a level english literature poetry essay example edexcel

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Essay Structure – Edexcel A Level English Literature

14th June 2017

by Aimee Wright

The first thing you need to consider when writing an English essay is the structure, and how you can make sure it is one that you can remember and will give you a good grade.

• Generic Introduction :You will need to know the book , the author , the publication date and the literary period / monarchy era – g. Frankenstein , Mary Shelley, 1818, Romantic period. Then, you will need to state the genre of the book(s) – e.g. Frankenstein is a gothic novel. Lastly, you will need to briefly summarise the theme / character that the question asks of you. Below are some example generic introductions :
• (For the Prose exam): Frankenstein by Mary Shelley was published in 1818, during the Romantic Period, and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood was published in 1985, and is a postmodern text. Both of these texts are science fiction novels, but Frankenstein is a gothic novel, written in the first wave of gothic literature, while The Handmaid’s Tale is a dystopian novel. *The role of gender in the misuse of science* is seen in both texts in the way that the writers have used linguistic techniques and contextual factors, and this is what will be explored in this analysis.
• (For Othello ): Othello by William Shakespeare was published in 1604 during the Elizabethan era. The play is considered a tragedy, but many critics have picked up on the use of satire that Shakespeare has used, however it is not used so much that it could be seen as a comedy. In this analysis, it will be explored how Shakespeare has used his linguistic abilities and contextual factors to present the *theme of betrayal*, and subsequently how critics have viewed this.
• (For A Streetcar Named Desire ): A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams was published in 1947, making it a modernist play. The play is a tragedy which aligns with the context of events such as World War Two, and the Great Depression, as these are very tragic. In this analysis, the *character of Blanche* will be explored, and it will be considered whether Williams uses linguistic, structural and contextual techniques to impact Blanche’s character.
• (For Post 2000 Poetry): Please Hold by Ciaran O’Driscoll is a poem that presents the themes of frustration, manipulation and irritation that the modern day society brings. As a postmodern poem, the twenty-first century challenges that the narrator undertakes align with each other. On first reading Somewhat Unravelled by Jo Shapcott, the reader can perceive that the narrator also represents strong emotions to represent how the narrator is feeling. By comparing these two poems, the analysis will explore how *strong emotions* are used in order to relay a story, such as through linguistic and structural crafting.
• (For Keats ): The Eve of St Agnes by John Keats was written in 1819, just two years before Keats’ death, in the Romantic period. The *theme of physical sensations* in this poem are represented through linguistic and structural methods, as well as contextual factors of the time. Physical sensations are not just seen in The Eve of St Agnes , however – Keats has also used this theme in La Belle Dame sans Merci , which was written in 1819 like The Eve of St Agnes . In this analysis, it will be seen whether La Belle Dame sans Merci shares a similar approach to physical sensations, and whether the time period had impact on this.

It is important to mention what you are going to be discussing in the essay. But, you do not need to use specific details in your introduction, otherwise the rest of your essay will seem sort of shallow. So, use phrases such as ‘In this analysis, the linguistic and structural crafting will be explored’, for instance.

If the question is particularly linked to a specific one contextual factor – maybe it is about monarchy or social hierarchy, or war? – you should give a brief overview of that contextual factor. E.g. “The social hierarchy in Shakespearean times was based on the chain of being , which will be discussed in this analysis.”

