IGCSE English Literature for examination - 2024

Poetry Revision Booklet

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 Table of Contents
Words to Show You Understand Form and Meter

Words to Show You Understand Structure

Words to Show You Understand Language

The City Planners

The Planners

The Man with Night Sweats

Night Sweat

Rain

He Never Expected Much

The Telephone Call

A Consumer’s Report

Request To A Year

On Finding a Small Fly Crushed in a Book

Ozymandias

Away, Melancholy

The Spirit Is Too Blunt an Instrument

From Long Distance

Funeral Blues

Appendix One: How to Approach a Poem

Appendix Two: Poetry Mat

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 Words to Show You Understand Form and Meter
Elegy - a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead.
Villanelle – a pastoral or lyrical poem of nineteen lines, with only two rhymes throughout, and some lines
repeated.
Free verse – a poem that does not rhyme or have a regular rhythm.
Epigraph – a short quotation at the beginning of a book, chapter or poem, intended to suggest its theme
Praise Song – one of the most widely used poetic forms in Africa; a series of laudatory epithets applied to
gods, men, animals, plants, and towns that capture the essence of the object being praised.
Petrarchan sonnet – has two quatrains, or four lines each, and a sestet. Petrarchan sonnets are always 14
lines total, and they are written in iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme is typically abba abba cdecde. The
rhyme scheme for the sestet can vary, including cdd cee, cdcdcd and cdd cdd
Shakespearean sonnet – has the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, forming three quatrains and a
closing couplet. The problem is usually developed in the first three quatrains, each quatrain with a new idea
growing out of the previous one. Sometimes the first two quatrains are devoted to the same thought,
resembling the octave of the Petrarchan sonnet, and followed by a similar volta. Most strikingly unlike the
Petrarchan version, the Shakespearean sonnet is brought to a punchy resolution in the epigrammatic /clever
final couplet
Iambic Pentameter – a line of verse with five metrical feet, each consisting of one short (or
unstressed) syllable followed by one long (or stressed) syllable, for example Two households,
both alike in dignity.

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 Words to Show You Understand Structure
Anaphora - the repetition of a word or words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines to
create a sonic effect
Couplet - A pair of successive rhyming lines, usually of the same length
End-stopped - a metrical line ending at a grammatical boundary or break—such as a dash or closing
parenthesis—or with punctuation such as a colon, a semicolon, or a period
Octave – an eight-line stanza or poem
Quatrain - a four-line stanza, rhyming
Rhyme - the repetition of syllables, typically at the end of a verse line
Rhythm - an audible pattern in verse established by the intervals between stressed syllables.
Stanza – a group of lines forming the basic recurring metrical unit in a poem; a verse.
Caesura - stop or pause in a metrical line, often marked by punctuation or by a grammatical boundary, such as
a phrase or clause - initial, medial or terminal.
Enjambement - the practice of running lines of poetry from one to the next without using any kind of
punctuation to indicate a stop
Volta - Italian word for “turn.” In a sonnet, the volta is the turn of thought or argument: in Petrarchan or Italian
sonnets it occurs between the octave and the sestet, and in Shakespearean or English before the final couplet
Palindrome - word, phrase, or sequence that is read the same both backwards and forwards

Words to Show You Understand Language

Contrast - a rhetorical device through which writers identify differences between two subjects, places,
persons, things, ideas or images
Personification - a figure of speech in which a thing – an idea or an animal – is given human attributes
Rhetorical question - asked just for effect, or to lay emphasis on some point being discussed, when no real
answer is expected
Ambiguity - something having more than one possible meaning and therefore possibly causing confusion
Alliteration - a literary device in which a series of words begin with the same consonant sound
Assonance - takes place when two or more words, close to one another repeat the same vowel sound, but
start with different consonant sounds
Sibilance - is a special case of consonance in which the repeated consonant sound is soft s, sh, or z
Fricative - repeated sounds of ‘f’, ‘h’, ‘th’
Plosive - strong harsh beginning sounds like p, b t, d etc.
Imagery - elements of a poem that invoke any of the five senses to create a set of mental images. Specifically,
using vivid or figurative language to represent ideas, objects, or actions.
Onomatopoeia - a figure of speech in which the sound of a word imitates its sense (for example “hiss,” or
“buzz”)
Oxymoron – a figure of speech that brings together contradictory words for effect, such as “jumbo shrimp” and
“deafening silence.”
Metaphor - a figure of speech that is used to make a comparison between two things that aren't alike but do
have something in common. Unlike a simile, where two things are compared directly using like or as, a
metaphor's comparison is more indirect by stating something is something else.
Simile - a figure of speech that is used to make a comparison between two things that aren't alike but do have
something in common using like or as to compare them

