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OCR GCSE Poetry Guide:
Conflict Anthology
By Emily Bird and Jeff Thomas
A Poison Tree by William Blake
Language The poem relies upon the extended metaphor of the apple tree as a representation of the narrator’s anger. The growing tree symbolizes the growing anger that the narrator harbours for his foe. Tending the tree with ‘ fears ’ and ‘ tears ’ symbolizes the narrator’s obsessive thoughts about the enemy and the pain caused by the discord. The ‘ apple bright ’ could represent a moment of triumph where the narrator is victorious over his foe. Maybe some of his ‘ deceitful wiles ’ have engineered a situation that elevates him and debases the enemy. The enemy ‘ knew that it was ’ the narrator who was the cause of his disgrace, he seeks revenge on the narrator, but in doing so, gets hurt in the process when he eats the apple. The metaphor ‘ water’d it in fears ’ is used to show that fear is an underlying cause of anger. Blake uses sibilance in line 7 with the phrase ‘ sunned it with smiles ’ in order to enhance the growing threat of the festering anger. The image of the apple is an allusion to the fruit eaten by Adam and Eve. Just like Adam and Eve, the foe steals forbidden fruit and suffers dire consequences as a result. Blake is gently reminding the reader to heed The Bible. The language in the last line is ambiguous. The reader is told that the foe lies ‘ outstretch’d beneath the tree ’, but cannot be certain whether he is suffering from the poison or actually dead. This language serves to keep the reader thinking about what really happened, and what could happen next, thus keeping the poem alive in their imagination. Form The poem consists of four quatrains. This gives an illusion of regularity that is at odds with the highly irregular content of the poem. Blake uses this form to make his poem as accessible as possible, so that its message can reach a large audience. Blake uses rhyming couplets to create a consistent rhyme scheme that runs throughout the poem. This gives it a ‘sing-song’ quality, and makes
it sound almost like a nursery rhyme. Nursery rhymes are used to teach children about the world, and this poem also carries advice for its readers, both young and old. Structure The poem introduces a volta after the first two lines, when the focus switches from anger between friends, to anger between enemies. The fact that the scenario where the anger between friends can be dealt with in two lines shows that the situation was simple to remedy and that the action of communicating the anger was the right way. After the volta, the remaining 14 lines deal with the complicated and destructive results of harbouring anger. A second volta appears at the beginning of line 15 when the narrator reveals the shocking fact that he is ‘ glad ’ his foe has been poisoned. After this turning point, the reader finds it hard to identify with the narrator as his reaction is ugly in its celebration of unhappiness. 14 out of 16 lines are end-stopped, giving the poem a measured quality with the impression that the story is being recounted in a precise way so that the moral can be easily perceived. Line 12 into 13 uses enjambment. Here, the foe is invading the narrator’s garden, and as he transgresses boundaries, so too does the language, suddenly breaking the structure to flow into the next line. Context William Blake was interested in his own literary heritage, loved the works of Shakespeare and produced many illustrations inspired by Shakespeare’s plays. We may also see some Shakespearean influences within A Poison Tree. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, ‘fair is foul, and foul is fair’ meaning that which looks innocent and wholesome, is actually dangerous. Blake takes up this imagery in his own poem, so the ‘ apple bright ’ looks tempting but is actually poisonous. When Macbeth hears that Duncan isn’t going to make him king, he says ‘Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires.’ This scene is reflected in A Poison Tree as the foe waits until the ‘ night had veil’d the pole ’ star, before he goes to steal the ‘ apple bright ’. In both instances, the characters need the cover of darkness in order to perpetrate their actions because they know that they are doing wrong. Blake had a great interest in social reform and used his poetry to try and improve the lives of all people. This poem seeks to teach people that communication is the key to avoiding feelings of anger and fear.
