Thirteen (AQA GCSE English Literature)
Revision Note
'Thirteen'
Each poetry anthology at GCSE contains 15 poems, and in your exam question you will be given one poem – printed in full – and asked to compare this printed poem to another. As this is a closed-book exam, you will not have access to the second poem, so you will have to know it from memory. Fifteen poems is a lot to revise. However, understanding four things will enable you to produce a top-grade response:
The meaning of the poem
The ideas and messages of the poet
How the poet conveys these ideas through their methods
How these ideas compare and contrast with the ideas of other poets in the anthology
Below is a guide to Caleb Femi’s poem, 'Thirteen', from the Worlds and Lives anthology. It includes:
Overview: a breakdown of the poem, including its possible meanings and interpretations
Writer’s methods: an exploration of the poet’s techniques and methods
Context: an exploration of the context of the poem, relevant to its themes
What to compare it to: ideas about which poems to compare it to in the exam
Overview
In order to answer an essay question on any poem it is vital that you understand what it is about. This section includes:
The poem in a nutshell
A “translation” of the poem, section by section
A commentary of each of these sections, outlining Caleb Femi’s intention and message
'Thirteen' in a nutshell
'Thirteen' was written by Caleb Femi, who was born in Nigeria in 1990 and moved to Britain when he was seven years old. His life on a council estate in London is reflected in the poem in which he describes an individual surrounded by discrimination and crime.
'Thirteen' breakdown
Lines 1–4
“You will be four minutes from home
when you are cornered by an officer
who will tell you of a robbery, forty
minutes ago in the area. You fit”
Translation
The poem begins in the middle of a conversation
The poem directly addresses a second-person listener:
It is implied the “you” is the narrator; this puts the reader in their position
The speaker draws attention to the crime close to their home
Femi’s intention
The first lines of Femi’s poem submerge an ambiguous listener in the middle of a conversation to present the destabilising effect of the event
The lines also imply the dangerous nature of the environment in which the speaker lives
Lines 5–6
“the description of a man? – You’ll laugh.
Thirteen, you’ll tell him: you’re thirteen.”
Translation
The speaker relates the conversation between the officer and a thirteen-year old child
The speaker is surprised the officer has said they “fit the description of a man”
Femi’s intention
The narrator uses the casual direct speech of second person to create empathy
Femi draws attention to how the child is perceived as a “man”, which surprises them
Line 7–8
“You’ll be patted on the shoulder, then, by another fed
whose face takes you back to Gloucester Primary School,”
Translation
The speaker describes how the child is escorted back to school by the police (“fed”)
By referring to the “face”, the speaker implies the officers are unfamiliar and do not engage personally with the child
The speaker again refers to their young age as they go to “Gloucester Primary School”
Femi’s intention
Femi makes a subtle criticism of the police force in England:
By suggesting the officer appears nameless and unfamiliar to the child, Femi highlights the fear that is not understood by the officers
Femi also uses colloquial language to imply a poor relationship with the police
Lines 9–13
“a Wednesday assembly about being little stars.
This same officer had an horizon in the east
of his smile when he told your class that
you were all supernovas,
the biggest and brightest stars.”
Translation
These lines change the setting of the poem to a school hall
Here, the officer is friendly; he smiles and speaks to the class
However, Femi refers to a “horizon in the east” which hints, perhaps, at the limits of the officer’s friendliness
The officer supports the teacher’s lesson, telling the children they were all the “brightest stars”:
Femi’s superlatives here suggest the officer’s insincerity as the child seems to understand they cannot all be the “biggest” or the “brightest”
Femi’s intention
Femi foreshadows the child speaker’s sense of isolation
The ironic depiction of the officer’s friendliness presents his words as platitudes
Lines 14–15
“You will show the warmth of your teeth
praying he remembers the heat of your supernova;”
Translation
The speaker describes how he smiles at the officer and hopes he can see his potential as a “star” or a “supernova”
Femi’s intention
Femi describes the child’s sense of vulnerability with the adult police officer
Femi shows that the boy knows the officer and the officer does not recognise him, thus implying a disconnected relationship
He also shows the extent of the boy’s reliance on the officer’s good nature
Lines 16–17
“he will see you powerless – plump.
You will watch the two men cast lots for your organs.”
Translation
The speaker describes a sense of helplessness in the boy’s “plump” youth
The lines highlight that the boy is alone but there are two officers
The officers are watching him and the boy imagines they are dividing his organs between themselves
Femi’s intention
Femi emphasises the minority status of a vulnerable child by presenting two officers who “watch” the boy and decide his future
The dark imagery of sharing his organs between them signifies the power they hold over his life
Lines 18–20
“Don’t you remember me? you will ask.
