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READING POETRY

“After Blenheim” (1796)

by Robert Southey
non -

sophisticated language
It was a summer evening,
Old Kaspar's work was done, -

And he before his cottage door

Was sitting in the sun, -

And by him sported on the green 5

=
His little grandchild Wilhelmine.

She saw her brother Peterkin

Roll something large and round, -

bow 'wYñwoÑn
Which he beside the rivulet -

In playing there had found; -

inverted syntax 10
He came to ask what he=
had found,
That was so large, and smooth, and round. -

Old Kaspar took it from the boy,

Who stood expectant by;
And then the old man shook his head, 15
And, with a natural sigh,
it is

"'Tis some poor fellow's skull," said he,

die

"Who fell in the great victory.

"I find them in the garden,

For there's many here about; 20
And often when I go to ±
plough,
The ploughshare turns them out!
For many thousand men," said he,
"Were ""
slain in that great victory."

it was

"Now tell us what 'twas all about," 25

Young Peterkin, he cries;
And little Wilhelmine looks up
With wonder-waiting eyes;
"Now tell us all about the war,
 page 2

And what they fought each other for." 30

"It was the English," Kaspar cried,

defeat
"Who put the French to rout; -
The war of the

Spanish succession
But what they fought each other for,
↳ The Battle
I could not well make out; Of Blenheim (77-04)

But everybody said," quoth he, 35

"That 'twas a famous victory.

"My father lived at Blenheim then,

rinks ñrninyyondernioometowossrths
Yon little stream hard by;
,

They burnt his dwelling to the ground,

And he was forced to fly; 40
So with his wife and child he fled,
Nor had he where to rest his head.

"With fire and sword the country round

Was wasted far and wide,
pregnant
And many a childing mother then, 45
And new-born baby died;
But things like that, you know, must be
At every famous victory.

"They say it was a shocking sight

After the field was won; 50
For many thousand bodies here
Lay rotting in the sun;
But things like that, you know, must be
After a famous victory.

"Great praise the Duke of Marlbro' won, 55

And our good Prince Eugene."
"Why, 'twas a very wicked thing!"
Said little Wilhelmine.
"Nay... nay... my little girl," quoth he,
"It was a famous victory. 60
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"And everybody praised the Duke

Who this great fight did win."
"But what good came of it at last?"
Quoth little Peterkin.
"Why that I cannot tell," said he, 65
"But 'twas a famous victory."
bear the brunt amidof wandone was war

are noted to twoorwo

“War Photographer” (1985)

by Carol Ann Duffy
Poet Laurente

In his dark room he is finally alone

a Ez
with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows.
-

The only light is red and softly glows,

as though this were a church and he pries of one
+y
war photographer
=

0188WNSANG
ward a Mass. usmsrv church
=

a priest preparing to intone FFONYSWig 5

The Troubles capital city of Lebanon allusion to Bible

Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.

port and capital Capital city of Cambodia
city of north Ireland

wiec, biowale unor

He has a job to do. Solutions slop in trays
- - -

beneath his hands, which did not tremble then

agricultural
though seem to now. Rural England. Home again . . .

to ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel, 10

to fields which don’t explode beneath the feet
of running children in a nightmare heat.

Something is happening. A stranger’s features

vaguely
faintly start to twist before his eyes,
-

a half-formed ghost. He remembers the cries 15

seek (V2, v3)
of this man’s wife, how he sought approval
without words to do what someone must
and how the blood for
stained into foreign dust.
too
eu It world people evide
A hundred agonies in black and white valdo
&

was orin cross

from which his editor will pick out five or six worosudrinowperwiw. 20
for Sunday’s supplement. The reader’s eyeballs prick
with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers.
etwrig at where
airplane (BE)
From the aeroplane he stares impassively
-

he earns his living and they do not care.

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arowooworry
in
on looker

“Giuseppe” (2005)
by Roderick Ford white men's burden

My Uncle Giuseppe told me

that in region
o
Sicily in World War Two,
in the courtyard behind the aquarium,

arrator
exotic
where the bougainvillea grows so well,
women, decolony
ever

the only captive mermaid in the world

. . . .
5
was butchered on the dry and dusty ground
eleorie too

by a doctor, a fishmonger, and certain others.

- -

She, it, had never learned to speak

because she was simple, or so they’d said,
but the priest who held one of her hands 10
while her throat was cut,
said she was only a fish, and fish can’t speak.
But she screamed like a woman in terrible fear.

And when they took a ture

ripe golden bride
roe
from her side, the doctor said 15
this was proof she was just a fish
and anyway an egg is not a child,
but refused when some was offered to him.

Then they put her head and her hands

in a box for Ira
burial 20
and someone tried to take her wedding ring,
but the others stopped him,
and the ring stayed put.

rosne18
The rest they cooked and fed to the troops. -

They said a large fish had been found on the beach. 25

Starvation forgives men many things,

my uncle, the aquarium keeper, said,
but couldn’t look me in the eye,
for which I thank God.
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“Waiting for the Barbarians” (1904)

by Constantine P. Cavafy (translated by Edmund Keeley)

MAIN
What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?

÷
Norodom
onions nhinwmnjan.ir
The barbarians are due here today.
-
rainbow

Why isn’t anything going on in the senate?

Why are the senators sitting there without legislating?

Because the barbarians are coming today. 5

What’s the point of senators making laws now?
Once the barbarians are here, they’ll do the legislating.

Why did our emperor get up so early,

rnÑooh8ÑwÑÑ
and why is he sitting enthroned at the city’s main gate,
-

in state, wearing the crown? 10

Because the barbarians are coming today

and the emperor’s waiting to receive their leader.
He’s even got a scroll to give him,
8%1,0%7018
loaded with titles, with imposing names.
-

+099g

Éi÷
Why have our two consuls and praetors come out today
wearing their embroidered, their scarlet togas?
15

Why have they put on bracelets with so many amethysts,

rings sparkling with magnificent emeralds?
"
Why are they carrying elegant canes
beautifully worked in silver and gold? 20

Because the barbarians are coming today

and things like that dazzle the barbarians.

ñ turn up as usual
Why don’t our distinguished orators
to make their speeches, say what they have to say?
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Because the barbarians are coming today 25

·indoor
and they’re bored by rhetoric and public speaking.
- -

orator speaks oratory

mystification
Why this sudden bewilderment, this confusion?
- -

(How serious people’s faces have become.)

Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly,
everyone going home lost in thought? 30

Because night has fallen and the barbarians haven't come.

And some of our men just in from the border say
there are no barbarians any longer.

symbolize threat nations

Now what’s going to happen to us without barbarians? - - -

of arts take threat of justify

Those people were a kind of solution. corruption, inaction etc. Vasof 35
propaganda whowator's

figures of speech

personification addiodig
simile oddewindow like, as

metaphor survey
allusion an indirect reference

type of rhymes
ull/perfect rhyme
↑

half imperfect rhyme

pararhyme oafswatorowonizunatown sail seal

internalrhyme ofharder
eye rhyme wsod
masculine rhyme confess/redress

Feminine rhyme crazy/I9zY