Poetry Anthology (First Exam 2027) (WJEC Eduqas GCSE English Literature): Exam Questions

Read the poem below, The Schoolboy, by William Blake.

The Schoolboy

I love to rise in a summer morn,

When the birds sing on every tree;

The distant huntsman winds his horn,

And the sky-lark sings with me.

O! what sweet company.

But to go to school in a summer morn,

O! it drives all joy away;

Under a cruel eye outworn.

The little ones spend the day.

In sighing and dismay.

Ah! then at times I drooping sit,

And spend many an anxious hour,

Nor in my book can I take delight,

Nor sit in learnings bower,

Worn thro' with the dreary shower.

How can the bird that is born for joy,

Sit in a cage and sing.

How can a child when fears annoy.

But droop his tender wing.

And forget his youthful spring.

O! father & mother, if buds are nip'd,

And blossoms blown away.

And if the tender plants are strip'd

Of their joy in the springing day.

By sorrow and care's dismay.

How shall the summer arise in joy.

Or the summer fruits appear.

Or how shall we gather what griefs destroy

Or bless the mellowing year.

When the blasts of winter appear.

— William Blake

Choose one other poem from the anthology in which the poet also writes about childhood. Compare the way the poets present their ideas about childhood in the two poems.

In your answer to this question you should:

• compare the content and structure of the poems — what they are about and how they are organised

• compare how the writers create effects, using appropriate terminology where relevant

• compare the contexts of the poems, and how these may have influenced the ideas in them.

[25 marks]

Read the poem below, Blackberry Picking, by Seamus Heaney.

Blackberry Picking

Late August, given heavy rain and sun

For a full week, the blackberries would ripen.

At first, just one, a glossy purple clot

Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.

You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet

Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it

Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for

Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger

Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots

Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots.

Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills

We trekked and picked until the cans were full,

Until the tinkling bottom had been covered

With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned

Like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered

With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard's.

We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre.

But when the bath was filled we found a fur,

A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache.

The juice was stinking too. Once off the bush

The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.

I always felt like crying. It wasn't fair

That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.

Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not.

— Seamus Heaney

Blackberry Picking is a poem about nature. How does Heaney present nature in the poem? Refer to the contexts of the poem in your answer.

[15 marks]

Read the poem below, Blackberry Picking, by Seamus Heaney.

Blackberry Picking

Late August, given heavy rain and sun

For a full week, the blackberries would ripen.

At first, just one, a glossy purple clot

Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.

You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet

Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it

Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for

Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger

Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots

Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots.

Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills

We trekked and picked until the cans were full,

Until the tinkling bottom had been covered

With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned

Like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered

With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard's.

We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre.

But when the bath was filled we found a fur,

A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache.

The juice was stinking too. Once off the bush

The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.

I always felt like crying. It wasn't fair

That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.

Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not.

— Seamus Heaney

Choose one other poem from the anthology in which the poet also writes about nature. Compare the way the poets present their ideas about nature in the two poems.

In your answer to this question you should:

• compare the content and structure of the poems — what they are about and how they are organised

• compare how the writers create effects, using appropriate terminology where relevant

• compare the contexts of the poems, and how these may have influenced the ideas in them.

[25 marks]

Read the poem below, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, by William Wordsworth.

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

— William Wordsworth

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud is a poem about nature. How does Wordsworth present nature in the poem? Refer to the contexts of the poem in your answer.

[15 marks]

Read the poem below, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, by William Wordsworth.

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

— William Wordsworth

Choose one other poem from the anthology in which the poet also writes about nature. Compare the way the poets present their ideas about nature in the two poems.

In your answer to this question you should:

• compare the content and structure of the poems — what they are about and how they are organised

• compare how the writers create effects, using appropriate terminology where relevant

• compare the contexts of the poems, and how these may have influenced the ideas in them.

[25 marks]

Read the poem below, Drummer Hodge, by Thomas Hardy.

Drummer Hodge

They throw in Drummer Hodge, to rest

Uncoffined — just as found:

His landmark is a kopje-crest

That breaks the veldt around:

And foreign constellations west

Each night above his mound.

Young Hodge the drummer never knew —

Fresh from his Wessex home —

The meaning of the broad Karoo,

The Bush, the dusty loam,

And why uprose to nightly view

Strange stars amid the gloam.

Yet portion of that unknown plain

Will Hodge for ever be;

His homely Northern breast and brain

Grow up some Southern tree,

And strange-eyed constellations reign

His stars eternally.

— Thomas Hardy

Drummer Hodge is a poem about war. How does Hardy present war in the poem? Refer to the contexts of the poem in your answer.

[15 marks]

Read the poem below, Drummer Hodge, by Thomas Hardy.

Drummer Hodge

They throw in Drummer Hodge, to rest

Uncoffined — just as found:

His landmark is a kopje-crest

That breaks the veldt around:

And foreign constellations west

Each night above his mound.

Young Hodge the drummer never knew —

Fresh from his Wessex home —

The meaning of the broad Karoo,

The Bush, the dusty loam,

And why uprose to nightly view

Strange stars amid the gloam.

Yet portion of that unknown plain

Will Hodge for ever be;

His homely Northern breast and brain

Grow up some Southern tree,

And strange-eyed constellations reign

His stars eternally.

— Thomas Hardy

Choose one other poem from the anthology in which the poet also writes about war. Compare the way the poets present their ideas about war in the two poems.

In your answer to this question you should:

• compare the content and structure of the poems — what they are about and how they are organised

• compare how the writers create effects, using appropriate terminology where relevant

• compare the contexts of the poems, and how these may have influenced the ideas in them.

[25 marks]

Read the poem below, Disabled, by Wilfred Owen.

Disabled

He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,

And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey,

Legless, sewn short at elbow. Through the park

Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn,

Voices of play and pleasure after day,

Till gathering sleep had mothered them from him.

About this time Town used to swing so gay

When glow-lamps budded in the light-blue trees

And girls glanced lovelier as the air grew dim,

—In the old times, before he threw away his knees.

Now he will never feel again how slim

Girls' waists are, or how warm their subtle hands,

All of them touch him like some queer disease.

There was an artist silly for his face,

For it was younger than his youth, last year.

Now he is old; his back will never brace;

He's lost his colour very far from here,

Poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry,

And half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race,

And leap of purple spurted from his thigh.

One time he liked a bloodsmear down his leg,

After the matches carried shoulder-high.

It was after football, when he'd drunk a peg,

He thought he'd better join. He wonders why ...

Someone had said he'd look a god in kilts.

That's why; and maybe, too, to please his Meg,

Aye, that was it, to please the giddy jilts,

He asked to join. He didn't have to beg;

Smiling they wrote his lie; aged nineteen years.

Germans he scarcely thought of; and no fears

Of Fear came yet. He thought of jewelled hilts

For daggers in plaid socks; of smart salutes;

And care of arms; and leave; and pay arrears;

Esprit de corps; and hints for young recruits.

And soon, he was drafted out with drums and cheers.

Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer Goal.

Only a solemn man who brought him fruits

Thanked him; and then inquired about his soul.

Now, he will spend a few sick years in Institutes,

And do what things the rules consider wise,

And take whatever pity they may dole.

To-night he noticed how the women's eyes

Passed from him to the strong men that were whole.

How cold and late it is! Why don't they come

And put him into bed? Why don't they come?

— Wilfred Owen

Disabled is a poem about war. How does Owen present war in the poem? Refer to the contexts of the poem in your answer.

[15 marks]

Read the poem below, Disabled, by Wilfred Owen.

Disabled

He sat in a wheeled chair, waiting for dark,

And shivered in his ghastly suit of grey,

Legless, sewn short at elbow. Through the park

Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn,

Voices of play and pleasure after day,

Till gathering sleep had mothered them from him.

About this time Town used to swing so gay

When glow-lamps budded in the light-blue trees

And girls glanced lovelier as the air grew dim,

—In the old times, before he threw away his knees.

Now he will never feel again how slim

Girls' waists are, or how warm their subtle hands,

All of them touch him like some queer disease.

There was an artist silly for his face,

For it was younger than his youth, last year.

Now he is old; his back will never brace;

He's lost his colour very far from here,

Poured it down shell-holes till the veins ran dry,

And half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race,

And leap of purple spurted from his thigh.

One time he liked a bloodsmear down his leg,

After the matches carried shoulder-high.

It was after football, when he'd drunk a peg,

He thought he'd better join. He wonders why ...

Someone had said he'd look a god in kilts.

That's why; and maybe, too, to please his Meg,

Aye, that was it, to please the giddy jilts,

He asked to join. He didn't have to beg;

Smiling they wrote his lie; aged nineteen years.

Germans he scarcely thought of; and no fears

Of Fear came yet. He thought of jewelled hilts

For daggers in plaid socks; of smart salutes;

And care of arms; and leave; and pay arrears;

Esprit de corps; and hints for young recruits.

And soon, he was drafted out with drums and cheers.

Some cheered him home, but not as crowds cheer Goal.

Only a solemn man who brought him fruits

Thanked him; and then inquired about his soul.

Now, he will spend a few sick years in Institutes,

And do what things the rules consider wise,

And take whatever pity they may dole.

To-night he noticed how the women's eyes

Passed from him to the strong men that were whole.

How cold and late it is! Why don't they come

And put him into bed? Why don't they come?

— Wilfred Owen

Choose one other poem from the anthology in which the poet also writes about war. Compare the way the poets present their ideas about war in the two poems.

In your answer to this question you should:

• compare the content and structure of the poems — what they are about and how they are organised

• compare how the writers create effects, using appropriate terminology where relevant

• compare the contexts of the poems, and how these may have influenced the ideas in them.

[25 marks]

Read the poem below, Remains, by Simon Armitage.

Remains

On another occasion, we got sent out

to tackle looters raiding a bank.

And one of them legs it up the road,

probably armed, possibly not.

Well myself and somebody else and somebody else

are all of the same mind,

so all three of us open fire.

Three of a kind all letting fly, and I swear

I see every round as it rips through his life –

I see broad daylight on the other side.

So we've hit this looter a dozen times

and he's there on the ground, sort of inside out,

pain itself, the image of agony.

One of my mates goes by

and tosses his guts back into his body.

Then he's carted off in the back of a lorry.

End of story, except not really.

His blood-shadow stays on the street, and out on patrol

I walk right over it week after week.

Then I'm home on leave. But I blink

and he bursts again through the doors of the bank.

Sleep, and he's probably armed, and possibly not.

Dream, and he's torn apart by a dozen rounds.

And the drink and the drugs won't flush him out –

he's here in my head when I close my eyes,

dug in behind enemy lines,

not left for dead in some distant, sun-stunned, sand-smothered land

or six-feet-under in desert sand,

but near to the knuckle, here and now,

his bloody life in my bloody hands.

— Simon Armitage

Remains is a poem about guilt. How does Armitage present guilt in the poem? Refer to the contexts of the poem in your answer.

[15 marks]

Read the poem below, Remains, by Simon Armitage.

Remains

On another occasion, we got sent out

to tackle looters raiding a bank.

And one of them legs it up the road,

probably armed, possibly not.

Well myself and somebody else and somebody else

are all of the same mind,

so all three of us open fire.

Three of a kind all letting fly, and I swear

I see every round as it rips through his life –

I see broad daylight on the other side.

So we've hit this looter a dozen times

and he's there on the ground, sort of inside out,

pain itself, the image of agony.

One of my mates goes by

and tosses his guts back into his body.

Then he's carted off in the back of a lorry.

End of story, except not really.

His blood-shadow stays on the street, and out on patrol

I walk right over it week after week.

Then I'm home on leave. But I blink

and he bursts again through the doors of the bank.

Sleep, and he's probably armed, and possibly not.

Dream, and he's torn apart by a dozen rounds.

And the drink and the drugs won't flush him out –

he's here in my head when I close my eyes,

dug in behind enemy lines,

not left for dead in some distant, sun-stunned, sand-smothered land

or six-feet-under in desert sand,

but near to the knuckle, here and now,

his bloody life in my bloody hands.

— Simon Armitage

Choose one other poem from the anthology in which the poet also writes about guilt. Compare the way the poets present their ideas about guilt in the two poems.

In your answer to this question you should:

• compare the content and structure of the poems — what they are about and how they are organised

• compare how the writers create effects, using appropriate terminology where relevant

• compare the contexts of the poems, and how these may have influenced the ideas in them.

[25 marks]

Read the poem below, War Photographer, by Carol Ann Duffy.

War Photographer

In his dark room he is finally alone

with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows.

The only light is red and softly glows,

as though this were a church and he

a priest preparing to intone a Mass.

Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.

He has a job to do. Solutions slop in trays

beneath his hands, which did not tremble then

though seem to now. Rural England. Home again

to ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel,

to fields which don't explode beneath the feet

of running children in a nightmare heat.

Something is happening. A stranger's features

faintly start to twist before his eyes,

a half-formed ghost. He remembers the cries

of this man's wife, how he sought approval

without words to do what someone must

and how the blood stained into foreign dust.

A hundred agonies in black and white

from which his editor will pick out five or six

for Sunday's supplement. The reader's eyeballs prick

with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers.

From the aeroplane he stares impassively at where

he earns his living and they do not care.

— Carol Ann Duffy

War Photographer is a poem about suffering. How does Duffy present suffering in the poem? Refer to the contexts of the poem in your answer.

[15 marks]

Read the poem below, War Photographer, by Carol Ann Duffy.

War Photographer

In his dark room he is finally alone

with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows.

The only light is red and softly glows,

as though this were a church and he

a priest preparing to intone a Mass.

Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.

He has a job to do. Solutions slop in trays

beneath his hands, which did not tremble then

though seem to now. Rural England. Home again

to ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel,

to fields which don't explode beneath the feet

of running children in a nightmare heat.

Something is happening. A stranger's features

faintly start to twist before his eyes,

a half-formed ghost. He remembers the cries

of this man's wife, how he sought approval

without words to do what someone must

and how the blood stained into foreign dust.

A hundred agonies in black and white

from which his editor will pick out five or six

for Sunday's supplement. The reader's eyeballs prick

with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers.

From the aeroplane he stares impassively at where

he earns his living and they do not care.

— Carol Ann Duffy

Choose one other poem from the anthology in which the poet also writes about suffering. Compare the way the poets present their ideas about suffering in the two poems.

In your answer to this question you should:

• compare the content and structure of the poems — what they are about and how they are organised

• compare how the writers create effects, using appropriate terminology where relevant

• compare the contexts of the poems, and how these may have influenced the ideas in them.

[25 marks]

Read the poem below, Decomposition, by Zulfikar Ghose.

Decomposition

I have a picture I took in Bombay

of a beggar asleep on the pavement:

grey-haired, wearing shorts and a dirty shirt,

his shadow thrown aside like a blanket.

His arms and legs could be cracks in the stone,

routes for the ants' journeys, the flies' descents,

Brain-washed by the sun into exhaustion,

he lies veined into stone, a fossil man.

Behind him there is a crowd passingly

bemused by a pavement trickster and quite

indifferent to this very common sight

of an old man asleep on the pavement.

I thought it then a good composition

and glibly called it “The Man in the Street,”

remarking how typical it was of

India that the man in the street lived there.

His head in the posture of one weeping

into a pillow chides me now for my

presumption at attempting to compose

art of his hunger and solitude.

— Zulfikar Ghose

Decomposition is a poem about poverty. How does Ghose present poverty in the poem? Refer to the contexts of the poem in your answer.

[15 marks]

Read the poem below, Decomposition, by Zulfikar Ghose.

Decomposition

I have a picture I took in Bombay

of a beggar asleep on the pavement:

grey-haired, wearing shorts and a dirty shirt,

his shadow thrown aside like a blanket.

His arms and legs could be cracks in the stone,

routes for the ants' journeys, the flies' descents,

Brain-washed by the sun into exhaustion,

he lies veined into stone, a fossil man.

Behind him there is a crowd passingly

bemused by a pavement trickster and quite

indifferent to this very common sight

of an old man asleep on the pavement.

I thought it then a good composition

and glibly called it “The Man in the Street,”

remarking how typical it was of

India that the man in the street lived there.

His head in the posture of one weeping

into a pillow chides me now for my

presumption at attempting to compose

art of his hunger and solitude.

— Zulfikar Ghose

Choose one other poem from the anthology in which the poet also writes about suffering. Compare the way the poets present their ideas about suffering in the two poems.

In your answer to this question you should:

• compare the content and structure of the poems — what they are about and how they are organised

• compare how the writers create effects, using appropriate terminology where relevant

• compare the contexts of the poems, and how these may have influenced the ideas in them.

[25 marks]

Read the poem below, Origin Story, by Eve L Ewing.

Origin Story

This is true:

my mother and my father

met at the Greyhound bus station

in the mid-eighties in Chicago.

my mother, all thick glass and afro puff,

came west on the train when she was nineteen,

lived in a friend's house and cared for her children,

played tambourine in a Chaka Khan cover band.

my father, all sleeveless and soft eye,

ran away from home when he was seventeen,

mimeographed communist newspapers

and drew comic books

like this one, for sale. one dollar.

my mother bought one.

love is like a comic book. it's fragile

and the best we can do is protect it

in whatever clumsy ways we can:

plastic and cardboard, dark rooms

and boxes. in this way, something

never meant to last

might find its way to another decade,

another home, an attic, a basement, intact.

love is paper.

and if my parents' love was a comic book,

it never saw polyvinyl, never felt a backing.

it was curled into a back pocket for a day at the park,

lent to a friend, read under covers,

reread hanging upside-down over the back of the couch,

memorized, mishandled, worn thin, staples rusted.

a love like that doesn't last

but it has a good ending.

— Eve L Ewing

Origin Story is a poem about identity. How does Ewing present identity in the poem? Refer to the contexts of the poem in your answer.

[15 marks]

Read the poem below, Origin Story, by Eve L Ewing.

Origin Story

This is true:

my mother and my father

met at the Greyhound bus station

in the mid-eighties in Chicago.

my mother, all thick glass and afro puff,

came west on the train when she was nineteen,

lived in a friend's house and cared for her children,

played tambourine in a Chaka Khan cover band.

my father, all sleeveless and soft eye,

ran away from home when he was seventeen,

mimeographed communist newspapers

and drew comic books

like this one, for sale. one dollar.

my mother bought one.

love is like a comic book. it's fragile

and the best we can do is protect it

in whatever clumsy ways we can:

plastic and cardboard, dark rooms

and boxes. in this way, something

never meant to last

might find its way to another decade,

another home, an attic, a basement, intact.

love is paper.

and if my parents' love was a comic book,

it never saw polyvinyl, never felt a backing.

it was curled into a back pocket for a day at the park,

lent to a friend, read under covers,

reread hanging upside-down over the back of the couch,

memorized, mishandled, worn thin, staples rusted.

a love like that doesn't last

but it has a good ending.

— Eve L Ewing

Choose one other poem from the anthology in which the poet also writes about identity. Compare the way the poets present their ideas about identity in the two poems.

In your answer to this question you should:

• compare the content and structure of the poems — what they are about and how they are organised

• compare how the writers create effects, using appropriate terminology where relevant

• compare the contexts of the poems, and how these may have influenced the ideas in them.

[25 marks]

Read the poem below, I Shall Return, by Claude McKay.

I Shall Return

I shall return again; I shall return

To laugh and love and watch with wonder-eyes

At golden noon the forest fires burn,

Wafting their blue-black smoke to sapphire skies.

I shall return to loiter by the streams

That bathe the brown blades of the bending grasses,

And realize once more my thousand dreams

Of waters rushing down the mountain passes.

I shall return to hear the fiddle and fife

Of village dances, dear delicious tunes

That stir the hidden depths of native life,

Stray melodies of dim remembered runes.

I shall return, I shall return again,

To ease my mind of long, long years of pain.

— Claude McKay

I Shall Return is a poem about home. How does McKay present home in the poem? Refer to the contexts of the poem in your answer.

[15 marks]

Read the poem below, I Shall Return, by Claude McKay.

I Shall Return

I shall return again; I shall return

To laugh and love and watch with wonder-eyes

At golden noon the forest fires burn,

Wafting their blue-black smoke to sapphire skies.

I shall return to loiter by the streams

That bathe the brown blades of the bending grasses,

And realize once more my thousand dreams

Of waters rushing down the mountain passes.

I shall return to hear the fiddle and fife

Of village dances, dear delicious tunes

That stir the hidden depths of native life,

Stray melodies of dim remembered runes.

I shall return, I shall return again,

To ease my mind of long, long years of pain.

— Claude McKay

Choose one other poem from the anthology in which the poet also writes about longing. Compare the way the poets present their ideas about longing in the two poems.

In your answer to this question you should:

• compare the content and structure of the poems — what they are about and how they are organised

• compare how the writers create effects, using appropriate terminology where relevant

• compare the contexts of the poems, and how these may have influenced the ideas in them.

[25 marks]

Read the poem below, Dusting the Phone, by Jackie Kay.

Dusting the Phone

I am spending my time imagining the worst that could happen.

I know this is not a good idea, and that being in love, I could be

spending my time going over the best that has been happening.

The phone rings heralding some disaster. Sirens.

Or it doesn't ring which also means disaster. Sirens.

