1. English Literature Unit 2: Unseen
Poetry

2. • The Poetry examination is one hour and fifteen minutes long.
• Section A is a question based on the Anthology Cluster you have
studied.
• Section B is a question based on an unseen poem.
•
You are advised to spend 30 minutes on the Unseen Poetry
question. The following two assessment objectives are tested in
Section B:

3. • AO1: Respond to texts critically and imaginatively;
select and evaluate relevant textual detail to illustrate
and support interpretations.
•
• This means it is a good idea to have your own personal
and critical ideas about the poem and be able to think
imaginatively about what the poet does with the
imagery, the themes, the voice, the language etc. As
it’s an unseen poem, it will have to be your own ideas –
just make sure they’re credible and you can back them
up. Obviously, you have to get good short quotations
to prove those ideas you have about the poem!

4. • AO2: Explain how language, structure and form contribute
to writers’ presentation of ideas, themes and settings.
• This means you have to look in real detail at the words and techniques the
poet uses to create the themes, the rhythm, the subject matter, the voice
and the tone of the poem form. In addition, if you know what specific form
of poem you are reading, you should make a point about how the poet
uses that form – maybe it’s a sonnet, a villanelle, a dramatic monologue
etc…
• What poetic devices are utilised? Is there a rhyme scheme and has it been
used for a reason? Imagery? Contrasts? Specific vocabulary etc..? How do
they have on an impact? In addition, you must make a point about the
structure of the poem. What happens where? It may be something about
how each stanza starts. It could be about when the poem changes tone. It
could be about how the poem builds. It could be about a point or a line
that is repeated to have a deliberate structural effect. Make at least one
point about structure!

5. Example Unseen Poem and Question: June 2011 ©AQA
How do you think the speaker feels about the child and his experience of
learning to read and how does the poet present the speaker’s feelings?
Slow Reader
He can make sculptures
and fabulous machines,
invent games, tell jokes,
give solemn, adult advice –
but he is slow to read.
When I take him on my knee
with his Ladybird book
he gazes into the air,
sighing and shaking his head
like an old man
who knows the mountains
are impassable.
He toys with words,
letting them go cold
as gristly meat,
until I relent
and let him wriggle free:
a fish returning
to its element,
or a white-eyed colt – shying
from the bit *– who sees
that if he takes it
in his mouth
he’ll never run
quite free again.
VICKI FEAVER

6. How to tackle the question
1. Read the poem through twice, trying to get a feel
for the rhythm and the effect of any repetition,
rhyme, punctuation, alliteration etc
2. Work out what the poem is about and the poem’s
voice (ie is it written in first, second, third person
and who is it addressing?)
3. Identify the Purpose, Theme or Message
4. Explore the Emotions, Mood and Feelings
5. Identify the techniques the poet has used and how
they create the emotions, moods or feelings (form,
structure, language, imagery)
6. What are your thoughts feelings about the poem?

7. 7. Now annotate the poem to pick out the important bits .
8. Make a quick plan before you start – you only have about 5
minutes to plan, so keep it short.
Focus on two to four key quotes from the poem. Remember you
are aiming to write a lot about a little.

8. When answering the question, “saying a lot about a
little” is needed. You should ideally select two to four
quotations from the unseen poem, about which you
can say several things. It is a proven way of gaining the
higher marks on AO2.
Below are two example paragraphs that use that
principle. The AO1 objectives (Imaginative ideas,
textual detail, Interpretations) have been highlighted in
blue. The AO2 objective (Language, structure and
Form) in red. Each paragraph addresses a different part
of the overall question:

9. Q: How do you think the speaker feels about the child and his
experience of learning to read and how does the poet present the
speaker’s feelings?
How do you think the speaker feels about the child and his experience of
learning to read?
At the start of the poem, the poet uses a list to show the
child’s many other varied skills: “make sculptures…fabulous
machines…invent games”. The specific use of dynamic verbs
and positive adjectives in the list show that at the start of
the poem, the poet believes in the child’s different abilities.
By using the words “sculptures” and “invent”, which are words
that conjure up complex adult and artistic endeavours, the
poet clearly sees the child as incredibly capable. In addition,
the use of “fabulous” helps to show that what he puts together
is worthy of high praise. As mentioned, at the outset of the
poem, the poet clearly values the child. The poet does this in
order to strongly show in the rest of the poem that the process
of reading is only one of many difficult experiences that
children have to learn and they may struggle in spite of their
other valuable skills.

10. How does the poet present the speaker’s feelings?
The poet has the child allow the words to “go cold
as gristly meat”. This simile is used to present a
child who can hardly bare to read the words. The
comparison to “gristly meat’ presents reading as
an unpleasant experience for the boy, one that
he has to constantly chew on. The use of “Gristly”
also suggests that it is tough and, as gristle
itself is not proper food, and has no proper
nutritional value: there may be no point to actually
going through the reading process for the boy. The
adjective “cold” also combines with the “gristle” to
make an even more potent visual image. There is
no life in reading for the boy. It is presented as
limp and dead in contrast to his other more
exciting adventures.

11. ‘sighing and
shaking his
head’
‘like an old
man
who knows the
mountains
are
impassable.’
‘a fish
returning
to its element’
‘a white-eyed
colt’
Use the same type of approach and practice “saying a lot about a little” with
one of the following lines:

12. PRACTICE
Q: What do you think the speaker hopes
for the girl he is addressing? How does
the poet express the speaker’s feelings?
Born Yesterday
By Philip Larkin
(Available online)
30 mins