A single poem essay – 20 minutes A comparison poem essay – 40 minutes You must include context

Revision Guide for the Anthology Literature Exam Literature 1B – a) single poem essay b) comparison essay • A single poem essay – 20 minutes • A comparison poem essay – 40 minutes • You must include context • You will not have the second poem in the exam • How can I revise? • Use this booklet to help you and use the information in your exercise book on all the poems and the non-fiction writing. • Use your KO sheets and make sure you are 100% happy with the approaches to these tasks. Contents – Anthology • Analysis reminder & comparison connectives • Place Mats to help with planning tasks • Context linked to specific quotes guidance for each subtopic within the Anthology: War, Love, Place and Nature • Each poem with specific revision tasks & questions to help you • Some practice essay questions to use with the planning mat or to attempt as revision & other suggestions for the subtopics – War, Love, Place and Nature

Sentence starters: In the poem we see… this suggests/implies/infers/conveys… The poet implies/shows… Linking this to the time/place/intentions Timing – plan 5 min. write 25 mins. In Year 9 Exam Place your poems here Plan and decide which quotes to select and which 3 pieces of context you will write about Anthology; comparison poem essay Exploring the quotes: Link to the question Link to the terminology Link to quote(s) Explore the hidden and obvious meaning Zoom in on the words/connotations Explore the effect What were the writers’ intentions Use connectives of comparison to show you are aware of the similarities and differences in the poems. Link to context – Explain what it was like at the time. Embed it with your analysis. Explore links to analysis Intro – link to question. Explain where meaning of the poem briefly. Throughout the essay– Start with the poem you find you understand most, choose relevant quotes/moments from the poem and analyse the language, structure and effect of these quotes and how they link to examples and analysis from the other poem. You must use connectives of comparison. Refer to the question and explain the meaning. Also, link to the context too for both poems Cover as many quotes from BOTH poems as you can – 25 minutes try to do 3 links between the poems Conclude – Short summary of what you have said about both poems Terminology: repetition; ideas/words phrases repeated, metaphor; comparison of something as something else, hyperbole; use of exaggeration for effect, imagery; creating a picture in the mind of the reader, simile; comparison using like or as, tone – the impression you are given of how the words sound, emotive language; appeals to reader emotions, personification; makes an object sound human, Use of complex sentences; to explore in detail emotions; pathetic fallacy; sets the tone/mood/atmosphere. End-stopping; punctuation at the end of line, caesura; punctuation in the middle of a line; enjambment; run on lines in the poem; stanza’s; the verses of the poem; layout; how it appears and what effect this has, connotations; implied meanings

Revision Guide for the Exam AnthologyLiterature Reading Comparison Tips & Exercises Comparing (similarities)Compared with…Similarly…In the same way…Likewise…Equally…As with……are similar in that… Contrasting (differences)However…On the other hand…On the contrary…Instead…As for…Alternatively…Despite this……whereas……while...…although……yet… • What you should/could cover in developed concise analysis – RED Minimum, ORANGE Most, GREEN Some (You know which you can aim to include) • Link to the question (RED) • Link to the terminology (Lang/Structure – evaluating choice) (ORANGE) • Short Quote(s) (RED) • Explain meaning and effect – both obvious and hidden (explicit and implicit) (RED) • Zoom in on words/explore connotations and effect (ORANGE) • Suggest what other readers might think/feel (offering an alternative opinion) (GREEN) • Link to the writer’s intentions (step out from the close analysis to give an overview of meaning) (GREEN) • Explore a linking quote/supporting idea (GREEN) • Anthology you will – link to context (RED) • Comparing – use comparison connectives to move onto the next point/idea/quote (RED) Use the Poetry Place Mat on the next page as a planning guide to help you

