Relationships Poems Revision

Jawad Uddin

Structure and Form

Language

Context

Key (for the upcoming slides):

La Belle Dame Sans Merci

1819

John Keats (1795-1821)

Fell in love with Fanny Brawne but couldn’t marry her due to his TB. Is a fundamental Romantic poet.

Ballad of 12 quatrains = regular, monotonous

Cyclical structure = trapped by love

Iambic tetrameter broken at end of each stanza = jarring, not the full story, not the expected happy ending.

Knight is palely loitering - purposelessness, contrasting with the brave knight image.

Pathetic fallacy – sedge withered from lake

Fading/withereth – life is wasting away

Eyes were wild – warning?

Garland/bracelets – circles adoration/trapped? Transition from each stanza starting with I to she – she is taking control

Sure in language strange – sibilance should be a warning but he’s not listening.

Elfin grot – evil lair, in line with femme fatale.

She wept – why? Impossible love? 

Pale … princes … pale – plosives = harsh

Starved lips / thrall – suffering, in her power

A Child to his Sick Grandfather

Confronted with her father’s death at 16. Presbyterian, childhood dominated by religion. Famous as a female poet in her society. Scottish.

1790

Joanna Baille (1762-1851)

Second person address – more personal, conversational tone. Refrain of ‘dad’ – all comes back to him, and also intimate enough to call ‘dad’. Rhyming couplets = harmony, but last line of each stanza missing a syllable – tension. Mirrors the tone of an elegy – lament for dead (starts with name ‘Grand-dad’)

‘they say’ – reporting, hasn’t accepted the imminent death as fact yet / child’s inability to identify death.

‘frail … fail’ – fricatives produce tension, and ‘vex’d’ implies that the pain of death is felt by both of them.

Switches between past and present ‘used to smile’ – longing, past used to depict happy scenes in contrast to now, ‘scant … hollow’

Semantic field of decay, personification of ‘strength be fled’ – respect for old age / innocence and naivety.

‘round their potions brew’ – desperate to find a cure, even if it goes against God / ‘good men kneel’ – everyone praying

‘You will not die…?’ – fears being powerless, childish.

‘We’ll still be near’ – will always be there through time.

‘serving’ – military? ‘weary fire turns blue’ – decaying spirit.

‘fill old dad his cheer’ – family is a source of light, life, and joy.

Role reversal ‘a wondrous tale’ – child telling stories, comforting.

Contrast between ‘partlet and her brood’ vs ‘greedy cunning fox’ – life ‘slyly’ stolen away from him. ‘you love a story, dad?’ – doubt

‘Nod ... Wink’ – substituting death for sleep, childish euphemism.

She Walks in Beauty

Romantic poet, womaniser, had an incestuous affair with his half-cousin. This is about his cousin, Mrs Anne Beatrix Wilmot. Fantasy. He engaged in affairs / debt.

1814

Lord Byron (1788-1824)

Iambic Tetrameter – bewitching , builds intensity, broken at times

Tone of worship – ethereal feel to her, like a goddess or an angel. ABABAB harmony and focus on her with no mention of ‘I’ – truly amazed. Enjambment, continuous

‘cloudless climes and starry skies’ – alliteration and sibilance – comparing femininity to nature.

‘heaven to gaudy day denies’ – divine connotations

‘one shade the more, one ray the less’ – syntactic parallels, attention to detail. ‘grace’ – shifts from looks to thoughts – transcends virtue of being close to God / innocent. ‘serenely/pure’ – virginity and the divine, patronising, misogynistic mind.

‘cheek … brow’ – cataloguing beauties in blazon technique typical of era. ‘so soft, so calm, yet eloquent’ – triplet, layering on her beauties but also drawing attention to ‘eloquent’.

‘a mind at peace with all below’ – inner purity reflects in the exterior, and this is a rare woman.

A Complaint

Romantic poet. French Revolution and unrest all over. Believed in liberty of the individual. This is about Samuel Taylor Coleridge, another poet and friend. Coleridge became addicted to drugs, went to Malta and came back even more addicted.

1807

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

ABABCC, friends, but there is still some friction. 3 stanzas – 2 people separated by a barrier? Caesuras create pauses reflecting the loss of the passion and ‘flow’. Cyclical structure – stagnation and loss.

‘fountain’ – metaphor of wealth/status but also of dynamic love and life, extended to the static ‘well’.

The ‘well’ could also mean secrecy or concealment.

‘flow / And flow’ – enjambment implies continuity of love. ‘fond heart’s door’ – opened to inspiration.

‘all bliss above’ – transcends human love, puts them on a different plane – God? Wasn’t bounded by each other’s ideas, open and free exchange.

