Part 3: Pearson Edexcel International GCSE English Anthology (Edexcel IGCSE English Literature): Exam Questions

Re-read Prayer Before Birth.

Prayer Before Birth

I am not yet born; O hear me.

Let not the bloodsucking bat or the rat or the stoat or the

club-footed ghoul come near me.

I am not yet born, console me.

I fear that the human race may with tall walls wall me,

with strong drugs dope me, with wise lies lure me,

on black racks rack me, in blood-baths roll me.

I am not yet born; provide me

With water to dandle me, grass to grow for me, trees to talk

to me, sky to sing to me, birds and a white light

in the back of my mind to guide me.

I am not yet born; forgive me

For the sins that in me the world shall commit, my words

when they speak me, my thoughts when they think me,

my treason engendered by traitors beyond me,

my life when they murder by means of my

hands, my death when they live me.

I am not yet born; rehearse me

In the parts I must play and the cues I must take when

old men lecture me, bureaucrats hector me, mountains

frown at me, lovers laugh at me, the white

waves call me to folly and the desert calls

me to doom and the beggar refuses

my gift and my children curse me.

I am not yet born; O hear me,

Let not the man who is beast or who thinks he is God

come near me.

I am not yet born; O fill me

With strength against those who would freeze my

humanity, would dragoon me into a lethal automaton,

would make me a cog in a machine, a thing with

one face, a thing, and against all those

who would dissipate my entirety, would

blow me like thistledown hither and

thither or hither and thither

like water held in the

hands would spill me.

Let them not make me a stone and let them not spill me.

Otherwise kill me.

— Louis MacNeice

Compare the ways the writers present fear in Prayer Before Birth and one other poem from the anthology.

You should make reference to language, form and structure.

Support your answer with examples from the poems.

[30 marks]

Re-read Blessing.

Blessing

The skin cracks like a pod.

There never is enough water.

Imagine the drip of it,

the small splash, echo

in a tin mug,

the voice of a kindly god.

Sometimes, the sudden rush

of fortune. The municipal pipe bursts,

silver crashes to the ground

and the flow has found

a roar of tongues. From the huts,

a congregation: every man woman

child for streets around

butts in, with pots,

brass, copper, aluminium,

plastic buckets,

frantic hands,

and naked children

screaming in the liquid sun,

their highlights polished to perfection,

flashing light,

as the blessing sings

over their small bones.

— Imtiaz Dharker

Compare the ways the writers present community in Blessing and one other poem from the anthology.

You should make reference to language, form and structure.

Support your answer with examples from the poems.

[30 marks]

Re-read Search For My Tongue.

Search For My Tongue

You ask me what I mean

by saying I have lost my tongue.

I ask you, what would you do

if you had two tongues in your mouth,

and lost the first one, the mother tongue,

and could not really know the other,

the foreign tongue.

You could not use them both together

even if you thought that way.

And if you lived in a place you had to

speak a foreign tongue,

your mother tongue would rot,

rot and die in your mouth

until you had to spit it out.

I thought I spit it out

but overnight while I dream,

(munay hutoo kay aakhee jeebh aakhee bhasha)

(may thoonky nakhi chay)

(parantoo rattray svupnama mari bhasha pachi aavay chay)

(foolnee jaim mari bhasha nmari jeebh)

(modhama kheelay chay)

(fullnee jaim mari bhasha mari jeebh)

(modhama pakay chay)

it grows back, a stump of a shoot

grows longer, grows moist, grows strong veins,

it ties the other tongue in knots,

the bud opens, the bud opens in my mouth,

it pushes the other tongue aside.

Everytime I think I've forgotten,

I think I've lost the mother tongue,

it blossoms out of my mouth.

— Sujata Bhatt

Compare the ways the writers present ideas about identity in Search For My Tongue and one other poem from the anthology.

You should make reference to language, form and structure.

Support your answer with examples from the poems.

[30 marks]

Re-read Half-past Two.

Half-past Two

Once upon a schooltime

He did Something Very Wrong

(I forget what it was).

And She said he’d done

Something Very Wrong, and must

Stay in the school-room till half-past two.

(Being cross, she’d forgotten

She hadn’t taught him Time.

He was too scared at being wicked to remind her.)

He knew a lot of time: he knew

Gettinguptime, timeyouwereofftime,

Timetogohomenowtime, TVtime,

Timeformykisstime (that was Grantime).

All the important times he knew,

But not half-past two.

He knew the clockface, the little eyes

And two long legs for walking,

But he couldn’t click its language,

So he waited, beyond onceupona,

Out of reach of all the timefors,

And knew he’d escaped for ever

Into the smell of old chrysanthemums on Her desk,

Into the silent noise his hangnail made,

Into the air outside the window, into ever.

And then, My goodness, she said,

Scuttling in, I forgot all about you.

Run along or you’ll be late.

So she slotted him back into schooltime,

And he got home in time for teatime,

Nexttime, notimeforthatnowtime,

But he never forgot how once by not knowing time,

He escaped into the clockless land for ever,

Where time hides tick-less waiting to be born.

