ANTHOLOGY 1

ANTHOLOGY 1

The Manhunt
1. War and love and time
2. Context
  1. Written for channel 4 documentary - That explained the lives of soldiers and their families - about wife of Eddie Bedow a soldier that served in Bosnia and got sent home because of injury and depression
3. Ideas
  1. Soldier returned home from war
  2. Hes not the same as he was
  3. His wife tries to find and fix the problem
  4. While he has physical injuries the worse ones are mental
4. Language
  1. Full of metaphors - soldiers body is reduced to unliving objects - eg "frozen river" "blown hinge" - all images of things that are cold and delicate
  2. Uses powerful verbs - "search" "hunt" "explore" "trace" - The frequency shows the wife's desperation, patience and care for her husband
  3. Wife is patient - "climb the rungs of his broken ribs" - reflects gradual steps she is willing to take in order to find her old husband
  4. Title is a pun - "manhunt" is a chase of a criminal - she is hunting for the man she once knew
  5. Uses repetition "only then" to highlight how slow a process it is and how gradually the wife is able to approach her husband
  6. The highlight of the word and shows how many processes it takes to fix her husband
  7. Bullet described as a foetus - a foetus develops into a baby - makes parents lives better - may suggest that it will bring the two closer - may also mean that it changes their lives forever
  8. REPETITION of after suggest that it took a long time before the husband let her touch him
5. Structure
  1. Made up of couplets - rhyming with vowels - some don't rhyme - makes poem seem fragmented
6. Compares to
Sonnet 43
1. Love
2. Context
  1. Traditional love poem - written in sonnet form - as it has 14 lines - and is mostly about love
  2. Poet is expressing her love for her husband
  3. Does have personal dimension to it - written for a specific person
  4. Poet normally writes in a way that relates to religion and worship
3. Ideas
  1. Seeing how she idealises her love for him
  2. Countless number of ways she loves him
  3. Love is the most powerful thing
4. Language
  1. REPETITION used to show the intensity of the poets love - "i love thee"
  2. LISTS are used to show intensity aswell - also creates a feeling of excitement as though she keeps on finding new ways to love him
  3. RHETORICAL QUESTION opening to suggest it is a response to part of their conversation and shows their intimacy
  4. PUNCTUATION used to show poets joy and excitement. Exclamation marks show enthusiasm - commas create sense of that she almost cannot describe her love
  5. Her love is so strong its almost unimaginable - "out of sight" so strong it is almost spritual
  6. Love is an immesurable concept - but the poet describes it using measuring words such as "depth and breadth and height" - This is a spatial metaphor
  7. Love is compared to incredible concepts - "being ideal Grace" "Right" "Praise" - CAPITAL LETTERS show importance of these words
  8. The poem is AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL mentioning "my old griefs" she has now replaced her previous heartache with the strongest type of love
  9. Her love takes the place religion "I love thee with a love i seemed to lose/with my lost saints"
  10. Although she still shows her belief in god - "if god choose/I shall but love thee better after death" desperate plea for eternal love
  11. Only concrete imagery used to mention "sun and candlelight" - light is positive and guides us. The sun is powerful and gives life. Candlelight consoles us in times of darkness
5. Structure
  1. Rather than using perfect rhymes throughout, ASSONANCE (rhymes based on vowel sounds) is often used. Perhaps poet is showing that true love is about accepting and imbracing slight imperfections
6. Compares to
London
1. Power and place
2. Context
  1. The wealthy used to ignore the poor back then - no one did anything for them, they were just there
  2. He was writing in the romantic time
  3. Thousands of people living in poverty
3. Ideas
  1. Persona walks through streets of london observing the faces of the homeless. He hears hears in their voices the damaging consequences of restrictive ideologies
