Follow the techniques in this PowerPoint to ensure that you are able to analyse a poem that you’ve never seen before successfully. Your Unseen Poetry exam will require you to do this, so get practising and feel free to find more poems by the writers in this PowerPoint to get even more preparation in!

Read it through twice Focus on the words that you DO understand It’s your opinion, and if you can JUSTIFY IT, it can’t be wrong! Reading and understanding a poem on your own can be daunting. There may be words that you don’t understand, or the metaphors in it could be so confusing that you don’t know what it’s about at all. Follow these steps:

Look at the title of the pome and unpick the connotations. This can often give you a really good clue as to what it’s all about. His Last Duchess Suggests ownership/ power Someone important. Perhaps she was someone he worshipped or admired. Maybe she had power over him? Maybe it was a power struggle? Final- didn’t have anyone after her. Perhaps she was the most memorable. The poem will be about a relationship in which there is maybe a power struggle or someone trying to own another. He worships her.

Themes/major ideas that run through the poem. Key words that you can unpick in detail. Major images created by metaphors/similes/personification/words. Structure- enjambment, rhythm, rhyme, repetition, minor sentences, monologue, stanzas, conversational style etc. The thoughts and feelings of the speaker in the poem. Learn TWIST. This is the overall approach to any poem. Work through each of the parts when you read through your poem for the second time.

P Make your point about the major similarity in the poems E Provide evidence from one poem to support your point E Explain exactly what this quotation shows, referring back to your point. E Explore the words in more detail. Say a lot about a little. L Link to the next poem. E Quotation. E Explain how this quotation is slightly different. This is where you mark your crucial difference between the poems. E Explore again, saying a lot about a little. In the first section of the exam, you WILL need to compare poems. Follow this structure for each paragraph of your answer.

P Make your point, identifying the technique you’re going to discuss. E Provide evidence to support your point. E Explain exactly what this quotation shows, referring back to your point. E Explore the words in more detail. Say a lot about a little. What else could it suggest? Does it have any alternative meanings? What is the writer trying to get across through this technique? For Unseen Poetry (section 2), you DON’T need to compare poems. Follow this structure for each paragraph of your answer.