In which case, who would ring me to tell? Nobody knows.

The future is a long gloved hand. An empty cup.

A marriage. A full house. One night per week

in stranger's white sheets. Forget tomorrow,

You say, don't mention love. I try. It doesn't work.

I assault the postman for a letter. I look for flowers.

I go over and over our times together, re-read them.

This very second I am waiting on the phone.

Silver service. I polish it. I dress for it.

I'll give it extra in return for your call.

Infuriatingly, it sends me hoaxes, wrong numbers;

or worse, calls from boring people. Your voice

disappears into my lonely cotton sheets.

I am trapped in it. I can't move. I want you.

All the time. This is awful – only a photo.

Come on, damn you, ring me. Or else. What?

I don't know what.

— Jackie Kay

Dusting the Phone is a poem about love. How does Kay present love in the poem? Refer to the contexts of the poem in your answer.

[15 marks]

Read the poem below, Dusting the Phone, by Jackie Kay.

Dusting the Phone

I am spending my time imagining the worst that could happen.

I know this is not a good idea, and that being in love, I could be

spending my time going over the best that has been happening.

The phone rings heralding some disaster. Sirens.

Or it doesn't ring which also means disaster. Sirens.

In which case, who would ring me to tell? Nobody knows.

The future is a long gloved hand. An empty cup.

A marriage. A full house. One night per week

in stranger's white sheets. Forget tomorrow,

You say, don't mention love. I try. It doesn't work.

I assault the postman for a letter. I look for flowers.

I go over and over our times together, re-read them.

This very second I am waiting on the phone.

Silver service. I polish it. I dress for it.

I'll give it extra in return for your call.

Infuriatingly, it sends me hoaxes, wrong numbers;

or worse, calls from boring people. Your voice

disappears into my lonely cotton sheets.

I am trapped in it. I can't move. I want you.

All the time. This is awful – only a photo.

Come on, damn you, ring me. Or else. What?

I don't know what.

— Jackie Kay

Choose one other poem from the anthology in which the poet also writes about love. Compare the way the poets present their ideas about love in the two poems.

In your answer to this question you should:

• compare the content and structure of the poems — what they are about and how they are organised

• compare how the writers create effects, using appropriate terminology where relevant

• compare the contexts of the poems, and how these may have influenced the ideas in them.

[25 marks]

Read the poem below, Sonnet 29, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Sonnet 29

I think of thee!—my thoughts do twine and bud

About thee, as wild vines, about a tree,

Put out broad leaves, and soon there's nought to see

Except the straggling green which hides the wood.

Yet, O my palm-tree, be it understood

I will not have my thoughts instead of thee

Who art dearer, better! Rather, instantly

Renew thy presence; as a strong tree should,

Rustle thy boughs and set thy trunk all bare,

And let these bands of greenery which insphere thee

Drop heavily down,—burst, shattered, everywhere!

Because, in this deep joy to see and hear thee

And breathe within thy shadow a new air,

I do not think of thee—I am too near thee.

— Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Sonnet 29 is a poem about love. How does Barrett Browning present love in the poem? Refer to the contexts of the poem in your answer.

[15 marks]

Read the poem below, Sonnet 29, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Sonnet 29

I think of thee!—my thoughts do twine and bud

About thee, as wild vines, about a tree,

Put out broad leaves, and soon there's nought to see

Except the straggling green which hides the wood.

Yet, O my palm-tree, be it understood

I will not have my thoughts instead of thee

Who art dearer, better! Rather, instantly

Renew thy presence; as a strong tree should,

Rustle thy boughs and set thy trunk all bare,

And let these bands of greenery which insphere thee

Drop heavily down,—burst, shattered, everywhere!

Because, in this deep joy to see and hear thee

And breathe within thy shadow a new air,

I do not think of thee—I am too near thee.

— Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Choose one other poem from the anthology in which the poet also writes about love. Compare the way the poets present their ideas about love in the two poems.

In your answer to this question you should:

• compare the content and structure of the poems — what they are about and how they are organised

• compare how the writers create effects, using appropriate terminology where relevant

• compare the contexts of the poems, and how these may have influenced the ideas in them.

[25 marks]

Read the poem below, Cousin Kate, by Christina Rossetti.

Cousin Kate

I was a cottage maiden

Hardened by sun and air,

Contented with my cottage mates,

Not mindful I was fair.

