‘Sudden successive flights of bullets streak the silence.

Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow’
Which poem is this quotation from? What is this quotation referring to? Define the term ‘sibilance’. Highlight the sibilance.
Who wrote it? What is its context within the poem?
‘Sudden successive flights of
bullets streak the silence.
Less deadly than the air that
shudders black with snow’

What is the writer saying about nature Highlight the personification. Define the term ‘personification’. Why does the writer use sibilance?
through this use of personification? Consider how it sounds.
‘Sudden successive flights of
bullets streak the silence.
Less deadly than the air that
shudders black with snow’

Complete single word analysis on Define the term ‘juxtaposition’. ‘Black with snow’ could be an example Now analyse the juxtaposition. Why is
‘shudders’. of juxtaposition. Why? the air described in this way?

How can you link this quotation to the Consider the historical context. What/who is Owen attacking through this
other poems in the anthology? quotation? Why? What message is he conveying to his readers?

Which poem is this quotation from?
Who wrote it?
‘I see every round as it rips through his life –
I see broad daylight on the other side.’
What is this quotation referring to? Define the term ‘anaphora’. Highlight the anaphora.
What is its context within the poem?
‘I see every round as it rips
through his life –
I see broad daylight on the other
side.’

Why do you think the writer uses
anaphora? Why are those particular
words used to create anaphora?
Complete single word analysis on the Highlight the personification. Define the term ‘personification’
verb ‘rips’.
‘I see every round as it rips
through his life –
I see broad daylight on the other
side.’

Why is such a grotesque image created in this quotation? What is the writer trying Define the term ‘ambiguous’. How could ‘the other side’ be seen as a
to say about conflict through the experience of the speaker? form of ambiguity?

