How to compare poems in GCSE English Lit?

Okay so I'm good at lit and I know all my texts pretty well, except I have no real clue how to compare them for the exam.
I just don't understand how the hell I'm meant to write a decent analysis of four poems in 45 minutes!
Does anyone have any knowledge on how to successfully (and time efficiently) structure my answer?
Thanks,
Tom

Reply 1

The Polar Dude

back in my GCSE english days, (only last year :tongue:

) i was told that if i write something about 1 poem, i must compare/contrast it with another poem straightaway and give original interpretations

Reply 2

cooldudeman

Original post by The Polar Dude

back in my GCSE english days, (only last year :tongue:

) i was told that if i write something about 1 poem, i must compare/contrast it with another poem straightaway and give original interpretations

hey when you say to give original interpretations, do you mean like interpretations about the comparing/contrasting, or just about the individual poems?

Reply 3

RashelW

Short intro - saying what poems you're using.
Paragraph about structure and form - talk about all four poems, the similarities and differences between how the poem is set out and the effect it has.
Paragraph about rhythm and rhyme - same as above but with how the poem sounds and rhyme and stuff.
Paragraph about language and imagery - same but with the language techniques like metaphors and colloquial language etc....
Short paragraph about tone - whether the narator is angry, jealous, in love etc...
Short conclusion - add your own feelings about one or two poems, then answer the question.

I'm doing the exam this summer, I'm stressing..... -__- To get the highest marks, just make sure you have loads of quotes and use PEE. Don't worry if you don't add everything above, just make sure you mention all poems and give alternate meanings to some things. The most important paragraphs are structure, language and conclusion. Improvise as well, nothing is the wrong answer in english! Good luck :smile:

Reply 4

tarazzle

Original post by tom.west

Definitely look up past papers and answer the poems section - this helped me a lot and I learnt how time efficient I had to be in order to write a good, coherent answer. Make sure you have your own interpretation of your selected poems (to get the top grades this is what the examiner wants. He/she will know if you've just regurgitated what you've read in a revision guide) and what I did was make a list of the poems, find similarities and differences between them and then memorise this - that way, no matter what the question relates to you will be able to quickly make a comparative essay. :smile:

Reply 5

sara :D

Yeh I had this dilemma aswell, but my teacher cleared it up for me XD

Intro

Compare poem 1 + 2 (as many points as you can, include structure/style etc)
then LINK onto...
Compare poem 2 +3

Conclusion

You do it like this because mentioning freakin FOUR poems in one point is messy and hard. And often, you cannot compare all 4. You may have a fantastic point that intertwines two poems, but it doesn't include the other two - what the hell do you do then.

Reply 6

The Polar Dude

Original post by cooldudeman

hey when you say to give original interpretations, do you mean like interpretations about the comparing/contrasting, or just about the individual poems?

err.. something like that

for example, "the land was fractured"
a textbook interpretation would be, the land was a notorious place for fighting and civil war
you could say from your opinion that her religion or her life has been fractured because of the civil war which suggests that she is torn between 2 cultures.....

an original interpretation is going outside the box but still keeping within conext of the poem. you say what you want to say but make sure you can back it up!

any more questions, feel free to PM me

Reply 7

The Polar Dude

Original post by sara :D

most people compare 4 poems- what i was told to do prior my english lit exam was to compare 4 poems BUT:

compare the first 2 in detail and then bring in the 3rd poem, but not it too much detail and then bring in the 4th poem but you can write a couple of sentences
worked for me

Reply 8

sara :D

Original post by The Polar Dude

Yeh what you can also do is this:

Intro
Compare poems 1 + 2
LINK POINT ONTO >
Compare poems 3 + 4

Then do that for each point. So for each point, you compare all the poems, but seperately so it's neater.

Reply 9

The Polar Dude

Original post by sara :D

i guess that will work :tongue:

Reply 10

IPlayThePiccolo

If you don't mention all four you immediately drop into a lower grade bracket so mention them all at least. You don't have to compare each poem to every other poem. You could compare something... I don't know. 1 and 2, 3 and 1 and 4 and 3 or whatever and that's finee. Basically they're looking for, Poem A is... similarly/in contrast Poem B is... Use the comparing words!

Reply 11

ju1c

Intro
Structure
Language
Attitudes/Feelings
Conclusion

Compare The Post-1914 Poems with each other and the Pre-1914 poems with each other. I'd recommend in buying the CGP Anthology book on Duffy/Armitage - it's really helpful

Reply 12

whyisthatcrazy

There are loads of different methods of comparing all 4 poems, for exzmple:
Choose a anchor poem (the one you are confident with) then,

Intro - How all 4 poems relate to the question and what they're about.
Para 1 - Anchor poem and poem 2 - Points of view in poem
Para 2 - Anchor poem and Poem 3 - Structure of poem
Para 3 - Anchor poem and Poem 4 - Language in poem
Conclusion - Summing up ideas.

or you could do this:

Intro - How all 4 poems relate to the question and what they're about.
Para 1 = Anchor poem - Point A
Para 2 = Poem 2 - Point A
Para 3 = Anchor poem - Point B
Para 4 = Poem 3 - Point B
Para 5 = Anchor poem - Point C
Para 6 = Poem 4 - Point C
Conclusion = Summing up ideas.

Reply 13

9217niall

We were told to use 'MITSL' - My Itchy Toes Smell Loads

SMALL intro

Meaning
Imagery
Tone
Sructure
Language

Compare and contrast each point

Small summary

Here's a website that might help, they use MITSL analysis on a lot of the poems. http://thisisenglish.net/ks4resources.aspx

Reply 14

Orangebooks123

For my exam you only have to compare two poems?