The English Department

Literature Poetry Revision Pack

This booklet aims to provide you with guidance to the poetry and information which will help you to prepare for the Literature examination whether you are sitting the higher or foundation paper.Contents:

1. Guidance to analysing poems;2. Guidance to themes and methods for each poem you will need in the examination3. Poery Revision Grid;4. Sample essay with grade criteria and examiner’s report;5. Space for top tips and mind-maps.

The following summaries are ideas about meaning; they are not necessarily the only interpretations. If you think the poems mean something else, and can back up your ideas with evidence from the poems, that is a good thing. The examiners are looking for individual interpretations; use these ideas to get you started.Poem Title: Theme: Form/Key methods

used:Summary:

Havisham by Carol Ann Duffy

love/hate/ revenge

Dramatic monologue.Metaphor, oxymoron, onomatopoeia.

The poem is in the voice of Miss Havisham, a character from Dickens’ ‘Great Expectations’ who is jilted on her wedding day and as a result has a hatred of all men. The poem highlights the emotions of this character and the anger she feels, which comes across strongly in the use of metaphors and oxymoron. There is a strong sense of the need for revenge alongside the mental instability of the character.

Elvis’ Twin Sister by Carol Ann Duffy

family relationships

Dramatic monologue. Rhyme, comparison, references to Elvis’ songs, authentic speech.

The poem is in the voice of Elvis’ imagined sister, the quotation from Madonna suggests a sense of arrogance, but this is not reflected in the body of the poem. There are consistent comparisons between the simple life as a nun and the life of fame and excess lived by Elvis. This highlights the things lacking from Elvis’ life and the use of the imaginary ‘sister’ suggests that he led a lonely life, lacking in family companionship. This life of loneliness is also emphasised by the song titles in the final stanza.

Anne Hathaway by Carol Ann Duffy

love Dramatic Monologue. Sonnet. Metaphors, rhyme.

This poem details the love felt for Shakespeare by his wife. The use of the extract from Shakespeare’s will suggests that he didn’t care for his wife, but Duffy reads this to be a reference to their own bed, the bed in which they loved each other. There is a semantic field of language running through this poem, with references to different word classes etc. These all link to Shakespeare’s craft as a writer and suggest that he not only created plays and poems, but the love between him and his wife. There are sexual references which emphasise the physical nature of their love. The poem ends with a reference to the grief felt by Anne Hathaway, highlighting the depth of their emotional bond.

Salome by Carol Ann Duffy

death/power/ revenge

Dramatic Monologue.Metaphor, assonance, colloquial language, questions.

Salome was a figure in the bible. She danced for Herod and in return he granted her whatever she wished for – she asked for John the Baptist’s head on a platter and this was granted to her. The poem takes the voice of Salome, but gives the story a modern twist through the use of colloquial language and modern vices such as sex and drugs. The poem seems to suggest that Salome is taking her revenge on men who treat women badly, reversing the stereotypical view of behaviour. She takes this to the extreme by murdering her ‘victim’ but shows no remorse for her actions.

Before You Were Mine by Carol Ann Duffy

mother/ daughter relationship

Autobiographical elements. Questions, adjectives.

The context of the poem is the speaker (poet) looking at a photograph of her mother when she was young – before she gave birth to her daughter. The speaker sees a contrasting person to the one she knows as her mother and wishes she had known the fun-loving person she sees in the photo. There is a great sense of admiration as the poet uses iconic images of Marilyn Monroe to compare her mother to. There is a sense of regret that she changed her mother’s life and took the fun away. It suggests that the mother has now died and the daughter is missing the mother she knew and the woman she was not able to know.

We Remember Your Childhood Well by Carol Ann Duffy

death/ suffering

Dramatic monologue. Repetition, direct address to the reader through use of 2nd person, regular structure.

At first reading, this poem appears to be about a child who has been unfairly treated by an adult and this is the adult dismissing the child’s accusations. On closer reading, there are many references which link events to the Moors murders (Hindley and Brady * research point). This puts a more sinister slant on the poem as the speaker could be the voice of Hindley speaking to one of the victims. This reading suggests a high level of madness in the speaker and emphasises the brutality of these murders and the refusal of either Hindley or Brady to reveal the whereabouts of one of their victims (Keith Bennett). The regular structure of the poem suggests a cold, detached approach to a desperately emotive and brutal subject and the repetition of Nobody suggests a lack of responsibility for the actions taken.

Stealing by Carol Ann Duffy

failed relationships/ disaffection

Questions, regular structure, metaphors, repetition.

This poem seems to take the form of an interview, possibly with a probation officer/social worker as it deals with the crimes of a young person. The main focus of the poem is one teenager’s response to a bad childhood. The stealing of the snowman has a key purpose of upsetting others, perhaps as revenge for the way the speaker has been treated. There is an element of crying out for attention through the metaphor of the ‘mucky ghost’ which suggests the speaker feels neglected and just wants attention of any kind. The poem ends with an element of despair that they have poured out their heart and still can’

Mother any distance... by Simon Armitage

mother/son relationship – growing up

Metaphor, internal rhyme.

Taken from the collection ‘A Book of Matches’ which represents a game in which you light a match and tell the story of your life before the match burns down. The * used instead of the titles in these poems represents the flame of the match. The poem focuses on the son leaving home and having help from his mother with measuring up. The metaphors suggest a need for freedom and breaking out on your own, with the mother unable to let go. The most powerful metaphor is the tape measure being used to represent the umbilical cord – the bond between mother and child.

My father though it...by Simon Armitage

father/son relationship – rebellion/ generation gap

Metaphor, internal rhyme.

(Again from ‘A Book of Matches’). The poem details the reaction a father has to his son getting his ear pierced. The overriding tone is one of disdain where the father is suggesting his son is lacking in masculinity. There is a sense of rebellion but this is dismissed by the father. Essentially the poem suggests that as you get older, you start to appreciate the reactions of your parents and may end up repeating their mistakes. There is also a suggestion that ‘wounds’ like these should be healed rather than left to fester – don’t leave it too late to sort out problems/misunderstandings.

Homecoming by Simon Armitage

family relationships

Metaphor. There is a confusing element to this poem. It seems to be about a relationship that has ended between a parent (father) and child. The metaphor of the cotton jacket seems to be the parent, wrapping their arms around the child, and this is lost when they leave; the relationship becomes tarnished. There are some confusing aspects such as the reference to the phone-box, but this is possibly a reassurance that even though the person was not there when needed, they were always in the background, wanting to be supportive. The overall message seems to be that parent/child bonds are never broken, no matter how much time passes, the relationship can be rebuilt.

November by Simon Armitage

family relationships, death

Comparisons, harsh descriptions.

The title of the poem symbolises that this is towards the end of life. The poem is essentially about someone taking their aging grandmother to hospital because they cannot care for her any longer as she is dying. The poem uses a lot of harsh references to highlight the cruelty of old age and the fear of getting old for the relatives. Despite its depressing mood there is also a message to get the most out of life before it is too late.

Kid by Simon Armitage

family relationships/ growing up

Dramatic Monologue. Metaphor, comic book language, rhyme structure within iambic pentameter.

Armitage has used the familiar comic strip figures of Batman and Robin to represent a sibling relationship (or indeed any relationship where there has been an imbalance of power and roles have been reversed). There is clever use of language to add to the authenticity of the comic book link, this shows how one person has always been in the shadow, but now have had enough and want to take their own path and show that they are just as good, if not better than the other person in the relationship. The poem works well because the balance of power in the Batman/Robin relationship is familiar to most readers and they can identify with the issues being raised.

Hitcher by Simon Armitage

death/ violence/ revenge

Declarative sentences, references to Bob Dylan song, comparisons.

The speaker in this poem is very disturbed and threatening. The central theme is murder and this is conveyed in a harsh and unemotional tone to suggest a complete lack of care. The speaker gives the reasons for his stress at work as a possible reason for taking his feelings out on an innocent hitch-hiker. There is also a sense that the hitch-hiker is very similar in age to the speaker, causing jealousy as he is free to do what he wants and is not tied to any commitments. There is a strong sense of irony running through the poem after the hitch-hiker has been killed, emphasising the lack of emotion and care of the speaker.

On My First Sonne by Ben Jonson

death/love/ family relationships

Elegy – poem dedicated to dead person, mourning their loss. Rhyming couplets, religious references.

The poet is conveying his grief at the death of his son. The poem has a lot of religious references which emphasise the context of the poem; written in a time when people had strong religious beliefs. There is also a suggestion that the son was of the same status as Jesus in the eyes of the poet. Essentially he is stating that he feels he is being punished for loving his son too much and wanting too much for him, this results in the son being taken away by God after only seven years. There is a suggestion that the poet is warning others not to fall into the same trap and to not care too much for others.

Song of the Old Mother by William Butler Yeats

suffering/ family relationships

Rhyming couplets, metaphor, alliteration.

This is quite a simple poem in terms of structure and rhyme scheme but it shows the hardship faced by an old woman who is living a life of drudgery looking after her children. The children do nothing and expect to be waited on. The central metaphor in the poem is the fire which is used to represent the mother herself as it ‘gets feeble and cold’ at the end of the poem which symbolises the fact that she is getting worn down and dying. There is a tone of resentment in the poem as she seems to have no choice in what she is doing.

The Man He Killed by

death/ injustice of

Rhyme, regular structure, punctuation

The key issue at the heart of this poem is the injustice of war, this is emphasised through the speaker trying to justify his actions in killing someone who is only his enemy

Thomas Hardy war to indicate hesitation, direct speech.

because both countries happen to be at war. He states very clearly that they could have been friends if circumstances had been different and this causes him a lot of guilt.

Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare

love Sonnet form. Concrete nouns, comparisons, turning point.

Sonnets are traditionally poems which express feelings of love. Sonnet writers before and during Shakespeare’s time focus on the unattainable nature of ‘courtly love’ this was when a woman was desired from afar but a relationship would rarely develop. The women were given the status of goddesses. In this poem, Shakespeare is subverting this tradition (going against it) by making the woman sound unappealing. He does this by comparing her unfavourably to a range of things. It is only at the end of the poem in the rhyming couplet where he shows that even though she has faults, he loves her deeply – perhaps more so because she is real and will return his love.

My Last Duchess by Robert Browning

implied death Dramatic monologue. Rhyme within iambic pentameter although this is not evident when reading the sentences as they are structured.

The Last Duchess in this poem is now dead, this is clear from the opening lines of the poem, she is being shown in a painting. The speaker in the poem is the Duke, discussing her failings as a wife and suggesting that she was promiscuous. There is a clear tone of arrogance in the poem as the Duke suggests that she should have been grateful for his status. He implies that she was killed at his order, although this is never clearly expressed which is part of the skill of this poem; things are suggested but never confirmed, it is up to the reader to draw conclusions about events.

The Laboratory by Robert Browning

revenge, planned murder

Dramatic monologue. Rhyme, alliteration, metaphor, rhyme.

The voice in the poem is based on a historical figure who murdered members of her family. Browning has taken this idea and created a poem around a woman taking revenge on her husband by plotting the murder of his lover. She is directing the apothecary (chemist) to make the poison which will kill the woman she hates, but she wants her to have a long lingering death and suffer, as this will also punish her husband by leaving him with the memory of a horrific death. There is a strong sense of madness and paranoia running through the poem, emphasised by the repetition and rhyme. There is a hint through the use of metaphor that the speaker in the poem could be punished severely for her actions, although she doesn’t care.

Poem Theme Tone Structure Rhyme/Rhythm Methods

Havisham

Elvis’ Twin Sister

Anne Hathaway

Salome

Before You Were Mine

We Remember Your Childhood Well

Stealing

Mother any distance...

My father thought it...

Homecoming

November

Kid

Hitcher

On My First Sonne

The Song of the Old Mother

The Man He Killed

Sonnet 130

My Last Duchess

The Laboratory

Foundation Questions for Literature Poetry (Armitage and Duffy)

1. Compare how death is shown in four poems in the selection.

Choose two poems from List A and two poems from List B.

List A List B

Salome (Duffy) The Man He Killed (Hardy)

Hitcher (Armitage) On My First Sonne (Jonson)

November (Armitage) The Laboratory (Browning)

Remember to compare:

how the poets show the deaths by the way they write about them

how you respond to the different deaths in the poems

2. Answer both parts (a) and (b)

(a) Compare how attitudes to getting older are shown in Kid by Simon Armitage and Havisham by Carol Ann Duffy

and then

(b) Compare how the attitudes of parents to children are shown in On My First Sonne by Ben Jonson and The Song of the Old Mother by William Butler Yeats.

In both (a) and (b) remember to compare:

the attitudes in the poems

how the poets show these attitudes by the ways they write about them.

3. Compare the ways the poets present violence in four of the poems you have studied.

Choose two poems from List A and two poems from List B.

List A List B

Salome (Duffy) The Laboratory (Browning)

Hitcher (Armitage) The Man He Killed (Hardy)

Havisham (Duffy) The Eagle (Tennyson)

Remember to compare:

the violence in the poems

the ways violence is presented in the poems.

4. Answer both parts (a) and (b)

(a) Compare how strong feelings are presented in ‘Kid’ by Simon Armitage and ‘The Song of the Old Mother’ by William Butler Yeats.

and then

(b) Compare the ways strong feelings are presented in one poem by Carol Ann Duffy and one other poem from the pre-1914 Poetry Bank.

In both parts (a) and (b) remember to compare:

the feelings in the poems

the ways feelings are presented in the poems

5. Answer both parts (a) and (b)

(a) Compare the endings of Salome by Carol Ann Duffy and The Laboratory by Robert Browning.

and then

(b) Compare the endings of Kid by Simon Armitage and On My First Sonne by Ben Jonson.

In both parts (a) and (b) remember to compare:

how the endings fit in with the rest of the poem

how the language reveals the ideas of the speakers

what you think are the poets’ reasons for ending the poems in these ways.

Higher Questions for Literature Poetry (Duffy and Armitage)

1. Readers respond differently to different poems.

Compare your responses to ‘Kid’ by Simon Armitage with your responses to one poem by Carol Ann Duffy and two poems from the pre-1914 Poetry Bank.

Compare:

your responses to each poem

how features of form, structure and language influence your responses.

2. Compare how language is used to present the attitudes of the speakers in four of the poems you have studied from the AQA English Literature Anthology.

To do this, choose two poems from List A and two poems from List B.

List A List B

Havisham (Duffy) The Laboratory (Browning)

Anne Hathaway (Duffy) Sonnet 130 (Shakespeare)

November (Armitage) My Last Duchess (Browning)

Mother any distance (Armitage) The Man He Killed (Hardy)

Compare:

what the attitudes of the speakers are

how the poets use language to present these attitudes.

3. Compare how women are presented in four of the poems you have studied.

To do this, compare ‘Mother any distance…’ by Simon Armitage and three other poems, one by Carol Ann Duffy and two from the Pre-1914 Poetry Bank.

Compare:

the women in the poems

how they are presented.

4. Answer both parts (a) and (b)

(a) Compare the ways Duffy and Armitage present anti-social behaviour in Salome and Hitcher:

and then

(b) Compare the ways in which the attitudes of the speakers are presented in two poems from the Pre-1914 Poetry Bank.

5. Compare the ways the poets use the first person to create a voice in Elvis’ Twin Sister by Duffy and one poem by Simon Armitage. Go on to compare the ways the first person is used in two of the poems from the pre-1914 Poetry Bank.

6. Answer both parts (a) and (b)

(a) Compare how female speakers are presented in ‘Havisham’ by Carol Ann Duffy and one poem from the Pre-1914 Poetry Bank.

and then

(b) Compare how male speakers are presented in ‘Sonnet 130’ by William Shakespeare and one poem by Simon Armitage.

7. Compare the ways feelings are presented in two poems from List A and two poems from List B:

List A List B

‘Hitcher’ (Armitage) ‘The Laboratory’ (Browning)

‘Kid’ (Armitage) ‘My Last Duchess’ (Browning)

‘Anne Hathaway’ (Duffy) ‘On my first Sonne’ (Jonson)

‘Salome’ (Duffy) ‘The Affliction of Margaret’ (Wordsworth)

8. Compare how relationships are presented in ‘Mother any distance...’ by Simon Armitage with one poem by Carol Ann Duffy and two poems from the Pre-1914 Poetry Bank.

You should compare:

what the relationships are; how the poets use form, structure and language to present the relationships.

Sample Essay which received 27/36 – a mid B grade.

25. Compare how relationships are presented in ‘Mother any distance...’ by Simon Armitage with one poem by Carol Ann Duffy and two poems from the Pre-1914 Poetry Bank.

You should compare:

what the relationships are; how the poets use form, structure and language to present the relationships.

