AQA Poetry on theme of Work
Notes on poems upon the theme of work
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- Created by: Emma
- Created on: 17-05-09 21:29
The Chimney Sweep - William Blake
- Song
- Contrast of the Voice of Innoncence with Voice of Experience
- Thoughts are contained within stanzas lending a heavy feel to the poem
- Stanzas reflect the claustrophobia and restrictions of the chimney
- Absence of imagery reflects the cutting off of a child's imagination or reflect the simple diction of a child
- Rhyming couplets
- Mood is optimistic in contrast with the foreboding and threatening voice of experience
- Voice of Innocence = naieve, vulnerable
- Voice of Experience = sceptic, threatening
Poem suggets that the children are in danger whether or not they are obedient whilst religion promises to protect the children if they 'do their duty'
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Haymaking by Joanne Baillie
- Work is manual labour
- Idealised view of 18th century rural life presented
- Pastoral homage
- Poem is exaggerated and lacks critical perspective
- Pastoral poem
- 3rd person narrative creates a distant & omniscient narrator with a panoramic view of the area
- Single verse paragraph echoes the fecundity of nature, cohesive society & continuous nature of work
- Authority mentioned suggests a representative slice of society spoken about
- Lack of similes & metaphors reflects the simplistic rural existence & language
- Language is poetic, archaic & rural specific reflecting the traditional period
- Language equates work and happiness
- Iambic pentameter echoes regularity, continuity & structure
- Speaker of the poem immortalises society ignoring the imminent threat of industrialisation
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Work Without Hope by Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1
- Work is the writing of poetry
- Poem is ironic as the poet laments his inability to write poetry in a poem
- Theme of writing poetry remains oblique throughout
- Productivity of nature is used to highlight the isolation of the poet
- Poet is presented as an observor rather than a participant
- Imagery echoes the natural world and refers to the poets mental state
- Poem is an untraditional sonnet
- Narrative voice in the sestet emphasizes the poets inability to write
- 2nd person narrative in the octet addresses the audience
- 3rd person narrative in the final rhyming couplet makes a universal point and is a volta
- Sestet focuses on the productivity of nature in opposition to the poets inability to be productive
- Octet furthers the idea and links it to the audience
- Use of alternate rhyme creates an open mood
- Rhyming couplet indicates a final conclusion
- Personification of nature & seasons shows they work automatically
- Apostacy is used as the poet addresses the Amaranths which he knows cannot answer
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Work Without Hope by Samuel Taylor Coleridge 2
- Stressed syllable in the first line "All" emphasizes the poets exclusion
- Poem can be read in sympathy with the poet or viewed as the self - indulgent outpourings of a lethargic poet
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A Coat by W.B. Yeats
- Work is the writing of poetry
- Yeats rejects the poets that adpoted his 'Celtic Twilight' style
- First person narrative as the poem is personal
- 10 line stanza shows the less complicated style adopted by Yeats
- 1st 4 lines of the poem set up the extended metaphor
- Lines 5-7 focus on imitation of 'Celtic Twilight' style
- Last 3 lines is a renunciation of the style
- Extended metaphor of the coats acts as an analogy for Yeats decorated and stylised 'Celtic Twilight' style
- Lack of imagery echoes Yeat's new simplistic style
- Regular and off rhyme
- Rhythm echoes the volta in last 3 lines
- Tone is bitter and scournful
- Metaphorical nakedness signifies an important step in the poets development and suggests that a poet has a responsibility to convey him message in an uncomplicated way
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Miners by Wilfred Owen 1
- Work is mining or fighting
- Poem is in response to an explosion in a coal mine in 1918 that killed 150 miners
- Poem echoes WWI
- Highlights the expendability of miners & soldiers who risk their lives and are then forgotten by the future generations that live in comfort due to their sacrifice
- Dramatic monologue
- First person narrative as the poem is a personal response to an event
- Stanzas 1 - 3 focus on prehistoric times and the origin of coal
- Stanzas 4 - 6 focus on the sacrifice of the miners and soldiers
- Stanzas 7 & 8 focuses on the oblivious future generations that live in comfort
- Throughout poem there is the unifying symbol of coal which is an instrumental war material in war time
- Semantic field of darkness signifying death
