Cambridge International AS Level Literature in English
Unit 6: Timed poetry essays, critical and passage type If you are taking the AS Level course, you normally have a choice between two kinds of questions: the critical essay on your set text and the passage question, or close critical commentary, on a poem taken from it. In this unit, you will be given some guidelines on both alternatives, so that you feel confident about answering either type under timed conditions. You may be studying a particular poet, whose work has characteristic features that you have discussed as part of your preparation. You may be using an anthology, a collection of poems, some of which have ideas, or themes, in common. In either case, you have the advantage that you will have studied the poems beforehand – it is not an unseen poetry paper – and so you will be writing from a position of strength. If you are in the first year of any advanced course such as A Level or the Pre-U, you will often have exercises of this kind to give you practice in poetry criticism, so the examples here are just as helpful for you.
Studying an anthology 40
An anthology is a collection of poems that will not be by the same writer or even necessarily on the same topic. However, there will be some links between them and it is these that the question setter will exploit.
Studying an individual poet
The work of an individual poet will vary, but there will be some concerns that the writer constantly returns to, and you will be able to find these once you know the whole work well. Additionally there will be characteristic features of style that you come to identify as typical of your particular poet.
Study techniques Whether you are studying an anthology or a collection by one poet, the techniques described below will be helpful.
Begin with individual poems
It is best to read, discuss and analyse individual poems first so that you appreciate each one before you embark on attempting to find links between them. Once you have studied and enjoyed a range of poems, you will begin to see that they have thematic or stylistic links. For example, your anthology may contain a number of poems about an aspect of nature or which use the natural environment as a background; there may be poems about childhood, love, death, time or age; or even something as apparently mundane as an insect. Your poet may typically use regular verse forms and rhyme, or syllabic forms or free verse.
Create headings
List the poems that could be used if there is a question on a particular topic. In the anthology Songs of Ourselves (section A) for example, you could begin your list with some obvious topics as follows, going on later to more complex ones: