Revision Guide for the Anthology Literature Exam

Literature 1B – a) single poem essay b)

comparison essay
• A single poem • How can I revise? Contents – Anthology
essay – 20 • Use this booklet to • Analysis reminder & comparison
minutes help you and use connectives
the information in
• A comparison your exercise book • Place Mats to help with planning tasks
poem essay – on all the poems • Context linked to specific quotes guidance
40 minutes and the non- for each subtopic within the Anthology:
fiction writing. War, Love, Place and Nature
• You must • Use your KO
include context sheets and make • Each poem with specific revision tasks &
sure you are 100% questions to help you
• You will not happy with the
have the • Some practice essay questions to use with
approaches to the planning mat or to attempt as revision
second poem in these tasks. & other suggestions for the subtopics –
the exam War, Love, Place and Nature
Timing – plan 5 min. write 25 mins. Sentence starters: In the poem we see…
In Year 9 Exam
Anthology; comparison poem essay this suggests/implies/infers/conveys…
The poet implies/shows… Linking this to the
time/place/intentions
Intro – link to question. Explain
where meaning of the poem
briefly. Place your poems here Exploring the quotes:
Link to the question
Throughout the essay– Start
Plan and decide which quotes to select and which 3 pieces of context you Link to the
with the poem you find you will write about terminology
understand most, choose Link to quote(s)
relevant quotes/moments from Explore the hidden
the poem and analyse the and obvious meaning
language, structure and effect Zoom in on the
of these quotes and how they words/connotations
link to examples and analysis Explore the effect
from the other poem. You must What were the
use connectives of comparison. writers’ intentions
Refer to the question and Use connectives of
explain the meaning. Also, link comparison to show
to the context too for both you are aware of the
poems Cover as many quotes similarities and
from BOTH poems as you can – differences in the
25 minutes try to do 3 links poems.
between the poems Link to context –
Explain what it was
Conclude – Short summary of like at the time.
what you have said about both Embed it with your
poems analysis. Explore links
to analysis

Terminology: repetition; ideas/words phrases repeated, metaphor; comparison of something as something else, hyperbole; use of exaggeration
for effect, imagery; creating a picture in the mind of the reader, simile; comparison using like or as, tone – the impression you are given of how the
words sound, emotive language; appeals to reader emotions, personification; makes an object sound human, Use of complex sentences; to explore
in detail emotions; pathetic fallacy; sets the tone/mood/atmosphere. End-stopping; punctuation at the end of line, caesura; punctuation in the
middle of a line; enjambment; run on lines in the poem; stanza’s; the verses of the poem; layout; how it appears and what effect this has,
connotations; implied meanings
 Revision Guide for the Exam Anthology
Literature Reading Comparison Tips & Exercises
• What you should/could cover in developed concise analysis – Comparing (similarities) Contrasting (differences)
RED Minimum, ORANGE Most, GREEN Some (You know which
you can aim to include) Compared with… However…
• Link to the question (RED) Similarly… On the other hand…
• Link to the terminology (Lang/Structure – evaluating In the same way… On the contrary…
choice) (ORANGE)
Likewise… Instead…
• Short Quote(s) (RED) Equally… As for…
• Explain meaning and effect – both obvious and hidden As with… Alternatively…
(explicit and implicit) (RED)
…are similar in that… Despite this…
• Zoom in on words/explore connotations and effect
(ORANGE) …whereas…
• Suggest what other readers might think/feel (offering an …while...
alternative opinion) (GREEN) …although…
• Link to the writer’s intentions (step out from the close …yet…
analysis to give an overview of meaning) (GREEN)
• Explore a linking quote/supporting idea (GREEN)
• Anthology you will – link to context (RED)
• Comparing – use comparison connectives to move onto the Use the Poetry Place Mat on the next page as a
next point/idea/quote (RED) planning guide to help you
Timing – plan 5 min. write 15 Sentence starters: In the poem we see…
Anthology; single poem essay this suggests/implies/infers/conveys…
mins. The poet implies/shows… Linking this to the time/place/intentions

Intro – link to Place your poem here Exploring the quotes:

question. Explain
where meaning of the
poem briefly. Can say
time period/influences
(context)
Throughout the poem
– Choose relevant
quotes and analyse the
language, structure
and effect of these
quotes. Refer to the
question and explain
the meaning. Also, link
to the context too.
Conclude – Short
summary of points
Plan and decide which quotes to select and which 3 pieces of context Link to the question
you will write about Link to the terminology
Link to quote(s)
Explore the hidden and
obvious meaning
Zoom in on the
words/connotations
Explore the effect
What were the writers’
intentions
Link to context –
Explain what it was like
at the time. Embed it
with your analysis.
Explore links to analysis

