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AQA GCSE English Literature Poetry Relationships 23rd May 2013

Write guys! Anyone specifically doing the Literature exam on Thursday - Relationships Cluster, discuss what poem(s) you think are likely to come up and share your perceptive comments/points on poems!

Anyone doing the relationship cluster - these are the poems that have come in the last 3 exams...

June 2012
Quickdraw + Praise song for my mother

January 2012
Sonnet 43 + Harmonium

June 2011
Manhunt + Nettles

I'll try to look for more previous exams and for the one that happened earlier this year, if anyone has more information please post! Trying to find Jan 2013.
I have made this post specifically for students doing the Relationships cluster!
I'll update post with new information.
Edit: The following poems will deffinately not come up in the higher tier - Sister Maude, Brothers and In Paris With You.
(edited 10 years ago)

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Reply 1
January 2013
Hour + The Farmer's Bride
I'm doing this, but its 'places' for me so can't help you there. Good luck!
I'm doing this exam and I know nothing. Such a bad idea to start revising late but oh well. Glad the exploring modern texts exam is over!!
Reply 4
Original post by Mad.About.School
I'm doing this exam and I know nothing. Such a bad idea to start revising late but oh well. Glad the exploring modern texts exam is over!!


Just make notes on the entire cluster and take them all like unseen then ask your mates to trade notes. I'm pretty sure your mates will each all have 1-2 unique points on each poem and if you combine all of the unique perceptive points you will be successful a long with your mates.
Thanks for the advice. I'm going through the mr Bruff videos at the moment only been through two but they are quite good


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Reply 6
Original post by Mad.About.School
Thanks for the advice. I'm going through the mr Bruff videos at the moment only been through two but they are quite good


Posted from TSR Mobile


Indeed. The videos by him are fairly decent.
Reply 7
June 2011-Manhunt, Nettles
Jan 2012-Sonnet 43, Harmonium.
June 2012-Quickdraw, Praise Song for My Mother
Jan 2013-Hour, Farmer's Bride.
(Higher tier)

The poems that will not be named for higher tier are:Brothers, Sister Maude, and In Paris with You.

And so the poems which have not come up yet are:Ghazal, To His Coy Mistress, Sonnet 116, and Born Yesterday.

In today's literature exam, aqa did not go back to a previously covered topic (for the texts I did anyway), and so it is likely that the poetry exam will have new named poems. Therefore the four unnamed (so far!) poems are the ones worth discussing, although it is still worth going over the others as a comparison.

Questions in a foundation paper have come up about Ghazal and To His Coy Mistress. Perhaps (for those who do OMAM) they will pull the same trick as they did with Slim, as the foundation paper foreshadowed the higher paper. Although the foundation questions are worded more generally than they will be in the higher paper, they are good starting points for thinking about these poems, so let's try and come up with some insightful points for these questions:

Compare how the poets present a close relationship in ‘Ghazal’ (page 54) and in one
other poem from Relationships.

and

Compare how feelings for a woman are shown in ‘To His Coy Mistress’ (page 59) and in
one other poem from Relationships.

as well as Sonnet 116 and Born Yesterday.
Reply 8
I think we should find poems to link to these:

Ghazal
To His Coy Mistress
Born Yesterday
Sonnet 116

I think that for To His Coy Mistress, we can compare to Hour (battle between love and time)
Reply 9
Sonnet 116 and Sonnet 43 link quite well together, having many similarities:
-The sonnet form, Shakespearean Sonnet vs Petrachan Sonnet.
-Exploration of what true love is, Sonnet 116 more generally, and Sonnet 43 more specifically to a person.
-Both use metaphors:116 about time as a grim reaper and the pole star analogy versus 43's religious metaphor.
-Enjambment-116:lines 1-2, whereas 43 has many uses.

(I know some recommend not to compare by technique and instead by idea, but I personally find it easier to do it using a mix of both, as long as each idea is well explained)
Reply 10
Ghazhal/Farmers Bride?
Reply 11
I was personally thinking To His Coy Mistress and Ghazal together. I can see what you mean by comparing these two, but I find Farmer's Bride a bit boring tbh, although a sensible choice. I'm having difficulty with Born Yesterday. What poem would you compare that with?
Reply 12
Original post by stardude8
June 2011-Manhunt, Nettles
Jan 2012-Sonnet 43, Harmonium.
June 2012-Quickdraw, Praise Song for My Mother
Jan 2013-Hour, Farmer's Bride.
(Higher tier)

The poems that will not be named for higher tier are:Brothers, Sister Maude, and In Paris with You.

And so the poems which have not come up yet are:Ghazal, To His Coy Mistress, Sonnet 116, and Born Yesterday.

In today's literature exam, aqa did not go back to a previously covered topic (for the texts I did anyway), and so it is likely that the poetry exam will have new named poems. Therefore the four unnamed (so far!) poems are the ones worth discussing, although it is still worth going over the others as a comparison.

Questions in a foundation paper have come up about Ghazal and To His Coy Mistress. Perhaps (for those who do OMAM) they will pull the same trick as they did with Slim, as the foundation paper foreshadowed the higher paper. Although the foundation questions are worded more generally than they will be in the higher paper, they are good starting points for thinking about these poems, so let's try and come up with some insightful points for these questions:

Compare how the poets present a close relationship in ‘Ghazal’ (page 54) and in one
other poem from Relationships.

and

Compare how feelings for a woman are shown in ‘To His Coy Mistress’ (page 59) and in
one other poem from Relationships.

as well as Sonnet 116 and Born Yesterday.



hi, how do you know those poems definitely won't come up? :smile:
Reply 13
Original post by stardude8
I was personally thinking To His Coy Mistress and Ghazal together. I can see what you mean by comparing these two, but I find Farmer's Bride a bit boring tbh, although a sensible choice. I'm having difficulty with Born Yesterday. What poem would you compare that with?


Perhaps nettles but I hate that poem :/
I think Ghazal and To His Coy Mistress would be the best comparison
And yeah what do we compare Born Yesterday to, its such a simplistic poem!
I just realised, I'll probably end up revising every poem anyway, if I choose a poem to compare the possible poems with
How many marks, combined (unit 1+2), do you think will be enough for a B?
I ask because I completely failed the Unit 1 Section A bit (I read the question wrong <.<) and I'm pretty confident on Unit 2's exam, but I'm in a no hope sort of mood :frown:
Reply 17
Can anyone find a link which shows the poems which will not come up on higher tier? I was previously able to find it but now I cannot.

Saywhatyoumean-Yeah Born Yesterday is quite a simple poem, yet unusual, anyone got any ideas for comparison?

ryanroks1 It is probably best to have at least some notes on all the poems, even if you do end up doing more for some of them, just as a guarantee.

Leonardo Kay-a very vague question which is difficult to tell based on the info provided. We would also need to know your ca score.
Original post by stardude8
Can anyone find a link which shows the poems which will not come up on higher tier? I was previously able to find it but now I cannot.

Saywhatyoumean-Yeah Born Yesterday is quite a simple poem, yet unusual, anyone got any ideas for comparison?

ryanroks1 It is probably best to have at least some notes on all the poems, even if you do end up doing more for some of them, just as a guarantee.

Leonardo Kay-a very vague question which is difficult to tell based on the info provided. We would also need to know your ca score.


All I've got for Born Yesterday is a comparison between Harmonium/Nettles?
Reply 19
I wouldn't mind comparing it with Nettles, I guess. Have you got any interesting points for Born Yesterday (because I can think of points for Nettles, such as the military metaphor, enjambment, iambic pentameter etc., but nothing much for Born Yesterday)?

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