The Power and Conflict cluster is one of two AQA anthology clusters. Students study all 15 poems and answer a comparison question: one named poem (printed) compared with another freely chosen from the cluster. The exam tests how poets use methods (form, language, structure) to convey ideas/perspectives about power and conflict.
The 15 poems (period order)
- Ozymandias (Shelley, 1818) — sonnet on hubristic empire; ironic narrator-within-narrator; iambic pentameter destabilised. Power as transient.
- London (Blake, 1794) — quatrains; chartered streets; "mind-forg'd manacles"; political indictment of state and church.
- The Prelude (extract: stealing the boat) (Wordsworth, 1850) — blank verse; sublime nature's power over the human; Romantic awe.
- My Last Duchess (Browning, 1842) — dramatic monologue; iambic pentameter rhyming couplets; the Duke's casual confession of his murderous control.
- The Charge of the Light Brigade (Tennyson, 1854) — anapaestic dimeter; refrain "into the valley of Death"; heroising the Crimean War cavalry charge.
- Exposure (Owen, 1917) — half-rhymes; "but nothing happens" refrain; Western-Front trench numbness vs heroic mythologies.
- Storm on the Island (Heaney, 1966) — blank verse; military diction ("salvo", "strafes") for natural storm; Northern Irish Troubles subtext.
- Bayonet Charge (Hughes, 1957) — present tense; "lugged a rifle" jolting verbs; instinctive battle adrenaline.
- Remains (Armitage, 2008) — soldier's monologue post-Iraq; PTSD; "blood-shadow" bleeding through.
- Poppies (Weir, 2009) — mother's eye view; commemorative poppies become physical and emotional ties.
- War Photographer (Duffy, 1985) — three quatrains; photographer's ethical and emotional dislocation.
- Tissue (Dharker, 2006) — paper as metaphor for fragility of human structures (maps, money, scriptures).
- The Emigrée (Rumens, 1993) — speaker's exile; "sunlight-clear" memory of homeland under tyranny; identity politics.
- Checking Out Me History (Agard, 2007) — Caribbean perspective on British history's erasures; codeswitching English / patois.
- Kamikaze (Garland, 2013) — daughter narrates her father's aborted suicide-mission; family disowning him after he turned back.
Comparing methods (the exam skill)
The Q26 question gives one poem and asks "Compare how poets present X in this poem and one other from the anthology". You must compare methods (form, language, structure) AND ideas/perspectives.
A four-paragraph structure works well:
- Thesis — both poems present X but with contrasting emphasis.
- Method 1 of poem 1 — link to method in poem 2 (similarity or contrast).
- Method 2 of poem 1 — link to method in poem 2.
- Final synthesis — perspective comparison.
Recurring themes across the cluster
- Political power critiques — Ozymandias, London, My Last Duchess, Tissue.
- War and its psychological cost — Exposure, Bayonet Charge, Remains, War Photographer, Poppies.
- Nature's power — Prelude (extract), Storm on the Island.
- Identity, exile and silenced histories — The Emigrée, Checking Out Me History, Kamikaze.
- Fragility — Tissue, Ozymandias.
Useful pairings (high-yield)
- Ozymandias + My Last Duchess — both present male absolute power destabilised by form/voice.
- Exposure + Bayonet Charge — both present individual soldiers; Owen's passive endurance vs Hughes's adrenal violence.
- Remains + Poppies — soldier and mother; legacy of trauma; post-millennium war memory.
- London + Tissue — power's grip on people / fragility of paper structures.
- Checking Out Me History + The Emigrée — identity, voice and political memory.
Form, structure, language patterns
- Sonnets — Ozymandias (Italianate variation; 14 lines, irregular rhyme).
- Dramatic monologue — My Last Duchess (rhymed pentameter couplets), Remains (free verse with conversational diction).
- Blank verse — The Prelude, Storm on the Island.
- Quatrains — London ABAB, War Photographer.
- Free verse with refrains — Exposure ("but nothing happens"), Tissue.
Context (AO3)
- Romantic period (Shelley, Blake, Wordsworth) — political revolution, sublime nature, opposition to tyranny.
- Victorian (Browning, Tennyson) — empire, colonial wars, moral hypocrisy of power.
- WWI (Owen) — trench warfare; pity vs heroising; Owen's "the poetry is in the pity".
- WWII–post-war (Hughes, Heaney) — collective trauma; nature's violence as displaced violence of state.
- 21st-century war (Armitage Remains on Iraq; Weir Poppies on Afghanistan-era commemoration) — PTSD, civilian grief.
- Postcolonial / migration (Dharker, Agard, Rumens, Garland) — diasporic identity, silenced histories.
⚠Common mistakes— Common errors
- Listing methods in each poem in turn without genuinely comparing.
- Forgetting context (often the most marks-rich AO).
- Treating "perspective" and "method" as separable — they're tested together.
AI-generated · claude-opus-4-7 · v3-deep-english-literature