anthology poetry tasks - cansfield

Anthology Poetry Tasks

In this section you will find a number of tasks that relate to the three

poems that you studied last year:

Exposure

Storm on the Island

The Prelude

And an additional poem from your anthology:

Ozymandias

There are a number of tasks for each poem for you to select when the

schedule guides you to do so.

At the end there is also a comparison task for you to complete.

Exposure

Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us . . .

Wearied we keep awake because the night is silent . . .

Low drooping flares confuse our memory of the salient . . .

Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous,

But nothing happens.

Watching, we hear the mad gusts tugging on the wire,

Like twitching agonies of men among its brambles.

Northward, incessantly, the flickering gunnery rumbles,

Far off, like a dull rumour of some other war.

What are we doing here?

The poignant misery of dawn begins to grow . . .

We only know war lasts, rain soaks, and clouds sag stormy.

Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army

Attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of grey,


Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence.

Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow,

With sidelong flowing flakes that flock, pause, and renew,

We watch them wandering up and down the wind's nonchalance,


Pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our faces—

We cringe in holes, back on forgotten dreams, and stare, snow-dazed,

Deep into grassier ditches. So we drowse, sun-dozed,

Littered with blossoms trickling where the blackbird fusses.

—Is it that we are dying?

What technique is used at the beginning of the poem to show the violence of

nature?

________________________________________________________________

Challenge 1: What do you notice about this line throughout the poem and

what do you think Owen’s message about war is through it?

“Gusts” is wind. What technique is “mad gusts

tugging on the wire”?

______________________________________

Challenge 2: What technique is used here and

why is the wire in no-man’s land compared to

“twitching agonies of men”?

What technique is this and how does it make

the weather seem?

______________________________________

______________________________________

______________________________________

______________________________________

What are the connotations of the colour grey?

Challenge 3: What is the effect of the sibilance

here?

What is the technique used here and

how does it make the snow seem?

________________________________

________________________________

________________________________

________________________________

What is the technique used here and how does it

make the snow seem?

________________________________________

________________________________________

________________________________________

________________________________________

________________________________________

________________________________________

________________________________________

________________________________________

_

Slowly our ghosts drag home: glimpsing the sunk fires, glozed

With crusted dark-red jewels; crickets jingle there;

For hours the innocent mice rejoice: the house is theirs;

Shutters and doors, all closed: on us the doors are closed,—

We turn back to our dying.

Since we believe not otherwise can kind fires burn;

Now ever suns smile true on child, or field, or fruit.

For God's invincible spring our love is made afraid;

Therefore, not loath, we lie out here; therefore were born,

For love of God seems dying.

Tonight, this frost will fasten on this mud and us,

Shrivelling many hands, and puckering foreheads crisp.

The burying-party, picks and shovels in shaking grasp,

Pause over half-known faces. All their eyes are ice,


Extension: Link quotations from this poem to ones from The Prelude

Exposure The Prelude

Owen shows that nature is overwhelming compared to humanity: “__________________________________________________”

Wordsworth also shows that humanity is overwhelmed by the power and force of nature: “___________________________________________________”

The setting of the poem is a hostile environment, showing nature as a danger to humanity: “___________________________________________________”

In ‘The Prelude’, nature also seems dangerous towards humanity. This is shown in the quotation: “____________________________________________________”

At the end of the poem, humanity is almost overtaken physically by nature. This is shown in the quotation: “____________________________________________________”

Wordsworth also shows the way that nature has taken over him, but focuses on the way it has taken over his mind: “____________________________________________________”

Why do the men already describe themselves as “ghosts”?

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_____

Challenge 4: What technique is used here?

Why are the doors at home closed on the

soldiers?

Does Owen make the process of dying sound sudden or ongoing?

Why can the fires at home not burn unless the

soldiers stay at war?

Because if the soldiers went home, then

_______________________________________

________________________________________

________________________________________

________________________________________

________________________________________

________________________ What technique is used here and how does it

reveal the power of the weather over the

soldiers?

_______________________________________

________________________________________

________________________________________

________________________________________

________________________________________

________________________

CHALLENGE 1:

CHALLENGE 2:

CHALLENGE 3:

CHALLENGE 4:

Annotate the following quotations by answering the questions for each:

1) What does the line mean?

2) What does the line suggest?

Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us . . . Wearied we keep awake because the night is silent . . . Low drooping flares confuse our memory of the salient . . . Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous, But nothing happens. Watching, we hear the mad gusts tugging on the wire, Like twitching agonies of men among its brambles. Northward, incessantly, the flickering gunnery rumbles,

Far off, like a dull rumour of some other war. What are we doing here? The poignant misery of dawn begins to grow . . . We only know war lasts, rain soaks, and clouds sag stormy. Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army Attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of grey, But nothing happens. Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence. L Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow, With sidelong flowing flakes that flock, pause, and renew, We watch them wandering up and down the wind's nonchalance, But nothing happens.

Summarise what the poem is about in full sentences:

Complete the following questions:

1) What is Wilfred Owen saying about nature

versus conflict?

2) What happens to the religion of the men in war? Why do you think this happens?

3) How can the title ‘Exposure’ be seen as ambiguous? What truth is Owen exposing in the poem?

Complete each analytical verb with a different idea:

Wilfred Owen may have written the poem: to criticise to teach to warn to reveal the importance of to celebrate

Annotate the poem with points you can remember from your initial study:

Pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our faces— We cringe in holes, back on forgotten dreams, and stare, snow-dazed, Deep into grassier ditches. So we drowse, sun-dozed, Littered with blossoms trickling where the blackbird fusses. —Is it that we are dying? S Slowly our ghosts drag home: glimpsing the sunk fires, glozed With crusted dark-red jewels; crickets jingle there; For hours the innocent mice rejoice: the house is theirs; Shutters and doors, all closed: on us the doors are closed,— We turn back to our dying. Since we believe not otherwise can kind fires burn; Now ever suns smile true on child, or field, or fruit. For God's invincible spring our love is made afraid; Therefore, not loath, we lie out here; therefore were born, For love of God seems dying. Tonight, this frost will fasten on this mud and us, Shrivelling many hands, and puckering foreheads crisp. The burying-party, picks and shovels in shaking grasp, Pause over half-known faces. All their eyes are ice, But nothing happens.

3) How has Owen used language to present the effect of nature and the reality of war?

How has Wilfred Owen used language to explore the effect of nature and the reality of war?

‘Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us…’

‘But nothing happens’

‘Slowly our ghosts drag home’

‘The burying-party, picks and shovels in shaking grasp, pause over half-known faces.’

Quick Questions:

1. Briefly describe what life was like for the soldiers in the trenches.

2. In line 21, the soldiers say “Pale flakes with fingering stealth come felling

for our faces.” What technique is not being used here?

a) Personification b) alliteration c) contrast

3. How do you think the soldiers feel when they say “Shutters and doors all

closed: on us the doors are closed” on line 29?

4. How is the fifth line of each stanza different to the other four lines?

5. What effect do these different fifth lines have on the reader?

6. Find an example of a rhetorical questions in the poem.

7. What do the rhetorical questions suggest about the soldiers?

Now try these:

8. How does the first line set the tone for the rest of the poem?

9. How does Own use language to present the feeling of boredom?

10. What do you think it the biggest danger to the soldiers: The

weather of the human enemy? Explain your answer.

11. To why extent Is the soldiers’ situation ironic?

Storm on the

Island

We are prepared: we build our houses squat,

Sink walls in rock and roof them with good slate.

This wizened earth has never troubled us

With hay, so, as you see, there are no stacks

Or stooks that can be lost. Nor are there trees

Which might prove company when it blows full

Blast: you know what I mean - leaves and branches

Can raise a tragic chorus in a gale

So that you listen to the thing you fear

Forgetting that it pummels your house too.

But there are no trees, no natural shelter.

You might think that the sea is company,

Exploding comfortably down on the cliffs

But no: when it begins, the flung spray hits

The very windows, spits like a tame cat

Turned savage. We just sit tight while wind dives

And strafes invisibly. Space is a salvo,

We are bombarded with the empty air.

Strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear.

What tone does this declarative sentence set at the beginning of

the poem?

____________________________________________________

What does “squat” mean here?

__________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________

What does “wizened”

mean here?

______________________

______________________

______________________

CHALLENGE 1: There is a

semantic field of war

throughout the poem.

Write any quotations into

the challenge box that fit

this category.