• In comparison essays – so the Prose and Poetry exams – it is important to highlight which text is your primary text . In the Prose exam, your primary text is Frankenstein , because it “comes first” in literary history. In Post 2000 poetry, the primary text is the poem from the anthology , accompanied by the unseen poem . In Keats, the primary text is the poem it gives you , and you “support” your points with another poem. But, it is important not to compare . So, when exploring your point further, you could say “To support this point, this is also seen in *insert other poem name* by using the same techniques.”
• In non-comparison essays – the Drama exam – you will need to write the same number of points that you would use for a comparison essay (the average is 2-3), but you may need more substance and expansive analysis. For example, if you wrote two paragraphs for one point in the Prose exam (which includes two texts ) you would still need to write two paragraphs for one point , even though you only have one text .
• So the structure of your essays need to be clear , concise and understandable . Especially for comparison essays, you will need to split up your points into more than one paragraph so that the examiner can understand your analysis more clearly.Having said this, in the Prose exam, it is important to note that you must state the points for both texts in the initial paragraph. This is so that the examiner can see where your point is going from the beginning.In the comparison essays in the Poetry exam, the first paragraph of the point should be about the primary text , which will then lead you to explore the secondary text . So, the advice for this would be: do not plan points for both poems – if you want to plan, just think of points for the primary text , and then think about how that same technique or concept is seen in your secondary text .
• Quoting / quotations: It is important to follow the succeeding points when considering the quotations that you use –
• Think about the context that you are talking about, and how you are putting the quotation in a sentence. Generally, it is better to put a quotation in a sentence like: “This is seen in the declarative sentence , ‘We are two-legged wombs.’ (p.146).” (this is a quote from The Handmaid’s Tale ). But if you are going to use the quotation like this: “The narrator said that ‘We are two legged-wombs’ to present the idea that the Handmaids are irrelevant.” you will need to think about the structure of the sentence. Instead of using the pronoun ‘We’ in the quotation, put ‘they’ in square brackets to show that you have modified the quotation . So, the sentence would look like this: “The narrator said that ‘[they] are two-legged wombs’ to present the idea that the Handmaids are irrelevant.”
• Think about the length of the quotation that you are using. If there is a long quotation – perhaps one that includes a stream of consciousness or syndetic listing , or just lengthy description – you may want to use snippets of the quotation to ensure that the examiner does not get bored. So instead of saying: “Walton (who is speaking) is seen to be a man who has power. Shelley presents this by saying, ‘One man’s life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought, for the dominion I should acquire and transmit over the elemental foes of our race.’” (This is a quotation from Frankenstein ). you could use specific words or phrases to portray the same point. For instance, if your point was: “Walton (who is speaking) is seen to be a man who has power. Shelley presents this is seen in his fourth letter with a semantic field of power and knowledge, with words such as ‘acquirement’; ‘knowledge’; ‘dominion’’ and ‘transmit’.”
• Terminology : I know that terminology is difficult to use, especially if you can’t think of the name for a technique. But, you are marked on your terminology use as it “proves” that you know what you’re talking about.
• Where to use terminology: when structuring your point, you should use terminology either before you mention the quotation – this is if you are making a point that the technique has a direct impact on the theme or character – or after you mention the quotation – this is just to show that you know what technique the author has used.Before the quotation: If you are making the point that the author uses declarative sentences to depict the theme or character, you could say: “Atwood uses declarative sentences to represent how straightforward prejudice is as a theme in society: ‘We are two-legged wombs.’ (p.146).” The idea that prejudice is ‘straightforward’ is your point .After the quotation: So, after the point made above, you could expand by saying: “Atwood uses this declarative sentence to represent that the Handmaids are discriminated against in a simple way, otherwise she may have used another sentence mood, such as exclamatory sentences . In addition, the metaphor of Handmaids being ‘two-legged wombs’ shows Atwood’s linguistic crafting to portray that Handmaids are only seen as women who give birth to children, and nothing else.” The use of further terminology in your essay – in this case ‘exclamatory sentences’ and ‘metaphor’ – will show more knowledge.
• Word Specific Analysis: Instead of using terminology for the analysis of a whole quotation , you can use Word Specific Analysis to really unpick the underlying ideas. For instance: “Atwood uses the pronoun ‘We’ to represent that the Handmaids are a collective. This shows that if one Handmaid is victimised or targeted, the whole group of Handmaids are discriminated against. In addition, the use of the noun ‘wombs’ indicates the part of the body that the Handmaids are seen as: they are just seen as being able to conceive a child, and nothing more.”

For instance: “ Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou art by John Keats uses the Petrarchan sonnet  form. Petrarch was famous for using themes such as unrequited love, and the sonnet will always use a Volta . The Volta is the beginning of the ninth line of the sonnet and, in Keats’ poetry, is often representative of his own personal change in mood or thought, so the Volta ‘No’ in Bright star! could be Keats changing his mind, or disagreeing, with his previous comments.”

In the Drama exam, it is important to know the names of speech and structure:

For instance: “ Othello by William Shakespeare uses a variety of structures to symbolise the theme of betrayal. For instance, Iago often speaks in prose when his plan is beginning to unravel. Prose, in comparison to the poetic speech that characters usually speaks in, is used to represent the unstoppable thoughts and ideas that a character may have.”

• Context: It is explicitly important to use contextual information to back up your ideas.
• The Prose Exam:The most important piece of context for this exam is about the science of the time and how it is used in your texts. This is because the section of the exam is ‘Science and Society’. This also means you have to have a substantial knowledge of the society at the time of the novels as well.
• Other exams:It is just as important to use author-personal context as well as societal This includes the author’s family, associates, events that happened to them etc.You should use a balance of societal and personal context to show your varied knowledge. In fact, you can often use a piece of context as your point e.g. “Keats wrote in the second generation of the Romantic poets, so he had influence from the work of Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, for instance. The Romantics have many different conventions, but to represent the theme of physical sensations in The Eve of St Agnes , Keats has employed the Romantic connection to nature.”
• Critics and Different Interpretations:The Drama exam is the only exam that you get marked on for critical analysis and using different interpretations, but it does not hurt to use them in each exam.

“In Othello , Shakespeare represents Desdemona as being associated with everyone, or having an impact on each character for a different reason.”

This can be supported by Anna Jameson , a critic of the play. You do not need to remember every detail of her critical evaluation, but you need to remember the general idea or snippets of quotes:

“To support this point, Anna Jameson said that Desdemona is the ‘source of the pathos’ of the play. This links to the idea that she is associated with everyone because she emits the ‘pathos’ and diffuses it to each character, and this is what creates the tragedy in the play.” What is important to mention , however, is that you should back up the critical reading with a quotation from the play, rather than just your “point”:

“This is seen just before Desdemona’s death when she says ‘I never did / Offend you in my life; never loved Cassio’, then Othello says ‘Honest Iago hath tane order for’t.’ This represents Desdemona’s impact on multiple characters through the possessive pronoun ‘you’ and the mention of ‘Cassio’ and ‘Iago’, and the bitter tone of these declarative sentences portrays pathos, therefore showing where Jameson got her idea from.”

To make another point, you could challenge the critic. Another point could be:

“Desdemona is seen as ‘fair’, and innocent, and Shakespeare represents this by repeatedly having Othello call her the epithet ‘gentle Desdemona’.”

Therefore, you could use Jameson’s idea to challenge this point:

“To challenge this point, Anna Jameson said that Desdemona is the ‘source pathos of the play’. If Desdemona is the ‘source pathos’, it can be analysed that she is not truly ‘gentle’, but is actually sorrowful.”

You could disagree with the critic as well, but do not use first person . Say it as though you are disagreeing on behalf of the audience:

I hope that this is all helpful for the exam, the exams start tomorrow so good luck!

Bibliography

Atwood, M. (1985). The Handmaid’s Tale. London: Vintage Random House.

Keats, J. (2007). Selected Poems. London: Penguin Classics.

Poems of the Decade: An Anthology of the Forward Books of Poetry. (2011). London: Forward Ltd.

Shakespeare, W. (1622). Othello. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Shelley, M. (1818). Frankenstein (3 ed.). London: Penguin Group.

Williams, T. (1947). A Streetcar Named Desire. London: Penguin Group.

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Poetry Anthologies from Educational Syllabuses

Edexcel a level (9et0) english literature.

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For those who are studying English Literature at A level on the Pearson Edexcel board of examiners, here is a list of the required poems analyzed. This includes all the selected poems, mentioned in the Edexcel specification for the syllabus .

Please feel free to skip to the poem most relevant to you. If you want a poem to be analyzed that you cannot find on the site too, please feel free to contact us .

Post-2000 Specified Poetry

• Eat Me by Patience Agbabi [ PDF Guide ]
• Chainsaw Versus the Pampas Grass by Simon Armitage [ PDF Guide ]
• Material by Ros Barber [ PDF Guide ]
• History by John Burnside [ PDF Guide ]
• An Easy Passage by Julia Copus [ PDF Guide ]
• The Deliverer by Tishani Doshi [ PDF Guide ]
• The Lammas Hireling by Ian Duhig [ PDF Guide ]
• To My Nine-Year-Old Self by Helen Dunmore [ PDF Guide ]
• A Minor Role by U.A. Fanthorpe [ PDF Guide ]
• The Gun by Vicki Feaver [ PDF Guide ]
• The Furthest Distances I’ve Travelled by Leontia Flynn [ PDF Guide ]
• Giuseppe by Roderick Ford [ PDF Guide ]
• Out of the Bag by Seamus Heaney [ PDF Guide ]
• Effects by Alan Jenkins [ PDF Guide ]
• Genetics by Sinéad Morrissey [ PDF Guide ]
• From the Journal of a Disappointed Man by Andrew Motion [ PDF Guide ]
• Look We Have Coming to Dover! by Daljit Nagra [ PDF Guide ]
• Please Hold by Ciaran O’Driscoll [ PDF Guide ]
• On Her Blindness by Adam Thorpe [ PDF Guide ]
• Ode on a Grayson Perry Urn by Tim Turnbull [ PDF Guide ]

