OCR GCSE Poetry Guide: Conflict Anthology, Exams of Poetry

Download OCR GCSE Poetry Guide: Conflict Anthology and more Exams Poetry in PDF only on Docsity! OCR GCSE Poetry Guide: Conflict Anthology By Emily Bird and Jeff Thomas A Poison Tree by William Blake Language  The poem relies upon the extended metaphor of the apple tree as a representation of the narrator’s anger.  The growing tree symbolizes the growing anger that the narrator harbours for his foe.  Tending the tree with ‘fears’ and ‘tears’ symbolizes the narrator’s obsessive thoughts about the enemy and the pain caused by the discord.  The ‘apple bright’ could represent a moment of triumph where the narrator is victorious over his foe. Maybe some of his ‘deceitful wiles’ have engineered a situation that elevates him and debases the enemy.  The enemy ‘knew that it was’ the narrator who was the cause of his disgrace, he seeks revenge on the narrator, but in doing so, gets hurt in the process when he eats the apple.  The metaphor ‘water’d it in fears’ is used to show that fear is an underlying cause of anger.  Blake uses sibilance in line 7 with the phrase ‘sunned it with smiles’ in order to enhance the growing threat of the festering anger.  The image of the apple is an allusion to the fruit eaten by Adam and Eve.  Just like Adam and Eve, the foe steals forbidden fruit and suffers dire consequences as a result. Blake is gently reminding the reader to heed The Bible.  The language in the last line is ambiguous. The reader is told that the foe lies ‘outstretch’d beneath the tree’, but cannot be certain whether he is suffering from the poison or actually dead. This language serves to keep the reader thinking about what really happened, and what could happen next, thus keeping the poem alive in their imagination. Form  The poem consists of four quatrains. This gives an illusion of regularity that is at odds with the highly irregular content of the poem. Blake uses this form to make his poem as accessible as possible, so that its message can reach a large audience.  Blake uses rhyming couplets to create a consistent rhyme scheme that runs throughout the poem. This gives it a ‘sing-song’ quality, and makes it sound almost like a nursery rhyme. Nursery rhymes are used to teach children about the world, and this poem also carries advice for its readers, both young and old. Structure  The poem introduces a volta after the first two lines, when the focus switches from anger between friends, to anger between enemies.  The fact that the scenario where the anger between friends can be dealt with in two lines shows that the situation was simple to remedy and that the action of communicating the anger was the right way. After the volta, the remaining 14 lines deal with the complicated and destructive results of harbouring anger.  A second volta appears at the beginning of line 15 when the narrator reveals the shocking fact that he is ‘glad’ his foe has been poisoned. After this turning point, the reader finds it hard to identify with the narrator as his reaction is ugly in its celebration of unhappiness.  14 out of 16 lines are end-stopped, giving the poem a measured quality with the impression that the story is being recounted in a precise way so that the moral can be easily perceived.  Line 12 into 13 uses enjambment. Here, the foe is invading the narrator’s garden, and as he transgresses boundaries, so too does the language, suddenly breaking the structure to flow into the next line. Context  William Blake was interested in his own literary heritage, loved the works of Shakespeare and produced many illustrations inspired by Shakespeare’s plays.  We may also see some Shakespearean influences within A Poison Tree.  In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, ‘fair is foul, and foul is fair’ meaning that which looks innocent and wholesome, is actually dangerous. Blake takes up this imagery in his own poem, so the ‘apple bright’ looks tempting but is actually poisonous.  When Macbeth hears that Duncan isn’t going to make him king, he says ‘Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires.’ This scene is reflected in A Poison Tree as the foe waits until the ‘night had veil’d the pole’ star, before he goes to steal the ‘apple bright’. In both instances, the characters need the cover of darkness in order to perpetrate their actions because they know that they are doing wrong.  Blake had a great interest in social reform and used his poetry to try and improve the lives of all people. This poem seeks to teach people that communication is the key to avoiding feelings of anger and fear. Boat Stealing by William Wordsworth Language  Although set at night, this poem is initially filled with references to light. The ‘moon was up’ and the lake is ‘shining clear’. As he rows, the moonlight continues to glitter on the water, and when the narrator looks up he can see the ‘stars’ in the sky. Such descriptions of light create a beautiful scene, and it’s easy for the reader to understand why the narrator risks stealing the boat in order to immerse himself in nature’s sublime glory.  However, the narrator finds himself cut off from the light and beauty after the encounter with the ‘huge cliff’. On line 31 it ‘Rose up between me and the stars’ and this emphasizes the profound effect the experience has upon the narrator.  