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A* GCSE English
Literature Poetry
Response
At first this may appear daunting but with a ruthless and systematic approach it
can be achieved. Essentially, the key to performing at this level is having your
own ideas; if you can form your own opinions about each of the poems then you
will be able to write this kind of essay. The real skill here is to marry the ideas
that you have with a written style that allows you to showcase them in the
examination. The former depends on you knowing the poems intimately; the
latter on a ruthless determination to master the process outlined in the rest of this
document.
You might begin and end your response with some theoretical discussion of the
concept in the title question. In the case of this question, the concept is death,
therefore you might begin your essay in the following way:
The finality of death is presented in a range of ways throughout
the poems in the Anthology; it forms a central concern of the
poets and each one focuses on different aspects such that we
might come to see the poems as exploring the process of death.
That is, while in Mid-Term Break, Heaney centres the narrative
of his poem on an the nature of grief the longer term impact
of a death conversely, Gillian Clarkes The Field Mouse is
concerned with the genocidal murder of a people during the
ethnic cleansing in the Balkans during the 1990s. However,
ironically, given the scale of Clarkes deaths her poem is imbued
with a sense of anonymity it is more focussed on the concept
rather than the event because we never see a death, but
instead, the effect of its magnitude, in turn, this foregrounds
Clarkes attempt to locate her exploration of death as an
abstract meditation on the concept itself.
Another poet
concerned with death as a concept is William Wordsworth in The
Affliction of Margaret who presents the impact of a possible but
It engages with the death as an idea rather than just an event that
happens;
It deconstructs the idea of death and discusses specific elements or
characteristics of death;
It understands that death is an idea the poets use as a theme that is
explored through the events, characters and relationships of the poem.
Also note how the writer establishes a comparative tone from the outset this is
a real positive because already the examiner is aware that this essay has
comparison at its centre.
In order to hit this criterion you need to show that you can not only identify what
the different themes, ideas and relationships are, but instead, that you can
consider the different possible meanings that the poet is trying to convey. So for
example, at some point you would want a passage that shows this kind of
exploration:
The arrangement of Mid-Term Break and The Field Mouse is
central to the way that both poets present the concept of death.
Mid-Term Break adopts a rigid three-line stanza structure which
is counter pointed in the final single line that is intended to
enhance the horror of the childs death. However, Clarke
sustains the regularity of her stanzas throughout in order to
convey the powerlessness of the victims of war who are at the
mercy of the unbreakable horror of war. In turn, the regularity
of Mid-Term Break may be representative of the strong exterior
the persona feels compelled to uphold in order to support his
father who he meets crying on his arrival. However, the final
line, a four foot box, a foot for every year transposes the focus
of the poem from the external to the internal; that is, into the
mind of the persona who is struck by the horror of a wasted life
whose meagre years are presented by the morbid symbol of the
coffin in which his brother lies. However, undermining the
personas rigid outward appearance, and foreshadowing the
final moment of realisation at the end of the poem, is the
enjambment that runs between stanzas three, four and five.
While attempting to maintain the dignity and stoicism exhibited
by men like Big Jim Evans who euphemistically characterise
the death as a hard blow, the enjambment hints at a young
boy projecting an outward appearance of strength but internally
Notice that there is a balance here between close analytical reading of each poem
and then some important comparative remarks that again further the sense that
this is at its centre a comparison. Another important feature to note is the
way that detail or quotations are embedded into the body of the argument and
that the paragraph isnt punctuated by long, overwhelming quotations.
The above passage would also get maximum credit for the final three
criteria:
You will notice that in order to support the points being made, the writer has used
key details the specific reference to the stoicism of Big Jim in Mid-Term Break or
the radio in The Field Mouse which are integrated or embedded into the body
of the argument. The passage would be rewarded for sensitive and evaluative
use of detail because the details used by the writer are used to make an
insightful comment about death in the poems for example, that death in MidTerm Break creates conflicting emotions in people which have to be repressed or
controlled in someway dependent on other people. This then becomes an
evaluative comment because of the way that the writer then comments on how
the persona is projecting an outward appearance of stoicism, showing that they
understand that there is a duality of purpose in Heaneys presentation of the
poem; he isnt simply showing the boy is trying to act like the men around him,
but instead, he is being forced into a much more complex dilemma about how to
deal with grief.
The central point of this paragraph is concerned with how form and structure help
us to derive the key thematic ideas presented by the poets. The writer is
comparing the way that the poets use the length and construction of stanzas to
convey meaning essentially, an issue of poetic form and therefore
immediately they get credit for showing that they understand that this is a crucial
feature of poetic craft. However, they then develop this into an evaluative
comparison by explaining why each poem adopts its stanza structure. In order
to do this, the writer explains the effects of each one in terms of the meaning that
it conveys:
In turn, the regularity of Mid-Term Break may be representative
of the strong exterior the persona feels compelled to uphold in
order to support his father who he meets crying on his arrival.
However, the final line, a four foot box, a foot for every year
transposes the focus of the poem from the external to the
internal; that is, into the mind of the persona who is struck by
the horror of a wasted life whose meagre years are presented
by the morbid symbol of the coffin in which his brother lies
and
The Field Mouses stanzas of equal length allude to the
regularity of life beyond the place of death in the countries
where people are not affected by the events of the radios
terrible news. The idea of distance, evoked by the idea of
people receiving the news over the radio as opposed to firsthand is crucial because it creates the sense of how war and
by definition, death is a concept that the outside world can
accept at a distance, while to the people who suffer its wrath it
is an overwhelming presence of brutality.
Then, to conclude, the writer draws from the different ways that the poets have
used form, a final comparative remark:
This marks a key contrast between the two poems: Heaney
presenting a poem about a death that we all find futile and
tragic; while Clarke presents a death that is negated by those to
whom it does not reach, this is a central part of the tragedy of
the Balkans genocide to which Clarke might be referring:
thousands of people were ethnically cleansed while the rest of
the world looked on indifferently.
The paragraph would get maximum credit for this criterion because it synthesises
all three of the component parts:
1.
and:
2.
The initial proposition at the beginning of the paragraph achieves credit for this
element of the criteria:
The arrangement of Mid-Term Break and The Field Mouse is
central to the way that both poets present the concept of death.
Mid-Term Break adopts a rigid three-line stanza structure which
is counter pointed in the final single line that is intended to
enhance the horror of the childs death. However, Clarke
sustains the regularity of her stanzas throughout in order to
convey the powerlessness of the victims of war who are at the
mercy of the unbreakable horror of war.
This moves beyond a simple comparison of fact; that is, the writer does not just
state that there is a difference in the arrangement of the stanzas. It becomes an
evaluative comparison because it explores and explains the effect the
difference in form has on the central concept of the question: death. In turn, the
writer of the essay is making a sophisticated comparison of how form directly
affects meaning in relation to the concept of death.
Points to Note
It important that you write in an imaginative way showing that you have a
personal engagement with the poems; this will ensure that your ideas are
individual and set you apart from the many other responses.
You must use carefully selected quotations from the poems that are
embedded into the body of your essay. You want to avoid a situation where
each paragraph is punctuated by huge quotations which are not gaining you
credit; carefully selected words or phrases which are embedded into the body
of your argument will work much more efficiently.
You must develop your ideas fully based on the textual details that you
use, this will ensure that you are rewarded for insight and exploration which is
necessary characteristic of an A* response.
It is important to engage with the texts as poems; that is, you need to
show you understand that poetic form and technique is central to how the
Although you only need to hit each criteria once in your essay, an A*
essay will tend to repeatedly hit the criteria throughout. Indeed, as you can
see from the paragraph above, you can hit many of the criteria in one
paragraph.
If you write in an exploratory and insightful way you will
automatically use detail in a sensitive way to make comparisons between the
texts.
Stage 1:
1: The Introduction
Your introduction needs to do the following:
Address the terms of the question referring directly to the key words of the
question;
Some conceptual discussion of the key concept in the title question;
An initial comparison of how the key concept in the title question is
presented in each poem you need to make sure you include in this the titles
and names of the poets you are going to discuss.
Stage 2:
2: Body Paragraphs
Each body paragraph needs to do the following:
Stage 3: Conclusion
Your conclusion needs to do the following:
Directly answer the title question based on the exploration of the poems
that you have completed;
Make some comparative remarks in relation to the title question;
End with a final, original idea about the key concept of the title question.
A Warning
If you practice using this structure then you will ensure that you not only write in
a way that allows you to meet all the criteria in the examination, but you will
afford yourself the opportunity to showcase the sophisticated ideas that you have
about the poems. This structure is designed deliberately to achieve an A*
response to the poetry in the examination, however it is worth remembering that
you cannot simply follow the structure in a methodical and mechanical way, the
central characteristic of an A* response is imagination and originality. This comes
with knowing the poems but also finding ways to express yourself imaginatively;
the structure above is simply a framework to help you do that.
Time
It is important from the outset that you are conscious of the time that you have in
the examination, it should be at the forefront of your mind. This structure is
almost a safe-guard against the perils of running out of time, in theory if you write
a relatively small amount, you should still cover enough ground. However, at first
you will need to spend longer than an hour writing to learn the style, but towards
the end of Year 11, you will want to be regularly producing practice essays that
cover all of the ground in an hour.