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An apostrophe (to apostrophize) - a figure of speech in which the poet addresses an absent person, an
abstract idea, or a thing
Connotations - a meaning that is implied by a word apart from the thing which it describes explicitly. Words
carry cultural and emotional associations or meanings, in addition to their literal meanings or denotations.
Denotation - the dictionary definition of the word
Auditory imagery – imagery that relates to sound
Olfactory imagery – imagery pertaining to smell
Visual imagery – imagery pertaining to sight
Tactile imagery - imagery pertaining to touch
Gustatory imagery - imagery pertaining to taste
Paradox - A paradox is a statement that contradicts itself and still seems true somehow. Everyday examples
include, "Nobody goes to the restaurant because it's too crowded."
Hyperbole - a figure of speech that involves an exaggeration of ideas for the sake of emphasis
Negation - the contradiction or denial of something
Anthropomorphism - A form of personification in which human qualities are attributed to anything inhuman,
usually a god, animal, object, or concept. It is distinct from personification in that the non-humans are actually
presented as behaving as though they are human beings
Synesthesia - a technique adopted by writers to present ideas, characters, or places in such a manner that
they appeal to more than one sense, like hearing, sight, smell, and touch at a given time
Semantic field - lexical set of related or similar things (e.g. love, violence)
Catharsis - emotional release, relief from strong, repressed emotions
Juxtaposition - two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect

Return to Table of Contents

Entry Task: Good Inquiry in Poetry

Poetry Analysis - how to ask questions about a poem

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“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know

His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

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1. Take a minute to think: what is the poem about?

2. Consider the title; what does it tell you?

3. Is there a story? Are there any characters?

4. Is it a description (place/person/time/situation/object)?

5. Does it create a mood/feeling/memory?

6. Is the poem thought-provoking or an experiment with language?

7. What can you tell of the poet's opinions or feelings or reasons for writing the poem?

8. What does the poem look like on the page?

9. Regular? Irregular? Any surprises?

10. Length of lines: are there any changes? E.g. a sudden short line may indicate emphasis of idea or
change of mood/subject which can have a dramatic effect. Long continuous lines could be more
typical of a narrative or a stream of consciousness.

11. Have stanzas been divided up to fit in with the ideas of the poem?

12. Does the form reflect the meaning in any way?

13. Has punctuation/sentence structure been used for effect? E.g. how do they affect mood?

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14. Mood (atmosphere and tone)

15. Some examples: happy, joyful, enthusiastic, ominous, reflective, sad, quiet, angry, passionate,
moralistic, warning, chatty, mysterious, exciting, nostalgic, humorous, tense, bitter, sombre, ironic,
playful, sarcastic, melancholy …

16. How can you tell? Which words and phrases convey the mood?

17. Is it personal or objective?

18. Personal or subjective poetry is likely to be written in 1st person ‘I’, while objective poetry is usually in
the 3rd person ‘he/she/it’ and more formal.

19. Imagery is the way words are used to create a picture in your mind. Pick out any unusual or
interesting words, images or phrases.

20. Think about the connotations of words used. Where have you heard them before? Note the effects the
images have on you and what you picture.

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21. Which words … surprise you? … have a strong impact? … are emotive?

22. How are metaphors, similes, personification, appeals to the five senses used to create vivid
impressions?

23. Are contrasting words used?

24. Always comment on the effect of stylistic features, and don’t simply identify and list them!

25. Words and phrases: are there any that stand out? Describe how they stand out (because they are
interesting, unusual, striking, vivid, shocking or unexpected)?

26. How complex or simple is the language at different points?

27. Is a formal or informal style used? Why? If it is informal, is it colloquial?

28. Read the poem aloud to ‘hear’ the effects. Do the lines run quickly or are they slow and steady? Do
they speed up ... slow down ... why? Does the rhythm help to emphasise certain ideas in the poem?

29. Is there a regular rhyme scheme? What effect does it create? E.g. continuity / sense of order /
emphasis on key points? Are there irregularities? What effect do these create?

30. Are alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia used for effect?

31. Is repetition of certain words and phrases used to build tension or to emphasise key points?

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32. What themes does the poet deliver?

33. How powerful is the message?

34. Does the poem leave the reader with any sense of opposition or conflict?

35. Is the poem thought-provoking or an experiment with language?

36. What can you tell of the poet's opinions or feelings or reasons for writing the poem?

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Poetry Tournament Bracket
Over the course of this unit, you will take the initiative in your learning by approaching it as a process of
exploration using the below tournament bracket. Using your inquiry and analysis skills, you will explore each
poem and decide on the “superior” poem (in your opinion!) that will make it to the next round of poetry
explorations. You must complete detailed, colour-coded annotations of each poem as you progress through
this task.