Structure The poem is structured around a logical argument that builds up step by step, using the extended metaphor of the rose-tree. In the opening three lines, the narrator reminds the reader that a rose ‘ is not made to bear ’ any other kinds of flowers. In the next three lines, this argument is developed as the narrator points out that the rose would strive ‘ in vain ’ if it did try and change its ‘ natural bent ’. It simply isn’t possible for a rose to grow other flowers. Stanza two then adds another layer to the logic. Here, the narrator says that if a rose were to try and change, they could only conclude that it had never been able to appreciate the different ways in which it is beautiful. The final stanza draws the logic together, saying that ‘ envious persons ’ shouldn’t attempt the futile task of becoming something they are not, instead, they should look within and take time to appreciate the qualities they already have. The poem finishes by saying that the talents found within will be ‘ rare ’, this leaves the reader feeling that if they do look at themselves they will be rewarded with a realisation that they are unique and special. Context Mary Lamb, and her brother Charles collaborated on many literary works that were written for children, including their noted Tales from Shakespeare and Poetry for Children. Indeed, Envy is the very first poem in the Poetry for Children anthology. Although Envy was written for children, its message is applicable to people of all ages. In the modern world, surrounded by images of airbrushed celebrities, and polished social media profiles, it can be easy to lose sight of true inner qualities. Both Mary and her brother were friends with famous Romantic writers such as William and Dorothy Wordsworth. The use of nature was a dominant characteristic of Romantic literature and Lamb picks up this trend in Envy through her use of the rose tree as an extended metaphor for human emotions. Mary Lamb struggled with mental illness, and in 1796 she stabbed her own mother to death. There was an inquest and the coroner returned a verdict of ‘lunacy’. For the remainder of her life Lamb was cared for by family members as well as spending periods of time inside asylums.
Boat Stealing by William Wordsworth
Language Although set at night, this poem is initially filled with references to light. The ‘ moon was up ’ and the lake is ‘ shining clear ’. As he rows, the moonlight continues to glitter on the water, and when the narrator looks up he can see the ‘ stars ’ in the sky. Such descriptions of light create a beautiful scene, and it’s easy for the reader to understand why the narrator risks stealing the boat in order to immerse himself in nature’s sublime glory. However, the narrator finds himself cut off from the light and beauty after the encounter with the ‘ huge cliff ’. On line 31 it ‘Rose up between me and the stars ’ and this emphasizes the profound effect the experience has upon the narrator. The atmosphere of gloom continues to haunt the narrator afterwards, his thoughts become ‘ dim ’ and he feels a ‘ darkness ’, showing that the experience will have lasting effects. Wordsworth uses the oxymoron, ‘ troubled pleasure ’ to shows that stealing the boat fills him with conflicting emotions and suggests that he is half expecting to encounter the ‘ huge cliff ’ during his venture. Wordsworth uses the natural scenery to create an extended metaphor in order to explore the theme of innocence and experience. The narrator initially believes that he understands the world, and that he can see the ‘ bound of the horizon ’. However, this is an illusion, because behind the ‘ rocky steep ’ lurks the ‘ huge cliff ’. This new geographical feature represents a growing awareness of the world, and the narrator is shaken by the realisation that life is a lot more complicated than he initially thought. Wordsworth personifies the mountain when he says it ‘ Upreared its head ’. He develops this idea saying it ‘ Strode after me ’. Through this personification, Wordsworth conveys the sense of threat he suddenly experiences out on the lake. The simile ‘ like a living thing ’ shows that he knows this peak isn’t a real threat, but that he has come to understand that the world does have threats. Form This poem is written in blank verse and uses iambic pentameter, the meter most commonly associated with this form. The unrhymed lines and iambic pentameter mean that the poem sounds naturalistic, and this suits the content, as the poet is sharing a private moment with the reader and doesn’t want his thoughts overshadowed by elaborate verse. Boat Stealing is only a small section from The Prelude , a work of epic length.
