Use this as your go-to place for the most important content to know for each of the poems. These are also the pairings we are teaching you in lessons. If you want to find more detailed content, you'll see that each poem has it's own page, where you can find more if you're aiming for grade 7+.
London
Blake was critical of the church and monarchy because they failed to help children in London who were forced to work in factories during the Industrial Revolution.
Ozymandias
Shelley was critical of the British king at the time he was writing the poem (King George) because King George became mad and cruel. The poem is about an ancient ruler, Ramsess II, a cruel leader, who led many battles.
My Last Duchess
Browning was critical of how much power men had in Victorian society; women became the property of men when they got married. Marriage was unequal in Victorian society.
Tissue
Dharker is a Muslim born in Pakistan who grew up in Scotland seeing wars between the Middle East and the West and wanted kindness to replace division.
Extract from the Prelude
Wordsworth was a Romantic poet who responded to the rise of machines and factories in the Industrial Revolution by writing about the power and beauty of the natural world.
Storm on the Island
Heaney was from rural Ireland himself and so would have experienced storms like this.
Checking Out Me History
John Agard is a black poet who was born in the Caribbean and, when he moved to England as an adult, noticed that schools weren’t teaching black history.
The Emigree
Immigration was rising in the 20th century and so Rumens explores the difficulties faced by those forced to leave their home country due to war / wants us to empathise with those who emigrate.
The Charge of the Light Brigade
a brave but disastrous British charge against the Russian enemy in the Crimean War. Tennyson (poet laureate for Queen Victoria) urges British readers to celebrate and glorify the courage of the soldiers.
Bayonet Charge
Hughes spoke to his father, who fought in WW1, and wants to explore the thoughts and feelings of one ordinary soldier as he charges at the enemy and begins to question his role in the war.
Exposure
Owen fought in the trenches in WW1 and knew how miserable and pointless the war is because the soldiers are just waiting to die without hope.
Poppies
Poppies symbolise the sacrifice of British soldiers who lost their lives in wars past and present. Weir evokes sympathy for anyone who has had to let go and accept the loss of their family members to wars.
Kamikaze
Kamikaze pilots in Japan in WW2 were expected to fly their planes into enemy ships. It was seen as a great honour to sacrifice your life to defend your country and you were not expected to return.
Remains
Armitage filmed TV interviews for a documentary on soldiers’ experience of war and trauma and used the words from one particular interview in his poem, evoking sympathy for soldiers who are traumatised by war.
War Photographer
Duffy’s friend was a war photographer, so she explores how difficult this job is, and how people far away from wars do not understand how bad they are so forget about them quickly.
1 rulers looking down on people
‘I choose never to stoop’ ‘stooping’ -
repetition emphasises how much he looks down on his wife, like many men in Victorian era
‘sneer of cold command’
imagery of facial expression on the statue, suggesting O sneered at/looked down on his people
2 arrogance
‘my gift of a nine hundred year old name’ -
Duke thought his wife should have seen marriage to him as a special present. Men and women were not equal in the 16th century or Victorian era.
‘king of kings’ -
O chose these words to go on the base of his statue. Arrogant, claiming he was the best king.
3 power - but Ozymandias has lost power.
‘gave commands then all smiles stopped’ -
He had his wife murdered by someone else. Misused his power. Too jealous of her.
‘colossal wreck’
Imagery of a destroyed statue in the sand. ‘Colossal’ = huge power he once had. ‘Wreck’ = his power has been destroyed. Human power doesn’t last.
1 nature’s power
‘Glittering...sparkling’ -
Beautiful imagery of the moonlight reflecting in the water. Wordsworth admires nature.
.
‘spits like a tame cat turned savage’ -
Imagery that helps the reader to imagine the sea spitting against the cliffs like a wild, savage animal.
2 nature’s threat
‘upread its head..strode after me’ -
The mountain is personified as a creature with a head, rising up above the frightened speaker.=
‘Exploding...bombarded...pummels’ -
Battle-like imagery conveys that the islanders feel frightened and attacked by the storm.
3 an emotional journey
‘A trouble to my dreams’ -
Ending the poem with these lines shows that Wordsworth can’t forget what he felt and saw.
‘Strange. It is a huge nothing that we fear.’ -
Ending the poem with this line demonstrates that there was nothing to be afraid of.
1 divisions
‘Chartered’
Repetition emphasises that many parts of the city, including the river, were owned by the rich.
‘maps’ -
An example of the way that paper can be used to divide and control people.
2. misuse of power
blackening church’
Blake holds churches responsible for the funerals of the poorest people.
‘credit card might fly our lives like paper kites’ -
In this image, we are the kite, being tied down by money, which controls our lives.
3 a cry for change
‘let the daylight break through capitals and monoliths’ -
‘Daylight’ = happiness and kindness breaking through power, building a better life.
‘mind forged manacles’ -
Imagery of the poorest people being trapped and unable to break free.
1 pride
‘Mary Seacole’ ‘Florence Nightingale’
Mary Seacole was a famous black nurse during the Crimean War, who is not taught in British history lessons. Florence Nightingale was a famous white British nurse, who is taught.
Caribbean dialect
Agard uses Caribbean dialect throughout the poem to show how proud he is of where he is from.
‘sunlight clear’
Repeated image of sunlight reflects the warm, happy memories speaker has of her home country.
2 being outsiders
‘dem tell me’ -
Repetition emphasises Agard’s anger at schools for only telling him about White British history.