The atmosphere of gloom continues to haunt the narrator afterwards, his thoughts become ‘dim’ and he feels a ‘darkness’, showing that the experience will have lasting effects.  Wordsworth uses the oxymoron, ‘troubled pleasure’ to shows that stealing the boat fills him with conflicting emotions and suggests that he is half expecting to encounter the ‘huge cliff’ during his venture.  Wordsworth uses the natural scenery to create an extended metaphor in order to explore the theme of innocence and experience. The narrator initially believes that he understands the world, and that he can see the ‘bound of the horizon’. However, this is an illusion, because behind the ‘rocky steep’ lurks the ‘huge cliff’. This new geographical feature represents a growing awareness of the world, and the narrator is shaken by the realisation that life is a lot more complicated than he initially thought.  Wordsworth personifies the mountain when he says it ‘Upreared its head’. He develops this idea saying it ‘Strode after me’. Through this personification, Wordsworth conveys the sense of threat he suddenly experiences out on the lake.  The simile ‘like a living thing’ shows that he knows this peak isn’t a real threat, but that he has come to understand that the world does have threats. Form  This poem is written in blank verse and uses iambic pentameter, the meter most commonly associated with this form.  The unrhymed lines and iambic pentameter mean that the poem sounds naturalistic, and this suits the content, as the poet is sharing a private moment with the reader and doesn’t want his thoughts overshadowed by elaborate verse.  Boat Stealing is only a small section from The Prelude, a work of epic length. Structure  In the first half of the poem there is a sense of exhilaration but the volta on line 26 marks the change from ‘troubled pleasure’ to pure horror ‘When from behind’ the top of the cave the ‘huge cliff’ rears its head.  On line 6 the narrator ‘struck’ and ‘struck again’ as he begins to row out into the lake, at this point, this action shows the excitement he feels as he steals the boat.  Later, on line 29, this language is repeated but this time the action shows that he is now feels panic, not excitement as a result of seeing the dark peak uprear its head.  The repetition of this phrase contrasts the narrator’s state of mind before and after the epiphany he has on the lake.  Despite all the beauty and excitement felt early in the poem, it ends on a sombre note. This shows that Wordsworth wanted his reader to appreciate the seriousness of the situation. Context  Wordsworth believed that significant memories surfaced in the consciousness, and he called these ‘spots of time’, this phrase is used later in The Prelude.  The incident where he steals the boat is one such spot of time, and The Prelude as a whole is Wordsworth’s collection of such memories.  The image of the ‘small circles’ made by the dipping oars could represent these spots of time; and the way they melt into one may be a metaphor for how humans can only begin to make sense of their inner lives as they grow older and start to look back on past experiences.  Wordsworth felt a deep spiritual connection with nature and this is reflected in his work.  Wordsworth’s work falls into the genre of Romanticism, a movement that looked to explore individual experiences and emotions.  At its core, this poem explores how it feels to gain new knowledge and how this is at the expense of innocence. This is something that everyone experiences as they grow older, giving the poem a universal quality. The Destruction of Sennacherib by Lord Byron Language  Byron uses the simile ‘like a wolf’ to describe the Assyrians, making them sound fierce; it also dehumanises them and brings them down to the level of beasts.  The Assyrian army is described as ‘gleaming in purple and gold’ and this shows that they are proud and confident in their advance on Jerusalem, they’re not making a surprise attack.  In stanza two, the temporal language of ‘sunset’ and then ‘morrow’ makes it clear to the reader that the Assyrian army is defeated in just one night.  It is interesting that the Angel of Death only ‘breathed’ on the Assyrians in order to defeat them, demonstrating the power of both him and God.  There is a lot of imagery to do with light in the first stanza, for instance, the soldiers have a ‘sheen’ on their spears. This emphasizes that they are a well-equipped army with new weapons, which in turn makes them seem formidable and threatening.  The image of the dead horse in stanza four brings pathos to the poem, as the animal was innocent and suffered because of the war-like nature of mankind.  In stanza five, Byron tells his readers that there is ‘rust’ on the mail of the dead Assyrian soldier, which is in direct contrast to the ‘gleaming’ soldiers of stanza one, proving that their glamour is quickly lost in the face of the power of Christianity.  The simile ‘melted like snow’ is used to emphasize the fact that for all their ‘might’, the Assyrians were no match the Angel of Death. This idea is intensified with the final phrase ‘the glance of the Lord!’ Proving that God needed to make barely any effort in order to defeat Sennacherib’s army. Form  The poem is made up of six quatrains, and rhyming couplets are used consistently throughout the poem, giving it a very regular, dependable form. It could be argued that this reflects the idea that the faithful of Jerusalem were able to depend upon their god to defend them against the Assyrian attackers.  