English Poetry Quotes + Context

Front 1

To Autumn Key Quotes (6)

Back 1

1) "close bosom-friend of the maturing sun"

2) "sitting careless on a granary floor"

3) "the last oozings, hours by hours"

4) "barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day"

5) "bleat", "sing", "whistles"

6) "gathering swallows twitter in the skies"

Front 2

To Autumn Context (3)

Back 2

1) Keats was a Romantic poet, focused on nature

2) He lost his close family to TB and he too died in his mid-20s

3) Believes his career was dying and the death of his family influenced this poem

Front 3

Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 Key Quotes (6)

Back 3

1) "Earth has not anything to show more fair"

2) "Dull would he be of soul"

3) "The beauty of the morning; silent, bare"

4) "All bright and glittering in the smokeless air"

5) "The river glideth at his own sweet will"

6) "mighty heart is lying still!"

Front 4

Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 Context (3)

Back 4

1) Wordsworth was a Romantic poet

2) It was written as he left London to Calais to meet his illegitimate daughter in France

3) Grew up in the countryside

Front 5

London Key Quotes (7)

Back 5

1) "I wander thro' each charter'd street"

2) "Marks of weakness, marks of woe"
3) "every cry...every ban"

4) "mind-forg'd manacles"
5) "Every black'ning Church appalls"

6) "Runs in blood down Palace walls"
7) "youthful Harlot's curse blasts the new-born infant's tear"

Front 6

London Context (2)

Back 6

1) Blake criticised the church and the government for not doing enough to help children

2) Blake lived and worked in London so he saw the terrible conditions first-hand

Front 7

I started Early - Took my Dog Key Quotes (5)

Back 7

1) "mermaids in the basement"
2) "presuming me to be a mouse"
3) "but no man moved me - till the tide"

4) "he would eat me up"
5) "and then - I started - too - "

Front 8

I started Early - Took my Dog Context (3)

Back 8

1) Raised as a Christian but was very critical about religion

2) A recluse, mentally unwell, not sociable

3) She had a fear of being close to people

Front 9

Where the Picnic was Key Quotes (6)

Back 9

1) " through winter mire"

2) " as a burnt circle - aye"

3) " last relic of the band"

4) " two have wandered far ... into urban roar"
5) " sea breathes brine"
6) " And one - has shut her eyes forevermore"

Front 10

Where the Picnic was Context (2)

Back 10

1) Had an unhappy marriage

2) He experienced loneliness and abandonment

Front 11

Adlestrop Key Quotes (6)

Back 11

1) "the express-train drew up"
2) "the steam hissed"

3) "no one left and no one came"

4) "And willows, willow-herb, and grass"

5) "And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry"
6) "a blackbird sang"

Front 12

Adlestrop Context (3)

Back 12

1) Written about a train journey before the war but published during war

2) Killed in action

3) Describes occassion where train had to make an unscheduled stop

Front 13

Home Thoughts from Abroad Key Quotes (6)

Back 13

1) " Oh, to be in England"

2) " Sees, some morning, unaware"

3) " chaffinch sings on the orchard bough"

4) " wise thrush he sings each song twice over"
5) " The buttercups, the little children's dower"
6) " - Far brighter than this gaudy melon flower!"

Front 14

Home Thoughts from Abroad Context (3)

Back 14

1) Browning was a Romantic poet

2) Homesick of England

3) He eloped to Italy with Elizabeth and lived there

Front 15

First Flight Key Quotes (6)

Back 15

1) " Plane moves. I don't like the feel of it."
2) " the next lot of water'll be the Med"

3) " this is rather a short hop for me"

4) " Know what I mean?"

5) " Mackerel wigs dispense the justice of air"

6) " Too cold. Too near the sun. "

Front 16

First Flight Context (2)

Back 16

1) Fanthorpe was terrified of heights

2) Experience of her first flight which was new in her day

Front 17

Stewart Island Key Quotes (4)

Back 17

1) " too cold to swim"

2) " My seven-year-old collected shells and was bitten by sandflies"

3) " my four-year-old paddled, until a mad seagull... beak into his head"
4) " I had already decided to leave this country"

Front 18

Stewart Island Context (2)

Back 18

1) A naturally beautiful island, but geographically isolated

2) Small population with immigrants from Scotland

Front 19

Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan Key Quotes (5)

Back 19

1) " was alien in the sitting-room"

2) " I could never be as lovely as those clothes"

3) " I longed for denim and corduroy"

4) " wanted my parents' camel-skin lamp... consider the cruelty"

5) " of no fixed nationality"

Front 20

Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan Context (2)

Back 20

1) Alvi was born to a Pakistani father and an English mother

2) She feels confused and is unsure where she belongs

Front 21

Hurricane Hits England Key Quotes (7)

Back 21

1) " like some dark ancestral spectre"

2) " Tell me why you visit an English coast?"

3) " blinding illumination"

4) " O why is my heart unchained?"

5) " I am riding the mystery of your storm"

6) " Shaking the foundations of the very trees within me"

7) " That the earth is the earth is the earth"

Front 22

Hurricane Hits England Context (3)

Back 22

1) Grace Nichols was born in Guyana and moved to England

2) It's based on a real experience she had when a hurricane hits the coast of England

3) The storm helps her figure out her identity

Front 23

Nothing's Changed Key Quotes (6)

Back 23

1) " new, up-market, haute cuisine"
2) " No sign says it is: but we know where we belong"

3) " crushed ice white glass...linen falls"

4) " plastic table's top"

5) " Hands burn for a stone, a bomb, to shiver down the glass"

6) " Nothing's changed"

Front 24

Nothing's Changed Context (2)

Back 24

1) An angry poem about the experience of returning to South Africa after the system of Apartheid had been overturned

2) He hoped for change but ended up being disappointed

Front 25

Postcard from a Travel Snob Key Quotes (6)

Back 25

1) " I do not wish that anyone was here"

2) " This is a peaceful place, untouched by man - not like your seaside-town-consumer-hell"
3) " I'm sleeping in a local farmer's van - it's great"
4) " multi-cultural...your friends become wine connoisseurs, not drunks"

5) " I'm not a British tourist in the sea"

6) " I am an anthropologist in trunks"

Front 26

Postcard from a Travel Snob Context (2)

Back 26

1) In the 1990s, more and more students went on a gap year

2) More and more people went on affordable holiday packages to popular resorts

Front 27

In Romney Marsh Key Quotes (7)

Back 27

1) "ringing shirlly, taut and lithe"

2) "a veil of purple vapour flowed"

3) "the upper air like sapphire glowed"

4) "crimson brands of sunset fall"

5) "the darkly shining salt sea drops"

6) "waves clashed...organs stop"
7) " prolonged the roar"

Front 28

In Romney March Context (3)

Back 28

1) During the 1920s the National Grid was created

2) Electrification moved out from the towns and cities into the countryside

3) Davidson was against this change

Front 29

Absence Key Quotes (6)

Back 29

1) "nothing to instruct me to forget"

2) "singing an ecstasy I could not share"
3) "pleasures there could not be a pain to bear"
4) "absence seem a savage force"

5) "an earthquake tremor"

6) "were shaken by my thinking of your name"

Front 30

Absence Context (2)

Back 30

1) Jennings' poem is about loss and loneliness

2) Many poems were inspired by events in her life, she stressed that her work should not be read as autobiographical