- Personal prounouns show the poet identifies with the speaker
- Half rhyme creates a heavy sound lending a bleak & sombre tone to the poem
- Half rhyme and shortened lines signify the lives half - lived & short life
- Regular rhyme in stanzas lends a more positive tone
- Low pitched vowel sounds echo resignation and inevitability
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Miners by Wilfred Owen 2
- Tone is resigned and accepting
- Owen writes of the poignancy of death and the lack of appreciation accorded
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"Oh Lurcher-loving collier, black as night..." by
- Work is mining
- Contrasts of work and play & black and white
- Song
- Speaker encourages miner to pursue love while he can
- Last 3 lines encourages the miners lover to ensure she is caught
- Extended metre in line 5 symbolises Sunday, the day the lovers wish to last longest
- Language is specific to mining
- Regular rhyme
- Syllabic beat of lines
- Universal message
- Poem urges lovers to seize the opportunities presented by love
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Toads by Philip Larkin 1
- Toad is an extended metaphor throughout the poem symbolising the burden of work and fear of negating responsibility
- Poet questions if working all one's life is worth the financial reward of a pension and whether he is battling part of his identity. Question remains unanswered but speaker learns an important lesson
- 2nd voice in the poem is the toad of responsibility
- First person narrative used as the speaker is introspective
- Poem presents the subversive desire for freedom vs. need for security
- Ends with a tone of finality upon a conclusion
- Quatrains echo the cogent and methodical steps used to solve a problem
- Similes and hyperbole used to vent frustration
- Visual images are unusual creating humour
- Literary allusions used but for the opposite meaning to which they were intended
- Alliteration & siballance create a casual attitude
- Irony invoked as although poet despises work he needs the security it provides
- Half rhyme creates a bittersweet message
- Enjambement links the ideas within the poem
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Toads by Philip Larkin 2
- Colloquial style, humourous images & lack of poetic style suggests truth and authenticity of the poem
- End of the poem the speakers tone becomes resigned to the need for work
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Toads Revisited by Philip Larkin 2
- Poet views people not working making him realise his desire to work rather than being inactive & lacking purpose
- Narrative voice expresses a universal & hypothetical standpoint
- Structure reflects the certainty of the speaker
- Extended metaphor of the toad
- Lots of similes, metaphors & personification
- End rhyming couplet reflects the grudging conclusion of the speaker
- Quatrains echo different ideas, shortness of life & compartmentalizing of work
- Poet associates work with mental & physical ability, structure ensuing the brain won't suffer and a sense of purpose
- Half rhyme echoes distraction and lack of commitment of the speaker
- Syntactic patterning [repetition of themes/words] reinforces the ideas
- Mood of stanza 6 suggests that other forces govern ones life even if one doesn't work
- Mood of final stanza is the resignation of the continuation of owrk
- Overall mood is resolute, resigned and final
- Poem presents an alternate attitude to work
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Toads Revisited by Philip Larkin 1
- Persuasion to agree with poet due to negative depiction of work
- Poem can be read as depressing as it suggests one works until death or can be read as humourous due to image of the toad
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View of a Pig by Ted Hughes 1
- Pig is fattened up - a means to an end- to become the end product
- Lack of life in stanzas is contrasted to the vitality in stanzas 7 & 8
- First person narrative
- Lack of emotion creates distance between speaker & subject
- Stanza 1 - 6 focuses on the pigs death in a detached way
- Stanza 6 is disjointed
- Stanza 7 & 8 are more dynamic & personal due to use of anecdote
- Regular structure echoes moderated feelings and factual subject
- Enjambement adds flexibility to the poem
- Stanza 7 seperates memory from reality
- Imagery in stanza 7 shows pig making animalistic & incoherent noises
- Monosyllables in first 2 lines create heavy, dead sound echoing subject matter
- Diction in stanza 3 shows frustration
- Stanza 6 uses blunt language echoing lack of emotion
- Hyperbole recreates pig as a monstrous force
- Repetition of death enforces the idea and is anti - elegaic
- No regular rhythm or rhyme
- Internal rhyme emphasizes heavy dead sounds
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View of a Pig by Ted Hughes 2