The meter produces a very buoyant rhythm, which seems at odds with the sobering events contained within the poem, however, it could reflect the jubilant feelings of those who have escaped being attacked by Sennacherib and his forces. Structure  The volta appears half way through stanza two, before this, the Assyrian army seems powerful and proud, afterwards they are shown to be no match against the power of God.  In line 5, Byron uses the image of a forest in summer to show the Assyrians are in their prime. In line 7, the image of a forest is both Form  In terms of its metre and rhyme scheme, this poem reflects the form found in many hymns. This form enhances the religious undercurrent found in There’s a certain Slant of Light. Structure  The structure of this poem is broken time and time again through Dickinson’s use of dashes, which both arrest the flow of language and suggest that much is left unsaid as the narrator struggles to order their thoughts and feelings.  In line 5, Dickinson plays with syntax to create a line that seems communicated in reverse order. This structuring again adds to the feeling of discomfort present throughout the poem.  The poem opens with the imagery of the oppressive light and closes on an even darker note, as although the light is blinding, the alternative is darkness and ‘Death’. This structuring suggests that struggle, despair and isolation are ever present throughout life, and this suffering only comes to an end with death. Context  Although Dickinson was a prolific poet, she did not desire her work to be published, in fact, she believed that to have the work bought and paid for was akin to an ‘auction of the mind’. However, Dickinson did produce fascicles, hand-bound books, for herself, in order to draw her work together.  This desire to keep her work private is reflected in There’s a certain Slant of Light, with its theme of isolation and its exploration of the soul of the individual.  Dickinson was brought up a Calvinist, but in adult life decided to stop attending public worship, whilst still retaining a sense of faith. This struggle with defining spirituality is evident in the poem as religion is a key theme. The Man He Killed by Thomas Hardy Language  Hardy uses speech marks around the words in the poem to show that he is reporting the words of another, Hardy never passes comment on what the man says, he simply retells the veteran’s story. This allows the reader to assume that the story comes from experience, not imagination, and this makes it more intense.  The vocabulary throughout the poem is straightforward, this reflects the fact that the story is told by an ordinary man in his own straightforward terms.  In line 7 the man says ‘I shot at him as he at me’ and here the internal rhyme of ‘he’ and ‘me’ links the two men to emphasize the fact that at that moment during the battle, their fates were linked together.  Line 9 ends with a dash in order to create a pause in the poem that reflects the pause in the veteran’s speech. This pause signals that the man needs to think about why he shot the other man dead.  At the same point in the poem, the man repeats the word ‘because’ this intensifies the impression that he is playing for time as he struggles to come up with a good reason for killing the other person.  On line 17 the man exclaims how ‘quaint and curious war is!’ This use of litotes seems to suggest that the man is so overwhelmed by his experience of war that he struggles to find the right words to describe it. His understatement shows that words fail to describe the horrors he’s seen and done.  It is poignant that the narrator describes the enemy as a ‘fellow’ suggesting that the man was a potential friend and a contemporary, not a threat.  No proper nouns are used in the poem, which gives it a universal feel, and here Hardy is suggesting that the situation is not an isolated incident, it is common to all wars. Form  This poem has a sophisticated form.  It never deviates from rhyming alternate lines.  Lines 1, 2 and 4 of each quatrain uses an iambic trimeter rhythm, while line 3 of each quatrain uses an iambic tetrameter.  This refined form elevates the seemingly straightforward language that the man uses to express himself, so that the work becomes profound and enduring, not just an anecdote.  The poem takes the form of a dramatic monologue as the narrator explains an experience he had during the war.  However, the content in stanzas two and three becomes very reflective as the man tries to justify the killing and give his enemy a context. At this point, the poem almost becomes a soliloquy as it seems the narrator has forgotten his audience and is now wrestling with internal feelings about the event.  The final stanza begins with the word ‘Yes;’ as if the narrator has suddenly become aware of his audience again and leaves the soliloquy style musings behind. Structure  The poem begins as a mystery. The title tells the reader that killing is involved, but stanza one does not reveal any secrets, leaving the reader wondering where the two men met in reality, and what happened between them. This compels the reader to move on in order to discover the answers.  