What do you think the poems are about based on
these titles?
Choose one and discuss it in your book.
What do you think the poems are about based on
these first lines?
Choose one and discuss it in your book.
After the first phase, after passionate nights
What do you think the poems are about based on
these closing lines?
Choose one and discuss it in your book.
Unseen Poetry
L.O.
To learn ways to structure an unseen poetry essay.
Example Mark Scheme for the Poetry Exam
Ways of Structuring Unseen Answers
• Find a language feature  make a point from it
• Read the poem; make three points about the question. Find evidence
to back up your answer.
• “Explore the poet’s thoughts and feelings towards X”:
hopeful
The poet’s thoughts and
feelings about X are…
painful
despairing
For example, in stanza two,
he writes, ‘… … …’
This shows the reader that…
Unseen Poem: Essay
• Choose one of the two unseen poems on the following slides, and
write a 3 or 4 paragraph analytical essay based on it.
• Spend 5 minutes reading the poem again and again, annotating on
your third reading.
Dream Deferred
Explore the poet’s attitudes
and ideas towards hope.
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over-like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Langston Hughes
Main message
Tone
Language
Structure
I am not yours
Explore the poet’s attitudes
and ideas towards hope.
I am not yours, not lost in you,
Not lost, although I long to be
Lost as a candle lit at noon,
Lost as a snowflake in the sea.
Main message
You love me, and I find you still
A spirit beautiful and bright,
Yet I am I, who long to be
Lost as a light is lost in light.
Tone
Language
Oh plunge me deep in love -- put out
My senses, leave me deaf and blind,
Swept by the tempest of your love,
A taper in a rushing wind.
Structure
Sara Teasdale
STOP - Marking Time.
Using the mark scheme, we will mark your work.
Decide what band the answer would be in. Why?
Comment on one thing you have done well, and one thing you could
focus on improving.