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How to answer AQA English Lit A Question?

This is a question from one of the past papers and was just wondering about what would be the best way to answer it?

23

Compare the ways the relationships between the speaker of the poem and other people are shown in two poems from List A and two poems from List B.

List A
Before You Were Mine (Duffy)
Education for Leisure (Duffy)
Mother, any distance (Armitage)

List B
On my first Sonne (Jonson)
The Laboratory (Browning)
My Last Duchess (Browning)
(36 marks)


My first reaction would be to write about each indivual poem first and then write a conclusion showing the comparisons.

But what would other people do?

Btw main reason why i am asking is that we have an absolutely shocking english teacher and we haven't compared 4 poems before so yeh... lol.

So would the way that i first thought be the best way or is there a better way to answer the question?

Cheers =]
Reply 1
lol we've also never compared 4 poems before, except in yr 10 mock.
no offence buut I would say that I would definitely not do what you are suggesting, you could end up running out of time without having compared the poems much and having to repeat yourself a lot in the conclusion. You need to show that you can compare poems effectively throughout. So either compare the first two poems in the first section, then compare the next two poems in the second section, then bring them all together in the final section. OR if you are feeling up to it then compare them all at once - talk about themes of all the poems, then imagery of all the poems, then structure of all the poems etc.
Personally I'm gonna compare poems A and B to start with, make occasional references to poems C and D, then compare poems C and D, making occasional references back to A and B that I may have missed before. This way I will ensure that I am atleast mentioning all the poems a few times - they say you can only get half marks if you don't talk about all poems.
but each to their own :biggrin:
lol.... wow.... that is creepy. i just answered that question literally 5 minutes ago. its saved on my pc. u want a copy?
Reply 3
hazzypants
lol.... wow.... that is creepy. i just answered that question literally 5 minutes ago. its saved on my pc. u want a copy?


That is kinda freaky lol yeh if u could please =] you wanna email me it or just copy nd paste it ?
Reply 4
do we compare the poems in list A separately and then compare the poems in list B separately, or do we compare the 4 as a collective, my cgp guide says compare the two A's then the two B's
my plan was the following:

tone: ony my first sonne, laboratory

scruture/lang laboratory

scruture/lang my first sonne/ mother any distance

lang on my first sonne

education vs leisure

conclusion, on my first sonne

lol that isnt very clear. but basically always refere to SLuT (scructure, lang, tone) and concentrate on 2/3 of the poems. I barely mention education, and talk lots about on my first sonne because i like it. As long as you include 4 poems then it's fine.

its best to contrast and compare in smae paragraphs, and paragraph under themes (tone of laboratry/education for example) as it sounds more articulate and will get higher makrs accoridng to my teacher.

Hope that's helpful!
:smile:
Reply 7
hazzypants
‘On my First Sonne’ has the strongest feelings of loss and regret out of my selection, with it being despondent and depressing in the speaker’s expression of love for his lost child. The choice of the words ‘Seven yeeres’ that were ‘lent’ to me creates vivid imagery and religious references to the period; his son was so precious (perhaps heavenly) that God only let him have him for a short period.

This sort of language contrasts with that in ‘The Laboratory’, a poem with a sinister, evil tone. Here the relationship between the speaker and the other characters includes obsession and the willingness to kill. The poet uses violent, hard-hitting language (verbs), such as ‘drop dead’, ‘burn up’ and ‘bite’ to express the physical anger that the speaker desires to carry out on her lover’s mistress. The use of the words ‘let death be felt’ expressing how she wants this mistress to suffer, juxtaposes with Jonson’s choice of ‘rest in soft peace’ emulating how these characters are so different.