Stanza two brings answers, but stanza three reintroduces uncertainty as the man struggles to explain his feelings of guilt and incomprehension at the nature of war.  The enjambment from line 12 into 13 links stanzas three and four. This shows that as the man reflects on his past he can no longer contain his feelings, the overflowing lines symbolize his overflowing thoughts as he tries to convince himself that he did the right thing. Context  The Man He Killed was written in 1902, the same year the Boer Wars ended. Although Hardy does not name any specific conflict in The Man He Killed, he was deeply disturbed by the events that had taken place in the Boer Wars, and it is likely that this influenced his writing.  Hardy had a particular interest in the Napoleonic Wars and interviewed veterans of this conflict. It is reasonable to think that these conversations informed him of the perspectives of the common soldier.  Hardy was a prolific writer of novels and poetry and had a profound influence on writers that followed after him.  He was known to have met and inspired Siegfried Sassoon, the famous World War I poet. Vergissmeinnicht by Keith Douglas Language  Vergissmeinnicht is German for Forget-me-not, a flower that symbolises remembrance. It is a reference to the wording on Steffi’s photograph but also a poignant warning not to forget the horrors of war as a way of guarding against such events being repeated.  The metaphor of the ‘nightmare ground’ instantly sets the scene and informs the reader that the battle that took place three weeks earlier was so terrifying and confusing, it hardly seems like it could have been real.  The use of the definite article in the phrase ‘the soldier’ tells the reader that the narrator and his companions were looking for a particular man. Their very personal motivation for finding this specific man becomes clear when the narrator reveals that this enemy soldier shot at their tank.  The sibilance in the phrase ‘soldier sprawling in the sun’ voices the narrator’s hatred for his dead enemy.  As the men approach their dead enemy, his gun is seen to be ‘frowning’ at them and this personification suggests both disapproval and wariness, mirroring emotions that the reader may feel at this point.  In stanza two, the narrator explains why he hates this man so much with the simile ‘like the entry of a demon’. When the enemy fired at the narrator’s tank, he felt like he was battling an evil supernatural force due to the intensity of the pain, fire and suffering that surrounded him.  On line 9, the narrator uses the imperative ‘Look’ to make the reader jump to attention, echoing his own military orders.  The narrator defiantly states that they view the enemy’s corpse ‘almost with content’. The pain and fear they suffered at his hands during the battle has transformed into triumphant gloating as they survey his ‘decayed’ body.  Here, Douglas juxtaposes the image of the ‘decayed’ body with the weapons lying nearby which are still ‘hard and good’, this contrast highlights the fragility of the human body.  In stanza five, the narrator presents several gruesome images to describe the corpse in detail. For example, the simile ‘burst stomach like a cave’ suggests that in the past three weeks, the dead enemy has become carrion and that something has eaten his internal organs. The narrator seems to relish this horrific sight, an almost inhuman response that depicts the level of hatred he feels for the enemy. Form  The poem has a beguiling form, on first inspection it appears regular with its even, four line stanzas and this seems at odds with the bleak, chaotic scene that is describe within.  On closer inspection the rhyme scheme falls into a pattern, only to break this and take up a different arrangement.  In addition, half rhymes such as ‘spoil/girl’ and para-rhymes such as ‘heart/hurt’ bring a sense of discomfort that augments the disquieting content of the poem. Structure  Douglas reveals the details of his narrative piece by piece, for instance, initially, the reader doesn’t know if the men are seeking out a friend or a foe, such structuring brings tension and drama into the poem.  The narrator juxtaposes his own callous reactions to the dead body with the grief experienced by Steffi, while he is glad to see his enemy ‘abased’, Steffi would ‘weep’. This contrast shows that the narrator knows his own reactions are distorted and by the final stanza, his attitude has become softer and more reflective.  At the end, he perceives that the enemy had a life and loved ones back home and that the enemy’s death has also caused a ‘mortal hurt’ in Steffi. Context  In his early life, Douglas was already gaining recognition for his poetry, however, it is his war-poetry that has received the most attention.  When World War II was declared, Douglas enlisted straight away.  He was posted to the Middle East and took part in the famous Battle of El Alamein.  Vergissmeinnicht was written in response to Douglas’s experiences during that battle.  The photograph that Douglas refers to in the poem is real and can be viewed online, the reader will see a lady wearing a coat, hat and scarf looking directly at the camera, with the words Steffi. Vergissmeinnicht written at the bottom.  Douglas was later redeployed to Europe and took part in the D-Day invasion of Normandy, and was killed in action just a few days after landing in France.  