Poem
Form
Theme
Sonnet 104
abab cdcd efef gg The
inevitability of
Shakespearian
the passing of
sonnet
time.
Beginning:
Hearty
At the end:
Underlying tone
of futility.
Ozymandias
Abab acdc ede
fdf
Italian sonnet
The futility of
power.
From
conversational to
mocking.
An Irish airman
forsees his death
Abab cdcd efef
ghgh
Modern lyric
Matter-of-fact
Preludes
Four sections
(preludes)
The poet
explores
personal
choices about
the quality of
our lives and
how human
motivation is
sometimes
unpredictable
but intense.
The ugliness
and sordidness
of city life.
Mushrooms
Short threelined stanzas
The poem
deals with the
ability of
mushrooms to
push up
unnoticed
through the
earth
overnight.
There is a hint
of silent
revolution.
Tone
Main figures of
speech / Sound
device
Hyperbole
The beauty of
summer will die
with the death
of his friend.
Irony
The inscription
invites the
viewer to be
envious but the
ruler is now
ruling over
nothing.
Personification
The impulse
appears to have
a life of its own
– something
which
demanded a
response from
him and could
not be ignored.
Pensive,
sympathetic tone
with a hint of
detachment.
Metaphor: Life
compared to a
cigarette butt.
Alliteration of
‘broken blinds’
draws attention
to the poverty
of the city
dwellers.
Menacing /
Sinister
The poet uses
personification
to personify the
mushrooms as
deceptively
quiet and
unassuming
characters who
have the power
to take over the
earth.
Walking away
Four five-lined
stanzas
The poet
explores the
nature of
parent-child
love and
shows that the
real proof of
love lies in
allowing a
child to
become
independent.
Reflective
Simile in which
the boy’s
walking away
from the father
is compared to
a satellite being
pulled out of its
orbit. / The
child is
compared to a
seed falling
from the parent
tree.
Refugee mother
and child
One stanza
The
destructive
influence of
war on
innocent
people.
Sympathetic /
Pitying
Alliteration
Plosive b-sound
emphasizes the
malnourished
belly of the
child.
Five four-lined
stanzas
Searching for
Reflective /
wealth is
Ironic
difficult and
when it is
discovered it is
worthless
compared with
nature’s lifegiving water.
Sunstrike
Personification
Earth is
mocking man.
Irony: The
prospector has
found wealth
but it is now
useless to him
as he is about to
die.
Decomposition
Modern
unrhymed lyric
Poverty in
society and the
general
unfeeling
attitude of
most of the
population
who are not in
that situation.
Reflective. The
tone becomes
more
sympathetic
towards the
beggar and
reprimanding
towards himself.
you cannot know
the fears i have
Modern lyric
Love and
protection of
children by
parents /
bringing
children into a
cruel
environment.
Conversational,
apprehensive,
reflective,
fearful, rueful.
City
Johannesburg
Modern lyric
Impersonal
city life –
contrast
between vital
humanity and
the concrete
jungle.
Bitter
Love poem for my
country
Five six-lined
stanzas and a
final one-lined
stanza
The poet
describes the
beauty of the
country and
how people
bring hope
through unity.
Optimistic /
Celebratory
‘he lies veined
in stone’ – It is
a metaphor in
which the way
the man is lying
and the time he
has been there
is compared to
lines, fissures in
the stone.
Metaphor
(butterfly spirit,
crushes,
shadows,
…flows, eclipse,
light)
Alliteration
Metaphor –
Johannesburg is
compared to a
tree – The tree
gets its life
from its roots the city relies
on its people to
sustain it.
Personification
– The
monstrous
nature of the
city is conveyed
(thick iron
breath)
Personification
‘So says the
veld’
Metaphor:
Jewels of fish
To Autumn
Ode – A fairly
long, exalted
poem about some
serious occasion
or time.
The transience
of all life – all
things pass but
the cycle of
life is
revitalized.
i thank You God
for this most
amazing
It resembles a
Shakespearian
sonnet (Three
quatrains with a
rhyming couplet)
A celebration
of the beauty
of the day and
life itself – and
the great
unfathomable
nature of God.
If you don’t stay
bitter for too long
Five stanzas
Acceptance
and
forgiveness of
past wrongs is
more
constructive
than bitterness
and anger.
Changes – The
season is
celebrated but
there is a
regretful
acceptance of
both the richness
and the
transience of
autumn.
Optimistic
Conciliatory
Personification
Autumn is seen
as various
people who
have carried out
autumn
activities.
Metaphor
Alliteration
Assonance
‘blue true’
affirms how
blue the sky is.
‘leaping
greenly’ brings
out the
movement of
the branches.
Personification
‘The autumn
smoke writes’ –
The countryside
itself is calling
its people back.