Why did a great lord find me out,

And praise my flaxen hair?

Why did a great lord find me out

To fill my heart with care?

He lured me to his palace home—

Woe's me for joy thereof—

To lead a shameless shameful life,

His plaything and his love.

He wore me like a silken knot,

He changed me like a glove;

So now I moan, an unclean thing,

Who might have been a dove.

O Lady Kate, my cousin Kate,

You grew more fair than I:

He saw you at your father's gate,

Chose you, and cast me by.

He watched your steps along the lane,

Your work among the rye;

He lifted you from mean estate

To sit with him on high.

Because you were so good and pure

He bound you with his ring:

The neighbours call you good and pure,

Call me an outcast thing.

Even so I sit and howl in dust,

You sit in gold and sing:

Now which of us has tenderer heart?

You had the stronger wing.

O cousin Kate, my love was true,

Your love was writ in sand:

If he had fooled not me but you,

If you stood where I stand,

He'd not have won me with his love

Nor bought me with his land;

I would have spit into his face

And not have taken his hand.

Yet I've a gift you have not got,

And seem not like to get:

For all your clothes and wedding-ring

I've little doubt you fret.

My fair-haired son, my shame, my pride,

Cling closer, closer yet:

Your father would give lands for one

To wear his coronet.

— Christina Rossetti

Cousin Kate is a poem about betrayal. How does Rossetti present betrayal in the poem? Refer to the contexts of the poem in your answer.

[15 marks]

Read the poem below, Cousin Kate, by Christina Rossetti.

Cousin Kate

I was a cottage maiden

Hardened by sun and air,

Contented with my cottage mates,

Not mindful I was fair.

Why did a great lord find me out,

And praise my flaxen hair?

Why did a great lord find me out

To fill my heart with care?

He lured me to his palace home—

Woe's me for joy thereof—

To lead a shameless shameful life,

His plaything and his love.

He wore me like a silken knot,

He changed me like a glove;

So now I moan, an unclean thing,

Who might have been a dove.

O Lady Kate, my cousin Kate,

You grew more fair than I:

He saw you at your father's gate,

Chose you, and cast me by.

He watched your steps along the lane,

Your work among the rye;

He lifted you from mean estate

To sit with him on high.

Because you were so good and pure

He bound you with his ring:

The neighbours call you good and pure,

Call me an outcast thing.

Even so I sit and howl in dust,

You sit in gold and sing:

Now which of us has tenderer heart?

You had the stronger wing.

O cousin Kate, my love was true,

Your love was writ in sand:

If he had fooled not me but you,

If you stood where I stand,

He'd not have won me with his love

Nor bought me with his land;

I would have spit into his face

And not have taken his hand.

Yet I've a gift you have not got,

And seem not like to get:

For all your clothes and wedding-ring

I've little doubt you fret.

My fair-haired son, my shame, my pride,

Cling closer, closer yet:

Your father would give lands for one

To wear his coronet.

— Christina Rossetti

Choose one other poem from the anthology in which the poet also writes about relationships. Compare the way the poets present their ideas about relationships in the two poems.

In your answer to this question you should:

• compare the content and structure of the poems — what they are about and how they are organised

• compare how the writers create effects, using appropriate terminology where relevant

• compare the contexts of the poems, and how these may have influenced the ideas in them.

[25 marks]

Read the poem below, Catrin, by Gillian Clarke.

Catrin

I can remember you, child,

As I stood in a hot, white

Room at the window watching

The people and cars taking

Turn at the traffic lights.

I can remember you, our first

Fierce confrontation, the tight

Red rope of love which we both

Fought over. It was a square

Environmental blank, disinfected

Of paintings or toys. I wrote

All over the walls with my

Words, coloured the clean squares

With the wild, tender circles

Of our struggle to become

Separate. We want, we shouted,

To be two, to be ourselves.

Neither won nor lost the struggle

In the glass tank clouded with feelings

Which changed us both. Still I am fighting

You off, as you stand there

With your straight, strong, long

Brown hair and your rosy,

Defiant glare, bringing up

From the heart's pool that old rope,

Tightening about my life,

Trailing love and conflict,

As you ask may you skate

In the dark, for one more hour.

— Gillian Clarke

Catrin is a poem about motherhood. How does Clarke present motherhood in the poem? Refer to the contexts of the poem in your answer.

