A Poison Tree Summary: William Blake The speaker is angry with his friend, and with his foe. He tells his friend about his anger, and everything is 1794 fine. He keeps his anger from his foe, and the anger Context/About the poet: grows, eventually killing his foe. • Blake was born, lived and died in London Language, form and structure • Was a Romantic poet - Poem is written in quatrains, and the metre • Worked as a poet and engraver all his life alternates between iambic and trochaic • Religious, but opposed to the Church as an tetrameter organisation - Poem makes allusions to Biblical story of Adam • Wrote ‘Songs of Innocence’ and ‘Songs of and Eve, and to fairy tales, such as Snow White Experience’. Innocence was generally more - Simple language throughout the poem makes it optimistic, and Experience was cynical. A Poison seem as if it is a parable aimed at children Tree was published in Songs of Experience - Subject matter is more complex; simple language is • Claimed to see visions of God as a child and deceptive later in his life - Speaker does not realise how he has been • Supported the French Revolution corrupted by his own anger (“glad I see”) Key themes: Key quotations: • Anger – although anger itself is not wrong, the “I was angry” – parallel syntax in first stanza shows how anger way we deal with it can be harmful to us and can be resolved differently. Two perspectives others “sunned it with smiles” – helped the anger to blossom. • Deception – the speaker bottles up his feelings, Sibilance reminds us of a snake – link to Garden of Eden and the foe sneaks into the garden at night. “It grew both day and night” – the anger constantly blossoms. It lives inside him and becomes worse and worse. Both actions have devastating consequences “Glad I see/My foe outstretched beneath the tree” – The • Communication – the speaker communicates speaker is happy to have caused harm. The anger has changed with his friend, which ends well; he hides his the speaker, as well as blossoming into a tree. feelings from his foe, which does not. The Destruction of Sennacherib Summary: Lord Byron The poem recounts a story from the Bible, where Sennacherib, King of Assyria, lays siege to Jerusalem. 1815 Hezekiah, King of Jerusalem, prays, and in the morning Context/About the poet: 185,000 Assyrians are found dead in their camp • Was a Romantic poet Language, form and structure • Supported the French Revolution - Poem is written in quatrains • Became a national hero in Greece after supporting the Greeks in their war for independence - There is a strong rhythm, which mirrors the sound • Was known for being rebellious and travelled with of horses’ hooves and sets the pace of the poem a large menagerie of animals - Royal colours of purple and gold, along with • Was widely considered to have been the first aggressive imagery, are used to present the celebrity figure Assyrians as powerful at the start • Left England in 1816, following scandal about his - Contrast is used later in the poem with “silence” alleged affair with his half sister and “pale” • The poem was written during the Napoleonic Wars. - Religious imagery – “Angel of Death” The Assyrians may represent Napoleon’s armies. - Natural imagery – “summer is green…Autumn hath Perhaps Byron is suggesting only a miracle could blown” halt the spread of the French Empire. Key quotations: Key themes: “The Assyrian came down like the wolf” – aggressive image. • The power of God – God is seen to destroy the Carnivorous hunting animal used to show the power of Assyrians and protect his chosen people Sennacherib and his army • Nature – Nature is representative of God’s “wither’d and strown” – foreshadowing the death of the power. The natural world is referred to Assyrians. Contrasts with “summer is green” “for ever grew still!” – God has the power to end them throughout the poem permanently. He has also put an end to any further threats • War – The poem is set during a siege from the Assyrians. • Death – Death is an inevitable consequence of “Melted like snow in the glance of the Lord” – the Assyrians war are reduced to puddles of water – contrasts with earlier image The Prelude Summary: William Wordsworth The poem recounts an incident from Wordsworth’s life when, as a young teenager, he ‘borrowed’ a boat and 1850 went sailing on a lake. While out on the lake, he had Context/About the poet: an encounter with nature that changed him. - Wordsworth was a Romantic poet Language, form and structure - His parents died when he was young and he - Wordsworth uses the form of an epic poem, which spent a lot of time in nature, which became a traditionally are about heroes. However, his poem huge influence is about the life of an ordinary man, reflecting the - Wordsworth lived in the Lake District