The Destruction of Sennacherib by Lord Byron
Language Byron uses the simile ‘ like a wolf ’ to describe the Assyrians, making them sound fierce; it also dehumanises them and brings them down to the level of beasts. The Assyrian army is described as ‘ gleaming in purple and gold ’ and this shows that they are proud and confident in their advance on Jerusalem, they’re not making a surprise attack. In stanza two, the temporal language of ‘ sunset ’ and then ‘ morrow ’ makes it clear to the reader that the Assyrian army is defeated in just one night. It is interesting that the Angel of Death only ‘ breathed ’ on the Assyrians in order to defeat them, demonstrating the power of both him and God. There is a lot of imagery to do with light in the first stanza, for instance, the soldiers have a ‘sheen’ on their spears. This emphasizes that they are a well-equipped army with new weapons, which in turn makes them seem formidable and threatening. The image of the dead horse in stanza four brings pathos to the poem, as the animal was innocent and suffered because of the war-like nature of mankind. In stanza five, Byron tells his readers that there is ‘ rust ’ on the mail of the dead Assyrian soldier, which is in direct contrast to the ‘ gleaming ’ soldiers of stanza one, proving that their glamour is quickly lost in the face of the power of Christianity. The simile ‘ melted like snow ’ is used to emphasize the fact that for all their ‘ might ’, the Assyrians were no match the Angel of Death. This idea is intensified with the final phrase ‘ the glance of the Lord! ’ Proving that God needed to make barely any effort in order to defeat Sennacherib’s army. Form The poem is made up of six quatrains, and rhyming couplets are used consistently throughout the poem, giving it a very regular, dependable form. It could be argued that this reflects the idea that the faithful of Jerusalem were able to depend upon their god to defend them against the Assyrian attackers. The meter produces a very buoyant rhythm, which seems at odds with the sobering events contained within the poem, however, it could reflect the jubilant feelings of those who have escaped being attacked by Sennacherib and his forces. Structure The volta appears half way through stanza two, before this, the Assyrian army seems powerful and proud, afterwards they are shown to be no match against the power of God. In line 5, Byron uses the image of a forest in summer to show the Assyrians are in their prime. In line 7, the image of a forest is both
repeated and adapted, to emphasize that the Assyrians have been destroyed. This repetition and elaboration makes the structure of stanza two very economical and shows the speed at which the ‘Angel of Death’ kills the aggressors. Stanza five details the still and silent battlefield, this is juxtaposed with the violence and noise found directly afterwards in stanza six, where the widows ‘ wail ’ and the ‘ idols are broke ’. This juxtaposition shows that there are always consequences to war. In this case, the women grieve for loved ones, but also question their culture and faith having lost the battle. Every line is end-stopped, giving the structure a feeling of containment, possibly reflecting the idea that the Assyrian soldiers could not escape from the fatal actions of the Angel of Death. Context The Destruction of Sennacherib alludes to Biblical accounts of Sennacherib’s attack on Jerusalem. For example, in the Second book of Kings it states ‘ on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand ’. At the time the poem was written, Britain had been involved in the Napoleonic wars for over a decade, it is arguable that this poem captures the hopes of a nation, as they prayed for a swift and decisive victory against the French. The Temple of Baal, which is mentioned in the last stanza was partially destroyed by ISIS in 2015, showing that war and conflict is an ever present problem for humanity. Byron was a key figure in the Romantic Movement, which was fascinated with what it considered to be exotic cultures. Romantics were also drawn to supernatural events. Both of these elements are evident in The Destruction of Sennacherib.
Form In terms of its metre and rhyme scheme, this poem reflects the form found in many hymns. This form enhances the religious undercurrent found in There’s a certain Slant of Light. Structure The structure of this poem is broken time and time again through Dickinson’s use of dashes, which both arrest the flow of language and suggest that much is left unsaid as the narrator struggles to order their thoughts and feelings. In line 5, Dickinson plays with syntax to create a line that seems communicated in reverse order. This structuring again adds to the feeling of discomfort present throughout the poem. The poem opens with the imagery of the oppressive light and closes on an even darker note, as although the light is blinding, the alternative is darkness and ‘ Death ’. This structuring suggests that struggle, despair and isolation are ever present throughout life, and this suffering only comes to an end with death. Context Although Dickinson was a prolific poet, she did not desire her work to be published, in fact, she believed that to have the work bought and paid for was akin to an ‘auction of the mind’. However, Dickinson did produce fascicles, hand-bound books, for herself, in order to draw her work together. This desire to keep her work private is reflected in There’s a certain Slant of Light , with its theme of isolation and its exploration of the soul of the individual. Dickinson was brought up a Calvinist, but in adult life decided to stop attending public worship, whilst still retaining a sense of faith. This struggle with defining spirituality is evident in the poem as religion is a key theme.
