Writing on Unseen poetry
Language, structure and form
Language
Structure
Form
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• Rhyme scheme (or lack
of)
• Rhythm
• Pace
• Repetition
• Stanza arrangement
• Punctuation (or lack of)
• Sentence length
• Caesura
• Enjambment
• What does the poem
look like?
• Order (or lack of)
• Overall shape (circular,
contrasts etc.)
It is a poem! What are the
conventions of poetry?
Word choice
Imagery
Simile
Metaphor
Personification
Sound devices
(assonance, alliteration,
sibilance,
fricative/plosive
alliteration,
onomatopoeia etc.
• Word groups (semantic
fields)
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Hidden meaning
Different interpretations
FLIRTS/LIES etc.
Sound devices etc.
1st person/3rd person
Poetic voice
Is it a sort of poem you
recognise (e.g. sonnet
etc)
None of this matters unless you can link it
to meaning- What effect is the poet trying
to create?
Language
Structure
Form
•
•
•
•
•
•
• Rhyme scheme (or lack
of)
• Rhythm
• Pace
• Repetition
• Stanza arrangement
• Punctuation (or lack of)
• Sentence length
• Caesura
• Enjambment
• What does the poem
look like?
• Order (or lack of)
• Overall shape (circular,
contrasts etc.)
It is a poem! What are the
conventions of poetry?
Word choice
Imagery
Simile
Metaphor
Personification
Sound devices
(assonance, alliteration,
sibilance,
fricative/plosive
alliteration,
onomatopoeia etc.
• Word groups (semantic
fields)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Hidden meaning
Different interpretations
FLIRTS/LIES etc.
Sound devices etc.
1st person/3rd person
Poetic voice
Is it a sort of poem you
recognise (e.g. sonnet
etc)
Themes?
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•
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A theme is an idea that is explored in a text e.g.
Nature
Death
Themes are
Time
ideas! They
Love
are usually
Youth
Conflict
abstract nouns
Grief
that the poet
Human nature
explores in
Etc….
concrete
forms!
meaning
• The poem explores…
Writing on poetry
• Detailed exploration of the techniques used
and how they contribute to the writer’s ideas
on the themes explored.
• Which means…
• Find a poetic technique
(language/structure/form) and explain how
and why the poet has used it to put across
their message
• Stage 1 (point)- Explain which technique the poet
uses and what they use it for.
• E.g. The poet manipulates the line length to evoke
the spectre of death.
• Stage 2 (evidence)- Find a good quote to support
your point:
e.g. For example:
“and breath
Is short”
• Stage 3- Analyse the quote in detail:
“and breath
Is short”
Examiners love:
• Detailed analysis- focus
on key words etc.
• Link the specific quote to
other parts of the poem
to develop/support your
point
• Confident explanation of
why a technique has been
used
• Different
interpretations/layers of
meaning
• Stage 3- Analyse the quote in detail linking it to the rest of
the poem and offering different interpretations:
• E.g. The shortened lines mirror the message that life is
coming to an end. The use of foreshortened lines in
comparison to the previous stanza suggests a countdown or
a diminishing into nothingness which can be seen to
represent the act of aging and death. By moving from ‘time’
to ‘life’ to ‘breath’ the poet is narrowing in from the
abstract to the particular, focusing on the physical decline
of the body. By measuring the countdown to death in
individual breaths the poet emphasises the immediacy, and
perhaps inevitability of it. Furthermore the short lines can
be seen to represent either the shortness of breath of the
dying man or the ticking down of time until the inevitable.
• Stage 4- Link back to the question/meaning.
• E.g. Thus the poet uses the structural
technique of foreshortening lines to mirror the
trajectory of the poem and highlight the
inevitable march of time and the inescapable
reality of death.
All together…
The poet manipulates the line length to evoke the spectre of death. For
example:
“and breath
Is short”
The shortened lines mirror the message that life is coming to an end. The use
of foreshortened lines in comparison to the previous stanza suggests a
countdown or a diminishing into nothingness which can be seen to represent
the act of aging and death. By moving from ‘time’ to ‘life’ to ‘breath’ the poet
is narrowing in from the abstract to the particular, focusing on the physical
decline of the body. By measuring the countdown to death in individual
breaths the poet emphasises the immediacy, and perhaps inevitability of it.
Furthermore the short lines can be seen to represent either the shortness of
breath of the dying man or the ticking down of time until the inevitable. Thus
the poet uses the structural technique of foreshortening lines to mirror the
trajectory of the poem and highlight the inevitable march of time and the
inescapable reality of death.
Your turn
• Stage 1-(point)- Explain which technique the
poet uses and what they use it for.
• Stage 2 (evidence)- Find a good quote to
support your point.
• Stage 3- Analyse the quote in detail linking it
to the rest of the poem and offering different
interpretations.
• Stage 4- Link back to the question/meaning.
Key Exam Tips
1. Be confident on meaning (start with meaning then link back
throughout)
2. Take your time
3. Use FLIRTS/LIES if they help but you don’t have to! However
you must cover Language Structure Form
4. Each technique you focus on should be a detailed paragraph
5. Detailed analysis- connotations of key words, links to themes
6. PLAN!
7. Terminology
8. Different interpretations
9. Refer to the rest of the poem
10. Use sophisticated/specific language