How can you link this quotation to other poems in the anthology? What is the poet saying about death in ‘Round as it rips’ is an example of alliteration
war and its effect? because of the similar ‘r’ sounds at the beginning of
the words. What is the impact of using this?
 Compare how Armitage presents conflict in Remains with one other poem from Power and Conflict.
Comparative Statement:
What thematic aspect of
similarity or difference draws
the poems together?
How?
How does the poet deliver this
message? (Poetic techniques)
Why?
Why did the poet use this
technique?
Why did the poet want to say
this about conflict?
Compare:
Reinforce idea of comparison.
How?
How does the poet deliver this
message? (Poetic techniques)
Why?
Why did the poet use this
technique?
Why did the poet want to say
this about conflict?
In ‘Remains’, Armitage explores how easy it is to lose yourself in situations of conflict; similarly, in
‘Bayonet Charge, Hughes explores how fighting in World War One changed a soldier into a dangerous
weapon of war.
The speaker in ‘Remains’ describes how ‘three of a kind all letting fly’ killed the civilian who was
attempting to rob the bank. The speakers describes how ‘every round ripped through his life’ and he
could see ‘broad daylight’ through the body.
Armitage used the colloquial phrase ‘letting fly’ because ‘flying’ is associated with freedom and the wild
and the soldier truly shot freely at the civilian as if he were not even a person. The metaphor ‘ripped
through is life’ is used because it shows the speed and violent manner in which the civilian’s life was
torn apart. This leaves the reader feeling quite shaken at the excessive and gratuitous violence was that
used against the man. Finally the fact that ‘broad daylight’ shone through the body is horrifically violent
and shows how the soldier transformed into something or someone devoid of any normal human
values, morals or decency because he was in a warzone situation. Armitage may have wanted to show
this to his reader to reveal how the real enemy during wartime is war itself, because it changes people.
Similarly in ‘Bayonet Charge’, Hughes shows how a soldier has a moment of reflection about how
dangerous he is in wartime.
Hughes delivers message pertinently through the final line of the poem ‘his terror’s touchy dynamite’.
The final line is ambiguous; it could mean that his terror IS ‘touchy dynamite’, which is a metaphor to
show how fear can spur people into carrying out inhumane acts. The idea of dynamite is apt because
dynamite is explosive and dangerous, as are people in times of war. Furthermore the cacophony of
sounds with ‘t’, ‘t’ and ‘d’ adds to the chaos and discomfort of the scene. Like Armitage, Hughes is
conveying the message that people change for the worse in times of conflict and conflict itself is the real
enemy, not people in war.
Comparative In Warpower
Compare how Duffy presents Photographer,
Statement: people’s attitudes towards war; similarly, Blake explores how difficult it is to significantly impact
What thematic aspect of
similarity or difference
draws the poems togetlher.
How?
How does the poet deliver
this message? (Poetic
techniques)
Why?
Why did the poet use this
technique?
Why did the poet want to
say this about power?
Compare:
Reinforce idea of
comparison.
How?
How does the poet deliver
this message? (Poetic
techniques)
Why?
Why did the poet use this
technique?
Why did the poet want to
say this about power?
in War Duffy explores how
Photographer withtheone
photographer
other poemhasfrom
limited powerand
Power overConflict.
changing
upon peope’s attitudes.
Duffy describes how, on viewing the war photography, the reader’s ‘eyeballs prick with tears
between the bath and pre-lunch beers’.
The use of the verb ‘prick’ shows the lack of empathy displayed by the reader’s as a ‘prick’ is a
small insignificant pain. The use of the internal rhyme ‘tears’ and ‘beers’ makes the line sound
fast paced and cheerful which mirrors how unaffected the reader’s are by the horrific images of
war. Duffy could be providing a criticism of how people don’t care about things that aren’t
immediately relevant to them. Duffy is showing how powerless writers are to instigate change,
they touch their readers but do not move them to action.
Similarly, Blake explores how unaffected people are when they are exploited by those in power.
Blake describes how soldier’s ‘blood runs down palace walls’, yet people are blind to their
suffering because of their ‘mind forged manacles’.
Blake used the metaphor of ‘blood running down the palace walls’ to show that the blame of
their deaths lies with the monarchy. Similarly to War Photographer, the monarchy may not be
affected because they are removed from the situation and consider only the glory of the
empire. Through his poem, Blake was imploring people to see the suffering around them and to
feel appropriate levels of empathy.
 Compare how Dharker presents power in Tissue with one other poem from Power and Conflict.
Comparative Statement:
What thematic aspect of similarity or
difference draws the poems together?
How?
How does the poet deliver this
message? (Poetic techniques)
Why?
Why did the poet use this technique?
Why did the poet want to say this
about power?
Compare:
Reinforce idea of comparison.
How?
How does the poet deliver this
message? (Poetic techniques)
Why?
Why did the poet use this technique?
Why did the poet want to say this
about power?
In Tissue, Dharker explores the arrogance of those who think they have power;
similarly, Shelley explores the historical figure of Ozymandias, a notoriously
arrogant King, who believed his empire would last forever, but now only a broken
statue remains.
Dhaker considers ‘if buildings were paper’ how easily they would ‘fall away on a
sigh’. The comparison between paper and buildings suggests that ultimately
buildings are as fragile and meaningless as a piece of paper. Dhaker extends this
metaphor by explaining how quickly they could fall away, showing the transient
nature of power and the things that we believe to have great importance.
Dhaker’s message appears to be that humanity attributes far too much importance
to materials; things that really have no significance. The image of ‘tissue’ is repeated
to reinforce how delicate and disposable the elements of our lives are. Through this,
Dhaker is also suggesting that humans are arrogant for believing these man made
items have permanence and importance.
Similarly, Shelley’s character of Ozymandias attributed huge importance of having
statues of himself.
On the pedestal, the inscription reads ‘I am Ozymandias: King of Kings/Look on ye
mighty and despair’.
Shelley’s use of hyperbole in ‘king of kings’ shows the enormity of Ozymandia’s
arrogance and there is irony because he is no longer of any significance and his
statue lies ‘shattered’ in the desert. The imperative verb ‘look’ also reinforces the
arrogance because he was giving commands. Shelley appears to be critiquing and
warning people against arrogance because power is ephemeral and one day your
power will be irrelevant, just like Ozymandias.
 Compare how Heaney presents nature in SOTI with one other poem from Power and Conflict.
Comparative Statement:
What thematic aspect of similarity or
difference draws the poems together?
How?
How does the poet deliver this
message? (Poetic techniques)
Why?
Why did the poet use this technique?
Why did the poet want to say this
about power?
Compare:
Reinforce idea of comparison.
How?
How does the poet deliver this
message? (Poetic techniques)
Why?
Why did the poet use this technique?
Why did the poet want to say this
about power?
In ‘Storm on the Island’, Heaney presents nature as destructive and terrifying;
whereas, in ‘Kamikaze’, Garland presents nature as captivating, inspiring and
beautiful.
Heaney showcases the destructive capacity of nature through his use of dynamic
verbs such as ‘blast’, ‘bombarded’, ‘pummels’ and ‘exploding’.
Heaney selected these verbs as they fall within the semantic field of war, which
emphasizes the danger and aggressive nature of the storm. Furthermore, Heaney’s
language choices make it seem as if the storm is deliberately attacking the island.
Heaney may have used these words to allude to the violent conflict between the
British and the Irish.
Contrastingly, Garland uses nature to convey a beautiful and serene environment
In ‘Kamikaze’, as the pilot flies over the sea he notices the fishing boats strung out
like ‘bunting’ over a ‘green blue translucent sea’.
Garland described this peaceful atmosphere using colour imagery to show how vast
and stunning nature is. The pilot is captivated by the beauty of nature and it stops
him from flying to his death. Garland may have been trying to deliver the message
that nature is far more powerful than humanity because it ultimately persuades the
pilot to abandon his social duty of sucide.
 ‘Exposure’ by Wilfred Owen is a brutal exploration of the horrific conditions experienced by soldiers in World War One. Soldiers would have been exposed
to various hardships through their environment. Poor sanitation, disease and the physical enemy all posed huge threats to soldiers like Owen. Owen,
however, pays a significant amount of attention to the unforgiving force of weather and nature in his poem. A significant question is asked in ‘Exposure’:
Are natural elements a greater threat than the opposition? Owen presents us with a hugely different perspective on nature compared to the Romantic
poets like Blake and Shelley. Nature is something to be feared here.

