Quick recap
15 poems in 60 minutes!
FLAG
• Meaning
Pride in your country versus dangers of patriotism
• Tone
Sarcastic, positive ideas but with negative consequences
• Language
Just a piece of cloth – mocking and undermining its
power
Negative war imagery to convey danger of patriotism
• Structure
Well-structured - links to military and how organised
conflict can be
Stanza structure changes at end – emphasises the final
line as summing up poem
OUT OF THE BLUE
• Meaning
Fear, hope, life and death, hopelessness, desperation,
terrorism, 9/11
• Tone
Hopeful changes to hopeless, panicky tone
• Language
Repetition of ‘waving’ to show desperate to be saved
You – direct address used to make poem personal as it
could have happened to anyone
• Structure
Short stanzas and short lines – man gasping for breath
Enjambment to show he has no time to stop and think
MAMETZ WOOD
• Meaning
Death of soldiers, time/memory, waste of war, friendship
• Tone
Impersonal – shows that people become faceless in war,
melancholy tone
• Language
Men told to ‘walk not run’ – shows how innocent and
childlike (and young) they were
‘China plate’, ‘bird’s egg’ – all fragile – shows fragility of
life
• Structure
Narrative – like a story (memory)
THE YELLOW PALM
• Meaning
Tradition, poverty, victims, hope, culture
• Tone
Positive tone even though it is about war deaths – shows
that life goes on
• Language
Images of modern life juxtaposed with images of warfare
Palm – symbol of hope and peace – they remain hopeful
Links between religion and violence – religion starts war
• Structure
Ballad form – tells a story
Every second line rhymes – creates a sense of a funeral
song – melancholy dirge
THE RIGHT WORD
• Meaning
Innocence, perception, fear, hope, stereotyping
• Tone
Fear, negativity and isolation changes to acceptance and
forgiveness
• Language
Repetition ‘outside the door’ and ‘shadows’ emphasises fear
Questions – draw reader in to think about how they might
judge people themselves
Simple words to describe the boy at the end – imply
innocence
• Structure
Short stanzas show narrator changing mind quickly about how
to judge the boy
AT THE BORDER, 1979
• Theme / meaning
There is a world greater than individual countries
Contrast between expectations and reality
National boundaries/restrictions are perceived as negative
• Tone
Nostalgic. Child’s excitement changes to disappointment
• Language
Simple language conveys childlike innocence and hopeful
expectations
‘Chain’ symbolises division between people – borders
Contrasts with ‘chain’ in last line, which symbolises how all people
are connected and all are on the same earth
• Structure
Narrative from child’s perspective
Caesura in stanza 5 symbolises them crossing the border and the
tone change from excited to disappointed
BELFAST CONFETTI
• Meaning
Violence, fear, home, war causes confusion
• Tone
Negative, harsh, confusion
• Language
‘Confetti’ links to celebration but is ironic as it’s actually
describing debris
Punctuation marks used for various reasons – ‘fusillade of
question marks’ shows he is questioning why and can’t
understand – is confused
• Structure
Present tense – causes sense of panic as happening now
Unfinished lines – narrator can’t finish sentences as he is
panicking and is confused as to why it has happened
POPPIES
• Meaning
Mothers and sons, memories, young soldiers, death, individual
people
• Tone
Sad but hopeful
• Language
‘Poppy’ represents sacrifice and ‘dove’ represents peace – implies
that he is dead and is now at peace
‘Songbird’ represents letting her son go
‘Wishbone’ – metaphor to symbolise she wishes he would return
Sewing references to show her role as mother and relating
situation to something she is familiar with
• Structure
Past tense – narrative style with no end – we are left unsure as to
where the son is now
FUTILITY
• Meaning
Pointlessness, hopelessness, death, comradeship
• Tone
Hope in stanza 1 changes to hopelessness in stanza 2
• Language
Personification of the sun – symbol of hope and positivity
contrasts with ‘cold star’ – negative image
Questions – war makes us question everything
• Structure
Stanza 1 – gentle and flowing symbolising the hope
Stanza 2 – broken up with question marks and dashes –
questioning the futility of war – pointless death - unsettling
THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE
• Meaning
Patriotism, bravery, leaders, death
• Tone
Positivity for the brave men (even though they don’t
come back, they are to be honoured)
• Language
Repetition symbolises the relentless attack
‘Rode the six hundred’ changes to ‘not the six hundred’
because they have died
• Structure
Irregular rhyme scheme shows uncertainty – will they
return or not?
Two sides to poem showing before the attack and after
the attack
BAYONET CHARGE
• Meaning
Horror of war, patriotism, humanity
• Tone
Negative, horrific, panic
• Language
Similes to show physical and mental pain of soldier –
‘sweating like molten iron from the centre of his chest’ – could
symbolise his heart
Image of the yellow hare being shot – shocking – effects of
war on everyone and everything
Full of negative war imagery to do with injury
• Structure
Enjambment to show the speed of the man who is running –
panicking and doesn’t have time to stop
No other people mentioned – shows the inhumanity of war
Imagery makes it seem like a dream - unreal
THE FALLING LEAVES
• Meaning
Waste of war, mourning, casualties, death
• Tone
Mood of reflection, positive images convey negative overall
message
• Language
Positive nature imagery contrasts with the reality of war
Alliteration makes it dreamy and a bit eerie
Positive images of soldiers as ‘falling leaves’ shows that they
are being mourned and remembered fondly
• Structure
No stanzas to give it a narrative feel, a story in the past tense
‘COME ON, COME BACK’
• Meaning
Memory, identity, death, nuclear war effects
• Tone
Negative at the beginning changes to positive once she is
dead
• Language
‘Icy-amorous embrace’ oxymoron - presents the water as a
lover, welcoming – death is more inviting than life
Water personified and symbolises death, but in a positive way
Repetition makes it more like a dream, hypnotic – also adds to
the sense of confusion caused by her memory loss
• Structure
Narrative style told in present tense as if people are watching
her but from a distance and can’t stop her from killing herself
– inevitability of war
NEXT TO OF COURSE GOD AMERICA I
• Meaning
Patriotism, religion, death
• Tone
Satirical, mocking patriotism, sarcastic
• Language
Childish words and nonsense words used – ‘by gosh by gum’ –
shows that what the speaker is saying is nonsense –
patriotism is all for show
Uses a line from the national anthem - ‘land of the pilgrims’
and other clichés to mock
• Structure
Written in lower case to show that it is not important, the
narrator is mocking patriotism
Rhyme adds to the mocking tone of the poem
HAWK ROOSTING
• Meaning
Instinct, nature, death, power
• Tone
Positive tone of power
• Language
Language is sophisticated and shows he is educated, but this
contrasts with the stupidity of what he is talking about
‘I hold creation in my foot’ – he has people in the palm of his
hand – powerful
Negative images ‘tearing off heads’ – contrasts with the
mention of the sun and other positive nature imagery
• Structure
Persona of a hawk symbolises a dictator
Stanzas all same length – shows calmness and rational mind of
the hawk who is controlling the violence