WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
Unseen Poetry
Guide
10P2
Miss Mitchell
Unit 1, Section B: Unseen Poetry
Comparison - Contemporary
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WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
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 In this section of your English Literature paper you will have two modern poems
to study and compare. That is, you have to:
-
tell the examiner how both poems affect you;
-
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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WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
SECTION B
Spend about 1 hour on this section. Think carefully about the poems before you write your answer.
6. In the first of the following poems, Woman Work, a black woman speaks about her life in the
southern states of the USA. In the second, Overheard in County Sligo, a woman speaks about her
life in Ireland.
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 poets may have wanted us to think about;
• the mood or atmosphere of the poems;
• how they are written – words and phrases you find interesting, the way they are organised,
and so on;
• your responses to the poems.
[20]
Woman Work
Overheard in County Sligo
I’ve got the children to tend
The clothes to mend
The floor to mop
The food to shop
Then the chicken to fry
The baby to dry
I got company to feed
The garden to weed
I’ve got the shirts to press
The tots to dress
The cane to be cut
I gotta clean up this hut
Then see about the sick
And the cotton to pick.
I married a man from County Roscommon
and I live in the back of beyond
with a field of cows and a yard of hens
and six white geese on the pond.
Shine on me, sunshine
Rain on me, rain
Fall softly, dewdrops
And cool my brow again.
But I turn to fold the breakfast cloth
and to polish the lustre and brass,
to order and dust the tumbled rooms
and find my face in the glass.
Storm, blow me from here
With your fiercest wind
Let me float across the sky
‘Til I can rest again
I ought to feel I’m a happy woman
for I lie in the lap of the land,
and I married a man from County Roscommon
and I live in the back of beyond.
Fall gently, snowflakes
Cover me with white
Cold icy kisses and
Let me rest tonight.
Sun, rain, curving sky
Mountain, oceans, leaf and stone
Star shine, moon glow
You’re all that I can call my own.
Maya Angelou
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At my door’s a square of yellow corn
caught up by its corners and shaken,
and the road runs down through the open gate
and freedom’s there for the taking.
I had thought to work on the Abbey* stage
or have my name in a book,
to see my thought on the printed page,
or still the crowd with a look.
Gillian Clarke
* Abbey: A well-known theatre in Dublin
WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
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FOCUS
Sample exam paper
 What you see now is an actual question from a previous examination. Have a
good look. Simply get to know it. Become familiar with it. Look at how the question
and the poems are presented. What you should have noticed is that there is a lot to
read before you even arrive at the poems themselves, so you need to concentrate.
TASK
 As a class, read from the start of the question: “Spend about 1 hour …’ to the
end of the question: ‘your responses to the poems.’ Reread the question again, this
time working on your own, and in silence.
 Consider every sentence of the question. Is one part of the question more
important than others? Is one part of the question more useful than others?
In pairs, try and rank every sentence. First, rank them in terms of their importance.
Next, rank them in terms of their usefulness.
 Discuss your ideas with your teacher and the rest of the class.
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WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
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Sample exam paper
 The decision you should have reached is that ALL of the information provided in
the question is ALL equally important and it is ALL equally useful.
 In groups of three, discuss every sentence in the question. Explain why the
sentence is important or useful or both.
 Make a note of your ideas.
Examiner’s Hint
 The unseen poetry question will always be the same. It is only the poems that
will change from year to year.
 In view of the above, use one colour to highlight the sections of the question
paper that will always be exactly the same. Use another colour to highlight sections
that will change.
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WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
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WJEC English Literature 2010
Unit 1, Section B: Unseen Poetry
Comparison - Contemporary
Assessment Objectives
AO1
Respond to texts critically and imaginatively; select and evaluate relevant textual
detail to illustrate and support interpretations
AO2
Explain how language, structure and form contribute to writers’ presentation of ideas,
themes and settings
AO3
Make comparisons and explain links between texts, evaluating writers’ different ways
of expressing meaning and achieving effects
AO4
Relate texts to their social, cultural and historical contexts; explain how texts have
been influential and significant to self and other readers in different contexts and at
different times
Things you need to know (WJEC)
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WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
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This unit will be externally examined.
-
You have to answer one question.
-
You will have to write an essay in which you compare TWO contemporary
poems.
-
This section will be marked out of twenty using AO1, AO2 and AO3.
-
As part of the exam, you will be given a structure to follow to help you plan
your essay / response.
-
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.)
-
A notional indication of how the marks are allocated across the Assessment
Objectives can be found in the table below. In practice, however, examiners
will give an overall mark based on appropriate coverage of each Assessment
Objective.
WJEC
Question
Mark /
AO1
AO2
AO3
Unit 1
Section
B
/ 20
5
5
10
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AO4
WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
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Glossary of Literary Terms.
Below is a list of important terms and techniques used by writers in English
Literature. This will be an ‘Active Document’ so if there is any term not listed that you
feel should be included please email me at sgoodman@bpc.co.uk.
Alliteration: The repetition of the same consonant sound. Eg: “Five miles
meandering with a mazy motion” ‘Kubla Khan’ Coleridge.
Allusion:
A reference to another event, person, place or work of literature. It is
often implied and is used to add another layer of meaning to a text.
Atmosphere: The mood created by a piece of writing.
Authorial intention: Basically, what the Author is trying to achieve though his
writing. See Writer’s Purpose.
Ballad:
A poem which tells a story. The theme is often tragic but can be light
hearted.
Cliché:
A phrase or idea that has been used so much that it has lost its
original meaning or impact.
Colloquialism: An example of everyday speech or language. Eg: “Alright Mate?”
Connotation:
An implication or association attached to a word or phrase.
Connotations are suggested rather than explicit.
Couplet:
Two consecutive lines of verse that rhyme.
Diction:
The choice of word a writer uses. Like vocabulary.
Dramatic Irony: An irony known to the audience but not to the characters. Often
used in Shakespeare. Eg: When Macbeth, soon to murder his king, is
promoted after his predecessor is revealed as a traitor.
Empathy:
A feeling on the part of the reader of sharing the experiences that the
writer is describing.
Enjambment:
In poetry when a line flows into the next without pause or
punctuation.
Euphemism:
Expressing something unpleasant in a less harsh way. Eg: “I no
longer speak” meaning death in “Shooting Stars” by Carol Ann Duffy.
Free Verse:
A poem written without any formal or fixed structure.
Genre:
Hyperbole:
A type of writing. Eg: Poetry, prose, drama.
Deliberate over exaggeration. Eg: “English took forever today”.
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WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
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Imagery:
The use of words to create a picture in the mind of the reader. It is
used to refer to descriptive language and the use of metaphor and
simile.
Irony:
At a basic level, it is when saying one thing but meaning another.
Irony is also used to describe situations where odd events take place
or where circumstance is in the reverse of the norm. Eg: Being run
over by an Ambulance. (!) .
Lyric:
Metaphor:
Narrative:
A song-like poem or piece of verse expressing personal feeling.
A comparison of one thing to another in order to make writing more
descriptive or vivid. It states that one thing is the other. Eg: he is a
king among men.
A piece of writing that tells a story.
Onomatopoeia: A word that sounds how it is written. Eg: Bang or crash.
Parody:
A piece written in imitation of another, often to ridicule it.
Pathos:
An effect where the reader is made to feel pity.
Personification: The attribution of human feelings, emotions or sensations to
inanimate objects. Eg: “the wind crept stealthily through the trees.
Plot:
The sequence of events in a piece of literature that make up the
storyline.
Prose:
A piece of continuous writing not broken into verse.
Rhyme:
Corresponding sounds in words.
Rhyme scheme: The pattern of rhyme in a poem.