Timing – plan 5 min. write 15 mins. Sentence starters: In the poem we see… this suggests/implies/infers/conveys… The poet implies/shows… Linking this to the time/place/intentions Place your poem here Plan and decide which quotes to select and which 3 pieces of context you will write about Exploring the quotes: Link to the question Link to the terminology Link to quote(s) Explore the hidden and obvious meaning Zoom in on the words/connotations Explore the effect What were the writers’ intentions Link to context – Explain what it was like at the time. Embed it with your analysis. Explore links to analysis Anthology; single poem essay Intro – link to question. Explain where meaning of the poem briefly. Can say time period/influences (context) Throughout the poem – Choose relevant quotes and analyse the language, structure and effect of these quotes. Refer to the question and explain the meaning. Also, link to the context too. Conclude – Short summary of points Terminology: repetition; ideas/words phrases repeated, metaphor; comparison of something as something else, hyperbole; use of exaggeration for effect, imagery; creating a picture in the mind of the reader, simile; comparison using like or as, tone – the impression you are given of how the words sound, emotive language; appeals to reader emotions, personification; makes an object sound human, Use of complex sentences; to explore in detail emotions; pathetic fallacy; sets the tone/mood/atmosphere. End-stopping; punctuation at the end of line, caesura; punctuation in the middle of a line; enjambment; run on lines in the poem; stanza’s; the verses of the poem; layout; how it appears and what effect this has, connotations; implied meanings

War Context linked to specific quotes from the Anthology – Your task – create your own charts with other examples

The Manhunt After the first phase, after passionate nights and intimate days, only then would he let me trace the frozen river which ran through his face, only then would he let me explore the blown hinge of his lower jaw, and handle and hold the damaged, porcelain collar-bone, and mind and attend the fractured rudder of shoulder-blade, and finger and thumb the parachute silk of his punctured lung. Only then could I bind the struts and climb the rungs of his broken ribs, and feel the hurt of his grazed heart. Skirting along, only then could I picture the scan, the foetus of metal beneath his chest where the bullet had finally come to rest. Then I widened the search, traced the scarring back to its source to a sweating, unexploded mine buried deep in his mind, around which every nerve in his body had tightened and closed. Then, and only then, did I come close. Transform: Create a story or a summary of the poem explaining what happens in the poem and how his mental and physical injuries are presented. Or, create a visual representation of the poem. Plan your transform task: Consider: What was Simon Armitage saying literally, metaphorically & symbolically? What can we learn from the poem? How can we change our behaviour or society’s behaviour based on these lessons? What society without a need for Peacekeeping missions would look like? Criticise: “The poem is too personal and almost uncomfortable to read due to the revelations about Eddie and his wife Laura’s pain and suffering” Challenge this statement Prioritise: Choose your top five quotes from the poem and explode them with: Meaning/Effect Zooming in on a word in the quote Use triplets to develop your ideas Focus on context Exploration of the connotations Exploration of the context that links & why

Transform: Black out some of the words you consider to be key to the meaning of the poem. Explain how it changes the poem. Consider: Why this propaganda poem may upset and offend some people? What was Brooke’s implying about conscientious objectors? (research if you need to) What a white feather symbolised in war time? (research) The Soldier If I should die, think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field That is for ever England. There shall be In that rich earth a richer dust concealed; A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware, Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam, A body of England’s, breathing English air, Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home. And think, this heart, all evil shed away, A pulse in the eternal mind, no less Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given; Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day; And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness, In hearts at peace, under an English heaven. Criticise: “The Soldier is an abomination of a poem, as it persuaded hundreds of innocent men to sign up to almost certain death” Challenge this statement Prioritise: Choose your top five quotes from the poem and explode them with: Meaning/Effect Zooming in on a word in the quote Use triplets to develop your ideas Focus on context Exploration of the connotations Exploration of the context that links & why