The Man He Killed by Thomas Hardy
Language Hardy uses speech marks around the words in the poem to show that he is reporting the words of another, Hardy never passes comment on what the man says, he simply retells the veteran’s story. This allows the reader to assume that the story comes from experience, not imagination, and this makes it more intense. The vocabulary throughout the poem is straightforward, this reflects the fact that the story is told by an ordinary man in his own straightforward terms. In line 7 the man says ‘ I shot at him as he at me ’ and here the internal rhyme of ‘ he ’ and ‘ me ’ links the two men to emphasize the fact that at that moment during the battle, their fates were linked together. Line 9 ends with a dash in order to create a pause in the poem that reflects the pause in the veteran’s speech. This pause signals that the man needs to think about why he shot the other man dead. At the same point in the poem, the man repeats the word ‘ because ’ this intensifies the impression that he is playing for time as he struggles to come up with a good reason for killing the other person. On line 17 the man exclaims how ‘ quaint and curious war is! ’ This use of litotes seems to suggest that the man is so overwhelmed by his experience of war that he struggles to find the right words to describe it. His understatement shows that words fail to describe the horrors he’s seen and done. It is poignant that the narrator describes the enemy as a ‘ fellow ’ suggesting that the man was a potential friend and a contemporary, not a threat. No proper nouns are used in the poem, which gives it a universal feel, and here Hardy is suggesting that the situation is not an isolated incident, it is common to all wars. Form This poem has a sophisticated form. It never deviates from rhyming alternate lines. Lines 1, 2 and 4 of each quatrain uses an iambic trimeter rhythm, while line 3 of each quatrain uses an iambic tetrameter. This refined form elevates the seemingly straightforward language that the man uses to express himself, so that the work becomes profound and enduring, not just an anecdote. The poem takes the form of a dramatic monologue as the narrator explains an experience he had during the war. However, the content in stanzas two and three becomes very reflective as the man tries to justify the killing and give his enemy a context. At this point, the poem almost becomes a soliloquy as it seems the narrator has forgotten his audience and is now wrestling with internal feelings about the event.
Anthem for Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen
Language In line 1, the simile ‘ die as cattle ’ shows that the soldiers are seen as less than human. Furthermore they are being butchered in a mechanized way, on an industrial scale, which has become as routine as the slaughter of cattle in an abattoir. The soldiers yet living cannot afford to mark the passing of their fallen comrades, they must concentrate on their own struggle to stay alive. Instead, the guns and rifles are personified, and it is they who commemorate the fallen men. However, their prayers are ‘ hasty ’, suggesting a lack of care and they sound like ‘ patter ’, in other words, a well-practised speech, said repeatedly and without thought, making it insincere. The fact that the prayers are a ‘ hasty ’ ‘ patter ’ also emphasizes the high frequency with which they are said each day. Owen maintains a theme of religion throughout the sonnet with references to ‘ passing-bells ’, ‘ choirs ’ and ‘ prayers ’. He presents the trenches as a Godless place where church bells are replaced by the racket of gunfire and then scathingly suggests that the rituals of religion are ‘ mockeries ’ anyway; it doesn’t matter that the men have no last rites as their deaths are senseless, no matter what’s done to commemorate their passing. He implies that there was no sanctity of life in the trenches. The octet is filled with noise, language such as ‘ stuttering rifles’ and ‘ wailing shells ’ evoke the soundscape of the battle; while the onomatopoeia of ‘ rifles’ rapid rattle ’ suggests the noise of the gunfire. The sound of the ‘ bugles calling ’ the Last Post becomes a bridge between the octet and the sestet and moves the action from the trenches to back home in England. The pace slows in the sestet in order to give it a more reflective tone that befits the exploration of the grief felt by those left behind. Having railed against the inadequacy of religion in the octet, Owen finds that there is sincerity in the ‘ pallor of girls’ brows ’ and ‘ tenderness of patient minds ’, so while the institution of the church provides nothing, the true emotions of friends and relatives ensures that every fallen soldier does have his death marked. Form Anthem for Doomed Youth is an elegy as it laments the senseless deaths of all the young men killed in the Great War. It takes the form of a Petrarchan Sonnet with a characteristic octet followed by a sestet. The octet focuses on events happening in the trenches, while the sestet explores how civilians at home in England deal with their grief. Structure
The octet and the sestet are structured in the same way, they both begin with a question, which Owen then goes on to answer. This question and answer structure makes the reader think, while at the same time allowing Owen to convey his personal opinions and experiences. In the octet, Owen responds to his first question when he bitterly repeats the word ‘ Only ’ at the beginning of lines 2 and 3. This use of anaphora emphasizes the absolute lack of care that is given to the soldiers as they die. Owen carefully structures the sestet around the theme of grief, so that when the reader comes to the final image of the blinds being drawn down they understand that this is done so that crying boys and pale girls have a private place in which to grieve, rather than because they are trying to shut out the thoughts or memories of the soldiers in the trenches. Context At the outbreak of The Great War there was an initial rush to join the army, and applicants were buoyed up by feelings of patriotism, honour and duty. Motivated by a desire for adventure, or just to escape poverty, many young men lied about their age in order to volunteer for the army. In Anthem for Doomed Youth , Owen highlights the futility of the fight and undermines the propaganda that initially enticed men to join up, showing that war was systematic slaughter, not a glorious escape. By 1916, the death toll had run into millions and the British Government passed The Military Service Act in order to conscript men into the army in order to replace all those who had been killed in the first few years of the war.