Plan:

Mother AD (SA) – clinging on/free

Anne H (CAD) – smitten/amazed/proud

My L D (pre) – disagreement/angry

Sonnet 130 – to the point/real love/sweet

Mother Any Distance, Anne Hathaway, My Last Duchess and Sonnet 130 are all poems in which relationships are portrayed in different ways. There are love relationships between lovers and also parent and child. There are also difficult relationships which consist of love, envy and eventually hate.

Mother Any Distance is a poem about a relationship between a mother and a son; a son trying to fly free but a mother finding it difficult to let go. Metaphorical symbolism is used to help portray this relationship; a tape measure is used to represent a timeline of their life together, ‘you at the zero end...unreeling out the years between us’. The mother is holding the tape at zero because she is where their relationship began and her son is unreeling the tape because as he grows older they also grow further apart. The mother is also described as base, showing that she is the steady part of the relationship and will always be there for her son.

Another use of symbolism is used in the poem the two contrasting words, ‘Anchor. Kite.’ are used to represent mother and son in their relationship – the mother an anchor because she is steady and always there but the son as a kite because he is trying to fly free and experience new opportunities.

Symbolism is also used in the poem ‘Anne Hathaway’ to help portray a relationship between her and her husband (last).

The relationship in Anne Hathaway is exciting and bursting with life and energy. She uses language such as ‘spinning world’, ‘clifftops, seas’ to support this. The symbolism used in the poem presents her as on a blank page waiting to be written as she felt he was an amazing writer and if he wrote her she would be somewhat more interesting and exciting as a person; ‘some nights, I dreamt ... writer’s hands.’ This also shows how proud Anne Hathaway was of her husband – complimenting him at every opportunity displaying how proud she was to be Shakespeare’s wife and in such an exciting relationship with him. Her sensitivity to his wonderful writing is also reflected in the poem through the use of language which are words used to describe language ‘assonance’, ‘verb’, ‘noun’. ‘A verb dancing in the centre of a noun’ can also be seen as a sexual reference as a bed is mentioned several times in the poem we are led to believe their relationship was very sexual.

Towards the end of the poem we discover that her husband is no longer alive ‘I hold him in the casket...widow’s head’ but she still remembers and thinks about him. This is an extreme similarity to the poem ‘My Last Duchess’ as it is also a poem describing the relationship between the person and a dead lover. However, there is also a contrast on the relationship part as ‘MLD’ does not have an extremely exciting and lustful love life and we are also led to believe that the man in ‘MLD’ is responsible for the death of his ‘last duchess’, ‘much the same...as if alive’. Throughout the poem we are led to believe that the duchess was a very pleasant and pretty woman, in my opinion I feel that this led to a difficult relationship between her and her husband with jealousy and anger of her talking pleasantly to other men, ‘too easily impressed; she liked what’er’ This jealousy overcame her husband resulting in her murder, therefore ending their uncomfortable relationship. Language such as ‘passion’ and ‘wonder’ portray her in a good light in the beginning of the poem, but this then changes, this contrasts with the poem sonnet as all the language is insulting language which you wouldn’t usually use to describe a person you love.

Sonnet 130 is a poem about true love and showing the reality of a relationship William Shakespeare endures with his wife. Statements such as ‘eyes are nothing like the sun’ and ‘breath that from...reeks’ portray his mistress in an ordinary – nothing special – way, however, the last two lines of the poem sum up his true view on his mistress displaying the reality of their relationship ‘and yet by heaven...false compare’. These lines show how strong their relationship is and how full of real love it is.

The essay was awarded 21-24 for all aspects of the marking criteria with some falling into the 25-28 bracket doing all but comparison in this section – this is how the 27/36 mark is arrived at giving the candidate a solid B grade.

Examiner’s Report – advice for candidates:

Make sure you have had the opportunity to see a full examination paper before the exam to allow them to navigate their way through;

Opening paragraphs/introductions which are the most effective are ones which ‘get down to business’ addressing at least one assessment objective and task – it is essential that you avoid lengthy introductions which refer at length to background and context with little focus on the task in hand;

The best planning influences cohesive structure – overly detailed planning inhibits response and is time consuming.

Top Tips for the Literature Paper – Section B - Poetry

Mind Maps

Mind Maps