Glossopdale
GCSE English
Literature
UNIT 2
Poetry
Anthology
Work Book
2
Name: …………………………………… English Group: ……..
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Song for Last Year’s Wife by Brian Patten
Alice, this is my first winter
of waking without you, of knowing
that you, dressed in familiar clothes
are elsewhere, perhaps not even
conscious of our anniversary. Have
you noticed? The earth’s still as hard,
the same empty gardens exist; it is
as if nothing special had changed,
I wake with another mouth feeding
from me, yet still feel as if
Love had not the right
to walk out of me. A year now. So
what? you say. I send out my spies.
to discover what you are doing. They smile,
return, tell me your body’s as firm,
you are as alive, as warm and inviting
as when they knew you first ... Perhaps it is
the winter, its isolation from other seasons,
that sends me your ghost to witness
when I wake. Somebody came here today, asked
how you were keeping, what
you were doing. I imagine you,
waking in another city, touched
by this same hour. So ordinary
a thing as loss comes now and touches me.
1. a) Look closely at the punctuation in this poem. Highlight any
punctuation in the middle of lines in one colour and punctuation
at the end of lines in another.
b) Now notice the use of capital letters – where they are used and
where they are not used (but should be).
c) Can you find any patterns of punctuation use? Why might the
poet have done this?
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2. The mood of the poem is obviously sad and melancholic. How
does the poet achieve this mood?
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3. The poem has an autobiographical feel to it. How does the poet
make the poem feel so realistic?
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Lines to my Grandfathers by Tony Harrison
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Ploughed parallel as print the stony earth.
The straight stone walls defy the steep grey slopes.
The place’s rightness for my mother’s birth
exceeds the pilgrim grandson’s wildest hopes –
Wilkinson farmed Thrang Crag, Martindale.
Horner was the Haworth signalman.
Harrison kept a pub with home-brewed ale:
fell farmer, railwayman, and publican,
and he, while granma slaved to tend the vat
graced the rival bars ‘to make comparisons’,
Queen’s Arms, the Duke of this, the Duke of that,
while his was known as just ‘ The Harrisons’ ’.
He carried cane and guineas, no coin baser!
He dressed the gentleman beyond his place
and paid in gold for beer and whisky chaser
but took his knuckleduster, ‘just in case’
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The one who lived with us was grampa Horner
who, I remember, when a sewer rat
got driven into our dark cellar corner
booted it to pulp and squashed it flat.
He cobbled all our boots. I’ve got his last.
We use it as a doorstop on warm days.
My present is propped open by their past
and looks out over straight and narrow ways:
the way one ploughed his land, one squashed a rat,
kept railtracks clear, or, dressed up to the nines,
with waxed moustache, gold chain, his cane, his hat,
drunk as a lord could foot it on straight lines.
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Fell farmer, railwayman and publican,
I strive to keep my lines direct and straight,
and try to make connections where I can –
the knuckleduster’s now my paperweight!
1. The structure and layout of this poem are important. Firstly it is
in two parts. Why do you think this is?
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2. Secondly, the stanzas and number of syllables per line are the
same throughout. The rhyme scheme is also regular ABAB
throughout. How does this rigid structure support the
meanings and ideas in the poem?
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3. Clearly these grandfathers are all important to the poet. Why do
you think they are important to him and find evidence to back
up your point?
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Rubbish at Adultery by Sophie Hannah
Must I give up another night
To hear you whinge and whine
About how terribly grim you feel
And what a dreadful swine
You are? You say you’ll never leave
Your wife and children. Fine;
When have I ever asked you to?
I’d settle for a kiss.
Couldn’t you, for an hour or so,
Just leave them out of this?
A rare ten minutes off from guilty
Diatribes – what bliss.
Yes, I’m aware you’re sensitive:
A tortured, wounded soul.
I’m after passion, thrills and fun.
You say fun takes its toll,
So what are we doing here? I fear
We’ve lost our common goal.
You’re rubbish at adultery.
I think you ought to quit.
Trouble is, though, fidelity?
You’re just as crap at it.
Choose one and do it properly,
You stupid, stupid git.
1. Highlight all the words used to describe the man.
2. Now highlight in a different colour, all the words used to
describe how the woman feels.
What do you notice about the difference between both sets of
words?
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What does this tell us about the poet’s message/intentions about
this relationship?
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3. The dramatic monologue style of this poem’s structure, allows
the poet to describe the woman’s changing moods. Below are
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some adjectives that might describe the woman’s changing
moods in the poem. Choose one adjective for each stanza that
you think best fit her mood and write them next to the relevant
stanza. (I.e. you need to pick four from the list).
depressed
annoyed
angry
sarcastic
amused contempt cynical disappointed
irritated
ironic
4. Now look at how the rhythm is created (hint: the rhyme scheme
and number of syllables per line). What word would you use to
describe the rhythm?
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5. How does this rhythm support the meanings/ideas in the poem?
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My Last Duchess by Robert Browning
Ferrara
That’s my last duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf’s hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said
‘Frà Pandolf’ by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
The depth and passion of its earnest glance,
But to myself they turned (since none puts by
The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
How such a glance came there; so, not the first
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, ’twas not
Her husband’s presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek: perhaps
Frà Pandolf chanced to say ‘Her mantle laps
Over my lady’s wrist too much,’ or ‘Paint
Must never hope to reproduce the faint
Half-flush that dies along her throat’: such stuff
Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough
For calling up that spot of joy. She had
A heart–how shall I say?–too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
Sir, ‘twas all one! My favor at her breast,
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The dropping of the daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace–all and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech,
Or blush, at least. She thanked men–good! but thanked
Somehow–I know not how–as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybody’s gift. Who’d stoop to blame
This sort of trifling? Even had you skill
In speech–which I have not–to make your will
Quite clear to such a one, and say, ‘Just this
Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,
Or there exceed the mark’–and if she let
Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse
–E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose
Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt
Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive. Will’t please you rise? We’ll meet
The company below, then. I repeat,
The Count your master’s known munificence
Is ample warrant that no just pretense
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed
At starting, is my object. Nay, we’ll go
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,
Which Clause of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!
1. Decide if the following statements are true or false:What happens in ‘My Last Duchess’
The Duke doesn’t want the visitor to look at the painting.
The Duke keeps the painting behind curtains.
He describes the painting as a very good piece of art.
The Duke describes his late wife as often depressed.
He believed she was flirtatious with other men.
His most valuable gift he gave her was a horse.
The Duke became jealous of his wife’s behaviour.
The Duchess died of natural causes.
The Duke plans never to marry again.
or
2. This poem was written in 1842 but is set in the fifteen hundreds
in the Italian aristocracy. Browning liked to write poems about
immoral characters and the macabre. Why do you think he
wrote this poem? Rank in order of most to least likely:
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How likely are these reasons why Browning wrote this
poem?
He wanted to tell a story based on a real Duke from Italian
history.
He wanted to explore how love and marriage can go
wrong.
He wanted to explore the mind and personality of a
sinister and terrifying man.
He was interested in power and how power can corrupt
some people.
He was using an historically corrupt society to hold up a
mirror to his own Victorian society.
1, 2, 3 etc
3. We learn a lot about what the Duke thinks his late wife was like.
But what do we learn about him? Here is a list of adjectives that
might describe the Duke’s character. Choose four and find a
quotation from the poem as evidence for each of the four words
you choose.
powerful jealous paranoid colourful
suspicious arrogant
Adjective
clever
angry
vengeful
callous
controlling
avaricious
Quotation
4. Browning has written this as a dramatic monologue, where the
poem is completely made up of a single character talking, who is
clearly not the poet. What advantages does this style of poem
give Browning? Rank the following reasons in order of
importance:
Advantages of dramatic monologue
1, 2, 3 etc
The actions of the Duke come across as more shocking
because he talks about them is such a casual way.
The reader is quickly drawn in to the poem because it is the
character telling the story, not the poet.
The reader becomes involved because we have to work out the
story, as we only have the Duke’s side of the events.
The character and personality of the Duke comes across really
clearly because of the way he talks.
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Kissing by Fleur Adcock
The young are walking on the riverbank,
arms around each other’s waists and shoulders,
pretending to be looking at the waterlilies
and what might be a nest of some kind, over
there, which two who are clamped together
mouth to mouth have forgotten about.
The others, making courteous detours
around them, talk, stop talking, kiss.
They can see no one older than themselves.
It’s their river. They’ve got all day.
Seeing’s not everything. At this very
moment the middle-aged are kissing
in the back of taxis, on the way
to airports and stations. Their mouths and tongues
are soft and powerful and as moist as ever.
Their hands are not inside each other’s clothes
(because of the driver) but locked so tightly
together that it hurts: it may leave marks
on their not of course youthful skin, which they won’t
notice. They too may have futures.
1. Look at the imagery used in the poem to describe the couples:
Images
The young are walking on the
riverbank
arms around each other’s waist
and shoulders
clamped together
mouth to mouth
What the image conveys
It’s their river
They’ve got all day.
the middle-aged are kissing
In the back of taxis, on the way
to airports and stations
their mouths and tongues
are soft and powerful and as
moist as ever
It may leave marks
on their not of course youthful
skin, which they won’t notice
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They too may have futures
2. Why do you think the poet writes about couples of different
ages?
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3. The poem is full of comparisons and has been written in two
verses to highlight this. Make a list of all the comparisons you
can find in the poem (like the example):
A young couple - an older couple
The riverbank – the back of a taxi
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4. Compare the last line of the first stanza with the last line of the
second stanza. Is this an optimistic or pessimistic ending?
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 In Section B of the exam, you will need to compare two
poems.
Fill in the following grid to help you think about
different ways the poems can be compared.
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Focus of comparison
Poem 1
Poem 2
Romantic love
Positive relationship
Negative relationship
Dramatic monologue
Use of imagery
Use of comparisons
Use of conversation
Use of memories
Sad/unhappy tone
Confusion
 You will need to use PEEF paragraphs throughout the poetry
exam. Practice writing a comparative paragraph here.
Choose one row from the grid above and compare the two
poems, making a point about the focus of comparison. Here
is an example to help.
Although ‘Rubbish at Adultery’ and ‘My Last Duchess’ were written
approximately two hundred years apart, they are very similar. Firstly, they are
both a dramatic monologue. Browning and Hannah both choose to use a single
character, who is clearly talking to someone. But we only have the speaker’s point
of view, so the reader feels as if in conversation with the character. For instance,
“Yes, I’m aware you’re sensitive” and “A heart-how shall I say?-too soon made
glad,” both feel like the characters are in conversation with us. Hannah and
Browning copy the conventions of natural speech with phrases like, “Yes, I’m
aware” and “how shall I say?” The effect is that the characters appear real and
therefore we are forced to become involved in the poem and piece together what the
story is behind the one-sided conversation.
Now have a go yourself.
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