- End stopped lines echo the finality of death
- Speaker appears frustrated & disrespectful of the pig viewing it is an inanimate object rather than a living animal
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Tractor by Ted Hughes 1
- Tractor viewed as a powerful but unintelligent opponent
- 3 major forces set in opposition: elements, human and tractor
- Work presented as a struggle/conflict between forces
- Speaker is a farmer or labourer
- Free verse conveys ideas & emotions of human & suggests interaction
- Free verse echoes idea of something uncontrolled, unpredictable
- Stanza 1 focuses on conflict between elements & tractor
- Stanza 2 continues the conflict and introduces human
- Stanza 3 & 4 are linked through the anticipation of the tractor 'coming to life'
- Stanza 5 the tractor comes to life and the human is defeated
- Semantic field of war in stanza 2
- Present tense verbs in stanza 6 suggest immediacy and focus
- Stanza 6 use words linked to heaviness, force & imprisonment which have dual meanings as they apply to the tractor & imply human futility to assert force
- Repetition in stanza 4 echoes human futility
- No regular pattern or rhyme
- Rhythmic quality created through use of alliteration, assonance, half - rhymes & onomatopoeia
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Tractor by Ted Hughes 2
- Poem presents attitude and feeling of poet towards work
- Mood is frustration, anger & conflict
- Humans are undermined as tractor is victorious
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The Forge by Seamus Heaney 1
- Rural work of forging
- Analogy for writing a poem which remains oblique
- Forging is depicted as a dying art
- Noise creates the image of what occurs in the forge
- Blacksmiths 'music' of his trade echoes the poets 'song'
- First person narrative as the poet is speaking as a young boy
- Mystery is created through ambiguity
- Untraditional sonnet form reflects the traditional art dying out
- Poem starts outside, continues inside & returns outside containing the poem within
- Image of farrier is reminscient of Vulcan the roman god of the forge, elevating the character
- "Door in the Dark" is a metaphor for the human mind
- Monosyllabic verbs in last 2 lines echo the heavy rhythmic labour
- 'Music' of the forge is created through assonance, onomatopoeia & alliteration
- Irregular rhyme & half - rhyme help create the 'music'
- Regular rhyme scheme [lines 1 -4 and last 6 lines] echo the repetitive task
- Rhythm is erratic
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The Forge by Seamus Heaney 2
- End stopped lines create conclusive, seperate statements
- Speaker is derogatory of the farrier describing him in an unsophisticated way
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Felix Randal by Gerard Manley Hopkins 1
- Work of the priest is presented as beneficial and personal
- Felix is defined by his work
- Message of poem is that despite one's physical strength we all die
- Religious sonnet
- 3rd person narrative focuses on Felix and is plural, inclusive & makes a universal point
- 1st stanza focuses on the physical state of Felix
- 2nd stanza focuses on the spiritual & mental state of Felix
- 3rd stanza focuses on the emotional relationship between Felix and the priest
- 4th stanza is reflective and raises Felix to almost mythical status
- Personification of time and illness
- Alliteration links the priest & farrier to their respective occupations showing importance
- Religious diction used
- Final stanza uses alliteration ensuring pronounciation creating emphasis & uses plosives to indicate power
- Repetition of vowel sounds shows Felix is the epitome of a man
- Poem begins with an indifferent tone which develops into a tone of positivity and admiration
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Felix Randal by Gerard Manley Hopkins 2
- Poem holds a negative message about death
- Poem suggests that one's occupation is central to one's life and identity
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The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth
- Dramatic Monologue
- Rural labour presented as serene
- Poem focuses on the singing and setting rather than work
- 1st person narrative although the speaker is distant from the work
- Semantic field of isolation as speaker is not a participant
- Pathetic fallacy used
- Alliteration & sibillance recreates the 'song'
- Poem transcends through the past, present & future as the girl is a symbol of tradition
- Tone is that of regret
- Rhyming couplets suggest the world is in order
- Iambic rhythm suggests the rhythmic quality of her work
- Poet seeks to immortalise her song
- Poem sets hot & cold in opposition
- Regular alternate rhyme scheme reflects the regularity of her work & harmony
- Caesura breaks rhythm focusing emphasis