‘murmuring, sparkling, living love’ – triplet and alliteration depicting the magic of their friendship.

‘what have I?’ – questions, uncertainty, regret?

‘silence and obscurity’ – sensory language, the past is buried, ‘consecrated fount’ – religious imagery.

Neutral Tones

1898

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

Influenced heavily by the romantics (e.g. Wordsworth)

Depressed, insecure as his relationships have failed.

Married to Emma Gifford but unhappy together.

Cyclical structure = stagnant relationship

Uneven rhythm = unsteady emotional terrain

First person, recounting the past = reflective and depressed.

ABBA rhyme scheme mirrors an elegy (serious poem, usually a lament for the dead)

Also reflects how their inner emotions have been sandwiched between facades just as ABBA has a rhyming couplet in the middle

Pathetic fallacy – winter day / sibilance – starving sod indicates death and despair

Chidden of God contrasted with white sun – white usually purity, but here is rebuked.

Eyes that rove – usually window to soul, but here the understanding is gone.

Words played – personification for lack of communication

Smile was the deadest thing – juxtaposition between life and death shows pain by love.

Alive enough and strength to die – anthesis shows couple prone to conflict and destructive contrast

Grin of bitterness and like an ominous bird  – emotion personified  nature against the relationship and couple justifying separation

Greyish leaves – melancholic and depressing ending ties up the poem and shows reflection of failed relationship

Wrings with wrong – love is unkind. All romance spoiled.

Sonnet 43

Married to Robert Browning, famous published poet in her own day. Infirm, hence the focus on her own death.

1850

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

Petrarchan Sonnet with a volta ‘I love thee with the passion…’. End of poem has the future which gives the poem a temporal immortality and one stanza = unity. Iambic pentameter + rhyme scheme = perfection. ‘I love thee’ repetition – love is reinforced and perpetual.

First person ‘I’, assertive voice, either over the patriarchal oppression or over social ideals (poet’s right to a voice).

Archaic language like ‘thee’ mirrors Biblical language.

‘depth and breadth and height / My soul’ – units of measurement, demonstrating how love cannot be quantified. Enjambment – love exists past dimensions.

‘Ideal Grace’ – religious, blessed, spiritual relationship.

‘soul … sight’ – caesura separates and highlights different types of love: tangible vs abstract. ‘In my old griefs … and with my childhood’s faith’ – effect of time on love.

‘Smiles, tears… -and, if God choose’ – caesura introduces external superior force – relationships affected by these. Or the ups and downs of relationships.

‘sun and candlelight’ – day and night, ‘as men strive for Right’ – moral dimension. ‘after death’ - transcends

My Last Duchess

Victorian poet, controversial due to social commentary Sets poem in 17^th century with the Duke to avoid the censor. Time of Italian Renaissance – powerful characters of the past. Patriarchal Society. Based on Alfonzo II and fascinated by his life.

1842

Robert Browning (1812-1889)

Dramatic monologue – biased single perspective. Iambic pentameter – traditional views of women, conversational. Rhyme scheme but not how the poem should be read – Duke breaks the rules. One stanza – overwhelming, tiring. Rambling through the enjambment

‘That piece a wonder’ – ominous, possessive (‘my’)

‘Fra Pandolf’ – name dropper, ‘Notice Neptune’ – symbolises wealth, status, and absolute power.

‘curtain I have drawn for you’ – in control, coercive

‘such stuff’ – sibilance indicates jealousy/seething

‘bough of cherries’ – in touch with nature, ‘daylight’

‘My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name with anybody’s gift’ – jealousy, demands gratitude and devotion but doesn’t seem to show her any.

‘too soon made glad, too easily impressed’ – repetition False modesty ‘skill in speech – which I have not’ and ‘I choose never to stoop’ – sophistic justifications for him

‘This grew; gave commands’ smooth chain of events, he doesn’t even do it himself. ‘all smiles stopped’.

‘is my object’ – next victim! Chilling tale of toxicity.

1^st Date – She / 1^st Date – He

Known for her comic tone in poetry, but always with a serious underlying point. Was a primary school teacher and has an OBE for her poetry work.

2011

Wendy Cope (1945-present)

1^st dates social stigma. Side by side, both fixated on each other and pretending they aren’t. ABCB light-hearted, humorous tone. Iambic tetrameter, fast pace, panic and anxiety.

‘I said I liked classical music’ – attempting to appear intellectual, opening anecdote. ‘wasn’t exactly a lie’ – trying to reassure or comfort herself.

‘Half-dark’ – uncertainty, reflects the half-lies.

‘thrilled to be asked’ – conforming to stereotypes that the man has to make the first move + ‘hope I look tastefully sexy’ – appeal to man visually.

