The Unseen Poetry Gym

The Unseen Poetry Gym

The last question gives you two poems you have never seen, and no notes to fall back on. It sounds brutal, but it's the fairest part of the paper: everyone starts level, and it needs no memorising. Both poems are printed in front of you (32 marks total): • Q1: analyse the first poem in detail. • Q2: compare the two poems' methods on a given focus. Only AO1 (your response) and AO2 (methods) count: there is no context (AO3) here, because the poems are unseen. Do not invent a poet's life you cannot know. And the number-one rule: work out what the poem is about, and its tone, before you hunt for techniques. Technique-spotting without understanding gives disconnected, low-level answers. Grasp the meaning first and every technique you analyse has something to connect to.

Order the method

Put the five moves of an unseen-poetry answer into the order you should make them.

• Work out what the poem is about
• Decide on its tone and mood
• Find the methods the poet uses
• Explain the effect each method creates
• For Q2 only, compare that effect with the second poem

Poem A

Read this short poem (written for this module): *They took the pictures down but left the nails,* *small dark commas where the walls still speak.* *Room by room the echoes learn my name.* *I close each door as gently as a page.* *Outside, the van coughs once and goes.* *The house exhales. I am the last to leave.*

What is it about?

Read the whole of Poem A first. What is it mainly about, and what is its tone?

• Someone leaving an emptied home for the last time, in a quiet, sad tone
• A cheerful poem about excitedly moving into a brand-new house
• A poem about how to use commas and full stops
• A funny poem about a broken kettle

Now analyse the methods

With the meaning clear, ask how the poet creates it. Poem A leans on three:

Find the personification

Tap the phrase that personifies the HOUSE itself as a living thing that breathes: not the simile.

• Room by room
• the echoes learn my name
• . I close each door
• as gently as a page
• .
• The house exhales
• .

Name the method

Why "exhales"?

In Poem A, the empty house "exhales" as the speaker leaves. What is the effect of this personification?

• It makes the house feel alive and almost mournful, deepening the sense of an ending
• It tells us the house has a heating system
• It is a simile comparing the house to a person
• It has no real effect

Poem B

Now the second poem, for the comparison (also written for this module): *Boxes stacked like a city we outgrew.* *The dog keeps checking rooms we've stripped to bone.* *We laugh too loud to fill the empty space.* *The key turns once. We do not turn around.*

Find the forced brightness

In Poem B the speakers hide their grief. Tap the phrase where the noise they make is doing that hiding, rather than describing the house or the move.

• Boxes stacked like a city we outgrew
• .
• The dog keeps checking rooms
• we've stripped to bone.
• We laugh too loud to fill the empty space
• . The key turns once.

Build the comparison

For Q2 you compare the poems' METHODS on the given focus, here leaving home. Complete the comparison: Both poems close on a note of _____, but where Poem A is _____, Poem B speaks as a _____ that hides its grief behind _____.

Which is a real comparison?

Which sentence is a genuine COMPARISON of the two poems, not two separate summaries?

• Both poems end on a note of finality, but Poem A is quiet and solitary while Poem B hides its grief behind forced cheerfulness.
• Poem A is about a house. Poem B is also about moving.
• Poem A has six lines.
• Both poems are made of words and sentences.

Plan the comparison

Exam practice. In about 60 words, PLAN a comparison of how the two poems present LEAVING HOME. Include:

• what each poem is about and its tone (read for meaning first)
• one method from EACH poem, with its effect
• how the two poems differ, linked with a connective (whereas / while)

In the exam

Session over. Grade-9 habits for unseen poetry: • Read for meaning and tone FIRST: never technique-spot before you understand the poem. • Then analyse methods for their effect (AO1/AO2 only: no context here). • For the comparison, weave both poems into each point and compare methods and effects, not just what they are about.