You gave a talk at my primary school.
While fear condenses on your lips,”
Translation
The speaker asks the officer if he recognises him, attempting to form a bond
Femi shows that the child is intimidated and afraid
Femi’s intention
Femi portrays the child’s nervousness as they talk to the officers about a previous interaction to show how often the child feels fear in their environment
Lines 21–22
“you will remember that Wednesday, after the assembly,
your teacher speaking more about supernovas:”
Translation
The speaker relates a previous assembly that discussed supernovas
Femi’s intention
Femi portrays the child’s isolation as they attempt to make sense of their world
Both the police officers and the teachers appear to have disconnected relationships with the child, which lead to an unspoken fear
Lines 23–24
“how they are, in fact, dying stars
on the verge of becoming black holes.”
Translation
The poem ends with the child voicing their fear
The teacher told the children “supernovas” are “dying stars” that become “black holes”
The speaker remembers the officer comparing the children to supernovas
Femi’s intention
Femi portrays an individual who sees hypocrisies in their world but cannot voice their thoughts
The poem ends with a dark message: the child is bleak about their future
Writer’s methods
Although this section is organised into three separate sections – form, structure and language – it is always best to move from what the poet is presenting (the techniques they use; the overall form of the poem; what comes at the beginning, middle and end of a poem) to how and why they have made the choices they have, especially in relation to the theme or message.
Focusing on the poet’s overarching ideas and patterns of language, rather than individual poetic techniques, will gain you more marks. Crucially, in the below sections, all analysis is arranged by theme, and includes Caleb Femi’s intentions behind his choices in terms of:
Form
Structure
Language
Form
The poem’s conversational form creates a casual tone to represent both the individual’s identity and a sense of their bravado in the face of everyday experiences that reduce their identity.
Theme | Evidence | Poet’s intention |
|---|---|---|
Inner lives | Femi uses free verse to bring the speaker’s story to life:
| The irregular form contributes to a narrative style that reflects instability in the individual’s life
|
Femi uses a second-person address:
| The conversational, casual voice of a thirteen-year-old speaker reflects an initial attempt at bravado:
| |
Femi uses colloquial language to create an informal tone: “another fed” | This is reflective of the boy’s language and identity
| |
Femi shows a young boy relating a story from their perspective, in order to build empathy and intimacy between the reader and narrator | ||
Structure
Femi’s poem manipulates rhythm to present a dramatic and emotional story that portrays the vulnerability of a young boy in his uncertain world.
Theme | Evidence | Poet’s intention |
|---|---|---|
Disconnected relationships | Irregular stanza and line lengths convey uncertainty in the speaker’s world | Femi could be conveying the boy’s powerless status in society through the unpredictable structure |
Femi uses enjambment throughout most of the first stanza:
| Femi conveys the boy’s surprise when stopped by police close to his home:
| |
Femi uses caesura and repetition to show the boy’s concern: “Thirteen, you’ll tell him: you’re thirteen.”:
| The speaker conveys an individual’s desperation with abruptly changing rhythm that reflects the impact of the interaction | |
Femi’s speaker conveys the disruptions in a young boy’s life that lead to tension and fear | ||
Language
Caleb Femi conveys how a young individual becomes hopeless and resigned as a result of casual discrimination and careless comments.
Theme | Evidence | Poet’s intention |
|---|---|---|
Relationships and lives | A question shows the boy’s hope:
| Femi draws attention to the way the boy attempts to build a relationship with the police officer |
Femi highlights the boy’s dependence on the authority figures using emotive language and dark imagery:
| Femi conveys a sense of powerlessness as the boy recognises his future is in the police officers’ hands | |
A metaphor presents the children’s aspirations as dubious:
| Femi refers ironically to the children’s bright future:
| |
A lack of resolution implies the children may not have the bright future they are told they have:
| Femi offers a wry criticism of the police service:
| |
Femi portrays how a broken relationship between the external world and an individual has a detrimental effect on their self-esteem and future | ||
Context
Examiners repeatedly state that context should not be considered as additional factual information: in this case, it is not random biographical information about Caleb Femi that is unrelated to the ideas in “Thirteen”. The best way to understand context is as the ideas and perspectives explored by Femi in the poem that relate to worlds and lives. This section has therefore been divided into two relevant themes that Femi explores:
Home and heritage
Relationships with the world
Home and heritage
Caleb Femi was born in Nigeria in 1990 and moved to London aged seven
His poetry draws inspiration from his childhood in North Peckham:
In 2000, on the same estate where Femi lived, a ten-year-old boy, Damilola Taylor, was stabbed in a racial attack on his way back from the library
Femi’s “Thirteen” explores a young child who is “cornered” “four minutes from home” to draw attention to the vulnerability of children in dangerous, crime-ridden communities
Femi raises questions about established practices in disadvantaged communities:
In 'Thirteen', Femi explores a constant threat created by a faceless police presence:
The speaker refers to “another fed”
Femi’s writing focuses on giving young people a voice:
From 2016 to 2018 he was celebrated as London’s first Young People’s Laureate
The poem gives a voice to a young boy who is singled out as a result of his heritage
Relationships with the world
Femi’s debut collection, 'Poor', written in 2020, includes poetry and photography that examines underprivileged lives facing discrimination in their world:
'Thirteen' relates Femi’s real experiences as a teenager, stopped by police and questioned about a crime that was committed by a man
The narrative style of 'Thirteen' illustrates a child’s shock at being compared with a man: “You’ll laugh.”