  2. It is as if the speaker is offering a prophesy of the terrible consequences unless changes are made in the city.
  3. Very specifically about london - it is real
  4. Persona walks through poor parts of London
  5. In every face, he sees suffering and hardship - these are weak and vulnerable people
  6. Contrast to how many poets romanticised London
  7. Hes critical of the church - the church doesnt really help - religion was often the only comfort for these people had - and it didnt offer any way out
  8. A lot of men would have been forced to join the army - suggestion that soldiers were lead to death - they were sacrificed for the benefit of the rich - their lives don't mean anything
  9. In the first 3 stanzas we see a system that benefits the rich and exploits the poor
4. Language
  1. REPETITION of "in every" shows how extensive these issues are - women and children in this situation - Emphasis on widespread suffering
  2. He uses the image of the "manacles" (handcuffs) to show that these people are metaphorically trapped in poverty - no way of breaking the cycle
  3. "Chimney sweapers" refers to the children forced to clean chimneys for little money - they were exploited by the rich
  4. Last stanza he focuses on women - "harlot" (prostitute) would have been forced into it for money - it is a "curse" because they will probably die of STDs due to a lack in medicine - or killed - they lack any respect - young and desperate
  5. It all ends with death - war for soldiers and STDs for women
  6. "Hearse" is a metaphor for a coffin or grave - their deaths would be premature and are given no chance because of their poverty
5. Compares to
The soldier
1. Context
  1. Was written in November 1914 - 3 months after the start of WW1
  2. General feeling was that the war would be over soon
  3. The horrors of the war weren't discovered yet
  4. Brooke did serve in WW1 and did experience it
  5. His views are different from the majority of war poets
  6. Wasnt unusual for people to have these stupid views
  7. People back then had a strong sense of national identity and patriotism
  8. At this point in time England was the most powerful country in the world
2. War Love and past
3. Ideas
  1. Direct contrast to Dulce et decorum est
  2. Written as a sonnet - shows his love for his country - reinforces his love for England
  3. England is the subject of the poem - he addresses it as if it is a person and almost as a mother - England is personified - clear sense of a strong love like a child towards its mother
  4. He also writes about how England is pure and heavenly - England is life itself
  5. No mention of violence or fighting - makes it very different from other war poems - much more like a traditional love poem - much more similar to Sonnet 43
4. Langauge
  1. He's called it the soldier as he means this to show his feelings, also representing other soldiers - he is the voice speaking for all of them
  2. Opens with idea of death - he knows there is a possibility he will die - he is not afraid of that - if it does happen it will be for a "good" cause
  3. He is also providing comfort to the reader - he wants the reader to see his death as a positive - if he were to die it will be for England - and where he is buried that "foreign field" the "that is forever england"
  4. He uses alliteration of the "F" sounds
  5. Death won't separate his connection to his country
  6. He develops the metaphor of being buried in a foreign country by suggesting that as his body decays it will make the earth richer - it is a substance of him but also England - he cannot be separated from his English identitity
  7. The REPETITION of "England" reinforces how nothing can take away this bond with his country
  8. England gave birth to him, shaped him, educated him, gave him knowledge, wisdom - she's basically given life to him - he owes his life to her - makes it clear why he will die for england
  9. Given reader idealistic idyllic image of England
  10. The main metaphor is "a pulse in the external mind" suggesting that the love for England and his identity is eternal - cannot die - using the idea of a pulse even through death he will live through England and this poem
  11. He is writing about a reciprocal relationship, the love is shared, both sides support each other - England gave him life and when he dies he gives it back
  12. In his mind England is always right and he sees it as something connected to god - he will never be defeated - even if he dies - Pride and courage in that attitude
  13. Final word is "heaven" as that is the image he want to leave the reader with - England itself is heaven
5. Structure
  1. Second stanza reinforces what he has said in the first
  2. Last 3 lines focus on beauty and perfection of England
6. Compares to
  1. Sonnet 43
She walks in beauty
1. Context
  1. One of the Romantic poems
  2. Lord Byron was extremely famous, he was known for his writing and infamous for his personal life and behaviour in society
  3. He was a womanizer, he had numerous relationships
  4. Most well known is him sleeping with his sister
  5. Known for pushing the boundaries of what was moral behaviour
  6. Was friends with a lot of the Romantic poets
2. Ideas
  1. Focuses on women who Byron is describing using Romantic images and language
  2. Focus of poem is on her beauty
3. Language
  1. Uses rhyme to help give the impression of his passionate feelings
