Unseen Poetry

Does anyone have any tips on how to score high marks for unseen poetry?
Thanks

I would say avoid this option unless by some quirk of fate you’ve studied the poem before or you’re of Poet Laureate capability. Poems by their nature are esoteric and the chance of making head nor tail of it under exam stress is not good. There are tips if you google but I’m not convinced.

Reply 2

Schnieblig

OP

9

Original post by Zarek

I would say avoid this option unless by some quirk of fate you’ve studied the poem before or you’re of Poet Laureate capability. Poems by their nature are esoteric and the chance of making head nor tail of it under exam stress is not good. There are tips if you google but I’m not convinced.

Ok, thanks. I'll check some out on Google but I am yet to find any that seem to be working for me

Reply 3

nhsia

15

Original post by Schnieblig

Does anyone have any tips on how to score high marks for unseen poetry?
Thanks

I think you just need to analyze everything by picking out techniques that are used in the poem and relate it to the theme in question and mention how each technique can be used to explain or portray that certain theme (or whatever is mentioned in the question). Do this for language and structure (assuming you know the components of each). If you are unsure still, look online or read examiner commentary of what students tend to do wrong when answering questions on unseen poetry and work on those areas.

Reply 4

absolutelysprout

21

do plenty of unseen poetry practice. get used to identifying techniques and being able to analyse them in time constraints.

Reply 5

Schnieblig

OP

9

Original post by nhsia

I think you just need to analyze everything by picking out techniques that are used in the poem and relate it to the theme in question and mention how each technique can be used to explain or portray that certain theme (or whatever is mentioned in the question). Do this for language and structure (assuming you know the components of each). If you are unsure still, look online or read examiner commentary of what students tend to do wrong when answering questions on unseen poetry and work on those areas.

Thanks, I will check it out

Reply 6

Schnieblig

OP

9

Original post by absolutelysprout

do plenty of unseen poetry practice. get used to identifying techniques and being able to analyse them in time constraints.

Thanks, I try to do that but I tend to struggle as I am a very slow writer

Reply 7

Englishteacher24

10

Build up to tackling a whole question. The unseen poetry question is a big one. I would say, if you have time, read a poem a day (for example, here - https://poets.org/poem-a-day or here - https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/poem-of-the-day). Practise deciphering a poem's basic meaning (check whether your understanding of the poem aligns with what other people think e.g. by searching the internet). Practise looking for language, form, and structure features. Highlight and label them. Briefly comment on how they work within the poem. Then work up to comparing two poems.