unseen poetry grade 9 essay

How does the poet present their feelings about NATURE in the following verse? (24 marks)

Tapestry by lesley elaine greenwood, if i could take a brush and paint the mountains and the moors,, i would splash the hillsides yellow and cover them in gorse., i'd take the finest needle and the darkest thread of green, and sew a line of bracken along the landscape. in-between, i'd lay a purple carpet of wild heather in the dells, and fringe the edge of all the woods with their pretty lilac bells., i'd merge the bracken with the heather, mix their colours like the sea,, a green and purple ocean on my own rich tapestry., then i'd take a ball of soft, white wool and stitch a mass of daisy chains, around the lush green meadows and up the sides of winding lanes., on the marshes i would stencil , just like pure white china cups,, some fragile water lilies and, by the ponds, sweet buttercups., i'd mix orange, reds and yellows planting poppies wild and free, onto nature's coloured canvas, my own rich tapestry..

© Lesley Elaine Greenwood

Source: https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/tapestry

For the first poem, just make sure you write about the following things:

A brief summary of what the poem is about, analyse some language - two or three specific words will do, analyse a couple of techniques - again, two or three techniques will be plenty, say something about the structure of the poem., an example answer: (24 marks), here, the poet compares the creations of nature to a personal craft project, comparing it to painting, sewing and other creative endeavours., throughout the poem, the writer uses the language of arts and crafts to describe the colours of nature. she says she' like to "splash" colour on a hillside, as though it was something fun and surprising. at the same time she would "lay" a carpet of wild flowers, which suggests her taking time to position it just right. by doing this she shows how both chaos and order can be a part of both nature and art., really the whole poem is an extended analogy that compares art and nature. the image of the poet taking a "ball of soft white wool" to "stitch a mass of daisy chains" enhances the softness and comfort we get from the image of the "daisy chains," which reminds us of childhood - an time when we might have all spent more time enjoying the carefree fun of making art - and innocence, since "white" is often a colour that connotes innocence., she repeats the use of whiteness to symbolise innocence when she uses a simile to compare "fragile lilies" to "pure white china cups." here, the comparison is both visual, as lilies are white, and the shape of lilies, which open up as they grow, look similar to cups opening. here, however, the reminder that they are "fragile" also reminds us that nature, like china cups, must be taken care of and protected., the poem has a strict aabb rhyme scheme, with a rhyming couplet at the end. though this poem is similar to a classic sonnet in that it is about her shared love for nature and art, it doesn't have a turn. most of the ideas in the poem are contained within one or two lines, which gives it a sense of order and completeness. it also means that each image is neatly contained within a rhyming couplet which adds to the poem's innocent, child-like feel. it seems ordered and neat. in this respect, it is as though she is using her arts and crafts to bring order to the chaos of nature, and in doing so enhances the beauty of what she sees., reflecting on that answer:, for this one, i used my opening paragraph to establish what the poem was about - there's normally always a "big idea" behind a poem that you can express in a sentence or two. keep this opening simple, and then go from there., initially, i looked for a couple of words i could analyse from the opening - i looked at "splash" and "lay." to choose those two i first picked out "splash" and then found another verb - it's often easy to compare two words of the same class. once i'd got them, i noticed that they were almost opposites to each other which allowed me to pursue the deeper analysis., for the technique i referred back to my initial statement and then found am image that supported that - a part of the poem where she compared a piece of nature to something from arts and crafts. i could have chosen any one of a few different images so i just chose one i could write about., the structure of this poem is very simple, childlike and ordered, and so the key was finding a way to link "childlike," "simple" and "ordered" to the big idea of the poem. it seems obvious that arts and crafts are childlike and simple, so that was good. and then i thought about how the poem brings order to nature, which is often quite disordered, hence her trying to bring order to chaos., the key to this is that opening statement - you'll recognise that in a poem relatively quickly - and then, once you see it, you should be able to start linking any of the key ideas or techniques in the poem to the big idea., find the big idea, choose an image / word or structural feature and be creative in how you link them, really, that's all you have to do..., compare how the poets present their feelings about nature in the following to poems. - (8 marks), i would stencil on the marshes, just like pure white china cups,, some fragile water lilies and by the ponds, sweet buttercups., rain by edward thomas.

Rain, midnight rain, nothing but the wild rain

On this bleak hut, and solitude, and me

Remembering again that I shall die

And neither hear the rain nor give it thanks

For washing me cleaner than I have been

Since I was born into this solitude.

Blessed are the dead that the rain rains upon:

But here I pray that none whom once I loved

Is dying tonight or lying still awake

Solitary, listening to the rain,

Either in pain or thus in sympathy

Helpless among the living and the dead,

Like a cold water among broken reeds,

Myriads of broken reeds all still and stiff,

Like me who have no love which this wild rain

Has not dissolved except the love of death,

If love it be towards what is perfect and

Cannot, the tempest tells me, disappoint.