Despite being a dutiful soldier, Douglas privately thought that combat was destroying his humanity and this is evident in the cold, callous tone of the narrator in Vergissmeinnicht. What Were They Like? By Denise Levertov Language  Levertov wrote this poem in 1966 while the Vietnam War was taking place, but she sets her poem in the future with her two characters looking back to a version of the war that resulted in the destruction of the entire Vietnamese race. She signals this by using the past tense throughout the poem.  The imagery of nature is used throughout the poem to characterize the Vietnamese as a gentle nation. For example, the second speaker tells the first that the Vietnamese spent their time surrounded by ‘rice and bamboo’ under skies of ‘peaceful clouds’. Such imagery suggests that the Vietnamese were innocent and therefore victims of the war.  This bucolic setting also underlines the idea that the Vietnamese had simple lives with no access to sophisticated technology such as planes or bombs, therefore they couldn’t have been the aggressors in the situation.  Line 15 tells the reader that ‘there were no more buds’, this metaphor refers to a loss of new life in general and the loss of children in particular.  In line 6 the questioner asks ‘Did they use bone and ivory, / jade and silver, for ornament?’ This gives the reader a clue about Vietnamese culture and shows they were interested in creating beauty.  Line 18 tells the reader that ‘All the bones were charred.’ The imagery of bone has been inverted, it’s a direct link between life before and after the war. The bone has gone from being a material used to create beauty, to evidence of the death and destruction.  The second speaker uses the adverbs ‘perhaps’ and ‘maybe’ to show that they are not entirely sure about the answers they are supplying. This emphasizes the idea that the war against the Vietnamese was so ferocious, they have almost been wiped from history. Listening to the answers in stanza two is like hearing about myths rather than about a real human race.  On line 16 the poet uses alliteration in the phrase ‘bitter to the burned mouth’ in order to highlight the suffering that the Vietnamese endured. Form  The poem is formed of two stanzas. Stanza one is a list of questions and stanza two is made up of the corresponding answers.  This form means that the poem can be read straight through, or it can be read by alternating between the questions and their answers.  The poem is written in free verse, which means that it does not employ a rhyme scheme or a consistent metre.  This poem was written in the 1960s and at this time, free verse was a popular form used by poets. Structure  Line 5 features the ‘veil of iridescence’ and Clarke returns to this image on line 18 with the ‘veiled sun’. This repetition enhances the idea that mankind, through the actions of war, is drawing a cover over both the earth and the heavens. This drawing of a veil is both shutting us out from the natural world and smothering nature to death.  In line 18 the sun is ‘veiled’ but by next line it has been ‘put out’ altogether rather than being merely hidden, showing that the effects of the conflict are moving from severe to irreversible.  In line 15, Clarke laments that the whales have been ‘struck dumb’ by the effects of the war. It creates a chilling tone to think that these intelligent animals are no longer able to communicate with each other as a result of the war. It also foreshadows the ‘ashes of language’, which is the final phrase of the poem and symbolises that peace talks failed and that arguments prevailed. Context  During the First Gulf War, retreating Iraqi troops opened up oil valves and pipelines as a method of slowing down the U.S. forces that were pursuing them.  This action caused the biggest oil spill in history and at least 240 million gallons of crude oil flowed out into the Persian Gulf, causing an oil slick that had devastating consequence for marine creatures and sea birds.  Clarke states that she used media images connected to the First Gulf War as source material for this poem.  These images included cormorants covered in oil and a soldier on fire after his tank was bombed. Punishment by Seamus Heaney Language  Heaney uses language such as ‘naked’, ‘frail’ and ‘undernourished’ to emphasize the vulnerability of the dead girl, and this makes the reader feel sympathy for her.  The metaphor ‘barked sapling’ refers to the girl’s youth and innocence but also conjures images of her being flayed in order to communicate the pain she suffered.  ‘oak-bone’ and ‘brain-firkin’ are examples of kennings, two word metaphors that were a common feature of Old English poetry. The use of these kennings reminds the reader that although society may have been brutal thousands of years ago, it also had art and literature.  Heaney imbues the language with religious references. Not only do these add depth of meaning, they also remind the reader that religion was a key characteristic that defined the different groups during The Troubles.  The ‘Little adulteress’ in the poem refers to the woman accused of adultery in John, Chapter 8. Jesus pronounces that anyone without sin is free to stone her to death; her accusers realised that this rules them out so they slip away.  