- Harmony suggested through enjambement & liquid imagery
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The Carpenter's Son by A.E. Housman
- Dramatic monologue
- Poem is lyrcal using a regular rhyme scheme & refain
- Epigrammatic as it is short & carries a moral message
- Poem can be read metaphorically & literally
- Speaker laments that if he had followed his fathers trade he wouldn't be hung
- Speaker has a self - centred morality as he regrets the consequence not the crime
- The 'ill' repeated in the poem remains oblique
- Tone of wistful evocation of doomed youth
- First person narrative
- Implied readers are the young men of the area
- 2nd person narrative addresses the audience as a message is given
- Lack of imagery suggests speakers unsophisticatd & simplistic background
- Implied religious imagery of the crucifixtion of christ
- Idiom 'save your own [neck]' reinforces speakers self - centered morality
- Religous allusions are ironic as christ sacrificed himself from the sins of others wihlsts speaker of the poem focuses on himself but doesnt regret his sin
- 4th stanza is startling as implies violence
- Brief, regular stanzas seperates poem into logical steps making it predictable
22 of 27
The Carpenter's Son by A.E. Housman
- Rhyming couplets signify finality as speaker will die
- Poem contains a tone of foreboding as speaker warns his friends
- Speaker views the world as reductive as he views life in a simplistic way - if you follow the right path you will come to no harm
- Speaker doesnt view world in a reductive way as he has no sense of right and wrong
23 of 27
To A Friend Whose Work Has Come To Nothing by W.B.
- Poem is about a friend of W.B. Yeats called Lady Gregory
- Work that has 'come to nothing' is her efforts to persuade Dublin government to build an art gallery
- 'Brazen throat' is William Martin Murphy who opposed project wanting 'sanitary house at low rent' to be built for the poor
- Poem aims to inspire hope in a temporarily beaten artist
- Speaker assures there is no shame in defeat in an unfair competition
- Speaker advises perseverance and continuity
- Narrative voice is that of Yeats
- Poem is a verse epistle [letter like]
- Poem starts with problem, offers a solution, gives a reason for solution
- Similes allude to Yeats & Lady Gregory's love for culture
- Speaker suggests the most difficult thing to do is to persevere in face of failure
- Half rhyme symbolizes the problem
- Full rhyme symbolizes the solution
- Brief lines & poem suggests advice without embellishment which may detract from meaning
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To A Friend Whose Work Has Come To Nothing by W.B.
- Speakers attitude is strong and continuous
- Speakers mood is consolidating, inspiration & encouraging
- Poem presents a rational apporach to an irrational feeling oversimplifying the problem
- Title is an anomaly as it is blunt and honest rather than encouraging
- Work is described as an action that requires consistent perseverance
- Speaker suggests that art is an end rather than a means
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In Memory of W.B. Yeats by W.H. Auden 1
- Poem is an ode & elegy to Yeats
- Poem suggests Yeats lives on through the imagination of others
- Arguably 3 different voices presented, 1 per section
- Section 1 written in free verse symbolizing unknown & uncertain nature of death
- Section 2 addresses Yeats suggesting Yeats continues to impact people's lives thorugh poetry
- Section 3 written in iambic hexameter has definitive ideas about the power of poetry
- Structure of poem elevates poetry as fusion of free verse & strict rhyme plays homage to innovation & tradition that Yeats worked with
- Liquid imagery suggets poetry passes on a message uniting people
- Imagery reflects historical context with reference to pre - war Europe
- Metaphors of productivity suggest poetry is a healing, creative process
- Powerful contrast between dying impotence of the poet & reviving power of verse
- Hyperbole & elevated language elevate the work of the poet
- Poem is conversational and symbolic balancing Yeats as a friend on a personal level and as a great poet
- Poem suggests the most a poet can achieve is to be remembered by his admirers as his work becomes independent of him
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In Memory of W.B. Yeats by W.H. Auden 2
- Unrhymed free verse in Section 1 and rhythmical heptasyllabic couplets in Section 3 suggests free flow of emotion which becomes regulated
- Sections suggests different approaches & stages of Yeats life
- Metaphors, personification, alliteration & pathetic fallacy create indifference to Yeats death in first section
- Opposite to the claim "poetry makes nothing happen" Auden concludes that poetry is inspirational
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