Matric Poetry 2024
1. 'To me, fair friend, you never can nerve be old’ - William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
Themes
- Age
- Time
- Beauty
**suggests that time is able to destroy beauty
Structure
- Perfect Shakespearean sonnet
Tone
- Playful
- Reflective
- Celebratory
Alliteration
- “fair friend”
Diction
- Seasons
- Time, months → cycle of life
- Nature
2. ‘The Sun Rising’ - John Donne (1572 - 1631)
Structure
- 3 stanzas
- Very structured
- Rhyme: ABBACDCDEE
- Very hyperbolic
Tone
- Angry
- Annoyed
- Irritated
, - Defiant
Central extended metaphor
Sun and time
- The lover’s bed is a microcosm of the world
Apostrophe
- Speaker is speaking directly to the sun
Solipsism
→ very self-centred, the world revolves around you, selfish
Metaphysical poetry
→ characterised by conceit of “wit”
→ characteristics
- Free from artificiality
- Contains conceits and hyperbole
- Unusual extended metaphors
- Intellectual
- About emotional and psychological experiences
→ many are based on new scientific discoveries and he is boastful of his knowledge
- Physical and spiritual worlds are connected
- Relationship between mind and matter
- Physical and human consciousness
3. ‘Go , lovely Rose’ (Waller 1606 - 1687)
**Rose = symbol for love (roses don’t last forever, just like her beauty that won’t last forever)
**exercise in persuasion
Diction
- Gendered
Structure
- Lyrical poem: rhythmic
- Rhythm created by meter which is consistently maintained
- Very structured ∴ structured/ organised/ traditional love
- Imperative: speaker has commanding tone towards the rose
1. 'To me, fair friend, you never can nerve be old’ - William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
Themes
- Age
- Time
- Beauty
**suggests that time is able to destroy beauty
Structure
- Perfect Shakespearean sonnet
Tone
- Playful
- Reflective
- Celebratory
Alliteration
- “fair friend”
Diction
- Seasons
- Time, months → cycle of life
- Nature
2. ‘The Sun Rising’ - John Donne (1572 - 1631)
Structure
- 3 stanzas
- Very structured
- Rhyme: ABBACDCDEE
- Very hyperbolic
Tone
- Angry
- Annoyed
- Irritated
, - Defiant
Central extended metaphor
Sun and time
- The lover’s bed is a microcosm of the world
Apostrophe
- Speaker is speaking directly to the sun
Solipsism
→ very self-centred, the world revolves around you, selfish
Metaphysical poetry
→ characterised by conceit of “wit”
→ characteristics
- Free from artificiality
- Contains conceits and hyperbole
- Unusual extended metaphors
- Intellectual
- About emotional and psychological experiences
→ many are based on new scientific discoveries and he is boastful of his knowledge
- Physical and spiritual worlds are connected
- Relationship between mind and matter
- Physical and human consciousness
3. ‘Go , lovely Rose’ (Waller 1606 - 1687)
**Rose = symbol for love (roses don’t last forever, just like her beauty that won’t last forever)
**exercise in persuasion
Diction
- Gendered
Structure
- Lyrical poem: rhythmic
- Rhythm created by meter which is consistently maintained
- Very structured ∴ structured/ organised/ traditional love
- Imperative: speaker has commanding tone towards the rose
