GCSE English Literature
Unit 2 (B): Poetry across time
Poetry Cluster from the Anthology
1 GCSE – POETRY – ENGLISH LITERATURE
Contents
Contents ................................................................................................................................................................ 2
GCSE English Literature: Unit 2: Poetry Across Time .............................................................................................. 4
What is the unseen poetry section all about? ........................................................................................................ 4
How do I approach it? ............................................................................................................................................ 4
How do I structure my response? .......................................................................................................................... 4
What should to be in my answer? .......................................................................................................................... 4
How do I use these notes? ..................................................................................................................................... 5
Terms to remember ............................................................................................................................................... 5
William Blake ......................................................................................................................................................... 7
“The Tyger” ............................................................................................................................................................ 8
John Keats............................................................................................................................................................ 10
“On the Grasshopper and Cricket” .......................................................................................................................... 11
Thomas Hardy ...................................................................................................................................................... 12
“Afterwards” ........................................................................................................................................................... 13
Christina Rossetti ................................................................................................................................................. 15
“Remember” ........................................................................................................................................................... 16
W. H. Auden......................................................................................................................................................... 17
“The More Loving One” ........................................................................................................................................... 18
Robert Frost ......................................................................................................................................................... 19
“The Road Not Taken” ............................................................................................................................................ 20
Wilfred Owen ...................................................................................................................................................... 22
“Futility” ................................................................................................................................................................. 23
Dorothy Parker .................................................................................................................................................... 24
“Condolence” .......................................................................................................................................................... 25
Maya Angelou ...................................................................................................................................................... 26
“Awaking in New York” ........................................................................................................................................... 27
Wendy Cope ........................................................................................................................................................ 28
“Bloody men” .......................................................................................................................................................... 29
Tony Harrison ...................................................................................................................................................... 30
“Long Distance II” ................................................................................................................................................... 31
Jo Shapcott .......................................................................................................................................................... 32
2 GCSE – POETRY – ENGLISH LITERATURE
“Of Mutability”........................................................................................................................................................ 33
Sophie Hannah..................................................................................................................................................... 34
“Rubbish at Adultery” ............................................................................................................................................. 35
Owen Sheers ........................................................................................................................................................ 37
“Mametz Wood” ..................................................................................................................................................... 38
Brian Patten ......................................................................................................................................................... 40
“Song for Last Year’s Wife” ..................................................................................................................................... 41
3 GCSE – POETRY – ENGLISH LITERATURE
GCSE English Literature: Unit 2: Poetry Across Time
What is the unseen poetry section all about?
In this section, you will be presented with a poem you (likely) may not have studied before. It is important that
you have the skills to analyse and interpret poetry on the spot. The good news is that you have been provided
with the poets that will appear on the exam. In preparing for the exam, learn as much about these poets as you
can. Biographical details as well as their writing style and common themes/subjects will help you to analyse their
individual poems.
How do I approach it?


Use the information you know about the poems and authors, including tone, style, form, and devices, to
answer the question at hand.
Make sure that you are always referring back to the question you were given. It can be easy to fall off
topic in these kinds of questions.
How do I structure my response?


Each response, no matter how long, should have three things: an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.
 Introduction: Introduce the poet, the poems at hand, and the question. If there is some
background information on the poet or on the time period in which they were written that you
feel is worth mentioning, here is a good place to do so.
 Body: Prove your point or achieve your purpose using examples from the poems.
 Conclusion: Here is where you can wrap things up. Make any final points that compliment what
you have already said, but do not introduce any new information. Here is not where you should
me making new arguments, but merely solidifying the points you have already made.
Each of your responses should be clearly organised, well written, delivered well, and should have proper
grammar and mechanics.
What should to be in my answer?

A strong analysis of the poem should be present in your response. Remember to consider things like the
content of the poem (what is the poem actually about, underneath all of the poetic devices?); the title of
the poem (it’s there for a reason and is therefore important!); poetic devices (it wouldn’t be poetry
without them); tone (attitudes conveyed by the poem); themes (every poem has some); structure and
rhythm (these add value to the meaning and tone of the poem); and background information about the
poets (their poetry often can tell a lot about them as a person, and vice versa).
4 GCSE – POETRY – ENGLISH LITERATURE
How do I use these notes?
Here, we will show you how to look at “poetry at first sight”. For each of the assigned poets, we have
given you a brief biography, as biographical facts about the poet often give a great deal of insight into
their poetry.
 We have suggested a few steps that you should take when you first see the poem. They are as follows:
 Read the poem once through without stopping to analyse. This will help you to understand what
the subject of the poem is.
 Figure out who is the speaker of the poem and (if applicable) who is the intended audience?
 What is the tone of the poem? Possible tones include: angry, ashamed, conversational, anxious,
coy, childish, cynical, joking, heavy-hearted, loving, mocking, sarcastic, satirical, etc. There are
hundreds of possible tones; it is up to you to decide which one applies to any given poem.
 Read it again. This time, pick out key words and phrases. If there are words you don’t know, try to
use context clues to decipher their meaning. Use this time to understand the literal interpretation
of the poem—what exactly is being said or expressed? What is the action of the poem? Make
note of people and places mentioned in the poem. These are called allusions and will be
important to your understanding of the poem.
 Now look at the poem at a figurative level. Be sure to keep an eye out for poetic devices such as
metaphors (and extended metaphors), similes, hyperbole, symbolism, synecdoche, and other
devices (see ‘Terms to remember’). These have been put in the poem for a reason- find out why!
Ask yourself: how do the poetic devices add to the tone of the poem? This may help you figure
out why the devices have been used.
 Go back and look at the title. How is it significant? Does it add meaning to the poem?
 What is the form and structure of the poem? How do they add to the tone and understanding of
the poem?
 What language and imagery is present? Are there sound effects at work here? If so, how do they
add to the understanding and tone of the poem?
These steps do not have to be completed in this order, but they should all be considered when analysing a poem
for the first time.

Terms to remember
Here are some key terms and devices to remember, as defined by Jeffrey Wainwright’s Poetry: the basics.1










1
Allegory: A literary work in which characters, settings and actions are all devised to represent, or
symbolize, abstractions.
Alliteration: The repetition on consonants close enough together to be noticed by the ear.
Allusion: a reference to a person, place, or thing in history or another work
Assonance: The reiteration of the same vowel sounds close enough together to be noticed by the ear.
Conceit: A particularly striking metaphor; usually part of a larger pattern of images, sometimes continued
through the whole poem.
Connotation: A secondary or additional meaning of a word besides its primary meaning; usually an idea
or feeling associated with the word. (e.g.: positive connotation, negative connotation)
Consonance: The overall harmony or concord of sounds.
Diction: The choice or selection of words or phrases used.
Elegy: A poem occasioned by the death of someone.
End-rhyme: A rhyme that occurs at the end of a line.
Wainwright, Jeffrey. Poetry: The basics. New York: Routledge, 2004.
5 GCSE – POETRY – ENGLISH LITERATURE