National 5 Textual Analysis
Jackie Kay
Revision of Poems
Jackie Kay discusses her 'Scottish Set Text'
poetry for National 5 English
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt8iqPT_las
Barbara van der Meulen - English teacher at
Ardnamurchan High School - interviews Scottish
poet Jackie Kay about the poems selected as
part of the Scottish Set Text list for National 5
English.
Please note that this interview is audio only.
Aims
• Understand individual poems and find
appropriate poems to compare them with.
(8)
• Understand how to effectively answer all
three types of questions (UAE) by looking
at model answers
Looking for Links
Six poems – one will be offered for analysis
within the paper, but you must be able to
compare/contrast this with another suitable poem
from your knowledge.
• Consider people involved in the poems
• Relationships
• Language – Scots or English?
• Narrator – does this ever change?
• Situations
• Theme(s)
• Symbols
Understanding
Usually early on in the questions but are
also considered towards the end.
Lucozade
Many of the main ideas or concerns of the
poem come across clearly in the first three
stanzas.
Identify two of these main ideas or
concerns from the first three stanzas. (2)
Answer(s)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Conflicting feelings between the daughter and
the mother.
Illness – mother; mother’s condition is fatal
Mother is strong-willed, demanding; does not
want traditional gifts brought to hospital
Death
Aging
Innocence/youth – concerned about her
mother
Nostalgia
Image – mother is/was obese(?)
Lucozade
How effective do you find any aspect of
the final 5 lines as a conclusion to the
poem?
Your answer might deal with ideas and/or
language. (2)
Answer(s)
•
•
•
•
•
•
What is the purpose of a conclusion?
Possessive, proud
Contrast with concerns about weight/body
image
Light and cheerful
Short, affectionate statements
Happy memories/generally happy
(Find evidence to support these
statements)
Analysis
Bed
Name the techniques the poet uses in the
following phrases and comment on how
effective they are in portraying the woman’s
personality: “this big blastit bed”; “year in,
year oot”; “ma great tent o’ nappy”? (6)
• Alliteration of ‘B’ sound, emphasising the
resent and hatred towards the bed she is
confined to, a harsh sound.
• Repetition – the repetition of year means that
this isn’t a temporary situation, it has gone on
for a long time and will continue to get worse.
• Metaphor – she describes her ‘nappy’ as a
‘tent’, suggesting that it is too big for her, a
humiliating size and something she can’t
ignore. Babies wear nappies, reinforcing the
idea that her vulnerability and dependence has
increased with age.
Bed
In stanza 9 and the first line of stanza 10 the
mother’s language becomes less
conversational. Comment on the
effectiveness of the language techniques the
poet uses to convey change.
• Metaphorical – contemplating her life so far and
what’s left of it, if anything?
• Word choice appeals to our senses and helps us
to imagine we are as fragile and frail as she is.
• Metaphorical – it won’t be long until she is a
skeleton in the ground; image of skeleton and her
aging, emaciated body.
• Personification – she feels vulnerable, almost
threatened, by the moon – the moon appears and
disappears every night/day, it never looks any
different, whereas she will soon disappear forever.
• Metaphorical – compares her bedroom to a prison
cell because she is confined to her bed, she can
only imagine of life outside of these four walls.
8-Mark Question
You can answer in bullet points if you feel you need to,
there is no requirement to write a mini essay.
Up to 2 marks can be achieved for identifying
elements of commonality as identified in the question.
A further 2 marks can be given for reference to the
extract given.
4 additional marks can be awarded for similar
references to at least one other text/part of the text by
the writer.
1. Identification of commonality (2) =
theme, central relationship, importance of
setting, development in characterisation,
use of personal experience, use of
narrative style, or any other key element).
2. 1 reference to technique/idea/feature +
1 appropriate comment of text featured in
paper.
3. 4 remaining marks for the above but
about another poem.
Lucozade
With close textual reference, show how the
ideas and/or language of this poem are
similar OR different to another poem by
Jackie Kay that you have read.
Read this question carefully and think about
what poem you would use to answer this
question.
Relationships between generations is a
common theme in Jackie Kay’s poetry.
Choose another poem by her which explores
this theme and explain how she does so.
Read this question carefully and think about
what poem you would have been answering
questions on previously and what poem you
would use to answer this question.
Revision
• Plans
• Mindmaps
• Venn Diagrams – 6 circles for the 6
poems, similarities (in overlap) and
differences between each.
• Colour-coding for different links
• Reading annotations, compare with others
• ‘Give one, get one’
Any questions?