The Complete IEB Poetry Resource for English Home Language

1. ‘No longer mourn for me’ by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)


No longer mourn for me when I am dead
Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell
Give warning to the world that I am fled
From this vile world, with vilest worms to dwell;
Nay, if you read this line, remember not 5
The hand that writ it; for I love you so,
That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot
If thinking on me then should make you woe.
O! if, I say, you look upon this verse
When I perhaps compounded am with clay, 10
Do not so much as my poor name rehearse,
But let your love even with my life decay;
Lest the wise world should look into your moan
And mock you with me after I am gone.




Questions:

1. What type of sonnet is this? Justify your answer. [4]
2. Paraphrase the opening line. [2]
3. To whom is this poem directed? Provide evidence for your answer. [2]
4. Analyse the repetition in line 4. [3]
5. Discuss the central theme expressed in the rhyming couplet. [3]




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, 2. ‘Love’s Farewell’ by Michael Drayton (1563-1631)




Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part, —
Nay I have done, you get no more of me;
And I am glad, yea, glad with all my heart,
That thus so cleanly I myself can free;


Shake hands for ever, cancel all out vows, 5
And when we meet at any time again,
Be it not seen in either of our brows
That we one jot of former love retain.


Now at the last gasp of love’s latest breath,
When, his pulse failing, passion speechless lies, 10
When faith is kneeling by his bed of death,
And innocence is closing up his eyes,


— Now if thou would’st, when all have given him over,
From death to life thou might’st him yet recover!



Questions:

1. Suggest why the speaker is “glad with all my heart”. Substantiate with
reference to the first stanza. [2]
2. Discuss the use of personification in the third quatrain. [2]
3. To who (or what) does “him” in the penultimate line refer? [1]
4. Account for the dashes. [2]
5. Summarise the central theme of this sonnet. [3]




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, 3. ‘To Althea, from Prison’ by Richard Lovelace (1618-1658)

When Love with unconfinèd wings
Hovers within my gates,
And my divine Althea brings
To whisper at the grates;
When I lie tangled in her hair, 5
And fetter’d to her eye,
The Gods that wanton in the air
Know no such liberty.

When flowing cups run swiftly round
With no allaying Thames, 10
Our careless heads with roses crown’d,
Our hearts with loyal flames;
When thirsty grief in wine we steep,
When healths and draughts go free,
Fishes that tipple in the deep 15
Know no such liberty.

When, like committed linnets, I
With shriller throat shall sing
The sweetness, mercy, majesty,
And glories of my King; 20
When I shall voice aloud how good
He is, how great should be,
Enlargèd winds, that curl the flood,
Know no such liberty.

Stone walls do not a prison make, 25
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an Hermitage:
If I have freedom in my love
And in my soul am free, 30
Angels alone, that soar above,
Enjoy such liberty.


Note: Lovelace wrote this poem while imprisoned in London for expressing his religious and political
views in 1641; he sided with King Charles I and not the views of parliament. Althea’s identity is
unknown.

Questions:

1. Analyse the form of this poem. [3]
2. Provide an example of alliteration from the poem. [1]
3. Provide an example of anaphora from the poem. [1]
4. Provide an example of metaphor from the poem. [1]
5. Substantiate the following assertion: the poem rests on the idea of paradox: the
imprisoned speaker is a free man. [4]

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