Regardless of which poetry anthology you have studied, the type of question you’ll need to write an essay for will be the same. You will be asked a question that asks you to compare and analyse two anthology poems. Your answer will need to address both the given (printed) poem and another poem of your choice from the anthology.
It is tempting to jump straight in and start analysing the given poem immediately. However, completing the steps below first will ensure you answer the question in the way that examiners are looking for.
6 key steps to answer the poetry anthology exam question effectively:
1. The very first thing you should do once you open your exam paper is to look at the question:
- This sounds obvious, but it’s really crucial to read through the question a few times
- Why is this important? Regardless of what subject you’re being examined in, the single biggest mistake most students make in their exams is not reading the question through carefully enough that they answer the question they think they’re being asked, rather than the question they’ve actually been asked
- It’s especially important to get this right in your GCSE English Literature exams because you only have five essay questions to answer across two papers, so if you misread a question, you’re potentially costing yourself a large number of marks
2. Identify the key words of the question
- The key words are the focus of the question: the specific themes or ideas the examiners want you to focus on
- For the above question, the key words of the question are “ideas about power and control”
- This is the theme the examiners want you to explore in your essay
- Do not be tempted to write a question on a related theme, even if you have revised more for it: this will affect your overall mark badly, as you won’t be directly answering the question!
- In the example above, the theme is power and control, so make sure you plan and write an essay about power and control, rather than, for example, the corruption of power
- Although this is a related theme, your answer won’t be focused on the question and will lose you marks
3. Critically evaluate the idea or theme of the question in terms of the poetry anthology as a whole
- Think: what is this question asking, and what is it not asking?
- The question is not asking you to explore other ideas explored in the anthology or poem itself, for example, the power of nature, or war
- Try to define the key words of the question to get a better sense of what the question is asking you to explore:
- It is asking you to explore power and control - the ability to exert authority or influence over people or events
4. Consider your given poem in terms of this key idea or theme
- Use your definition of the key terms of the question to frame your thinking about the given poem
- The definition of power and control was “the ability to exert authority or influence over people or events”
- Where do we see this kind of power and control in the given poem?
- Who is presented as having control? Who is not?
- How is this type of power and control presented by the poet?
- What is the poet’s overarching message about this kind of power and control?
5. Now you have identified and evaluated the key idea or theme of the question, select another poem in the anthology that explores that same theme or idea
- You can immediately rule out lots of the other anthology poems which do not explore the idea of power and control
- Of the remaining poems, think:
- Which of the poems features ideas about power and control prominently?
- What are the other poets trying to say about power and control?
- Which poem do I feel most comfortable writing about how ideas about power and control are presented?
- Do not select a second poem because you know it best, or because you have memorised lots of quotations from it if it doesn’t explore the idea or theme in the question
- This is a guaranteed way to lose huge numbers of marks because you will not be answering the question
6. Read and analyse the given poem
- You should only now start reading and analysing the printed poem
- Your reading and analysis will now be focused on the terms of the question, and also the second poem you will be analysing
- This will change the way you approach the given poem, and make your reading more efficient