The structure of ‘the Laboratory’ also gives telling sings about the relationship. Lots of tidy long stanzas are used, in this poem, which convey to me how she is carefully planning, with lots of thought, what, when and how she is going to carry out this deed. There is pure hate here, and obvious hurt, that the disconcerting woman wants to act upon with her ‘poison’.
In the poems ‘On my First’ and ‘Mother Any Distance’ however the structures are used to emulate differing attitudes. Both these poems share the common theme of parent child relationships and both have pretty simple, unextravagant stanzas to express their simple, strong feelings they have. ‘Mother..’ however also has separated certain lines such as ‘Anchor. Kite’ with the interesting use of punctuation. This full stop makes is particularly effective and is further backed up by the choice of the words ‘line still feeding out, unreeling years between us.’. For me, these have dual meaning. Firstly it expresses the time the son and mother has shared together and secondly metaphorically expresses the umbilical cord tie that the two will always share (Anchor being the mother and kite ebing the son). This idea is further emulated by the reference to ‘spaceman’ This installs an image in the readers mind of a space man, attached to the rocket, but who can’t quite let go for fear of what will happen. This fear is something that the speaker experiences when thinning about not being in a physical sense to their mother anymore in the scary ‘new prairies of floor’ oat his new home.

‘On my First’ also uses punctuation with effectiveness. ‘Ben. Jonson’ puts extra strain on the boy’s name, which makes the reader more likely to remember; form a father who feels his son deserves to be remembered. The afther also clearly has a sense of is quite a touching remark to make, by one of history’s acclaimed poets- the boy was truly the best thing in his life.
The relationship in Education For Leisure is of one lonely, speaker against the world. Ina similar vain to Browning in the Laboratory, Duffy uses flippant, chilling and hard-hitting remarks, to convey that this character is a recluse who hates the world as much as the world hates it. There is an arrogant tone in that this person wants to ‘play god’ and that they’re a ‘genius’. These implies to me how unhinged the chacrter is, as they obviously aren’t as good as they’ve been claiming when the radio ‘cuts them off’ This character obviously has a sour outlooki on life, and has never been helped. Shakespeare being ‘another language’ is a very telling message of their past, that maybe the poet’s poor relationship with society might not be entirely their fault.

These poems also both bear flippant usage of violent language. The opening line of ‘Education’ is ‘I am going to kill something’ and in the laboratory it says ‘he is sure to remember her dying face’. As a reader, this can be interpreted in an almost comical way; laughter at people with such callous nature and desire to give other around them pain, exist. Furthermore Duffy’s use of familiar nouns (a fly, goldfish, your hand), creates a clear depiction of this character carrying out these as hurting animals is a very conceivable idea; it is not far-fetched.

All of these poems have relationships at the heart of their messages. They clearly convey how the speakers feel through them; whether it be through wanting to kill, wanting to cry, wanting to take revenge. I think moose effective is that of On my first Sonne, a touching yet so very honest account, that emulates that love that exists in their relationship.


lol yeh it is really freaky. i timed myself (49 minutes!) and im well proud. the last question i did the other day took me 1 hour 33 min :frown:

i'll keep it here for a bit, beofre i delete :smile:


I'll have a read of that in the morning bit lateish now, need some sleep =]
Reply 8
By the way on a question like this how many words would you approxiately be aiming to write?
around 2 A4 sides. which is 600 words ish?

same for of mice and men/ mockingbird/ lord of the flies or whatever book you're doing.
Reply 10
Also if you still have points to make and you have ran out of time could you list what you were going to do in bullet points? think i read that somewhere....
Reply 11
hazzypants
same for of mice and men/ mockingbird/ lord of the flies or whatever book you're doing.


We don't do a book not sure why, we just don't, but i guess that would be because we do the anthology short stories?
Reply 12
what u haveto remember is not to compare all four poems with eachother....

it takes too long and u dont get any marks (its what i did in my mock) and i just scraped a C.

You pick the poem ur strongest at, then compare that to everything else, trust me it works like a charm.

how ive been taught:

5 paragraphs

- voice
-tone-
-form
-imagery-
-language

n.b. if its a question like the one above then You pick the poem ur strongest at, then compare that to everything else,

if it asks u to compare a specific poem to others, you include the mentioned poem in every paragraph.

hope this helps :smile:
this is what my teacher told us (shes an awesome teacher, many people in her class gets full marks)

Fist in the introduction do one sentence summarizing each poem (can be more than a line of course) and then use a sentence to connect all the poems together which relates back to the title.