Terminology: repetition; ideas/words phrases repeated, metaphor; comparison of something as something else, hyperbole; use of exaggeration for
effect, imagery; creating a picture in the mind of the reader, simile; comparison using like or as, tone – the impression you are given of how the
words sound, emotive language; appeals to reader emotions, personification; makes an object sound human, Use of complex sentences; to explore
in detail emotions; pathetic fallacy; sets the tone/mood/atmosphere. End-stopping; punctuation at the end of line, caesura; punctuation in the
middle of a line; enjambment; run on lines in the poem; stanza’s; the verses of the poem; layout; how it appears and what effect this has,
connotations; implied meanings
Poem Quote Context Link
The Manhunt “handle and hold” Eddie’s wife Laura is discovering how fragile Eddie is after War Context linked to specific quotes from the Anthology
By Armitage being shot. The first line of each couplet reinforces this – Your task – create your own charts with other examples
and the structure also indicates that they are a couple
getting through this together. Dulce Et “like old beggars under Reflects that young men looked worn out and old
Decorum Est By sacks” before their time as a result of the terrible conditions
“Parachute silk of the The bullet that shot Eddie Beddoes ricocheted through Owen and events they endured during the war.
punctured lung” his body, damaging many of his internal organs.
“But limped on, blood- Having lost their boots or having constantly wet feet
“only then would I come Emotional damage and trauma suffered by Eddie as a shod” many men suffered horrific injuries such as trench
close” result of being shot on a peacekeeping mission – he foot which was a disease that meant amputation for
feared balloons at his children’s parties and suffered many, however at the time they had to carry on in
PTSD because of the trauma. spite of the hardships and pain.
The Soldier By “forever England” The patriotism in the poem suggests that even in death
Brookes glory will come to the soldiers who have fought and died “The old lie” Reinforces the fact that the army and the
for their country. government were unaware of what was going to
happen in the war and that when they did know they
“blest by suns of home” Brooke’s never experienced the true horror of war and continued to use propaganda to encourage men to
this is clear from the hyperbolic tone in the poem – the go to war. Thousands of men lost their lives due to
tone here indicates that the poem was written prior to the ‘lies’ or propaganda that encouraged them to go
the outbreak of war. to war.
“English heaven” Mametz Wood “For years afterwards” The effect of the war was devastating and long-
Propaganda poem to encourage young men to sign up to By Sheers lasting as even when war had finished many bodies
become soldiers and the overtly sentimental feeling in of men who fought in war had not been recovered.
the final line may have encouraged men to see becoming “to walk not run”
a soldier as a higher calling. Links to the instructions given to the soldiers by the
A Wife in London “The Tragedy” A telegram was received from the war office, which for a commanding officers who had no idea of the
By Hardy wife at home with a husband away in the Boer war in brutality that was to come. It could suggest that the
South Africa, would have signalled bad news. officers were incompetent or that the horror and
“absent tongues” barbarity with the new machinery (like machine
“The Irony” A letter is received by the wife the day after the telegram guns) was unprecedented.
explaining the excitement of the husband to be coming
home. Sheers wanted to reinforce the fact that many of the
Welsh soldiers who went to war were not given a
“in the far South Land” South Africa is referenced here and would have voice and were not remembered for the part that
reinforced the reality for many women, whose husbands they played in the war. By reinforcing this in the
were away fighting in the Boer war, with little poem it gives them back a voice and tells the story of
correspondence or understanding of when they would be what happened to their brigade at Mametz Wood.

