IGCSE World Literature 2022 Poetry Anthology Poet/Poem/Date
Context
Themes
Charles Lamb The Old Familiar Faces 1798
English. mortality He lived through a family tragedy in which his sister Mary passage of time murdered their mother. nostalgia
tercets free verse elegy
John Clare First Love 1820
English. love He was married but had always loved another woman who loss of innocence was above him in the social hierarchy.
octaves iambic tetrameter / trimeter ababcdcd rhyme scheme
Percy Bysshe Shelley A Song: “Men of England” 1839
English. This poem was written in response to the ‘Peterloo Massacre’ in Manchester. Written at a time of growing conflict between the upper class and the working class.
quatrains trochaic / iambic tetrameter
Matthew Arnold Dover Beach 1867
English. faith Written at a time of rising loss of faith in religion and a rise in interest in the sciences within Victorian society.
free verse irregular iambic pattern pathetic fallacy
Walter De La Mare The Listeners 1912
English. Best known for his ghost stories.
the unknown imagination
abcb rhyme scheme anapestic meter
Thomas Hardy The Voice 1913
English. Hardy’s first wife had recently died when he wrote the poem.
loss love
quatrains irregular dactylic tetrameter / trimeter abab cdcd efef ghgh elegy
social justice class work
Style