Conflict Poems – some important points (Unit 2 Literature)

Task - re-write the notes below to help further your understanding of some of the poems in the anthology.

Extension - try to find quotes to justify each point

Flag

  Ideas of patriotism

Extract from Out of the Blue

  Use of persona to explore universal ideas in ‘extract from Out of the Blue’

Mametz Wood

  Ideas about waste and pointlessness

nature of the victims

deaths of the soldiers

ideas about the burial of the soldiers

The use of imagery

The use of language

The way that verse structure is used

The use and effects of enjambment

The Yellow Palm

  The contrast between violence and peace

  The sense of threat and danger contrasted with images of fragility and peace

  Incorporation of the senses

  The use and effects of colour

  The use and effects of nature imagery

  Effects of structural devices such as pauses, repetition and punctuated caesurae

  Effects of rhythm and meter

The effect of conflict and war on feelings about homes

 

 

The Right Word

  How conflict affects attitudes

At the Border, 1979

  Use of first person to create immediacy

  Feelings about home

  Ideas about the effects of conflict on civilians

  Ideas about the effects war on the land and the impermanence of conflict

in comparison to the more permanent reality of the land itself

  The contrasting reactions and points of view of the children and the adults

  Ideas about the nature of „home‟

  The use and presentation of different perspectives and points of view,

including the use of direct speech

  The use and effects of imagery, in particular the extended metaphor of the

chain

  The use of structural features including caesura, enjambment

 

Belfast Confetti

  Use of first person to create immediacy

  The use of metaphor

The effect of conflict and war on feelings about homes

the sense of danger in ‘Belfast Confetti’

the feelings of the speaker in ‘Belfast Confetti’

the sense of confusion in ‘Belfast Confetti’

the negative effects of conflict on people in ‘Belfast Confetti’

the use and effects of imagery in ‘Belfast Confetti’, for example the title itself

the use and effects of punctuation in ‘Belfast Confetti’

the use and effects of particular language choices in ‘Belfast Confetti’

the use and effects of structural features such as enjambment in ‘Belfast Confetti’

Poppies

  Ideas about effects of conflict on civilians in

  The contrast between power and powerlessness

Feelings of nurture and protection

Feelings of fear, loss and bereavement

Ideas about fragility and vulnerability

Use and effects of war / pain imagery

Use and effects of textile imagery

Juxtaposition of contrasting images

Creation of tone through tense, enjambment and language

Futility

  Ideas about waste and pointlessness

  The contrast between power and powerlessness

Ideas about the waste of life

Ideas about the life-giving power of the sun

Attitudes towards the futility of growth and life in the face of humanity’s powers of

destruction

Feelings of grief and loss

Use of form and structure

Use of questions in

Imagery of growth and life

Subtle tone and sense of irony

The Charge of the Light Brigade

  Ideas of patriotism

The poet’s attitude towards the soldiers

The description of the battle and the situation in which the soldiers are placed

The relationship between the soldiers and those in authority over them

Ideas about duty, heroism and honour

AO2

The use and effects of rhyme and rhythm including dactylic metre

The use and effects of particular techniques such as repetition, prepositions,

metaphor, rhetorical devices

Examples of particular language choices and effects

Use of direct speech

Bayonet Charge

  Ideas of patriotism

AO1

the fear of the soldier in ‘Bayonet Charge’

the patriotic attitudes and ideas in ‘Bayonet Charge’

the contrast between ideology and reality in ‘Bayonet Charge’

the soldier’s experience in ‘Bayonet Charge’

AO2

the presentation of time and movement in ‘Bayonet Charge’

the use of structure / form, including enjambment and punctuation, in ‘Bayonet

Charge’ and symbolism

the use of imagery in ‘Bayonet Charge’

the use of sound patterns in ‘Bayonet Charge’

The Falling Leaves

Come On, Come Back

Next to of course god America i

Ideas about symbolism

  Ideas about and attitudes towards patriotism and war

  Ideas about rhetoric and the power (or not) of political words

  The contrast between the noise of war and the silence of the „dead‟

  Ambiguity and irony

A02

  Use and effects of techniques such as alliteration and oxymoron

  Structural features such as use of sonnet form and punctuation for

particular effect

  Use and effects of imagery

  Use of speech conceit as means of conveying irony

 

Hawk Roosting

  Ideas about the hawk as representation of the power of nature

  Ideas about the hawk as metaphor for humanity’s destructive force

  The relationship between the hawk and nature

  Hawk as life-force, unburdened by conscience / rationality

A02

  Use and effects of first person to create connection / empathy / closer perspective

  Use and effects of line endings to create impact and emphasis

  Use of personal pronouns