Question 1 Skills: Analysing a Poem (Edexcel IGCSE English Language A)

Question 1 Skills: Analysing a Poem

Question 1 will be based on one of the fiction texts in your Edexcel anthology. The anthology consists of ten texts, of which the following are poems:

• ‘Disabled’ by Wilfred Owen

• ‘Out, Out—’ by Robert Frost

• ‘An Unknown Girl’ by Moniza Alvi

• ‘The Bright Lights of Sarajevo’ by Tony Harrison

• ‘Still I Rise’ by Maya Angelou

It’s important to prepare for this question in the exam by studying the ten texts in advance. The following guide is designed to help you in your study of poetry. It includes:

• Overview

• Form

• Structure

• Language

• Meanings and ideas

• Perspective and tense

• Quoting from a poem

Overview

Poetry presents its readers images that are not always realistic, and which need to be interpreted. It is important to remember that the choices a writer has made in terms of how the poem is set out and the language they have used are all deliberate — a poem is a crafted piece of work. It is therefore useful to consider not only the language choices a writer has made, but also what decisions they have taken in terms of structure and form.

What to do when analysing a poet’s methods

• Take a whole-text approach to the poem:

  • This could involve commenting on structure: “at the start”/“this changes when”/“in contrast…”

  • This could involve commenting on a poet’s choice of form:

    • How have they conformed to, or subverted, the form of sonnet/dramatic monologue etc.?

    • What deliberate choices has the poet made with their verse form? Are there reasons there is a regular or irregular rhyme structure?

  • Think about how tone is presented and develops: why has the poet chosen to present this tone? Why have they included a tonal shift?

  • Are characters in the poem presented differently from each other? Why? What does each represent?

  • Do characters’ relationships with each other change? Why might a poet have chosen to do this?

• Remember that personas, and characters in a poem, are constructs, not real people:

  • Think about what each character’s function is in the poem

  • What does the poet use their persona, or characters, to say about the theme?

  • Why has the poet chosen to write their poem in first, or third, person?

  • Is the first-person narrator reliable or unreliable? 

• Always frame your essay with the poet in mind:

  • As the examiners say: “writers use methods, including language and structure, to form and express their ideas — the choices the writer makes are conscious and deliberate”

  • Therefore, write that a poet “highlights X”, “suggests Y”, “challenges Z”

  • And always use the poet’s (last) name in your essay

  • Use the words “so” and “because” to push you to explain your own ideas further

• Zoom out to big ideas in your analysis:

  • Go from analysing language, or other writer’s choices, to a poet’s overall intention or message

  • This should also link to your thesis, and argument, throughout

  • You can begin these “zoom out” sentences with “The poet could be suggesting that because X, then Y” or “The poet could be using the character of X to challenge contemporary ideas about Y”

  • Use modal language to present sophisticated ideas:

    • Using words like “could”, “may” or “perhaps” shows that you are thinking conceptually
      

Form

The form of the poem can be thought of as “genre”. Poetry itself is a form of text, as are prose and drama. Within the form of poetry, there are many sub-forms. It’s important that you know what genre your anthology poems are in, as you can gain valuable marks for commenting on a text’s form.

When writing about form in poetry, it is important to consider why the poet has chosen that particular form, especially if they have altered the rules of that particular form. It is also useful to consider how the form reflects the themes of the poem.

Let’s take a look at an example. The following poem is called ‘Ozymandias’ by Percy Bysshe Shelley:

How to apply this in an exam response:

Structure

The structure of a poem refers to how the poem has been put together in its particular form. The choices a poet can make in terms of how to structure their poem includes stanza length, the use of repetition and refrains, a circular structure, and the use of particular types of punctuation, such as caesura, or a lack of punctuation at the end of a line, called enjambment. Structure also includes rhyme scheme and changes in line length. The poet’s choices regarding structure can affect a poem’s meaning or message.

Let’s look at an example of structural choices made by a writer and how these shape meaning. The following stanzas are taken from John Agard’s poem ‘Checking Out Me History’:

How to apply this in an exam response:

Language

When analysing language in a poem, you need to consider the specific choices of words and phrases the writer has used, as well as the imagery they have created and the language techniques they have used, all of which contribute to the themes and meanings in the poem.

In order to do this, you should consider both the denotation and the connotations of particular words:

• Denotation = the literal meaning of a word or phrase

• Connotation = the associations or implied meanings of the word or phrase

When commenting on words and phrases from the text, you should always try to consider why you think the writer has chosen that particular word to use. Below are some questions that you might ask yourself when analysing the words and phrases in a poem:

Once you are able to identify particular words and phrases within a text, you need to develop this skill further by considering why the writer has chosen to include these within their writing. 

Rеmеmbеr thе goal of analysing words and phrasеs is to uncovеr layеrs of mеaning, to understand thе writer’s intent and to explore how languagе contributes to the ovеrall impact of thе poem. 

Knowing the names of sophisticated language techniques will not gain you any more marks in the exam, especially if these techniques are only “spotted” and the writer’s intentions are not explained. Once you are able to identify and understand different literary techniques (see our Literary Devices Glossary for more details), you need to develop this skill further by considering why the writer has chosen to include these techniques in their writing. 

