Aspects of Power

Poetry
Year 10 Poetry Booklet
1
What are you being assessed on in the Poetry
Controlled Assessment?
!plore how power is shown in at least two of the poems
from the anthology"
You should consider:
the character who the poet creates and their personality
how the poet uses language and structure help show power over
others
different interpretations of how a word or phrase could be read.
what we can learn about the position of men and women in that
time from the poems.
#his tests your ability to$
Read and understand texts.
Develop and sustain interpretations of writers ideas and
perspectives.
Explain and evaluate how writers use linguistic, grammatical,
structural and presentational features to achieve effects and
engage and influence the reader.
nderstand texts in their social, cultural and historical contexts.
What makes Band %?
sustained and developed interpretations of texts
engagement with writers ideas and attitudes and provide
perceptive interpretations using precisely selected supporting
textual detail
analysis of aspects of language and structure in convincing detail
convincing connections between the texts and their contexts.
&ow should you write it?
!hen you are writing about a text, use this techni"ue to help you
structure your paragraphs:
Point' explain a way that power is shown.
(idence' find a short "uote from the poems to support what you are
saying.
2
#echni)ue# try to use a technical term or say what type of word is being
used.
!plain' explain in as much detail as possible how power is shown,
what personality traits this "uote reveals about the spea$er% how they
see others% what else a word could mean or infer.
*elate' lin$ this to the time in which it was written and what this tells us
about the position of men and women% explain what influenced the poet
to write this% or lin$ it to the next poem.
3
+,ymandias
& met a traveller from an anti"ue land
!ho said: 'wo vast and trun$less legs of stone
(tand in the desert. )ear them on the sand,
*alf sun$, a shatterd visage lies, whose frown
+nd wrin$led lip and sneer of cold command
'ell that its sculptor well those passions read
!hich yet survive, stampd on these lifeless things,
'he hand that moc$d them and the heart that fed%
+nd on the pedestal these words appear:
,-y name is ./ymandias, $ing of $ings:
0oo$ on my wor$s, ye -ighty, and despair1
)othing beside remains. Round the decay
.f that colossal wrec$, boundless and bare,
'he lone and level sands stretch far away.
2ER3Y 4Y((*E (*E00EY
4
#he *i(er -od
& may be smelly and & may be old,
Rough in my pebbles, reedy in my pools,
4ut where my fish float by & bless their swimming
+nd & li$e the people to bathe in me, especially women.
4ut & can drown the fools
!ho bathe too close to the weir, contrary to rules.
+nd they ta$e a long time drowning
+s & throw them up now and then in the spirit of clowning.
*i yih, yippity#yap, merrily & flow,
. & may be an old foul river but & have plenty of go.
.nce there was a lady who was too bold
(he bathed in me by the tall blac$ cliff where the water runs cold,
(o & brought her down here
'o be my beautiful dear.
.h will she stay with me will she stay
'his beautiful lady, or will she go away5
(he lies in my beautiful deep river bed with many a weed
'o hold her, and many a waving reed.
.h who would guess what a beautiful white face lies there
!aiting for me to smooth and wash away the fear
(he loo$s at me with. *i yih, do not let her
6o. 'here is no one on earth who does not forget her
)ow. 'hey say & am a foolish old smelly river
4ut they do not $now of my wide original bed
!here the lady waits, with her golden sleepy head.
&f she wishes to go & will not forgive her.
('E7&E (-&'*
5
.y /ast 0uchess
Ferrara
'hats my last Duchess painted on the wall,
0oo$ing as if she were alive. & call
'hat piece a wonder, now: 8r9 2andolfs hands
!or$ed busily a day, and there she stands.
!illt please you sit and loo$ at her5 & said
,8r9 2andolf by design, for never read
(trangers li$e you that pictured countenance,
'he depth and passion of its earnest glance,
4ut to myself they turned :since none puts by
'he curtain & have drawn for you, but &;
+nd seemed as they would as$ me, if they durst,
*ow such a glance came there% so, not the first
+re you to turn and as$ thus. (ir, twas not
*er husbands presence only, called that spot
