Poems from Other Cultures

1
Poems from Other Cultures

• What the examiners say

2
Poems from Other Cultures

• The following tips are from the examiners report
  on last years GCSE

3
Answer on the right poems

• Do not, under any circumstances answer this
  question using your Carol Ann Duffy, Simon
  Armitage or pre-1914 poems.
• YOU MUST ONLY USE POEMS FROM THE CLUSTER YOU
  HAVE STUDIED.

4
Look for the key words in the question

• How does the poet present conflict in Not my
  business? Compare his methods with the ways
  conflict is presented in one other poem.

5
Know all the poems in your cluster

• You cant get away with only learning a few of
  the poems in your cluster you have to know them
  all, because they are all likely to come up.

6
You must know the context of your poem

• Context means background.
• To answer properly you should know how this
  context influences the poem e.g. where does the
  poet come from?
• Each of your poems has some background
  information printed with it (or in the revision
  book). Learn it.
• When you write your essay make links between the
  content of the poem and the context.

7
Every question asks you to do the same five
things

• Make points of similarity of difference between
  the poems
• Write about technique
• Focus on a specific aspect
• Write about a named poem
• Write about a poem of their choice.
• --------------------------------------------------
  -----------------
• Compare the way the poet reveals feelings about
  a place in Nothings Changed with the way
  another poet reveals feeling about a place or
  places in one other poem.

8
Answer the question

• You cant plan your question before you go in to
  the exam
• Some schools have been criticised for prepping
  their students, so they write a pre-practised
  answer and dont actually answer the set question.

9
Choose your second poem very carefully.

• Do not just pick a poem because you think you
  know it well. It has to be appropriate for the
  question.
• So for the conflict question good poems could be
• Search for my tongue
• Half Caste
• Presents from my Aunts (possibly)
• But not so good
• Love after love
• This room
• Hurricane hits England.

10
Plan

• You must plan but only quickly.
• Spend no more than five minutes.
• These might help
• Venn
• Spider diagram
• Flow chart
• List of points

11
You must COMPARE

• To access the higher band marks you must compare
  your poems.
• The best way of doing this is by alternating
  between the poem
• Do not just write about one poem and then the
  other with just one comment like another poem
  which is similar is. THIS DOES NOT COUNT AS
  COMPARISON AND WILL NOT GET YOU MANY MARKS AT ALL.

12
A visual representation of a good comparative
essay

• Intro and conclusion
• Poem 1
• Poem 2

13
Know your poetic terms and explain their effect

• You will seriously damage your chances of getting
  a good mark if you dont mention things like
  simile and metaphor.
• However, only naming the thing you spot and not
  then discussing its effect will also not get you
  many marks.
• A bad example
• The writer uses a simile on line 5, (quote) it
  means the sea is like a best friend.
• A better example
• The writer uses a simile on line 5 to describe
  how the sea is like a best friend (quote). The
  use of the word buddy makes the reader think of
  being young and carefree, almost like a child, so
  the sea becomes part of the narrators childhood.

14
The basic poetic terms you should know

• Alliteration
• Assonance
• Simile
• Metaphor
• Sibilance
• Caesura

• Rhythm
• Stanza
• Personification
• Onomatopoeia
• Enjambment
• Rhyme

15
PEE

• Use the PEE structure to help you but make sure
  you are really explaining, not just stating the
  obvious.
• Point
• Example
• Explain
• A bad example
• The writer uses a simile on line 5, (quote) it
  means the sea is like a best friend. (but you
  could write so much more!)
• A better example
• The writer uses a simile on line 5 to describe
  how the sea is like a best friend (quote). The
  use of the word buddy makes the reader think of
  being young and carefree, almost like a child, so
  the sea becomes part of the narrators childhood.