AQA Love and relationships cluster study guide
As you approach each poem in the cluster, think about the following questions.
1. What is the poem about?
2. Who is the speaker of the poem?
3. Who is the speaker speaking to or addressing?
4. What happens in the poem?
5. What form is the poem in?
6. Does the poem change focus anywhere?
7. Is the poem in the past or present? What might this represent?
8. What devices does the poet use?
9. What kind of language does the poet use?
10. What is the context of the poem?
11. What do you know about the poet and does this contribute to your understanding of
the poem?
12. What do you think or feel about this poem?
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AQA Love and relationships cluster study guide
When We Two Parted
By Lord Byron
AO1 questions – read, understand, respond, quotations
Why do you think the speaker grieves in silence?
1. Do you think the speaker is sad about his relationship? Why / why not?
2. Do you think the mysterious woman in the poem ever loved the speaker? Why / why
not?
3. How does the speaker feel when he hears the woman’s name?
4. How will he act if he sees her again?
5. What impression does the speaker give you about his former lover? What is she like?
6. How does the speaker deal with heartbreak?
AO2 questions – analyse language, form and structure
1. Which quotations invoke a sense of sadness in this poem?
What does the repetition of the noun ‘silence’ emphasise?
Byron uses language that references death. What does this symbolise and why do you
think he does this?
What does the theme of death tell you about the speaker’s view of love and
relationships?
The speaker constantly shifts between the past and present. What is the effect of this?
How does the writer use the language of silence to show that their relationship was a
secret? What are some examples of this?
AO3 questions – show understanding of the relationships between texts and
contexts
2. This poem is a Romantic poem. How does this poem fit the conventions of Romantic
poetry?
How might Byron’s relationship with Lady Francis have influenced this poem?
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AQA Love and relationships cluster study guide
Love’s Philosophy
By Percy Bysshe Shelley
AO1 questions – read, understand, respond, quotations
1. Who is the speaker addressing and what is he trying to persuade her to do?
2. How does the woman feel about the speaker?
3. What are the speaker’s arguments for the woman being with him?
4. How do you think the speaker feels about the woman?
AO2 questions – analyse language, form and structure
5. The writer uses personification. Provide an example of this. Why does the poet use
this device?
6. The poet uses questions at the end of each stanza. Why does the poet choose to do
this?
7. What features of persuasion does the speaker use?
8. The speaker uses repetition throughout the poem. What are some examples of
repetition and why do you think the poet uses this?
9. The poet uses religious language. How does this support his argument?
AO3 questions – show understanding of the relationships between texts and
contexts
10. Shelley was a ‘Romantic’ poet. How does this poem fit into this genre?
11. What other poems might you compare this poem to?
12. What is the poem telling us about the nature of love and relationships?
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AQA Love and relationships cluster study guide
Porphyria’s Lover
By Robert Browning
AO1 questions – read, understand, respond, quotations
1. What is the relationship between the speaker and Porphyria?
Why does the speaker kill Porphyria?
How does the speaker feel about murdering Porphyria?
What is the cottage like in comparison to the weather outside?
What does the speaker do after murdering Porphyria?
The speaker comments that God hasn’t ‘said a word’ after he kills Porphyria. What do
you think this might mean?
Why do you think the speaker grieves in silence?
AO2 questions – analyse language, form and structure
2. The speaker repeats ‘yellow hair’. Why do you think the poet chooses to do this?
3. The poem is in the form of a dramatic monologue. Why do you think the poet chose
this form?
4. The speaker uses language which suggests ownership and possession. Identify some
of this language. What does it tell us about their relationship?
5. The poet uses pathetic fallacy. What does this tell us about the events of the poem?
6. The speaker uses violent language to describe his love. What are the effects of this?
AO3 questions – show understanding of the relationships between texts and
contexts
7. What period of time was Browning writing in?
8. How were relationships meant to be conducted in Victorian times? What is the
speaker doing differently?
9. Porphyria is named after a disease. What might this symbolise about her and the
speaker’s relationship with her?
10. How does the language of possession and ownership relate to gender roles of the
time?
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AQA Love and relationships cluster study guide
Sonnet 29 – ‘I think of thee!’
By Elizabeth Barrett Browning
AO1 questions – read, understand, respond, quotations
1. What is the speaker thinking about?
How is the speaker feeling?
What is she worried about?
Why won’t the speaker think of her lover when she is with him?
