This book is a superb all-in-one guide to success GCSE English Language and English Literature - GCSE English 2003

Exam Questions
Section Four — Poetry

You are allowed to use the text to write your essay.

Q1 ’Education for Leisure’ and ’Havisham’ by Carol Ann Duffy are regarded by many people as disturbing poems. Do you find the poems disturbing? Give reasons for your answer, referring to language, tone and structure.

Q2 In ’My Last Duchess’ by Robert Browning, what techniques does the poet use in order to convey a negative impression of the Duke to the reader?

Q3 “Simon Armitage’s poem ’Those bastards in their mansions...’ is a poem about the antagonism between the upper and lower classes.”

What evidence is there in the poem to support this statement, and to what extent do you agree with this suggestion?

Q4 ’Ozymandias’ by Percy Bysshe Shelley is a poem with a very clear moral.

What do you think this moral is, and how is it conveyed by the poet through language, imagery and tone?

(N.B. If you have not studied ’Ozymandias’, then choose any poem from your anthology that you think has a clear moral you could write about for this essay. You can use the answers table for Q4 to work out if your essay’s any good or not.)