CHALLENGE 2: What is the

technique called when one

line runs on to another

without punctuation?

What is the effect of it

here?

Why is this an example of

foreshadowing?

______________________

______________________

______________________

How does this verb make

the storm sound?

______________________

______________________

______________________

Why is “no” repeated here?

________________________

________________________

________________________

________________________

What technique is used here

to describe the sea?

________________________

CHALLENGE 3: What

technique is used and why

is it used to describe the

sea?

CHALLENGE 4: What

technique is this?

Analyse the quotation in

the challenge box.

The tone changes here.

What is the name of this

technique in a poem?

______________________

What does this word mean and

how does it make the storm

sound?

__________________________

__________________________

__________________________

__________________________

__________________________

What technique is this and

what does it mean?

__________________________

__________________________

__________________________

__________________________

__________________________

__________________________

Why is an oxymoron used here?

________________________________

________________________________

________________________________

________________________________

________________________________

________________________________

CHALLENGE 1:

CHALLENGE 2:

CHALLENGE 3:

CHALLENGE 4:

spits like a tame cat/ Turned savage.


We are prepared: we build our houses squat,

Sink walls in rock and roof them with good slate.

This wizened earth has never troubled us

With hay, so, as you see, there are no stacks

Or stooks that can be lost. Nor are there trees

Which might prove company when it blows full

Blast: you know what I mean - leaves and branches

Can raise a tragic chorus in a gale

So that you listen to the thing you fear

Forgetting that it pummels your house too.

But there are no trees, no natural shelter.

You might think that the sea is company,

Exploding comfortably down on the cliffs

But no: when it begins, the flung spray hits

The very windows, spits like a tame cat

Turned savage. We just sit tight while wind dives

And strafes invisibly. Space is a salvo.

We are bombarded with the empty air.

Strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear.



1) How could the poem be read as a political commentary of Northern Ireland?

2) Why could one interpret the poem is also about the arrogance of humans?

3) How is a sense of helplessness created in the poem?


Seamus Heaney may have written the poem: to criticise to teach to warn to reveal the importance of to celebrate




3) How has Heaney used language to present the power of nature?

How does Seamus Heaney present the power of nature?

‘We are prepared: we build our houses squat’

‘… you can listen to the thing you fear / Forgetting that it pummels your house too’

‘the flung spray… spits like a tame cat / turned savage’

‘We are bombarded by the empty air.’

Quick Questions:

1. Briefly describe the houses which the community live in/

2. What effect does the end stopping in the first two lines have?

3. What does the speaker mean by the phrase “The wizened earth has

never troubled us/ With hay” in lines 3-4?

4. True of false- there are trees on the island that make a lot of noise in the

wind.

5. Briefly describe the form of the poem.

6. What is direct address?

7. Give an example of direct address from the poem.

Now try these:

8. How does Heaney make enduring the storm seem like a battle?

9. How do you think Heaney chose an island setting for the poem?

10. What effect does the final line of the poem have?

11. How is nature presented as the most powerful force in the poem?

The Prelude

One summer evening (led by her) I found

A little boat tied to a willow tree

Within a rocky cove, its usual home.

Straight I unloosed her chain, and stepping in

Pushed from the shore. It was an act of stealth

And troubled pleasure, nor without the voice

Of mountain-echoes did my boat move on;

Leaving behind her still, on either side,

Small circles glittering idly in the moon,

Until they melted all into one track

Of sparkling light. But now, like one who rows,

Proud of his skill, to reach a chosen point

With an unswerving line, I fixed my view

Upon the summit of a craggy ridge,

The horizon's utmost boundary; far above

Was nothing but the stars and the grey sky.

She was an elfin pinnace; lustily

I dipped my oars into the silent lake,

And, as I rose upon the stroke, my boat

Went heaving through the water like a swan;

When, from behind that craggy steep till then

The horizon's bound, a huge peak, black and huge,

As if with voluntary power instinct,

Upreared its head. I struck and struck again,

And growing still in stature the grim shape

Towered up between me and the stars, and still,

1. What technique is used here to make nature sound

like a human? ________________________________

2. “Straight” means straight away. What emotions do

you think the speaker is feeling at this point in the

poem?

____________________________________________

____________________________________________

CHALLENGE 1: What technique is used here and

how does it foreshadow what happens later in

the poem?