— U A Fanthorpe

Compare the ways the writers present childhood in Half-past Two and one other poem from the anthology.

You should make reference to language, form and structure.

Support your answer with examples from the poems.

[30 marks]

Re-read Piano.

Piano

Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me;

Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see

A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings

And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings.

In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song

Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong

To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside

And hymns in the cosy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide.

So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamour

With the great black piano appassionato. The glamour

Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast

Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past.

— D H Lawrence

Compare the ways the writers present memories in Piano and one other poem from the anthology.

You should make reference to language, form and structure.

Support your answer with examples from the poems.

[30 marks]

Re-read Hide and Seek.

Hide and Seek

Call out. Call loud: ‘I’m ready! Come and find me!’

The sacks in the toolshed smell like the seaside.

They’ll never find you in this salty dark,

But be careful that your feet aren’t sticking out.

Wiser not to risk another shout.

The floor is cold. They’ll probably be searching

The bushes near the swing. Whatever happens

You mustn’t sneeze when they come prowling in.

And here they are, whispering at the door;

You’ve never heard them sound so hushed before.

Don’t breathe. Don’t move. Stay dumb. Hide in your blindness.

They’re moving closer, someone stumbles, mutters;

Their words and laughter scuffle, and they’re gone.

But don’t come out just yet; they’ll try the lane

And then the greenhouse and back here again.

They must be thinking that you’re very clever,

Getting more puzzled as they search all over.

It seems a long time since they went away.

Your legs are stiff, the cold bites through your coat;

The dark damp smell of sand moves in your throat.

It’s time to let them know that you’re the winner.

Push off the sacks. Uncurl and stretch. That’s better!

Out of the shed and call to them: ‘I’ve won!

Here I am! Come and own up I’ve caught you!’

The darkening garden watches. Nothing stirs.

The bushes hold their breath; the sun is gone.

Yes, here you are. But where are they who sought you?

— Vernon Scannell

Compare the ways the writers present loneliness in Hide and Seek and one other poem from the anthology.

You should make reference to language, form and structure.

Support your answer with examples from the poems.

[30 marks]

Re-read Sonnet 116.

Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments; love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove.

O no, it is an ever-fixèd mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

— William Shakespeare

Compare the ways the writers present love in Sonnet 116 and one other poem from the anthology.

You should make reference to language, form and structure.

Support your answer with examples from the poems.

[30 marks]

Re-read La Belle Dame sans Merci.

La Belle Dame sans Merci

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,

Alone and palely loitering?

The sedge has withered from the lake,

And no birds sing.

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,

So haggard and so woe-begone?

The squirrel’s granary is full,

And the harvest’s done.

I see a lily on thy brow,

With anguish moist and fever-dew,

And on thy cheeks a fading rose

Fast withereth too.

I met a lady in the meads,

Full beautiful — a faery’s child,

Her hair was long, her foot was light,

And her eyes were wild.

I made a garland for her head,

And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;

She looked at me as she did love,

And made sweet moan.

I set her on my pacing steed,

And nothing else saw all day long,

For sidelong would she bend, and sing

A faery’s song.

She found me roots of relish sweet,

And honey wild, and manna-dew,

And sure in language strange she said —

‘I love thee true’.

She took me to her elfin grot,

And there she wept and sighed full sore,

And there I shut her wild wild eyes

With kisses four.

And there she lullèd me asleep

And there I dreamed — Ah! woe betide! —

The latest dream I ever dreamt

On the cold hill side.

I saw pale kings, and princes too,

Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;

They cried — ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci

Thee hath in thrall!’

I saw their starved lips in the gloam,

With horrid warning gapèd wide,

And I awoke and found me here,

On the cold hill’s side.

And this is why I sojourn here

Alone and palely loitering,

Though the sedge is withered from the lake,

And no birds sing.

— John Keats

Compare the ways the writers present danger in La Belle Dame sans Merci and one other poem from the anthology.

You should make reference to language, form and structure.

Support your answer with examples from the poems.

[30 marks]

Re-read Poem at Thirty-Nine.

Poem at Thirty-Nine

How I miss my father.

I wish he had not been

so tired

when I was

born.

Writing deposit slips and checks

I think of him.

He taught me how.

This is the form,

he must have said:

the way it is done.

I learned to see

bits of paper

as a way

to escape

the life he knew

and even in high school

had a savings

account.

He taught me

that telling the truth

did not always mean

a beating;

though many of my truths

must have grieved him

before the end.

How I miss my father!

He cooked like a person

dancing

in a yoga meditation

and craved the voluptuous

sharing

of good food.

Now I look and cook just like him:

my brain light;

tossing this and that

into the pot;

seasoning none of my life

the same way twice; happy to feed

whoever strays my way.

He would have grown

to admire

the woman I’ve become:

cooking, writing, chopping wood,

staring into the fire.

— Alice Walker

Compare the ways the writers present feelings about a father in Poem at Thirty-Nine and one other poem from the anthology.

You should make reference to language, form and structure.

