AQA say it’s all in the comparison! EMBED and WEAVE your links!

AQA also say it’s all about empathising with the poet and what they are sharing with us. Poetry can show the truth of something from a poet’s perspective- it does not have to be the truth itself. Everyone has their own unique truth to share.

Empathy Empathy (from the Greek εμπάθεια, "to suffer with") is commonly defined as one's ability to recognize, perceive and directly experientially feel the emotion of another. As the states of mind, beliefs, and desires of others are intertwined with their emotions, one with empathy for another may often be able to more effectively define another's modes of thought and mood. Empathy is often characterized as the ability to "put oneself into another's shoes", or experiencing the outlook or emotions of another being within oneself, a sort of emotional resonance.

How do the images on the left present the same thing in different ways to the one on the right? What do you think each poet hoped to share about going into battle? Similar…but…

How are both ‘Poppies’ and ‘Out of the Blue’ presenting the idea of loss?

Assessment criteria for Band 5/6 (5 marks each): Insightful exploration. Close analysis of detail. Analysis (and evaluation) of language, structure and form and effects on the reader. Exploring ideas/themes. Analysis (and evaluation) of comparisons. Key details used as basis for comparisons.

Tips... Step back from each poem and think of the overall moment/story/experience/emotions being shared. Remember you must try and analyse and compare the use of language, structure and form in each poem. Think carefully about how the poems relate to the question and PLAN your linked sections (how they are similar and different) and then dive into the analysis. Both poems…but…

Tips continued… Top tip- it is a good idea to compare the openings and compare the endings of each poem. Remember reader response- make it sophisticated and evaluate in your link. At least one alternative interpretation needed and make it good! Write lots about a little!

Compare the ways the poets demonstrate the effects of conflict on people in ‘Extract from Out of the Blue’ and in one other poem from the Conflict poems.

Point Evidence Analysis Interpretation Connect Evaluate Both poets focus on the effects of conflict on civilians during war, with the speaker of ‘Out of the Blue’ tapped in a burning building and Carson’s narrator seemingly caught up in the bombings during the troubles in Belfast. The confusion and fear of both innocent bystanders is clear in both poems, but it is Armitage’s speaker who addresses us straight away, Evidence ‘’You have picked me out… You have noticed now…’ Analysis Armitage’s speaker addresses us immediately, the initial tone of fragile hope hardly even noticed before a more accusatory tone can be sensed, forcing us to feel compelled to look but uncomfortably like voyeurs who have no right to be there. The repetitive tone and meter of these alternate lines brings regularity and force to a seemingly irregular form, making the speaker seem more in control even though we already feel the terrible loss he faces. Interpretation Perhaps this is the moment we are pulled in from viewing the tragedy from afar, when we at least try and recognise the individual losses and see the individuals behind the numbers. The moment anchors us in the present with the alliteration and present tense continuous verbs, ‘building burning’ and ‘twirling, turning’, the movement of the white shirt becoming the individual that we notice and care about. Connect Contrastingly, there is an almost out of control wildness to Carson’s opening as his speaker describes his inability to write about the explosion he is in the middle of, ‘I was trying to complete a sentence in my head, but it kept Stuttering, All the alleyways and side streets blocked with stops and Colons.’ Similar to Armitage, Carson uses enjambement to create a sense of disjointed confusion as the speaker uses his lack of ability to write as a metaphor for the violence the bomb has brought. The effect feels fractured and ugly, unlike the enjambement in ‘Out of the Blue’ which almost creates a peaceful and inevitable feel to the poem. Evaluate Both poets begin their poems with strong voices for their speakers and it is interesting that we perhaps connect more easily with the poignant softness of Armitage’s speaker about to die than the struggling, questioning survivor trying to write about the truth in ‘Belfast Confetti’.

Which poem would you link it to? 1. Belfast Confetti- both speakers are civilians/ confusion- which others might you choose instead of this? 2. Look at the Band 4 (top) essay: 3. 3-4 linked paragraphs so this is why you have to write more for this question than you did last time! Plan: Titles Insecure and uncertainty/confusion- rhetorical questions/ repetition Irregular rhythm/enjambement used for effects Endings

What is loss? Umbrella sentence for loss in each poem and what you think each poet NEEDS to share with us. How is loss presented in ‘Poppies’ and one other poem from the cluster?

Key links between the 2 poems for loss- for each of these, what could you include in your exploration? Poppies Out of the Blue Opening: Mother speaking to son (voice)/ losing him to school/war/ poppy image/melancholic tone and inner turmoil shown through enjambement, caesura and long lines. Loss of one mother the focus from the vastness of what the poppies symbolise. LOOKING BACK! Most climactic/powerful moment or where the tone changes: Ending: Opening: Victim of 9/11 speaking out to us as he copes with own imminent loss of control and life. Pulls us in and makes us focus from the vastness of it onto him. Present continuous, enjambement and alliteration makes this IN THE MOMENT!

Point Evidence Analysis Interpretation Connect Evaluate Both poets transform the vastness of the tragedies during war and 9/11 into one personal loss to capture the truth they are presenting about loss. But whereas Weir creates an ambiguous situation with a mother who struggles with the loss and grief for her son and time seems fractured and confused, her thoughts captured in the past, Armitage drags us into his victim’s sights, painfully and uncomfortably holding us in the terrible present as the victim himself speaks to us whilst struggling with his own imminent death, Evidence ‘’You have picked me out… You have noticed now…’ Analysis Armitage’s speaker addresses us immediately, the initial tone of fragile hope hardly even noticed before a more accusatory tone can be sensed, forcing us to feel compelled to look but uncomfortably like voyeurs who have no right to be there. The repetitive tone and meter of these alternate lines brings regularity and force to a seemingly irregular form, making the speaker seem more in control even though we already feel the terrible loss he faces. Interpretation Perhaps this is the moment we are pulled in from viewing the tragedy from afar, when we at least try and recognise the individual losses and see the individuals behind the numbers. The moment anchors us in the present with the alliteration and present tense continuous verbs, ‘building burning’ and ‘twirling, turning’, the movement of the white shirt becoming the individual that we notice and care about. Connect Similarly, Weir also moves us from the poppies representing mass grief to a personalised loss a mother feels losing her son. But whereas Armitage controls and almost holds his moment in slow motion, Weir’s mother’s grief seems fractured and pushed to the past, the only place it can be for her now. Her memories are ambiguously woven with her loss as she only seems able to express these deepest emotions through imagery. Even her memory of him leaving is bound with her memory of him as a child, ‘…Before you left,’ Almost the opposite to Armitage, Weir tricks us with a seemingly regular form that trips us up with the sudden caesura to show the depth of her loss as his leaving takes her back to his childhood. Evaluate Both poets begin their poems with strong voices for their speakers and it is interesting that despite Weir’s mother having no interest in anyone apart from her son, we are drawn to her truth just as much as Armitage’s victim who drags us into his conflict whether we want to look or not.