In addition, half rhymes such as ‘ spoil/girl ’ and para-rhymes such as ‘ heart/hurt ’ bring a sense of discomfort that augments the disquieting content of the poem. Structure Douglas reveals the details of his narrative piece by piece, for instance, initially, the reader doesn’t know if the men are seeking out a friend or a foe, such structuring brings tension and drama into the poem. The narrator juxtaposes his own callous reactions to the dead body with the grief experienced by Steffi, while he is glad to see his enemy ‘ abased ’, Steffi would ‘ weep ’. This contrast shows that the narrator knows his own reactions are distorted and by the final stanza, his attitude has become softer and more reflective. At the end, he perceives that the enemy had a life and loved ones back home and that the enemy’s death has also caused a ‘mortal hurt’ in Steffi. Context In his early life, Douglas was already gaining recognition for his poetry, however, it is his war-poetry that has received the most attention. When World War II was declared, Douglas enlisted straight away. He was posted to the Middle East and took part in the famous Battle of El Alamein. Vergissmeinnicht was written in response to Douglas’s experiences during that battle. The photograph that Douglas refers to in the poem is real and can be viewed online, the reader will see a lady wearing a coat, hat and scarf looking directly at the camera, with the words Steffi. Vergissmeinnicht written at the bottom. Douglas was later redeployed to Europe and took part in the D-Day invasion of Normandy, and was killed in action just a few days after landing in France. Despite being a dutiful soldier, Douglas privately thought that combat was destroying his humanity and this is evident in the cold, callous tone of the narrator in Vergissmeinnicht.
What Were They Like? By Denise Levertov
Language Levertov wrote this poem in 1966 while the Vietnam War was taking place, but she sets her poem in the future with her two characters looking back to a version of the war that resulted in the destruction of the entire Vietnamese race. She signals this by using the past tense throughout the poem. The imagery of nature is used throughout the poem to characterize the Vietnamese as a gentle nation. For example, the second speaker tells the first that the Vietnamese spent their time surrounded by ‘ rice and bamboo ’ under skies of ‘ peaceful clouds ’. Such imagery suggests that the Vietnamese were innocent and therefore victims of the war. This bucolic setting also underlines the idea that the Vietnamese had simple lives with no access to sophisticated technology such as planes or bombs, therefore they couldn’t have been the aggressors in the situation. Line 15 tells the reader that ‘ there were no more buds ’, this metaphor refers to a loss of new life in general and the loss of children in particular. In line 6 the questioner asks ‘ Did they use bone and ivory, / jade and silver, for ornament? ’ This gives the reader a clue about Vietnamese culture and shows they were interested in creating beauty. Line 18 tells the reader that ‘ All the bones were charred. ’ The imagery of bone has been inverted, it’s a direct link between life before and after the war. The bone has gone from being a material used to create beauty, to evidence of the death and destruction. The second speaker uses the adverbs ‘ perhaps ’ and ‘ maybe ’ to show that they are not entirely sure about the answers they are supplying. This emphasizes the idea that the war against the Vietnamese was so ferocious, they have almost been wiped from history. Listening to the answers in stanza two is like hearing about myths rather than about a real human race. On line 16 the poet uses alliteration in the phrase ‘ bitter to the burned mouth ’ in order to highlight the suffering that the Vietnamese endured. Form The poem is formed of two stanzas. Stanza one is a list of questions and stanza two is made up of the corresponding answers. This form means that the poem can be read straight through, or it can be read by alternating between the questions and their answers. The poem is written in free verse, which means that it does not employ a rhyme scheme or a consistent metre. This poem was written in the 1960s and at this time, free verse was a popular form used by poets. Structure
