Unseen Poetry
Revision booklet
LCB 2012
Unseen poetry exam
In this section of your English Literature paper you will have two modern poems
to study and compare. That is, you have to:
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tell the examiner how both poems affect you;
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write about how they are similar and how they are different.
You will need to write about:

the content of the poems;

the poets’ ideas;

the mood or atmosphere of the poems;

how the poems are written;

your responses to the poems.
Examiner’s Hint: It is probably easier for most people to write about each
poem separately and then make the comparisons.
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Assessment Objectives
In this section of the exam you will be assessed on three things. These include
assessing your ability to:
 Respond to texts critically and imaginatively; select and evaluate
relevant textual detail to illustrate and support interpretations (AO1)
 Explain how language, structure and form contribute to writers’
presentation of ideas, themes and settings (AO2)
 Make comparisons and explain links between texts, evaluating writers’
different ways of expressing meaning and achieving effects. (AO3)
Things you need to know
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You will only have to answer one question.
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You will have to write an essay in which you compare TWO contemporary
poems.
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This section is worth 20 marks.
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As part of the exam, you will be given a structure to follow to help you
plan your essay / response.
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You will have one hour to complete your essay comparing the poems.
(Don’t forget, this is just one section of a two-hour exam.)
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Dos and Don'ts
What not to do:
1. Don't simply describe the content of the poem. The examiner wants to
see you analyse the poem, not chat about it.
2. Don't write pointless descriptions of the sentences eg: “The first five
lines are one long sentence.” Don't forget that you are analysing the
effect of a poem.
3. Don't make vague statements that aren't saying anything about the poem.
Eg: “The imagery is vivid and will stick in the readers mind.”
4. Don't simply “spot” language features. You won't get marks for listing
similes, however you might if you analyse the effect of the simile.
What to make sure you do:
1. Do make connections between details of how language is used and the
poem's themes.
2. Do explore how ideas develop throughout the poems.
3. Do explore alternative interpretations and offer different ideas.
4. Do make clear connections between ideas.
5. Do use quotations to support your ideas.
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A few useful tips
1. Anything in bold type must be addressed.
2. The prompts (italicised and bullet pointed) are necessary pointers
towards what the examiner is looking for. They are there to help. Use
them all!
3. You can and should highlight / underline / write on the poems.
4. It will always be the same question although – regretfully - not the same
poems!
5. The examiners are on your side and will aim to mark positively. They won’t
deduct marks. They will reward what is there according to the depth of
understanding and the use of detailed evidence to support points. They
are looking for an informed and personal response.
6. Technical terms, device spotting, counting lines and alphabetising rhyme
schemes are only of any use if they support your understanding of the
poems and the comparisons between them – and you show this.
7. There is a person behind the poem. What is he / she trying to tell or
show you?
8. The examiner has endeavoured to choose poems that you can understand
and, hopefully, enjoy writing about. Take it personally!
9. You shouldn’t try and count the number of comparisons you make. More
important is to show an understanding of each poem bearing in mind that
there will be some similarities and differences between them.
10. You might react and respond in similar ways towards the two poems. Or
you might feel excited by one – and depressed by the other. But you must
explain why you have reacted and responded as you have.
11. Marking has to follow criteria laid down by the examining board. The
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grades go up from simple narration and selection, followed by awareness,
followed by understanding, followed by insight, followed by sensitivity to
language, theme, purpose, quality of response, clarity of expression.
12. It’s usually easier to do each poem separately and then make
comparisons.
13. The poem will ‘speak’ to you if you let it do its job. Don’t get panicked at
the look of the task and the conditions in which you are attempting it.
14. Quotations should be focused, useful in support and brief.
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Your exam answer could be tackled like this…
1. First, consider the poem as a whole. Read it very carefully. Try to read it
in a way that you feel captures the poet’s intended tone of voice. Work
out the general sense or message of the poem.

Ask yourself “what, where, when” – this will allow you to create an
overview with which to begin your answer. Eg: “This is a piem about
war and is set in the trenches of World War One. The poet writes
about life for ordinary soldiers during a terrible battler….”
2. Now, still dealing with the poem as a whole, interpret its meaning or why
it was written.

Answering this will allow you to round off your overview with a
summary of the poem’s theme.

Opening your answer with an overview of this kind shows the
examiner that you have a good understanding of the poem.
3. Next you should consider the various elements at work within the poem.

Start with the title and work logically through the poem.

Look for interesting and vivid use of language

Consider the mood or tone created in the poem
4. Look closely at the ways the poet has used the language to create
meaning.

Some choices of language in the poem will strike you as interesting
or unusual - this language often “suggests”, “implies” or “connotes”.

Be on the lookout for the way the poet has created and used
imagery and irony. However, you must comment on the effect of
similes/metaphors etc instead of simply spotting them.
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
Consider oppositions at work in the poem – these are contrasting
ideas that deepen our understanding of what the poet wants to
achieve: country vs. city, cruelty vs. kindness, male vs. female etc.
5. Now, look closely at the way the poet has used the form of language

Poets always use both sounds and shapes of language to create
effects.

Look for the way sound and shape are used to make: repetition,
rhyme, rhythm, assonance, caesura etc.
6. Once you have looked at these areas in detail, it will be a lot clearer to
identify similarities and differences between the two poems.

Make sure that you are clear in explaining how the poems are
similar. Don’t simply just compare elements, you must analyse these
similarities.
For more information about how to analyse poetry, try the following websites:
http://www.englishbiz.co.uk/mainguides/poetrythesis.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english/poemscult/comparingpoems
rev1.shtml
http://www.examshack.com/index.php/2011/04/how-to-compare-poems/
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Device
Allegory
Alliteration
Assonance
Caesura
Couplet
Enjambment
Free verse
Hyperbole
Imagery
Irony
Metaphor
Definition
A symbolic narrative in which the surface details imply a
secondary meaning.
Repetition of consonant sounds, especially at the beginning of
words
The repetition of similar vowel sounds.
A strong pause within a line of verse
A pair of rhymed lines.
A run-on line of poetry in which logical and grammatical sense
carries over to the next line.
Poem without a specific structure or meter
A figure of speech involving exaggeration.
A concrete representation of a feeling, idea or concept.
A contrast between what is said and what is meant, or
between what happens and what is expected to happen.
A comparison between two essentially unlike things without
using comparative words such as like or as.
Onomatopoeia
The use of words to imitate sounds they describe
Using inanimate objects or abstract concepts with animate or
Personification
living qualities
A comparison between two essentially unlike things using
Simile
comparative words such as like or as.
Stanza
A division or unit of poetry (Verse)
Symbol
An object or action that means more than its literal instance.
Tone
The implied attitude of the author, or speaker.
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Useful connectives
Comparing
Contrasting
Also
However
In addition
In contrast
Moreover
Yet
Let alone
Whereas
Not only
Instead
Additionally
Nevertheless
As well
Alternatively
Furthermore
On the other hand
Even
On the contrary
Indeed
In spite of this
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Practice question
Write about both poems and their effect on you. Show how they are similar and how they
are different.
You may write about each poem separately and then compare them, or make comparisons where
appropriate in your answer as a whole.
You may wish to include some or all of these points:
 The content of the poems – what they are about;
 The ideas the poet may have wanted us to think about;
 The mood or atmosphere of the poems;
 How they are written –words or phrases you find interesting, the way they are
organised, and so on;
 Your response to the poems.
Nettles, by Vernon Scannell
My son aged three fell in the nettle bed.
'Bed' seemed a curious name for those green spears,
That regiment of spite behind the shed:
It was no place for rest. With sobs and tears
The boy came seeking comfort and I saw
White blisters beaded on his tender skin.
We soothed him till his pain was not so raw.
At last he offered us a watery grin,
And then I took my billhook, honed the blade
And went outside and slashed in fury with it
Till not a nettle in that fierce parade
Stood upright any more. And then I lit
A funeral pyre to burn the fallen dead,
But in two weeks the busy sun and rain
Had called up tall recruits behind the shed:
My son would often feel sharp wounds again with an incantation.
After twenty hours
it lost its sting.
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Manhunt, by Simon Armitage
After the first phase,
after passionate nights and intimate days,
only then would he let me trace
the frozen river which ran through his face,
only then would he let me explore
the blown hinge of his lower jaw,
and handle and hold
the damaged, porcelain collar-bone,
and mind and attend the fractured rudder of shoulder-blade,
and finger and thumb the parachute silk of his punctured lung.
Only then could I bind the struts
and climb the rungs of his broken ribs,
and feel the hurt
of his grazed heart.
Skirting along,
only then could I picture the scan,
the foetus of metal beneath his chest
where the bullet had finally come to rest.
Then I widened the search,
traced the scarring back to its source
to a sweating, unexploded mine
buried deep in his mind,
around which every nerve in his body had tightened and closed.
Then, and only then, did I come close.
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