Post questions here by 7!

As always, if anyone has been on this blog and hasn't got the answers they're looking for, quickly post a question under any of the posts and I will answer it by 8PM tonight.

SECTION B - THE UNSEEN POEM

I will try and put everything you need to answer Section B into 1 post so that you don't have loads to read.

Section B is worth less marks than section A. You should only spend about 30 minutes on it.

Realistically, you will only be able to plan and write about 5/6 paragraphs.

The question(s) will be about a poem which you will not have seen or read before. That is the whole point.

If the question is in multiple parts, have a look how much each part is worth. Make sure you split up your time in accordance with how many marks each question is worth. More marks = more time.

The question will ask you something like,

"What do you learn from the poem about...."
"How does the poet present his ideas about...."

The important part of the question is the bit at the end, because this will refer to the poem in particular.

So then, with that in mind, all you have to do is go through the poem with your highlighter and look out for all the following things:

Structure

What is the structure of the poem like? Does this link to the question?

*If the structure or rhyme scheme is regular or constant, it could be a clue that the poet thinks whatever is going on in the poem is quite normal, happy, regular, constant etc.

*If the structure is unpredictable, or there is no real rhyme scheme, then it is usually a clue that the poet wants you to look more closely at what is going on in the poem. Usually there is something unusual or untidy going on in the poem.

*Has the poet repeated any important words?

*Has the poet used enjambment?

*Look at the words which are first and last in each stanza/line. Are these important? Have they been placed there for a reason?

Language

What sort of groups of words (lexical field) has the poet used? Does this link to the question?

*For example, has the poet used lots of words about a particular subject like death/money/love/work/emotions/religion etc? Highlight them, and link them all together.

Which words has the poet used that really stand out?

*Has the poet used any large/unusual/interesting words that link to the question? Highlught them and point them out.

Imagery

Has the poet used any SIMILES, METAPHORS, PERSONIFICATIONS, ALLITERATION or ONOMATOPOEIA which remind you of the question?


Then, once you have found yourself about 5-6 different points from the poem, start turning these points into PEE paragraphs using the normal method:

POINT - The first thing the poet has done which links to the question is....

EVIDENCE - We can see this where it says..." QUOTE " (Try to use more than one quote if possible)

EXPLAIN - This links to the question because...

Write about 6 of these and you're done!

''Hour' - Carol Ann Duffy

Context

Carol Ann Duffy is the first female Poet Laureate (2009), and probably the best known female poet working in Britain today. She was born in 1955 in Glasgow. Duffy is well known for poems that give a voice to the dispossessed (people excluded from society); she encourages the reader to put themselves in the shoes of people they might normally dismiss.
Her poetry often engages with the grittier and more disturbing side of life, using black humour like a weapon to make social and political points. Her place on the GCSE syllabus caused controversy in 2008, when a complaint was made about the poem Education for Leisure; she responded with typical wit and intelligence with the poem Mrs Schofield’s GCSE.
Hour was published in the collection Rapture (2005) which explores the highs and lows of a romantic relationship.

Subject

Hour is about the feelings that arise from spending time with a loved one. The poem suggests that to be with a loved one, even for just an hour, is precious and valuable. It also presents the traditional idea of time as an obstacle to lovers.

Structure and language

Structure

Hour follows the structure of a Shakespearean sonnet: it has fourteen lines and a predictable rhyme scheme (a-b-a-b-c-d-c-d-e-f-e-f-g-g). Sonnets often use a final rhyming couplet to offer a 'turn' in the meaning; however, Duffy only offers a partial turn, which is confirmation of the idea that love will always triumph by finding unlikely sources of value.

Language

Hour has many references to money and riches, contrasting the concept of material wealth and possessions against love and time spent with a loved one.
Line three puns on the word "spend", and is typical of the way in which the poem investigates the themes of love and money:

We find an hour together, spend it not on flowersOr wine, but the whole of the summer sky and a grass ditch.

The traditional territory of lovers ("Flowers" and "wine") is replaced by alternatives: for example, "a grass ditch" is an improbable romantic location. There is simplicity and perfection to "the whole of the summer sky", an image rich in meaning, a visual feast for a loving couple lying down together and looking up. They enjoy the "Midas light". (Midas was the mythical king whose touch turned things to gold.)
As the poem's title suggests, time is an important consideration for the lovers. "For thousands of seconds we kiss" is a striking phrase, offering the idea of excess - "thousands" - with the limitation of available time, measured in seconds. This precise measurement indicates how precious time is to the speaker, a "treasure" to be carefully counted.
The pleasure and riches that the couple gather in an hour allow them to feel as if they are frozen in time: "Time slows, for here/we are millionaires, backhanding the night". The hour spent together in the golden light gives them a sense of power, making them feel as if they can bribe the darkness to hold back, giving the lovers immense joy and wealth.
There is a contrast between images traditionally seen as romantic (or associated with wealth) and the ordinary: "Flowers" and "grass ditch" compare to a "jewel" and "cuckoo spit" (insect eggs left on long grass); "sunlight" contrasts with a "chandelier"; "gold" contrasts with "straw". These contrasts emphasise the romance of the lovers' time together. Traditional ideas are shown to be unimportant compared to the personal experience of the two characters.
Hour also makes frequent references to images of light in contrast to the night and the darkness of inevitable separation. These include: "Bright", "summer sky", "Midas light", "shining hour", "candle", "chandelier or spotlight". Duffy uses light to suggest a positive, warm, optimistic liaison. Rather than dwelling on the darkness of separation the lovers make the most of the time they have together.
In the final stanza there is a single-word sentence "Now.". It is simple, like the lovers' situation, and yet has a strong sense of being complete; nothing more is needed. It celebrates the moment rather than dwelling on the future or the past.

'Sister Maude' - Christina Rossetti

Context

Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) is remembered as one of the Pre-Raphaelites, a group of 19th century artists and writers who took inspiration from works of art produced in the Middle Ages. Sister Maude draws on the traditional folk tale of two sisters feuding over a lover. The Victorians were keen on folk traditions, and lots of poetry from the period makes use of traditional source material.

Sister Maude describes the death of a loved one caused by the actions of a jealous sister. The poem is ambiguous but hints strongly that jealousy and betrayal led to the death of a sister's lover. The poem is written from the point of view of the betrayed sister, left alone without her loved one, who was coveted by Maude. The speaker believes that even if she hadn't been born her dead lover would "never have looked at" Maude, and perhaps this provided motivation for Maude to destroy the lovers' relationship.

Structure and language

Structure

Each stanza contains even lines that rhyme; this regular pattern helps to reinforce the traditional source for the poem because older poetry is often characterised by the use of strict structural devices like rhyme, rhythm and even line and stanza lengths.
Of the five stanzas in the poem, four have four lines. The fifth stanza offers an extra two lines in which there is a turn, after which the mood of the poem subtly alters.

Language

 

The poem opens with a rhetorical question (a question which is asked for specific effect). This opening also makes clear that there is an implied audience for the poem - the woman's sister, Maude, who is accused of bringing about the death of a lover.
The third line makes use of a break in the centre (a technique called 'caesura') to reflect the speaker's outrage and anger that "Maude, my sister Maude" could have deliberately caused such a tragedy. The repetition of "Maude" also adds to the strength of the narrator's feelings.
There are frequent religious references in the poem, reflecting conventions within society at the time in which the poem was written, as well as the seriousness of the events described. Maude has committed such a terrible deed that, rather than going to heaven, her sister tells her, "Bide you with death and sin". The narrator feels that Maude deserves the eternal punishment of hell.
The regular rhythm of the poem is broken by a shorter line in line 16, highlighting Maude's destiny:

My father may sleep in Paradise,My mother at Heaven-gate;But sister Maude shall get no sleepEither early or late.

Alliteration is used in the poem to communicate the feelings of the speaker. In the second stanza she describes the body of her dead lover using several repetitions of the letter 'c', the hard sound echoing her outburst. In the final two lines there is alliteration of 's' sounds, mimicking the hissing satisfaction that the speaker feels at the prospect of her sister going to hell.

William Shakespeare: Sonnet 116

Context

As well as writing plays, William Shakespeare is also remembered for his poetry, especially sonnets. This poem is part of Shakespeare's famous collection of poems (a sonnet sequence), consisting of 154 poems. They are about topics such as love and time. The structure of the poems has become the popular format for the sonnet, also called the Shakespearean sonnet.

This poem is about love, not between a speaker and his lover, but as a concept or idea. The poem explores what is meant by love, and proposes that, if it is true, love is one of life's constants which does not change with time or circumstance.

Structure and language

Structure

The Shakespearean sonnet has 14 lines divided into three stanzas of four lines each and a final couplet. The rhyme scheme can be described as a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g. This predictability and use of a regular pattern is frequently found in older poetry as writers tended to stick to the restrictions of a set format. This poem follows the conventional structure and includes the usual 'turn' at the end - a pair of lines (or couplet) that either shifts the mood or meaning of the poem, or asserts some sort of revelation.

Language

Sonnet 116 uses repeated pairs of words: "love is not love", "alters when it alteration finds" and "remover to remove" are examples from the first three lines. This mirroring of words is suggestive of a loving couple. As well as pairs of words, there are some opposites and negatives used to stress the qualities of love by saying what it is not: true love can observe storms ("tempests") and not be affected; "Love's not Time's fool".
Shakespeare uses metaphors based on natural elements: love "looks on tempests and is never shaken" and "is the star to every wand'ring bark". So love is presented as an essential part of our physical world; it's a fixed point of light in the sky - a "star" - guiding a boat ("wand'ring bark") lost at sea.
The opening lines of the poem echo the conventional Christian marriage service and they stress the idea that love ("the marriage of true minds") should be without "impediments" or barriers and obstacles. These lines can also be interpreted as meaning that love, if it is true, should be without fault.

 

There are lots of references to the idea of love enduring in Sonnet 116. As well as being "unshaken" by storms, "Love alters not" - it is a constant, an "ever-fixed mark", just as a "star" is reliably found in the night sky.
As well as not changing appearance or position, love "bears it out even to the edge of doom". Shakespeare is using language associated with extremes to show the power of love, confirming love as a positive force that triumphs over the prospect of "doom".

'Harmonium' - Simon Armitage

This is a poem about a man who is apparently buying an old harmonium (a type of old organ) from his local church because it isn't used anymore. The speaker in the poem is sad, in a way, because he thinks about how important this organ probably was back in the days, when families went to church together. Now, the church is empty, and the church are letting him buy it 'for a song'. Not much money.

Context

Simon Armitage is famous for his use of colloquial (every day, informal) language and the inclusion of autobiographical material in his poems. Family is an important topic for Armitage, as is music. This poem combines the two subjects.

Subject

The harmonium is a musical organ (usually found in a church) that is played using keys and foot pedals. The poem tells the story of someone rescuing a harmonium from being "bundled off to the skip". The narrator needs the help of his father to carry the instrument away from the church.

Structure and language

Structure

The poem has four stanzas of varying lengths. The first stanza describes the harmonium as it stands, ready to be discarded. The next is a closer investigation of the instrument, with detailed descriptions of its parts. The third stanza considers the history of the instrument. The final stanza, which describes carrying the harmonium from the church, is concerned with the relationship between the speaker and his father.

Language

Armitage uses brand names and place names frequently in his poetry, rooting it in the modern world and bringing an element of reality and honesty to his work. In this poem the brand of the organ is mentioned - a Farrand Chapelette - as well as the place it's from, Marsden Church (Marsden is a large village in West Yorkshire).
Colloquial language is used to create an informal, friendly and conversational tone. In the first stanza the harmonium is "gathering dust", about to be "bundled off to the skip" or sold "for a song" (cheaply). This technique creates a sense of honesty and deceptive simplicity.
The colloquial language is also combined with puns associated with music. As well as the example above, the sound of the harmonium "still struck a chord" - both literally as the instrument still plays, but also because it triggers thoughts of the past, specifically of fathers and sons singing in the church choir.

Imagery

The third stanza uses an interesting metaphor to describe the choir. The singers "opened their throats/and gilded finches - like high notes - had streamed out". The metaphor of the voices sounding like golden birds is combined with a simile of the "high notes" to create a very positive and joyful image of the past.
The harmonium is given human qualities throughout the poem: the keys are "fingernails"; "one of its notes has lost its tongue"; and it is carried out "laid on its back". The position of the instrument in the church, like an important member of the congregation or community, was once significant.
There is careful observation of the instrument, the organist and the speaker's father to create atmosphere and associations with the past. The holes in the "treadles" (foot pedals) prompt an image of the organist's feet, socks and shoes. These have "pedalled and pedalled", a repetition bringing to mind both the playing of the instrument and time passing. Line 19 has a similarly close observation of the father's "smoker's fingers and dottled thumbs".
Although the poem is literally about a musical instrument, it is also about ageing and how a son takes the place of his father as time passes. The speaker uses parallelism, a form of repetition in which syntax (structure of words in a sentence) is repeated: "And he, being him, ... And I, being me,". This use of a repetition intensifies the relationship between father and son.
The personality of the speaker is reflected in the final three lines. The narrator's father suggests that the next thing carried from the church will be his own coffin; the speaker responds:

And I, being me, then mouth in replySome shallow or sorry phrase or wordToo starved of breath to make itself heard.

The two pairs of indefinite descriptions "shallow or sorry" and "phrase or word" are vague and imprecise, and the narrator's lack of breath means whatever he has said is not heard. This suggests a sense of the speaker's feelings of inadequacy. Is he up to the job of "replacing" his father? Or perhaps the speaker is upset and tongue-tied at the thought of his father's death. He could also, of course, be breathless from the exertion of lifting the heavy organ!

Attitudes, themes and ideas

The poem is a celebration of a musical instrument and its role for generations in the local church and wider community. The poem is mostly about the relationship between father and son, however, and the way in which life is cyclical - a son becomes a father and he in turn becomes a father, "each in their time".
The poem is possibly about regret too. The harmonium is "gathering dust/in the shadowy porch", and by saving the instrument there is an attempt to preserve the memories it provokes in the speaker. The final lines have a sense of failure about them, as if the speaker feels something has been lost which he is unable to recapture.
The writing of the poem might redress (set right) this sense of failure, however, by aiming to recreate the beautiful music and community spirit associated with the harmonium.

'In Paris With You' - James Fenton

This is a poem about a couple who go to Paris together. However, instead of being all romantic and loved up, they seem to have a bit of a strange relationship where they don't want to do all the romantic stuff. The speaker of the poem seems to have been hurt in the past, and needs time to get to know the other person. In the end, they get to know each other quite well by just spending time together in their room!

Context

James Fenton is a modern poet who has worked as a political journalist. He is well known for writing war poetry as well as poems that deal with relationships. His style is characterised by word play and a use of traditional forms of poetry such as ballads, sonnets and lyrics (words set to music).

In Paris with You is recounted by a (the narrator) whose relationship has just ended and who is now in Paris with someone else ("I'm on the rebound"). This suggests a long-term relationship has ended and the speaker is currently enjoying a less serious liaison. The narrator doesn't want to examine the aftermath of the serious relationship: he doesn't want to talk things over or even visit galleries or landmarks; he just wants to enjoy the moment rather than thinking of the future or the past.

Structure and language

Structure

The poem has four stanzas of five or six lines, with a longer stanza of nine lines in the centre, acting as a chorus in which the mood of the poem changes. The first half of the poem deals with the lead up to the current situation; the second half is concerned with enjoying the present. The repeated line "I'm in Paris with you" - and variations on it - can be described as a refrain (lines that are repeated in a song). The use of repetition reflects the speaker's insistent concentration on the present.
The poem has a regular rhyme scheme in the four stanzas, adding to the poem's musical quality. The rhyme scheme in these four stanzas can be described as a-b-c-c-b (with the final b in the extra line of the last stanza). The stanza in the centre of the poem makes use of half rhyme. The contrasting rhyme of "Elysees" and "sleazy" gives a comic effect.

Language

In Paris with You opens with an emphatic negative: "Don't talk to me of love". The speaker has "had an earful" and wants to stop thinking about love. The line is repeated at the start of two more stanzas. However, this is not a negative poem but one which celebrates the intimacy of a relationship.
The poem is written in the first person and addresses a lover. There are lines that hint at a conversation with a lover, but we only hear one person's side of the dialogue: "Yes I'm angry" and "Am I embarrassing you?" The poem seems even more intimate; we are almost made to feel as if we're eavesdropping.
There is a repeated use of colloquial (everyday) language, suggesting this is an informal, honest poem. Phrases such as "had an earful", "downed a drink or two", "say sod off to sodding Notre Dame" and "Doing this and that" make the poem down-to-earth. Such language also contrasts with the falsely poetic tone often found in literature about love, replacing it to comic effect.
Word play is another technique used to generate humour. The speaker refers to his weariness at having to talk about his failed relationship: "I'm one of your talking wounded", a pun on the phrase 'walking wounded' (used in the context of war), which he then rhymes with "maroonded", a partly nonsense word used to maintain the rhyme scheme. This brings a fun and inventive tone to the poem.
The final stanza repeats "I'm in Paris with..." four times, and offers both comical and sensual references to the speaker's enthusiasm for the person he is with. The line "Am I embarrassing you?" adds to the sense of the exuberant, teasing attitude of the speaker.

Attitudes, themes and ideas

 

The poem is about surfacing from a long-term relationship but not thinking about it in the aftermath. It is about enjoying a time of closeness without having to take responsibility for the past or the future. "I'm in Paris with you" is a mantra (a repeated sound or phrase that can transform you) which contains the key theme of enjoying the present.
In Paris with You rejects the traditional concerns of romance. The famous sights of the usually romantic city of Paris are unimportant to the narrator:

Do you mind if we do not go to the Louvre,If we say sod off to sodding Notre Dame,If we skip the Champs Elysées

Instead the speaker concentrates on the "sleazy/Old hotel room" with its "crack across the ceiling" in which the "walls are peeling". These details are unique to the narrator's experience of being in Paris with a lover - "I'm in Paris with the slightest thing you do" - which sums up the poem's message: being together is far more important than typical romantic locations and analytical conversations.