Rhythm:
The movement of the poem created through the way language is
stressed throughout.
Simile:
A comparison of one thing to another to make writing more vivid.
Simile uses the words “like” or “as”. Eg: “He eats like a pig”.
Soliloquy:
A speech in drama in which a character, alone on stage, reveals
their true feelings or thoughts for the benefit of the audience.
Sonnet:
A fourteen line poem usually consisting of ten syllables per line.
Stanza:
The blocks of lines which a poem is divided into.
Structure:
The way a piece of writing has been constructed. Structure can be
analysed in terms of stanza arrangement, syllables, line breaks etc.
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WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
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Sub-Plot:
A secondary storyline in a play or story. In Shakespeare, the subplot often provides light relief from the main plots however, sub-plots
can be linked to main-plots in much more complex ways.
Theme:
The central idea(s) a writer explores through their writing.
Writer’s Purpose: Quite simply, the reason the writer has written a particular piece.
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WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
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Did you know?
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.
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 access 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 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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WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
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Step-by-Step Guide to analysing a poem
1. Next to the title, write what it suggests to you
2. Read the poem, underlining any words you don’t understand. Write
at the side of the poem what your first impressions are as to what it’s
about, and what the mood/ tone of the poem is.
3. Look up any of your underlined words. Read the poem again. Write
at the side if you can add anything about what the poem is about/
what the tone is. Add any possible themes.
4. Language – visual – highlight and annotate any similes, metaphors,
personification, repetition, use of adjectives/ senses
5. Language – sound – read the poem aloud and listen for sounds that
stand out or connect somehow. Highlight and annotate any:
alliteration, onomatopoeia, sibilance, assonance.
6. Structure – look at the shape of the poem on the page – are there
any lines/verses that stand out due to length? Write why you think this
is? Does anything strike you about the use of/ lack of punctuation?
7. Structure – rhythm and rhyme – annotate the rhyme scheme – how
does the rhyme/ lack of rhyme add to the overall tone of the poem?
Does it sound happy/ sad? More like a story/ song?
Clap out the rhythm/ count the syllables of some of the lines. Is there
a pattern? What effect does this add to the overall feel of the poem?
Does it follow any particular form such as a sonnet or ballad and, if
so, what does this suggest about the subject matter of the poem?
Copyright © 2010 TES English www.tes.co.uk
WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
November Story
The evening had caught cold;
Its eyes were blurred.
It had a dripping nose
And its tongue was furred.
5 I sat in a warm bar
After the day’s work:
November snuffled outside,
Greasing the sidewalk.
But soon I had to go
10 Out into the night
Where shadows prowled the alleys,
Hiding from the light.
But light shone at the corner
On the pavement where
15 A man had fallen over
Or been knocked down there.
His legs on the slimed concrete
Were splayed out wide;
He had been propped against a lamp-post:
20 His head lolled to one side.
A victim of crime or accident,
An image of fear,
He remained quite motionless
As I drew near.
25 Then a thin voice startled silence
From a doorway close by
Where an urchin hid from the wind
“Spare a penny for the guy!”
I gave the boy some money
30 And hastened on.
A voice called, ‘Thank you guv’nor!’
And the words upon
The wincing air seemed strange –
So hoarse and deep –
35 As if the guy had spoken
In his restless sleep.
VERNON SCANNELL
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WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
November night, Edinburgh
The night tinkles like ice in glasses.
Leaves are glued to the pavement with frost.
The brown air fumes at the shop windows,
Tries the door, and sidles past.
5 I gulp down winter raw. The heady
Darkness swirls with tenements.
In a brown fuzz of cottonwool
Lamps fade up crags, die into pits.
Frost in my lungs is harsh as leaves
10 Scraped up on paths. - I look up, there,
A high roof sails, at the mast-head
Fluttering a grey and ragged star.
The world’s a bear shrugged in his den.
It’s snug and close in the snoring night.
15 And outside like chrysanthemums
The fog unfolds its bitter scent.
NORMAN MACCAIG
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WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
Names
She was Eliza for a few weeks
when she was a baby –
Eliza Lily. Soon it changed to Lil.
Later she was Miss Steward in the baker’s shop
5 And then ‘my love’, ‘my darling’, Mother.
Widowed at thirty, she went back to work
As Mrs Hand. Her daughter grew up,
Married and gave birth.
Now she was Nanna. ‘Everybody
10 Calls me Nanna,’ she would say to visitors.
And so they did – friends, tradesmen, the doctor.
In the geriatric ward
They used the patients’ Christian names.
‘Lil,’ we said, ‘or Nanna,’
15 But it wasn’t in her file
And for those last bewildered weeks
She was Eliza once again.
WENDY COPE
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WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
In Oak Terrace
Old and alone, she sits at nights,
Nodding before the television.
The house is quiet now. She knits,
rises to put the kettle on,
5 watches a cowboy’s killing, reads
the local Births and Deaths, and falls
asleep at ‘Growing stock-piles of war-heads’.
A world that threatens worse ills
fades. She dreams of life spent
10 in the one house: suffers again
poverty, sickness, abandonment,
a child’s death, a brother’s brain
melting to madness. Seventy years
of common trouble; the kettle sings.
15 At midnight she says her silly prayers,
And takes her teeth out, and collects her night-things.
TONY CONNOR
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WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
Summer in the Village
Now, you can see
where the widows live:
nettles grow tall and thistles seed
round old machinery.
5 Hayfields smooth under the scythe
simmer with tussocks;
the hedges begin to go,
and the bracken floods in.
Where the young folk have stayed on
10 gaudy crops of caravans
and tents erupt in roadside fields;
Shell Gifts, Crab Sandwiches, To Let,
the signs solicit by the gates, left open
where the milk churns used to stand;
15 and the cash trickles in.
‘For Sale’ goes up again
on farms the townies bought with good intentions
and a copy of The Whole Earth Guide;
Samantha, Dominic and Willow play
20 among the geese and goats while parents in the pub
complain about Welsh education and the dole.
And a new asperity creeps in.
Now, you will see
the tidy management of second homes:
25 slightly startled, old skin stretched,
the cottages are made convenient.
There are boats with seats;
dogs with the work bred out of them
sit listlessly by garden chairs on Kodakcolor* lawns;
30 and all that was community seeps out.
CHRISTINE EVANS
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WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
Incoming Calls
Thriving in the borders
We know we’ll never be Welsh
But our children are or will be
And we’re happy to help.
5 We’re refugees from the cityscape
We came here to give them freedom to grow
Where the air won’t line their lungs
With grey snow.
Yes, some of us are ageing hippies
10 Who art and craft and grow green vegetables
For seemingly little gain
But we add our incoming voices loud
To the chorus who want the village school to remain
We came here to join the community
15 Though some fear we’re taking over
‘cause we want to protect what we came here for
When some who’ve been here for hundreds of years
Want jobs no matter what the ecological discord
And some of your sons and daughters
20 Can’t live in the place they were born to
‘cause some of us had loads of cash
From the sale of our city semi-detached
And we’ve forced the prices
Beyond your dreams
25 And you don’t see why your kids
Have to leave
And it’s happened before
It’ll happen again
We can only try
30 To help our children be friends
‘cause everyone wants a better life
And everyone fights to have it
And change is a river that flows on and on
No matter how much you damn it
LABI SIFFRE
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WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
Impressions of a New Boy
This school is huge – I hate it!
Please take me home.
Steep stairs cut in stone,
Peeling ceiling far too high,
5 The Head said ‘Wait’ so I wait alone,
Alone though Mum stands here, close by.
The voice is loud – I hate it!
Please take me home.
‘Come. Sit. What is your name?’
10 Trembling lips. The words won’t come.
The head says ‘Speak’, but my cheeks flame,
I hear him give a quiet sigh.
The room is full – I hate it
Please take me home.
15 A sea of faces stare at me.
My desk is much too small.
Its wooden ridge rubs my knee,
But the Head said ‘Sit’ so though I’m tall
I know that I must try.
20 The yard is full – I hate it.
Please take me home.
Bodies jostle me away,
Pressing me against the wall.
Then one boy says, ‘Want to play?’
25 The boy says, ‘Catch’ and throws a ball
And playtime seems to fly.
This school is great - I love it.
MARIAN COLLIHOLE
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WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
Only the Wall
That first day
only the wall saw
the bully
trip the new boy
5 behind the shed,
and only the wall heard
the name he called,
a name that would stick
like toffee.
10 The second day
the wall didn’t see
the fight
because too many
boys stood around,
15 but the wall heard
their cheers,
and no one cheered for
the new boy.
The third day
20 the wall felt
three bullies
lean against it,
ready to ambush
the new boy,
25 then the wall heard
thumps and cries,
and saw blood.
The fourth day
only the wall missed
30 the new boy
though five bullies
looked for him,
then picked another boy
instead. Next day
35 they had him back,
his face hit the wall.
MATTHEW SWEENEY
Copyright © 2010 TES English www.tes.co.uk
The sixth day
only the wall knew
the bullies
40 would need that other boy
to savage.
The wall remembered
the new boy’s face
going home,
45 saw he’d stay away.
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WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
Grandfather
I remember
His sparse white hair and lean face…
Creased eyes that twinkled when he laughed
And the sea-worn skin
5 Patterned to a latticework of lines.
I remember
His blue-veined, calloused hands.
Long gnarled fingers
Stretching out towards the fire –
10 Three fingers missing –
Yet he was able to make model yachts
And weave baskets.
Each bronzed Autumn
He would gather berries
15 Each breathing Spring
His hands were filled with flowers.
I remember
Worshipping his fisherman’s yarns.
Watching his absorbed expression
20 As he solved the daily crossword
With the slim cigarette, hand rolled,
Placed between his lips.
I remember
The snowdrops
25 The impersonal hospital bed,
The reek of antiseptic.
I remember, too,
The weeping child
And wilting daffodils
30 Laid upon his grave.
SUSAN HRYNKOW
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WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
Jessie Emily Schofield
5
10
15
20
I used to wash my grandmother’s hair,
When she was old and small
And walked with a frame
Like a learning child.
She would turn off her hearing aid
And bend into the water,
Holding the edge of the sink with long fingers;
I would pour warm cupfuls over her skull
And wonder what it could be like
In her deaf head with eighty years of life.
Hers was the softest hair I ever felt,
Wedding dress silk on a widow;
But there is a photo of her
Sitting swathed in hair
That I imagine chestnut from the black and white,
Long enough to sit on.
Her wet head felt delicate as a birdskull
Worn thin by waves of age,
As she stood bent.
My mother’s mother under my hands.
JUDY WILLIAMS
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WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
Foghorns
When Catrin was a small child
She thought the foghorn moaning
Far out at sea was the sad
Solitary voice of the moon
5 Journeying to England.
She heard it warn ‘Moon, Moon’,
As it worked the Channel, trading
Weather like rags and bones.
Tonight, after the still sun
10 And the silent heat, as haze
Became rain and weighed glistening
In brimful leaves, and the last bus
Splashes and fades with a soft
Wave-sound, the fog-horns moan, moon –
15 Lonely and the dry lawns drink.
This dimmed moon, calling still,
Hauls sea-rags through the streets.
GILLIAN CLARKE
Copyright © 2010 TES English www.tes.co.uk
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WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
The Fog Horn
In this soup thick night, the fog horn
Calls, like a cow in pain
Sounding its lonely rhythms. Its long
Notes travel not only the sea’s swell, but
5 Float over fields full of sleeping cattle, then
To towns, through deserted streets,
Pulsing through my window, reaching
My ears. How many people listen,
Lying in their beds awake
10 To the soft displacement of silence.
Like hearing a dying animal,
It proves that yet a life exists
Marking the human shorelines
With its pulse.
15 And all around the sea
Stretches, falling over the horizon’s rim.
FRANCES WILLIAMS
Copyright © 2010 TES English www.tes.co.uk
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WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
The railway modeller
He’s spent all week creating the best part
of a village; sculpting the paper strata
of its hills, painting them green, growing
small metal trees with a teased-out fluff
5 of foliage. Then he built half-timbered
card houses, secured them where they belonged
and stood back to be sure it was right.
Now he must add the people: so minute,
they take more work than anything. He uses
10 a make-up brush tapered to a hair
for touching their white plastic into life
with flesh-tones, bright splashes, uniform
blue and grey…. It takes hours to make
an individual, if it’s done with love,
15 but he doesn’t mind the time spent
in his shed, a sufficient universe,
and nothing brings a branch line alive
like people. Working down on the track,
picks raised, or waiting on a paper bench
20 for a train they can’t board, they turn
the scene to a frozen photograph.
It’s a shame he can’t, with all his love,
move the frame on…. The background radio
intrudes news headlines into his thought:
25 today in Parliament the talking fellows
were voting on whether to punish men
with death. His brush carefully strokes in
blond hair; perfects another passenger.
SHEENAGH PUGH
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WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
The Railway Clerk
It isn’t my fault.
I do what I’m told
But still I am blamed.
This year, my leave application
5 Was twice refused.
Every day there is so much work
And I don’t get overtime.
My wife is always asking for more money.
Money, money, where to get money?
10 My job is such, no one is giving bribe,
While other clerks are in fortunate position,
and no promotion even because I am not graduate.
I wish I was bird.
I am never neglecting my responsibility,
15 I am discharging it properly,
I am doing my duty,
But who is appreciating/
Nobody, I am telling you.
My desk is too small,
20 the fan is not repaired for two months,
three months.
I am living far off in Borivali,
My children are neglecting studies,
How long this can go on?
NISSAM EZEKIAL
Copyright © 2010 TES English www.tes.co.uk
26
WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
Looking into the Field
From the five corners of the field
they lift their heads and move towards him.
This is the man who brings food.
His collie presses against the window
5 of the Land Rover and leaves a nose-round watermark.
He walks to the four stiff legs of a dead sheep
and bends to grasp fistfuls of tight wool.
Lifting from his knees he pulls and rolls
the ewe upright, setting the legs kicking again.
10 Tubful of life, she bleats and waddles to new grass.
The field has been put to rights and as he walks back
his flock return to their grass and the first autumn leaves.
Four disappointed crows flap into the sky she’d
stared up through like a cloudy blue tunnel.
TONY CURTIS
Copyright © 2010 TES English www.tes.co.uk
27
WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
Hatching
His night has come to an end and now he must break
The little sky which shielded him. He taps
Once and nothing happens. He tries again
And makes a mark like lightning. He must thunder,
5 Storm and shake and break a universe
Too small and safe. His daring beak does this.
And now he is out in a world of smells and spaces.
He shivers. Any air is wind to him.
He huddles under wings but does not know
10 He is already shaping feathers for
A lunge into the sky. His solo flight
Will bring the sun upon his back. He’ll bear it,
Carry it, learn the real winds, by instinct
Return for food and, larger than his mother,
15 Avid for air, harry her with his hunger.
ELIZABETH JENNINGS
Copyright © 2010 TES English www.tes.co.uk
28
WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
The Moth’s Plea
I am a disappointment
And much worse.
You hear a flutter, you expect a brilliance of wings,
Colours dancing, a bright
5 Flutter, but then you see
A brown, bedraggled creature
With a shamefaced, unclean look
Darting upon your curtains and clothes,
Fighting against the light.
10 I hate myself. It’s no wonder you hate me.
I meddle among your things,
I make a meal out of almost any cloth,
I hide in cupboards and scare
Any who catch me unaware.
15 I am your enemy – the moth.
You try to keep me away
But I’m wily and when I do
Manage to hide, you chase me, beat me, put
Horrible-smelling balls to poison me.
20 Have you ever thought what it’s like to be
A parasite,
Someone who gives you a fright,
Who envies the rainbow colours of the bright
Butterflies who hover round flowers all day?
25 Oh please believe that I do understand how it feels
To be awake in and be afraid of the night.
ELIZABETH JENNINGS
Copyright © 2010 TES English www.tes.co.uk
29
WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
Weasels
They are only scrap for a furrier
Or trimming for a lady’s wrap.
But before they end on a heap
They are awful in the fields and streams.
5 Red-brown and nine inches long.
They eat mice and moles and frogs;
Rooks, crows and owls are nothing to them.
Weasels will get through a bush or hedge
For thrush and blackbird eggs
10 And swim a mile when they sniff dead fish.
My granddad saw one
Wipe out a granary of rats
And then look around to see
If he had missed any
15 Before he enjoyed his huge supper.
Once, in America, a hawk was found
With a weasel’s skull locked to its throat.
Even when chased by a fox
They may stop to kill a chicken.
20 Weasels like rabbits, too
And go deep into the dark burrows.
In Carmarthen they have hunted in packs
Scampering behind the poor scared hares
Lolloping in the moonlight.
25 They will also attack a man
If trapped – single and alone
They jump for the neck.
Weasels will live anywhere smelly
Inside a maggoty sheep carcase
30 Or a rotted tree-stump,
A crumbled wall crevice or a fish hole
In the riverbank. Their innocent babies
Nest tight at the back of the holes.
JOHN TRIPP
Copyright © 2010 TES English www.tes.co.uk
30
WJEC GCSE English Literature 2010: Unit 1, Section B - Unseen Poetry
31
Acknowledgments and thanks
Written by Chantel Mathias
Introduction and copy by Heather Fish
Audio file scripts and recordings by Barrie McDermid: www.podcastrevision.co.uk
Illustrated e-poetry booklet by David Riley: www.triptico.co.uk
Clarke, Gillian
‘Foghorns’ by Gillian Clarke from Selected Poems (Carcanet Press Limited, 1996), Copyright © Gillian Clarke
1985, 1996
Curtis, Tony
‘Looking into the Field’ by Tony Curtis from Heaven's Gate (Seren, 2001), Copyright © Tony Curtis
2001
Evans, Christine
‘Summer in the Village’ by Christine Evans from Looking Inland (Poetry Wales Press, 1983), Copyright ©
Christine Evans 1983
Jennings, Elizabeth
‘Hatching’ by Elizabeth Jennings from Consequently I Rejoice (Carcanet), Copyright © Elizabeth Jennings
‘The Moth’s Plea’ by Elizabeth Jennings from A Spell of Words (Macmillan), Copyright © Elizabeth Jennings
MacCaig, Norman
‘November night, Edinburgh’ from The Poems of Norman MacCaig by Norman MacCaig are reproduced by
permission of Polygon, an imprint of Birlinn Ltd (www.birlinn.co.uk)
Pugh, Sheenagh
‘The railway modeller’ by Sheenagh Pugh from Selected Poems (Seren, 1990), Copyright © Sheenagh Pugh
1990
Williams, Frances
‘The Fog Horn’ by Frances Williams from Flotsam (Seren), Copyright © Frances Williams
Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders of material reproduced in this collection. If notified,
we will be pleased to rectify any errors / omissions.
Copyright © 2010 TES English www.tes.co.uk