There are few things in this world as intimidating to a GCSE English student as looking down at an exam paper and seeing not just one poem but two unfamiliar pieces of poetry staring right back at you. To add salt to the wound, students also need to navigate this under exam conditions, often being stretched for time and having countless other questions to get through. In order to take a little weight off your shoulders as you prepare to sit the GCSE English exam, we’re going to break down all you need to know about how to approach the poetry comparison question.
- You’ll want to start off by analysing each poem separately, focusing on themes, tone, language, and structure.
- Once that’s out of the way, you’ll want to start identifying any key similarities and differences between them, giving reference to the poems.
If we do our job well, by the time you put this article down, you’ll find yourself in a better position to attain top marks in the comparison question of the exam!
Understanding the Basics of Poetic Comparison
In order to understand what goes on in the mind of the examiner when they’re correcting this section of the GCSE English paper, you can compare your essay to a math question. When an examiner is correcting a geometry question of yours or a simultaneous equation, they’ll have their marking scheme alongside them and will be looking to see what grade bracket your answer and the accompanying rough work qualify for. While an English essay isn’t quite as black and white as a maths equation, the examiner will be looking at your answer under a specific scope and seeing what grade bracket it falls into.
For the poetry comparison, there are specific techniques that examiners want to see in your answers. A good poetic comparison doesn't mean analysing two poems separately and joining the thoughts. Instead, you’re going to need to weave connections between poems throughout your answer.
One of the first things they’ll be keeping an eye out for as they scan through your essay is if you've given equal attention to both poems rather than focusing on just one. They’ll give your answer a thorough read-through, looking at how well your comparison shows how the poems match or differ in content, themes, and ideas. Part of their assessment of your work will also weigh on how you compare technical elements like form, structure, and language with reference to the poem’s quotes. In order to do this effectively, you shouldn't just spot poetic devices but explain why poets use these techniques and what they convey.
Look at the similarities and differences between the words in each poem and find quotations to support each word. This will help you focus. Find quotations from both poems that prove the similarities and differences. These should be short and focused.
It also helps to have a good knowledge of various poetic forms, seeing as GCSE students are often tasked with analysing different structures like sonnets (both Shakespearean and Petrarchan), free verse, narrative poems, and haikus. Knowing these common poetic forms goes a long way in helping you compare poems effectively. It gives you plenty more to write about, making unseen pieces of poetry an awful lot more familiar. No matter what poem you’re faced with on the day, you’ll be able to compare how its structure affects tone, pacing, and emotion. Mastering this skill will ensure that the examiner has no choice but to award you a top grade in this section of the exam.
Finding Meaningful Connections Between Poems
At the GCSE level, a high standard of analysis is needed in order to earn a high grade in the comparison section of the paper. So, unfortunately, there’s no getting around having a good understanding of each poem. However, equipped with the right skills, you’ll have little difficulty lighting up new insights about both texts in fresh ways.
Spotting Thematic Similarities and Differences
If you think about it, if you read a lot of poetry and know a great deal about themes and their significance in allowing the poet to convey their desired message, then you’re going to have plenty to compare and contrast, no matter what poems feature on the day.
If you flick back through the GCSE English past papers, you’ll also soon find that more often than not, the unseen poems that feature tackle themes like love, conflict, nature, and identity.
Your task is going to be to convey to the examiner that you understand the significance of the themes in both poems.
To do this, you might comment on how the two poems might look at the same theme from different viewpoints or if you see any commonalities. So, if one poem is showing war as heroic while another shows its devastating effects, your answer will need to analyse the unseen poetry with plenty of quotes to back up your arguments.
Comparing Poetic Techniques
Don’t forget, your examiner is also more than likely an English teacher themselves. If you think about how much your GCSE English teacher lights up at the thought of poetic techniques, you’re going to want to make sure that you do the same for your examiner by comparing the techniques between the poems effectively.
In order to do this, you’ll want to refrain from just listing the techniques you come across in your reading of the poems and place more of a focus on how the poets use them differently. Get into how imagery, metaphors, similes, and personification work in each poem's story. You’ve a few pages to fill with your essay, so make sure to write plenty while making coherent and purposeful points about why a poet uses alliteration in some places but not others. Then you could also throw in a little about the voice of the poems and how they contrast. Do they speak in first-person to create closeness, or third-person to keep their distance? These are all great points you can include to convince your examiner that you are worthy of a top grade!
Analysing Structure and Form
Structure and form are generally the components that give students the hardest time in the comprehension question, seeing as it’s generally quite challenging for students to surface deeper meanings from the form and structure of a poem. As a result of this, it’s an area that really separates an A+ student from the others.
Remember, even the poet's choice of form - whether it's a ballad, sonnet, or ode - usually connects to their bigger ideas about theme and tone, so don’t be afraid to comment on this in your answer, no matter how bold of an idea it might seem. Examiners value thematic "connections" between poems with your personal views woven throughout.
Writing Your Comparative Essay
Your analytical work comes together in the written comparative essay. This is where your insights become a coherent argument. A well-laid-out essay shows your grasp of both poems and draws clear comparisons throughout.
Seeing as the bulk of the marks being awarded will be down to your analysis and comparison of the unseen poems, you’re going to want to spend your time writing about this.
That means shortening your intro, which, if you’re not careful, can creep down to the second half of the page sometimes.
You only need two to four sentences in your introduction. These sentences are the foundations for your entire essay.
Start with a thesis statement that tackles the comparative question you are being asked head-on and use its exact words to show clearly to the examiner that you’re doing what is being asked of you. A useful structure that most GCSE English teacher recommend their students use is PEA (Point, Evidence, Analysis), which will help you organise your arguments on the page.
Comparison words are going to be the backbone of your essay. In order for you to weave all of those great points together seamlessly while showing the examiner that you are comparing and contrasting between the unseen poems. Here are some examples of comparative words you can incorporate into your essay:
Similarly
Likewise
In the same way
Equally
Both poems…
Just as…so too…
This is mirrored in…
Correspondingly
In contrast
On the other hand
Whereas
Unlike
Differently
Conversely
While one poem… the other…
In opposition to this…
Both poems explore… but in different ways
While one poem presents… the other suggests…
A key difference is…
One poem conveys… whereas the other…
The theme of… is central to both poems, yet…
Both poets use… to convey…
The imagery in… is more… compared to…
The tone of… differs significantly from…
One poet uses… while the other relies on…
Both poets use… but for different effects
Acing the Comparative Poetry Question
At the beginning of this article, we talked about how the comparative poetry question is one of the most feared questions that GCSE students face in the English exam. Well, after reading about what to look for in the unseen poems that feature on your paper and how to compare them effectively to make meaningful arguments, suddenly, it doesn’t seem all that intimidating, right?
With this article by your side as you prepare for the exam, you'll learn to see poems not as separate pieces but as works that connect and contrast through their themes, techniques, and structures. After all, your confidence in poetry comparison comes from good prep work and organised analysis. Hopefully now you no longer find yourself asking 'what is unseen poetry?' These techniques will give you the skills to handle any poetry comparison question on your exam and get the grade you’ve worked so hard for!
Enjoyed this article? Leave a rating!
Loading...
