Unseen – 1 hour 15
(including 15 minutes annotation/planning)
40 marks /total 100
AO1= 10 AO2=30
After an introduction , you work your way
through the poem discussing key ideas and
devices in chronological order (but where
relevant making a link to a later or earlier quote)
Sometimes easier in timed conditions but risk is
you may forget to make enough AO2 points
(worth 30/40 marks)
2. After an introduction, you write specifically
about the poet’s use of: form, structure, rhythm
and rhyme, lexis and grammar, literary devices,
sound devices
Sometimes harder in timed conditions but forces
you to specifically focus on AO2 (worth 30/40
marks)
1.
Meaning – literal (in a sentence – what is it
about) (The poem is about....)
 Meaning – theme/ metaphorical / deeper (The
poem explores the theme(s) of ...)
 Authorial intention & tone ( The poet is
reflecting and reminiscing and adopts a
mournful tone about...)
Do I need quotes? It would be excellent to
embed one or two short quotes deftly to
anchor your interpretation (AO1) to the poem
in this introduction.
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Narrative viewpoint
Implied /explicit reader?
Tense (present/ past / future)
Poetic sub-genre (e.g ballad)
Form –identifying a poem’s genre and the
conventions of that genre
e.g ‘ The poem is written as a Shakespearean
sonnet with three quatrains and a rhyming
couple which is an appropriate form for the
theme of....’
 Or if a poem is not written in a particular genre,
you can describe it in terms of its overall shape:
e.g ‘The form that Valerie Bloom has created for
'Granny Is' is built on rhyming quatrains with an
added line to act as a refrain - at the end of the
stanza – which serves to....’
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Shakespearean sonnet (abab cdcd efefgg) Sonnet 116
Petrarchan sonnet (abba abba cedcdcd octave/sestet) Sonnet 43
(E. B-Browning) volta on line 9 (change of tone or direction)
Lyric (personal, emotional feelings & – lyrical) e.g Romantic
poets (Shelley/Keats/Wordsworth) and confessional poets 1960s
(Plath). Most poems are lyrics – as are sonnets
Ode – glorifying an event or individual (in 3 parts (Keats ‘To
Autumn’) elevated style
Ballad (abcb – quatrians – narrative, dialogue – 3rd person nvp)
(Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner) or ‘narrative poem’
Elegy (meditative lyrical lament for the dead) To an Athlete Dying
Young e. Housman
Free verse (no consistent metrical, rhythm or rhyming pattern)
Blank verse (regular metrical but no rhyme – same number of
syllables but without rhyme)
Concrete poetry – shape of the poem reflects content
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Stanza / couplet / refrain
couplet (2 lines)
tercet (3 lines)
quatrain (4 lines)
cinquain (5 lines)
sestet (6 lines) (sometimes it's called a sexain)
septet (7 lines)
octave (8 lines)
How many?
Repetition?
Linear or on-linear?
Shape- significant?
How does this effectively convey/explore the theme and
meaning?
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Irregularity: Many metered poems in English avoid perfectly regular rhythm
because it is monotonous. Irregularities in rhythm add interest and
emphasis to the lines. In this line:
Blank Verse: Any poetry that does have a set metrical pattern (usually
iambic pentameter), but does not have rhyme, is blank verse.
Free Verse: Most modern poetry no longer follows strict rules of meter or
rhyme, especially throughout an entire poem
Top Tips:
Look for specific lines where you notice the rhythm changes and think about
why this is.......
For example, look for use of the caesura ( punctuation marks such as the
dash, comma, exclamation mark, question mark) to create a pause
Look at the overall movement of the poems between lines adn between
stanzas
For example, look at enjambment / run-on lines/ end-stopped lines?
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Determining meter is usually a process of elimination. Start reading everything in iambic by
emphasizing every second syllable. 80 to 90% of metered poetry is iambic. If it sounds silly or
strange, because many of the poem's words do not sound natural, then try trochaic, anapestic or
dactylic rhythms. If none of these sounds natural, then you probably do not have metered poetry
at all (ie. it's free verse).
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If there are some lines that sound metered, but some that don't, the poem has an irregular
rhythm.
iamb ( weak/strong) (betray/ persuade)
trochee (strong/weak) (candle/ muscle)
spondee (strong strong) (Help! Help!)
anapest (weak weak strong)
dacytl (strong weak weak)
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Iambic pentameter usually creates a conversational rhythm (avoiding elevated/theatrical
effect) and it also creates a slow and steady pace which often creates a dignified , regal
and measured tone.
Regular / irregular or no rhyme?
 Rhyme scheme (ABAB = alternate rhyme or
couplets or?)
 Enveloping rhyme ABBA
 End rhyme/internal rhyme
 Full rhyme or half-rhyme
 monosyllabic rhyme (masculine rhyme) or
polysyllabic rhyme (feminine rhyme)
 Rhyme is used to draw attention to particular
words or to link words or to create a particular
tone e.g singsong
 Be aware that much modern poetry has no
rhyme scheme at all.
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Denotation and connotation
Dynamic verbs v stative verbs
Nouns: abstract, collective, Proper, common,
concrete
Adjectives- comparative and superlative
Pronouns – personal, possessive, anaphoric
(follow the named subject) cataphoric (precedes
named subject e.g ‘it made its way towards me
menacingly. I realised it was a zombie’)
Semantic field of ...e.g. Anatomy
Adjectives – emotive? Descriptive? Pejorative?
Positive?
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Simile "My love is like a red, red rose."
A metaphor leaves out "like" or "as“
Synecdoche is a form of metaphor, which in mentioning an important (and
attached) part signifies the whole (e.g. "hands" for labour).
Metonymy is similar to synecdoche; it's a form of metaphor allowing an
object closely associated (but unattached) with a object or situation to stand
for the thing itself (e.g. the crown or throne for a king or the bench for the
judicial system).
A symbol is like a simile or metaphor with the first term left out.
Allegory can be defined as a one to one correspondence between a series
of abstract ideas and a series of images or pictures presented in the form of
a story or a narrative. For example, George Orwell's Animal Farm is an
extended allegory that represents the Russian Revolution
Personification occurs when you treat abstractions or inanimate objects
‘nature wept’
Irony takes many forms. Most basically, irony is a figure of speech in which
actual intent is expressed through words that carry the opposite meaning.
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Irony takes many forms. Most basically, irony is a figure
of speech in which actual intent is expressed through
words that carry the opposite meaning.
Paradox: usually a literal contradiction of terms or
situations
Situational Irony: an unmailed letter
Dramatic Irony: audience has more information or greater
perspective than the characters
Verbal Irony: saying one thing but meaning another
Overstatement (hyperbole)
Understatement (meiosis)
Sarcasm
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Alliteration: the repetition of initial sounds on the same line or stanza - Big
bad Bob bounced bravely.
Assonance: the repetition of vowel sounds (anywhere in the middle or end of
a line or stanza) - Tilting at windmills
Consonance: the repetition of consonant sounds (anywhere in the middle or
end of a line or stanza) - And all the air a solemn stillness holds. (T. Gray)
Onomatopoeia: words that sound like that which they describe - Boom!
Crash! Pow! Quack! Moo! Caress...
Repetition: the repetition of entire lines or phrases to emphasize key
thematic ideas.
Parallel Stucture/anaphora: a form of repetition where the order of verbs and
nouns is repeated; it may involve exact words, but it more importantly
repeats sentence structure - "I came, I saw, I conquered".
Plosive consonant – d,g,t,k,p,b create an aggressive sound
Aspirate /h/ sound
Long vowels sounds ‘wow’
Short vowel sounds ‘stop’