GCSE Edexcel English Literature: Understanding Poetry 2015 Friday *official thread*

It was okay! I compared it to Cousin Kate, strange choice i know but it worked!

There's really no right / wrong. i did Half-caste. what did you write about the unseen?

I


I really like it! I wrote about like first the obvious things like how long stanza shows never ending nature of her work and how the rhymingcouplets show how structured and repetitive her days are etc, but then I ran out of things to say, got a bit ambiguous and out like how nature is personified suggests her lonliness and it is her only solace as she does not have anyone else, and how the short clauses followed by enjambment showed like how she feels she is trapped by her monotone and restricting routine but wishes she could be free and unrestrained (like the running sentences). I linked that to also how the first stanza had rhyme but the others did not, they were unrestrained. Yeah, it starting getting real crazy. I did not know what to put hahahaha. What did you do?

I am so annoyed i did not take note of the picking cotton and really hot oarts as I should have noticed it was set in the southern states of america, and the fried chicken too! Lots of people at my school noticed it

Yeah i mentioned the same points. i said that nature seemed to be the only way of escapism for her. i got the cotton picking wrong i said that it could suggest african slavery in america (i know :s) but oh well im sure i wont get marked down for that.

I mentioned that the she could have possibly used death as an escape - gave evidence (can't remember what).
Then said that last stanza when it is said that the moon glow, star shine, mountains etc are her items or something maybe symbolises that her corpse has assimilated with "mother" earth - another woman - and thus she can claim it her own.

Also, the seasons symbolise mother nature herself and the way she also works tirelessly through the seasons. The fact that the speaker refers to the 'Storm' and the 'Sunshine' as beings indicates the possibility of some sort of negotiation maybe...wrote something along those lines, what do you guys think?

For whoever did Clashes and Collisions, how did you guys find it?

Oh God I somewhat misunderstood the poem... Oh god im screwed I was a mess after the exam. I spoke about the enjambment: non-stop working, no caesura in first stanza: no breaks or pauses in a woman's work if theyre in a position of a housewife. I looked at `I've gotta'; I: has to do it alone without help or assistance, gotta: no choice, has to due to her inferior position in society before the woman's right movement. Also said that it seems that Angelou seems to admire the capability of housewife's in completing such a wide range of chores in a short span of time.

I misunderstood the following stanzas. UGHH.... I said that she walks non-stop throughout all the seasons, emphasised through the first word of each stanza from 2-5, presenting a different season. I said that the last stanza is ambigious -_- and that its left for the reader to explore their own thoughts... I said that there are two interpretations: she possesses nothing of her own (presents inferior position) but can only have nature or, she has earned being able to possess nature and the world due to her hard work and continuous contribution to her family and society.

I feel like rubbish... Its no longer about getting an A* now, just that A...

I compared Hitcher to Cousin Kate.