Transform: Create a storyboard of the events in the poem. Do this chronologically and include a summary of how the wife feels during different elements of the poem A Wife in LondonI--The Tragedy Shesits in the tawny vapourThat the City lanes have uprolled,Behind whose webby fold on foldLike a waningtaperThe street-lamp glimmers cold.A messenger's knock cracks smartly,Flashed news is in her handOf meaning it dazes to understandThough shaped so shortly:He--has fallen--in the far South Land . . . II--The Irony'Tis the morrow; the fog hangs thicker,The postman nears and goes:A letter is brought whose lines discloseBy the firelight flickerHis hand, whom the worm now knows: Fresh--firm--penned in highest feather -Page-full of his hoped return,And of home-planned jaunts by brake and burnIn the summer weather,And of new love that they would learn. Consider: Why did Hardy choose to show the grief unfolding in this poignant way? (look up poignant if you need to) What effect does the repetition of the pathetic fallacy have on the mood and atmosphere of the poem? Prioritise: Choose your top five quotes from the poem and explode them with: Meaning/Effect Zooming in on a word in the quote Use triplets to develop your ideas Focus on context Exploration of the connotations Exploration of the context that links & why Criticise: “Women were the forgotten hero’s of any war time” Decide how you could support this statement using evidence from the poem

Transform: Select all the imagery examples from the poem and create images that support the words that are being used to create the imagery in your mind. Write the quote next to the image. Consider: The structure of the poem. Where is the pace quickening? Why is this important? Why does Owen use Latin in the final lines and the title? What message is Owen portraying about war? Dulce et Decorum Est Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind. Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime... Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. If in some smothering dreams you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,— My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. Prioritise: Choose your top five quotes from the poem and explode them with: Meaning/Effect Zooming in on a word in the quote Use triplets to develop your ideas Focus on context Exploration of the connotations Exploration of the context that links & why Criticise: “The officers and government officials in charge of the war effort were culpable for the unnecessary deaths of many soldiers” How can Dulce et Decorum Est support or disprove this statement?

Transform: Write a story from the perspective of the soldiers. Think about: The senses & emotions created in this stressful time. How did the feel? What did they see? What was going through their minds? What noises were they hearing? Consider: Look up Owen Sheers on YouTube talking about his visit to Mametz Wood: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6D8CEtUxfE What do you learn from this? Mametz Wood For years afterwards the farmers found them –the wasted young, turning up under their plough bladesas they tended the land back into itself. A chit of bone, the china plate of a shoulder blade,the relic of a finger, the blownand broken bird’s egg of a skull, all mimicked now in flint, breaking blue in whiteacross this field where they were told to walk, not run,towards the wood and its nesting machine guns. And even now the earth stands sentinel,reaching back into itself for reminders of what happenedlike a wound working a foreign body to the surface of the skin. This morning, twenty men buried in one long grave,a broken mosaic of bone linked arm in arm,their skeletons paused mid dance-macabre in boots that outlasted them,their socketed heads tilted back at an angleand their jaws, those that have them, dropped open. As if the notes they had sunghave only now, with this unearthing,slipped from their absent tongues. Prioritise: Choose your top five quotes from the poem and explode them with: Meaning/Effect Zooming in on a word in the quote Use triplets to develop your ideas Focus on context Exploration of the connotations Exploration of the context that links & why Criticise: “The Welsh soldiers were famously left without a proper burial and without being commended for their bravery” Evaluate what this suggests about the scale of the war and how can this be resolved?

War Poems: Possible Exam questions & exercises – remember you can also just do a single poem with the same focus as the comparison question • Use your Anthology Poems KO to re-learn key information • Quiz yourself • Explore other examples of context • Watch & make notes using the many examples of analysis videos on YouTube • Listen to the podcasts created by @ChurchillEng on the Weebly: http://churchillacademyenglish.weebly.com/gcse-revision-podcasts.html • Use memorise • Re-annotate the poems • Practice writing essays & planning them • Compare the way two of the poems explore the emotions of the persona (person in the poem) • Compare the presentation of violence in two of the poems • Compare the way the poets write about war • Compare the way women are presented in two of the poems • Compare the mental effects of war

Love Poem Context linked to specific quotes from the Anthology – create your own charts with other examples