AO2 questions – analyse language, form and structure
1. What does the speaker compare her thoughts to? What are the effects of this?
2. What does the natural imagery in the poem represent?
3. The poem is a sonnet. Why do you think the poet chose to write using this form?
4. The speaker uses language which shows excitement. What are some examples of this
language and what does it tell us about how she feels?
5. The poet uses imperatives. What does this tell us about the relationship between her
and her lover?
AO3 questions – show understanding of the relationships between texts and
contexts
1. What other poems might you compare to this poem?
2. What is the poet saying about the nature of relationships?
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AQA Love and relationships cluster study guide
Neutral Tones
By Thomas Hardy
AO1 questions – read, understand, respond, quotations
1. What is the speaker describing in the poem?
2. What is their relationship like?
3. How does the speaker’s lover feel?
4. When does the speaker remember this day at the pond?
5. How does the speaker feel about the end of the relationship?
AO2 questions – analyse language, form and structure
1. How does the language of nature reflect the relationship?
2. How does the title reflect the poem?
3. The writer uses language related to death. Find some examples of this.
What does it suggest about their relationship?
4. The writer refers to God. What is the effect of this?
5. ‘Wrings with wrong’ – what is the effect of this alliteration?
6. How do we know that the poet has been hurt in love more than once?
7. What is the difference between the first three stanzas and the last stanza?
AO3 questions – show understanding of the relationships between texts and
contexts
8. What other poems might you compare this poem to?
9. What does this poem tell us about the nature of love and relationships?
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AQA Love and relationships cluster study guide
Letters from Yorkshire
By Maura Dooley
AO1 questions – read, understand, respond, quotations
1. What similarities are there between the poet and the man she is writing letters to?
2. What are the differences between the poet and the man she is writing to?
3. What is the man she is writing to like?
AO2 questions – analyse language, form and structure
4. Rural imagery is used in the poem. What are some examples of this and why do you
think the poet includes these images?
5. The writer makes use of contrasts throughout the poem. What are some of these
contrasts and why do you think the poet does this?
6. The poet uses metaphors in the poem. What does this tell us about her feelings
towards the writer of the letters?
7. Why do you think the writer uses enjambment to separate the tercets/stanzas?
AO3 questions – show understanding of the relationships between texts and
contexts
8. The poet asks a question: ‘Is your life more real because you dig and sow?’. What do
you think the poet means by this?
9. What other poems could you compare this to?
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AQA Love and relationships cluster study guide
The Farmer’s Bride
By Charlotte Mew
AO1 questions – read, understand, respond, quotations
1. How is the farmer’s wife described?
2. How does the farmer feel about his wife? Does this change at all throughout the
poem?
3. What happens to the farmer’s wife and why?
4. How does the bride feel about men?
5. How does the speaker feel about his wife’s rejection of him?
AO2 questions – analyse language, form and structure
6. The poem is in the form of a dramatic monologue. Why do you think the poet chose
this form?
7. The poet makes references to different seasons which represent time passing. What
are these references and why do you think the poet does this?
8. There is a strong sense of rhyme in this poem. What is the effect of this and what
ideas does it highlight?
9. The poet uses colloquial language. Find some examples of this. What is the effect?
10. The poet uses a rhetorical question in line 33. What is the speaker asking? What is
the effect of this?
11. The poet uses repetition in the last line of the poem. What is the effect of this? How
does the speaker feel?
12. Natural imagery is used throughout the poem. How does the poet link these images
to the farmer’s wife and what do these tell us about her?
AO3 questions – show understanding of the relationships between texts and
contexts
1. How is the concept of arranged/organised marriage portrayed in the poem?
2. How do we know this poem is based in a rural, farming community?
3. How do we know that farming is very important to the people in this poem?
4. How does the relationship between men and women reflect how relationships might
have been in the 19th Century?
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AQA Love and relationships cluster study guide
Walking Away
By Cecil Day-Lewis
AO1 questions – read, understand, respond, quotations
1. Who is the speaker in the poem and who are they speaking to?
2. What is the father watching?
3. How does the father feel about his son?
4. How does the child feel about his father?
5. How does the speaker feel about this day now?
6. What does the last line of the poem mean?
7. Why is the father worried about his son?
AO2 questions – analyse language, form and structure
8. The writer uses language which suggests space and distance. Identify these
examples. What is the effect of this?
9. Why do you think the speaker addresses his son directly?
10. The writer uses the language of nature. What is the effect of this? Why do you think
the writer chose to include this imagery?
