Sample exam question – WJECHigher response

Your response will be structured as an essay and you should plan this before you start writing. In your essay, you must write about features of both of the poems as well as make comparisons between them.

You will get higher marks for making perceptive points about the poems, so don’t just say the most obvious things you can find. At A* level, you are expected to be able to give an individual and creative response to the poems.

Planning your answer

You can organise your answer in two different ways. You can either write about the poems individually and then make comparisons between them, or write about the poems and make comparisons throughout your response.

Plan A

1. Brief introduction explaining what the poems are about.
2. Names – themes and ideas in the poem, linked to language, imagery, form and structure.
3. Names – the mood and atmosphere of the poem, linked to language, imagery, form and structure.
4. In Oak Terrace– themes and ideas in the poem, linked to language, imagery, form and structure.
5. In Oak Terrace– the mood and atmosphere of the poem, linked to language, imagery, form and structure.
6. Similarities between the poems (including evidence from both poems).
7. Differences between the poems (including evidence from both poems).
8. A conclusion explaining your response to the poems.

Plan B

1. Brief introduction explaining what the poems are about.
2. Names – themes and ideas of the poem, linked to language, imagery, form and structure with a comparison to the themes and ideas of In Oak Terrace.
3. Names – the mood and atmosphere of the poem, linked to language, imagery, form and structure with a comparison to the mood and atmosphere of In Oak Terrace.
4. In Oak Terrace– more analysis of language and imagery, linked to the way that language and imagery is used in Names.
5. In Oak Terrace– more analysis of form and structure, linked to the way that this is used in Names.
6. A conclusion explaining your response to the poems.

Although Plan B looks shorter, your paragraphs will be much longer because you will be comparing the poems throughout, so both plans should result in essays of the same length.

Writing about individual poems

Sample answer one

There is a contrast between the everyday activities that the character in In Oak Terrace engages in and her dreams of the past and what is happening in the news. The poet uses a list to describe the problems of the woman’s past: suffers again / poverty, sickness, abandonment, / a child’s death, a brother’s brain / melting to madness. This shows how bad the character’s past was because there are a lot of negative things described. All of the language used is negative and suggests that many bad things have happened to her in the past, and now that she is old, she cannot escape from these experiences because there is nothing good happening in her life.

Feedback:

• While a sensible point has been made and supported by evidence, this is not detailed enough for Higher Tier.
• The quotation that has been used is too long – aim to use quotations of no more than six to eight words at a time.
• There is no analysis of how the effects have been created in the quotation.
• This needs more specific analysis of key details from the quotation, such as particular words.

Sample answer two (improved)

In In Oak Terrace, Connor contrasts the character’s mundane activities with the distressing dreams of her past and the events in the news. There is a description of a brother’s brain / melting to madness. The metaphorical language of melting to madness suggests things breaking down, with the repetition of the soft ‘m’ sound reflecting the perceived ‘softness’ of the mentality it is describing, reflected in the poet’s use of enjambment between the stanzas. The image of things disintegrating reflects the theme of death in the poem, suggesting hopelessness and reminding the reader of the universality of mortality. This could also reflect the idea of society breaking down, which may be suggesting that the isolation of older people such as the character in the poem is symptomatic of broader social problems.

Feedback

• This is a more sophisticated and detailed response.
• A short quotation is used and evaluated in depth.
• Language, imagery and structure are linked together and analysed with a focus on the effect created by the poet and how this is done.
• There is movement between analysis of specific detail from the poem and the poem’s broader message, demonstrating the ability to move between the general and the specific.

Making comparisons between the poems

Sample answer one

Names and In Oak Terrace are both about the difficulties of old age, but In Oak Terrace is more focused on the negatives because the woman is so isolated. No other people appear in the poem, except in the sad dreams that the woman has of her past. This is different to Names because this appears to be from the perspective of a family member who describes the difficulty of the main character’s transition when she is old and In the geriatric ward.

Feedback

• A good point is made about how the poems are linked, and it has the potential to be a perceptive discussion of the comparisons between the poems.
• While a quotation is used for Names, it has not been analysed.
• Quotations from both poems should be included and analysed in more detail, to explore how the poets have used techniques in similar or different ways.

Sample answer two (Improved)

Names and In Oak Terrace are both about the difficulties of old age, but In Oak Terrace creates a bleaker atmosphere due to the emphasis placed on the central character’s isolation. The third person narration in this poem is distant, with the character described anonymously as she throughout the poem, in contrast to the focus on the changing identity of Eliza in Names, where a sense of intimacy is established with the central character through the specific knowledge of her past. This is further emphasised in Names in the use of the personal pronoun we suggesting communication between Eliza’s family and the hospital, and therefore giving a feeling that she is still connected to the outside world and her past through her relationships. In In Oak Terrace, however, the only sense of humanity in the character’s present comes across in the personification of the kettle sings, increasing the sense of the woman’s isolation through the implication that she can only seek connections in the inanimate objects of her home. While there is a link between the past and present which is established through the narration in Names, hopelessness is suggested in In Oak Terrace through the complete absence of human connections and contact that the central character has.

Feedback

• This is much more detailed, demonstrating understanding of specific ways in which the poems are different.
• Details from both poems are analysed and form the basis of the comparisons.
• The discussion of the comparisons is more sophisticated and in-depth, showing perceptive understanding of both of the poems.