Power & Conflict Anthology — Quotes

15 quotes with full 6-part analysis

1
REGRESS

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

DRAMATIC IRONY / IRONIC JUXTAPOSITIONFRAMING NARRATIVE / LAYERED PERSPECTIVE

Percy Bysshe Shelley · Ozymandias

2
STAGNATE

In every cry of every Man, / In every Infant's cry of fear, / I hear mind-forg'd…

ANAPHORA & SEMANTIC FIELD OF UNIVERSALITYMETAPHOR — 'MIND-FORG'D MANACLES'

William Blake · London

3
PROGRESS

a huge peak, black and huge, / As if with voluntary power instinct, / Upreared i…

PERSONIFICATION / SUBLIME AGENCYVOLTA — SHIFT FROM CONFIDENCE TO TERROR

William Wordsworth · Extract from The Prelude

4
STAGNATE

I gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together.

EUPHEMISM & SINISTER UNDERSTATEMENTDRAMATIC MONOLOGUE — UNRELIABLE NARRATOR

Robert Browning · My Last Duchess

5
REGRESS

Theirs not to make reply, / Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die

ANAPHORIC TRICOLON WITH REDUCTIVE SYNTAXREPETITION & REFRAIN — 'THE VALLEY OF DEATH'

Alfred, Lord Tennyson · The Charge of the Light Brigade

6
STAGNATE

But nothing happens.

REFRAIN AS STRUCTURAL NIHILISMPARARHYME — SONIC DISCOMFORT

Wilfred Owen · Exposure

7
REGRESS

It is a huge nothing that we fear.

OXYMORON / PARADOX — 'HUGE NOTHING'MILITARY METAPHOR / SEMANTIC FIELD OF WAR

Seamus Heaney · Storm on the Island

8
REGRESS

King, honour, human dignity, etcetera / Dropped like luxuries

BATHOS & DISMISSIVE REGISTERENJAMBMENT & KINETIC ENERGY

Ted Hughes · Bayonet Charge

9
REGRESS

his blood-shadow stays on the street

COMPOUND METAPHOR — 'BLOOD-SHADOW'COLLOQUIAL VOICE & TONAL SHIFT

Simon Armitage · Remains

10
STAGNATE

I traced the ridge of his hair through my fingertips like a Braille version

TACTILE IMAGERY & SIMILE — 'BRAILLE'DOMESTIC IMAGERY VS MILITARY LANGUAGE

Jane Weir · Poppies

11
STAGNATE

A hundred agonies in black-and-white / from which his editor will pick out five …

NUMERICAL CONTRAST / REDUCTIVE LANGUAGERELIGIOUS IMAGERY — 'A PRIEST PREPARING TO INTONE A MASS'

Carol Ann Duffy · War Photographer

12
PROGRESS

Paper that lets the light / shine through, this / is what could alter things.

EXTENDED METAPHOR — PAPER AS POWERENJAMBMENT AS STRUCTURAL ENACTMENT

Imtiaz Dharker · Tissue

13
STAGNATE

my city takes me dancing through the city / of walls

PERSONIFICATION — THE CITY AS LOVERLIGHT IMAGERY / SEMANTIC FIELD OF RADIANCE

Carol Rumens · The Emigrée

14
PROGRESS

Dem tell me / Dem tell me / Wha dem want to tell me

ANAPHORA & PHONETIC DIALECTDUAL STRUCTURE — CONTRASTING STANZAS

John Agard · Checking Out Me History

15
REGRESS

they treated him / as though he no longer existed

LITOTES & SOCIAL ANNIHILATIONNARRATIVE PERSPECTIVE SHIFT

Beatrice Garland · Kamikaze