.f <oy into the Duchess chee$: perhaps
8r9 2andolf chanced to say ,*er mantle laps
.ver my ladys wrist too much, or ,2aint
-ust never hope to reproduce the faint
*alf#flush that dies along her throat: such stuff
!as courtesy, she thought, and cause enough
8or calling up that spot of <oy. (he had
+ heart = how shall & say5 = too soon made glad,
'oo easily impressed% she li$ed whateer
(he loo$ed on, and her loo$s went everywhere.
(ir, twas all one1 -y favour at her breast,
'he dropping of the daylight in the !est,
'he bough of cherries some officious fool
4ro$e in the orchard for her, the white mule
(he rode with round the terrace = all and each
!ould draw from her ali$e the approving speech,
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.r blush, at least. (he than$ed men, = good1 but than$ed
(omehow = & $now not how = as if she ran$ed
-y gift of a nine#hundred#years#old name
!ith anybodys gift. !hod stoop to blame
'his sort of trifling5 Even had you s$ill
&n speech = :which & have not; = to ma$e your will
>uite clear to such an one, and say, ,?ust this
.r that in you disgusts me% here you miss,
.r there exceed the mar$ = and if she let
*erself be lessoned so, nor plainly set
*er wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse,
= Een then would be some stooping% and & choose
)ever to stoop. .h sir, she smiled, no doubt,
!heneer & passed her% but who passed without
-uch the same smile5 'his grew% & gave commands%
'hen all smiles stopped together. 'here she stands
+s if alive. !illt please you rise5 !ell meet
'he company below, then. & repeat,
'he 3ount your masters $nown munificence
&s ample warrant that no <ust pretence
.f mine for dowry will be disallowed%
'hough his fair daughters self, as & avowed
+t starting, is my ob<ect. )ay, well go
'ogether down, sir. )otice )eptune, though,
'aming a sea#horse, thought a rarity,
!hich 3laus of &nnsbruc$ cast in bron/e for me1
R.4ER' 4R.!)&)6
7
Porphyria1s /o(er
'*E rain set early in to#night,
'he sullen wind was soon awa$e,
&t tore the elm#tops down for spite,
+nd did its worst to vex the la$e:
& listen@d with heart fit to brea$.
!hen glided in 2orphyria% straight
(he shut the cold out and the storm,
+nd $neel@d and made the cheerless grate
4la/e up, and all the cottage warm%
!hich done, she rose, and from her form
!ithdrew the dripping cloa$ and shawl,
+nd laid her soil@d gloves by, untied
*er hat and let the damp hair fall,
+nd, last, she sat down by my side
+nd call@d me. !hen no voice replied,
(he put my arm about her waist,
+nd made her smooth white shoulder bare,
+nd all her yellow hair displaced,
+nd, stooping, made my chee$ lie there,
+nd spread, o@er all, her yellow hair,
-urmuring how she loved meAshe
'oo wea$, for all her heart@s endeavour,
'o set its struggling passion free
8rom pride, and vainer ties dissever,
+nd give herself to me for ever.
4ut passion sometimes would prevail,
)or could to#night@s gay feast restrain
+ sudden thought of one so pale
8or love of her, and all in vain:
(o, she was come through wind and rain.
4e sure & loo$@d up at her eyes
8
*appy and proud% at last & $new
2orphyria worshipp@d me% surprise
-ade my heart swell, and still it grew
!hile & debated what to do.
'hat moment she was mine, mine, fair,
2erfectly pure and good: & found
+ thing to do, and all her hair
&n one long yellow string & wound
'hree times her little throat around,
+nd strangled her. )o pain felt she%
& am "uite sure she felt no pain.
+s a shut bud that holds a bee,
& warily oped her lids: again
0augh@d the blue eyes without a stain.
+nd & untighten@d next the tress
+bout her nec$% her chee$ once more
4lush@d bright beneath my burning $iss:
& propp@d her head up as before,
.nly, this time my shoulder bore
*er head, which droops upon it still:
'he smiling rosy little head,
(o glad it has its utmost will,
'hat all it scorn@d at once is fled,
+nd &, its love, am gain@d instead1
2orphyria@s love: she guess@d not how
*er darling one wish would be heard.
+nd thus we sit together now,
+nd all night long we have not stirr@d,
+nd yet 6od has not said a word1
R.4ER' 4R.!)&)6
9
Cousin 2ate
& was a cottage maiden
*ardened by sun and air,
3ontented with my cottage mates,
)ot mindful & was fair.
!hy did a great lord find me out,
+nd praise my flaxen hair5
!hy did a great lord find me out
'o fill my heart with care5

