AQA Power and Conflict

Power of Nature in Power and Conflict14 key quotes across the anthology.

How nature is shown to be overwhelming, sublime and ultimately more powerful than humanity.

All Power of Nature Quotes

“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".

“a huge peak, black and huge, as if with voluntary power instinct, upreared its head”
Extract from The Prelude — William Wordsworth
Power of NatureGuilt

Context: The young speaker, rowing a stolen boat, is suddenly confronted by a looming mountain.

Analysis

The repetition of "huge" conveys the overwhelming, sublime scale of nature that dwarfs the boy. Personifying the peak with "voluntary power" makes nature a conscious, almost vengeful force responding to his theft. This marks the turning point where childish confidence collapses into fear and awe.

Language Techniques:

PersonificationRepetitionThe sublime

Exam Tip

Central quote for the power of nature overwhelming humanity. Note the volta — nature seems to punish his "act of stealth".

“It was an act of stealth and troubled pleasure”
Extract from The Prelude — William Wordsworth
GuiltPower of Nature

Context: The speaker describes taking the boat without permission.

Analysis

The oxymoron "troubled pleasure" captures the boy's mixed thrill and guilt at his transgression against nature. "Stealth" frames his rowing as a crime, foreshadowing the punishment the mountain seems to deliver. Wordsworth presents nature as a moral teacher.

Language Techniques:

OxymoronForeshadowing

Exam Tip

Use to show the moral dimension of the speaker's relationship with nature — guilt precedes the sublime encounter.

“my brain worked with a dim and undetermined sense of unknown modes of being”
Extract from The Prelude — William Wordsworth
Power of NatureMemory

Context: After the encounter, the speaker is left haunted and changed.

Analysis

The vague, abstract diction ("dim", "undetermined", "unknown") reflects how the experience has unsettled the boy's entire understanding of the world. Nature's power lingers in his mind long after, suggesting its lasting psychological impact. The sublime humbles human reason itself.

Language Techniques:

Abstract noun phrasesEnjambment

Exam Tip

Good for the lasting effect of nature on the human mind. Compare to the lingering trauma in "Remains".

“Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knive us”
Exposure — Wilfred Owen
Power of NatureReality of War

Context: The opening line describes soldiers suffering in the freezing trenches of WWI.

Analysis

Owen presents the weather, not the enemy, as the true threat — the "merciless" winds are personified as a violent attacker that "knive us". The collective "Our brains ache" creates shared, bodily suffering. The poem subverts war poetry: the soldiers' enemy is nature and inaction, not glory.

Language Techniques:

PersonificationSibilanceCollective pronoun

Exam Tip

Key quote for nature as the enemy. Compare the deadly weather to the human enemy that never appears. Link to Owen's anti-war stance.

“Tonight, this frost will fasten on this mud and us, shrivelling many hands, puckering foreheads crisp”
Exposure — Wilfred Owen
Power of NatureReality of War

Context: Near the end, the speaker imagines soldiers freezing to death overnight.

Analysis

The frost "fastening" on the men dehumanises them, equating their bodies with the "mud" — they are reduced to part of the landscape. The grotesque verbs "shrivelling" and "puckering" show nature physically destroying the human body. War here kills slowly and without honour.

Language Techniques:

Visceral imageryPersonificationListing

Exam Tip

Use for the merciless power of nature and the loss of dignity in death. The men become indistinguishable from the mud.

“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.

“spits like a tame cat turned savage”
Storm on the Island — Seamus Heaney
Power of Nature

Context: The sea, normally calm, becomes violent during the storm.

Analysis

The simile of a "tame cat turned savage" shows how nature can betray and turn on humanity without warning. The verb "spits" personifies the sea as aggressive and contemptuous. Heaney conveys how something familiar and domestic becomes suddenly threatening — like conflict erupting in a peaceful community.

Language Techniques:

SimilePersonificationVolta

Exam Tip

Great for nature's unpredictability and hidden violence. The domestic image makes the threat feel personal and close to home.

“Strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear”
Storm on the Island — Seamus Heaney
Power of NatureFear

Context: The final line reflects on the nature of the islanders' fear.

Analysis

The paradox "huge nothing" captures how the wind is invisible and intangible yet utterly terrifying — fear of the unseen is the greatest fear. Ending on "fear" leaves the reader with the islanders' vulnerability, undercutting the poem's confident opening. Nature's power lies partly in its formlessness.

Language Techniques:

OxymoronCaesuraCyclical structure

Exam Tip

Powerful closing quote. The "huge nothing" oxymoron is exam gold for the abstract, psychological power of nature.

“a yellow hare that rolled like a flame and crawled in a threshing circle”
Bayonet Charge — Ted Hughes
Reality of WarPower of Nature

Context: The soldier sees a terrified, wounded hare during the charge.

Analysis

The injured hare is a symbol of innocent nature destroyed by human conflict — its agony mirrors the soldier's own terror. The simile "like a flame" and the violent "threshing" convey uncontrolled suffering. Hughes uses the natural world as collateral damage to expose the unnaturalness of war.

Language Techniques:

SymbolismSimileDynamic verbs

Exam Tip

Use for war's impact on the innocent and on nature. The hare's suffering reflects the soldier's loss of humanity.

“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.

“turned into your skin”
Tissue — Imtiaz Dharker
Power of NatureIdentity

Context: The final lines connect paper to human life and the body ("tissue" as living tissue).

Analysis

The pun on "tissue" — paper and living human tissue — fuses the fragile material with the human body, suggesting life itself is delicate and transient. Ending on "your skin" makes the message personal and universal: human beings, like paper, are fragile and impermanent. True power lies in this shared vulnerability.

Language Techniques:

PunDirect addressVolta

Exam Tip

Use for the link between fragility and humanity. The "tissue" pun is exam gold — paper and flesh are equally delicate.

“the loose silver of whitebait and once a tuna, the dark prince, muscular, dangerous”
Kamikaze — Beatrice Garland
Power of NatureLoss and Memory

Context: The pilot, flying over the sea, remembers his childhood and the natural world below.

Analysis

The vivid, sensory beauty of the sea and the "dark prince" tuna represents the pull of life, family and nature that makes the pilot turn back. The natural imagery contrasts with the deathly mission, reminding him of what living is worth. Garland suggests nature and memory are more powerful than militaristic duty.

Language Techniques:

Sensory imageryMetaphorFlashback

Exam Tip

Use for the conflict between the beauty of life/nature and the call of duty. These memories are why he abandons the mission.

Explore More Power and Conflict Themes

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

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