Poetry, Year 11: comparing poems and the poetry toolkit

Their methods: language, form and structure

提示How each poem says it, as well as what it says.

为什么For example: both poems show the power of nature, but one does it in a single unbroken block of verse and the other through a story with a turning point.

Moving between the two poems point by point

提示The comparison should run through the whole answer.

为什么Writing about one poem and then the other tends to produce two separate essays with a comparison bolted on at the end.

Both poems, and the idea in the question that links them

提示Get the pair on the page at once.

为什么For example: Both poems present power as something that does not last, but one mocks it and the other mourns it. That gives you a line of argument to follow.

Whereas

提示Which one could you swap for the word but?

为什么Comparison words do real work. Use them at the start of sentences and in the middle, so the reader always knows whether you are showing a likeness or a contrast.

It deals with the idea in the question and gives you a clear likeness or contrast to argue

提示It is not simply your favourite.

为什么Choose for the question, not for the poem you know best. A clear difference in viewpoint or method often gives more to say than a close match.

30

提示The same as each of the essays on your set texts, without the extra marks for accurate writing.

为什么Twelve of the marks are for your response and evidence, twelve for analysing methods and six for context.

Enjambment

提示A term taken from French; it begins with en-.

为什么It can speed a poem up, carry the reader forward or put weight on the word left waiting at the start of the next line.

A caesura

提示A Latin word beginning with c that means a cutting.

为什么It can slow a line, break it in two or make the reader stop on a thought. A full stop in the middle of a line is a strong one.

14

提示An octave and a sestet together.

为什么Sonnets are traditionally about love, so a poet who uses the form for another subject, such as power, is doing something worth noticing.

The volta

提示An Italian word.

为什么In many sonnets it falls after the eighth line. The term is also used more loosely for a turning point in any poem.

Free verse

提示The first word of the term means unrestricted.

为什么It is still shaped: the poet chooses where each line ends. Free verse can sound like natural speech or like thought.

A dramatic monologue

提示The second word of the term means a long speech by one person.

为什么The speaker often gives away more about themselves than they intend. The reader has to judge the speaker from their own words.