Your first task will be to complete annotations on the first four poems and write a reflection that justifies your
choice of poem to make it to Round 2 (Semi-Finals) of the tournament bracket.

Your second task will be to select your preferred poem on which to write an analytical essay for Round 3
(Finals).

You will then repeat this process for the next set of four poems, and then the final set of four poems.

The unit will culminate in a final essay on your winning poem in this tournament bracket.

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Night Sweat

Rain

The Spirit Is Too Blunt

From Long

Funeral Blues

He Never Expected Winner

The Telephone Call

A Consumer’s

Request To A Year

On Finding a Small Fly

Ozymandias

Away, Melancholy

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IDEAS TECHNIQUES
The City Planners
by Margaret Atwood

Cruising these residential Sunday

streets in dry August sunlight:
what offends us is
the sanities:
the houses in pedantic rows, the planted
sanitary trees, assert
levelness of surface like a rebuke
to the dent in our car door.
No shouting here, or
shatter of glass; nothing more abrupt
than the rational whine of a power mower
cutting a straight swath in the discouraged grass.
But though the driveways neatly
sidestep hysteria
by being even, the roofs all display
the same slant of avoidance to the hot sky,
certain things:
the smell of spilled oil a faint
sickness lingering in the garages,
a splash of paint on brick surprising as a bruise,
a plastic hose poised in a vicious
coil; even the too-fixed stare of the wide windows

give momentary access to

the landscape behind or under
the future cracks in the plaster

when the houses, capsized, will slide

obliquely into the clay seas, gradual as glaciers
that right now nobody notices.

That is where the City Planners

with the insane faces of political conspirators
are scattered over unsurveyed
territories, concealed from each other,
each in his own private blizzard;

guessing directions, they sketch

transitory lines rigid as wooden borders
on a wall in the white vanishing air

tracing the panic of suburb

order in a bland madness of snows

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 Essay Question:

2 or 3 big ideas

Big idea 1

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big idea 2

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big Idea 3

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Conclusion:

Brief background to Margaret Atwood:

-

Brief summary of the ‘plot’ / what the poem is about:

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Key themes (list): Key language techniques (list): Key structural devices and how they reflect ideas:

Key ‘big’ ideas Atwood is trying to convey:

ESSAY ANALYSIS: How does Atwood convey her ideas through language and structure? Divide the poem into sections (3
part essay structure) to help organize your ideas. 600+ words

End:

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Possible Essay Questions:

SAMPLE ESSAY (OPTIONAL):

Return to Table of Contents

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IDEAS The Planners TECHNIQUES
by Boey Kim Cheng

They plan. They build. All spaces are gridded,

filled with permutations of possibilities.
The buildings are in alignment with the roads
which meet at desired points
linked by bridges all hang
in the grace of mathematics.
They build and will not stop.
Even the sea draws back
and the skies surrender.

They erase the flaws,

the blemishes of the past, knock off
useless blocks with dental dexterity.
All gaps are plugged
with gleaming gold.
The country wears perfect rows
of shining teeth.
Anaesthesia, amnesia, hypnosis.
They have the means.
They have it all so it will not hurt,
so history is new again.
The piling will not stop.
The drilling goes right through
the fossils of last century

But my heart would not bleed

poetry. Not a single drop
to stain the blueprint
of our past's tomorrow.
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 Essay Question:

2 or 3 big ideas

Big idea 1

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big idea 2

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big Idea 3

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Conclusion:

Brief background to Boey Kim Cheng:

Brief summary of the ‘plot’ / what the poem is about:

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Glossary of unfamiliar terms:

Key themes (list): Key language techniques (list): Key structural devices and how they reflect ideas:
The consequences of Plosives (Aspirated/Unaspirated) End-Stopped Lines
modernity Sibilance / Fricatives Enjambment
Oxymoron Caesura
Human progress vs Asyndeton Anaphora
nature Alliteration
Metaphor
Extended metaphor
Symbolism
Personification

Key ‘big’ ideas Cheng is trying to convey:

ESSAY ANALYSIS: How does Cheng convey his ideas through language and structure? Divide the poem into sections (3
part essay structure) to help organize your ideas. 600+ words
Beginning:

Middle:

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End:

Possible Essay Questions

SAMPLE ESSAY (OPTIONAL):

Return to Table of Contents

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IDEAS The Man with Night Sweats TECHNIQUES
By Thom Gunn

I wake up cold, I who

Prospered through dreams of heat
Wake to their residue,
Sweat, and a clinging sheet.

My flesh was its own shield:

Where it was gashed, it healed.

I grew as I explored
The body I could trust
Even while I adored
The risk that made robust,

A world of wonders in
Each challenge to the skin.

I cannot but be sorry

The given shield was cracked,
My mind reduced to hurry,
My flesh reduced and wrecked.

I have to change the bed,

But catch myself instead

Stopped upright where I am

Hugging my body to me
As if to shield it from
The pains that will go through me,

As if hands were enough

To hold an avalanche off.

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 Essay Question:

2 or 3 big ideas

Big idea 1

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big idea 2

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big Idea 3

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Conclusion:

Brief background to Thom Gunn:

Brief summary of the ‘plot’ / what the poem is about:

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Glossary of unfamiliar terms:

Key themes (list): Key language techniques (list): Key structural devices and how they reflect ideas:

Key ‘big’ ideas Gunn is trying to convey:

ESSAY ANALYSIS: How does Gunn convey his ideas through language and structure? Divide the poem into sections (3
part essay structure) to help organize your ideas. 600+ words
Beginning:

Middle:

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End:

Possible Essay Questions

SAMPLE ESSAY (OPTIONAL):

Return to Table of Contents

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IDEAS TECHNIQUES
Night Sweat
by Robert Lowell

Work-table, litter, books and standing lamp,

plain things, my stalled equipment, the old broom---
but I am living in a tidied room,
for ten nights now I've felt the creeping damp
float over my pajamas' wilted white . . .
Sweet salt embalms me and my head is wet,
everything streams and tells me this is right;
my life's fever is soaking in night sweat---
one life, one writing! But the downward glide
and bias of existing wrings us dry---
always inside me is the child who died,
always inside me is his will to die---
one universe, one body . . . in this urn
the animal night sweats of the spirit burn.
Behind me! You! Again I feel the light
lighten my leaded eyelids, while the gray
skulled horses whinny for the soot of night.
I dabble in the dapple of the day,
a heap of wet clothes, seamy, shivering,
I see my flesh and bedding washed with light,
my child exploding into dynamite,
my wife . . . your lightness alters everything,
and tears the black web from the spider's sack,
as your heart hops and flutters like a hare.
Poor turtle, tortoise, if I cannot clear
the surface of these troubled waters here,
absolve me, help me, Dear Heart, as you bear
this world's dead weight and cycle on your back

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 Essay Question:

2 or 3 big ideas

Big idea 1

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big idea 2

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big Idea 3

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Conclusion:

Brief background to Robert Lowell:

Brief summary of the ‘plot’ / what the poem is about:

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Glossary of unfamiliar terms:

Key themes (list): Key language techniques (list): Key structural devices and how they reflect ideas:

Key ‘big’ ideas Lowell is trying to convey:

ESSAY ANALYSIS: How does Lowell convey his ideas through language and structure? Divide the poem into sections (3
part essay structure) to help organize your ideas. 600+ words
Beginning:

Middle:

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End:

Possible Essay Questions

SAMPLE ESSAY (OPTIONAL):

Return to Table of Contents

IDEAS TECHNIQUES

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Rain
By Edward Thomas

Rain, midnight rain, nothing but the wild rain

On this bleak hut, and solitude, and me
Remembering again that I shall die
And neither hear the rain nor give it thanks
For washing me cleaner than I have been
Since I was born into this solitude.
Blessed are the dead that the rain rains upon:
But here I pray that none whom once I loved
Is dying tonight or lying still awake
Solitary, listening to the rain,
Either in pain or thus in sympathy
Helpless among the living and the dead,
Like a cold water among broken reeds,
Myriads of broken reeds all still and stiff,
Like me who have no love which this wild rain
Has not dissolved except the love of death,
If love it be towards what is perfect and
Cannot, the tempest tells me, disappoint.

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Essay Question:

2 or 3 big ideas

Big idea 1

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big idea 2

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big Idea 3

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Conclusion:

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Brief background to Edward Thomas:

Brief summary of the ‘plot’ / what the poem is about:

Glossary of unfamiliar terms:

Key themes (list): Key language techniques (list): Key structural devices and how they reflect ideas:

Key ‘big’ ideas Thomas is trying to convey:

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ESSAY ANALYSIS: How does Thomas convey his ideas through language and structure? Divide the poem into sections (3
part essay structure) to help organize your ideas. 600+ words

Beginning:

Middle:

End:

Possible Essay Questions

SAMPLE ESSAY (OPTIONAL):

Return to Table of Contents

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33
IDEAS The Spirit Is Too Blunt an Instrument TECHNIQUES
By Anne Stevenson

The spirit is too blunt an instrument

to have made this baby.
Nothing so unskilful as human passions
could have managed the intricate
exacting particulars: the tiny
blind bones with their manipulating tendons,
the knee and the knucklebones, the resilient
fine meshings of ganglia and vertebrae,
the chain of the difficult spine.

Observe the distinct eyelashes and sharp crescent

fingernails, the shell-like complexity
of the ear, with its firm involutions
concentric in miniature to minute
ossicles. Imagine the
infinitesimal capillaries, the flawless connections
of the lungs, the invisible neural filaments
through which the completed body
already answers to the brain.

Then name any passion or sentiment

possessed of the simplest accuracy.
No, no desire or affection could have done
with practice what habit
has done perfectly, indifferently,
through the body's ignorant precision.
It is left to the vagaries of the mind to invent
love and despair and anxiety
and their pain.

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 Essay Question:

2 or 3 big ideas

Big idea 1

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big idea 2

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big Idea 3

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Conclusion:

Brief background to Anne Stevenson:

Brief summary of the ‘plot’ / what the poem is about:

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Glossary of unfamiliar terms:

Key themes (list): Key language techniques (list): Key structural devices and how they reflect ideas:

Key ‘big’ ideas Stephenson is trying to convey:

ESSAY ANALYSIS: How does Stevenson convey her ideas through language and structure? Divide the poem into sections
(3 part essay structure) to help organize your ideas. 600+ words

Beginning:

Middle:

36
End:

Possible Essay Questions

SAMPLE ESSAY (OPTIONAL):

Return to Table of Contents

37
IDEAS TECHNIQUES
From Long Distance
By Tony Harrison

Though my mother was already two years dead

Dad kept her slippers warming by the gas,
put hot water bottles her side of the bed
and still went to renew her transport pass.

You couldn't just drop in. You had to phone.

He'd put you off an hour to give him time
to clear away her things and look alone
as though his still raw love were such a crime.

He couldn't risk my blight of disbelief

though sure that very soon he'd hear her key
scrape in the rusted lock and end his grief.
He knew she'd just popped out to get the tea.

I believe life ends with death, and that is all.

You haven't both gone shopping; just the same,
in my new black leather phone book there's your name
and the disconnected number I still call.

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Essay Question:

2 or 3 big ideas death grief and denial, the persistance of love, acceptance of the transcienc of life

Big idea 1

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big idea 2

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big Idea 3

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Conclusion:

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Brief background to Tony Harrison:

Brief summary of the ‘plot’ / what the poem is about:

Glossary of unfamiliar terms:

Key themes (list): Key language techniques (list): Key structural devices and how they reflect ideas:

Key ‘big’ ideas Harrison is trying to convey:

ESSAY ANALYSIS: How does Harrison convey his ideas through language and structure? Divide the poem into sections (3
part essay structure) to help organize your ideas. 600+ words

40
Beginning:

Middle:

End:

Possible Essay Questions

SAMPLE ESSAY (OPTIONAL):

41
Return to Table of Contents

42
IDEAS TECHNIQUES
Funeral Blues
By W.H. Auden

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,

Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead

Scribbling on the sky the message 'He is Dead'.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,

My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

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Essay Question:

2 or 3 big ideas

Big idea 1

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big idea 2

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big Idea 3

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Conclusion:

44
Brief background to W.H. Auden:

Brief summary of the ‘plot’ / what the poem is about:

Glossary of unfamiliar terms:

Key themes (list): Key language techniques (list): Key structural devices and how they reflect ideas:

Key ‘big’ ideas Auden is trying to convey:

ESSAY ANALYSIS: How does Auden convey his ideas through language and structure? Divide the poem into sections (3
part essay structure) to help organize your ideas. 600+ words

45
Beginning:

Middle:

End:

Possible Essay Questions

SAMPLE ESSAY (OPTIONAL):

46
Return to Table of Contents
IDEAS He Never Expected Much TECHNIQUES
By Thomas Hardy

Well, World, you have kept faith with me,

Kept faith with me;
Upon the whole you have proved to be
Much as you said you were.
Since as a child I used to lie
Upon the leaze and watch the sky,
Never, I own, expected I
That life would all be fair.

'Twas then you said, and since have said,

Times since have said,
In that mysterious voice you shed
From clouds and hills around:
"Many have loved me desperately,
Many with smooth serenity,
While some have shown contempt of me
Till they dropped underground.

"I do not promise overmuch,

Child; overmuch;
Just neutral-tinted haps and such,"
You said to minds like mine.
Wise warning for your credit's sake!
Which I for one failed not to take,
And hence could stem such strain and ache
As each year might assign.

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 Essay Question:

2 or 3 big ideas

Big idea 1

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big idea 2

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big Idea 3

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Conclusion:

Brief background to Thomas Hardy:

Brief summary of the ‘plot’ / what the poem is about:

48
Glossary of unfamiliar terms:

Key themes (list): Key language techniques (list): Key structural devices and how they reflect ideas:

Key ideas ‘big’ Hardy is trying to convey:

ESSAY ANALYSIS: How does Hardy convey his ideas through language and structure? Divide the poem into sections (3
part essay structure) to help organize your ideas. 600+ words

Beginning:

Middle:

49
 End:

Possible Essay Questions

SAMPLE ESSAY (OPTIONAL):

Return to Table of Contents

50
IDEAS TECHNIQUES
The Telephone Call
By Fleur Adcock

They asked me ‘Are you sitting down?

Right? This is Universal Lotteries’,
They said. ‘You’ve won the top prize,
The Ultra-super Global Special.
What would you do with a million pounds?
Or, actually, with more than a million –
Not that it makes a lot of difference
Once you’re a millionaire.’ And they laughed.

‘Are you OK?’ they asked – ‘Still there?

Come on, now, tell us, how does it feel?’
I said ‘I just…I can’t believe it!’
They said ‘That’s what they all say.
What else? Go on, tell us about it.’
I said ‘I feel the top of my head
Has floated off, out through the window,
Revolving like a flying saucer.’

‘That’s unusual’ they said. ‘Go on.’

I said ‘I’m finding it hard to talk.
My throat’s gone dry, my nose is tingling.
I think I’m going to sneeze – or cry.’
‘That’s right’ they said, ‘don’t be ashamed
Of giving way to your emotions.
It isn’t every day you hear
You’re going to get a million pounds.

Relax, now, have a little cry;

We’ll give you a moment…’ ‘Hang on!’ I said.
‘I haven’t bought a lottery ticket
For years and years. And what did you say

51
The company’s called?’ They laughed again.
‘Not to worry about a ticket.
We’re Universal. We operate
A retrospective Chances Module.

Nearly everyone’s bought a ticket

In some lottery or another,
Once at least. We buy up the files,
Feed the names into our computer,
And see who the lucky person is.’
‘Well, that’s incredible’ I said.
‘It’s marvelous. I still can’t quite…
I’ll believe it when I see the cheque.’

‘Oh,’ they said, ‘there’s no cheque.’

‘But the money?’ ‘We don’t deal in money.
Experiences are what we deal in.
You’ve had a great experience, right?
Exciting? Something you’ll remember?
That’s your prize. So congratulations
From all of us at Universal.
Have a nice day!’ And the line went dead.

52
Essay Question:

2 or 3 big ideas

Big idea 1

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big idea 2

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big Idea 3

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Conclusion:

53
Brief background to Fleur Adcock:

Brief summary of the ‘plot’ / what the poem is about:

Glossary of unfamiliar terms:

Key themes (list): Key language techniques (list): Key structural devices and how they reflect ideas:

Key ‘big’ ideas Adcock is trying to convey:

ESSAY ANALYSIS: How does Adcock convey her ideas through language and structure? Divide the poem into sections (3
part essay structure) to help organize your ideas. 600+ words

54
Beginning:

Middle:

End:

Possible Essay Questions

SAMPLE ESSAY (OPTIONAL):

55
Return to Table of Contents

56
IDEAS A Consumer’s Report TECHNIQUES

By Peter Porter

The name of the product I tested is Life,

I have completed the form you sent me
and understand that my answers are confidential.

I had it as a gift,
I didn’t feel much while using it,
in fact I think I’d have liked to be more excited.
It seemed gentle on the hands
but left an embarrassing deposit behind.
It was not economical
and I have used much more than I thought
(I suppose I have about half left
but it’s difficult to tell)—
although the instructions are fairly large
there are so many of them
I don’t know which to follow, especially
as they seem to contradict each other.
I’m not sure such a thing
should be put in the way of children—
It’s difficult to think of a purpose
for it. One of my friends says
it’s just to keep its maker in a job.
Also the price is much too high.
Things are piling up so fast,
after all, the world got by
for thousand million years
without this, do we need it now?
(Incidentally, please ask your man
to stop calling me ‘the respondent’,
I don’t like the sound of it.)
There seems to be a lot of different labels,

57
sizes and colours should be uniform,
the shape is awkward, it’s waterproof
but not heat resistant, it doesn’t keep
yet it’s very difficult to get rid of:
whenever they make it cheaper they tend
to put less in—if you say you don’t
want it, then it’s delivered anyway.
I’d agree it’s a popular product,
it’s got into the language; people
even say they’re on the side of it.
Personally I think it’s overdone,
a small thing people are ready
to behave badly about. I think
we should take it for granted. If its
experts are called philosophers or market
researchers or historians, we shouldn’t
care. We are the consumers and the last
law makers. So finally, I’d buy it.
But the question of a ‘best buy’
I’d like to leave until I get
the competitive product you said you’d send.

58
Essay Question:

2 or 3 big ideas

Big idea 1

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big idea 2

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big Idea 3

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Conclusion:

59
Brief background to Peter Porter:

Brief summary of the ‘plot’ / what the poem is about:

Glossary of unfamiliar terms:

Key themes (list): Key language techniques (list): Key structural devices and how they reflect ideas:

Key ‘big’ ideas Porter is trying to convey:

ESSAY ANALYSIS: How does Porter convey his ideas through language and structure? Divide the poem into sections (3
part essay structure) to help organize your ideas. 600+ words

60
Beginning:

Middle:

End:

Possible Essay Questions

SAMPLE ESSAY (OPTIONAL):

61
Return to Table of Contents

62
IDEAS Request To A Year TECHNIQUES
By Judith Wright

If the year is meditating a suitable gift,

I should like it to be the attitude
of my great- great- grandmother,
legendary devotee of the arts,

who having eight children

and little opportunity for painting pictures,
sat one day on a high rock
beside a river in Switzerland

and from a difficult distance viewed

her second son, balanced on a small ice flow,
drift down the current toward a waterfall
that struck rock bottom eighty feet below,

while her second daughter, impeded,

no doubt, by the petticoats of the day,
stretched out a last-hope alpenstock
(which luckily later caught him on his way).

Nothing, it was evident, could be done;

And with the artist's isolating eye
My great-great-grandmother hastily sketched the scene.
The sketch survives to prove the story by.

Year, if you have no Mother's day present planned,

Reach back and bring me the firmness of her hand.

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 Essay Question:

2 or 3 big ideas

Big idea 1

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big idea 2

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big Idea 3

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Conclusion:

Brief background to Judith Wright:

Brief summary of the ‘plot’ / what the poem is about:

64
Glossary of unfamiliar terms:

Key themes (list): Key language techniques (list): Key structural devices and how they reflect ideas:

Key ‘big’ ideas Wright is trying to convey:

ESSAY ANALYSIS: How does Wright convey her ideas through language and structure? Divide the poem into sections (3
part essay structure) to help organize your ideas. 600+ words

Beginning:

Middle:

65
End:

Possible Essay Questions

SAMPLE ESSAY (OPTIONAL):

Return to Table of Contents

66
IDEAS TECHNIQUES
On Finding a Small Fly Crushed in a Book
By Charles Tennyson Turner

Some hand, that never meant to do thee hurt,

Has crush'd thee here between these pages pent;
But thou hast left thine own fair monument,
Thy wings gleam out and tell me what thou wert:
Oh! that the memories, which survive us here,
Where half as lovely as these wings of thine!
Pure relics of a blameless life, that shine
Now thou art gone. Our doom is ever near:
The peril is beside us day by day;
The book will close upon us, it may be,
Just as we lift ourselves to soar away
Upon the summer-airs. But, unlike thee,
The closing book may stop our vital breath,
Yet leave no lustre on our page of death.

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Essay Question:

2 or 3 big ideas

Big idea 1

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big idea 2

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big Idea 3

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Conclusion:

68
Brief background to Charles Tennyson Turner:

Brief summary of the ‘plot’ / what the poem is about:

Glossary of unfamiliar terms:

Key themes (list): Key language techniques (list): Key structural devices and how they reflect ideas:

Key ‘big’ ideas Tennyson Turner is trying to convey:

ESSAY ANALYSIS: How does Tennyson Turner convey his ideas through language and structure? Divide the poem into
sections (3 part essay structure) to help organize your ideas. 600+ words

69
Beginning:

Middle:

End:

Possible Essay Questions

SAMPLE ESSAY (OPTIONAL):

70
Return to Table of Contents

71
IDEAS TECHNIQUES
Ozymandias
By Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

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Essay Question:

2 or 3 big ideas

Big idea 1

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big idea 2

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big Idea 3

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Conclusion:

73
Brief background to Percy Bysshe Shelley:

Brief summary of the ‘plot’ / what the poem is about:

Glossary of unfamiliar terms:

Key themes (list): Key language techniques (list): Key structural devices and how they reflect ideas:

Key ‘big’ ideas Shelley is trying to convey:

ESSAY ANALYSIS: How does Shelley convey his ideas through language and structure? Divide the poem into sections (3
part essay structure) to help organize your ideas. 600+ words
Beginning:
74
Middle:

End:

Possible Essay Questions

SAMPLE ESSAY (OPTIONAL):

75
IDEAS TECHNIQUES
Away, Melancholy
By Stevie Smith

Away, melancholy,
Away with it, let it go.

