AQA Power and Conflict

Power in Power and Conflict16 key quotes across the anthology.

How poets present human power, authority and the arrogance of those who wield it — and how that power inevitably decays.

All Power Quotes

“Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Ozymandias — Percy Bysshe Shelley
PowerPride

Context: The inscription on the pedestal of the ruined statue, spoken in the voice of the long-dead king Ozymandias.

Analysis

The imperative "Look" and the boastful command reveal Ozymandias's arrogance and belief in his own permanence. The dramatic irony is devastating: the "Works" he commanded others to fear are now nothing but "colossal wreck". Shelley uses the line to argue that human power is transient and that hubris is ultimately humbled by time.

Language Techniques:

ImperativeDramatic ironyDirect address

Exam Tip

A perfect quote for the transience of human power. Contrast with "boundless and bare" desert that outlasts him. Link to Shelley's radical politics and distrust of tyrants.

“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert”
Ozymandias — Percy Bysshe Shelley
PowerPower of Nature

Context: The traveller describes the shattered remains of the statue.

Analysis

The fragmented, "trunkless" statue is a visual symbol of decayed power — the body politic literally broken apart. The vastness of the legs only emphasises the absence of the rest, mocking the scale of his former ambition. Nature (the desert) has reclaimed the monument, showing it outlasts human empire.

Language Techniques:

SymbolismCaesuraImagery of decay

Exam Tip

Use to discuss how nature triumphs over human power. The broken statue mirrors the broken sonnet form (it bends the rules of the sonnet).

“The lone and level sands stretch far away”
Ozymandias — Percy Bysshe Shelley
Power of NaturePower

Context: The final line of the poem, describing the empty desert around the ruin.

Analysis

The sibilance of "lone and level sands stretch" mimics the shifting, endless sand that has swallowed the king's legacy. The flat, monotonous landscape is indifferent to human achievement. Ending on this image leaves the reader with emptiness, reinforcing that nothing of Ozymandias remains.

Language Techniques:

SibilanceAnticlimaxCaesura

Exam Tip

Strong closing quote for an essay on impermanence. Compare the eternal "sands" to the temporary "King of Kings".

“In every cry of every Man, in every Infant's cry of fear, in every voice, in every ban, the mind-forg'd manacles I hear”
London — William Blake
PowerAnger and Protest

Context: The speaker walks the streets of London and hears the suffering of its people.

Analysis

The repetition of "every" emphasises that suffering is universal and inescapable in the city. "Mind-forg'd manacles" is the central image: the chains are mental, created by oppressive institutions and the people's own acceptance of them. Blake attacks the way the powerful psychologically imprison the poor.

Language Techniques:

AnaphoraMetaphorAuditory imagery

Exam Tip

Key quote for power of the powerful over the powerless. "Mind-forg'd manacles" suggests oppression is internalised. Link to Blake's anger at the monarchy and Church.

“I wander thro' each charter'd street, near where the charter'd Thames does flow”
London — William Blake
PowerAnger and Protest

Context: The opening lines establish the oppressive, owned cityscape.

Analysis

The repetition of "charter'd" suggests everything — even the natural River Thames — is owned and controlled by the powerful. That a flowing river can be "charter'd" shows how total this control is. "Wander" implies aimlessness and entrapment within the mapped, commercialised streets.

Language Techniques:

RepetitionSymbolismFirst person

Exam Tip

Use for the theme of control and ownership. Contrast the unstoppable nature of a river with its being "charter'd" — even nature is commodified.

“How the youthful Harlot's curse blasts the new-born Infant's tear, and blights with plagues the Marriage hearse”
London — William Blake
Anger and ProtestPower

Context: The final stanza presents the bleakest image of the city's moral and physical decay.

Analysis

The oxymoron "Marriage hearse" fuses life (marriage) and death (hearse), suggesting that even union brings disease and ruin. "Blasts" and "blights" convey the destructive spread of sexually transmitted disease across generations. Blake ends on hopelessness, indicting a society that exploits the vulnerable.

Language Techniques:

OxymoronViolent verbsCyclical imagery

Exam Tip

Powerful closing quote. The "Marriage hearse" oxymoron is exam gold for showing how Blake corrupts ideas of love and life.

“That's my last Duchess painted on the wall, looking as if she were alive”
My Last Duchess — Robert Browning
PowerControl

Context: The Duke shows an emissary a portrait of his late wife.

Analysis

The possessive "my" and the noun "Duchess" reduce the woman to an object the Duke owns, like the painting itself. "Last" hints chillingly at a succession of wives. That she only seems "alive" in art reveals he prefers her controllable image to the living woman.

Language Techniques:

Dramatic monologuePossessive pronounSinister ambiguity

Exam Tip

Key quote for male power and control over women. The Duke commodifies his wife. Link to Renaissance patriarchy.

“I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together”
My Last Duchess — Robert Browning
PowerControl

Context: The Duke implies how he dealt with his wife's "too easily impressed" nature.

Analysis

The euphemism "gave commands" chillingly conceals that the Duke likely had his wife killed. The caesura and finality of "stopped together" enact the abruptness of her death. His casual tone reveals a terrifying belief that his power extends to life and death.

Language Techniques:

EuphemismCaesuraAmbiguity

Exam Tip

The most chilling line in the poem — the implied murder. Use for the abuse of aristocratic power. Note how calmly he confesses.