1.
‘Our brains ache in the merciless iced east winds that knive us…’ – Owen opens with an
‘…’ – Owen’s consistent use of ellipsis is interesting. Whilst it could be used to create a 2.
sense of foreboding, it could also be argued that it symbolises a sense of urgency felt image of utmost brutality. ‘Knive’ has connotations of stabbing and extreme pain,
within the soldiers. They are trained for war and so the silence, the waiting, frightens inflicted by the winds on a literal level and the enemies in the east on a more
them. They desperately want something to happen. Perhaps they are frustrated; the cold is metaphorical level. Interestingly, Owen places ‘us’ on a new line. The word, like the
not a physical enemy they can fight back against. They have no choice but to sit and endure soldiers, is exposed, highlighting the vulnerability of the soldiers themselves. They are
the harsh environment they find themselves in as they wait. open to attack, sitting, waiting for something, anything to happen.

3. ‘Exposure’ by Wilfred Owen

‘But nothing happens’ – W.B Yeats said that ‘passive suffering is not a theme for poetry’, yet this is exactly
the type of suffering Owen tackles, criticising the ‘stiff upper lip’ British values that were so prevalent at
this time. He reinforces that ‘nothing happens’, highlighting that nothing is actually being achieved by
being there. In this sense then, Owen is exposing the realities of war, meaning the title is ambiguous in its
meaning. There is no honour in death. Instead, soldiers experience a slow, excruciating death, inflicted
upon them by the power of nature.
‘clouds sag stormy… attacks once more in ranks on shivering ranks of
grey.’ – Owen presents a bleak, desolate environment, emphasising the
monotony and futility of war. The soldiers, as ‘shivering ranks of grey’,
are reduced to nothing but a colour. There is no individuality in war.
Together, their sole purpose is to survive. In describing them in this way,
Owen strips the soldiers of their humanity.

4.
‘All their eyes are ice, but nothing
‘For love of God seems dying’ – War shatters the faith of the
happens’ – Owen has spent his poem
chronicling the unimaginable suffering
that soldiers have been expected to
endure. ‘Eyes are ice’ shows that their
lives have been snatched from them and
so Owen’s final ‘but nothing happens’
takes on a clever twist. Although it could
represent a cyclical nature to war (the
constant waiting and wondering) it could
also be an attack aimed at those who
make the decisions in war, those who
have manoeuvred the soldiers into this
situation in the first place. The soldiers
are dying and yet ‘nothing happens’ as a
result. They are not saved. They are not
rescued from their suffering. They are
simply left to follow the orders of those
who are deemed superior.
5.
6.
‘Pale flakes with lingering stealth come feeling for our faces’ - The
men. The young soldiers who went to war so proudly have personification of the snow makes nature even more powerful. Owen hints that
mentally and physically changed. In the horrors they have nature itself can target the soldiers and do so with such ‘stealth’ that they don’t
seen, there is an absence of goodness. Owen uses the final even realise the extent to which the cold is killing them. The alliteration of the
fricative ‘f’ in ‘feeling for our faces’ is jarring. It is forceful and draws attention to
stanza to describe how the cold is aging them; they are not
the excruciating pain that the flakes, something that usually connotes delicacy
even recognisable to themselves.
and fragility, can cause.
9. 8.. 7.
‘Slowly our ghosts drag home’ – Another tragic image. Once again, Owen has stripped
the soldiers of their humanity but to such an extent that he portrays them as dead
men walking. The adverb ‘slowly’ and the verb ‘drag’ add to the same slow, drawn
out, unchanging pattern created by the form of the poem. Eight stanzas that follow
the same pattern create a sense of stasis. The soldiers are not going anywhere, not
because they don’t want to, but because they can’t.
Compare how Owen presents the experience of war in Exposure with one other poem from Power and Conflict.

Comparative Statement: In ‘Exposure’ Owen portrays an honest account of the reality of

What thematic aspect of war; similarly, in ‘Remains’, Armitage also provides a raw account
similarity or difference draws the
poems together? of the true horrors of war.

How? Owen explores the harsh reality of war through his depiction of the
How does the poet deliver this weather. He describes how the ‘merciless iced east winds [knife] us’.
message? (Poetic techniques)

Why?
Why did the poet use this
technique?
Why did the poet want to say this
about experience of war?
Owen may have used sibilance in this line to replicate the sounds of the
hissing and whistling winds. Adding a hissing sound quality to the poem
also emphasizes the idea of danger and the idea that nature is evil by
treating the soldiers so cruelly. Furthermore, the personification also helps
to vilify nature for its harsh treatment of the soldiers.
Owen may have wanted to showcase nature as a villain because it is often
forgotten that the conditions of war are often as likely to kill soldiers as
direct conflict is. Owen powerfully shows his readers the true conditions of
war in a time when propaganda was rife.

Compare:
Reinforce idea of comparison.

How?
How does the poet deliver this
message? (Poetic techniques)

Why?
Why did the poet use this
technique?
Why did the poet want to say this
about experience of war?