GCSE Poetry - Year 10
The REAL GCSE poetry paper has 2 sections; however, your end of year poetry exam has just one
question: a comparison of 2 poems from the Anthology. We have studied the poems from the
section of the Anthology called Relationships. At this point no group has yet read all of them. We
will continue studying them in Year 11 but for your revision you should revise all of the poems that
you have studied in class - and only those.
There will be a choice of questions and you will answer one. Do not attempt to answer on a poem
that you have not studied; those questions will be aimed at other groups. For this question you will
have one named poem & you will be asked to write about it in connection with a theme (family
love/sibling relationships/romantic love/betrayal/one-sided love/hopes & dreams, etc). You will also
be asked to compare it with another poem of your choice from the Anthology. To do this you will
need to be confident of the poems you have studied.
Revision: Consider all of the poems you have studied & try to decide how many themes they
connect to. It would be helpful if you brainstorm all of the poems which you think relate to the
theme of betrayal, & so on. You want to find as many themes as possible that connect to each of
the poems.
You will need to comment on the ideas in the poems but also the ways that the poets have
presented their ideas. Look at the rhyme schemes in the poems; look at the use of metaphors &
similes (& check you can spell these words); is there any personification in the poems? Look at the
language of the poems. Are there lots of references to colour? Are the adjectives positive or
negative? Are there any themes running through the poem? Look at the form of the poems; how
many are sonnets/ballads? Remember that Praise Song isn’t just the title of the poem, it is also a
type of poem. These are aspects of the poems that you can compare in your exam essay. Which of
the poems are 20th century poems and which are earlier? Does this affect the views presented in
each poem? – for example, the attitude to religion in Sister Maude.
Sample question
How does the writer treat the theme of hopes and dreams in Born Yesterday & one other poem of
your choice?
TASK: List the poems you have studied which you think you could link to Born Yesterday in this essay
question. Now brainstorm the connections you could make between each poem & Born Yesterday.
Sometimes it is good to be able to CONTRAST the poems. For example, Born Yesterday links to the
idea of hopes & dreams for a baby, but The Farmer’s Bride could fit into this theme as well.
Remember you want to talk about language, structure & form so it will be helpful if – in this area at
least – there are some contrasts between Born Yesterday and the poem you choose. Now look at all
the poems you have considered; which can you say most about? Choose this one!
Now read the assessment objectives below and write a practice essay on this title.
Assessment objectives: AO1 respond to texts critically & imaginatively; select & evaluate relevant
textual detail to illustrate & support interpretations
AO2 explain how language, structure & form contribute to writers’
presentation of ideas, themes & settings
AO3 make comparisons & explain links between texts, evaluating writers’
different ways of expressing meaning & achieving effects
To address AO1 you need to be able to pinpoint specific details within the poems; you need to
understand the overall theme of the poems; you need to interpret the poets’ messages and
purposes. You need to be able to select short, snappy quotations.
AO2 requires you to pick out individual words, phrases, poetic techniques (eg, alliteration, similes,
onomatopoeia) for comment & comparison; you need to identify the form of the poem (sonnet,
ballad, praise song, ghazal, rhyming poem, free verse); you also need to look at the way it is
structured (does it use questions, lists, repetition, repeated grammatical structures; is it a narrative
poem? Does it take the form of a memory? Does it work up to a crescendo?). You also need to
explain how the poets have used structure, form & language to develop their meaning.
AO3 requires you to make meaningful comparisons between the poems you are writing about. To
do this well you should write about each poem in turn, moving from one to the other like a tennis
ball crossing the net.
Remember English essays should finish with a concluding paragraph; in this case it will be a short
paragraph. You have only 45 minutes in which to plan, write & check your answer.