Then you have to compare 2 poems!! by doing a paragraph about language structure and tone if you have time.

Then you compare the other two poems by doing paragraphs on the same thing

Finally you do a conclusion.
Add your opinion into everything as it counts for a lot.

Remember it doesn't matter in English lit if you compare 1 poem more than the others! thats what my teacher said and in our school we had at least 5 people in the top 5 in england!! for english lit.
We were told to compare A to B, then C with references to A and B, and then D with references to C, so pick the poem least confident about as the last one, as you need to make less points for it.
I know a lot of peolpe are taught differently but for Lit. this is the essay plan we are told to use:

Introduction, with sentence on each poem, summarising the story and the main devices, e.g. In "Nothing's Changed" Afrika furiously condemns the ongoing racial inequality and segregation in Post-Apartheid South Africa using a framed narrative and a central metaphor.

Then you need to organise your 4 poems into 2 pairs, when picking the pairs, make sure you can easily compare the poems in them as you will be writing about each pair seperately.

Then write a paragraph on the themes and attitudes of poems A and B.

Then a paragraph on how language and structure is used in A and B.

Then the same for B and C.

But an important skill for A* pupils is to continuously link all the poems, so even though you might be talking and poems B and C, you can still link back to A and B!

Then a conclusion with a "golden nugget" - a point you save till the end to wow the examiner and get your A*!
Reply 16
Section 1
Put into brief context all 4 poems, and link to question

Section 2
1 pre-1914 poem
1 modern poem
Compare TITLE, TONE & THEMES

Section 3
Other 2 poems
Compare RHYTHM, RHYME & VERSIFICATION

Section 4
2-3 poems (you choose, at least 1 pre-1914)
Compare EFFECTIVENESS, IMAGERY & LANGUAGE

Section 5
Conclusion - All 4 poems
Similarities and Differences
Link to question
Opinions
Reply 17
Can someone please comment on my plan?

Question: Compare how strong feelings are presented in four of the poems you have studied from this selection. To do this, compare "Catrin" by Gillian Clarke and three other poems, including one by Seamus Heaney and two from the Pre-1914 Poetry Bank.

Plan:
- Catrin - Metaphor, Enjambment, Alliteration
- Digging - Metaphor, Emotive Language, Repetition, Rhythm
- On my first Sonne - Enjambment, Emotive Language
- Sonnet - Repetition, Alliteration, Rhythm

Section 1: Digging + Sonnet - Rhythm {FIRST 2 SECTIONS ARE ON STRUCTURE}
2: Catrin + OMFS - Enjambment
3: Catrin + Digging - Metaphor {IMAGERY}
4: Sonnet + Digging - Repetition {SECTIONS 4 & 5 ARE LANGUAGE}
5: Catrin + Sonnet - Alliteration
6: Digging + OMFS - Emotive Language {TONE}

Would this work? I try to link to the question after every point.
Thanks.
--Vaza
Reply 18
Raminder1992
at least 5 people in the top 5 in england!!


At least? Your school must be pretty good :P

Raminder1992
this is what my teacher told us (shes an awesome teacher, many people in her class gets full marks)

Fist in the introduction do one sentence summarizing each poem (can be more than a line of course) and then use a sentence to connect all the poems together which relates back to the title.

Then you have to compare 2 poems!! by doing a paragraph about language structure and tone if you have time.

Then you compare the other two poems by doing paragraphs on the same thing

Finally you do a conclusion.
Add your opinion into everything as it counts for a lot.

Remember it doesn't matter in English lit if you compare 1 poem more than the others! thats what my teacher said and in our school we had at least 5 people in the top 5 in england!! for english lit.


Thanks for the pointer, seems a very good plan to me!
Reply 19
Would like to share my answer if that's ok and see what people think. I'm rubbish at English and personally think my answer OK, maybe JUST an A but most likely B, I wrote it all in 1 hour...

Question: Compare how language is used to present the attitude of the speaker, compare poems from both lists.