Poem A & Poem B - (8 marks)

Remember that in the exam you'll only have 10-15 mins for this question - and it's only worth 8 marks - so you're just being asked to write about a few key features., below i've written some comparisons between the two poems. if you'd picked up on two or three of these you could probably get 6 or 8 out of 8 for the final exam:, poem a uses images of brightness and colour; poem b is bleak and dark, poem a has someone who takes control of nature; poem b is someone responding to nature, poem a talks about a range of different parts of nature; poem b is just about the rain, poem a has a strong, clear rhyme scheme; poem b has no rhyme scheme, poem a keeps its ideas contained within rhyming couplets; poem b has enjambment and caesura to throw the rhythm into chaos.

Free 11 Plus English papers

Grade 9 poetry comparison essay

Identity in 'kamikaze' and 'checking out me history'.

This is a model essay I wrote for my KS3 group class recently. Last term we studied poetry and the course culminated with this GCSE essay style question.

Compare how both poets present identity in Checking Out Me History and Kamikaze.

In terms of structure, I use the OTTER method which you can learn about here .

It isn’t of realistic length for an exam at 1600+ words, but it will give you an idea of how you can structure a comparative essay and lots of ideas on the theme of identity.

Let me know if you find this helpful and I’ll post another–maybe one of realistic length written under strict timed conditions.

Grade 9 essay

Both poets present how an individual’s identity is affected by society. In Checking Out Me History, the speaker’s sense of identity is affected by their education, what he is and is not taught; whereas in Kamikaze, the father, who is the subject of the poem, is publicly shamed and shunned because of his actions in war: he decides not to complete his suicide mission and return home, essentially deserting his country. Both poems explore the importance of national identity and being rooted to place. However, ‘Checking Out Me History’ is an empowering poem about reconnecting and shaping one’s own identity against a backdrop of colonial rule and oppression, and ‘Kamikaze’ is a poem about failing to meet societal expectations and the repercussions of failing one’s country. 

‘Checking Out Me History’ begins with the anaphora of ‘Dem tell me’ and this immediately evokes a tone of defiance, presenting the poem as a protest poem. The anonymised ‘dem’ probably refers to the British government or the education board who wrote the speaker’s curriculum. The plosive consonance evokes a tone of indignation as if to suggest the speaker is fed up with being told what is important and whose histories deserve mention. 

This tone then complements the opening metaphor, ‘Bandage up me eye with me own history/ blind me to me own identity’ in which the speaker suggests that the Anglocentric curriculum he has been taught has dominated the curriculum to such an extent that the history of his own people and of important Caribbean figures has been completely neglected. Again Agard uses plosive consonance, beginning each line with plosive bs to emphasise his anger and frustration. This stanza best captures the message of the poem which is that education affects our own sense of identity, and perhaps that schools and education boards have a moral duty to teach or connect students with the histories of their own cultures and not to leave them in the dark. As Agard grew up in Guyana under British colonial rule, he might have found it odd that his own education was focussed on the histories of peoples on the other side of the world, and that the Anglocentric education he received came at the expense of learning more about the culture and history of Guyana and the histories of those culturally connected to Guyana. 

Structurally, Agard uses counterpoint or juxtaposition. In his own words, the stanzas which pay tribute to important, heroic Caribbean and African figures, provide a ‘counterpoint’ to the stanzas which downplay or belittle the significance of Western historical figures such as Napoleon. There are two distinct voices in the poem: there is the lyrical voice of the italicised stanzas which give praise and credit to the marginalised figures the speaker has learned about to reshape his identity which then contrast with the somewhat condescending and blunt voice present in the other stanzas. For example, Florence Nightingale is comically and dismissively alluded to in the line ‘Florence Nightingale and she lamp’; while Mary Seacole, who was also a nurse, who helped treat and save wounded soldiers during the Crimean war is described poetically with an entire stanza dedicated to her achievements. She is a ‘healing star among the wounded’ and through this metaphor Agard implies her achievements outshine Nightingale’s. The speaker seems to resonate with the story of Mary Seacole in a way they don’t with the story of Florence Nightingale, perhaps because she is closer culturally to the poet and because of the additional adversity she had to overcome as well as the fact that she has not been given the credit she deserves.

The final stanza again begins with the refrain ‘Dem tell me’ but the speaker is emboldened to reshape his identity. This is captured in the metaphor, ‘But now I checking out me own history,/ I carving out me own identity’. The use of the discourse marker ‘But’ signals a volta in the poem in which the speaker asserts his resolve to reform his identity. The speaker will not passively accept the identity he has been given by his colonial education, but will educate himself and in this sense form his own identity. The speaker moves from being a passive ‘me’, the object of the sentence in the opening line, to being an active ‘I’, the subject in the last line. This suggests the speaker has found a new sense of agency to influence his own identity: he moves away from identifying himself with the Eurocentric cultural capital he has been taught to prize, ‘1066 and all dat’ to embracing and celebrating the achievements of Caribbean and African figures like those who are revered in the poem.