11. What do you think the game of football in the first stanza is a metaphor for?
12. The writer uses language which reflects pain. Identify some examples of this. What
does it tell us about how the speaker feels about his son?
AO3 questions – show understanding of the relationships between texts and
contexts
13. What other poems might you compare this poem to?
14. What does this poem tell us about the nature of relationships?
15. What does this poem tell us about the nature of growing up?
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AQA Love and relationships cluster study guide
Eden Rock
By Charles Causley
AO1 questions – read, understand, respond, quotations
1. What is the poet writing a memory of?
2. What do you think may have happened to his parents since? Why do you think this?
3. What do we learn about his parents?
4. What do we learn about the speaker?
AO2 questions – analyse language, form and structure
5. What details does the writer use in order to create a vivid scene?
6. The poet uses language of light. How does this contribute to the tone of the poem?
7. The last stanza is only one line long. What do you think the writer means? What is
the effect of this?
8. What does the word ‘Eden’ in the title suggest?
9. ‘The sky whitens as if lit by three suns’ – what do you think the ‘three suns’
represent?
AO3 questions – show understanding of the relationships between texts and
contexts
10. What other poems might you compare this to?
11. What does the poet tell us about family relationships?
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AQA Love and relationships cluster study guide
Follower
By Seamus Heaney
AO1 questions – read, understand, respond, quotations
1. How does the writer feel about his father at the beginning of the poem?
2. How does the writer feel about his father at the end of the poem?
3. How is the poet’s father presented?
4. How does the poet think his father views him?
AO2 questions – analyse language, form and structure
5. What might the term ‘follower’ be a metaphor for?
6. The poet uses similes to describe his father. Identify these similes. What do they
tell us about his father?
7. What is the effect of the alliteration of the ‘t’ sound in the poem?
8. The poet uses farming jargon throughout the poem. Identify some of these terms.
Why do you think the poet uses this?
9. The last stanza has a different focus. What is the focus of this stanza and why do you
think the poet chooses to do this?
10. The writer also uses the language of the sea and sailing. Why do you think he does
this? What is the effect?
AO3 questions – show understanding of the relationships between texts and
contexts
11. How does the poet describe rural life?
12. What is the poet saying about family relationships?
13. What other poems could you compare this poem to?
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AQA Love and relationships cluster study guide
Mother, any distance
By Simon Armitage
AO1 questions – read, understand, respond, quotations
1. Who is the speaker and who are they speaking to?
2. What do you think the relationship between the speaker and his mother is like?
3. How do you think the speaker’s mother feels about him moving away from home?
AO2 questions – analyse language, form and structure
4. The writer directly addresses his mother at the beginning of the poem. What does
the use of the word ‘mother’ tell you about their relationship?
5. What might the ‘spool of tape’ represent and why?
6. What does the line ‘I space-walk through the empty bedrooms’ tell us about how the
speaker feels?
7. The poet is written in the form of a sonnet. Sonnets are usually used in love poetry.
What does this tell us about how the speaker might feel about his mother?
8. What do the images of ‘kite’ and ‘anchor’ tell us about the speaker’s relationship
with his mother?
9. What does the last line tell us about how the speaker feels about living on his own?
AO3 questions – show understanding of the relationships between texts and
contexts
10. What other poems could you compare this poem to?
11. How does the writer explore relationships between parents and their children in this
poem?
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AQA Love and relationships cluster study guide
Before You Were Mine
By Carol Ann Duffy
AO1 questions – read, understand, respond, quotations
1. What does the speaker describe her mother as being like?
2. What does the speaker remember about her own childhood?
3. What was her mother’s life like before she had a child?
4. What is the relationship like between the poet and her mother?
AO2 questions – analyse language, form and structure
5. What does ‘your ghost clatters toward me’ mean and what does it suggest about the
speaker’s mother? What technique is used here?
6. The first three stanzas each start with a reminder of the distance in time between
the speaker’s birth and her mum’s youth and fun. Why do you think the poet does
this?
7. The poet uses the present tense to talk about past events. What is the effect of this?
8. The poet compares her mother to Marilyn Monroe. What is the effect of this?
9. The poet uses imagery related to the past (e.g. ‘relic’). What other imagery does she
use in this way and what is the effect?
10. The poet repeats ‘Before you were mine’ – what is the effect of this repetition?
11. The poet uses possessive language. Find some examples of this. What does it tell
you about the poet’s relationship with her mother?
AO3 questions – show understanding of the relationships between texts and
contexts
12. Which other poems might you compare this to?
13. How does being a teenager / being young in this poem differ to the kinds of things
teenagers and young people do today?
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AQA Love and relationships cluster study guide
Winter Swans
By Owen Sheers
AO1 questions – read, understand, respond, quotations
1. What is the couple’s relationship like?
2. What helps the couple’s relationship to change?
3. Why do you think the poem is set in winter?
4. How do we know that the couple are happier by the end of the poem?
AO2 questions – analyse language, form and structure
5. Identify the use of personification. Why do you think the poet has used this device?
6. What does the simile in stanza four suggest about the couple’s relationship?
7. What does the weather in the poem tell us about the couple’s relationship?
8. What structural features does the poet use to create a sense of disjointedness or
unease? Consider the length of the stanzas and the broken rhyme scheme.
9. The swans are a metaphor for their relationship. How does the relationship of the
swans mirror the couple?
10. The poet uses contrasts in the poem. Identify a contrast and explain what this tells us
about the couple.
AO3 questions – show understanding of the relationships between texts and
contexts
11. What other poems might you compare this poem to?
12. What does this poem tell us about the nature of relationships?
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AQA Love and relationships cluster study guide
Singh Song!
By Daljit Nagra
AO1 questions – read, understand, respond, quotations
1. What is the poem about?
2. How does the speaker feel about his wife?
3. How does the speaker feel about working in the shop?
4. How is the speaker different to his father?
5. What is the speaker’s wife like?
6. How does the speaker want to spend his time?
AO2 questions – analyse language, form and structure
7. The speaker uses non-standard English and phonetic spelling. What does this tell you
about the speaker?
8. What does the word ‘daddy’ suggest about the speaker?
9. What does the use of repetition in lines six and seven suggest about the couple’s
relationship?
10. How do lines 10-11 create the image of a rebel?
11. How does the speaker embody both English and Indian culture?
12. The writer uses playful language to describe the relationship between the speaker
and his wife. What are some examples of this language and how does it contribute to
the sense of playfulness?
AO3 questions – show understanding of the relationships between texts and
contexts
13. The speaker’s wife does not conform to stereotypes. How is she different?
14. How does the poem make use of stereotypes overall?
15. How are the two cultures (British and Indian) explored in this poem?
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AQA Love and relationships cluster study guide
Climbing my Grandfather
By Andrew Waterhouse
AO1 questions – read, understand, respond, quotations
1. What is the speaker doing in the poem?
2. How does the speaker feel about his grandfather?
3. How does the speaker describe his grandfather?
AO2 questions – analyse language, form and structure
4. The poet uses the present tense, even though he is writing about the past. What is
the effect of this?
5. The poet uses an extended metaphor to represent climbing on his grandfather. What
does this make the task seem like?
6. The poet uses words from nature to describe the task. Provide some examples of
this. Why do you think the writer does this?
7. The structure follows the poet climbing up then down. Why do you think the poet
has chosen to structure the poem in this way?
8. The poet mentions ‘dangers’. What are the dangers? How does this add to the sense
of excitement in the poem?
9. There is a sense of adventure in this poem. What language does the poet use to
create this sense of adventure and what does this reveal about his relationship with
his grandfather?
AO3 questions – show understanding of the relationships between texts and
contexts
10. What other poems can you compare this to?
11. What is the poet saying about relationships with older members of the family?
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AQA Love and relationships cluster study guide
Sample assessment questions
1. Compare how poets present the notion of romantic love in ‘Love’s Philosophy’ and in
one other poem from ‘Love and relationships’.
Compare how poets present a need for love in ‘I think of thee’ and in one other poem
from ‘Love and relationships’.
Compare how poets present love as being a destructive force in ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ and in
one other poem from ‘Love and relationships’.
Compare how poets present the end of a relationship in ‘When We Two Parted’ and in one
other poem from ‘Love and relationships’.
Compare how poets present parental love in ‘Mother, any distance’ and in one other poem
from ‘Love and relationships’.
Compare how the poet presents changes in relationships in ‘Walking Away’ and in one
other poem from ‘Love and relationships’.
Compare how poets present the strong bond between family members in ‘Climbing my
Grandfather’ and in one other poem from ‘Love and relationships’.
Compare how poets present physical separation in ‘Letters from Yorkshire’ and in one
other poem from ‘Love and relationships’.
Compare how poets present memories in ‘Neutral Tones’ and in one other poem from
‘Love and relationships’.
Compare how poets present the role of nature in ‘Winter Swans’ and in one other poem
from ‘Love and relationships’.
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