months  in  Cairo  (which  was   occupied  by  the  British)  during   WW2.  His  poems  written  in  North   Africa  focused  on  heroism  and   mortality  within  war   • He  was  happy  to  be  considered  a   war  poet  but  did  not  want  to  be  self-­‐ pitying  in  his  poetry,  nor  use  poetry  as  propaganda   • Was  killed  during  the  invasion  of  Normandy  in  1944,  aged  24.   ‘Talking  in  Bed’     Philip  Larkin     (British)   1960   • Entering  “the  Swinging  Sixties”   • Britain  just  recovering  from  the  aftermath  of  WW2   • The  first  teenage  generation  free  from  conscription;  parents   wanted  their  youth  to  have  more  fun  and  freedom  than  they   had  had  during  the  war  years.   • “Hippie”  movement   • Sex  before  marriage  became  more  common  and  marriage   became  a  more  balanced  partnership   • Divorces  becoming  more  common,  but  still  favoured  men   • Larkin's  public  persona  was  that  of  the  no-­‐ nonsense,  solitary  Englishman  who  disliked   fame  and  had  no  patience  for  the  trappings   of  the  public  literary  life   • Never  committed  to  a  life-­‐long  partner  –  he   had  several  affairs,  including  with  married   women   ‘Wild  Oats’     Philip  Larkin     (British)   1962   • See  above   • Introduction  of  contraceptive  pill  in  1961  gave  women  more   sexual  liberty     • “Sow  your  wild  oats”  –  refers  to  societal  expectation  that  young   men  should  have  sexual  relationships  before  marriage   • The  girlfriend  in  the  poem  is  his  first  girlfriend,  Ruth  Bowman;   the  only  woman  he  came  close  to  marrying.  The  “bosomy   English  rose”  is  her  friend  Jane  Exall.  Larkin  and  Bowman  called   off  their  engagement  in  1950.   Love  Through  the  Ages  –  Poetry  Anthology:  CONTEXT  (AO3)   mistress  strips  for  bed,’  but  rather  than  a  love  poem  like   Donne’s,  it  continues:  ‘her  body  is  already  mapped’,  an  abrupt   and  unromantic  continuation  which  takes  the  reader  by  surprise   and  suggests  an  unpleasant  form  of  ownership  of  the  female   body.   • A  gene  patent  is  the  exclusive  rights  to  a  specific  sequence  of   DNA  (a  gene)  given  by  a  government  to  the  individual,   organization,  or  corporation  who  claims  to  have  first  identified   the  gene.  Once  granted  a  gene  patent,  the  holder  of  the  patent   dictates  how  the  gene  can  be  used,  in  both  commercial  settings,   such  as  clinical  genetic  testing,  and  in  noncommercial  settings,   including  research,  for  20  years  from  the  date  of  the  patent.     a  radio  producer   • Was  Executive  Producer  and  Head  of  Development  for  BBC   Religion  and  Ethics.   • Although  rooted  in  the  English  lyric  tradition,  his  work  draws   on  the  language  of  science  (especially  genetics  and  genomics),   theology  and  philosophy.   ‘The  Love  Poem’     Carol  Ann  Duffy     (British)   2005   • The  poem  appears  in  Duffy’s  collection  Rapture,  which  is  about   a  love  affair.    One  way  to  interpret  ‘The  Love  Poem’  and  its  use   of  previous  poets’  words  is  to  say  that  the  affair  being  described   in  the  poem  –  and  in  the  whole  of  Rapture  –  is  over  (as  the  final   poem  in  the  volume,  simply  called  ‘Over’,  will  make  clear).   Duffy’s  reference  to  ‘an  epitaph’  in  ‘The  Love  Poem’  hints  at   this:  she  is  trying  to  memorialise  or  enshrine  her  love  affair  in   words  that  will  last,  like  those  of  the  poets  she  quotes.   • ‘The  Love  Poem’  shows  that  Duffy  is  aware  of  a  rich  tradition  of   love-­‐poem  sequences  in  English  literature:  it  is  a  poem  that   feels  the  weight  of  these  former  masters  –  Shakespeare,  Sidney,   Donne,  Shelley,  Barrett  Browning  –  and  finds  it  difficult  to  write   a  love  poem  that  won’t  sound  like  a  bad  pastiche  or  copy  of   these  literary  greats.  ‘I  love  you’,  as  Jacques  Derrida  was  fond  of   pointing  out,  is  always  a  quotation.   • Born  in  Scotland  in  1955.     • Appointed  as  Poet  Laureate  in   2009   • Duffy  is  openly  homosexual   ‘After  the  Lunch’   Wendy  Cope   2009   • Waterloo  Bridge  named  after  the  Battle  of  Waterloo  in  1815,   which  took  place  in  modern-­‐day  Belgium  (then  part  of  the   United  Kingdom  of  the  Netherlands).  An  English-­‐led  army  under   the  command  of  Duke  Wellington  defeated  Napoleon’s  French   army.  The  defeat  at  Waterloo  ended  Napoleon’s  rule  as   Emperor  of  the  French,  and  ended  the  First  French  Empire.   • Born  in  Kent  in  1945  and   attended  Oxford  University.   • Was  a  primary  school  teacher   before  becoming  an  Arts  and   Reviews  editor   • Married  Scottish  poet  Lachlan   Mackinnon  after  19  years  of  living   together   Love  Through  the  Ages  –  Poetry  Anthology:  CONTEXT  (AO3)