Relationships Poetry Anthology

Ballad form (into 12 quatrains) 

• Many regular people couldn't read or write (accessible and memorable)
• Repetition of ideas (recurring motif) and refrains
• Direct speech - adds theatricality and engages audience (Ballad) "I love thee true"
• The question at the start is answered at the end.- Cyclic structure

Flower imagery and metaphors

• "lily on thy brow", pale death.  A contrast between wildflowers and their connotations.
• Garland - like a wedding ring, control.
• 'Wild' (epizeuxis) - enchanting - passive transfer of control.
  

Other notes

• Romantic poet used mythology
• Opposite of damsel in distress (parody)
• Retrospect - reliability
• Pathetic fallacy

Context
Daughter of a Presbyterian minister
Shares 1 romantic theme (not romantic era) - Ordinary people rather than Kings and Gods.
One of the only woman writer of her era

Language
Changing tenses - coming to terms with grief (religion)
Rhetorical Question - desperation, emotive.

Structure
Direct address (2nd person) - "Lead you kindly" (imperative) 
refrain (of address) - "dad" (close), epiphora  showing desperation.
The last line is shorter - couplets show equal relationship until the end.

Context

• Romantic poet
• After the poem was written he got married and divorced.
• Rumours that he had affairs with actresses and his half-sister and abused his wife
• "Mad bad and dangerous to know" - went to Europe and fought for Greek independence from the Ottoman empire.
  

Structure and Language

• Iambic tetrameter - Sincerity and simplicity
• Triadic structure - emphasis on last
• Contrast - "Dark and bright"
• Sibilance - serenely sweet express" Ethereal, (romantic - not rational)
  

Sense of wonder - women and the natural world (Context)

Context

• Pioneer of Romantic era - Nature and high emotion
• Partnership with Coleridge - about him
• Grew up in a rustic area where his dad died - Birthplace had an effect on his writing.
• Didn't see his child for years due to the French revolution (Wife and Daughter lived in France) 

Language and Structure

• Caesura
• 3 participles (active verbs) - "murmuring, sparkling, living love"
• Cyclical structure - "fond hearts door"

Context

• Doomed love and imperfections - Tess of the d'Urbervilles
• Romantic influence - Death of countryside and industrial revolution impact

Language

• Pathetic fallacy - "Sun was white, as though chidden of God" - 12th Century word stands out - stuck in the past.
• "were grey" -> "greyish leaves": setting changes with writers memory
• Oxymoron - "Alive enough to have the strength to die" - Not getting on
• Semantic field of neutral colours -  'grey' ironic because reader is angry, not neutral, Nature is indifferent and doesn't care - challenges romantic influence

Structure

• Cyclical structure - no sense of closure
• Ballad - (ABBA) unconventional rhyme scheme for Ballad form - damage in relationship
• Dramatic monologue - 'Your', high emotion, confession, in the moment.

Context

• Invalid for most of her life - Did lots of reading (Heavily influenced by the Bible)
• Fell in love with Robert Browning (She was already married) and ran away to Italy with him.
• Wrote 44 Sonnets in private before they got married

Language

• Archaic language - "I love thee": Imagery & connotations to love: Love is spiritual
• Questions/Direct address - "How do I love thee?" - Confident, love should be questioned, Untraditional - can be counted
• Emotive language - High emotion (context - Invalid)

Structure

• Italian Sonnet - Traditional love poem (Octave + sestet) - Love is same as any other
• Capitalisation - "Being and Ideal Grace" - Biblical and devotion. Being compared to worshiping God
• Caesura - Attention to High emotion. Doesn't flow perfectly (love isn't)

Context

• Wanted to be a play write - Narrative poetry
• About a powerful character from Renaissance - Duke Ferrera
• Patriarchal society - Women are subservient, Men in charge 

Language

• Possessive pronouns - "My" - control
• Metaphor - "Notice Neptune, though, taming a sea-horse" - Powerful controlling something delicate yet wild but peaceful. Seahorses can't be tamed aren't a threat
• Symbolism - "The curtain I have drawn" - Only to be seen on occasion. Death

Structure

• Dramatic Monologue - 1 perspective, biased (symbolic of what we know about her)
• Rhetorical Questions - "Will't you please sit and look at her" - Not a question but an imperative command. Power
• Repetition (antanaclasis[?]) - "as if alive" - at the start (realistic) and end (no longer alive - taunting beyond death). Emphasis that she is dead.

Context

• 21st-century dating
• OBE and feminist
• Satirist - "Making cocoa for Kingsley Amis" collection
  

Language

• Pronouns - "I/She"
• "Where are we?" - Play or in relationship
• Euphemism - "It wasn't entirely untrue" - the whole thing is a disaster but they pretend otherwise

Structure

• Ballad - amusing, predictable
• Motif/repetition - "undistracted by me"
• 2 monologues - dual perspective, ironic/symbolic - next to each other but don't share feelings.

Context

• Current Poet laureate
• Explores conflict/dark side of relationships (Havisham) and perspective of hurt lover
• Challenges Stereotypes (The world's wife)

Language

• Alliteration "Cute card" - Sarcastic tone
• Metaphor "moon wrapped in brown paper" - Hyperbole, expectations of love
• "It will blind you with tears like a lover" - Smilie - not able to see things as they are. An opinion stated as fact (convinced from experience).
• "Take it" imperative: Subversion. commitment is forceful "shrink to a wedding ring" metaphor

Structure

• Syntax - Most lines end with a noun for imagery. "heart" to "knife"
• Irregular - ups and downs of a relationship. Short sentences are forceful.
• Enjambment - constant attention in a relationship.

Context

• Catholic
• member of 'The movement' - Anti-modernist/romantic - been through 2 wars and believes the past shouldn't be romanticised.
• 20th Century - Talk about sexual/physical relationships openly.

Structure

• Juxtaposition and contrast "strangely apart yet strangely close"
• Irregular rhyme scheme - unpredictable
• pronouns - a Universal couple (i.e 'he' not 'my dad' )

Context

• Performance poet and musician - "Bard of Salford"
• Punk Poet - Often uses comedy

Language

• metaphor - "let me be your" - possessive, control in a good way. household objects. love is every day, not romantic moments.
• simile/ epizeuxis /hyperbole- "deep as the Atlantic ocean, deep deep deep"
• Pun "coffee pot/ call the shots" - love isn't serious

Structure

• No punctuation - breaking the rules (punk poet)
• anaphora + epiphora -"let me be your/ i wanna be yours" - in a submissive role
• rhyme/lyrical - context.

Context

• Post-modern - Referencing other texts
• Intertextual - Alice in Wonderland
• Satirises the Couplet form - not predictable (usually used)
  

Language
Anaphora
Metaphor/reference "eat me/drink me" - love is fantasy
possessive impersonal pronoun - "What I hate about love is its ..." - personification of love

Structure
coupler - half rhymes yet unpredictable. go together but not.
Change of tone. "what I loathe"

Context

• Two of his children predeceased him.
• Ex-army (WW2) - war/conflict is everywhere.

Language

• Plosive alliteration - aggression "blister beaded"
• Personification - aggression, conflict

Structure

• Iambic pentameter - heartbeat/marching army
• Juxtaposition "nettle bed" - innocence/ military
• "and" repetition - memory being recollected.

Context

• Based on C4 documentary "The not dead" (He is a modern poet)
• Bosnian war (also focuses on social issues of war)
• Role of Pain in relationships

Language

• Semantic field (body and objects) - being dehumanised, not in control of his identity. Physical body in a relationship
• verbs become more intimate - "trace" to "hold"
• Metaphor - martial imagery. lack of intimacy in the army - "grazed heart".

Structure

• Rhyming couplets - couple or organised like military (subversion, wife takes active role)
• repetition - Desperation of wife ("only then...")
• Antithesis - starts off "passionate nights" to violent images.

Context

• South-African poet - Parent/Child relationships transcend nationality and race.
• Emotional distance of the previous generation

Language

Structure

Time