*e lured me to his palace home##
!oe@s me for <oy thereof##
'o lead a shameless shameful life,
*is plaything and his love.
*e wore me li$e a sil$en $not,
*e changed me li$e a glove%
(o now & moan, an unclean thing,
!ho might have been a dove.

. 0ady Bate, my cousin Bate,
You grew more fair than &:
*e saw you at your father@s gate,
3hose you, and cast me by.
*e watched your steps along the lane,
Your wor$ among the rye%
*e lifted you from mean estate
'o sit with him on high.

4ecause you were so good and pure
*e bound you with his ring:
'he neighbours call you good and pure,
3all me an outcast thing.
Even so & sit and howl in dust,
You sit in gold and sing:
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)ow which of us has tenderer heart5
You had the stronger wing.

. cousin Bate, my love was true,
Your love was writ in sand:
&f he had fooled not me but you,
&f you stood where & stand,
*e@d not have won me with his love
)or bought me with his land%
& would have spit into his face
+nd not have ta$en his hand.

Yet &@ve a gift you have not got,
+nd seem not li$e to get:
8or all your clothes and wedding#ring
&@ve little doubt you fret.
-y fair#haired son, my shame, my pride,
3ling closer, closer yet:
Your father would give lands for one
'o wear his coronet.
3*R&('&)+ R.(E''&
11
Poetic 0e(ices
.atch the following de(ices with their definitions and an e!ample"
Alliteration 'he use of words which imitate
sound
the ansaphone $ept
screaming
Assonance language that evo$es sensory
images
2rayed for it so hard
&@ve dar$ green
pebbles for eyes
3magery Repetition of same sounds streaming through a
velvet s$y
.etaphor repetition of vowel sound )obody hurt you.
)obody turned off the
light
+nomatopoeia comparison of unli$e things
:made without using li$e or as;
-y living laughing love
Personification Repeating of words, phrases,
lines, or stan/as
4ang, boom
*epetition 3omparison using CasC or Cli$eC mystery disguised within

