Favourite/ least favourite power and conflict poem

If anyone here is AQA GCSE English student and is doing the power and conflict poems, which ones are your favourites and least favourites?

Reply 1

NoaaaC

Original post by finlandisbetter

If anyone here is AQA GCSE English student and is doing the power and conflict poems, which ones are your favourites and least favourites?

I love Remains but hate Tissue

Reply 2

username5109744

Original post by NoaaaC

I love Remains but hate Tissue

I also hate tissue. It makes no sense

Reply 3

Sinnoh

Kamikaze was a good one. Someone in my class invited the poet, Beatrice Garland, to our school and she actually came, we had a nice interesting talk about it.
I was kind of hoping it would come up in our exam because of the juicy analysis we'd heard.

Tissue sucked though.

Reply 4

Nightwing84

Original post by finlandisbetter

I also hate tissue. It makes no sense

I'm an A-level English Literature student who studied power and conflict poetry 2 years ago.
"Tissue" draws a comparison between the fragility of paper and the fragility of human life. It talks about the importance of paper as a literal idea, while constantly reminding the reader over how fragile it is. The ideas grow bigger into descriptions of buildings and religious imagery, with the poet ending with talking about human skin, perhaps suggesting how human life and the impacts it has are far stronger and longer lasting than built structures. There are really several interpretations, and I suggest looking at BBC bite size and other revision resources to explore the different themes and quotes that link to these.
I think it would be a good poem to compare to "Ozymandias" as both poems explore the impacts of human lives and how they can (or cannot) transcend time and nature. Have a look at both poems and see if you can find any links.
I don't blame you for finding it complicated: I barely understood it when I was yr 11 and even now it seems to fit more with my A-level poetry anthology than the GCSE one
I hope this helps!

Reply 5

username4867806

Favourite - Remains

Least favourite - The Prelude

I did my exam in 2018 and the given poem was Oxymandius and I chose to compare it to Tissue (which I actually like!).

Reply 6

kmonte01

Loved war photographer and kamikaze I hated charge of the light brigade

Reply 7

Davy611

As a teacher, I find 'Poppies' very moving and interesting to teach. I also like the grand scale of 'Prelude' and the imagery of 'Ozymandias'. I'm not a fan of 'My Last Duchess'.

Reply 8

username4621442

I liked kamikaze, remains and exposure

Reply 9

username4867806

Original post by Davy611

As a teacher, I find 'Poppies' very moving and interesting to teach. I also like the grand scale of 'Prelude' and the imagery of 'Ozymandias'. I'm not a fan of 'My Last Duchess'.

Don't agree about Poppies, The Prelude, or My Last Duchess. I find some of the language in Poppies strange and it takes me away from the message of the poem. The Prelude is just boring in my opinion. I really like how power is presented in My Last Duchess. Really interesting interpretation.