Are not the trees green,

The earth as green?
Does not the wind blow,
Fire leap and the rivers flow?
Away melancholy.

The ant is busy

He carrieth his meat,
All things hurry
To be eaten or eat.
Away, melancholy.

Man, too, hurries,

Eats, couples, buries,
He is an animal also
With a hey ho melancholy,
Away with it, let it go.

Man of all creatures

Is superlative
(Away melancholy)
He of all creatures alone
Raiseth a stone
(Away melancholy)
Into the stone, the god
Pours what he knows of good
Calling, good, God.
Away melancholy, let it go.
76
Speak not to me of tears,
Tyranny, pox, wars,
Saying, Can God
Stone of man's thoughts, be good?
Say rather it is enough
That the stuffed
Stone of man's good, growing,
By man's called God.
Away, melancholy, let it go.

Man aspires
To good,
To love
Sighs;

Beaten, corrupted, dying

In his own blood lying
Yet heaves up an eye above
Cries, Love, love.
It is his virtue needs explaining,
Not his failing.

Away, melancholy,
Away with it, let it go

77
Essay Question:

2 or 3 big ideas

Big idea 1

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big idea 2

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Big Idea 3

Quotes: Analysis
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7

Conclusion:

78
Brief background to Stevie Smith:

Brief summary of the ‘plot’ / what the poem is about:

Glossary of unfamiliar terms:

Key themes (list): Key language techniques (list): Key structural devices and how they reflect ideas:

Key ‘big’ ideas Smith is trying to convey:

ESSAY ANALYSIS: How does Smith convey her ideas through language and structure? Divide the poem into sections (3
part essay structure) to help organize your ideas. 600+ words
Beginning:
79
Middle:

End:

Possible Essay Questions

SAMPLE ESSAY (OPTIONAL):

80
Return to Table of Contents
Appendix One: How to Approach a Poem

1. Opening – start by summing up the poet’s main messages and ideas and a brief outline of what the
poem/s is about (your thesis statement/central argument).

2. Tone – what is the tone/mood/feeling in the poem? Find adjectives to describe it e.g. reflective, dark,
emotive, casual, nostalgic, bitter, playful, etc. Does the tone change? Which words indicate change?
Or it could be particular images that create the tone. Link your points to the main message/ideas of the
poem.

3. Now look at lexical features. (patterns of sound imagery such as alliteration, assonance. How do they
help to convey meaning?

4. Now look at how the writer uses structural devices (stanzas, form, repetition, enjambment, caesura,
sentence syntax, sentence lengths – how does the poem change from the beginning to the end) to convey
his message/main ideas.

5. Now look at how the writer uses structural devices (stanzas, form, repetition, enjambment, caesura,
sentence syntax, sentence lengths, perhaps punctuation – how does the poem change from the beginning
to the end) to convey his message/main ideas.

6. Conclusion – try not to just sum up what you have said; show that your knowledge has developed and
progressed as you have written your essay, so end with something original, or even a quotation from the
poem(s). Or you could comment on what you found to be the most striking thing/feature of the poem (it
could be the emotion, a particular image etc.).

81
 Appendix Two: Poetry Mat

Personal response: Context: Structure and

Who wrote the
punctuation:
What is the tone of
the poem (happy, poem? How is the poem
angry, ironic, patriotic, Has their organised into stanzas?
etc.)? personal viewpoint Are the stanza and
influenced the lines regular or
How does this poem poem? irregular?
make me feel? When was the Are there any short
Why does it make poem written? lines?
me feel this way? How has the Does this poet use a
poem been particular structure
Links to other influenced by (sonnet, ballad etc.)?
poems: historical context? Has the poet used
What other poems enjambment or
Language/ caesura?
are linked to this poem imagery:
by theme? Is there a rhyme
What is the scheme?
What poems are meaning of the title?
linked by context? How does it link Poetic techniques:
What poems are to the rest of the Which poetic
linked by structure? poem? techniques are used in
Which words are the poem?
Themes: the most powerful / Which techniques
have the most are used the most?
What is the main
impact?
theme of this poem? What effect do these
Are certain words techniques have?
How does the title emphasised or
link to the themes in repeated? Is
stthend
poemrd written
this poem? in 1 , 2 or 3
What person?
Is the theme clear at connotations do

82