3. A semantic field of beauty is used here to describe

the lake before the speaker sees the mountain. What

tone does it set for the poem?

____________________________________________

____________________________________________

4. Wordsworth presents the speaker as arrogant

in the poem. Write the definition of “arrogant”

and then highlight any words or phrases in this

section that suggest this.

Arrogant:_______________________________

_______________________________________

5. Look up the words “elfin” and “pinnace” and

write them below to show how the speaker

viewed his boat:

Elfin: __________________________________

______________________________________

Pinnace: ______________________________

______________________________________

CHALLENGE 2: What technique is used

here and what does is reveal about the

boat? Try to think of more than one

interpretation.

CHALLENGE 3: Annotate this quotation in as

much detail as possible to show how the

speaker feels about the mountain.

6. What technique is used here to describe the

mountain and what is the effect of it?

Technique: _____________________________

Effect: It makes it seem like

_______________________________________

_______________________________________

7. What atmosphere would be created by the stars being

hidden from view?

_______________________________________________

_______________________________________________

For so it seemed, with purpose of its own

And measured motion like a living thing,

Strode after me. With trembling oars I turned,

And through the silent water stole my way

Back to the covert of the willow tree;

There in her mooring-place I left my bark, -

And through the meadows homeward went, in grave

And serious mood; but after I had seen

That spectacle, for many days, my brain

Worked with a dim and undetermined sense

Of unknown modes of being; o'er my thoughts

There hung a darkness, call it solitude

Or blank desertion. No familiar shapes

Remained, no pleasant images of trees,

Of sea or sky, no colours of green fields;

But huge and mighty forms, that do not live

Like living men, moved slowly through the mind

By day, and were a trouble to my dreams.

8. What technique is used here?

_______________________________________________

9. What does “strode” mean?

_____________________________________________

_____________________________________________

10. What emotions are evident in the speaker

through the verb “trembling”?

__________________________________________

__________________________________________

______

CHALLENGE 4: What does the

metaphor “bark” show about how the

speaker feels about the boat now?

What is bark like (the bark on a tree)?

How does this contrast to the previous

descriptions of the boat?

11. What technique is used here and what do

you think it means?

Technique:______________________________

Effect: __________________________________

________________________________________

12. Why is the word “no” repeated so much at

the end of the poem?

________________________________________

________________________________________

________________________________________

________________________________________

________________________________________

13. What overall effect has the experience had on the speaker so far?

________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________

__

Extension: How does this link to the theme of the power of nature in the poem Ozymandias? Find quotations that show

nature’s power over humanity in both ‘Ozymandias’ and ‘The Prelude’ and write them below:

CHALLENGE 1:

CHALLENGE 2:

“like a swan”

CHALLENGE 3:

“huge peak, black and huge”

CHALLENGE 4:

“huge” is repeated because it emphasizes that

the speaker is feeling

“black” suggests the mountain is The word “peak” reveals that the speaker feels

the mountain is

One summer evening (led by her) I found

A little boat tied to a willow tree

Within a rocky cove, its usual home.

Straight I unloosed her chain, and stepping in

Pushed from the shore. It was an act of stealth

And troubled pleasure, nor without the voice

Of mountain-echoes did my boat move on;

Leaving behind her still, on either side,

Small circles glittering idly in the moon,

Until they melted all into one track

Of sparkling light. But now, like one who rows,

Proud of his skill, to reach a chosen point

With an unswerving line, I fixed my view

Upon the summit of a craggy ridge,

The horizon’s utmost boundary; far above

Was nothing but the stars and the grey sky.

She was an elfin pinnace; lustily I dipped my oars into the silent lake, And, as I rose upon the stroke, my boat Went heaving through the water like a swan;



4) How is the speaker’s arrogance presented in the poem?

5) How can the events in the poem be seen as symbolic of the spiritual and moral development of a man growing up?

6) William Wordsworth is a Romantic poet. What does this mean?


