Ozymandias, London, The Prelude, My Last Duchess, Storm on the Island, Tissue, Checking Out Me History and The Emigree: poet, context, form and central idea.
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1.Who wrote Ozymandias and when?
Percy Bysshe Shelley, published in 1818.
2.What form is Ozymandias?
A sonnet, though with an irregular rhyme scheme that never settles, mirroring the crumbling of the statue.
3.What is the central idea of Ozymandias?
That human power is temporary. The tyrant boasted of his works, but only ruins remain in empty desert.
4.How does Shelley use the traveller narrator?
The story is second hand, distancing the king further and reducing him to an anecdote.
5.What is ironic about Ozymandias?
The inscription demands that others despair at his greatness, but what survives makes the opposite point.
6.Who wrote London and when?
William Blake, published in 1794 in Songs of Experience.
7.What form is London?
Four quatrains with a strict ABAB rhyme scheme, whose relentless regularity suggests inescapable oppression.
8.What is the central idea of London?
That every institution, from the church to the monarchy to marriage, is complicit in the suffering of ordinary people.
9.What are mind forged manacles?
Blakes image for restrictions that are mental and social rather than physical, imposed by ideology and accepted by the people.
10.Who wrote the Extract from The Prelude and when?
William Wordsworth, written from 1798 and published in 1850.
11.What form is the Prelude extract?
Blank verse, unrhymed iambic pentameter, giving a natural reflective speaking voice.
12.What is the central idea of the Prelude extract?
A confident boy takes a boat out, is overwhelmed by a mountain looming into view, and is left humbled by the power of nature.
13.How does the mood shift in the Prelude extract?
From pride and pleasure to fear and lasting unease, which changes how the speaker sees the natural world afterwards.
14.Who wrote My Last Duchess and when?
Robert Browning, published in 1842, set in Renaissance Italy.
15.What form is My Last Duchess?
A dramatic monologue in rhyming couplets, whose tight control mirrors the Dukes need to control everything.
16.What is the central idea of My Last Duchess?
A Duke reveals, without meaning to, that he had his wife killed for smiling too freely, exposing possessive male power.
17.Why is the listener important in My Last Duchess?
The Duke is negotiating a new marriage, so his account becomes a chilling warning to his next wife.
18.Who wrote Storm on the Island and when?
Seamus Heaney, published in 1966.
19.What is the central idea of Storm on the Island?
A community prepares for a storm with confidence, but the poem ends acknowledging fear of something that has no substance.
20.What second reading does Storm on the Island invite?
The first eight letters of the title spell Stormont, the Northern Irish parliament, suggesting political conflict beneath the weather.
21.Who wrote Tissue and when?
Imtiaz Dharker, published in 2006.
22.What is the central idea of Tissue?
Paper stands for everything humans build and record, and the poem argues that all of it is fragile and provisional.
23.What is the form of Tissue?
Mostly unrhymed quatrains that break down towards the end, with the final line standing alone, enacting fragility.
24.Who wrote Checking Out Me History and when?
John Agard, published in 2007.
25.What is the central idea of Checking Out Me History?
That a British education taught the speaker European history while erasing black history, damaging his sense of identity.
26.How does the form of Checking Out Me History carry meaning?
Non standard spelling and phonetic Creole spelling assert the speakers own voice against the standard English of the curriculum.
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