Romantic belief that we are all important. - Was Poet Laureate from 1843-1850 - At the beginning, there are references to “light” - Supported the French Revolution and “sparkling”, but after his encounter with the - He was religious mountain, the language becomes darker. In this - Was very affected by the death of his brother in way the poem could be a metaphor for growing up 1805 and becoming more realistic and less idealised - Thought negatively of the Industrial Revolution about the world - Began the Prelude in 1805, but it was not - The poem is in free verse published until after his death Key quotations: Key themes: “troubled pleasure” – he refers to his conflicted nature and Nature – The power of nature is obvious in the foreshadows the effects of the encounter poem. The mountain towers above the narrator “small circles glittering” – the beauty of the lake and of nature and he is forever impacted by what he has seen itself. Smooth, contained shapes to reflect the ease of stealing Humanity – The narrator is dwarfed by the the boat. “craggy ridge” – a change in tone. Things are no longer enormity of nature. He is completely in awe of smooth and safe. what he has seen. “a huge peak, black and huge” – repetition of huge suggests Change – The narrator experiences a life-changing he is lost for words; he is awestruck event on the lake “no familiar shapes remained” – he is forever changed The Man He Killed Summary: Thomas Hardy The speaker in the poem reflects on the shooting of an enemy soldier, and wonders whether he and the 1902 soldier could have been friends had they met in a pub About the poet: rather than the battlefield. - Thomas Hardy (not to be confused with Admiral Language, form and structure Thomas Hardy) was a novelist and poet from - The poem is written in quatrains with an Dorset alternating rhyme. This could reflect the two - He was influenced heavily by Romanticism, different sides in war, and how they are actually particularly Wordsworth and was critical of many aspects of Victorian society more similar than they seem. - He is famous for his novels which are set in the - Hardy uses working-class language, such as the South-West, and use real places with made-up colloquial “nipperkin” to suggest that these are names. ordinary men - Hardy was interested in social reform - The poem is written using speech marks, showing - Hardy was raised Christian, but later began to that this is the voice of a soldier question the teachings of the church. - Caesura is used at times to show that the soldier - Hardy was against the Boer War, which took place struggles to put his thoughts together in South Africa at the turn of the 20th century Key quotations: Key themes: “Had he and I but met” – Hardy is suggesting that the men Anti-war message: Hardy was opposed to the Boer don’t know anything about each other apart from the fact War. Neither the speaker nor the enemy soldier are that they are supposed to be enemies. named suggesting they could be anyone. “I shot at him as he at me”- Similarities drawn between both Futility of war: The men cannot give a reason for men. It is not clear which man is from which side. This is deliberate; they are both doing as they are told. why they are shooting each other. They are simply “No other reason why” – the soldiers have ended up in this following orders. situation despite not really having any strong beliefs. The Class: the men who signed up are probably working working classes are sent to war on the whims of those in class, and as such, must simply do as they are told. charge of the country. The Charge of the Light Brigade Summary: Alfred, Lord Tennyson The poem recounts a charge during the Battle of Balaclava which resulted in the deaths of many 1854 soldiers. The charge was the result of a misinterpreted About the poet: order. - Lord Tennyson was Poet Laureate for much of the Language, form and structure Victorian era - The poem has a strong rhythm, and is written in - As Laureate, he had to be supportive of the dactylic dimeter, which is reminiscent of the developing industry in England, but he believed very much in the beauty of nature, and so he was sound of horses’ hooves conflicted - “noble six hundred” suggests that the Light Brigade - “Charge of the Light Brigade” is a tribute to the are heroes lives lost during a charge made in 1854. - Parallel syntax creates a sense of fear; the Light - A misinterpreted order led the Light Brigade to ride Brigade have to ride back through the valley to straight into the line of enemy fire escape - As Laureate, Tennyson had to create a sense of the - Repetition of “six hundred”, and then “not the six heroism of the soldiers, rather than being hundred” highlights the loss outwardly critical of the poor decision-making that - Short