How to apply this in an exam response:

Meanings and ideas

A sensitive and personal response to a poem comes from reading the poem closely and knowing the poem thoroughly: what it means and what the poet is trying to say. You should think critically about meanings and interpretations, and use quotations and references to support your response.

When you consider your response to a poem, it is essential that you provide evidence to support your interpretation. This will make your response well-informed. However, it’s important that your analysis isn’t led by the evidence.

You should therefore begin your analysis of the given poem with an exploration of the poet’s meaning and ideas, rather than the methods they have used. This will automatically mean that you are developing a personal response to the poem, rather than just “spotting” the techniques a poet has used. It is also a good idea to consider how the poem’s title helps you understand its content. Then, depending on the focus of the question, find the evidence that supports your understanding and interpretation of the poem.

Ideas and themes, not methods

• Examiners warn against structuring your analysis based on the poet’s methods:

  • They do not reward well when students identify a poet’s method first, and then analyse what it means

  • For example, spotting that a poem includes sibilance, or caesura, and then attempting to say something relevant about that method

  • Often, this won’t work because students will fail to identify a convincing link between the method and the theme of the question

• Instead, examiners suggest students focus their responses on meaning and ideas, and use the poet’s methods as a means of illustrating meaning:

  • So your argument should start with the poet’s overarching ideas in terms of the question, and then find evidence from the poem that illustrates these ideas

  • For example, if the question is about how the poet conveys ideas about marriage, you would not start a point like this:

    • “The poet uses caesura in line 13. This caesura could show how…”❌

  • But instead, like this:

    • “The poet presents marriage as something challenging, which requires mutual respect. The poet shows this when…”✅

Tone

Another way to understand the meaning and ideas of a poem is to consider its tone.

• In poetry, tone is the “mood” of a poem:

• This could be the mood that:

  • A speaker expresses in a poem

  • A poet has towards their speaker

  • The poet creates in terms of the setting of the poem

  • The poet creates in terms of the poem’s subject matter

• The tone of a poem reflects its ideas and meaning:

  • It is therefore something you should consider when thinking about how a poet expresses their ideas and meaning

• Because a poem’s mood is created by the poet’s language, pace and rhythm, symbolism and grammar, it works perfectly as evidence in your essay:

  • So think: what is the tone the poet is trying to convey in their poem?

  • And how — via their choices — do they create this effect?

• Another sophisticated way to explore ideas and meanings presented by a poet is to consider whether the tone of a poem changes:

  • Think: why has the poet created this tonal shift?

  • And how — via their poetic choices — do they create this shift?

  • This also enables you to say something relevant about structure

• So think first about why a poet has created a certain tone, and what its effect is, before thinking about what methods they have used to create it:

  • For example, you would not start a point like this:

    • “The poet uses imagery in line 1. This creates a tone of …”❌

  • But instead:

    • “Macrae explores ideas about being contented within your own self through her use of metaphor, “while inside his heart was fat with sun”, which suggests Harry’s life is one that is filled to the brim with joy and pleasure, which…”✅

Perspective and tense

Considering perspective is another sophisticated way to explore a poet’s intention and messages:

• Perspective in poetry is the point of view from which the poem is being told:

  • It could be narrated in the first person (using the pronoun “I”)

  • It could be narrated in the third person (“he”; “she”; “they”, etc.)

• Poems often also contain a persona:

  • A persona, or speaker, is the invented character through which the poem is narrated

• Remember, the persona of a poem is not the same as the poet themselves, and this separation allows poets to explore ideas with more nuance and subtlety

• Poets often create a fictional narrator (a persona) when writing in the first person

• Sometimes, writing in the first person can give a poem more immediacy

• Perspective is therefore a very deliberate choice made by the poet in order to better get across their ideas and message:

  • As such, it counts as a writer’s method

  • Just like tone above, it is directly linked to a writer’s intention, and so serves as excellent evidence for a poet’s meaning and ideas

• Considering the tense of the poem also contributes to the speaker’s perspective

• Different tenses will create a different tone and perspective, and the poet will have made a deliberate choice over which tense they are using and why:

  • For example, is the speaker looking back (past tense), speaking about now (present tense) or looking forward (future tense)?
    

How to quote from the poem in your essay

• The ability to support your interpretation means selecting relevant quotations from the poem

• However, it is the skill of precisely unpicking and selecting textual references, rather than using quotations, that’s important

• Therefore, references don’t always need to be direct quotations:

  • They can be references to things that happen in the poem 

  • They can be references to the choices and methods the poet uses (“this idea is expressed when the poet uses first-person narration/a tonal shift/symbolism relating to X in order to…”)

• Examiners repeatedly stress that textual references are just as valuable as direct quotations:

  • The most important thing is that these references are directly related to the ideas and themes you are exploring in your essay, and provide evidence to prove your thesis

• When using direct quotations, you should aim to select 6–7 relevant quotations that contain a range of language and/or structure devices that you can comment upon and analyse:

  • A high-level response will incorporate these quotations into the explanations of meaning

  • Your quotations should also be embedded into your sentences, rather than separate. For example:

    • “The poet explores how power does not last by stating that ‘Nothing beside remains’, which tells us that there is nothing left of this once-powerful ruler except a broken statue standing in the middle of a vast desert” ✅

  • Rather than:

    • “The poet explores how power does not last. This is shown in the quote ‘Nothing beside remains’. This shows…” ❌