Similarly, Kamikaze focuses on the importance and value we attach to national identity. But whereas the speaker in ‘Checking Out Me History’ moves from feeling disconnected from their own history to then feeling rooted, the father, who is the subject of the poem in Kamikaze, goes from being a hero, someone who is proud to die for their country, to a social pariah. The poem begins recounting how the father must have felt before he set off on his mission. The atmosphere is one of national pride and determination. In the cockpit, the father carries a ‘samurai sword’, a national symbol of Japan representing the brave Samurai warriors of the past who would have been willing to sacrifice themselves for their country as the father is about to do. And he has ‘a shaven head full of powerful incantations’ which evokes images of Buddhist monks chanting, further emphasising the sense of purpose and resolve he feels to serve and die for his country, to die a hero as captured in the metaphor in the final line of the stanza, ‘a one way journey into history’. So whereas the speaker in ‘Checking Out Me History’ feels oppressed by his colonial rulers, the father feels determined and ready to take up the call to arms and sacrifice himself for his. 

However, the father completely loses his heroic status and sense of identity, and this is captured in the metaphor in the final two lines, ‘And sometimes, she said, he must have wondered/ which had been the better way to die.’ This metaphor emphasises how the father lives in a kind of purgatory, existing as a ghost among his family, shamed and shunned by the society which would have revered him as a hero had he sacrificed himself. The father dies a figurative death and his daughter imagines he must have wondered if he thought his life had really been worth living. This is opposite to the narrative arc of the speaker in ‘Checking Out Me History’ who begins the poem by expressing how disconnected he feels to the history and culture of his people as encapsulated in the metaphor of ‘bandage up me own eye to me own history’ to feeling empowered to reconnect with his own heritage through the concluding metaphor of ‘carving out [his] identity’.

Structurally both poems use contrast and juxtaposition to emphasise key ideas about identity. In Kamikaze, the resolute and fearless warrior the father is presented as at the beginning of the poem is contrasted with the social pariah and living ghost he becomes post war–whose own children are taught to ignore him. Garland also juxtaposes the way the grandfather is welcomed home from his fishing expeditions with the way he is treated. Whereas, the father and his brother waited expectantly for their father to return home from fishing ‘safe to the shore, salt shodden awash/ with cloud marked mackerel’, the speaker suggests it would have been better if the father had died and never returned. In the description of the grandfather’s return from fishing, Garland includes the image of the father and his brother building ‘cairns of pearl-grey pebbles’ which evokes a playful and joyful atmosphere as they wait for their father to return with a great bounty of fish, presenting him as a provider. The use of sibilance evokes a tranquil tone and is perhaps used to mimic the calm sound of the breakers. This description is in stark contrast to the way the father is treated when he returns home in which the atmosphere is stifling with his own wife never speaking again ‘in his presence’ or even ever meeting his eyes. Similarly, Agard uses juxtaposition to differentiate between who should be celebrated and who he values, juxtaposing marginalised Caribbean and African historical figures with more widely recognised European figures.

Kamikaze also ends with a message of reeducation, but whereas Agard resolves to reeducate himself, the family of the father in Kamikaze, specifically the children are taught to shun their own father. The daughter says she was taught ‘to be silent, to live as/ though he had never returned’ and the use of caesura slows down the pace and evokes a more solemn tone in contrast with the determined and empowered tone of the speaker in ‘Checking Out Me History’ in the final stanza. The final stanza emphasises the idea that the father has brought shame by returning and loses his former identity. Garland invites the reader to reflect on how devastating it would have been for men like this, who chose not to complete their kamikaze missions to return home, to be with their families, but ironically ended up being treated as if they no longer existed.

In summary, the father in ‘Kamikaze’ through his actions in war loses his sense of identity and status irrevocably. Whereas the speaker in ‘Checking Out Me History’ feels a lack of identity and connection to his heritage as a result of a blinkered colonial education, but appears to be in the process of reconnecting with his roots and resolves to reshape his identity by reeducating himself. Additionally, in Kamikaze, the father appears to be powerless to change his situation and how others perceive him, whereas the speaker in ‘Checking Out Me History’ feels empowered to reshape his identity and change his own narrative.

What you can take from this

Notice how I lead with ideas as much as possible. I always encourage my students to lead with ideas rather than techniques. This will help ensure you are writing about the poets bigger ideas and messages. And in the words of the mark scheme, you will then be taking a conceptualised approach which will secure a top grade.

I comment extensively on contrast and tone. You can always comment on the speaker’s tone and there will almost always be juxtaposition to comment on too.

Keep quotes short and embed them so you are always keeping the focus clearly on ideas.

Further support

Need some more help? I’m a full time tutor and you can learn more about the support I offer here .

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Unseen Poetry 2023

Subject: English

Age range: 14-16

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Last updated

19 June 2023

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2023 Unseen Poetry model answer for BOTH questions on Scaffolding by Seamus Heaney and Yours by Daniel Hoffman.

This model essay is designed to hit the requirements for Grade 9 for AQA English Literature Paper 2 (2023 onwards) or Paper 1 (2022 and before). Includes two answers that weaves together language and structure analysis, relevant comparisons how and why the two writers present their poems in relation to caring for others.

Please note that due to copyright restrictions, the actual poems are not included in this resource, but are available from the AQA website or online.

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Unseen poetry workbook: new gcse grade 9-1 english literature aqa (collins gcse.

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