Sample question

Read this question carefully. It is similar to the type of question you will be asked in the exam

Teacher's note

If you are ready to practise writing a full answer, you should spend 40 minutes on this, and write about two poems. In the exam itself, you will only have 30 minutes for this question.

For each poem:

• Make it clear what the poet is writing about.
• Refer to anything you know about the context of the poem which helps you to understand the poems.
• Remember to comment in detail about how the poem is written, referring to particular words and phrases.
• What do you think the poet has to say about the past, and the way it relates to the present?

If you would prefer to concentrate on just John Agard's poem at this stage, write for 20 minutes.

In writing about John Agard's poem, you could include short paragraphs about:

• What the poet has to say in this poem.
• The style in which the poem is written.
• How the two are connected.

If you want to practise writing a full answer, you could actually choose any of the other poems as your second one, because this is a very broad question. However, the poems by Sujata Bhatt or Tom Leonard would be good choices.

When writing about two poems, you should try and end by making a comparison between the two. In what ways are the poems similar - in style of language, or in ideas? In what ways are they different?