POETRY EXAM - EXAMPLE ANSWER FOR SECTION A

How are relationships between people presented an ‘In Paris With You’ and another poem of your choice? (Sister Maude)

 Using PEE

The first thing I noticed about the two poems is that they both talk about love. In ‘In Pairs with you’ the love between the couple is unusual because the poet says ‘Don’t talk to me of love’. This is unusual because they are in Paris, which most people see as the city of love, so something unusual is obviously happening. Similarly, in ‘Sister Maude’ there is obviously an unusual relationship between the two sisters because she dislikes her sister and wants her to suffer. We know this because it says, ‘Sister Maude will get no sleep’ which shows that she wants her to be panicked. It is unusual for two sisters to dislike each other so much.

 

The second way that we can compare the poems is that they both use metaphors to show their feelings. In ‘In Paris With You’, the speaker says  ‘I’m a hostage’, which shows that he feels trapped by the love he feels. In the same way, in ‘Sister Maude’, the speaker says ‘You might have spared my soul’, which shows that the speaker feels very betrayed by her sister. Both poems exaggerate to get their point across.

 

A third way that we can compare the two poems is that they both use repetition to get their point across. In ‘In Paris With You’, the speaker repeats the word ‘don’t’ to show that he is not 100% happy about the way the relationship is going. Similarly, in ‘Sister Maude’, the speaker often repeats the words ‘Sister Maude’ , which is the title of the poem, to remind the reader how close she should be to her sister. This shows us how much she feels she has been let down by her sister.

 

One way that they are different is when we compare the structure of the two poems. ‘In Paris With You’ has a very unusual structure, with stanzas and lines of different lengths. This suggest to the reader that the relationship in the poem is unusual and does not have much structure to it either. In ‘Sister Maude’, the structure is much more what you would expect, except for the last stanza where there is an extra two lines. These two lines are really important because it talks about how Sister Maude will go to hell. The structure draws the reader’s attention to this.

 

Another difference between the poems is the sort of subjects that they both talk about. In ‘Sister Maude’, there is lots of reference to God and religion. We see this where it says ‘My Father may sleep in Paradise, my mother at heaven’s gate.’ This exaggerates how evil she thinks her sister is. On the other hand, in ‘In Paris With You’, the speaker uses much more basic, even amusing language such as ‘Sod off to the sodding Notre Dame’. This shows the reader that their relationship is much more relaxed and modern.

 

If you can do this, you'll get a decent amount of marks!

 

NW