“as if she ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name with anybody's gift”
My Last Duchess — Robert Browning
PowerPride

Context: The Duke complains that his wife failed to value his ancient family title above all else.

Analysis

The Duke's obsession with his "nine-hundred-years-old name" exposes his pride and snobbery — he is offended that his wife treated his status as ordinary. His need to be ranked above "anybody" reveals deep insecurity beneath his power. Browning satirises aristocratic vanity.

Language Techniques:

HyperboleTone of indignation

Exam Tip

Use to show the Duke's pride and jealousy. His power is bound up with status and ego.

“Cannon to right of them, cannon to left of them, cannon in front of them volley'd and thunder'd”
The Charge of the Light Brigade — Alfred Lord Tennyson
Reality of WarPower

Context: The soldiers are surrounded by enemy artillery as they charge.

Analysis

The anaphora of "Cannon to... of them" surrounds the soldiers with danger on every side, mirroring their entrapment. The onomatopoeia "thunder'd" conveys the overwhelming, godlike power of the weaponry. Tennyson emphasises both the chaos and the soldiers' vulnerability against industrial firepower.

Language Techniques:

AnaphoraOnomatopoeiaListing

Exam Tip

Use for the overwhelming reality of war. The repeated "cannon" makes the reader feel the soldiers' encirclement.

“We are prepared: we build our houses squat, sink walls in rock and roof them with good slate”
Storm on the Island — Seamus Heaney
Power of NaturePower

Context: The opening lines describe the islanders' defensive preparations against storms.

Analysis

The confident declarative "We are prepared" and the solid, monosyllabic "squat", "rock", "slate" suggest human resilience and control. The collective "We" builds a sense of community defiance against nature. Yet this early confidence is gradually undermined as the storm reveals human powerlessness.

Language Techniques:

DeclarativeMonosyllablesCollective pronoun

Exam Tip

Use to show initial human confidence that nature later destroys. Some note the opening letters of "Storm on the" — a possible nod to Stormont/Northern Ireland conflict.

“Paper that lets the light shine through, this is what could alter things”
Tissue — Imtiaz Dharker
PowerPower of Nature

Context: The opening lines introduce the central metaphor of paper as a fragile, transformative force.

Analysis

Dharker presents fragile "paper" as paradoxically powerful — that which "lets the light shine through" can "alter things". Light symbolises knowledge, truth or the divine, suggesting power lies in openness and impermanence, not in solid monuments. The tentative "could" frames this as possibility, an alternative to controlling power.

Language Techniques:

Central metaphorSymbolism of lightModal verb

Exam Tip

Use for an unusual take on power — fragility and transparency as strength. Contrast with the brittle "monuments" of human power that fall.

“The sun shines through their borderlines”
Tissue — Imtiaz Dharker
PowerIdentity

Context: The speaker considers maps and the human-drawn borders printed on paper.

Analysis

The sun shining "through" the "borderlines" suggests that nature's power transcends the artificial divisions humans impose to claim land and control. Dharker critiques how maps and borders — mere marks on fragile paper — cause real conflict. Natural light renders these divisions insignificant.

Language Techniques:

SymbolismEnjambmentPolitical undertone

Exam Tip

Use for power, control and the artificiality of human-made divisions. Strong link to conflict over land and borders.

“It may be sick with tyrants, but I am branded by an impression of sunlight”
The Emigrée — Carol Rumens
PowerIdentity

Context: The speaker acknowledges her homeland may now be oppressed, yet her memory stays positive.

Analysis

The concessive "It may be sick with tyrants" admits the country's political oppression, but "branded by... sunlight" shows her identity is permanently marked by positive memory. "Branded" suggests something painful yet indelible — her belonging cannot be erased. Rumens contrasts oppressive political power with the personal power of memory.

Language Techniques:

ConcessionMetaphorJuxtaposition

Exam Tip

Use for the conflict between political tyranny and personal memory. "Branded" is ambiguous — pride and pain together.

“Toussaint a slave with vision, lick back Napoleon battalion”
Checking Out Me History — John Agard
IdentityPower

Context: The speaker celebrates Toussaint L'Ouverture, a leader of the Haitian Revolution, in an italicised stanza.

Analysis

Agard reclaims hidden Black history by celebrating Toussaint as a visionary who defeated Napoleon's forces. The colloquial "lick back" energises the achievement with pride and defiance. The italicised, lyrical form of these stanzas separates true heroes from the dismissive British curriculum.

Language Techniques:

AllusionColloquialismStructural contrast

Exam Tip

Use for reclaiming suppressed identity and history. Note how the form changes for Black heroes versus British myths.

“But now I checking out me own history, I carving out me identity”
Checking Out Me History — John Agard
IdentityPower

Context: The defiant final couplet, where the speaker takes control of his own story.

Analysis

The shift to "now I" marks the speaker's empowerment — he actively reclaims agency over his identity. The verb "carving" suggests deliberate, effortful self-creation, like sculpting. The rhyme of "history"/"identity" binds the two: knowing his true history is essential to knowing himself.

Language Techniques:

Active verbsRhyming coupletTone shift

Exam Tip

A powerful closing quote about empowerment and self-definition. "Carving" implies identity is something actively made, not given.

Explore More Power and Conflict Themes

Browse quotes by theme across all 15 poems, or view the full anthology.

Power of NatureReality of WarLoss and MemoryIdentityPatriotismGuiltAnger and Protest
All Power and Conflict QuotesPractice with English Genie