Worlds & Lives Anthology (2025+) — Quotes

15 quotes with full 6-part analysis

1
STAGNATE

And much it grieved my heart to think / What man has made of man

PERSONIFICATION / PATHETIC FALLACY IN REVERSECAESURA & CONTRAST

William Wordsworth · Lines Written in Early Spring

2
PROGRESS

An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king

ASYNDETIC LISTING / ACCUMULATIONSEMANTIC FIELD OF DEATH & DECAY

Percy Bysshe Shelley · England in 1819

3
STAGNATE

Shall earth no more inspire thee, / Thou lonely dreamer now?

APOSTROPHE & PERSONIFICATIONRHETORICAL QUESTIONS & SIBILANCE

Emily Brontë · Shall Earth No More Inspire Thee

4
STAGNATE

The world seems one huge prison-house and court

SEMANTIC FIELD OF COLOURLESSNESSEXTENDED METAPHOR — LONDON AS PRISON

George Eliot · In a London Drawingroom

5
STAGNATE

What part of Africa is Jamaica?

DRAMATIC IRONY & REPORTED SPEECHSPECIFICITY OF TITLE / HISTORICAL GROUNDING

James Berry · On an Afternoon Train from Purley to Victoria, 1955

6
REGRESS

my name has been mauled by English mouths

EXTENDED METAPHOR — NAME AS JOURNEYGHAZAL FORM AS CULTURAL STATEMENT

Raman Mundair · Name Journeys

7
STAGNATE

I know your kind, / travelling without a passport

APOSTROPHE & EXTENDED METAPHOR — POT AS DISPLACED PERSONDRAMATIC MONOLOGUE & IMPERATIVE VOICE

Shamshad Khan · pot

8
PROGRESS

searching the sky for spaces / where he could stack his dreams

TEMPORAL SHIFT — PAST TO PRESENTARCHITECTURAL / GEOMETRIC IMAGERY

Seni Seneviratne · A Wider View

9
PROGRESS

I'd only have to say the word / and it opened a gate

CODE-SWITCHING — STANDARD ENGLISH & DIALECTMETAPHOR — DIALECT AS GATE / HOMING SIGNAL

Liz Berry · Homing

10
PROGRESS

and all the girls are walking / one by one by one

SEMANTIC FIELD OF WAR APPLIED TO SCHOOLGIRLSREPETITION & CONTRAST

Imtiaz Dharker · A Century Later

11
STAGNATE

his father before him, and his father too

REPETITION & GENERATIONAL CONTINUITYCONTRAST & SENSORY IMAGERY

Louisa Adjoa Parker · The Jewellery Maker

12
PROGRESS

I can't hear the barista / over the coffee machine

CONTRAST — URBAN NOISE VS NATURAL SOUNDCOUPLET FORM & SENSORY IMAGERY

Raymond Antrobus · With Birds You're Never Lonely

13
PROGRESS

And if the whole world crumbles, you make your own

IMPERATIVE VERBS & DIRECT ADDRESSTACTILE / SENSORY IMAGERY

Roger Robinson · A Portable Paradise

14
REGRESS

Like an heiress / I have entered

OPENING SIMILE & VOLTALISTING & CONTRAST STRUCTURE

Grace Nichols · Like an Heiress

15
REGRESS

you are a supernova

SECOND PERSON PERSPECTIVE & DRAMATIC IRONYTHE 'SUPERNOVA' METAPHOR — COLLAPSE & INVERSION

Caleb Femi · Thirteen