‘they circle me, they accuse me of being dark in their free city’ -
‘they’ vs ‘me’ = the speaker’s city vs her. She feels isolated in her new city.
.
3 distance.
‘frontiers rise between us’
Frontier = border that separates countries. Borders have kept the speaker away from her country.
‘Bandage up me eye’
Imagery that helps us to imagine he is wearing a blindfold. He feels his eyes have been closed and that he has been kept distant from his own history.
1 danger
‘cannon to right of them, cannon to left of them, cannon in front of them’’ -
Repetition of ‘cannon’ emphasises danger because bullets are coming at them from all sides.
‘bullets smacking the belly out of the air’ -
The air is personified as a person with a belly being winded by the force of the bullets as they smack against it.
2 duty
‘theirs not to make reply, theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die’ -
Repetition of ‘theirs not to’ emphasises that they do NOT question their officers. They simply charge on, doing as they are told.
‘cold clockwork’ -
Image of a giant clock - a large machine - which represents the war. War is like a machine because there are no feelings and people die.
3 honour
‘When can their glory fade?’ -
Tennyson is asking this rhetorical question in order to command his readers to never forget the glory and bravery of the six hundred soldiers.
‘King, honour, human dignity, etcetera, dropped like luxuries’ -
Hughes lists things that soldiers thought they would be fighting for, e.g. the king of your country, or your honourable reputation. These are luxuries when you must fight to survive.
1 loss
‘released a songbird from its cage’ -
Imagery helps the reader to imagine that the mother is having to open up a cage (their home) and release a vulnerable bird (her son) into the world.
‘we too learned to be silent’ -
The children learn from their mother and neighbours that they must ignore their father, which means they lose their father and he loses them.
.
2 sadness
‘hoping to hear your playground voice’ -
The mother remembers her son as a child and feels sad that she will no longer see him.
‘must have wondered which had been the better way to die’ -
The children feel regret and sadness because they treated their father as if he were dead.
3 struggle
‘I was brave’ -
Mother struggles to pretend she feels fine when her son leaves and has to force herself to appear brave.
‘father’s boat’ -
The pilot looks down at the water and sees fishing boats that remind him of his ‘father’s boat’. He chooses to return to his family.
1 memories
‘running children in a nightmare heat’ -
Creates a powerful, graphic image of innocent children caught up in war zone.
‘probably armed, possibly not’ -
Repetition emphasises that this is an important memory for the soldier as, if the looter wasn’t armed, he had no reason to kill him.
2 guilt
‘half-formed ghost’ -
‘Ghost’ suggests he is haunted by the memory of the dead man and cannot forget the cries of the wife as he took the photograph.
‘His bloody life in my bloody hands’
Imagery of the soldier staring down at his hands and seeing them covered with the looter’s blood.
3 struggle
‘drink and the drugs won’t flush him out’ -
He tries to ‘flush’ out the memories he feels with drink and drugs but he can’t. It’s a struggle.
.
‘reader’s eyeballs prick with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers
The readers easily forget what they’ve seen and go back to their normal lives, unaffected by war.
1 danger
‘Merciless iced east winds that knive us’ -
Owen personifies the wind as an unkind, cruel person, who is deliberately attacking the soldiers.
‘cannon to right of them, cannon to left of them, cannon in front of them’ -
Repetition of ‘cannon’ emphasises danger because the bullets are coming at them from all sides.
2 duty
‘But nothing happens’ -
The soldiers dutifully wait for instructions, enduring terrible conditions in the trenches while there is no action and no commands.
‘theirs not to make reply, theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die’ -
Repetition of ‘theirs not to’ emphasises that they do NOT question their officers. They simply charge on, doing as they are told.
3 honour
‘When can their glory fade?’ -
Tennyson is asking this rhetorical question in order to command his readers to never forget the glory and bravery of the six hundred soldiers.
‘What are we doing here?’-
Rhetorical question reflecting Owen’s views that there is no point to the war.
1 rulers’ cruelty
‘sneer of cold command’ - Imagery of facial expression on the statue, suggesting O sneered at/looked down on his people.
mind forged manacles’ -
Imagery of the poorest people being trapped and unable to break free.
2 misuse of power
‘king of kings’ -
O chose these words to go on the base of his statue. Arrogant, claiming he was the best king.
‘blackening church’
Blake holds churches responsible for the funerals of the poorest people.
3 nature and mankind
‘chartered’
Repetition emphasises that many parts of the city, including the river, were owned by the rich.
.
‘colossal wreck’
Imagery of a destroyed statue in the sand. ‘Colossal’ = huge power he once had. ‘Wreck’ = his power has been destroyed. Human power doesn’t last. .
1 nature’s power
‘Merciless iced east winds that knive us’ -
Owen personifies the wind as an unkind, cruel person, who is deliberately attacking the soldiers.
‘spits like a tame cat turned savage’ -
Imagery that helps the reader to imagine the sea spitting against the cliffs like a wild, savage animal.
2 nature’s threat
‘all their eyes are ice’
Imagery of dead bodies in the final lines of the poem. Nature has caused the soldiers to die.
‘Exploding...bombarded...pummels’ -
Battle-like imagery conveys that the islanders feel frightened and attacked by the storm.
3 fear
But nothing happens’ -
The soldiers dutifully wait for instructions, feeling frightened as the winter cold gets worse, struggling to see why they are there.
‘Strange. It is a huge nothing that we fear.’ -
Ending the poem with this line demonstrates that there was nothing to be afraid of.