Comparing Poetry: Skills for the Anthology

You cannot revise a comparison

Here is the thing about this question that makes revising for it feel impossible, and then, once you see it properly, makes it straightforward. ⚠️ YOU WILL BE IN A CLOSED-BOOK EXAM. THE POEMS WILL NOT BE IN FRONT OF YOU IN THE FORM YOU STUDIED THEM. AND THE ANTHOLOGY ITSELF IS CHANGING. So what exactly are you revising? Most students answer: the poems. They learn what each one is about, a handful of quotations, and a few techniques to name. Then the question asks them to compare two, and what comes out is two descriptions with the word "whereas" between them. ⚠️ AND THAT IS MARKED AS WHAT IT IS: TWO ANSWERS TO TWO DIFFERENT QUESTIONS, SITTING NEXT TO EACH OTHER. ⭐⭐ BECAUSE A COMPARISON IS NOT TWO DESCRIPTIONS PLACED TOGETHER. IT IS A SINGLE CLAIM THAT NEEDS BOTH POEMS TO BE TRUE. And that gives you a test you can run on your own writing in about four seconds. ⭐⭐ DELETE ONE POEM FROM YOUR PARAGRAPH. IF WHAT IS LEFT STILL MAKES PERFECT SENSE, YOU WERE NOT COMPARING. Try it on "Poem A uses short lines to create tension. Whereas Poem B uses long flowing lines to create calm." Cross out the second sentence and the first is untouched. Cross out the first and the second stands alone. ⚠️ NOTHING WAS HOLDING THEM TOGETHER EXCEPT THE WORD WHEREAS, AND A CONNECTIVE IS NOT A COMPARISON. Now try it on this: "Both poems are about leaving, but they disagree about whether it was decided in advance: A's regular rhyme makes the departure sound rehearsed, while B's broken lines make it sound like something that simply gave way." ⭐ DELETE EITHER POEM AND THE SENTENCE COLLAPSES, BECAUSE THE CLAIM WAS ABOUT THE DISAGREEMENT BETWEEN THEM. So here is what you are actually revising. ⭐ NOT THE POEMS. THE MOVE. And the test of whether you have learned a move rather than memorised an essay is that it works on verse you have never seen. ⚠️ WHICH IS WHY EVERY EXAMPLE IN THIS MODULE USES POEMS WRITTEN SPECIALLY FOR IT, THAT YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY HAVE STUDIED. ⭐ IF THE MOVE WORKS ON THOSE, IT WILL WORK ON YOURS, WHATEVER IS IN THE ANTHOLOGY THE YEAR YOU SIT IT.

Side by side, or genuinely joined

The same two poems, written about two ways. The third column is the part you can apply to your own paragraph.

Tap the sentences that genuinely compare

Tap the TWO sentences that would collapse if either poem were removed.

• Both poems watch someone leave, but only one of them believes the leaving was chosen
• Where the first poem keeps its rhyme intact to the last line, the second lets its rhyme fail exactly where the speaker does
• The first poem uses regular rhyme. However, the second poem is written in free verse
• The second poem uses enjambment to make the lines feel unfinished and hurried

Run the test on this paragraph

A student writes: "Poem A uses a regular rhyme scheme which creates a sense of order. Similarly, Poem B uses repetition which also creates a sense of order." Both halves are accurate. What does the delete test reveal?

• Each half survives the other being deleted, so this is two observations that happen to agree rather than a comparison, and "similarly" is doing all the joining
• The two claims contradict each other, so one of them must be inaccurate
• Nothing, because a comparison of similarities is weaker than a comparison of differences
• That the paragraph is too short to be a proper comparison

Five words for the move

Five terms, each defined by what it is. How to use them, and which ones earn marks, is the work of the steps that follow.

Match each sentence to what is wrong, or right, with it

Two that follow from the delete test

Select the TWO statements that follow from a comparison being a claim that needs both poems.

• A genuine comparison is often shorter than two descriptions, because nothing has to be said twice
• You have to compare like with like: one poem's handling of something against the other's handling of the same thing
• Only differences are worth writing about, since two poems that agree give you nothing to compare
• The safest approach is to identify as many techniques as possible in each poem

Revising for a question whose poems may change

Two facts about this paper change what revision should look like, and neither is usually said out loud. ⚠️ THE FIRST IS THAT IT IS CLOSED BOOK. Whatever you want to quote, you have to carry in. ⭐ WHICH MEANS A FEW SHORT, EXACT FRAGMENTS ARE WORTH FAR MORE THAN MANY LONG, HALF-REMEMBERED ONES. Three or four words you are certain of, placed inside your own sentence, does everything a long quotation does and cannot be got wrong. ⚠️ THE SECOND IS THAT THE ANTHOLOGY IS NOT PERMANENT. The set of poems is changing, so anyone revising by memorising essays about particular poems is building on ground that moves. ⭐ THE MOVE SURVIVES. THE ESSAY DOES NOT. So revise like this. ⭐ COLLECT SHARED QUESTIONS, NOT SUMMARIES. Who has power here? Is the speaker telling the truth? Was this chosen or did it happen? A shared question lets any two poems in your anthology be compared, including a pairing your teacher never suggested. FOR EACH POEM, KNOW ITS ANSWER TO THREE OR FOUR OF THOSE QUESTIONS, and one short fragment that proves each answer. ⭐ PRACTISE THE SENTENCE, NOT THE ESSAY. One sentence that holds both poems, that names the shared question first and the difference second. THEN RUN THE DELETE TEST ON IT before you write the rest of the paragraph. ⚠️ THREE HABITS THAT COST MARKS ON THIS QUESTION. ⚠️ THE FIRST IS THE POEM-BY-POEM STRUCTURE. Everything about one, then everything about the other. It feels organised and it guarantees the delete test fails. ⚠️ THE SECOND IS DEVICE-SPOTTING. Naming a simile earns nothing on its own. What the simile does to a reader, and how that differs from what the other poem does, is the mark. ⚠️ AND THE THIRD IS CONTEXT BOLTED ON AT THE END. A sentence about when a poem was written earns its place only when it explains something you have already noticed in the poem itself.

