WJEC 2012 Unseen poetry Friday, 23 November 2018

FORMAT OF QUESTION Always “modern” Always comparative. Always thematically linked. Bullet points assist in structuring response. Spend about 1 hr on the question. Required to have a personal response. Not required to play “i-spy devices” but to engage with the language and its effects.

APPROACH Read the question and underline any key points. The bullets are always the same – get used to them. C,I,M, L, E. Reading 1 – annotate simply – look for powerful language or unusual effects using structure, punctuation or language. Reading 2 – Find the VOICE and SITUATION. Who is speaking and does the situation produce a recognisable tone – angry, sad, scared…?

VOICE and SITUATION Who is speaking? Consider person… What is their perspective on the matters under discussion? SITUATION: Where, when (era), when (hour), who is involved, what actually happens.

Now you can develop further. Language is used to create images. Simple imagery (literal imagery) tells the reader “as it is”. It can be very direct and effective. More complex or “figurative” imagery uses metaphor or simile, for example and presents more challenging images that require the reader to respond to suggestion. It is vital that you comment on the effect of language choice rather than offer bland platitudes of the “makes the reader think” variety.

Now for the comparison Look at the second poem and repeat the idea. Try to focus on the same areas that you discussed or investigated in poem 1, that way you will produce a “real” comparison using good comparative connectors – on the other hand, similarly… There is no obligation to make comparison in each paragraph rather than to write about the poems separately, but it is a more sophisticated approach.

And finally - Respond – what do you feel? Your conclusion should address bullet five and link your previous comments to some form of personal response to the two poems. Look at the two poems that follow and annotate them in preparation for an essay. (They both deal with the idea of response to the loss of a loved one and are autobiographical in content. Jonson wrote his poem in 1616 and Heaney in the 1960s.)

An essay question Spend about 1 hour on this section. Think carefully about the poems before you write your answer. In both poems people reflect on the death of a loved one. 6. Write about both poems and their effect on you. Show how they are similar and how they are different. You may write about each poem separately and then compare them, or make comparisons where appropriate in your answer as a whole. You may wish to include some or all of these points: • the content of the poems – what they are about; • the ideas the poets may have wanted us to think about; • the mood or atmosphere of the poems; • how they are written – words and phrases you find interesting, the way they are organised, and so on; • your responses to the poems, including how they are similar and how they are different.

On my first Sonne Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy ;     My sin was too much hope of thee, lov'd boy. Seven years thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay,     Exacted by thy fate, on the just day. Oh, could I lose all father now ! For why     Will man lament the state he should envy? To have so soon 'scaped world's and flesh's rage,     And if no other misery, yet age ! Rest in soft peace, and, asked, say, Here doth lie     Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry. For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such     As what he loves may never like too much.  Ben Jonson (I know this poem is not modern, this is not an error – it simply works very well alongside the Heaney)

Mid term break Mid-Term Break I sat all morning in the college sick bay Counting bells knelling classes to a close. At two o'clock our neighbors drove me home. In the porch I met my father crying-- He had always taken funerals in his stride-- And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow. The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram When I came in, and I was embarrassed By old men standing up to shake my hand And tell me they were 'sorry for my trouble,' Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest, Away at school, as my mother held my hand In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs. At ten o'clock the ambulance arrived With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses. Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him For the first time in six weeks. Paler now, Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple, He lay in the four foot box as in his cot. No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear. A four foot box, a foot for every year. Seamus Heaney