Transform: Create a story or a
summary of the poem explaining
what happens in the poem and
how his mental and physical
injuries are presented. Or, create a
visual representation of the poem.
Plan your transform task:
Criticise: “The poem is too
personal and almost
uncomfortable to read due to the
revelations about Eddie and his
wife Laura’s pain and suffering”
Challenge this statement
The Manhunt
After the first phase, Consider: What was Simon Armitage
after passionate nights and intimate days, saying literally, metaphorically &
only then would he let me trace symbolically?
the frozen river which ran through his face,
What can we learn from the poem?
only then would he let me explore How can we change our behaviour or
the blown hinge of his lower jaw,
society’s behaviour based on these
and handle and hold
the damaged, porcelain collar-bone, lessons?
What society without a need for
and mind and attend
the fractured rudder of shoulder-blade, Peacekeeping missions would look like?
and finger and thumb
the parachute silk of his punctured lung.
Only then could I bind
the struts and climb the rungs of his broken ribs, Prioritise: Choose your top five quotes
and feel the hurt of his grazed heart. from the poem and explode them with:
Skirting along, only then could I picture the scan,
Meaning/Effect
the foetus of metal beneath his chest
where the bullet had finally come to rest.
Zooming in on a word in the quote
Use triplets to develop your ideas
Then I widened the search,
traced the scarring back to its source Focus on context
to a sweating, unexploded mine
Exploration of the connotations
buried deep in his mind, around which Exploration of the context that links & why
every nerve in his body had tightened and closed.
Then, and only then, did I come close.
Transform: Black out Consider: Why this propaganda
some of the words you poem may upset and offend
consider to be key to the some people?
meaning of the poem. What was Brooke’s implying
Explain how it changes The Soldier about conscientious objectors?
the poem. If I should die, think only this of me: (research if you need to)
That there’s some corner of a foreign field What a white feather symbolised
That is for ever England. There shall be in war time? (research)
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
Criticise: “The Soldier is A body of England’s, breathing English air,
Prioritise: Choose your top five
an abomination of a Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home. quotes from the poem and
poem, as it persuaded explode them with:
hundreds of innocent And think, this heart, all evil shed away, Meaning/Effect
men to sign up to almost A pulse in the eternal mind, no less Zooming in on a word in the
certain death” Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given; quote
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day; Use triplets to develop your ideas
Challenge this statement And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness, Focus on context
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
Exploration of the connotations
Exploration of the context that
links & why
Transform: Create a
storyboard of the events in the
poem. Do this chronologically
and include a summary of how
the wife feels during different
elements of the poem
Criticise: “Women were the
forgotten hero’s of any war
time”
Decide how you could support
this statement using evidence
from the poem
A Wife in London
I--The Tragedy
She sits in the tawny vapour
That the City lanes have uprolled,
Behind whose webby fold on fold
Like a waning taper
The street-lamp glimmers cold.
A messenger's knock cracks smartly,
Flashed news is in her hand
Of meaning it dazes to understand
Though shaped so shortly:
He--has fallen--in the far South Land . . .
II--The Irony
'Tis the morrow; the fog hangs thicker,
The postman nears and goes:
A letter is brought whose lines disclose
By the firelight flicker
His hand, whom the worm now knows:
Fresh--firm--penned in highest feather -
Page-full of his hoped return,
And of home-planned jaunts by brake and burn
In the summer weather,
And of new love that they would learn.
Consider:
Why did Hardy choose to show the
grief unfolding in this poignant way?
(look up poignant if you need to)
What effect does the repetition of
the pathetic fallacy have on the
mood and atmosphere of the
poem?
Prioritise: Choose your top five
quotes from the poem and explode
them with:
Meaning/Effect
Zooming in on a word in the quote
Use triplets to develop your ideas
Focus on context
Exploration of the connotations
Exploration of the context that links
& why
Transform: Select all the
imagery examples from the
poem and create images that
support the words that are
being used to create the
imagery in your mind.
Write the quote next to the
image.
Dulce et Decorum Est Consider:
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through
The structure of the poem.
sludge, Where is the pace quickening?
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Why is this important?
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Why does Owen use Latin in the
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots final lines and the title?
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
What message is Owen portraying
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
about war?
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime...
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

Criticise: “The officers and
government officials in charge
of the war effort were culpable
for the unnecessary deaths of
many soldiers”
How can Dulce et Decorum
Est support or disprove this
statement?
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
Prioritise: Choose your top five
quotes from the poem and explode
them with:
Meaning/Effect
Zooming in on a word in the quote
Use triplets to develop your ideas
Focus on context
Exploration of the connotations
Exploration of the context that links
& why
Transform: Write a story from
the perspective of the soldiers.
Think about:
The senses & emotions
created in this stressful time.
How did the feel? What did
they see? What was going
through their minds? What
noises were they hearing?
Mametz Wood
Consider:
For years afterwards the farmers found them – Look up Owen Sheers on YouTube
the wasted young, turning up under their plough blades talking about his visit to Mametz
as they tended the land back into itself.
Wood:
A chit of bone, the china plate of a shoulder blade, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
the relic of a finger, the blown
and broken bird’s egg of a skull, =O6D8CEtUxfE
all mimicked now in flint, breaking blue in white
across this field where they were told to walk, not run,
What do you learn from this?
towards the wood and its nesting machine guns.

And even now the earth stands sentinel,

Criticise: “The Welsh soldiers
were famously left without a
proper burial and without
being commended for their
bravery”
Evaluate what this suggests
about the scale of the war and
how can this be resolved?
reaching back into itself for reminders of what happened
like a wound working a foreign body to the surface of the
skin.
This morning, twenty men buried in one long grave,
a broken mosaic of bone linked arm in arm,
their skeletons paused mid dance-macabre
in boots that outlasted them,
their socketed heads tilted back at an angle
and their jaws, those that have them, dropped open.
As if the notes they had sung
have only now, with this unearthing,
slipped from their absent tongues.
Prioritise: Choose your top five
quotes from the poem and explode
them with:
Meaning/Effect
Zooming in on a word in the quote
Use triplets to develop your ideas
Focus on context
Exploration of the connotations
Exploration of the context that links
& why
 War Poems: Possible Exam questions & exercises – remember you
can also just do a single poem with the same focus as the
comparison question
• Compare the way two of the • Use your Anthology Poems KO to re-learn
poems explore the emotions of key information
the persona (person in the poem) • Quiz yourself
• Compare the presentation of • Explore other examples of context
violence in two of the poems • Watch & make notes using the many
examples of analysis videos on YouTube
• Compare the way the poets write
• Listen to the podcasts created by
about war
@ChurchillEng on the Weebly:
• Compare the way women are http://churchillacademyenglish.weebly.com
presented in two of the poems /gcse-revision-podcasts.html
• Compare the mental effects of • Use memorise
war • Re-annotate the poems
• Practice writing essays & planning them
Sonnet 43 Sonnet 43 The sonnet is the penultimate poem in the
By Barrett collection of 44 poems in a collection entitled
Browning “Songs from the Portuguese”, which Elizabeth
wrote about her love for her husband.
“How do I love thee?” Barrett Browning feels intense passion and love for
her husband Robert, who she loves so intensely.
“as they turn from
Cozy Apologia
Praise” She was baptized at a young age and a prolific
Bible reader, but rejected her religious upbringing
She Walks in “She walks in beauty” Title implies that he has seen the persona and
Beauty By Byron become obsessed with her, which links to Byron’s
status as a Romantic poet (interested in aesthetics
“thoughts serenely and feelings)
express”
This is a hint at the voyeuristic nature of Byron
looking at the female, but not knowing her, as he
“A heart whose love is implies how she feels based purely on how she
innocent” looks.
Valentine By
Famously, Byron was a lothario and described as Duffy
“mad, bad and dangerous” which could make these
lines appear more sinister, due to the way he is
looking at the women, alternatively it could be seen
as romantic from Byron’s point of view.
As “As imperceptibly as Grief is a well know dark feeling that people will
Imperceptibly Grief” understand, and Dickenson seems to show this as an
as Grief By abstract non-understandable emotion that defies
Dickenson understanding.
“The Summer lapsed
away” The changing of the season is shown here which is a
preoccupation of Dickenson’s as she was an
observer of life rather than a participator. She was
reclusive and stayed in her room corresponding,
rather than actively participating in life.
Love Poem Context linked to specific quotes from
the Anthology – create your own charts with other
examples
“for Fred” Written by Dove to her husband Fred during a
traumatic weather event.
Today a
hurricane…Big bad
Floyd” Hurricane Floyd happened in 1999 and this
line references the anticipation as they
“I fill this stolen waited inside for the weather to abate.
time with you.”
Recognition that the weather has made
everything else around them – ordinary life –
grind to a halt and stop.
“Not a red rose or a Traditional symbols of commercial Valentines
satin heart” gifts being rejected here.
“I give you an An ordinary every day object that is practical
onion” and normal – counters or subverts the
traditional expectation of Valentine’s gift.
Traditional symbol of love and marriage
“shrink to a referenced here. Love is seen as realistic
Wedding ring” throughout the poem and this is reinforced
by the metaphor (as when something shrinks
it diminishes) but a wedding ring is again only
the symbol of the marriage and it is the work
that the couple put into the marriage that is
important.

Transform:
Create a visual representation of
how the poem uses the layers of
an onion to explore the layers of
a relationship
Plan your transform task:
Criticise: “The poem is unrealistic
and over the top in the way that
Duffy compares love to an onion”
Challenge this statement
Valentine by Carol Ann Duffy
Not a red rose or a satin heart.
Consider: What does love actually look
like?
I give you an onion.
It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.
Is Duffy commenting on the reality of
It promises light love?
like the careful undressing of love. How many emotions can you pinpoint in
Here. the poem?
It will blind you with tears What is the context that links to the
like a lover.
It will make your reflection
poem and choose 3 quotes that you can
a wobbling photo of grief. link to the different elements of context.
I am trying to be truthful.
Not a cute card or a kissogram.
I give you an onion.
Prioritise: Choose all the unrealistic
Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips, depictions of stereotypical Valentines gifts
possessive and faithful and explain why Duffy rejects these.
as we are,
for as long as we are. Choose all the realistic ideas about love
and explain why Duffy uses these.
Take it.
Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring,
if you like.
Lethal.
Its scent will cling to your fingers,
cling to your knife.
Transform:
Write a story to explore the fairy-
tale element that is in the poem.
Plan your transform task:
Criticise: Dove could be seen as
selfish due to her contentment
while a storm rages and threatens
her fellow Americans
Challenge this statement
Cozy Apologia by Rita Dove (for Fred) Consider:
I could pick anything and think of you—
This lamp, the wind-still rain, the glossy blue
My pen exudes, drying matte, upon the page.
I could choose any hero, any cause or age How is masculinity presented in the
And, sure as shooting arrows to the heart,
Astride a dappled mare, legs braced as far apart
poem?
As standing in silver stirrups will allow— What does this suggest about Dove’s
There you'll be, with furrowed brow
And chain mail glinting, to set me free: views about men and women?
One eye smiling, the other firm upon the enemy. How could these views be linked to
This post-postmodern age is all business: compact context?
disks
And faxes, a do-it-now-and-take-no-risks
Event. Today a hurricane is nudging up the coast,
Oddly male: Big Bad Floyd, who brings a host
Of daydreams: awkward reminiscences
Of teenage crushes on worthless boys
Whose only talent was to kiss you senseless.
They all had sissy names—Marcel, Percy, Dewey; Prioritise:
Were thin as licorice and as chewy,
Sweet with a dark and hollow center. Floyd's
Cussing up a storm. You're bunkered in your
Select 10 quotes and rank order them in
Aerie, I'm perched in mine terms of showing the most love and care
(Twin desks, computers, hardwood floors):
We're content, but fall short of the Divine. to the least love and care.
Still, it's embarrassing, this happiness—
Who's satisfied simply with what's good for us,
When has the ordinary ever been news? Explain why you have rank ordered them
And yet, because nothing else will do
To keep me from melancholy (call it blues), in this way.
I fill this stolen time with you.
Transform:
Write out the problem
you identify in the first
8 lines and the
Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
solutions in the final 6
lines and explain what How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
Barrett Browning was I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
preoccupied with. My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
Criticise: Barrett I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
Browning is a hopeless I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
romantic and needs to
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
be less soppy! With my lost saints – I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! – and, if God choose,
Challenge this I shall but love thee better after death.
statement
Consider:
What would it feel like to love someone
so much that you would want to spend
eternity with them?
How would you go about expressing
this love to them?
What words would you use to express
your feelings?
Prioritise:
Explore the structure – Look for all
the patterns and explain which is
the strongest pattern and why
Explore the context – Link to
religion and humanity and hope
and decide which is the strongest
and explain why?
Transform:
Dual code the poem – choose
two quotes from each stanza and
link these to images – can be
drawn, copied and pasted or
symbols. Choose
symbols/pictures that help you
remember the quotes and the
storyline.
Criticise: Byron is a well-known
lothario figure with an eye for
the ladies. Challenge this
statement and explore how you
could agree or disagree with this
based on evidence in the poem
Challenge this!
She Walks in Beauty By Lord Byron Consider:
The idea of obsession – how are
She walks in beauty, like the night different types of obsession shown
Of cloudless climes and starry skies; in the poem?
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes; What is the persona like? How do
Thus mellowed to that tender light you know?
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express, Prioritise:
How pure, how dear their dwelling-
place. Select – your top 5 quotes from the
poem
And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, Demonstrate – your understanding
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
of the way context can be linked to
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below, these 5 quotes
A heart whose love is innocent!
Transform:
Translate the words in the poem
into an easier to understand
modern translation.
Why does she use hard to
understand language?
Does it link to her state of mind?
Criticise: Dickinson was reclusive,
but prolifically corresponded via
letter and wrote many poems in
her lifetime.
What does this suggest about her
mental state?
What would you recommend for
her to do?
As Imperceptibly as Grief
As imperceptibly as Grief
The Summer lapsed away —
Too imperceptible at last
To seem like Perfidy —
A Quietness distilled
As Twilight long begun,
Or Nature spending with herself
Sequestered Afternoon —
The Dusk drew earlier in —
The Morning foreign shone —
A courteous, yet harrowing Grace,
As Guest, that would be gone —
And thus, without a Wing
Or service of a Keel
Our Summer made her light escape
Into the Beautiful.
Consider:
Grief
What is it?
What does it look like?
How can you show it?
How does it differ between
people?
Why is it an abstract noun?
Prioritise:
Indicate what the hyphens at the
end of the lines suggest?
Why have they been used on the
lines that have them and not
others?
End-stopping is used with the full
stop in the final line – Why?
 Love Poems: Possible Exam questions & exercises – remember you
can also just do a single poem with the same focus as the
comparison question
• Compare the way two of the poems • Use your Anthology Poems KO to re-learn
explore the emotions of the persona key information
(person in the poem) • Quiz yourself
• Compare the presentation of love in • Explore other examples of context
two of the poems • Watch & make notes using the many
• Compare the way the poets write examples of analysis videos on YouTube
about feelings • Listen to the podcasts created by
• Compare the way women in @ChurchillEng on the Weebly:
relationships are presented in two http://churchillacademyenglish.weebly.com
of the poems /gcse-revision-podcasts.html
• Compare the negative aspects of • Use memorise
love • Re-annotate the poems
• Practice writing essays & planning them
London “charter’d The streets and river itself (a natural element) seems to have
By Blake streets…charter’d been organised around the people inhabiting the space, as Place Poems Context linked to specific quotes from the
Thames” opposed to the space dictating to the people how to live. Anthology – create your own charts with other examples
Industrial Revolution is physically changing the look of the
Afternoons “young mothers A scene played out across the countries where mums gather
“Blacken’ng churches outside and the smog is discolouring the buildings.
By Larkin assemble” with their children at playgrounds to allow their children to
Church appals” Religion was significant, and England was predominantly
run off steam and play.
Christian, so the idea of religious discord being implied here
creates an understanding that Blake is critiquing the way
“Our Wedding” Traditional family roles being referenced and the idea that
Churches behaved in Victorian London.
the marriage becomes less important when family life takes
over.
The end line of the poem indicates one of the two certainties
in life that we all die and contextually this could also be
“pushing them As the young have children of their own, the needs and
“Marriage important as marriage is a religiously significant ceremony, so
To the side of wants and desires change for people. Life continues to
hearse” perhaps this is symbolic of Blake’s negative outlook on life
their own life” change and adapt as you grow up and your own children
and the fact that this is a poem from Songs of Experience.
become more important than yourself.

Living Space By Dharker “There are not enough straight This directly references the way that the shanty towns in India have little order or structural safety in the way they are
lines” built. The homes are constructed out of waste materials and all appear to be rickety and dangerous, emphasised in this
line.

Dharker when visiting the poverty and hardship evident in the shanty towns was struck by the optimism and faith of
“towards the miraculous” the people living in these conditions.

This shows the importance of having faith in humanity, something that Dharker has and uses in her work to raise
“walls of faith” awareness of the plight of people in more difficult circumstances than our own.

Ozymandias By “I met a traveller from an Calls on the tradition of oral storytelling to open the poem and would have been
Shelley ancient land” understood by Shelley’s audience as he loved the tradition.

“king of kings”
References the Pharaoh Rameses iii who was a cruel and cold ruler and had his likeness
“Colossal wreck” immortalised in sculpture.

No matter how extensive and grand the work you have made to immortalise yourself (in
this case a giant sculpture) time and weather will work to destroy it and this could be seen
as a warning against the desire for power.
Transform:
Draw a picture of the place that
Dharker is describing and label
the images with quotes from the
poem.
Criticise:
Humanity has gone astray. The
way people have to live in abject
poverty is appalling.
Criticise this opinion with
evidence to reflect there is hope
from the poem.
Living Space Consider: Living in a slum – What
There are just not enough emotions/feelings and experience
straight lines. That might you have?
is the problem.
What would your life be like?
Nothing is flat
or parallel. Beams
balance crookedly on supports Explore pictures and films of these
thrust off the vertical. living conditions on the internet.
Nails clutch at open seams. What does this tell you?
The whole structure leans dangerously
towards the miraculous.
Into this rough frame,
someone has squeezed
a living space Prioritise: Your thoughts and
feelings about the living space that
and even dared to place
these eggs in a wire basket, these people have.
fragile curves of white
hung out over the dark edge Create a emotion line of emotions
of a slanted universe, and consider which is the strongest
gathering the light and weakest and why?
into themselves,
as if they were E.g. – Pity – fairly strong because…
the bright, thin walls of faith.
Transform: Imagine you are the
narrator observing this scene.
Explain what you actually see and
what it suggests about working
class people.
Criticise: Religion and marriage –
what does Larkin seem to imply?
How could this be considered
cynical and pessimistic and how
does this link to Larkin’s style?
Consider: Your own hopes and
Afternoons dreams and ambitions.
Summer is fading:
The leaves fall in ones and twos Do they include marriage and
From trees bordering children and what does Afternoons
The new recreation ground.
In the hollows of afternoons suggest about these?
Young mothers assemble
At swing and sandpit
Setting free their children.
Behind them, at intervals,
Stand husbands in skilled trades,
An estateful of washing,
And the albums, lettered
Our Wedding, lying
Near the television: Prioritise: Childhood vs adulthood
Before them, the wind Select all the quotes that imply a
Is ruining their courting-places
difference between these two
That are still courting-places stages of life.
(But the lovers are all in school),
And their children, so intent on
Finding more unripe acrons, Prioritise which other poems could
Expect to be taken home. link thinking about childhood
Their beauty has thickened.
Something is pushing them Vs adulthood?
To the side of their own lives.
Transform: Power is a social
construct – explore the
elements of power that
Shelley comments on in the
poem Ozymandias. What does
Shelley feel about Power?
Criticise: The Sculpture’s
appearance.
Explore how it creates a
negative impression of the
‘great ruler’
Consider:
Place
Power
Conflict
Ozymandias Stories
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Why are these important elements in
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Ozymandias?
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 -- Prioritise:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay The sonnet form – Why a love
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare poem?
The lone and level sands stretch far away.'
Is this an oxymoronic form or
does it work?
Justify
Transform:
Describe the narrator’s journey
through London. What does he
see, think and feel as he moves
from place to place?
Criticise: The Government – The
monarchy – The Church.
Explain how (with quotes) this is
done in the poem?
Consider:
LONDON The structure of the poem – stanza
I wander thro' each charter'd street,
– line lengths – use of enjambment
Near where the charter'd Thames does flow. and end-stopping.
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe. What does it suggest about the
In every cry of every Man,
time?
In every Infants cry of fear,
In every voice: in every ban,
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear
How the Chimney-sweepers cry
Every blackning Church appalls, Prioritise:
And the hapless Soldiers sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls Context Links – What are your top 3
elements of context for the poem