Two departures, written for this module

Neither of these poems exists anywhere else. They were written for this page precisely so that you cannot have studied them, which is the whole point: if the move works here, it works anywhere. THE FIRST: The gate was oiled a week before. She checked the latch, and checked once more, then set the case down in the hall and did not look upstairs at all. THE SECOND: Nobody oiled anything. The door stuck, and he pulled it, and it gave, and the noise of it stayed in the street a long time after. ⭐ START WHERE THE METHOD SAYS TO START: WITH A QUESTION BOTH ANSWER. Here is one. Was this leaving decided in advance? Both say yes or no in their shape before they say anything in their words. The first runs in four even lines, rhymed in pairs, each one finishing where the sentence finishes. ⭐ NOTHING SPILLS. AND A DEPARTURE THAT FITS ITS CONTAINER THAT NEATLY IS A DEPARTURE THAT WAS PLANNED - the gate oiled a week ahead, the latch checked twice. The second breaks almost immediately. A two-word line, then a one-word line, then a long one that will not stop. The sentences run past the ends of the lines and have to be chased into the next. ⭐ A LEAVING THAT WILL NOT FIT ITS LINES IS A LEAVING THAT WAS NOT ARRANGED. The door was not oiled; it stuck; it gave. ⭐⭐ NOW HOLD THEM IN ONE SENTENCE, AND NOTICE THAT NEITHER CAN BE REMOVED: "Both poems tell you whether the departure was planned before they tell you anything about the person leaving, and they do it through shape alone - the first by finishing every line exactly where its sentence ends, the second by refusing to." Delete either poem and that sentence is nonsense. That is what a real comparative point feels like from the inside. And there is a second one available, about what happens afterwards. The first ends with a refusal to look, which is an action the woman controls. The second ends with a sound that outlasts the man and belongs to the street. ⚠️ ONE DEPARTURE IS OWNED BY THE PERSON LEAVING; THE OTHER GETS AWAY FROM HIM. Neither poem says that about itself. It only exists in the comparison, which is precisely why it is worth marks. ⭐ NOTICE WHAT NONE OF THAT REQUIRED. NO TECHNIQUE WAS NAMED UNTIL AFTER ITS EFFECT WAS DESCRIBED, AND NOTHING DEPENDED ON HAVING SEEN EITHER POEM BEFORE.

Order how to build one comparative point

Put these six moves into the order that produces a paragraph which would collapse if either poem were removed.

• Find a question both poems can be said to answer
• Decide what each poem answers, and whether they agree
• Write one sentence naming the shared question and holding both poems
• Show how each poem does it, comparing method against method
• Support each half with a short exact fragment inside your own sentence
• Delete one poem and check that what remains no longer makes sense

Build a sentence that needs both poems

This is the shape of a comparative point. Assemble one.

The comparison run

Five questions on the move that makes a comparison. Three lives.

Complete the comparison facts

A single claim that requires both texts in order to be true is a _____. A question that both poems can be said to answer, whether or not they agree, is a _____. The shape a poem is built in, including its line lengths and rhyme, is its _____. A sentence running past the end of a line into the next one is _____.

Three paragraphs to repair

Three student paragraphs on a comparison question. In each case the mark is in the structure of the claim, not in the accuracy of the observations.

• A paragraph analyses the first poem in detail for most of its length, then ends: "The second poem is quite different, as it uses free verse." Everything said is accurate. What is the problem?
• A student writes: "Poem A uses a metaphor in the second stanza, and Poem B uses alliteration in the first line." Both are correct identifications. How would you improve it?
• A paragraph opens: "Both poems were written in the nineteenth century, when attitudes to family were very different from today." The claim is true. Why might it earn nothing?

Write one comparative point of your own

Choose two poems you have studied. Write a single paragraph comparing them, then explain why the paragraph you have written is a comparison rather than two descriptions.

• Name a question both poems can be said to answer, and say what each one answers
• Write one sentence that holds both poems, so that removing either would break it
• Show how each poem achieves its answer, comparing method against method rather than one poem's language against the other's form
• Support each half with a short exact fragment placed inside your own sentence
• If you use context, attach it to something you have already noticed in the writing
• Finish by explaining what would be left if you deleted one poem, and why that proves your paragraph compares