This allusion is picked up later in the poem when the narrator says he would have cast ‘stones of silence’, meaning he knew Irish women were being punished but he kept quiet. He didn’t judge but neither did he speak out to defend them because he had his own sins and didn’t want these revealed.  On line 36 the narrator says that the girl’s bones have been ‘numbered’, an allusion to a Catholic psalm where the speaker is surrounded by enemies. By using this allusion, Heaney evokes the situation in Ireland, where the civil war often meant people were physically close to their enemies.  The numbering also refers to the fact that the girl’s body has been catalogued by historians and anthropologists. Indignity continues after death as she is ‘exposed’ and put on display in a museum. Despite all the opportunities for study that her body brings, the irony is that we know nothing more today than we did thousands of years ago, in that humans haven’t learnt to be tolerant.  Heaney is careful not to identify any particular group, his generic language allows the blame to settle on all parties.  The language is filled with aural techniques, such as the alliteration in ‘body in the bog’ and the assonance of ‘oak-bone’. Such techniques produce harmony in the language, and is maybe Heaney’s way of counteracting the brutality of the world. Humans may be cruel and ignorant, but they can also bring order and beauty. Form  The even four line stanzas give the poem a measured form and seem to reflect the moderated way in which the narrator tries to work through his own feelings of guilt and his observations about human nature. Structure  The poem begins with the narrator empathising with the girl from the bog, he can ‘feel’ what it was like for her to be led to her humiliating and painful death.  However, this empathy only leads him to ‘artful’ voyeurism, by line 27, he admits that he ‘stood dumb’ while women were abused, and by the end of the poem, admits that he can ‘understand’ the tribal motivations for violence.  On line 18, the simile ‘like a stubble of black corn’ is used to show that the girl’s hair was shaved as part of the humiliating ritual that took place before her execution. This episode foreshadows the modern day Irish women who are ‘cauled in tar’, their heads being doused in black tar as their punishment. Such structuring draws the past and present together in order to show that mankind has not developed. Context  Punishment is part of a series of poems called Bog Bodies, inspired by the discovery of human remains that had been preserved in a bog for thousands of years.  All the Bog Bodies poems were published in 1975 in a collection called North, and in this anthology, Heaney looked to explore The Troubles of Northern Ireland.  From 1968 until 1998, Ireland endured a civil war called The Troubles, which saw conflict between Unionists, who wanted to remain in the UK, and the Republicans who wanted Northern Ireland to become part of the Republic of Ireland.  Both groups had strong identities, rooted in culture and religion and are the ‘tribal’ factions that Heaney references in the last line of his poem.  The poem speculates on the death suffered by the bog person in order to comment on the ritual humiliation and punishment given to Irish women who had relationships with British soldiers.  In doing so, the poem shows that humanity has not progressed beyond the brutal customs and values that it held thousands of years ago. Phrase Book by Jo Shapcott Language  A phrase book only allows someone to ‘get by’ in a foreign country but its use doesn’t amount to being able to speak the language or understand the culture. This then acts as a metaphor for the situation the narrator finds herself in, she can grasp a few elements of the war but in no way does she understand it.  Shapcott uses a lot of military terminology such as ‘J-stars’ and ‘Harms’. This language would be familiar to military personnel and like all jargon, would ease communication between specialists, whilst simultaneously excluding non-specialists from a complete understanding of what is being talked about. This reflects the fact that news reports were both informing audiences whilst at the same time excluding them from the full story as they chose what to show.  The acronym BLISS is part of the lexical field of military jargon but also strikes the narrator in the more usual sense and makes her remember romantic encounters, and through this, the theme of love is introduced.  In the past, such romantic encounters transported her to the point where she felt ‘balanced…in the air’, a metaphor for sheer joy. Now, she seems unable to feel love. In place of the balance, she now feels so ‘inside’ her own skin it has become a ‘Human Remains Pouch’, and just like a corpse in a body bag, she is passively transported in a way that is beyond her control, all of which is a metaphor for how she feels as she tries to engage with the war through the televised reports.  Military terms such as ‘Stealthed’ and ‘Cleaned’ are euphemisms for casualties and show that language is often used to disguise the truth of the matter.  Some of the phrase book elements of the poem such as ‘Quickly. Slowly’ and ‘Things are going well (badly)’ are contradictory and bring a sense of disorientation to the language that reflects the confusion the narrator feels as she watches events on her television. Form  This poem takes the form of a monologue. Structure  Key elements of the poem are structured around the questions that the narrator asks.  