‘a hard-headed, practical man of business’
Mr Birling, Act 1
- Method
- compound adjective
- Meaning
- He is proud of caring only about profit.
- Themes
- class, responsibility
Quotation bank
Short quotations worth learning for every text and poem, with where each comes from, the method it uses and what it suggests. Learn a few for each character and theme: short quotations are easier to remember and to analyse in the exam.
236 quotations
An Inspector Calls
Arthur and Sybil Birling
‘unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable’
Mr Birling, Act 1
- Method
- dramatic irony
- Meaning
- He is certain the Titanic can't sink, so the 1945 audience sees how foolish he is.
- Themes
- class
‘a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own’
Mr Birling, Act 1
- Method
- repetition
- Meaning
- The selfish, capitalist view that Priestley attacks.
- Themes
- responsibility, class
Study notes for ‘a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own’
‘The famous younger generation who know it all’
Mr Birling, Act 3
- Method
- sarcasm
- Meaning
- He mocks Sheila and Eric, showing he has learnt nothing.
- Themes
- generations
Study notes for ‘The famous younger generation who know it all’
‘a rather cold woman and her husband's social superior’
Stage direction, Act 1
- Method
- stage direction
- Meaning
- Mrs Birling is unfeeling and proud of coming from a higher class.
- Themes
- class
Study notes for ‘a rather cold woman and her husband's social superior’
‘As if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money!’
Mrs Birling, Act 2
- Method
- exclamation
- Meaning
- Her class prejudice: she assumes a poor girl has no morals.
- Themes
- class, gender
Study notes for ‘As if a girl of that sort would ever refuse money!’
‘Go and look for the father of the child. It's his responsibility’
Mrs Birling, Act 2
- Method
- dramatic irony
- Meaning
- She unknowingly condemns her own son, Eric.
- Themes
- responsibility, generations
Study notes for ‘Go and look for the father of the child. It's his responsibility’
‘The Germans don't want war’
Mr Birling, Act 1
- Method
- dramatic irony
- Meaning
- Another confident prediction that the 1945 audience knew was wrong.
- Themes
- class
‘a police inspector is on his way here’
Mr Birling, Act 3
- Method
- cyclical structure
- Meaning
- The final phone call: the evening is about to happen again.
- Themes
- responsibility
Sheila and Eric
‘these girls aren't cheap labour – they're people’
Sheila, Act 1
- Method
- contrast
- Meaning
- She sees workers as human beings, unlike her father.
- Themes
- class, responsibility
Study notes for ‘these girls aren't cheap labour – they're people’
‘I'll never, never do it again to anybody’
Sheila, Act 1
- Method
- repetition
- Meaning
- She accepts her guilt at once.
- Themes
- responsibility, guilt
‘It frightens me the way you talk’
Sheila, Act 3
- Method
- direct address
- Meaning
- She has changed, but her parents haven't.
- Themes
- generations, responsibility
‘Why shouldn't they try for higher wages?’
Eric, Act 1
- Method
- rhetorical question
- Meaning
- Eric questions his father, showing a sense of fairness.
- Themes
- class, generations
‘you're not the kind of father a chap could go to’
Eric, Act 3
- Method
- direct address
- Meaning
- The family's failure: Eric couldn't turn to his father for help.
- Themes
- generations
Study notes for ‘you're not the kind of father a chap could go to’
‘the fact remains that I did what I did’
Eric, Act 3
- Method
- repetition
- Meaning
- He takes responsibility, whether or not the Inspector was real.
- Themes
- responsibility, guilt
Gerald and Eva Smith
‘I didn't feel about her as she felt about me’
Gerald, Act 2
- Method
- repetition
- Meaning
- He admits he used Daisy Renton and didn't love her.
- Themes
- gender, class
Study notes for ‘I didn't feel about her as she felt about me’
‘Everything's all right now, Sheila’
Gerald, Act 3
- Method
- dramatic irony
- Meaning
- He thinks the danger is over, showing he hasn't changed.
- Themes
- responsibility, generations
‘millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths’
The Inspector, Act 3
- Method
- repetition
- Meaning
- Eva stands for every powerless working person.
- Themes
- class, responsibility
Study notes for ‘millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths’
The Inspector
‘It's better to ask for the earth than to take it’
The Inspector, Act 1
- Method
- contrast
- Meaning
- He turns Mr Birling's words against him: the rich take far more than workers ask for.
- Themes
- class, responsibility
Study notes for ‘It's better to ask for the earth than to take it’
‘Public men, Mr Birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges’
The Inspector, Act 2
- Method
- direct address
- Meaning
- Power brings duties as well as benefits.
- Themes
- responsibility, class
Study notes for ‘Public men, Mr Birling, have responsibilities as well as privileges’
‘We are members of one body’
The Inspector, Act 3
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- Society is like one living body, so everyone is connected.
- Themes
- responsibility
‘We are responsible for each other’
The Inspector, Act 3
- Method
- inclusive pronoun
- Meaning
- The play's central message of social responsibility.
- Themes
- responsibility
‘in fire and blood and anguish’
The Inspector, Act 3
- Method
- polysyndeton
- Meaning
- A warning of the world wars to come, which the 1945 audience had lived through.
- Themes
- responsibility
‘pink and intimate’
Stage direction, Act 1
- Method
- lighting
- Meaning
- The cosy, rose-tinted glow of the family's comfortable life before the Inspector arrives.
- Themes
- class
‘brighter and harder’
Stage direction, Act 1
- Method
- lighting
- Meaning
- A harsh light, like an interrogation: nothing can stay hidden.
- Themes
- responsibility
‘A chain of events’
The Inspector, Act 1
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- Each character's action linked to the next, and together they led to Eva's death.
- Themes
- responsibility
Macbeth
The character of Macbeth
‘So foul and fair a day I have not seen’
Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 3
- Method
- paradox
- Meaning
- His first line echoes the witches, linking him to them.
- Themes
- appearance and reality, the supernatural
‘Stars, hide your fires; / Let not light see my black and deep desires’
Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 4
- Method
- imagery
- Meaning
- He hides his ambition, knowing it is evil.
- Themes
- ambition, appearance and reality
Study notes for ‘Stars, hide your fires; / Let not light see my black and deep desires’
‘I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition’
Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 7
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- Ambition is his only motive, like a rider who leaps too far.
- Themes
- ambition
Study notes for ‘I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition’
‘Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?’
Macbeth, Act 2 Scene 2
- Method
- hyperbole
- Meaning
- His guilt feels too great for the whole sea to wash away.
- Themes
- guilt
Study notes for ‘Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?’
‘O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!’
Macbeth, Act 3 Scene 2
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- As king, his mind is tormented by fear.
- Themes
- guilt
Study notes for ‘O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!’
‘I am in blood / Stepped in so far’
Macbeth, Act 3 Scene 4
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- He has killed so much that there is no way back.
- Themes
- violence, guilt
‘Life's but a walking shadow’
Macbeth, Act 5 Scene 5
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- Life has become meaningless to him.
- Themes
- fate and free will
Lady Macbeth
‘too full o' th' milk of human kindness’
Lady Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 5
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- She sees her husband's kindness as a weakness.
- Themes
- masculinity, ambition
‘unsex me here’
Lady Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 5
- Method
- imperative
- Meaning
- She rejects her womanhood so that she can be capable of murder.
- Themes
- masculinity, the supernatural
‘Look like th' innocent flower, / But be the serpent under 't’
Lady Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 5
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- Deception: look innocent, but be deadly, like the serpent in Eden.
- Themes
- appearance and reality
Study notes for ‘Look like th' innocent flower, / But be the serpent under 't’
‘When you durst do it, then you were a man’
Lady Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 7
- Method
- emotive language
- Meaning
- She attacks his manhood to push him into murder.
- Themes
- masculinity
‘A little water clears us of this deed’
Lady Macbeth, Act 2 Scene 2
- Method
- understatement
- Meaning
- She feels no guilt, yet.
- Themes
- guilt
‘Out, damned spot, out, I say!’
Lady Macbeth, Act 5 Scene 1
- Method
- imperative
- Meaning
- Guilt has destroyed her mind.
- Themes
- guilt
Banquo, Macduff and Duncan
‘The instruments of darkness tell us truths’
Banquo, Act 1 Scene 3
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- Banquo distrusts the witches' half-truths.
- Themes
- the supernatural, appearance and reality
Study notes for ‘The instruments of darkness tell us truths’
‘There's no art / To find the mind's construction in the face’
Duncan, Act 1 Scene 4
- Method
- dramatic irony
- Meaning
- You can't read betrayal in a face, and he goes on to trust Macbeth.
- Themes
- appearance and reality, kingship
Study notes for ‘There's no art / To find the mind's construction in the face’
‘He has no children’
Macduff, Act 4 Scene 3
- Method
- ambiguity
- Meaning
- Grief for his murdered family; perhaps Macbeth can't know a father's pain.
- Themes
- masculinity, violence
‘I must also feel it as a man’
Macduff, Act 4 Scene 3
- Method
- contrast
- Meaning
- Real manhood includes feeling grief.
- Themes
- masculinity
The witches and the supernatural
‘Is this a dagger which I see before me’
Macbeth, Act 2 Scene 1
- Method
- rhetorical question
- Meaning
- A vision that may be supernatural, or a sign of his guilty mind.
- Themes
- the supernatural, guilt
‘Fair is foul, and foul is fair’
The witches, Act 1 Scene 1
- Method
- paradox
- Meaning
- Nothing in the play is what it seems.
- Themes
- appearance and reality, the supernatural
‘none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth’
The second apparition, Act 4 Scene 1
- Method
- equivocation
- Meaning
- A misleading promise that makes Macbeth overconfident.
- Themes
- fate and free will, the supernatural
Themes
‘False face must hide what the false heart doth know’
Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 7
- Method
- repetition
- Meaning
- He must hide his evil intentions behind an innocent face.
- Themes
- appearance and reality
Study notes for ‘False face must hide what the false heart doth know’
‘Macbeth does murder sleep’
Macbeth, Act 2 Scene 2
- Method
- personification
- Meaning
- He will never be at peace again.
- Themes
- guilt
‘It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood’
Macbeth, Act 3 Scene 4
- Method
- repetition
- Meaning
- Murder leads to more murder.
- Themes
- violence, guilt
Study notes for ‘It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood’
‘Bleed, bleed, poor country!’
Macduff, Act 4 Scene 3
- Method
- personification
- Meaning
- Scotland suffers under a tyrant.
- Themes
- kingship
‘like a giant's robe / Upon a dwarfish thief’
Angus, Act 5 Scene 2
- Method
- simile
- Meaning
- The crown doesn't fit the man who stole it.
- Themes
- kingship
Study notes for ‘like a giant's robe / Upon a dwarfish thief’
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Jekyll and Hyde
‘trampled calmly over the child's body’
Enfield, Chapter 1
- Method
- adverb
- Meaning
- Hyde's violence is calm and pitiless.
- Themes
- violence
‘like some damned Juggernaut’
Enfield, Chapter 1
- Method
- simile
- Meaning
- Hyde is an unstoppable force, not a man.
- Themes
- violence
‘He is not easy to describe’
Enfield, Chapter 1
- Method
- understatement
- Meaning
- Hyde's evil can't be put into words.
- Themes
- secrecy, duality
‘Something troglodytic, shall we say?’
Utterson, Chapter 2
- Method
- rhetorical question
- Meaning
- Hyde seems primitive, less evolved and barely human.
- Themes
- science and religion, the Gothic
‘Satan’s signature upon a face’
Utterson, Chapter 2
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- Evil seems written on Hyde's face.
- Themes
- science and religion
‘with ape-like fury’
Narrator, Chapter 4
- Method
- animal imagery
- Meaning
- Hyde's violence is animal and primitive.
- Themes
- violence
‘like a monkey’
Poole, Chapter 8
- Method
- simile
- Meaning
- Hyde no longer seems human.
- Themes
- duality, the Gothic
‘a large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty’
Narrator, Chapter 3
- Method
- adjectives
- Meaning
- Jekyll appears to be the perfect respectable gentleman.
- Themes
- reputation
Study notes for ‘a large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty’
‘man is not truly one, but truly two’
Jekyll, Chapter 10
- Method
- antithesis
- Meaning
- The duality of human nature, the novel's central idea.
- Themes
- duality
‘strip off these lendings and spring headlong into the sea of liberty’
Jekyll, Chapter 10
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- The thrill of escaping respectable life as Hyde.
- Themes
- reputation, duality
Study notes for ‘strip off these lendings and spring headlong into the sea of liberty’
‘My devil had been long caged, he came out roaring’
Jekyll, Chapter 10
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- Repression makes evil stronger.
- Themes
- violence, duality
Study notes for ‘My devil had been long caged, he came out roaring’
‘He, I say—I cannot say, I.’
Jekyll, Chapter 10
- Method
- pronouns
- Meaning
- His identity has split in two.
- Themes
- duality
‘I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end’
Jekyll, Chapter 10
- Method
- third person
- Meaning
- The last line: Jekyll is about to become Hyde for ever.
- Themes
- duality, secrecy
Study notes for ‘I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end’
Utterson, Lanyon and others
‘lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow lovable’
Narrator, Chapter 1
- Method
- alliteration
- Meaning
- Utterson is reserved and dull on the surface, but kind.
- Themes
- reputation
Study notes for ‘lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow lovable’
‘I incline to Cain's heresy’
Utterson, Chapter 1
- Method
- biblical allusion
- Meaning
- He won't judge his friends, but lets them go their own way.
- Themes
- secrecy, reputation
‘unscientific balderdash’
Lanyon, Chapter 2
- Method
- dismissive language
- Meaning
- Lanyon rejects Jekyll's experiments as nonsense.
- Themes
- science and religion
‘I have had a shock’
Lanyon, Chapter 6
- Method
- understatement
- Meaning
- Lanyon has been destroyed by the truth he saw.
- Themes
- science and religion, secrecy
Setting and the Gothic
‘blistered and distained’
Narrator, Chapter 1
- Method
- adjectives
- Meaning
- The neglected door, a symbol of Jekyll's hidden side.
- Themes
- secrecy, the Gothic
‘a great chocolate-coloured pall lowered over heaven’
Narrator, Chapter 4
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- Fog that suggests death, mystery and moral darkness.
- Themes
- the Gothic
Study notes for ‘a great chocolate-coloured pall lowered over heaven’
‘wore a great air of wealth and comfort’
Narrator, Chapter 2
- Method
- personification
- Meaning
- The respectable front of Jekyll's house hides the laboratory behind.
- Themes
- reputation, duality
Power and Conflict poetry
Ozymandias
‘Two vast and trunkless legs of stone’
line 2
- Method
- imagery
- Meaning
- The broken statue shows that the king's power has crumbled.
- Themes
- power of humans
‘sneer of cold command’
line 5
- Method
- alliteration
- Meaning
- The king's cruel, arrogant expression, preserved in stone.
- Themes
- power of humans
‘Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’
line 11
- Method
- irony
- Meaning
- His boast is ironic: nothing of his works remains.
- Themes
- power of humans
‘Nothing beside remains.’
line 12
- Method
- caesura
- Meaning
- A short, flat sentence that crushes the king's pride.
- Themes
- power of humans, power of nature
‘The lone and level sands stretch far away’
line 14
- Method
- alliteration
- Meaning
- The endless desert: time and nature outlast every tyrant.
- Themes
- power of nature
London
‘charter'd’
stanza 1
- Method
- repetition
- Meaning
- Even the streets and the river are owned and controlled.
- Themes
- power of humans
‘mind-forg'd manacles’
stanza 2
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- People are trapped by their own minds as well as by those in power.
- Themes
- power of humans, identity
‘the hapless Soldier's sigh / Runs in blood down Palace walls’
stanza 3
- Method
- imagery
- Meaning
- Blake blames the monarchy for soldiers' deaths.
- Themes
- power of humans, reality of war
Study notes for ‘the hapless Soldier's sigh / Runs in blood down Palace walls’
‘Marriage hearse’
stanza 4
- Method
- oxymoron
- Meaning
- Even love and new life are poisoned by the city's misery.
- Themes
- loss and grief
Extract from The Prelude
‘an act of stealth / And troubled pleasure’
line 5
- Method
- oxymoron
- Meaning
- He knows he is doing wrong, even as he enjoys it.
- Themes
- guilt
‘Small circles glittering idly in the moon’
line 9
- Method
- imagery
- Meaning
- At first nature seems calm and beautiful.
- Themes
- power of nature
‘Proud of his skill’
line 12
- Method
- simile
- Meaning
- The boy's confidence before nature humbles him.
- Themes
- identity
‘black and huge’
line 22
- Method
- repetition
- Meaning
- The peak suddenly appears, dark and overwhelming.
- Themes
- power of nature
‘Strode after me’
line 30
- Method
- personification
- Meaning
- The mountain seems to chase him, like a living giant.
- Themes
- power of nature
‘huge and mighty forms, that do not live / Like living men’
line 43
- Method
- imagery
- Meaning
- The experience haunts his mind for days afterwards.
- Themes
- power of nature, memory
Study notes for ‘huge and mighty forms, that do not live / Like living men’
My Last Duchess
‘The curtain I have drawn for you, but I’
line 10
- Method
- possessive language
- Meaning
- The duke controls who may see his wife, even now she is dead.
- Themes
- power of humans
‘she liked whate'er / She looked on, and her looks went everywhere’
line 23
- Method
- enjambment
- Meaning
- His jealousy of how freely she smiled at others.
- Themes
- power of humans
Study notes for ‘she liked whate'er / She looked on, and her looks went everywhere’
‘I gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together.’
line 45
- Method
- caesura
- Meaning
- A calm hint that he had her killed.
- Themes
- power of humans, guilt
Study notes for ‘I gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together.’
The Charge of the Light Brigade
‘valley of Death’
stanza 1
- Method
- biblical allusion
- Meaning
- The charge sounds noble and doomed.
- Themes
- reality of war
‘Rode the six hundred’
stanza 1
- Method
- repetition
- Meaning
- The refrain honours the soldiers as one heroic group.
- Themes
- reality of war
‘Some one had blunder'd’
stanza 3
- Method
- understatement
- Meaning
- A mistaken order sent the soldiers to their deaths.
- Themes
- reality of war
‘but to do and die’
stanza 3
- Method
- rhyme
- Meaning
- The soldiers' duty was to obey, even unto death.
- Themes
- reality of war
‘Cannon to right of them, / Cannon to left of them’
stanza 5
- Method
- anaphora
- Meaning
- The soldiers are surrounded by enemy guns.
- Themes
- reality of war
Study notes for ‘Cannon to right of them, / Cannon to left of them’
Exposure
‘But nothing happens.’
stanza 1
- Method
- refrain
- Meaning
- Endless waiting: the soldiers' suffering seems pointless.
- Themes
- reality of war
‘What are we doing here?’
stanza 2
- Method
- rhetorical question
- Meaning
- A question that speaks for every soldier.
- Themes
- reality of war
‘her melancholy army’
stanza 3
- Method
- personification
- Meaning
- Dawn attacks the men like an enemy army.
- Themes
- power of nature
‘Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow’
stanza 4
- Method
- personification
- Meaning
- The weather is deadlier than the bullets.
- Themes
- power of nature
Study notes for ‘Less deadly than the air that shudders black with snow’
‘feeling for our faces’
stanza 5
- Method
- alliteration
- Meaning
- Snowflakes creep towards the men like a hidden enemy.
- Themes
- power of nature
‘All their eyes are ice’
stanza 8
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- The men have frozen to death.
- Themes
- reality of war, power of nature
Storm on the Island
‘We are prepared: we build our houses squat’
line 1
- Method
- confident tone
- Meaning
- The islanders believe they are ready for the storm.
- Themes
- power of nature
Study notes for ‘We are prepared: we build our houses squat’
‘spits like a tame cat / Turned savage’
middle of the poem
- Method
- simile
- Meaning
- The friendly sea suddenly turns violent.
- Themes
- power of nature
‘Exploding comfortably’
middle of the poem
- Method
- oxymoron
- Meaning
- The strange safety of watching danger from indoors.
- Themes
- power of nature
‘strafes invisibly’
near the end
- Method
- military metaphor
- Meaning
- The wind attacks like a fighter plane.
- Themes
- power of nature, reality of war
‘We are bombarded by the empty air’
near the end
- Method
- military metaphor
- Meaning
- An invisible force attacks them.
- Themes
- power of nature
‘Strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear’
final line
- Method
- paradox
- Meaning
- The true enemy is invisible: nature, or fear itself.
- Themes
- power of nature
Study notes for ‘Strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear’
Bayonet Charge
‘Suddenly he awoke and was running – raw’
stanza 1
- Method
- in medias res
- Meaning
- The reader is thrown into the chaos of the charge.
- Themes
- reality of war
‘patriotic tear’
stanza 1
- Method
- irony
- Meaning
- The ideals he enlisted with, which soon fall away.
- Themes
- reality of war, identity
‘In what cold clockwork of the stars and the nations’
stanza 2
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- He is a tiny part of a huge machine he can't control.
- Themes
- reality of war, power of humans
Study notes for ‘In what cold clockwork of the stars and the nations’
‘a yellow hare that rolled like a flame’
stanza 2
- Method
- simile
- Meaning
- An innocent creature caught in the fighting, like the soldier.
- Themes
- reality of war, power of nature
‘King, honour, human dignity, etcetera’
stanza 3
- Method
- list
- Meaning
- His ideals are dismissed as meaningless.
- Themes
- reality of war
‘His terror's touchy dynamite’
final line
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- Only fear is left, ready to explode.
- Themes
- reality of war
Remains
‘On another occasion, we get sent out’
opening line
- Method
- colloquial language
- Meaning
- An ordinary soldier telling a story, which makes the violence more shocking.
- Themes
- reality of war
‘probably armed, possibly not’
stanza 1
- Method
- contrast
- Meaning
- His doubt about the man is the root of his guilt.
- Themes
- guilt
‘I see every round as it rips through his life’
early in the poem
- Method
- present tense
- Meaning
- He is still seeing the killing now.
- Themes
- reality of war, memory
Study notes for ‘I see every round as it rips through his life’
‘dug in behind enemy lines’
near the end
- Method
- military metaphor
- Meaning
- The memory is lodged in his mind like a soldier who can't be removed.
- Themes
- memory, effects of conflict
‘the drink and the drugs won't flush him out’
near the end
- Method
- alliteration
- Meaning
- He can't escape the memory, however he tries.
- Themes
- effects of conflict
Study notes for ‘the drink and the drugs won't flush him out’
‘his bloody life in my bloody hands’
final line
- Method
- double meaning
- Meaning
- ‘Bloody’ shows both blood-stained guilt and anger.
- Themes
- guilt, effects of conflict
Poppies
‘Three days before Armistice Sunday’
opening line
- Method
- time reference
- Meaning
- Links a private goodbye to public remembrance of the war dead.
- Themes
- loss and grief, memory
‘spasms of paper red’
stanza 1
- Method
- imagery
- Meaning
- The poppy suggests blood and pain beneath a simple act.
- Themes
- loss and grief
‘All my words / flattened, rolled, turned into felt’
stanza 2
- Method
- textile imagery
- Meaning
- Grief leaves the mother unable to speak.
- Themes
- loss and grief
Study notes for ‘All my words / flattened, rolled, turned into felt’
‘my stomach busy / making tucks, darts, pleats’
middle of the poem
- Method
- textile imagery
- Meaning
- Her nerves are knotted like sewing.
- Themes
- loss and grief
Study notes for ‘my stomach busy / making tucks, darts, pleats’
‘released a song bird from its cage’
middle of the poem
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- Her son's freedom, and her loss.
- Themes
- loss and grief, effects of conflict
‘your playground voice catching on the wind’
final lines
- Method
- imagery
- Meaning
- She still sees her son as a child.
- Themes
- memory, loss and grief
Study notes for ‘your playground voice catching on the wind’
War Photographer
‘spools of suffering set out in ordered rows’
stanza 1
- Method
- sibilance
- Meaning
- Hushed sounds, and rows that suggest war graves.
- Themes
- effects of conflict
Study notes for ‘spools of suffering set out in ordered rows’
‘Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.’
stanza 1
- Method
- list
- Meaning
- War zones across the world, and a reminder from the Bible that life is short.
- Themes
- reality of war
Study notes for ‘Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.’
‘Rural England’
stanza 2
- Method
- contrast
- Meaning
- The safe home he returns to, far from war.
- Themes
- effects of conflict
‘ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel’
stanza 2
- Method
- contrast
- Meaning
- People at home suffer only small troubles.
- Themes
- effects of conflict
Study notes for ‘ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel’
‘a hundred agonies in black and white’
stanza 4
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- Each photograph holds someone's suffering.
- Themes
- effects of conflict, memory
‘with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers’
stanza 4
- Method
- rhyme
- Meaning
- Readers feel a brief, easy sadness, then forget.
- Themes
- effects of conflict
Study notes for ‘with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers’
Tissue
‘Paper that lets the light / shine through’
opening lines
- Method
- imagery
- Meaning
- Paper is thin and fragile, like the power built from it.
- Themes
- power of humans
‘pages smoothed and stroked and turned’
early in the poem
- Method
- verbs
- Meaning
- Families record their lives with tender care.
- Themes
- memory, identity
‘The sun shines through / their borderlines’
middle of the poem
- Method
- imagery
- Meaning
- Borders on maps are not real or permanent.
- Themes
- power of humans
Study notes for ‘The sun shines through / their borderlines’
‘never wanting / to build again with brick’
near the end
- Method
- enjambment
- Meaning
- A wish for a gentler, less permanent kind of power.
- Themes
- power of humans
‘fly our lives like paper kites’
near the end
- Method
- simile
- Meaning
- Life could be light and free.
- Themes
- power of humans, identity
‘turned into your skin’
final line
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- Paper becomes skin: human life is fragile.
- Themes
- identity, power of humans
The Émigrée
‘There once was a country’
opening line
- Method
- fairy-tale opening
- Meaning
- Her home seems lost, like a story from long ago.
- Themes
- memory, identity
‘my memory of it is sunlight-clear’
stanza 1
- Method
- compound adjective
- Meaning
- Her memory of the city is bright and perfect.
- Themes
- memory
‘it may be sick with tyrants’
stanza 1
- Method
- personification
- Meaning
- The city may now be ruled by cruel leaders.
- Themes
- power of humans, effects of conflict
‘I comb its hair and love its shining eyes’
stanza 2
- Method
- personification
- Meaning
- She loves the city tenderly, like a child.
- Themes
- memory, identity
‘They accuse me of absence, they circle me.’
stanza 3
- Method
- threatening imagery
- Meaning
- She feels threatened and out of place.
- Themes
- identity, effects of conflict
Study notes for ‘They accuse me of absence, they circle me.’
‘My shadow falls as evidence of sunlight.’
final line
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- Her memory proves the bright city once existed.
- Themes
- memory, identity
Checking Out Me History
‘Dem tell me / Wha dem want to tell me’
opening lines
- Method
- dialect
- Meaning
- The history he was given was chosen by others.
- Themes
- identity, power of humans
‘Bandage up me eye with me own history’
early in the poem
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- His education blindfolded him to his own past.
- Themes
- identity
‘Dem tell me bout 1066 and all dat’
early in the poem
- Method
- dialect
- Meaning
- British history is taught; his own is left out.
- Themes
- identity, power of humans
‘a slave / with vision’
middle of the poem
- Method
- imagery
- Meaning
- Toussaint L'Ouverture, a hero he wasn't taught about.
- Themes
- identity, power of humans
‘a yellow sunrise / to the dying’
middle of the poem
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- Mary Seacole brought hope to wounded soldiers.
- Themes
- identity
‘I carving out me identity’
final line
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- He defiantly takes control of his own identity.
- Themes
- identity
Kamikaze
‘Her father embarked at sunrise’
opening line
- Method
- narrative voice
- Meaning
- The story is passed down by his daughter.
- Themes
- reality of war
‘a shaven head / full of powerful incantations’
stanza 1
- Method
- imagery
- Meaning
- He was prepared for death by ritual and chants.
- Themes
- reality of war, identity
Study notes for ‘a shaven head / full of powerful incantations’
‘dark shoals of fishes / flashing silver’
middle of the poem
- Method
- alliteration
- Meaning
- The beauty of nature turns him back towards life.
- Themes
- power of nature, memory
‘my mother never spoke again / in his presence’
near the end
- Method
- silence
- Meaning
- His family punishes him with silence.
- Themes
- effects of conflict, loss and grief
Study notes for ‘my mother never spoke again / in his presence’
‘as though he no longer existed’
near the end
- Method
- simile
- Meaning
- He is treated as if he were dead.
- Themes
- effects of conflict
‘which had been the better way to die’
final line
- Method
- question
- Meaning
- A living death of shame may be worse than death in battle.
- Themes
- effects of conflict, loss and grief
Love and Relationships poetry
When We Two Parted
‘In silence and tears’
stanza 1
- Method
- sibilance
- Meaning
- The parting was hidden and painful, with nothing said.
- Themes
- loss and separation
‘Pale grew thy cheek and cold’
stanza 1
- Method
- imagery
- Meaning
- She seems already dead to him: the love died at the parting.
- Themes
- loss and separation
‘I hear thy name spoken, / And share in its shame.’
stanza 2
- Method
- rhyme
- Meaning
- Gossip about her hurts him too, though no one knows about him.
- Themes
- loss and separation, romantic love
Study notes for ‘I hear thy name spoken, / And share in its shame.’
‘A knell to mine ear’
stanza 3
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- Her name sounds like a funeral bell to him.
- Themes
- loss and separation
‘In secret we met— / In silence I grieve’
stanza 4
- Method
- sibilance
- Meaning
- A secret affair means he must grieve in secret too.
- Themes
- romantic love, loss and separation
‘With silence and tears’
stanza 4
- Method
- cyclical structure
- Meaning
- The ending echoes the opening: he is trapped in his grief.
- Themes
- loss and separation, memory
Love's Philosophy
‘See the mountains kiss high heaven / And the waves clasp one another’
stanza 2
- Method
- personification
- Meaning
- Nature is full of lovers, so why not them?
- Themes
- nature, romantic love
Study notes for ‘See the mountains kiss high heaven / And the waves clasp one another’
‘a law divine’
stanza 1
- Method
- persuasion
- Meaning
- He claims God wants them to be together.
- Themes
- romantic love
‘meet and mingle’
stanza 1
- Method
- sibilance
- Meaning
- Soft sounds make joining together seem natural and easy.
- Themes
- nature, desire and control
‘What is all this sweet work worth / If thou kiss not me?’
stanza 2
- Method
- rhetorical question
- Meaning
- Nature is worthless without her kiss: flattery, but also pressure.
- Themes
- desire and control
Study notes for ‘What is all this sweet work worth / If thou kiss not me?’
Porphyria's Lover
‘did its worst to vex the lake’
opening
- Method
- pathetic fallacy
- Meaning
- The violent storm hints at the violence to come.
- Themes
- nature
‘shut the cold out and the storm’
opening
- Method
- verbs
- Meaning
- Porphyria takes charge, warming the cottage and her lover.
- Themes
- romantic love
‘That moment she was mine, mine, fair’
middle
- Method
- repetition
- Meaning
- He wants to own her, and to keep this moment forever.
- Themes
- desire and control
‘And yet God has not said a word!’
last line
- Method
- exclamation
- Meaning
- Perhaps guilt, or his belief that God approves of the murder.
- Themes
- desire and control
Sonnet 29 – ‘I think of thee!’
‘twine and bud / About thee, as wild vines, about a tree’
lines 1–2
- Method
- extended metaphor
- Meaning
- Her thoughts of him grow so thick that they hide him.
- Themes
- romantic love, nature
Study notes for ‘twine and bud / About thee, as wild vines, about a tree’
‘O my palm-tree’
line 5
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- He is strong, tall and exotic to her.
- Themes
- romantic love
‘Renew thy presence’
line 8
- Method
- imperative
- Meaning
- She commands him to come back: thoughts are not enough.
- Themes
- desire and control
‘Rustle thy boughs and set thy trunk all bare’
line 9
- Method
- imperative
- Meaning
- She wants him to sweep her thoughts away with his real presence.
- Themes
- desire and control, nature
Study notes for ‘Rustle thy boughs and set thy trunk all bare’
‘burst, shattered, everywhere!’
line 11
- Method
- violent verbs
- Meaning
- The force of her passion breaks out.
- Themes
- desire and control
‘I do not think of thee—I am too near thee.’
line 14
- Method
- paradox
- Meaning
- When he is with her, she has no need to think of him.
- Themes
- romantic love
Study notes for ‘I do not think of thee—I am too near thee.’
Neutral Tones
‘white, as though chidden of God’
stanza 1
- Method
- pathetic fallacy
- Meaning
- The sun is drained of warmth, as if even God disapproves.
- Themes
- nature
‘the starving sod’
stanza 1
- Method
- pathetic fallacy
- Meaning
- The dying ground reflects the dying relationship.
- Themes
- nature, loss and separation
‘smile on your mouth was the deadest thing / Alive enough to have strength to die’
stanza 3
- Method
- oxymoron
- Meaning
- Her smile has no warmth left in it.
- Themes
- loss and separation
Study notes for ‘smile on your mouth was the deadest thing / Alive enough to have strength to die’
‘Like an ominous bird a-wing’
stanza 3
- Method
- simile
- Meaning
- Her bitter grin is a bad omen.
- Themes
- loss and separation
‘keen lessons that love deceives’
stanza 4
- Method
- abstract nouns
- Meaning
- He has learnt from bitter experience not to trust love.
- Themes
- memory, romantic love
Letters from Yorkshire
‘his knuckles singing’
stanza 1
- Method
- personification
- Meaning
- The joy and life of his outdoor work.
- Themes
- nature
‘It's not romance, simply how things are.’
stanza 2
- Method
- declarative
- Meaning
- She insists the bond is simple and real, not dreamy.
- Themes
- romantic love
‘me with my heartful of headlines’
stanza 3
- Method
- alliteration
- Meaning
- Her life is full of news and words, not nature.
- Themes
- loss and separation
‘Is your life more real because you dig and sow?’
stanza 3
- Method
- rhetorical question
- Meaning
- She wonders whether his life is truer than hers.
- Themes
- nature
Study notes for ‘Is your life more real because you dig and sow?’
‘pouring air and light into an envelope’
stanza 5
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- His letters bring the natural world to her.
- Themes
- nature, romantic love
‘our souls tap out messages across the icy miles’
stanza 5
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- Like Morse code: a deep connection despite the distance.
- Themes
- romantic love, loss and separation
Study notes for ‘our souls tap out messages across the icy miles’
The Farmer's Bride
‘When us was wed’
stanza 1
- Method
- dialect
- Meaning
- The farmer's rural voice: we hear only his side.
- Themes
- desire and control
‘More like a little frightened fay’
stanza 1
- Method
- simile
- Meaning
- He sees her as a frightened fairy, not quite human.
- Themes
- nature, desire and control
‘flying like a hare’
stanza 2
- Method
- simile
- Meaning
- She runs from him like a hunted animal.
- Themes
- nature, desire and control
‘turned the key upon her, fast’
stanza 2
- Method
- verbs
- Meaning
- She is locked up like an animal: a prisoner in her marriage.
- Themes
- desire and control
‘Shy as a leveret’
stanza 4
- Method
- simile
- Meaning
- She is a timid young hare to him: wild and natural.
- Themes
- nature
‘The brown of her—her eyes, her hair, her hair!’
stanza 6
- Method
- repetition
- Meaning
- His desire breaks out; we fear what he might do.
- Themes
- desire and control
Study notes for ‘The brown of her—her eyes, her hair, her hair!’
Walking Away
‘It is eighteen years ago, almost to the day’
stanza 1
- Method
- precise time
- Meaning
- He remembers the moment sharply, years later.
- Themes
- memory
Study notes for ‘It is eighteen years ago, almost to the day’
‘Wrenched from its orbit, go drifting away’
stanza 1
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- Like a satellite, his son is pulled painfully out of his world.
- Themes
- family, loss and separation
‘the pathos of a half-fledged thing set free’
stanza 2
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- A baby bird leaving the nest too soon: vulnerable.
- Themes
- growing up
Study notes for ‘the pathos of a half-fledged thing set free’
‘like a winged seed loosened from its parent stem’
stanza 3
- Method
- simile
- Meaning
- Leaving home is natural, part of growing up.
- Themes
- growing up, nature
Study notes for ‘like a winged seed loosened from its parent stem’
‘I have had worse partings, but none that so’
stanza 4
- Method
- enjambment
- Meaning
- This small parting still hurts him most.
- Themes
- loss and separation, memory
Study notes for ‘I have had worse partings, but none that so’
‘love is proved in the letting go’
stanza 4
- Method
- abstract nouns
- Meaning
- A parent's love means letting a child become independent.
- Themes
- family, growing up
Eden Rock
‘They are waiting for me somewhere beyond Eden Rock’
stanza 1
- Method
- present tense
- Meaning
- His dead parents wait for him, as if alive.
- Themes
- family
Study notes for ‘They are waiting for me somewhere beyond Eden Rock’
‘My mother, twenty-three, in a sprigged dress’
stanza 2
- Method
- imagery
- Meaning
- She is young again, frozen at a happy time.
- Themes
- family, memory
Study notes for ‘My mother, twenty-three, in a sprigged dress’
‘an old H.P. Sauce bottle’
stanza 3
- Method
- everyday detail
- Meaning
- Ordinary details make the scene feel real and homely.
- Themes
- memory
‘The sky whitens as if lit by three suns.’
stanza 4
- Method
- simile
- Meaning
- A heavenly light, perhaps the Holy Trinity or the family of three.
- Themes
- family, nature
‘Crossing is not as hard as you might think.’
stanza 5
- Method
- symbolism
- Meaning
- Crossing the stream suggests dying: his parents reassure him.
- Themes
- family, loss and separation
Study notes for ‘Crossing is not as hard as you might think.’
‘I had not thought that it would be like this.’
last line
- Method
- single-line stanza
- Meaning
- Death is gentler than he expected.
- Themes
- loss and separation
Study notes for ‘I had not thought that it would be like this.’
Follower
‘My father worked with a horse-plough’
stanza 1
- Method
- simple sentence
- Meaning
- A plain opening, like a child's memory.
- Themes
- family
‘His shoulders globed like a full sail strung’
stanza 1
- Method
- simile
- Meaning
- His father seems huge and strong to the boy.
- Themes
- family
Study notes for ‘His shoulders globed like a full sail strung’
‘An expert.’
stanza 2
- Method
- minor sentence
- Meaning
- The short sentence sums up the boy's admiration.
- Themes
- family
‘stumbled in his hob-nailed wake’
stanza 4
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- The boy struggles to keep up, like a small boat behind a ship.
- Themes
- growing up, family
‘It is my father who keeps stumbling’
stanza 6
- Method
- role reversal
- Meaning
- Now the old father follows the son.
- Themes
- family, memory
Mother, any distance
‘requires a second pair of hands’
stanza 1
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- He still needs his mother's help.
- Themes
- family
‘You at the zero-end, me with the spool of tape’
stanza 2
- Method
- imagery
- Meaning
- She holds the start; he moves away.
- Themes
- family, growing up
Study notes for ‘You at the zero-end, me with the spool of tape’
‘unreeling / years between us. Anchor. Kite.’
stanza 2
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- She keeps him steady; he wants to fly free.
- Themes
- growing up, family
Study notes for ‘unreeling / years between us. Anchor. Kite.’
‘I space-walk through the empty bedrooms’
stanza 3
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- Like an astronaut, still tied to his ship.
- Themes
- growing up
‘to fall or fly’
last line
- Method
- alliteration
- Meaning
- Independence could bring failure or freedom.
- Themes
- growing up
Before You Were Mine
‘I'm ten years away from the corner you laugh on’
stanza 1
- Method
- present tense
- Meaning
- She imagines her mother's youth before she was born.
- Themes
- family, memory
Study notes for ‘I'm ten years away from the corner you laugh on’
‘Your polka-dot dress blows round your legs. Marilyn.’
stanza 1
- Method
- allusion
- Meaning
- Her mother was as glamorous as Marilyn Monroe.
- Themes
- memory
Study notes for ‘Your polka-dot dress blows round your legs. Marilyn.’
‘the fizzy, movie tomorrows’
stanza 2
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- Her mother's exciting hopes for the future.
- Themes
- growing up
‘my loud, possessive yell’
stanza 3
- Method
- possessive
- Meaning
- The speaker's birth ended her mother's freedom.
- Themes
- family, desire and control
‘high-heeled red shoes, relics’
stanza 3
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- Her mother's shoes are like holy remains of a lost past.
- Themes
- memory
‘stamping stars from the wrong pavement’
stanza 4
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- Her mother's glamour still shines.
- Themes
- family, memory
Winter Swans
‘The clouds had given their all’
stanza 1
- Method
- pathetic fallacy
- Meaning
- The storm is over: perhaps the worst of an argument too.
- Themes
- nature
‘gulping for breath at our feet’
stanza 2
- Method
- personification
- Meaning
- The soaked earth suggests a relationship struggling to survive.
- Themes
- nature, loss and separation
‘with a show of tipping in unison’
stanza 3
- Method
- imagery
- Meaning
- The swans move together, as the couple don't.
- Themes
- nature, romantic love
‘They mate for life’
stanza 4
- Method
- symbolism
- Meaning
- The swans hint at what the couple could be.
- Themes
- romantic love
‘porcelain over the stilling water’
stanza 5
- Method
- metaphor
- Meaning
- Beautiful and fragile, as things calm down.
- Themes
- nature
‘like a pair of wings settling after flight’
last line
- Method
- simile
- Meaning
- The couple's hands come together, like the swans.
- Themes
- romantic love
Study notes for ‘like a pair of wings settling after flight’
Singh Song!
‘I run just one ov my daddy's shops’
opening
- Method
- phonetic spelling
- Meaning
- His lively accent, and his duty to his father.
- Themes
- family
‘from 9 o'clock to 9 o'clock’
opening
- Method
- repetition
- Meaning
- Long, dull hours set by his father.
- Themes
- family
‘Hey Singh, ver yoo bin?’
chorus
- Method
- refrain
- Meaning
- The customers complain while he is with his wife.
- Themes
- family
‘she hav a red crew cut’
middle
- Method
- imagery
- Meaning
- His wife breaks the stereotype of a traditional bride.
- Themes
- romantic love
‘is priceless baby’
last line
- Method
- dialogue
- Meaning
- Their love is worth more than money or the shop.
- Themes
- romantic love
Climbing My Grandfather
‘I decide to do it free’
opening
- Method
- present tense
- Meaning
- The climb starts with a bold choice: no rope or safety.
- Themes
- family
‘First, the old brogues, dusty and cracked’
opening
- Method
- imagery
- Meaning
- His worn shoes show a long, hard-working life.
- Themes
- family, memory
‘an easy scramble onto his trousers’
opening
- Method
- extended metaphor
- Meaning
- Climbing words make the grandfather a mountain.
- Themes
- growing up
‘like warm ice’
middle
- Method
- oxymoron
- Meaning
- His old skin is smooth, but alive and warm.
- Themes
- family
‘at this altitude’
middle
- Method
- extended metaphor
- Meaning
- His white hair is like snow on a mountain top.
- Themes
- nature
‘the slow pulse of his good heart’
last line
- Method
- imagery
- Meaning
- The climb ends in closeness and love.
- Themes
- family