Pre-1900 – The Medieval Period

• Noah’s Flood (Chester) Anon 33 by Amal Dunqul [ PDF Guide ]
• The Second Shepherds’ Pageant (Wakefield)
• The Crucifixion (York)
• Noah (Chester) Anon
• The Second Shepherds’ Play
• The Crucifixion
• The Wife of Bath’s Prologue by Geoffrey Chaucer
• The Wife of Bath’s Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer

Note for a prescribed list of poems for medieval poetry:

• Noah’s Flood/Noah is counted as the equivalent of seven poems
• The Second Shepherds’ Pageant/Play is counted as the equivalent of seventeen poems
• The Crucifixion is counted as the equivalent of six poems.
• The Wife of Bath’s Prologue is counted as the equivalent of twenty poems
• The Wife of Bath’s Tale is counted as the equivalent of ten poems

Pre-1900 – Metaphysical Poetry

John donne [ pdf guide ].

• The Flea [ PDF Guide ]
• The Good Morrow [ PDF Guide ]
• Song (‘Go and catch a falling star’) [ PDF Guide ]
• Woman’s Constancy [ PDF Guide ]
• The Sun Rising [ PDF Guide ]
• A Valediction of Weeping [ PDF Guide ]
• A Nocturnal Upon St Lucy’s Day [ PDF Guide ]
• The Apparition [ PDF Guide ]
• Elegy: To his Mistress Going to Bed [ PDF Guide ]
• At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners [ PDF Guide ]
• Batter My Heart [ PDF Guide ]
• A Hymn to God the Father [ PDF Guide ]
• The Canonization [ PDF Guide ]
• Song (‘Sweetest love I do not go’) [ PDF Guide ]
• Air and Angels [ PDF Guide ]
• The Anniversary [ PDF Guide ]
• Twickenham Garden [ PDF Guide ]
• Love’s Growth [ PDF Guide ]
• Love’s Alchemy [ PDF Guide ]
• A Valediction Forbidding Mourning [ PDF Guide ]
• The Ecstasy [ PDF Guide ]
• The Funeral [ PDF Guide ]
• The Relic [ PDF Guide ]
• Holy Sonnet I (‘Thou hast made me’) [ PDF Guide ]
• Holy Sonnet V (‘I am a little world’) [ PDF Guide ]
• Holy Sonnet VI (‘This is my play’s last scene’) [ PDF Guide ]
• Holy Sonnet VII (‘At the round earth’s imagined corners’) [ PDF Guide ]
• Holy Sonnet X (‘Death be not proud’) [ PDF Guide ]
• Holy Sonnet XI (‘Spit in my face, you Jews’) [ PDF Guide ]
• Holy Sonnet XIV (‘Batter my heart’) [ PDF Guide ]
• Goodfriday, 1613. Riding Westward [ PDF Guide ]
• Hymn to God my God, in My Sickness [ PDF Guide ]

George Herbert

• Redemption [ PDF Guide ]
• The Collar [ PDF Guide ]
• The Pulley [ PDF Guide ]
• Love III [ PDF Guide ]

Thomas Carew

• To My Mistress Sitting by a River’s Side: An Eddy [ PDF Guide ]
• To a Lady that Desired I Would Love Her [ PDF Guide ]
• A Song (‘Ask me no more where Jove bestows’) [ PDF Guide ]

Anne Bradstreet

• A Letter to her Husband, Absent upon Public Engagement [ PDF Guide ]

Richard Lovelace

• Song: To Lucasta, Going to the Wars [ PDF Guide ]

Andrew Marvell

• The Nymph Complaining for the Death of her Fawn [ PDF Guide ]
• To His Coy Mistress [ PDF Guide ]
• The Definition of Love [ PDF Guide ]

Henry Vaughan

• Unprofitableness [ PDF Guide ]
• The World [ PDF Guide ]

Katherine Philips

• To My Excellent Lucasia, on Our Friendship [ PDF Guide ]
• A Dialogue of Friendship Multiplied [ PDF Guide ]
• Orinda to Lucasia [ PDF Guide ]

Pre-1900 – The Romantic Period

William blake [ pdf guide ].