William Wordsworth may have written the poem: to criticise to teach to warn to reveal the importance of to celebrate


When, from behind that craggy steep till then The horizon’s bound, a huge peak, black and huge, As if with voluntary power instinct, Upreared its head. I struck and struck again, And growing still in stature the grim shape Towered up between me and the stars, and still, For so it seemed, with purpose of its own And measured motion like a living thing, Strode after me. With trembling oars I turned, And through the silent water stole my way Back to the covert of the willow tree;

There in her mooring-place I left my bark, -And through the meadows homeward went, in grave And serious mood; but after I had seen That spectacle, for many days, my brain Worked with a dim and undetermined sense Of unknown modes of being; o’er my thoughts There hung a darkness, call it solitude Or blank desertion. No familiar shapes Remained, no pleasant images of trees, Of sea or sky, no colours of green fields; But huge and mighty forms, that do not live Like living men, moved slowly through the mind By day, and were a trouble to my dreams.




3) How has Wordsworth used language to present individual experience and the

power of nature?

How does William Wordsworth present the power of nature?

Answer in full sentences.

‘I found a little boat tied to a willow tree’

‘She was an elfin pinnace / lustily I dipped my oars into the silent lake’

‘a huge peak, black and huge’

‘Huge and mighty forms, that do not live / Like living men, moved slowly through the mind / By day, and were a trouble to my dreams.’

Quick Questions:

1. The speaker gives two contrasting views of nature. What are they?

2. What is the effect of describing the boat as being in “its usual home” (line

3)?

3. Put the following moods in the order the speaker experiences them:

a) Fearful b) reflective c) self-assured

4. Find an example of magical language in the poem.

5. What effect is created through sibilance in lines 8-9?

6. How does this effect differ to the effect created by the sibilance in lines

24-27?

Now try these:

7. Why do you think Wordsworth chose to use lots of enjambment towards

the end of the extract?

8. How does Wordsworth convey the lasting impacts on the speaker?

9. What is the effect of using a first-person speaker in the extract?

10. How does Wordsworth bring the mountain to life in lines 21-24?

Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal these words appear --

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.'

9. Why is alliteration used at the end of the

poem?

________________________________________

________________________________________

________________________________________

________________________________________

1. Why do you think the story is heard

second hand? How does that tie in with

the message of the poem?

__________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________

__________________________________

2. Find out some information about the context of the poem, what

kind of poet Shelley was and who Ozymandias was and write it in

here:

CHALLENGE 1: The “trunk” of

the statue is the torso, or upper

body. What does the “trunk”

represent and why do you think

it is missing? 3. What is a “visage”?

Visage: ______________

_____________________

Why is it “shattered”?

_____________________

_____________________

_____________________

_____________________

4. What do we learn

about Ozymandias from

these descriptions?

_____________________

_____________________

_____________________

_____________________

_____________________

5. What technique is used

here?

_____________________

CHALLENGE 2: “Passions”

are emotions – How does

the traveller know that

the sculptor must have

understood Ozymandias

quite well?

6. What does this word

suggest about how much

the sculptor respected

Ozymandias?

_____________________

_____________________

_____________________

CHALLENGE 3: Two

contrasting aspects of

Ozymandias’ character

are revealed here. What

are they?

7. What technique is used

here?

_____________________

CHALLENGE 4: What is

the effect of the caesura

here?

8. What technique is this?

_____________________

Extension activity: What are your impressions of Ozymandias as a ruler? Write at least 3 adjectives to describe him that

aren’t listed below:

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Now match quotations that support the adjectives below:

Tyrannical: “_______________________________________________________________________________________”

Hubristic: “__________________________________________________________________________________________”

Ruthless: “_________________________________________________________________________________________”

CHALLENGE 1:

CHALLENGE 2:

CHALLENGE 3:

CHALLENGE 4:


I met a traveller from an antique land, Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand, Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; And on the pedestal, these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.”



7) Percy Bysshe Shelley is known as a Romantic poet. What does this mean?

8) ‘Ozy’ comes from the Greek ‘ozium’ which means either ‘to breathe’ or ‘air’. ‘Mandias’ comes from the Greek ‘mandate’ which means ‘to rule’. How can we relate this information to what Shelley is saying in the poem?

9) Why do you think Shelley picks a statue as a metaphor for power?


Percy Bysshe Shelley may have written the poem: to criticise to teach to warn to reveal the importance of to celebrate




3) How has Shelley used language to present power in ‘Ozymandias’?

How does Percy Bysshe Shelley present power in ‘Ozymandias’?

