Tips for unseen poem?

What are your approaches for the unseen poem in an English lit exam? - where do you start?

Don't want it to bring my whole grade down so I need tips; thanks

What is the exam asking of you? Do you have to write a commentary?

Read it through a couple of times to get the gist of it. Look for themes, look at metre, structure in general, rhyme, hyperbaton, imagery, progression and development of the poem, specific loaded words etc etc. Then form an argument about what the poem is doing based on the evidence you've found.

Use FLIRT (Form, Language, Imagery, Rhythm/Rhyme and Tone)
Pretty much apply the same things you do to the comparison question to this... although AQA have said that they mark it less harshly than the comparison question. So I wouldn't worry too much about it bringing your grade down.

Use FLIRT (Form, Language, Imagery, Rhythm/Rhyme and Tone)
Pretty much apply the same things you do to the comparison question to this... although AQA have said that they mark it less harshly than the comparison question. So I wouldn't worry too much about it bringing your grade down.