Valentine by Carol Ann Duffy Not a red rose or a satin heart. I give you an onion. It is a moon wrapped in brown paper. It promises light like the careful undressing of love. Here. It will blind you with tears like a lover. It will make your reflection a wobbling photo of grief. I am trying to be truthful. Not a cute card or a kissogram. I give you an onion. Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips, possessive and faithful as we are, for as long as we are. Take it. Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring, if you like. Lethal. Its scent will cling to your fingers, cling to your knife. Transform: Create a visual representation of how the poem uses the layers of an onion to explore the layers of a relationship Plan your transform task: Consider: What does love actually look like? Is Duffy commenting on the reality of love? How many emotions can you pinpoint in the poem? What is the context that links to the poem and choose 3 quotes that you can link to the different elements of context. Criticise: “The poem is unrealistic and over the top in the way that Duffy compares love to an onion” Challenge this statement Prioritise: Choose all the unrealistic depictions of stereotypical Valentines gifts and explain why Duffy rejects these. Choose all the realistic ideas about love and explain why Duffy uses these.

Transform: Write a story to explore the fairy-tale element that is in the poem. Plan your transform task: Cozy Apologia by Rita Dove (for Fred) I could pick anything and think of you— This lamp, the wind-still rain, the glossy blue My pen exudes, drying matte, upon the page. I could choose any hero, any cause or age And, sure as shooting arrows to the heart, Astride a dappled mare, legs braced as far apart As standing in silver stirrups will allow— There you'll be, with furrowed brow And chain mail glinting, to set me free: One eye smiling, the other firm upon the enemy. This post-postmodern age is all business: compact disks And faxes, a do-it-now-and-take-no-risks Event. Today a hurricane is nudging up the coast, Oddly male: Big Bad Floyd, who brings a host Of daydreams: awkward reminiscences Of teenage crushes on worthless boys Whose only talent was to kiss you senseless. They all had sissy names—Marcel, Percy, Dewey; Were thin as licorice and as chewy, Sweet with a dark and hollow center. Floyd's Cussing up a storm. You're bunkered in your Aerie, I'm perched in mine (Twin desks, computers, hardwood floors): We're content, but fall short of the Divine. Still, it's embarrassing, this happiness— Who's satisfied simply with what's good for us, When has the ordinary ever been news? And yet, because nothing else will do To keep me from melancholy (call it blues), I fill this stolen time with you. Consider: How is masculinity presented in the poem? What does this suggest about Dove’s views about men and women? How could these views be linked to context? Criticise: Dove could be seen as selfish due to her contentment while a storm rages and threatens her fellow Americans Challenge this statement Prioritise: Select 10 quotes and rank order them in terms of showing the most love and care to the least love and care. Explain why you have rank ordered them in this way.

Transform: Write out the problem you identify in the first 8 lines and the solutions in the final 6 lines and explain what Barrett Browning was preoccupied with. Consider: What would it feel like to love someone so much that you would want to spend eternity with them? How would you go about expressing this love to them? What words would you use to express your feelings? Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of every day’s Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints – I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life! – and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death. Criticise: Barrett Browning is a hopeless romantic and needs to be less soppy! Challenge this statement Prioritise: Explore the structure – Look for all the patterns and explain which is the strongest pattern and why Explore the context – Link to religion and humanity and hope and decide which is the strongest and explain why?

Consider: The idea of obsession – how are different types of obsession shown in the poem? What is the persona like? How do you know? Transform: Dual code the poem – choose two quotes from each stanza and link these to images – can be drawn, copied and pasted or symbols. Choose symbols/pictures that help you remember the quotes and the storyline. She Walks in Beauty By Lord Byron She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that’s best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes; Thus mellowed to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies. One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impaired the nameless grace Which waves in every raven tress, Or softly lightens o’er her face; Where thoughts serenely sweet express, How pure, how dear their dwelling-place. And on that cheek, and o’er that brow, So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, The smiles that win, the tints that glow, But tell of days in goodness spent, A mind at peace with all below, A heart whose love is innocent! Criticise: Byron is a well-known lothario figure with an eye for the ladies. Challenge this statement and explore how you could agree or disagree with this based on evidence in the poem Challenge this! Prioritise: Select – your top 5 quotes from the poem Demonstrate – your understanding of the way context can be linked to these 5 quotes