‘sneer of cold command’

‘My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings’

‘Nothing beside remains’

‘Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare’

Quick Questions:

1. Briefly explain what the poem is about.

2. Which of these words best describe Ozymandias’s personality?

a) Modest b) arrogant c) compassionate

3. Find a quote the supports your answer to Q2.

4. Describe the form of the poem.

5. Give two possible meanings of the word “mock’d” in line 8.

6. Find a quote which highlights the deterioration of Ozymandias’s statue.

7. Explain how the quote you chose in Q7 highlights this.

Now try these:

8. How does Shelly create a sense of irony in the poem?

9. Why do you think Shelley ends the poem with a description of the desert?

10. How many voices are there in the poem? Why do you think Shelly

chose to include these voice?

11. Do you think Ozymandias has lost all his significance? Explain your

answer.

Poetry

Comparison

Compare the ways poets present the ideas of nature in ‘Exposure’ and

in one other poem from the ‘Power and Conflict.’

Exposure

By Wilfred Owen

Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us ...

Wearied we keep awake because the night is silent ...

Low drooping flares confuse our memory of the salient ...

Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous,


Watching, we hear the mad gusts tugging on the wire.

Like twitching agonies of men among its brambles.

Northward incessantly, the flickering gunnery rumbles,

Far off, like a dull rumour of some other war.

What are we doing here?

The poignant misery of dawn begins to grow ...

We only know war lasts, rain soaks, and clouds sag stormy.

Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army

Attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of gray,


Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence.

Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow,

With sidelong flowing flakes that flock, pause and renew,

We watch them wandering up and down the wind's nonchalance,


Pale flakes with lingering stealth come feeling for our faces--

We cringe in holes, back on forgotten dreams, and stare, snow-dazed,

Deep into grassier ditches. So we drowse, sun-dozed,

Littered with blossoms trickling where the blackbird fusses.

Is it that we are dying?

Slowly our ghosts drag home: glimpsing the sunk fires glozed

With crusted dark-red jewels; crickets jingle there;

For hours the innocent mice rejoice: the house is theirs;

Shutters and doors all closed: on us the doors are closed--

We turn back to our dying.

Since we believe not otherwise can kind fires burn;

Now ever suns smile true on child, or field, or fruit.

For God's invincible spring our love is made afraid;

Therefore, not loath, we lie out here; therefore were born,

For love of God seems dying.

To-night, His frost will fasten on this mud and us,

Shrivelling many hands and puckering foreheads crisp.

The burying-party, picks and shovels in their shaking grasp,

Pause over half-known faces. All their eyes are ice,


Model Example

Owen uses imagery to depict the hell-like weather the soldiers face. The wind is

personified as of being “merciless”. In showing the wind as being “merciless”

Owen is showing the weather to be another enemy or opponent for the soldiers to

face. In addition to this, the use of the adjective, “iced” and verb, “knive” gives the

reader the impression that the weather is physically attacking the soldiers and it

sounds like a vicious attack, it makes the reader feel sympathy for the soldiers who

are stuck in the trenches unable to escape the harsh conditions. Owen is able to

use a more aggressive tone as he has experienced this in war himself and he

undoubtedly wants his readers to understand the torment the soldiers went

through, not just against their German enemies. Similarly, in Storm Heaney uses

imagery to demonstrate how the weather is violent. The violent verb ‘pummels’

endorses the ferocious nature the weather has alongside the simile ‘spits like a

tame cat turned savage.’ The simile reinforces how nature can turn upon man

quickly. Heaney spent a lot of time as a child in his family cottage and experienced

the changing weather first hand in Northern Ireland, and in this poem he is able to

highlight the isolation he felt through the characterisation of the villagers.

o AO1: Clear response to the question

o AO2: Analysis of quotations and use of subject terminology

o AO3: Context (inc. writers’ intentions/ historical links and

opinions)

Independent Example

You are now going to construct independently using the skills,

knowledge and examples that you have just identified in the model

example. Keep in mind the AOs and challenge yourselves to zoom in

on language.

Furthermore, we see nature as

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Now check your own answer to ensure that you have addressed the

following Assessment Objectives:

o AO1: Clear response to the question

o AO2: Analysis of quotations and use of subject terminology

o AO3: Context (inc. writers’ intentions/ historical links and

opinions)

anthology poetry tasks - cansfield

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