[15 marks]

Read the poem below, Catrin, by Gillian Clarke.

Catrin

I can remember you, child,

As I stood in a hot, white

Room at the window watching

The people and cars taking

Turn at the traffic lights.

I can remember you, our first

Fierce confrontation, the tight

Red rope of love which we both

Fought over. It was a square

Environmental blank, disinfected

Of paintings or toys. I wrote

All over the walls with my

Words, coloured the clean squares

With the wild, tender circles

Of our struggle to become

Separate. We want, we shouted,

To be two, to be ourselves.

Neither won nor lost the struggle

In the glass tank clouded with feelings

Which changed us both. Still I am fighting

You off, as you stand there

With your straight, strong, long

Brown hair and your rosy,

Defiant glare, bringing up

From the heart's pool that old rope,

Tightening about my life,

Trailing love and conflict,

As you ask may you skate

In the dark, for one more hour.

— Gillian Clarke

Choose one other poem from the anthology in which the poet also writes about family. Compare the way the poets present their ideas about family in the two poems.

In your answer to this question you should:

• compare the content and structure of the poems — what they are about and how they are organised

• compare how the writers create effects, using appropriate terminology where relevant

• compare the contexts of the poems, and how these may have influenced the ideas in them.

[25 marks]

Read the poem below, Kamikaze, by Beatrice Garland.

Kamikaze

Her father embarked at sunrise

with a flask of water, a samurai sword

in the cockpit, a shaven head

full of powerful incantations

and enough fuel for a one-way

journey into history

but half way there, she thought,

recounting it later to her children,

he must have looked far down

at the little fishing boats

strung out like bunting

on a green-blue translucent sea

and beneath them, arcing in swathes

like a huge flag waved first one way

then the other in a figure of eight,

the dark shoals of fishes

flashing silver as their bellies

swivelled towards the sun

and remembered how he

and his brothers waiting on the shore

built cairns of pearl-grey pebbles

to see whose withstood longest

the turbulent inrush of breakers

bringing their father's boat safe

– yes, grandfather's boat – safe

to the shore, salt-sodden, awash

with cloud-marked mackerel,

black crabs, feathery prawns,

the loose silver of whitebait and once

a tuna, the dark prince, muscular, dangerous.

And though he came back

my mother never spoke again

in his presence, nor did she meet his eyes

and the neighbours too, they treated him

as though he no longer existed,

only we children still chattered and laughed

till gradually we too learned

to be silent, to live as though

he had never returned, that this

was no longer the father we loved.

And sometimes, she said, he must have wondered

which had been the better way to die.

— Beatrice Garland

Kamikaze is a poem about family. How does Garland present family in the poem? Refer to the contexts of the poem in your answer.

[15 marks]

Read the poem below, Kamikaze, by Beatrice Garland.

Kamikaze

Her father embarked at sunrise

with a flask of water, a samurai sword

in the cockpit, a shaven head

full of powerful incantations

and enough fuel for a one-way

journey into history

but half way there, she thought,

recounting it later to her children,

he must have looked far down

at the little fishing boats

strung out like bunting

on a green-blue translucent sea

and beneath them, arcing in swathes

like a huge flag waved first one way

then the other in a figure of eight,

the dark shoals of fishes

flashing silver as their bellies

swivelled towards the sun

and remembered how he

and his brothers waiting on the shore

built cairns of pearl-grey pebbles

to see whose withstood longest

the turbulent inrush of breakers

bringing their father's boat safe

– yes, grandfather's boat – safe

to the shore, salt-sodden, awash

with cloud-marked mackerel,

black crabs, feathery prawns,

the loose silver of whitebait and once

a tuna, the dark prince, muscular, dangerous.

And though he came back

my mother never spoke again

in his presence, nor did she meet his eyes

and the neighbours too, they treated him

as though he no longer existed,

only we children still chattered and laughed

till gradually we too learned

to be silent, to live as though

he had never returned, that this

was no longer the father we loved.

And sometimes, she said, he must have wondered

which had been the better way to die.

— Beatrice Garland

Choose one other poem from the anthology in which the poet also writes about rejection. Compare the way the poets present their ideas about rejection in the two poems.

In your answer to this question you should:

• compare the content and structure of the poems — what they are about and how they are organised

• compare how the writers create effects, using appropriate terminology where relevant

• compare the contexts of the poems, and how these may have influenced the ideas in them.

[25 marks]