On lines 6 and 8 she seems to directly challenge the reader with questions like ‘Am I disturbing you?’.  Her next question comes much later, on line 28, when she asks ‘Have I done enough?’ and seems to link back to the previous question. This tells the reader that what she has said in between these questions is intended to shock them and make them think about the horrors of a war that is both real and dramatized into t.v. entertainment.  Her next question, on line 30 asks ‘What’s love in all this debris?’, and clarifies one of the main themes of the poem, which questions how love and relationships can exist in a time of war.  The final stanza contains a rapid succession of questions, some taken from the phrase book and some naturally occurring, and are used to intensify the feeling of disorientation established throughout the poem, so that both the narrator and the reader seem more confused at the end than they were to begin with. Reflecting the idea that war, and the coverage of war, brings only more questions, certainly no answers. Context  The poem Phrase Book was written in response to the First Gulf War, where a coalition of troops, including Britain and America, forced the invading Iraqi army out of Kuwait.  The initial phase of the war was characterised by coalition aerial and naval bombardment against the Iraqi forces, and this is alluded to in the poem with repeated references to ‘the pilots’ and the technology they used such as the High-speed Anti Radiation Missiles or HARM for short.  Since the Vietnam War, audiences had been used to seeing television coverage of conflicts, however, new technology took media coverage of the First Gulf War to the next level with its use of real time footage. For instance, audiences were shown live feeds from missiles as they hit their targets. The narrator in the poem references this when she says she is ‘lost in the action, live from a war/ on screen’.  At times the media’s coverage of the First Gulf War was criticised for manipulating events into overly patriotic narratives rather than transmitting impartial reports.  Many broadcasting corporations allotted a great deal of air-time to coverage of the war, with CNN providing 24 hour exposure, which is why the narrator feels like the war is in her ‘front room’. Honour Killing by Imtiaz Dharker Language  In this poem, the narrator subverts the concept of an honour killing, so that instead of being the victim, she is slaying the customs and laws of her past.  She also metaphorically kills her former self, piece by piece, in order to be reborn, phoenix-like, ready to step into her new ‘geography’.  Dharker alludes to many different religions in this poem, for instance the ‘veil’ in line 9 can be a reference to both Islamic burkas and the traditional attire of a Christian bride. The ‘mangalsutra’ is a necklace given to the bride during a Hindu wedding, and ‘rings’ are exchanged in both Christian and Jewish weddings.  It is not just one religion that seeks to pervert its laws in order to control women, it is a problem found in a variety of faiths.  The narrator makes it clear that she in not against religion, she believes in ‘my god’ but she cannot abide by spurious rules made in the name of religion in order to control women.  The narrator describes both her coat and veil as being ‘black’, both a literal description and a metaphor for the evil, darkness and brutality that characterised her life up to this point.  The narrator references many types of clothing. The ‘coat’ and ‘veil’ were used to control her image in public, while the ‘silks’ and ‘lacy things’ were used to control her appearance in private, and objectify her into a sexual toy for a ‘dictator’.  The narrator references the specific body parts of the ‘skin’, ‘face’ and ‘flesh’ all of which are physical characteristics that make a woman sexually desirable. By taking these off she is making sure that the ‘dictator’ no longer sees value in her and therefore loses the desire to possess her.  More importantly, the narrator discards another body part, her ‘womb’. She knows that women are controlled because of their role in the cycle of procreation. By controlling reproduction, men are also controlling issues surrounding wealth as well as passing on their genes.  The alliteration of the ‘rings/rattling’ evokes the noise of a few coins in a cup and enhances the image of the woman, made to beg, because everything has been taken from her. Form  After a lifetime of being veiled and subjugated, the protagonist’s act of stripping down is for herself and nobody else, therefore, this is a soliloquy, a private experience that she narrates to herself with a stately sense of wonder. Structure  The poem begins with the words ‘At last’, suggesting that she has been planning this transformative escape for a long time.  The poem is structured around the narrator taking off layers that have up to this point shackled her. of lines. They create the effect of the narrators struggling to communicate and this emphasizes that they are talking about a painful subject.  