But most thro' midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlots curse and why?
Blasts the new-born Infants tear
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse
 Place Poems: Possible Exam questions & exercises – remember you
can also just do a single poem with the same focus as the
comparison question
• Compare the way two of the poems • Use your Anthology Poems KO to re-learn
explore the emotions relating to the key information
place • Quiz yourself
• Compare the presentation of • Explore other examples of context
physical spaces in two poems • Watch & make notes using the many
• Compare the way the poets write examples of analysis videos on YouTube
about positive places • Listen to the podcasts created by
• Compare the way women in @ChurchillEng on the Weebly:
relationships are presented in two http://churchillacademyenglish.weebly.com
of the poems /gcse-revision-podcasts.html
• Compare the way places can link to • Use memorise
hope or despair • Re-annotate the poems
• Practice writing essays & planning them
 Nature Poems Context linked to specific quotes from the
To Autumn “Seasons of Celebrating the way, the sun allows the food and harvest Anthology – create your own charts with other examples
By Keats mists and to grow in the summer to provide food for the next
mellow season. Hawk “I sit in the top This bird of prey is waiting patiently in the skies at the top
fruitfulness” Roosting of the wood” of the trees biding its time until it is ready to hunt. This is
An understanding that all of nature has a part to play in By Hughes reflective of the actions that Hawks take waiting to hint
“later flowers the cycle of life. Bees need to use the flowers to give them until they need to.
for the bees” honey and there is the idea that nothing in nature is taken
for granted. References the way that the Hawk will swoop down and
“Now I hold grab their prey not caring whether it is a fellow creature of
Patience that is needed at the time to ensure that the Creation in my God or not, as this is the nature of a bird of prey.
“last oozings harvest is taken in and transformed into food that will take foot”
hours by hours” them through the winter season. There are no local shops Hughes was fascinated with nature and this is evident
filled with produce therefore the whole community had a throughout the poem as he wonders at the arrogance of
responsibility to help each other with the harvest. “I kill where I the bird, who appears to do as he pleases and takes what
please” he wants.
Excerpt from “like an untir’d Comparing skating on the frozen lakes of the Lake District to Death of “warm thick Childhood memories of collecting tadpoles is
The Prelude horse” animals and nature links to the romantic poet movement that a slobber of references here, which is a common occurrence
By Wordsworth was a part of and this would have appealed to his Naturalist frogspawn” that many people have experienced. This links to
Wordsworth senses as the beauty of the moment is captured. by the idea of childhood and innocence where
Heaney experiencing gathering frogspawn is exciting and
“cared not the Reflects an innocence in childhood in a time prior to the death of non-threatening.
summons – happy both Wordsworth’s parents where he was happy, carefree and “Miss Walls”
time” able to throw caution to the wind and just enjoy himself with his A teacher giving knowledge to the children about
friends in the great outdoors. nature. She appears to the child to be an expert in
the subject. Memory of school is also important
“precipices rang The wide-open spaces of the Lake Districts could be intimidating here as a calming and enjoyable experience.
aloud” and this is reflected in the echoing sounds of the hills which are a “The great
source of fascination for Wordsworth who was famously in love slime kings” As an adult the experience is different, and the
with the area that he grew up in. frogs are disgusting and threatening. Perhaps, this
reinforces the difference in adult experiences and
childhood experiences, where life becomes more
sinister and less of an exciting adventure than as
an adult.
Transform:
Write the story of the harvest
from the perspective of the
(personified) female in the
poem.
Criticise:
Harvest is clearly a time of year
for coming together and
preparing for the winter.
How far would you agree or disagree
with this?
To Autumn by John Keats Consider:
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; Keats views – How are they shown
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees, in the poem?
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees, What does he think and feel about
Until they think warm days will never cease, nature?
For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.
How does he show this?
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep Prioritise:
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.
Imagery – Select the most relevant
Where are the songs of spring? Ay, Where are they? and impactful imagery in the poem
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, and explore the technique and
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
effect.
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
Transform:
Into a story of adulthood fear
regressing to a happier more
carefree and innocent time (work
backwards through the poem)
Criticise:
Heaney’s life – look for elements
in context that meant he changed
from being carefree and innocent