The poem explores the disruption and fear a young boy experiences when stopped and searched on the basis of race and class
The poem raises questions about how individual identity is undermined in children’s external worlds:
The poem explores the hopelessness amongst young children in “Gloucester Primary School”:
This may be influenced by Femi’s experience as a teacher in a Tottenham school
Femi shows the children’s despair in response to careless and superficial words from authority figures
The pleasant interaction between the officers and the teacher presents authority figures working harmoniously as a powerful group:
The officer engages with the children in the assembly in a way he does not in the street
Femi shows disconnected relationships between adults and children:
'Thirteen' considers how young children are offered platitudes rather than genuine interest from people in whom they place trust:
They are referred to an indistinguishable group who are all “the biggest and brightest”
The poem presents a self-aware and knowledgeable teenage boy who knows more than the adults in his world
What to compare it to
The essay you are required to write in your exam is a comparison of the ideas and themes explored in two of your anthology poems. It is therefore essential that you revise the poems together, in pairs, to understand how each poet presents ideas about worlds and lives in comparison to other poets in the anthology. Given that 'Thirteen' explores the ideas of disconnected relationships between human beings and their worlds, the following comparisons are the most appropriate:
'Thirteen' and 'In a London Drawing Room'
'Thirteen' and 'A Portable Paradise'
'Thirteen' and 'England in 1819'
For each pair of poems, you will find:
The comparison in a nutshell
Similarities between the ideas presented in each poem
Differences between the ideas presented in each poem
Evidence and analysis of these similarities and differences
'Thirteen' and 'In a London Drawing Room'
Comparison in a nutshell:
Both Caleb Femi’s 'Thirteen' and George Eliot’s 'In a London Drawing Room' employ speakers who explore their feelings about their everyday environment. Both poets criticise the suffering their speakers observe. However, while Femi’s poem criticises discrimination in an underprivileged community, Eliot describes a joyless urban environment.
Similarities:
Topic sentence | Both poems offer a critique of their environment | |
|---|---|---|
Evidence and analysis | 'Thirteen' | 'In a London Drawing Room' |
Femi describes London in simple language that reflects the speaker’s world: “a robbery, forty/minutes ago in the area” | Eliot describes a miserable London, commenting on the “cloudy” sky and the wall of buildings like “solid fog” | |
Femi describes a community that creates unjust fear and pressure:
| Eliot’s speaker describes their environment similarly:
| |
The speakers’ descriptions of their environments suggest their unease and concern as they imply their homeland is a place of punishment and despair | ||
Topic sentence | Both poems comment on the disconnected relationships of those who inhabit their homeland | |
|---|---|---|
Evidence and analysis | 'Thirteen' | 'In a London Drawing Room' |
Femi implies the children live under authority figures who do not see them as individuals:
| Eliot draws attention to the way the citizens of London seem blind to the joy of life or individuality:
| |
Femi criticises the way individuals in disadvantaged communities are treated callously:
| Eliot criticises her world by describing London as without compassion or joy:
| |
Both poems describe an individual’s response to disconnections in the world that they believe damage the inhabitants | ||
Differences:
Topic sentence | Caleb Femi’s poem describes a community that is made hopeless as a result of discrimination, while George Eliot’s poem describes how the urbanisation of London brings suffering | |
|---|---|---|
Evidence and analysis | 'Thirteen' | 'In a London Drawing Room' |
Femi uses imagery to present symbolic ideas about aspiration and hope:
| Eliot offers a description of urban London using natural imagery:
| |
Femi presents a dramatic and urgent message about his world, using metaphorical language relating to death:
| Eliot, however, describes urban London’s mundane and dreary environment as restrictive:
| |
Femi’s poem is a harsh criticism of discrimination that damages and destroys young lives, while Eliot’s poem is a critique of the way industrialisation and urbanisation have made her world bleak and depressing | ||
'Thirteen' and 'A Portable Paradise'
Comparison in a nutshell:
This is an effective comparative choice to explore individuals’ responses to their changing worlds as they recognise disconnected relationships between the individuals and their world. While Caleb Femi’s poem on discrimination in a community in England ends pessimistically, Roger Robinson considers an individual who finds comfort in a similarly accusatory world.