Consider: Grief What is it? What does it look like? How can you show it? How does it differ between people? Why is it an abstract noun? Transform: Translate the words in the poem into an easier to understand modern translation. Why does she use hard to understand language? Does it link to her state of mind? As Imperceptibly as Grief As imperceptibly as Grief The Summer lapsed away — Too imperceptible at last To seem like Perfidy — A Quietness distilled As Twilight long begun, Or Nature spending with herself Sequestered Afternoon — The Dusk drew earlier in — The Morning foreign shone — A courteous, yet harrowing Grace, As Guest, that would be gone — And thus, without a Wing Or service of a Keel Our Summer made her light escape Into the Beautiful. Criticise: Dickinson was reclusive, but prolifically corresponded via letter and wrote many poems in her lifetime. What does this suggest about her mental state? What would you recommend for her to do? Prioritise: Indicate what the hyphens at the end of the lines suggest? Why have they been used on the lines that have them and not others? End-stopping is used with the full stop in the final line – Why?

Love Poems: Possible Exam questions & exercises – remember you can also just do a single poem with the same focus as the comparison question • Use your Anthology Poems KO to re-learn key information • Quiz yourself • Explore other examples of context • Watch & make notes using the many examples of analysis videos on YouTube • Listen to the podcasts created by @ChurchillEng on the Weebly: http://churchillacademyenglish.weebly.com/gcse-revision-podcasts.html • Use memorise • Re-annotate the poems • Practice writing essays & planning them • Compare the way two of the poems explore the emotions of the persona (person in the poem) • Compare the presentation of love in two of the poems • Compare the way the poets write about feelings • Compare the way women in relationships are presented in two of the poems • Compare the negative aspects of love

Place Poems Context linked to specific quotes from the Anthology – create your own charts with other examples

Living Space There are just not enough straight lines. That is the problem. Nothing is flat or parallel. Beams balance crookedly on supports thrust off the vertical. Nails clutch at open seams. The whole structure leans dangerously towards the miraculous. Into this rough frame, someone has squeezed a living space and even dared to place these eggs in a wire basket, fragile curves of white hung out over the dark edge of a slanted universe, gathering the light into themselves, as if they were the bright, thin walls of faith. Consider: Living in a slum – What emotions/feelings and experience might you have? What would your life be like? Explore pictures and films of these living conditions on the internet. What does this tell you? Transform: Draw a picture of the place that Dharker is describing and label the images with quotes from the poem. Criticise: Humanity has gone astray. The way people have to live in abject poverty is appalling. Criticise this opinion with evidence to reflect there is hope from the poem. Prioritise: Your thoughts and feelings about the living space that these people have. Create a emotion line of emotions and consider which is the strongest and weakest and why? E.g. – Pity – fairly strong because…

Consider: Your own hopes and dreams and ambitions. Do they include marriage and children and what does Afternoons suggest about these? Transform: Imagine you are the narrator observing this scene. Explain what you actually see and what it suggests about working class people. Afternoons Summer is fading:The leaves fall in ones and twosFrom trees borderingThe new recreation ground.In the hollows of afternoonsYoung mothers assembleAt swing and sandpitSetting free their children.Behind them, at intervals,Stand husbands in skilled trades,An estateful of washing,And the albums, letteredOur Wedding, lyingNear the television:Before them, the windIs ruining their courting-placesThat are still courting-places(But the lovers are all in school),And their children, so intent onFinding more unripe acrons,Expect to be taken home.Their beauty has thickened.Something is pushing themTo the side of their own lives. Criticise: Religion and marriage – what does Larkin seem to imply? How could this be considered cynical and pessimistic and how does this link to Larkin’s style? Prioritise: Childhood vs adulthood Select all the quotes that imply a difference between these two stages of life. Prioritise which other poems could link thinking about childhood Vs adulthood?

