Poems that focus on vengeance often explore themes of revenge, retribution, and justice. They can depict characters driven by a deep desire to right a wrong or avenge an injustice, sometimes crossing moral boundaries in their pursuit of retribution.
‘Revenge’ explores scorn, desire for retribution, and cruel satisfaction emerging from unrequited love and betrayal.
Ay, gaze upon her rose-wreathed hair,
And gaze upon her smile;
Seem as you drank the very air
Her breath perfumed the while:
‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’ is a scathing critique of the penal system and an exploration of complex human emotions.
He did not wear his scarlet coat,
For blood and wine are red,
And blood and wine were on his hands
When they found him with the dead,
‘A Poison Tree’ presents the consequences of harboring anger, which becomes a poisonous tree wreaking devastation.
I was angry with my friend;
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
‘My Last Duchess’ by Robert Browning is a well-known dramatic monologue. It suggests that the speaker has killed his wife and will soon do the same to the next.
That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf’s hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
‘Thistles’ by Ted Hughes is a visceral poem that likens one of nature’s more persistent plants to human conquests throughout history.
Against the rubber tongues of cows and the hoeing hands of men
Thistles spike the summer air
And crackle open under a blue-black pressure.
‘As it Should Be’ is a powerful and telling satirical take on the violence that plagued Northern Ireland for decades.
We hunted the mad bastard
Through bog, moorland, rock, to the star-lit west
And gunned him down in a blind yard
Between ten sleeping lorries
And an electricity generator.
‘Liable to Floods’ exposes the deadly cost of ignoring wisdom, as a major’s hubris dooms his men to floodwaters’ wrath.
'Liable to floods' the farmer warned them.
And on the map, the letters arcing down the valley
in black and white
but still the major wouldn't listen –
‘Cahoots’ by Carl Sandburg delves into the dark underbelly of a corrupt city, exposing the collusion and exploitation that thrive within its power structures.
Play it across the table.
What if we steal this city blind?
If they want any thing let 'em nail it down.
Harness bulls, dicks, front office men,
‘Helen’ by H.D. tells of the complete and total hatred that the Greek people feel for Helen of Troy after she causes the Trojan war.
All Greece hates
the still eyes in the white face,
the lustre as of olives
where she stands,
The speaker contemplates killing a queen wasp to avoid the swarms of offspring she will inevitably bring the next summer.
In burning sulphur in their dug-out hangars
All bred wasps must die. Unless I kill her.
So I balanced assassination with genocide
Thomas Hardy wrote poems such as ‘The Man He Killed’ as a way to express his feelings about the Boer wars which were going on during his time.
"Had he and I but met
By some old ancient inn,
We should have sat us down to wet
Right many a nipperkin!
‘Porphyria’s Lover,’ opens up with a classic setting of a stormy evening. It is a story of a deranged and lovesick man.
The rain set early in to-night,
The sullen wind was soon awake,
It tore the elm-tops down for spite,
And did its worst to vex the lake:
Walter Scott’s ‘Marmion and Douglas’ is an extract from “Marmion” that focuses on the insightful conversation between Douglas and Marmion.
My castles are my King’s alone,
From turret to foundation-stone—
The hand of Douglas is his own;
And never shall in friendly grasp
The hand of such as Marmion clasp.’—
‘The Convergence of the Twain’ meditates on the Titanic’s collision with an iceberg, portraying human pride against nature’s menace.
In a solitude of the sea
Deep from human vanity,
And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she.
Stephen Spender’s poem ‘Air Raid’ depicts the impact of the Blitz or German Luftwaffe air strike on the United Kingdom.
In this room like a bowl of flowers filled with light
Family eyes look down on the white ceiling
Pages of a book, and the white ceiling
Like starch of a nurse, reflects a calm feeling.
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