Shell Unseen Poetry Anthology

Shell Unseen Poetry

Summer Term

English Literature

UNSEEN POETRY Read the ques�on carefully and underline / highlight key words to help you tackle it. Read the poem at least twice to gain a greater insight into what the poet is trying to say. Look at any useful informa�on you are given about the piece, such as when it was writen, who wrote it, etc. Do not forget the �tle of the poem. Do not just analyse the content but discuss the ‘how’, and the ways in which the writer has used language and structure to create an effect on the reader. Remember to discuss form . Think about the structure of the piece. How does the write hook the reader in the first line / stanza? Is there a pivotal moment? What is the final word? Are there different ways in which the piece could be interpreted? Which part of the poem did you find most interes�ng / powerful? Why?

English Literature UNSEEN POETRY Key Words and Terminology

Caesura Enjambment Onomatopoeia

Rhyme Rhythm Stanza Pivotal, e.g. pivotal moment in a poem

Poignant Sibilance Elegy / Elegiac

Sonnet Volta (turning point or pivotal moment in a sonnet) Rhyming Couplet Quatrain Iambic Pentameter Syllable

Metaphysical Poetry Conceit Enigma / Enigma�c

"Daffodils" (1804) Wordsworth

I wander’d lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Flutering and dancing in the breeze. Con�nuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the Milky Way, They stretch'd in never - ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The waves beside them danced; but they Out- did the sparkling waves in glee: I gazed -- and gazed -- but litle thought What wealth the show to me had brought: For o�, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils. A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company:

How does Wordsworth convey his joy at seeing the daffodils, and what effect does it have on him?

o Make close reference to language o Discuss the structure and form of the poem o Use short quotations to support your points

The Donkey GK Chesterton

When fishes flew and forests walked And figs grew upon thorn, Some moment when the moon was blood Then surely I was born. With monstrous head and sickening cry And ears like errant wings, The devil’s walking parody On all four - footed things. The tattered outlaw of the earth, Of ancient crooked will; Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb, I keep my secret still.

Fools! For I also had my hour; One far fierce hour and sweet: There was a shout about my ears, And palms before my feet.

The Duck Ogden Nash

Behold the duck. It does not cluck. A cluck it lacks. It quacks. It is specially fond

Of a puddle or pond. When it dines or sups, It bottoms ups.

Little Fish DH Lawrence

The tiny little fish enjoy themselves in the sea. Quick little splinters of life, their little lives are fun to them in the sea.

The Lamb William Blake

Little Lamb who made thee ?

Dost thou know who made thee,

Gave thee life & bid thee feed By the stream & o'er the mead; Gave thee clothing of delight, Softest clothing wooly bright; Gave thee such a tender voice, Making all the vales rejoice!? Little Lamb who made thee?

Dost thou know who made thee ?

Little Lamb I'll tell thee; Little Lamb I'll tell thee:

He is called by thy name, For he calls himself a Lamb. He is meek & He is mild, He became a little child. I a child & thou a lamb, We are called by his name.

Little Lamb God bless thee! Little Lamb God bless thee!

Pike Ted Hughes

Pike, three inches long, perfect Pike in all parts, green tigering the gold. Killers from the egg: the malevolent aged grin. They dance on the surface among the flies. Or move, stunned by their own grandeur, Over a bed of emerald, silhouette Of submarine delicacy and horror. A hundred feet long in their world. In ponds, under the heat - struck lily pads - Gloom of their stillness: Logged on last year’s black leaves, watching upwards. Or hung in an amber cavern of weeds The jaws’ hooked clamp and fangs Not to be changed at this date: A life subdued to its instrument; The gills kneading quietly, and the pectorals. Three we kept behind glass, Jungled in weed: three inches, four, And four and a half: fed fry to them - Suddenly there were two. Finally one With a sag belly and the grin it was born with. And indeed they spare nobody. Two, six pounds each, over two feet long High and dry and dead in the willow - herb - One jammed past its gills down the other’s gullet: The outside eye stared: as a vice locks - The same iron in this eye

The Owl Edward Thomas

Downhill I came, hungry, and yet not starved, Cold, yet had heat within me that was proof Against the north wind; tired, yet so that rest Had seemed the sweetest thing under a roof. Then at the inn I had food, fire, and rest, Knowing how hungry, cold, and tired was I. All of the night was quite barred out except An owl's cry, a most melancholy cry. Shaken out long and clear upon the hill No merry note, nor cause of merriment, Bu t one telling me plain what I escaped And others could not, that night, as in I went. And salted was my food, and my repose, Salted and sobered too, by the bird's voice Speaking for all who lay under the stars, Soldiers and poor, unable to rejoice.

The Darkling Thrush Thomas Hardy

I leant upon a coppice gate When Frost was spectre - gray, And Winter’s dregs made desolate The weakening eye of day. The tangled bine - stems scored the sky Like strings of broken lyres, And all mankind that haunted nigh Had sought their household fires. The land’s sharp features seemed to be The Century’s corpse outleant, His crypt the cloudy canopy, The wind his death - lament. The ancient pulse of germ and birth

Was shrunken hard and dry, And every spirit upon earth Seemed fervourless as I. At once a voice arose among The bleak twigs overhead In a full - hearted evensong

Of joy illimited; An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small, In blast - beruffled plume, Had chosen thus to fling his soul Upon the growing gloom. So little cause for carolings Of such ecstatic sound Was written on terrestrial things Afar or nigh around, That I could think there trembled through His happy good - night air Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew And I was unaware.

The Fly William Blake

Little Fly Thy summer's play, My thoughtless hand Has brush'd away.

Am not I A fly like thee? Or art not thou A man like me?

For I dance And drink & sing; Till some blind hand Shall brush my wing. If thought is life And strength & breath; And the want Of thought is death;

Then am I A happy fly, If I live, Or if I die.

The Flea

John Donne

Mark but this flea, and mark in this, How little that which thou deniest me is; It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee, And in this flea our two bloods mingled be. Thou know'st that this cannot be said A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead; Yet this enjoys before it woo, And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two; And this, alas! is more than we would do. O stay, three lives in one flea spare, Where we almost, yea, more than married are. This flea is you and I, and this Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is. Though parents grudge, and you, we're met, And cloister'd in these living walls of jet. Though use make you apt to kill me, Let not to that self-murder added be, And sacrilege, three sins in killing three. Cruel and sudden, hast thou since Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence? Wherein could this flea guilty be, Except in that drop which it suck'd from thee? Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that thou Find'st not thyself nor me the weaker now. 'Tis true; then learn how false fears be; Just so much honour, when thou yield'st to me, Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee.