GCSEEnglish LiteratureAQAExam Questions4. The Poetry AnthologyPower & Conflict

Power & Conflict (AQA GCSE English Literature): Exam Questions

Exam code: 8702

13 hours286 questions

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Power & Conflict

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11 mark

Who is the speaker in The Émigrée?

  • an unknown soldier describing exile

  • an unnamed woman recalling her childhood city

  • a journalist reporting on war

  • a neighbour watching events

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21 mark

How is the city often described in relation to the speaker?

  • as hostile and violent

  • as a person who speaks and embraces her

  • as a soldier marching beside her

  • as a building she cannot enter

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31 mark

What has happened to the city in reality?

  • It has been destroyed by war or tyranny.

  • It has been rebuilt as a modern capital.

  • It has been taken over by nature.

  • It has been lost under the sea.

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41 mark

How do the “tyrants” feature in the poem?

  • They appear as soldiers in battle.

  • They rule over the city in her memories.

  • They are mentioned as controlling the city now.

  • They appear as judges in a courtroom.

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51 mark

How does the speaker describe the language of her childhood?

  • It tastes of sunlight.

  • It smells of roses.

  • It burns like fire.

  • It echoes like thunder.

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61 mark

What is the effect of describing the city with repeated “sunlight” imagery?

  • It shows her memory is warm and idealised.

  • It shows the city is burning with fire.

  • It shows the city is dangerous to approach.

  • It shows the city is physically bright all the time.

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71 mark

What is the effect of the contrast between memory and reality in the poem?

  • It proves her memories are false and meaningless.

  • It highlights the conflict between her idealised memory and the city’s harsh present.

  • It shows the city no longer exists anywhere, and her memory has changed it.

  • It suggests she has forgotten the city entirely.

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81 mark

What is the effect of the city being described as “my city takes me dancing”?

  • It suggests a playful, loving bond between her and the city.

  • It suggests the city mocks her in a cruel way.

  • It suggests the city is controlling of her movements.

  • It suggests the city rewards her with wealth and power.

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91 mark

What is a central theme of The Émigrée?

  • The certainty of historical facts and figures

  • The joy of travelling to new countries

  • The tension between memory and reality

  • The glory of national leaders and their rule

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11 mark

What conflict is introduced by the line “There once was a country…”?

  • the tension between a child’s idealism and an adult’s reality

  • the opposition between personal freedom and social duty

  • the contrast between public memory and private grief

  • the division between history and the current reality

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21 mark

How do “white ” and “graceful slopes” shape the poem’s tone?

  • They reveal the city’s submission to tyrannical control.

  • They portray a brightness that conceals unspoken suffering.

  • They evoke purity and nostalgic affection for her lost homeland.

  • They present a postcard-like brightness that feels decorative rather than heartfelt.

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31 mark

How does the repetition “They accuse me” shape the poem’s closing tone?

  • It conveys forgiveness and acceptance.

  • It reflects her defiance against unjust judgement.

  • It portrays the speaker as defeated and silenced by persecution.

  • It reveals both accusation and pity in her imagined audience.

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41 mark

What effect does writing the poem in free verse achieve?

  • It gives order and stability to her thoughts.

  • It mirrors the chaos of warfare.

  • It displays rejection of literary tradition.

  • It reflects freedom and the shifting flow of memory.

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51 mark

How does the contrast between “time rolls its tanks” and “the graceful slopes glow” deepen meaning?

  • It depicts time’s relentless assault on the beauty of memory.

  • It shows how violence and beauty coexist in her recollection.

  • It suggests that conflict hardens what was once gentle.

  • It contrasts mechanical destruction with human tenderness.

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61 mark

Which structural feature most clearly reinforces the theme of confinement?

  • a steady, rhythmic pattern across stanzas

  • caesuras in the final stanza halting the poem’s flow

  • repetition of “sunlight” linking each section

  • enjambment that propels the rhythm forward

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71 mark

What overarching statement about identity emerges from the poem?

  • Identity collapses when memory replaces reality.

  • Identity endures through memory even in exile.

  • Identity becomes an act of imagination sustained by love.

  • Identity is divided between past affection and present fear.

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11 mark

How do The Émigrée and Checking Out Me History each present identity as recovered through language?

  • Rumens protects her “child’s vocabulary” through affection, while Agard’s “Dem tell me” exposes lies in schooling — both seek belonging in remembered words.

  • Rumens’s “branded tongue” weakens under “tyrants,” while Agard’s “Bandage up me eye” rejects history — both imagine silence as power.

  • Rumens carries “that child’s vocabulary here” while Agard rewrites “Dem tell me… but dem never tell me” — both rebuild selfhood through speech.

  • Rumens hides behind imagery, and Agard forgets the past — both replace language with imagination.

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21 mark

Compared with Checking Out Me History, how do both poets use light imagery to express empowerment?

  • Rumens’s “white streets” conceal corruption, while Agard’s “star” and “beacon” expose deceit — both use light to reveal falsehoods within authority.

  • For Rumens, “sunlight-clear” shows hope that lasts through exile; for Agard, “yellow sunrise” restores pride and identity. Both use light as renewal.

  • Rumens’s “impression of sunlight” fades beneath “tyrants,” while Agard’s “Toussaint de beacon” burns with anger — both show light as destructive fire.

  • Rumens’s glow evokes nostalgia, while Agard’s glare blinds — both question enlightenment’s promise.

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31 mark

In what ways do The Émigrée and Poppies show memory as a way to live with loss?

  • Rumens’s “sunlight-clear” city traps her in longing, while Weir’s “smoothed-down collar” captures unending grief — both cling to memory as confinement rather than peace.

  • Rumens’s “my city comes to me” while Weir “released a songbird from its cage” turn recollection into endurance — love continuing through absence.

  • Rumens’s “impression of sunlight” dims with time, while Weir’s “crumpled tissue” shows affection fading — memory that weakens rather than sustains.

  • Rumens’s warm light and Weir’s tender rituals link private loss with shared mourning — remembrance as communal act.

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