Transform: Power is a social construct – explore the elements of power that Shelley comments on in the poem Ozymandias. What does Shelley feel about Power? Consider: Place Power Conflict Stories Why are these important elements in Ozymandias? Ozymandias I met a traveller from an antique landWho said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stoneStand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,Tell that its sculptor well those passions readWhich yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.And on the pedestal these words appear --"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"Nothing beside remains. Round the decayOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bareThe lone and level sands stretch far away.' Criticise: The Sculpture’s appearance. Explore how it creates a negative impression of the ‘great ruler’ Prioritise: The sonnet form – Why a love poem? Is this an oxymoronic form or does it work? Justify

Consider: The structure of the poem – stanza – line lengths – use of enjambment and end-stopping. What does it suggest about the time? Transform: Describe the narrator’s journey through London. What does he see, think and feel as he moves from place to place? • LONDON • I wander thro' each charter'd street, • Near where the charter'd Thames does flow. • And mark in every face I meet • Marks of weakness, marks of woe. • In every cry of every Man, • In every Infants cry of fear, • In every voice: in every ban, • The mind-forg'd manacles I hear How the Chimney-sweepers cry Every blackning Church appalls, And the hapless Soldiers sigh Runs in blood down Palace walls But most thro' midnight streets I hear How the youthful Harlots curse Blasts the new-born Infants tear And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse Criticise: The Government – The monarchy – The Church. Explain how (with quotes) this is done in the poem? Prioritise: Context Links – What are your top 3 elements of context for the poem and why?

Place Poems: Possible Exam questions & exercises – remember you can also just do a single poem with the same focus as the comparison question • Use your Anthology Poems KO to re-learn key information • Quiz yourself • Explore other examples of context • Watch & make notes using the many examples of analysis videos on YouTube • Listen to the podcasts created by @ChurchillEng on the Weebly: http://churchillacademyenglish.weebly.com/gcse-revision-podcasts.html • Use memorise • Re-annotate the poems • Practice writing essays & planning them • Compare the way two of the poems explore the emotions relating to the place • Compare the presentation of physical spaces in two poems • Compare the way the poets write about positive places • Compare the way women in relationships are presented in two of the poems • Compare the way places can link to hope or despair

Nature Poems Context linked to specific quotes from the Anthology – create your own charts with other examples

To Autumn by John Keats Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease, For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells. Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find Thee sitting careless on a granary floor, Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep, Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers: And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep Steady thy laden head across a brook; Or by a cyder-press, with patient look, Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours. Where are the songs of spring? Ay, Where are they? Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,— While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue; Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn Among the river sallows, borne aloft Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft; And gathering swallows twitter in the skies. Consider: Keats views – How are they shown in the poem? What does he think and feel about nature? How does he show this? Transform: Write the story of the harvest from the perspective of the (personified) female in the poem. Criticise: Harvest is clearly a time of year for coming together and preparing for the winter. How far would you agree or disagree with this? Prioritise: Imagery – Select the most relevant and impactful imagery in the poem and explore the technique and effect.

Death of a Naturalist by Seamus Heaney All year the flax-dam festered in the heartOf the townland; green and heavy headedFlax had rotted there, weighted down by huge sods.Daily it sweltered in the punishing sun.Bubbles gargled delicately, bluebottlesWove a strong gauze of sound around the smell.There were dragon-flies, spotted butterflies,But best of all was the warm thick slobberOf frogspawn that grew like clotted waterIn the shade of the banks. Here, every springI would fill jampotfuls of the jelliedSpecks to range on window-sills at home,On shelves at school, and wait and watch untilThe fattening dots burst into nimble-Swimming tadpoles. Miss Walls would tell us howThe daddy frog was called a bullfrogAnd how he croaked and how the mammy frogLaid hundreds of little eggs and this wasFrogspawn. You could tell the weather by frogs tooFor they were yellow in the sun and brown in rain. Then one hot day when fields were rankWith cowdung in the grass the angry frogsInvaded the flax-dam; I ducked through hedgesTo a coarse croaking that I had not heardBefore. The air was thick with a bass chorus.Right down the dam gross-bellied frogs were cockedOn sods; their loose necks pulsed like sails. Some hopped:The slap and plop were obscene threats. Some satPoised like mud grenades, their blunt heads farting.I sickened, turned, and ran. The great slime kingsWere gathered there for vengeance and I knewThat if I dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it. Consider: Your own thoughts and feelings about childhood memories. Nostalgia The idea that we re-write our own history. Does this happen here? Why do you think so or not? Transform: Into a story of adulthood fear regressing to a happier more carefree and innocent time (work backwards through the poem) Criticise: Heaney’s life – look for elements in context that meant he changed from being carefree and innocent to being careful and fearful. Prioritise: Life stages – which is seen as most important in the poem and why?