Also, from line 27, until the end of the poem, the lines become shorter and some are indented. This allows the poet to convey the halting way the mother speaks as she tries to come to terms with the horrific consequences of the partitioning and also of her own failure to provide aid to her fellow human beings.  In the end, the fractured nature of the structure seems to express that the mother is sobbing as she thinks about what happened. Context  The title of this poem refers to the 1947 partitioning of British colonial India into the independent countries of Pakistan and India.  In the simplest terms, Pakistan was intended to be a Muslim nation, while India would be a Hindu country.  The last viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten, brought the date for partition forward, thereby exacerbating the political and religious tensions that already existed in the area.  Cyril Radcliffe, a British lawyer, was given the task of drawing up the boundaries for the new countries even though he had little knowledge of the area. He is the ‘man’ that the mother refers to on line 34.  As a result of Radcliffe’s hastily drawn borders, people found they were suddenly in the ‘wrong’ country.  This sparked the largest mass migration in human history as millions of people desperately tried to get themselves and their families to the correct country.  Rioting and sectarian violence followed and hundreds of thousands of people died in the crisis. How to answer a question when comparing an anthology poem to an unseen poem. Plan your answer  Even though you feel under pressure in the exam, it’s still worth spending time planning your response to the comparison question.  This could take the form of a simple table where you jot down similarities and differences. Comparison is key  Ensure that you make constant comparisons throughout your work rather than discussing first one poem and then the other.  Each point you make should refer to both poems.  Use comparative connectives such as ‘whereas’, ‘likewise’ and ‘on the other hand’ to draw your points together. Compare the surface story  Identify the surface story in your poems and then see how they relate to each other. This will help to get you started. Compare the language  Look for language techniques such as metaphors, assonance or hyperbole and consider which poem is more effective at conveying its message through such techniques.  Compare the narrators used in the poems, then state which narrator sounds more sympathetic or believable.  Compare any autobiographical elements, maybe one poem is by a WW1 soldier and the other is by someone who has no military experience, state whether you think direct experience adds value to a poem?  Consider the intended audience of both poems, and state which is more successful at communicating its point to its chosen audience.  Consider the purpose of both poems and state which one is better at achieving its purpose. Compare the titles  Consider the titles and ask yourself which one is better in terms of conveying layers of meaning?  Maybe one title is too literal, or too obscure to be truly effective, whilst the other perfectly sums up the poem. Compare patterns in the form  Consider the similarities and differences in form.  If one poem has a regular form and the other is irregular, what effect does this have on the reader?  Do both poems break patterns to create effects? If so, which poem does this more effectively? Compare the structures  Do the poems employ similar use of stanzas, which poem is better at using its stanzas to build up its message?  Do both poems use a volta? Were either of the turning points a surprise? If so, what effect does this have on the reader?  Are there any similarities or differences in the way the poems are laid out? Do you prefer one structure to another?  Does one poem use more enjambment or end stopped lines than the other? Which poem is more effective in its use of these techniques?  Do both poems use repetition? If so, which poem does this more effectively?  Compare the opening and closing images in the poems and discuss which you find more compelling. Find your evidence  Ensure that you use quotations and refer directly to the poems to prove your points.  You may want to use a Point, Evidence, Explain, Link structure.  As an alternative, you may want to blend short quotes into your writing. Glossary of poetic terms  Alliteration - Repetition of consonant sounds.  Allusion - A reference to a literary, historical, classical or mythic person, place or event.  Ambiguity – When two or more meanings are present.  Archaic - Language that is no longer in modern usage.  Assonance – Repetition of vowel sounds.  Colloquial – Informal language used in everyday speech.  Couplet – A pair of rhymed lines.  Caesura – A pause, usually signalled by punctuation.  Conceit – A form of metaphor that fuses surprising elements to create a complex image.  Double entendre – Language that has a double meaning, where one meaning is innocent, while the other is risqué.  End-stopped - When the phrase or sentence ends at the end of a line.  Enjambment – When a phrase or sentence runs over the end of one line and into the next.  Extended metaphor – When a metaphor is reused and elaborated upon throughout the course of a poem.  Euphemism – Innocent sounding language with an underlying meaning that refers to something vulgar.  Homonym – When a word has the same spelling but different meanings.  Hyperbole – Over exaggeration for poetic effect.