Set A
Havisham
Anne Hathaway
Mother any Distance...
November

Set B
The Labratory
Sonnet 130
My Last Duchess

Say what the attitudes are and how language is used to present them etc

So this is my pretty bad answer, tips on how to improve will be welcomed!

Langauge is a key element in portraying and developing the attitudes of the person in many poems. This essay will comare and evaluate the language used in each poem and how these are used to present the attitudes of each speaker.

In Havisham, Duffy alerts us to the person'a attitudes very early on with an emphatic oxymoron; "beloved sweetheart bastard". This portrays Havisham's contradictory feelings towards her lover, that she hates him for what he has done yet, despite her hatred, she clearly still loves him. In contrast, Shakespeare - in Sonnet 130 - uses the embedded phrase in line 13 ro show his sincerity of his admiratino towards his wife. This is very effective in showing Shakespeare's attitudes as it clearly states that the person loves his wife. Unlike Havisham, despite his early critisism of his wife, Shakespeare's feelings are assured whereas Havisham seems tconfused as to whether she loves her fiancee more than she hates him. Furthermore, Duffy's use of harshly consonated words such as "spinster" show that Havisham has a negative attitude towards love. On the other hand, Shakespeare highlighs his love in the rhyming couplet, wher the "are" sound suggest his attitude is that love provides tranquility and fulfilness, unlike the destructive attitude of Havisham.

However, there are some similarities. Both personae show two differetn attitudes in the poems they are in. Havisham clearly shows that she feels both affection and vengefulness towards her lover which is shown by the enjambment "love's hate". Also, the "puce curses" she "sounds" suggest that she feels her fiancee deserves to be punished horribly for what he did althought the "b" sound in the last line shows that all she realyl wants is to be loved again. Similary, Shakespeare introduces the reader to the unexceptional qualities of his wife: the fact her breath "reeks", he "dun" coloured breats, her "black" wired hair and that she is not a "goddess". This creates the impression that, although he "loves to hear the speak", his attitudes towards her are that she is repulsive and unimpressive. However, like Havisham, there is a second attitude in the poem; made more prominent by the indent of the rhyming couplet, which suggests it is the most important attitude. The seconnd attitude is that she is exception and she is impressive, the use of the word "heaven" gives the reader the impression that Shakespeare worships her.

Anne Hathaway's attitudes are that her love with Shakespeare is infallible, heavenly and substainable. Indeed, the description of their gusts "dribbling their poose" suggests that she feels no one can compare to the love and interaction her and Shakespeare share. On top of this, the alliteration of "l" in line 12 suggests she finds their relationship emotionally - and physically - pleasurable. In contrast, the person in "The Labratory" is not bothered by the fact her husband has a missteress but more so by the fact a woman is havingf sex with her husband. The use of monosylable (lines 5 and 6) and heavily stressed words ("pound" in line 10) suggest that she is not stopping to think why her husband may have chosen another woman, moreover that it seems to be a terriotial issue. This is unlike Anne Hathaway as she takes pride in their strongbond and their relationship is fulfiling yet the persona in "The Labratory" seems to only care about being married to a man. Her husband doesn't have relationships with other women because he has a wife, not because he wants to, or has reaosn to, remain loyal. The persona seems contempt with that as she never considers the factg she may not be right for him. However, both personae are protective of their husbands and both feel that their relationships are best, albeit for different reasons. The plosive consonants -"which is the poison to poison her, prithee?" - in "The Labratory" suggesst she is bitter and angered by the thoought anyone else could have her husband, she believes her and her husband's relationship is infallibe. Liekwise, Anne Hathaway believes their guest's "dribbling prose" is proof that everything else is unworthy, compared twith her relationship with Shakespeare.

All four poems use language effectively to present attitudes. AS a reader, I prefer "The Labratory" as the fast pace and emphatic language show that the persona is relatively clueless about why her husband has a misstress and so resorts to desperate mesaure instead of working things out logically, which I find comical. It shows that, after more than one hundred years, much of societies' attitudes havn't changed!


Sorry for the probably numerous spelling mistakes, they weren't on my essay but I couldn't be bothered to spend more than 10 minutes typing this up so I rushed a bit :smile:

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