to being careful and fearful.
Death of a Naturalist by Seamus Heaney Consider:
All year the flax-dam festered in the heart
Of the townland; green and heavy headed
Flax had rotted there, weighted down by huge sods. Your own thoughts and feelings
Daily it sweltered in the punishing sun. about childhood memories.
Bubbles gargled delicately, bluebottles
Wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell. Nostalgia
There were dragon-flies, spotted butterflies,
But best of all was the warm thick slobber The idea that we re-write our own
Of frogspawn that grew like clotted water history.
In the shade of the banks. Here, every spring
I would fill jampotfuls of the jellied Does this happen here? Why do you
Specks to range on window-sills at home,
On shelves at school, and wait and watch until think so or not?
The fattening dots burst into nimble-
Swimming tadpoles. Miss Walls would tell us how
The daddy frog was called a bullfrog
And how he croaked and how the mammy frog
Laid hundreds of little eggs and this was
Frogspawn. You could tell the weather by frogs too Prioritise:
For they were yellow in the sun and brown in rain.
Then one hot day when fields were rank Life stages – which is seen as most
With cowdung in the grass the angry frogs
Invaded the flax-dam; I ducked through hedges important in the poem and why?
To a coarse croaking that I had not heard
Before. The air was thick with a bass chorus.
Right down the dam gross-bellied frogs were cocked
On sods; their loose necks pulsed like sails. Some hopped:
The slap and plop were obscene threats. Some sat
Poised like mud grenades, their blunt heads farting.
I sickened, turned, and ran. The great slime kings
Were gathered there for vengeance and I knew
That if I dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it.
Transform: Imagine you are the
prey of the hawk – what do you
see/think and feel about his
arrogance and feelings of
supremacy?
Criticise:
Hughes was interested in nature
and the power and beauty of it.
How can this be responded to
using Hawk Roosting as evidence?
Hawk Roosting by Ted Hughes Consider:
I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed.
Inaction, no falsifying dream The Hawk
Between my hooked head and hooked feet:
Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat.
Describe the hawk in 20 words and
The convenience of the high trees!
explain how it makes you feel?
The air's buoyancy and the sun's ray
Are of advantage to me;
And the earth's face upward for my inspection. What gender would you associate with
My feet are locked upon the rough bark.
the hawk and why?
It took the whole of Creation
To produce my foot, my each feather:
Now I hold Creation in my foot
Or fly up, and revolve it all slowly - Prioritise:
I kill where I please because it is all mine.
There is no sophistry in my body:
My manners are tearing off heads - The use of the first person pronoun
The allotment of death. I – How many times does it appear
For the one path of my flight is direct and what does it suggest?
Through the bones of the living.
No arguments assert my right:
The sun is behind me.
Nothing has changed since I began.
My eye has permitted no change.
I am going to keep things like this.
Transform:
Into a emotion time line – Where
do changes of emotion occur in
the poem and how do you know.
Criticise:
The ending of the excerpt.
Is it effective? Why? Why not?
Consider:
Excerpt from The Prelude The form – semi-autobiographical
And in the frosty season, when the sun
Was set, and visible for many a mile What does this imply about
The cottage windows through the twilight blaz’d, Wordsworth and what does it teach
I heeded not the summons: – happy time
It was, indeed, for all of us; to me
us about his childhood?
It was a time of rapture: clear and loud
The village clock toll’d six; I wheel’d about,
Proud and exulting, like an untir’d horse,
That cares not for his home. – All shod with steel,
We hiss’d along the polish’d ice, in games
Confederate, imitative of the chace
And woodland pleasures, the resounding horn,
The Pack loud bellowing, and the hunted hare. Prioritise:
So through the darkness and the cold we flew,
And not a voice was idle; with the din,
Meanwhile, the precipices rang aloud,
The leafless trees, and every icy crag Events – Select four events in the
Tinkled like iron, while the distant hills
Into the tumult sent an alien sound poem excerpt and examine the
Of melancholy, not unnoticed, while the stars, importance of these events. Which
Eastward, were sparkling clear, and in the west
The orange sky of evening died away.
is the most influential to
Wordsworth and why?
Nature Poems: Possible Exam questions & exercises – remember you
can also just do a single poem with the same focus as the
comparison question
• Compare the way two of the poems • Use your Anthology Poems KO to re-learn
explore the emotions linked to key information
nature • Quiz yourself
• Compare the presentation of nature • Explore other examples of context
in two of the poems • Watch & make notes using the many
• Compare the way the poets write examples of analysis videos on YouTube
about their feelings in relation to • Listen to the podcasts created by
nature @ChurchillEng on the Weebly:
• Compare the way growing up is http://churchillacademyenglish.weebly.com
presented /gcse-revision-podcasts.html
• Compare the negative aspects of • Use memorise
nature • Re-annotate the poems
• Practice writing essays & planning them