Lament by Gillian Clarke
Language A nest should be a place of safety where new life can grow, but in line 3, Clarke shows that it has become a place of ‘ sickness ’ and death; this oxymoron shows that the turtle’s habitat has been ruined by the actions of man. In stanza two, Clarke uses the words ‘ silk ’ and ‘ veil ’, both delicate, soft fabrics, to reflects the fragility of the natural world. Also in this stanza, the words ‘ funeral ’ and ‘ shadow ’ imbue the language with the presence of death and darkness. The ‘ funeral silk ’ is a metaphor for the black oil that now clogs the cormorant’s feathers and will bring death to the seabird. The ‘ veil of iridescence on the sand ’ and the ‘ shadow on the sea ’ are further metaphorical references to the oil slick and show that it has spread over both the land and into the water. The image of the oil slick spills over into stanza three, and here the metaphor of the ‘ mortal stain ’ again reinforces the fact that this event will bring death and be impossible to wash away. In line 8, Clarke uses the name ‘ Ahmed ’ to evoke the image of a civilian individual. In this case Ahmed is trapped at the ‘ closed border ’; like the turtles and cormorants, he too is unable to escape the devastating effects of conflict. The focus then switches to people actively engaged in the war and shows that they too deserve the reader’s thoughts and pity. Clarke features a soldier, and his ‘ uniform of fire ’ is a metaphor that tells the reader he is wreathed in flame and suffering great pain. The poem implies that the soldiers are also victims of the conflict, many of them have found themselves in this situation out of naive, even innocent desires for ‘ company ’ or to be ‘ in it for the music ’. Despite this sympathy with the people involved in the conflict, Clarke returns the focus to creatures and the natural world for the final three stanzas in order to emphasize that they are the ultimate victims as the situation is totally beyond their control. Form The poem takes the form of an elegy, and lists all the damage to the natural world and human life caused by the First Gulf War. Structure Every stanza begins with the words ‘ For the… ’ and each time, this brings the reader back to the title ‘ Lament ’, this reinforces the emotions of regret, sorrow and grief connected with the events of the First Gulf War. The first stanza focuses on the green turtle who is pregnant with her ‘ pulsing burden ’ of eggs, and this shows that despite the oil spill, nature tries to continue its struggle for survival. However, by the last stanza, the earth is ‘ burnt ’, suggesting that in the end, nature has lost its battle against mankind and war.
Line 5 features the ‘ veil of iridescence ’ and Clarke returns to this image on line 18 with the ‘ veiled sun ’. This repetition enhances the idea that mankind, through the actions of war, is drawing a cover over both the earth and the heavens. This drawing of a veil is both shutting us out from the natural world and smothering nature to death. In line 18 the sun is ‘ veiled ’ but by next line it has been ‘ put out ’ altogether rather than being merely hidden, showing that the effects of the conflict are moving from severe to irreversible. In line 15, Clarke laments that the whales have been ‘ struck dumb ’ by the effects of the war. It creates a chilling tone to think that these intelligent animals are no longer able to communicate with each other as a result of the war. It also foreshadows the ‘ ashes of language ’, which is the final phrase of the poem and symbolises that peace talks failed and that arguments prevailed. Context During the First Gulf War, retreating Iraqi troops opened up oil valves and pipelines as a method of slowing down the U.S. forces that were pursuing them. This action caused the biggest oil spill in history and at least 240 million gallons of crude oil flowed out into the Persian Gulf, causing an oil slick that had devastating consequence for marine creatures and sea birds. Clarke states that she used media images connected to the First Gulf War as source material for this poem. These images included cormorants covered in oil and a soldier on fire after his tank was bombed.