Support your answer with examples from the poems.

[30 marks]

Re-read War Photographer.

War Photographer

In his darkroom 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

Compare the ways the writers present suffering in War Photographer and one other poem from the anthology.

You should make reference to language, form and structure.

Support your answer with examples from the poems.

[30 marks]

Re-read The Tyger.

The Tyger

Tyger, Tyger, burning bright,

In the forests of the night:

What immortal hand or eye,

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand, dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when thy heart began to beat,

What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain,

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? what dread grasp,

Dare its deadly terrors clasp!

When the stars threw down their spears

And water’d heaven with their tears:

Did he smile his work to see?

Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger, Tyger burning bright,

In the forests of the night:

What immortal hand or eye,

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

— William Blake

Compare the ways the writers present ideas about creation in The Tyger and one other poem from the anthology.

You should make reference to language, form and structure.

Support your answer with examples from the poems.

[30 marks]

Re-read My Last Duchess.

My Last Duchess

Ferrara

That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,

Looking as if she were alive. I call

That piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf’s hands

Worked busily a day, and there she stands.

Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said

‘Frà Pandolf’ by design, for never read

Strangers like you that pictured countenance,

The depth and passion of its earnest glance,

But to myself they turned (since none puts by

The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)

And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,

How such a glance came there; so, not the first

Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, ’twas not

Her husband’s presence only, called that spot

Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek: perhaps

Frà Pandolf chanced to say, ‘Her mantle laps

Over my lady’s wrist too much,’ or ‘Paint

Must never hope to reproduce the faint

Half-flush that dies along her throat’: such stuff

Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough

For calling up that spot of joy. She had

A heart – how shall I say? – too soon made glad,

Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er

She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.

Sir, ’twas all one! My favour at her breast,

The dropping of the daylight in the West,

The bough of cherries some officious fool

Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule

She rode with round the terrace – all and each

Would draw from her alike the approving speech,

Or blush, at least. She thanked men, – good! but thanked

Somehow – I know not how – as if she ranked

My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name

With anybody’s gift. Who’d stoop to blame

This sort of trifling? Even had you skill

In speech – which I have not – to make your will

Quite clear to such an one, and say, ‘Just this

Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,

Or there exceed the mark’ – and if she let

Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set

Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse,

– E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose

Never to stoop. Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt,

Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without

Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;

Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands

As if alive. Will’t please you rise? We’ll meet

The company below, then. I repeat,

The Count your master’s known munificence

Is ample warrant that no just pretence

Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;

Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed

At starting, is my object. Nay, we’ll go

Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,

Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,

Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!

— Robert Browning

Compare the ways the writers present power in My Last Duchess and one other poem from the anthology.

You should make reference to language, form and structure.

Support your answer with examples from the poems.

[30 marks]

Re-read Half-caste.

Half-caste

Excuse me

standing on one leg

I’m half-caste

Explain yuself

wha yu mean

when yu say half-caste

yu mean when picasso

mix red an green

is a half-caste canvas/

explain yuself

wha yu mean

when yu say half-caste

yu mean when light an shadow

mix in de sky

is a half-caste weather/

well in dat case

england weather

nearly always half-caste

in fact some o dem cloud

half-caste till dem overcast

so spiteful dem dont want de sun pass

ah rass/

explain yuself

wha yu mean

when yu say half-caste

yu mean when tchaikovsky

sit down at dah piano

an mix a black key

wid a white key

is a half-caste symphony/

Explain yuself

wha yu mean

Ah listening to yu wid de keen

half of mih ear

Ah lookin at yu wid de keen

half of mih eye

and when I’m introduced to yu

I’m sure you’ll understand

why I offer yu half-a-hand

an when I sleep at night

I close half-a-eye

consequently when I dream

I dream half-a-dream

an when moon begin to glow

I half-caste human being

cast half-a-shadow

but yu must come back tomorrow

wid de whole of yu eye

an de whole of yu ear

an de whole of yu mind

an I will tell yu

de other half

of my story

— John Agard

Compare the ways the writers present prejudice in Half-caste and one other poem from the anthology.

You should make reference to language, form and structure.

Support your answer with examples from the poems.

[30 marks]

Re-read Do not go gentle into that good night.

Do not go gentle into that good night

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

— Dylan Thomas

Compare the ways the writers present death in Do not go gentle into that good night and one other poem from the anthology.

You should make reference to language, form and structure.

Support your answer with examples from the poems.

[30 marks]

Re-read Remember.

Remember

Remember me when I am gone away,

Gone far away into the silent land;

When you can no more hold me by the hand,

Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.

Remember me when no more day by day

You tell me of our future that you planned:

Only remember me; you understand

It will be late to counsel then or pray.

Yet if you should forget me for a while

And afterwards remember, do not grieve:

For if the darkness and corruption leave

A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,

Better by far you should forget and smile

Than that you should remember and be sad.

— Christina Rossetti

Compare the ways the writers present grief in Remember and one other poem from the anthology.

You should make reference to language, form and structure.

Support your answer with examples from the poems.

[30 marks]