Contains some context, structure, themes, and key quotes with analysis for the Power and Conflict poems: Ozymandias, London, Extract from the Prelude, My Last Duchess, Charge of the Light Brigade, Exposure, Storm on the Island, and Bayonet Charge. (The rest are to follow when completed).
Poem: Context: Form/ structure/ rhyme: Themes: Key quotes and analysis:
Ozymandias • Shelley was a • Petrarchan x Shakespearean • Power of • “Shatter’d visage” – irony: he believed so strongly in his
romantic poet sonnet as a form of rebellion humans power and wanted to present his superiority through his
who supported to show his passion for the • Power of statue, which has now been destroyed by time and nature,
social justice. futility of mankind. Nature therefore diminishing what is left of his power.
• He was expelled • Iambic pentameter • Pride • “Sneer of cold command” – mocking smile; malicious
from Oxford for • 14-line stanza split up with cruelty and heartlessness; presents his arrogance and his
writing about punctuation. sense of superiority. Reflective of Shelley’s anti-violence
atheism and was • Lines 1 and 3 rhyme and lines stance.
later disowned by 12 and 14 rhyme, everything • “King of Kings” – biblical reference: pride and arrogance;
his father. else is irregular. Shelley is criticizing leaders and their ideas of themselves
• Shelley expressed and their ability to rule; Ozy sees himself as omnipotent.
his radical views Juxtaposed by the statue that falls, lack of respect for
in this poem, as religion.
he criticises • “Lone and level sands stretch far away” – monotonous
people in power monosyllabic words show isolation; literal= sand has
for believing that covered statue, figuratively = ‘sand of time’ has covered his
they could be memory; statue stands insignificant and unrecognized.
unchallenged. Sibilance embeds a lasting image of the limitless nature of
power.
London • Blake was a • 4 quatrains following an ABAB • Power of • “Marks of weakness, marks of woe” – Repetition; Breaks
romantic poet rhyme scheme, emphasising humans from iambic tetrameter reflecting how if people rise, they
who was the control over people. • Loss and can free themselves; feeling of bleakness.
frustrated by the • Enjambment runs throughout absence • “Mind-forged manacles” – metaphor: internal oppression
hypocrisy of the the stanzas. • Anger and a cumulation of the suffering experienced by people in
church and the • Anaphoric repetition • Individual London; ‘manacles’ – they are trapped by society and the
poverty in emphasising the scale of experiences cycle of poverty and their perception of their
Victorian suffering. worthlessness.
England. • “Every black’ning church appalls” – biblical/ Godly
• Blake implies that reference – implying that the church is assisting in the
the awful corruption in London; connotations of immorality and evil
conditions for are the moral blackening of the church. ‘Appalls’ = dismay
ordinary people at the lack of action the church is willing to take to help
in London could these people.
trigger a • “Marriage hearse” – juxtaposition: new beginnings and joy
revolution similar and happiness with the end of life and grief; suggesting
to the French that everything has or will be destroyed.
Revolution.
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