  2. The title is revealing that he is writing for a woman. Might be a specific woman - could be about any woman that possesses beauty - Love poem to women in general
  3. REPETITION of title, helps reinforce how the poem is going to be focusing on the beauty of the woman
  4. "She walks in beauty" suggests that everything around her is also beautiful and everything she touches
  5. She seems to be flawless - sense of him idealising her
  6. He compares her to a "cloudless" knight, a beautiful peaceful view - makes image stand out more by using alliteration to add a pattern - very peaceful image
  7. Byron is a Romantic poet because they wrote a lot about nature, he compares her to aspects of nature - he believed that connecting to nature was like connecting with "god" - by comparing her to nature/god she cant be any better. He is elevating her in terms of status
  8. Starts off with simile to describe her beauty "like the night"
  9. You get the impression she has perfect hair, skin and eyes
  10. She almost sounds like a work of art, with how perfect she is
  11. Traditional for poets to talk about eyes and how they show beauty
  12. Image of light being explored, the light is always flattering on her. Also clear he doesn't know who she is
  13. "Grace" is given by god, he is associating her to god - seeming like an angel in many senses in the way he is describing her
  14. Shes completely calm and completely peaceful in the way of expressing herself - "sweet" sweetness aspect to her - "dear" worth something, it has value
  15. She is valuable because of her looks and the image she gives off, we get the image of traditional femininity
  16. He moves on to different features of her, "soft" "calm" and "eloquent". Society behaves in a way that is expected, she confirms to what her role is meant to be in society
  17. "The smiles that win" smiles that are valuable
  18. End of poem has referance to how she spends her life, she spends her life doing good - conveys the sense of her having qualities that are essentially good like kindness which would have been expected
  19. She has no sins (referance to hell) she has nothing to concern herself with. No hidden darkness in her - " a heart whose love is innocent" implies that she can be trusted
  20. She is not in anyway a monster, we get idea of natural beauty
  21. Due to the rhyming helping lines flow into the next the poem is easy to read - as it is easy for him to see her beauty
Living Space
1. Context
  1. Describes slums of Mumbai, India - people migrate here from all over India in the hope of a better life
  2. Slums are made of many found materials: corrugated sheets, wooden beams etc...
  3. In this poem she celebrates their existence of their living space as a miracle
  4. Set in India, she is from India - she is writing from her own experience of her own culture
2. Compares to
  1. London
3. Ideas
  1. The lines of the buildings are sitting and unstable, balancing peculiarly between dangerous and "miraculous"
  2. The eggs are all in one basket, that hang out "over the dark edge" are an act of faith, not only because someone has delicately placed them in such a ramshackle environment but also they contain new life. The eggs are life and the buildings are miracles.
  3. May seem like an act of faith to live in one of these rough structures - a daring attempt to live in such a place - in this way the poem represents the fragility of human life and celebrates the way that faith brings boldness
  4. Focus on poverty - writes in a way that makes it in the end affirming
  5. It's offering an insight of what its like to be poor in India - there is hope
4. Structure
  1. Structure reflects the main ideas, the lines are uneven in length just like the buildings - written in free-verse
  2. Very short stanza in the centre of the poem to represent how someone has squeezed more living space into the slum - offers reader visual image of the living space
  3. First stanza focuses on the nature of the structures and how uneven they are
5. Language
  1. The underlined phrases in the anthology show how delicate the building is
  2. Seems dangerous but then we see "miraculous" - ends stanza on a positive - offers people a place to live - without it they'd be homeless - she finds something to celebrate - by placing it at the end it gives the reader more time to see the word
  3. Style is quite factual in the way she describes the living space
  4. The word "squeeze" shows how hard it was to move into such a small space
  5. She uses "living space" instead of house or home because they are not homes, just shelter, places for people to survive - they are utilitarian, they dont need it
  6. Emphasis of "living" to suggest that it isn't dying and is surviving
  7. The metaphor of eggs in the basket is about people's faith but they also represent the delicate nature of life. - Metaphor for people's lives - They are trusting that they will survive and the shelter won't fall down
  8. A lot of language in the last stanza is metaphorical
  9. "Slanted universe" could represent the slum and also society, because it is uneven, people with great wealth and people who are poor
  10. Final word "faith" ends on a positive - represents how it will make them go on - gives them faith - ends with celebration of what these people have achieved and the respect she has for them

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	Created by Fin Carson about 7 years ago