‘glance’ – hoping for eye contact, ‘quite undistracted by me’ – paying too much attention to him. Both colloquialism ‘out of my league’ and formal lang ‘besotted’ reflects miscommunications, contrast between what the try to show and how they think.

Dramatic irony displays miscommunication. ‘I’m a bit nervous’ – role reversal / ‘looked for a suitable concert – pragmatic, organised, mirrors patriarchy.

Valentine

1993

Carol Ann Duffy (1955-present)

Was Poet Laureate. Is a lesbian. Influenced by postmodernism – taking ‘universal’ ideas and deconstructing them. Lots of irony typically.

Irregular stanzas to acknowledge the ups and downs of relationships.

I give you an onion = refrain

Extended metaphor – exploring the reality of relationships. No rhyme scheme = no set prototype

Red rose – alliteration lends sarcastic tone, nouns which frame the consumerist attitude: contrast with Duffy using abstract nouns ( love / grief )

Trying to be truthful – plosives emphasise her frustration, present continuous = still struggling.

Onion – analogy for love as it is multi-layered: multifaceted and complex.

Will blind you with tears / like a lover – speaker’s expression of love makes people cry and invokes deeper, genuine emotions.

Fierce kiss … lips … possessive – assonance serves to warn.

For as long as we are – transient nature, being realistic, interesting twist on Christian marriage vows ?

Take it – imperative so authoritative. A wedding ring / if you like, enjambment suggesting that marriage isn’t necessary.

Lethal (single line) / cling to your knife – love and violence inseparable in relationships / love can be a wound?

Consumerism

One Flesh

1966

Elizabeth Jennings (1926-2001)

Traditionalist, mastery of form. Devout Roman Catholic, suffered mental illness. Did not write autobiographical poetry but this one is. Known to explore fundamental ideas like love, religion, and death. Associated with "The Movement" a group of poets who believed in simple poetry, thus the regular structure.

Three stanzas – two people with a barrier in between them? Even and regular, reflecting stagnation in the relationship.

Iambic pentameter in some lines, but not all – strangely apart yet strangely close together – tone change as ‘close together’ doesn’t fit in with the rest of the poem.

Apart / separate – lexical field of detachment

He… / She like a girl dreaming of childhood – he and she on separate lines, simile indicates she is unsure of how to define her situation – mental regression to childhood, to happier times.

They wait / some new event – death/afterlife?

Book he holds unread – alliteration, unable to concentrate. Book could symbolise things getting in the way of life or emotions

Flotsam – shipwreck debris – stranded, not a smooth life, not like a boat on the sea

Sensory language – how cool they lie / silence / eyes fixed on shadows – multiple facets of love affect couples

Biblical language – confession / chastity / One Flesh

Like a confession / of having little feeling – or too much – dash represents distance. Enjambment to explain confession – do they feel that interacting is immoral?

Time itself’s a feather – change of focus, brushing by.

i wanna be yours

1982

Dr John Cooper Clarke (1945-present)

Nicknamed The Bard Of Salford, he is a punk poet and performer. Influenced by Beatnik movement, characterised by liberation and rejection of social norms

No punctuation/capitalisation – breaking norms of how love is expressed

Refrain i wanna be yours layers the feelings he has for the woman.

Enjambment throughout the poem and repetition of ‘let me be your’ – indicating submission to fulfilling whatever role to convenience her. Rhyming = lyrical, song

Breathing in your dust – crave every bit of them. Radical imagery, could be sexual innuendo

I will never rust – time: longevity of commitment

Coffee hot .. Coffee pot .. You call the shots – pun could reflect the closeness of their relationship?�Raincoat / for those frequent rainy days – pathetic fallacy, there to lift her mood / modern take on a knight’s shield?

Dreamboat … sail away – romantic image of sailing into the sunset – a refuge to escape reality

Teddy bear – feminine comfort, youthful affection

I don’t care – abrupt change in rhythm, disregard for rules or norms, indicates speaker’s obsession

I will not run out – incessant love, will never abandon her

You’ll get cold without – cold connotes loneliness or a lack of warmth and comfort – physical v emotional. Emphasis on how he wants them to need him.

Atlantic ocean / deep – infinity/purity? Structure breaks

Love’s Dog

Inspired by a line from poet Edwin Morgan ‘What I hate about love is its dog’, she said it spoke to her of the effort and deliberation of love.

Post modern. Alice in Wonderland reference and youngest winner of the TS Elliot Prize for poetry. Great Recession and 3^rd wave Feminism.

2008

Jen Hadfield (1978-present)

Couplets, but unpredictable. Penultimate stanza changes to ‘loathe’ – change of tone. Half rhyme – unpredictable. Anaphora, but each idea seems cut off: reader left with the what but not the why.

