Conclusion (focus on key words and ideas/message of poem)

Form and Structure comparison (arrangement and endings)

Language comparison (techniques including imagery)
Introduction (focus on key words and perspective/ideas of poet)
Poem 1:

Poem 2:

Structure to use.
1 of 17
2 of 17

Bayonet Charge
Speaker: From a viewpoint of a solider who is running in an attack
Compare with: The Charge of the Light Brigade - The description of action in war.
Mametz Wood - Contrast between war and its aftermath
Belfast Confetti - Language chosen to depict violence
Chosen key points: Metaphors, similes, onomatopia, imagery and personification used.
Chosen quotes: 'The patriotic tear that had brimmed in his eye Sweating like molten iron from the
centre of his chest' - painful burning in his chest, fighting with fear, tear of honour/pride then turns
to no patriotism....just wants to get out of it.
'King, honour [....]' All patriotism lost. 'His terror's touchy dynamite' He's so scared he could explode.
Running to get out of it.

'[....] memory is dead [....]' - deprieved of memory/identity

'wild' - manic, no tune
natural images contrast
Chosen quotes: 'ominious' - hints something bad will happen
Chosen key points: metaphor, alliteration, repetition, emphases, language juxtaposes the sad
confusion of the girl solider with natural images.
The Falling Leaves - the quiet, sad tone which hides the horror beneath
The Yellow Palm - the effect of war on ordinary people
Compare with: Futility - death in war
Speaker: Poet is talking about a war that isn't real

Come on, Come back

4 of 17
3 of 17

At the Border, 1979

Speaker: Young girl recalls her family, with many others, standing at a border checkpoint
Compare with: The Yellow Palm - how war can divide a country
Flag - the idea of national identity, but in a much different sense
The Right Word - the contrast between the innocence of childhood and the
perception of adults
Chosen key points: mood of tension and optimism and joy, metaphor, caesura, enjambment,
patriotism
Chosen key quotes: 'I can inhale home' - use of senses + anticipation
Caesura used to make mothers announcement seem grand and significant.
'A men bent down [....]' - Patriotic man, young child doesn't understand.
Reaction seems exaggerated as the land is nothing special.

Chosen key quotes: 'no armistice' - no end, no solution, no peace, conflict carries on.'[....] turned
up his face [....]' enjambment - carries on nothing stop
Chosen key points: Repetition, metaphor, double meanings, enjambment, description with use of
senses, child innocence
Futility - last stanza
Belfast Confetti - conflict in the city streets
Poppies - war affects on ordinary people
Compare with: The Right Word - repeated patterns to emphasise meaning and theme
Speaker: 'Narrator's walk down Palestine Street in Baghdad reveals different terrible images

The Yellow Palm

5 of 17
6 of 17

Belfast Confetti
Speaker: 1st person in explosion
Compare with: The Yellow Palm - violence in a city
Bayonet Charge - images that leap from one to another to describe confusion
The Right Word - the theme of violence and those who might bring it
Out of the Blue - building
Chosen key points: No structure (enjambment to show explosion), irregular, to achieve an eractic
and fragmented feel within this poem. - confusion + explosion. Stilled effected now.
Chosen quotes: 'A fusillade of question - marks' - police/soliders, himself - confusion. turmoil,
panic, nationality, future.

Chosen quotes: Majority emphasise power/arrogant(ce). creater (capitals) thinks he's in charge.
Chosen key points: interpretations - political leaders (power) - dictatorship, metaphorical, literal.
Yellow Palm - violent imagery
Compare with: The Falling Leaves - a quiet mood of grief. Natural + metaphors
Speaker: Hawk

Hawk Roosting
8 of 17
7 of 17

Flag
Speaker: Poet - considers the power of a simple piece of cloth, a flag.
Compare with: The Charge of the Light Brigade - blindly following orders in battle which lead to
death
next to of course god america i - an ironic voice
Poppies - a symbol of remembrance of those who diesw in war
Chosen key points: connotations of flag, semantic fields, form all the same except the last stanza,
altnerative interpretation of knees, personification
Chosen quotes: 'just' repeat + could be sarcasm/ last stanza - emphasing it has a bigger meaning
(trying to make a point) 'cloth' repeated throughout except last stanza - emphase power of the cloth.

Chosen key quotes: 'split second' - shows turning point, poem changes. 'leaned' emotional pain
she cant stand up - link to wishbone. 'spasms' - metaphor shows excitement - pride/duty for his
country.
Chosen key points: semantic fields, free verse + enjambment (no regular rhyme scheme or rhythm
+ run on lines), metaphor simile
The Yellow Palm - a natural symbol of peace
The Charge of the Light Brigade - personal grief + public celebration + how 1
thing can change peoples lifes.
Compare with:The Falling Leaves - a quiet mood of grief
Speaker: A mother recalls an incident

Poppies
9 of 17
10 of 17

Futility
Speaker: Owen himself talking about 1st person experience of life on the front. (how futile the
waste of life was)
Compare with: The Falling Leaves: written from a woman 3rd perso, pacifist (concerned about
the effect) like Owen thinks its futile + understated comment on the waste of young life.
Come on, Come back: the death of an individual soldier in war (diff: imaginery)
Mametz Wood: the First World War and the mood of quiet regret
Chosen key points: personification to sun, v.vocab on pointlessness, use of questions
Chosen quotes: ' kind old sun' - desperate, sun is only hope.
'Move' - command

Last verse of stanza 4 - keep coming back.

Chosen quotes: bits from stanza 2 - fragile bones -> fragile lives, strong visual images
Chosen key points: metaphors, flashbacks. futile
Poppies - a personal focus on death in war
The Yellow Palm - powerful images of death
Compare with: The Falling Leaves - the pathos (how events evoke strong feelings of pity or sorrow
in the reader)
Speaker: Flashbacks

Mametz Wood
11 of 17
12 of 17

The Charge of the Light Brigade

Speaker: Poet narrates a cavalry charge.
Compare with: Bayonet Charge - a soldier's attack against enemy fire
The Falling Leaves - a contrasting mood of quiet grief of death in war
Mametz Wood - the fate of men who marched to death
Chosen key points: repetition, semantic fields, frequency of death, personification
Chose quotes: 'blunder'd' mistake -> destroyed people lives like in 'Mametz Wood', never ending
orders, rhythm = movement of horse (replicates charge) 'All that was left of them' emphasises the
amount of deaths/losses

Chosen quotes: 'by jingo [....]' - american slang, not serious. Speaks hastily so he mispronounced
'golly' -> 'gorry'
Chosen key points: mockery (sytrical), starts patriotic then starts mocking. Short last sentence doesn't care/no meaning
Flag - the call to patriotism
Belfast Confetti - deliberate confused syntax (order) for effect
Compare with: The Right Word - language and its meanings
Speaker: imaginary patriotic speach

next to of course god america i

14 of 17
13 of 17

The Falling Leaves

Speaker: narrator rides through the woods and relates leaves to the soliders
Compare with: Futility - 1st/3rd person differences (see 'Futility' card) + death in war and natural
images
Poppies - quietly remembering the dead
Mametz Wood - reminders of dead soliders
Chosen key points: pacifist/link to 'Futility', Broken into two parts - visual + thoughts (with a ;
- caesura), alliteration, snowflakes fall individually like soliders. Only one long sentence which
means the poem is one long sentence/thoughts.
Chosen quotes: 'brown leaves' - dead leaves, dead soldiers
'thickly, silently' - fell in big amounts quietly
alliteration 'w' - whistling sound use of sense, vivid enchance description - more real for the reader.

'white' - surrender etc etc.

End full stop + language - giving up
Questions - asking for help
Chosen quotes: 'A bird [....]' - image of freedom
Chosen key points: title - terro/unexpected, alliteration, repetition, rhyme
At the Border, 1979 - events from a particular point of view
Belfast Confetti - conflict in a modern city
Compare with: The Yellow Palm - conflict and terror in a neighbourhood
Speaker: 1st person later on imagines a second person - loved one?

extract from 'Out of the Blue'

16 of 17
15 of 17

The Right Word

Speaker: Poet
Compare with: next to of course god america i - the different associations attached to words
The Yellow Palm - the effect of warfare on ordinary people
Poppies - the child and the soldier
Chosen key points:repetition, trying to find the right description, questionning, could be metaphors
Chose quotes: 'outside your door' - could be metaphorically - e.g outside of comfort zone, divide
between rich and poor, town or country. - threshold of safety - doesn't want to let the person in.
Last stanza - relief but guilty about judgement, trying to sort things peacefully instead of lurking
in the shadows/conflict.

17 of 17

Unseen Poetry
Use song - Who, what, how, why
Plan x2
Who:
What: (purpose)
What: (feelings)
How:
Why: