AQA Relationships poems summary
- 1. Poetry – Relationships cluster summary Poem Summary Themes Feelings Links to… Key quotes ‘The - The narrator is the wife of a Pain and Caring ‘Nettles’ - the -‘the parachute silk of his punctured lung’ Manhunt’ by soldier who has come home from suffering Patience suffering of a - ‘I picture the scan,/the foetus of metal’ Simon war with serous gun shot Time (the Pain loved one - ‘ a sweating unexploded mine/buried deep Armitage wounds. father will in his mind’ - It is more difficult to see and not be able - ‘I come close’ understand his mental scars and to protect ‘Praise Song’ – the problems these cause. his son as he relationship grows up) between parent and child ‘Hour’ by - Describes and hour spent between - Love against - cherishing - ‘To His Coy - ‘Love’s time’s beggar’ Carol Ann the narrator and her lover time the moment Mistress’ – time as Duffy - The poet personifies time as love’s - Fairy tale - strong the enemy of love - ‘For thousands of seconds, we kiss’ enemy love does not belief in love - Love almost manages to make time last - Physical -‘Sonnet 116’ – time -‘Now. Time hates love,’ stand still pleasure and love, personification -‘Love spins gold, gold, gold from straw’ ‘In Paris with -The narrator is upset about love – -Negative -Self pity -‘To His Coy -‘I get tearful when I’ve downed a drink or two’ You’ by James he’s split up with someone and sees emotions Mistress’ – narrator Fenton himself as a victim -Bitterness as seducer; humour -‘I’m a hostage’ -He’s gone to Paris with someone -Hurt else, but still seems unhappy -humour -‘Sister Maude’ – -‘Don’t talk to me of love’ - He doesn’t want to go out in the anger city – he’d rather stay in the hotel -lust -‘all points south’ room -‘Quickdraw’ – being hurt by someone ‘Quickdraw’ -The poem compares phone calls -Attitudes -Hurt -‘The Farmer’s Bride’ -‘like guns, slung from the pockets of my hips’ by Carol Ann and texts in a relationship to a gun towards love and ‘In Paris with Duffy fight in a western movie -Expectation You’ – hurt from love -‘your voice a pellet/in my ear’ -The narrator always seems to come -hurt off worst, and is left hurt -Tension -‘The Manhunt’ - -‘the silver bullets of your kiss’ -What ‘finishes her off’ isn’t cruelty, communication but text message kisses, which hit -‘high noon, calamity, hard liquor/In the old Last her like bullets Chance saloon’
- 2. ‘Ghazal’ by -The narrator is talking about intense -Attitudes -Intense love ‘The Farmer’s Bride’ ‘iron fist in the velvet glove’ Mimi Khalvati feeling of love towards love -playfulness and ‘Nettles’ and -In each stanza, she creates a new -Lust -Pleasure ‘Hour’ – natural -‘charmer, use your charm, weave a spell and message to portray love through -Love poetry imagery subdue me’ imagery (the ghazal structure) -‘To His Coy -‘don’t hand/on my lips’ Mistress’ and ‘Hour’ -lust -‘I’ll be twice the me’ ‘Brothers’ by -The narrator remembers a moment -Family -Frustration -‘Nettles’ – reflecting ‘Saddled with you’ Andrew from childhood when he and his relationships on a childhood Forster older brother had to look after their -Guilt incident as an adult -‘spouting six-year old views’ younger brother -Sibling -They are fed up with him, but relationships -Freedom -‘Sister Maude’ – an -‘we must stroll’ excited to be out on their own unhappy event in a -They send their younger brother -regret sibling relationship -‘unable to close the distance’ home to get the bus fare, then run off, leaving him behind ‘Praise Song -The mum in the poet was the whole -Parental love -Gratitude -‘Nettles’ – parent -‘You were water to me’ for my world to her child child relationships Mother’ by -The narrator compares her mum to -Being -Joy -‘deep and bold and fathoming’ Grace Nichols water and food – vital for life prepared for -‘Ghazal’ – natural -Also compares her mum to moon life -Prase imagery -‘replenishing replenishing’ and the sun (both masculine and feminine role in her life) -‘Go to your wide futures’ ‘Sonnet 116’ -Shakespeare is writing about how -Attitudes -Devotion -‘To His Coy ‘Time’s fool’ by William constant true love is towards love Mistress’ – the Shakespeare -True love doesn’t change when -Constancy effects of ageing on -‘edge of doom’ circumstances change -True love is love -‘He says that if what he says isn’t not fickle and -True love -‘it is the star to every wand’ring bark’ true, then he never wrote anything does not -‘The Manhunt’ – and nobody has ever been in love. change over constancy and true -‘Admit impediments’ Since we know he did write and time love people have loved, he’s saying his words are true. ‘To His Coy -The narrator is telling the woman -The passage -Impatience -‘Sonnet 116’ – the Mistress’ by that he loves that she shouldn’t play of time effects of time and - ‘Deserts of vast eternity’ Andrew hard to get – there isn’t time -Urgency death
- 3. Marvell -The poem is structured into a three -Seduction - ‘My vegetable love should grow’ part argument - the first part -Reluctance -‘Hour’and ‘In Paris explaining how much he would -Death with You’ – lust and - ‘A grave’s a fine and pleasant place’ worship her and what they would do physical love together if there was time -Physical - ‘Now’ -the second part describes how desire there is not time and shows what - ‘like amorous birds of prey’ will happen when they grow old -the third part declares that they must live for the moment , make the most of their youth ‘The Farmer’s -The farmer has been married for 3 -Unhappy love -Frustration -‘Hour’ and ‘In Paris -‘Shy as a leveret, swift as he’ Bride’ by years, but his bride is still frightened with You’ – love seen Charlotte of him -Desire as an intense -‘Straight and slight as a young larch tree’ Mew -He tells the story of how the experience relationship went wrong -Fear -‘poor maid’ -He finds her rejection almost -‘To His Coy unbearable. By the end he seems to Mistress’ – -‘her hair, her hair’ be struggling to resist taking her by frustrated narrator force ‘Sister Maude’ -The poem’s narrator has kept her -Intense -Betrayal -‘Sonnet 116’ – -‘comeliest corpse’ by Christina boyfriend a secret from her parents emotions intense feelings Rossetti – but her sister has told them about -Jealousy -‘Cold he lies, as cold as stone/ With his clotted him -Family -‘Brothers’ – family curls’ -The narrator is angry with her sister relationships -Anger relationships for this and her boyfriend’s death -‘shall get no sleep/ Either early or late’ -The narrator is also jealous that her -Sibling boyfriend may have desired her relationships -‘Bide you with death and sin’ sister ‘Nettles’ by -The narrator’s son has fallen in a -Feelings -Anger -‘Born Yesterday’ – -‘regiment of spite’ Vernon bed of nettles and is badly stung about loved the hopes and fears Scannell -His father comforts him, then cuts ones -Revenge that adults have for -‘those green spears’ down the nettles. However, they children grow back two weeks later -Family -Tenderness -‘blisters beaded’ -The story shows how parents can’t relationships -‘Sister Maude’ – always protect their children from - anger; family -‘that fierce parade’ pain Helplessness relationships
- 4. -The poet uses an extended military metaphor to express the threat from the nettles ‘Born -Larkin wrote this poem the day -Priorities -Tenderness -‘Sonnet 116’ – the -‘Tightly-folded bud’ Yesterday’ by after the birth of his friend’s idea that beauty is Philip Larkin daughter -Family -Scorn not necessary for -‘May you be ordinary’ -He takes the fairy tale idea of giving relationships real love/happiness out wishes to a new born, but his -Realism ‘Not ugly, not good-looking’ wish is not for great beauty or -Happiness -‘Nettles’ – an adult’s exciting things – he wishes for -Cynicism hopes and concerns -‘skilled,/Vigilant,flexible,/ practical, useful talents which he -Surviving life for a child Unemphasised,enthralled/Catching of happiness’ knows will help her most to be happy (as Larkin knows how hard it -‘Hour’ – the fairy is to be happy) tale is not important for love – the simple things count far more