Advice

In the exam, you will be asked to compare and contrast two or more poems. They will usually have something in common - such as their subject matter, an aspect of their language or the ideas expressed - but also important differences. When comparing them, you should be able to notice things about the way they convey their meanings that you might not have noticed before...

Now is your chance to get in some practice comparing poems. The table on the next page shows some post-1914 poems you may have studied which are suitable for comparison with The Little Boy Lost / The Little Boy Found. We have suggested some points of comparison [comparison: A description of the similarities and differences between two things (in this case, two texts). ] or contrast [contrast: A description of all the differences between two things (in this case, two texts). ] that you could include in your answer. But feel free to think of some others!

When you are asked to compare poems, it is a good idea to run through in your mind each of the headings under which we have looked at the poems in this module: subject matter, structure, language, attitude and tone etc...