*hyme + figure of speech which
endows inanimate ob<ects with
human traits or abilities.
a mind as cold as the
slice of ice
simile repetition of the initial consonant
sounds
pray for the immortal
soul
of roc$ @n@ roll.
12
Background information
+,ymandius
(helleys willingness to challenge the accepted order of things and "uestion those
people who were in power. +s a member of the Romantic movement, a common
theme in his wor$ is the tendency for art and literature to outlast = and therefore
con"uer = transitory power% a proponent perhaps of ,the pen is mightier than the
sword.
./ymandias is the ancient 6ree$ name for Rameses &&, probably the best $nown
and most powerful of the Egyptian pharaohs, who was responsible for an enormous
amount of building wor$s, including temples, monuments and cities.
+s a sonnet, it has only fourteen lines, but in this limited space, (helley explores a
number of issues with enduring relevance. C./ymandiasC explores the "uestion of
what happens to tyrant $ings, and to despotic world leaders more generally. +s we
all $now, nothing lasts forever% that means even the very worst political leaders = no
matter how much they boast = all die at some point. &f (helley were writing this
poem now, he might ta$e as his sub<ect the famous statue of (addam *ussein that
was pulled down after the dictator was overthrown. 0i$e the fallen statue in
4aghdad, the bro$en#down statue of ./ymandias in (helley@s poem points to the
short#lived nature of political regimes and tyrannical power.
#he *i(er -od
,'he River 6od was inspired by an existing river = the River -imram in
*ertfordshire, which rises from a spring to the north of !hitwell, in )orth
*ertfordshire, and ma$es its confluence with the River 0ea near *orn@s -ill in
*ertford.
(tevie (miths poetry is distinctive, unconventional and individualistic, and has been
called ,dar$ly comic = amusing but also eerily unnerving. Recurrent themes in
(miths wor$ include war, loneliness, religion and loss of faith. -any of (miths
poems also draw on myth, legend and fairytale.
-any of her poems also explore death, a sub<ect she became preoccupied with as a
child. +t the age of five she was diagnosed with tuberculosis, which meant that she
was separated from her mother and sent to a sanatorium in Bent several times over
the subse"uent years, an experience she inevitably found very distressing. 'his
may also have led to the depression she suffered from all her life. (he thought of
death as a release from what she called, in a 443 interview, the ,pressure of
despair.
.y /ast 0uchess
Robert 4rowning alarmed his 7ictorian readers with psychological = and sometimes
psychopathic = realism, wild formal experiments, and harsh#sounding language.
'hese "ualities, however, are what ma$e poems li$e C-y 0ast DuchessC so
attractive to todays readers, who value the raw power of 4rownings writing more
than some of the feel#good flowery Romantic poems.
4rownings inspiration for C-y 0ast DuchessC was the history of a Renaissance
du$e, +lfonso && of 8errara, whose young wife 0ucre/ia died in suspicious
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circumstances in DEFD. 0ucre/ia was a -edici = part of a family that was becoming
one of the most powerful and wealthy in Europe at the time. During 0ucre/ias
lifetime, however, the -edici were <ust beginning to build their power base and were
still considered upstarts by the other nobility. 0ucre/ia herself never got to en<oy
riches and status% she was married at DG and dead by DH. +fter her death, +lfonso
courted :and eventually married; the niece of the 3ount of 'yrol.
Robert 4rowning ta$es this brief anecdote out of the history boo$s and turns it into
an opportunity for readers to pee$ inside the head of a psychopath. +lthough
4rowning hints at the real#life Renaissance bac$#story by putting the word C8erraraC
under the title of the poem as an epigraph, he removes the situation from most of its
historical details. &ts important to notice that the Du$e, his previous wife, and the
woman hes courting arent named in the poem at all. Even though there were
historical events that inspired the poem, the text itself has a more generali/ed,
universal, nameless feel.
'he corruption and abuse of power is directly criticised through this portrayal of a
self#centred and virtually omnipotent member of the nobility. + common view of the
Renaissance in 7ictorian times was that it was an era of great corruption,
particularly amongst the nobility.
Porphyria4s /o(er
C2orphyria@s 0overC is 4rowning@s first ever short dramatic monologue, and also the
first of his poems to examine abnormal psychology. &n the poem, a man strangles
his lover = 2orphyria = with her hair. 2orphyria@s lover then tal$s of the corpse@s blue
eyes, golden hair, and describes the feeling of perfect happiness the murder gives
him. +lthough he winds her hair around her throat I times in order to throttle her, the
woman never cries out.
+ possible inspiration for the poem is ?ohn !ilson@s CExtracts from 6osschen@s
DiaryC, a lurid account of a murder published in Blackwood's Magazine in DJDJ.
4rowning@s friend and fellow poet 4ryan 2rocter ac$nowledged basing his DJKL
C-arcian 3olonnaC on this source, but added a new detail% after the murder, the
$iller sits up all night with his victim.
C2orphyria@s 0overC isn@t your typical 7ictorian poem. 'his is one of the creepiest
poems you@ll ever read: it@s from the point of view of a psychotic murderer, and
explores the complex madness of the spea$er, but without offering any definitive
answer as to his ultimate motivation. !here does the madness come from5 !hy
does he murder his lover5 +nd why, in the final lines, does he gloat that C6od has
not said a wordC5 Does that mean that he gets away with it5 C2orphyria@s 0overC
ends with the $ind of ambiguity that modern audiences love in horror movies. (o
even if you@re not usually a fan of 7ictorian poetry, give this one a chance.
C2orphyria@s 0overC is full of surprises.
Cousin 2ate
&n the 7ictorian era, men were viewed as morally righteous, virtuous, honest and
reasonable. 'his was opposed to the image of the female, which was one of
sensitivity and wea$ness. 2ublic society was dominated by the male figure, whereas
the female dominated private life: the only place she was allowed to develop as a
woman.
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&t was the middle class who established the ideal way to behave. -arriage was the
most respected institution for the individual. 8or the male, marriage meant
possession as well as a guarantee of descent :transmission of an estate by
inheritance in the descending line;. 8or the female, this was supposedly her ideal
state too, due to her arguably ,natural desire to care for her husband. 'he status of
an individual relying entirely on economic factors and women were disallowed to
progress far within education or the wor$place. 'his meant that they depended on
their fathers up until marriage, then their husbands, meaning that marriage played a
large role in signifying a woman@s respectability
*owever, it was motherhood that confirmed that the woman had secured her place
in the realm of womanly virtue and fulfillment. (ince early in the DM
th
century,
motherhood was no longer simply a reproductive function. &t was also a means of
emotional maternal fulfillment for women. + woman unable to bear a child, or
children was assumed to be inade"uate and a failure. &ndeed, a childless married
woman was a figure to be pitied.
15
Poems Conte!t$
!hat can
we learn
about the
position of
men andNor
women5
!hat time
is this set
in5
Attitudes$
!hat
emotions
and
attitudes
are being
expressed5
!hich
words show
this5
5tructure$
!hat type
of poem is
it5 !hat do
you notice
about how
its put
together5
#hemes$
!hat are
the ideas
and issues
explored in
the poem5
+ny
"uotes5
/anguage$
!hat poetic
techni"ues
are used5
+ny
interesting
choices of
words to
show
power5
ffect$
!hat
impact do
they want
to have on
the reader5
./ymandi
us
-y 0ast
Duchess
'he River
6od
2orphyria
s 0over
3ousin
Bate
16
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