Dogs are loyal but can also be dangerous attackers.

‘prognosis’ – how long will it last? ‘hate … me me me’ – she wants reciprocated feelings. ‘Eat-me / Drink-me’ – all consuming, pulls you in.

‘petting zoo’ – love and passion like a wild animal

‘zookeeper – you’ – sexual innuendo / submission?

‘shrinking potion’ AIW reference, changing stances, won’t last forever. ‘truth serum’ – open exchange.

‘doubloons’ – pirate metaphor shows changing waters, but also it is a gift. ‘Bird-bones’ fragile, have to be cared for. ‘boil-wash’ – seething part, have to sterilise to clean up again, for the next ‘spin-cycle’.

‘pirate’ symbolises adventure, and the ‘sick parrot’ foreshadows speaker’s pain and suffering.

Nettles

Scannell served in WW2, and he had six children. Was a professional boxer. Was shot in the legs. Incredibly critical of war. Won awards. Formalist (New Formalism). - voiced desire to return to traditional forms of poetry 2 of his children died, 1 young, 1 in a road accident.

1980

Vernon Scannell (1922-2007)

All one stanza – like one regiment. Cautionary tale? Simple lesson learned. ABAB reflects speaker’s need for constancy/order. Volta ‘and then … billhook’

‘son aged three’ – fragile and vulnerable child

‘”bed” … green spears’ – reflective tone, looking at own mistakes. Spears – threats are everywhere

Military imagery – ‘regiment’, ‘parade’, ‘recruits’, everything at war with his son, ‘no place for rest’ – constant threat, and ‘spite behind the shed’ – plosives demonstrate the speaker’s anger.

‘Blisters beaded’ – alliteration, feels the pain as if it were his own, ‘soothed’ – parent-child affection

‘watery grin’ parents can bring joy even if they cannot undo the harm. Enjambment after volta shows a loss of control, evokes urgency and fury.

‘busy sun and rain’ personified, struggle against nature. ‘wounds again’ – surrenders, allegory 4life

The Manhunt

Written for a Channel 4 documentary about Eddie – a UN peacekeeper injured in Bosnian War 1993-94, about his wife trying to reconnect with him. He studied geography.

2008

Simon Armitage (1963-present)

Couplets depict their emotional closeness despite physical separation. Breakdown of rhyme scheme – less trapped by the PTSD / could reflect the discovery of the injuries.

‘passionate nights and intimate days’ – significant timespan for healing / sexual encounter but lack of communication. Semantic field of searching ‘trace’, ‘climbing’, ‘skirting’ – really cares about him healing.

‘frozen river’ – cold, silent – rivers normally flow with life but this is cold and lifeless. ‘blown hinge of his lower jaw’ / ‘porcelain collar bone’ – fragility and physical injury. Unable to express emotions?

‘mind and attend’ – medical connotations. ‘fractured rudder’ – loss in sense of direction, out of control.

Repetition of ‘and’ – persistence through it all.

‘foetus of metal’ – deep psychological scarring / a new chapter in the couple’s life (like a new child)

‘only then, did I come close’ – not a complete resolution but it is better. ‘every nerve … tightened’

My Father Would Not Show Us

South African poet, lived through apartheid. About the death of the generation of very private men who didn’t share emotions.

1988

Ingrid de Kok (1951-present)

Elegy form + open casket – there is no perfect way to cope with grief, it’s a process

Epigraph resembles an epitaph – connection to dead loved ones is overwhelming, death doesn’t fit into our world, forbids the ‘talk’.

‘father’s face / five days dead’ – fricatives, tension, mimics speaker’s shock. ‘organised’ – funeral rite is a performance, shielding the reality of death. ‘cold in here’ – pathetic fallacy, speaker lost comfort and love.

‘borrowed’ – temporary, reluctance to accept. ‘delivered’ – religious connotations. He is far from God.

‘inverted’ – speaker’s world upside down, takes people they love and makes them unrecognisable.

‘last time I am allowed’ – death is restrictive, controls

‘louder … crowded’ – depended on father for strength and guidance, now he has abandoned them. ‘he hid, hid away’ – anger or dismay at father’s shame.

‘flowers … spring’ – image of life contrasts – pain

‘curtains’ – concealment. ‘everything he hears is white’ – white noise, or purity, admiration? ‘without one call or word or name’ – no more communication, link to epigraph.

‘face to the wall, he lay’ – father felt a duty to hide death from his family, build the barrier of the ‘counterpane’ – emotional distance.

Poems that have appeared in previous years

Sample 1: Nettles.

Sample 2: Forgot lmao

​