Hawk Roosting by Ted Hughes I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed.Inaction, no falsifying dreamBetween my hooked head and hooked feet:Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat.The convenience of the high trees!The air's buoyancy and the sun's rayAre of advantage to me;And the earth's face upward for my inspection.My feet are locked upon the rough bark.It took the whole of CreationTo produce my foot, my each feather:Now I hold Creation in my footOr fly up, and revolve it all slowly -I kill where I please because it is all mine.There is no sophistry in my body:My manners are tearing off heads -The allotment of death.For the one path of my flight is directThrough the bones of the living.No arguments assert my right:The sun is behind me.Nothing has changed since I began.My eye has permitted no change.I am going to keep things like this. Consider: The Hawk Describe the hawk in 20 words and explain how it makes you feel? What gender would you associate with the hawk and why? Transform: Imagine you are the prey of the hawk – what do you see/think and feel about his arrogance and feelings of supremacy? Criticise: Hughes was interested in nature and the power and beauty of it. How can this be responded to using Hawk Roosting as evidence? Prioritise: The use of the first person pronoun I – How many times does it appear and what does it suggest?

Consider: The form – semi-autobiographical What does this imply about Wordsworth and what does it teach us about his childhood? Transform: Into a emotion time line – Where do changes of emotion occur in the poem and how do you know. Excerpt from The Prelude And in the frosty season, when the sun Was set, and visible for many a mile The cottage windows through the twilight blaz’d, I heeded not the summons: – happy time It was, indeed, for all of us; to me It was a time of rapture: clear and loud The village clock toll’d six; I wheel’d about, Proud and exulting, like an untir’d horse, That cares not for his home. – All shod with steel, We hiss’d along the polish’d ice, in games Confederate, imitative of the chace And woodland pleasures, the resounding horn, The Pack loud bellowing, and the hunted hare. So through the darkness and the cold we flew, And not a voice was idle; with the din, Meanwhile, the precipices rang aloud, The leafless trees, and every icy crag Tinkled like iron, while the distant hills Into the tumult sent an alien sound Of melancholy, not unnoticed, while the stars, Eastward, were sparkling clear, and in the west The orange sky of evening died away. Criticise: The ending of the excerpt. Is it effective? Why? Why not? Prioritise: Events – Select four events in the poem excerpt and examine the importance of these events. Which is the most influential to Wordsworth and why?

Nature Poems: Possible Exam questions & exercises – remember you can also just do a single poem with the same focus as the comparison question • Use your Anthology Poems KO to re-learn key information • Quiz yourself • Explore other examples of context • Watch & make notes using the many examples of analysis videos on YouTube • Listen to the podcasts created by @ChurchillEng on the Weebly: http://churchillacademyenglish.weebly.com/gcse-revision-podcasts.html • Use memorise • Re-annotate the poems • Practice writing essays & planning them • Compare the way two of the poems explore the emotions linked to nature • Compare the presentation of nature in two of the poems • Compare the way the poets write about their feelings in relation to nature • Compare the way growing up is presented • Compare the negative aspects of nature

A single poem essay – 20 minutes A comparison poem essay – 40 minutes You must include context