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timeline to sequence the structure of your essay in the same way would use a
timeline to record a sequence of events in history.
Example:
Compare the ways that poets present death in Mid-Term Break by Seamus
Heaney, The Affliction of Margaret by William Wordsworth and two other
poems.
Introduction
Death processes of death, each
poem shows different aspect.
Poems Mid-Term Break, Affliction,
Field Mouse, Sonne.
Body Paragraph 1
Heaney grieving, confusion over
how to feel
Jonson despondent, loss of self (ie.
ref father)
Cf. rigidity of language in SH with
much
more
elaborate
rhythm/structure Jonson.
Body Paragraph 2
Clarke a tension between distance
& immediacy of death radio &
field bleeding.
Wordsworth is distant because its
hypothetical death isnt assured
but still personal.
The internalised imagery of hell in
WWorth
cf.
with
the
more
Conclusion
Death presented in contrasting
ways some internal others
external key difference
But, also they form an interesting
dialogue with one another about the
process of deathdeath, grief,
regret
Also an interesting debate about
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Creating cohesive prose can be easily achieved by using discourse markers, in the
tables below are a range of discourse markers that have a range of purposes in
written text. It is absolutely imperative that you use discourse markers in a
poetry response because it is another way of indicating to the examiner that you
are writing in a comparative way.
Transitions that indicate you want to add information to what you are
saying
Besides
Furthermore
In addition
Indeed
In fact
Moreover
Firstly, secondly
Transitions that indicate a cause or reason
As a result
Consequently
For that reason
Therefore/thus
Since
Because of
Particularly
Specifically
To demonstrate
To illustrate
This exemplifies
Hence
Therefore
Thus
Practice Question
Compare how the poets present the importance of history in At a
Potato Digging by Seamus Heaney and A Difficult Birth, Easter
1998.
2.
3.
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4.
5.
Now look again at both questions and complete the chart below to
show the similarities and differences in the way that the poets present
the importance of history in the poems.
Importance of History
Similarities
At a Potato Digging
A Difficult Birth, Easter 1916
Events/Characters/Relationships
Events/Characters/Relationships
Themes/Ideas:
Themes/Ideas:
Language/Form/Structure:
Language/Form/Structure:
Importance of History
Differences
At a Potato Digging
A Difficult Birth, Easter 1916
Events/Characters/Relationships
Events/Characters/Relationships
Themes/Ideas:
Themes/Ideas:
Language/Form/Structure:
Language/Form/Structure:
6.
7.
13
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In preparation for the examination, it is important to revisit what you know about
punctuation. This is because you will want to be able to express some highly
complex ideas fluently. The most effective way to do this is to use a broader
range of punctuation in your response.
Outlined below are the rules and principles regarding the use of some more
complex punctuation marks that allow you to express complex ideas with greater
fluidity.
Basic Principle: punctuation marks should be used to enhance the clarity and
meaning of your writing they should not be used sporadically and erroneously
just because you know what they are.
1.
The situation is clear: too many teenagers are drinking too much
alcohol.
[Information after the colon explains what the situation is.]
In the closing moments of The Crucible, Proctor understands one
certitude: to
allow the
confession to stand would be to live a lie.
[Information after the colon explains what Proctor understands.]
Exercises:
Accurately place the colon in the sentences below:
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The two sentences are felt to be too closely related in subject matter
to be separated by a full stop.
There is no conjunction (and) or disjunct (but) which would require a
comma.
The reasons for using a colon do not apply to the construction.
Examples of Appropriate Colon Usage
Tolkien published The Hobbit in 1937; the first volume of The Lord of the
Rings followed in 1954.
Womens conversation is largely cooperative; mens is competitive.
Students should aim to complete their coursework on time; their failure to
do so can often lead to severe penalties.
Note how the semicolon in each example is used to separate two complete
sentences.
Exercises:
Accurately place the semicolon in each of the sentences below:
-
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The two warring sides have refused to withdraw from the airport;
consequently aid flights have had to be suspended.
3. The Dash ( )
The dash has only one purpose in written prose: a pair of dashes mark a
significant interruption in a sentence.
Rules Governing the Use of the Dash
Dashes are used in pairs and show the beginning and end of a
digression.
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Exercises:
Accurately place a pair of dashes in the sentences below:
-
The Iraq war has claimed over 400,000 civilian lives nearly four
times the number Saddam Hussein is thought to have murdered since the
beginning of the conflict in 2003.