Similarities:
Topic sentence | Both speakers convey emotional pleas within their criticisms of their environments | |
|---|---|---|
Evidence and analysis | 'Thirteen' | 'A Portable Paradise' |
Femi’s poem has an irregular structure to convey tension as the speaker relates his story:
| Robinson, too, conveys the response of his speaker through enjambment, which conveys a breathless expression of emotion In contrast, a sudden caesura represents moments of tension: “on my person, concealed, so” | |
Femi’s speaker conveys desperation and powerlessness:
| Robinson presents a similarly desperate speaker, using imperative verbs and a list, which implies urgency:
| |
The speakers’ emotional responses to their worlds convey a sense of desperation as they attempt to find hope in their worlds | ||
Topic sentence | Both poems comment on the disconnected relationships in their environments | |
|---|---|---|
Evidence and analysis | 'Thirteen' | 'A Portable Paradise' |
Femi presents the children as separated from the adults in their community:
| Robinson, similarly, suggests the speaker feels part of a neglected, isolated group:
| |
Femi depicts a pressured environment:
| Robinson criticises the “pressure”, highlighting it with sibilance in “stresses” are “sustained and daily”:
| |
Both poems describe their home as corrupted, which in turn creates embittered or isolated individuals | ||
Differences:
Topic sentence | Caleb Femi’s poem describes growing hopelessness amongst the young people in a disadvantaged community, while Roger Robinson’s 'A Portable Paradise' conveys how a sense of community can offer comfort in challenging times | |
|---|---|---|
Evidence and analysis | 'Thirteen' | 'A Portable Paradise' |
Femi presents an isolated child who finds little comfort from adults:
| Robinson, however, relates how advice from a grandparent can provide comfort in times of isolation:
| |
Femi’s metaphorical language leads to a dark conclusion:
| Robinson uses imagery to convey hope against the challenges of their world:
| |
Femi’s poem presents a young boy whose vulnerable position under powerful authorities leads to despair, while Robinson’s poem describes a way of providing one's own comfort under such systems | ||
'Thirteen' and 'England in 1819'
Comparison in a nutshell:
Both Caleb Femi’s 'Thirteen' and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s 'England in 1819' criticise corrupted powerful authorities that cause suffering. Nevertheless, while Shelley’s polemic poem attacks England’s corrupt monarchy and aristocracy, Femi’s conversational poem comments on discrimination, specifically within the police service.
Similarities:
Topic sentence | Both poems highlight disconnected relationships under oppressive systems | |
|---|---|---|
Evidence and analysis | 'Thirteen' | 'England in 1819' |
Femi describes the oppressive conditions experienced by a child on a London estate:
| Shelley describes the negative conditions and powerlessness of the working class in nineteenth-century England:
| |
Femi contrasts vivid imagery to convey how hope is offered to children and then taken away:
| Shelley, similarly, contrasts dark and light imagery to convey ideas about good and evil:
| |
The poets both comment on issues they face in their world by using contrasting imagery that connotes to ideas related to good and evil and hope and suffering | ||
Differences:
Topic sentence | Femi’s poem is a conversational narrative that conveys a young child’s perspective on their environment, while Shelley’s poem is a dramatic and bitter attack on England’s monarchy and aristocracy | |
|---|---|---|
Evidence and analysis | 'Thirteen' | 'England in 1819' |
The poem is written in free verse and is split into four irregular stanzas:
| Shelley uses a sophisticated sonnet ironically to convey the “public scorn” of the people under what Shelley describes as corrupt and powerful systems:
| |
Femi’s speaker speaks with bravado in relationships with others: “– You’ll laugh./Thirteen, you’ll tell him: you’re thirteen”:
| Shelley’s poem makes use of alliteration and assonance to create a resentful tone:
| |
Both poems present embittered speakers; however, while Femi’s poem presents the way a young child has normalised their powerlessness, Shelley’s poem is a sophisticated critique of England | ||
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