Power and Conflict — Key Poems Overview
<h3>The AQA Power and Conflict Cluster — 15 poems</h3>
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<tr style="background:#f0f9f4"><th style="padding:8px;border:1px solid #ddd">Poem</th><th style="padding:8px;border:1px solid #ddd">Central idea</th></tr>
<tr><td style="padding:8px;border:1px solid #ddd"><strong>Ozymandias</strong> (Shelley)</td><td style="padding:8px;border:1px solid #ddd">Political power is temporary; nature outlasts human pride</td></tr>
<tr><td style="padding:8px;border:1px solid #ddd"><strong>London</strong> (Blake)</td><td style="padding:8px;border:1px solid #ddd">Social/political oppression; suffering caused by institutions</td></tr>
<tr><td style="padding:8px;border:1px solid #ddd"><strong>The Prelude</strong> (Wordsworth)</td><td style="padding:8px;border:1px solid #ddd">Nature's power to shape and intimidate; the sublime</td></tr>
<tr><td style="padding:8px;border:1px solid #ddd"><strong>My Last Duchess</strong> (Browning)</td><td style="padding:8px;border:1px solid #ddd">Male power; control over women; jealousy</td></tr>
<tr><td style="padding:8px;border:1px solid #ddd"><strong>Exposure</strong> (Owen)</td><td style="padding:8px;border:1px solid #ddd">WW1: nature as the real enemy; futility and numbness</td></tr>
<tr><td style="padding:8px;border:1px solid #ddd"><strong>Bayonet Charge</strong> (Hughes)</td><td style="padding:8px;border:1px solid #ddd">WW1: a soldier reduced to pure instinct; ideals stripped away</td></tr>
<tr><td style="padding:8px;border:1px solid #ddd"><strong>Remains</strong> (Armitage)</td><td style="padding:8px;border:1px solid #ddd">PTSD; the lasting trauma of conflict; guilt</td></tr>
<tr><td style="padding:8px;border:1px solid #ddd"><strong>Poppies</strong> (Weir)</td><td style="padding:8px;border:1px solid #ddd">War's effect on families; a mother's grief</td></tr>
<tr><td style="padding:8px;border:1px solid #ddd"><strong>War Photographer</strong> (Duffy)</td><td style="padding:8px;border:1px solid #ddd">Distance between war and civilian life; moral responsibility</td></tr>
<tr><td style="padding:8px;border:1px solid #ddd"><strong>Checking Out Me History</strong> (Agard)</td><td style="padding:8px;border:1px solid #ddd">Colonialism; reclaiming cultural identity</td></tr>
<tr><td style="padding:8px;border:1px solid #ddd"><strong>Kamikaze</strong> (Garland)</td><td style="padding:8px;border:1px solid #ddd">Duty vs survival; consequences of defying expectation</td></tr>
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