• Holy Thursday [ PDF Guide ]
• The Sick Rose [ PDF Guide ]
• The Tyger [ PDF Guide ]
• London [ PDF Guide ]

William Wordsworth [ PDF Guide ]

• Lines Written in Early Spring [ PDF Guide ]
• Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey [ PDF Guide ]
• Ode: Intimations of Immortality [ PDF Guide ]

Lord Byron [ PDF Guide ]

• Lines Inscribed upon a Cup Formed from a Skull [ PDF Guide ]
• So We’ll Go no more A Roving [ PDF Guide ]
• On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year [ PDF Guide ]

Percy Bysshe Shelley [ PDF Guide ]

• The cold earth slept below [ PDF Guide ]
• Stanzas Written in Dejection, near Naples [ PDF Guide ]
• Ode to the West Wind [ PDF Guide ]
• The Question [ PDF Guide ]

John Keats [ PDF Guide ]

• Sonnet: On the Sea [ PDF Guide ]
• O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell [ PDF Guide ]
• On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer [ PDF Guide ]
• In drear-nighted December [ PDF Guide ]
• On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again [ PDF Guide ]
• When I have fears that I may cease to be [ PDF Guide ]
• To Sleep [ PDF Guide ]
• Ode to Psyche [ PDF Guide ]
• Ode on a Grecian Urn [ PDF Guide ]
• Ode to a Nightingale [ PDF Guide ]
• Ode on Melancholy [ PDF Guide ]
• Bright Star! would I were steadfast as thou art [ PDF Guide ]
• To Autumn [ PDF Guide ]
• The Eve of St Agnes [ PDF Guide ]

Pre-1900 – The Victorian Period

Alfred tennyson [ pdf guide ].

• From In Memoriam: VII ‘Dark house, by which once more I stand’ [ PDF Guide ]
• From In Memoriam: XCV ‘By night we linger’d on the lawn’ [ PDF Guide ]
• From Maud: I.xi ‘O let the solid ground’ [ PDF Guide ]
• From Maud: I.xviii ‘I have led her home, my love, my only friend’ [ PDF Guide ]
• From Maud: I.xxii ‘Come into the garden, Maud’
• From Maud: II.iv ‘O that ’twere possible’ [ PDF Guide ]

Emily Brontë [ PDF Guide ]

• The Visionary [ PDF Guide ]

Elizabeth Barrett Browning [ PDF Guide ]

• Grief [ PDF Guide ]
• From Sonnets from the Portuguese XXIV ‘Let the world’s sharpness, like a closing knife’ [ PDF Guide ]
• The Best Thing in the World [ PDF Guide ]

Robert Browning [ PDF Guide ]

• ‘Died…’ [ PDF Guide ]
• My Last Duchess [ PDF Guide ]
• Home-Thoughts, from Abroad [ PDF Guide ]
• Meeting at Night [ PDF Guide ]
• Love in a Life [ PDF Guide ]

Charlotte Brontë

• The Autumn day its course has run–the Autumn evening falls’ [ PDF Guide ]
• The house was still–the room was still [ PDF Guide ]
• ‘I now had only to retrace’ [ PDF Guide ]
• ‘The Nurse believed the sick man slept’ [ PDF Guide ]
• Stanzas – [‘Often rebuked, yet always back returning’] (perhaps by Emily Brontë) [ PDF Guide ]

Christina Rossetti [ PDF Guide ]

• Remember [ PDF Guide ]
• Echo [ PDF Guide ]
• May [ PDF Guide ]
• A Birthday [ PDF Guide ]
• Somewhere or Other (still analyzing)
• Some ladies dress in muslin full and white [ PDF Guide ]
• An Apple-Gathering [ PDF Guide ]
• Maude Clare [ PDF Guide ]
• At Home [ PDF Guide ]
• Up-Hill [ PDF Guide ]
• Goblin Market [ PDF Guide ]
• What Would I Give? [ PDF Guide ]
• Twice [ PDF Guide ]
• Memory [ PDF Guide ]
• A Christmas Carol (still analyzing)
• Passing and Glassing [ PDF Guide ]
• Piteous my rhyme is [ PDF Guide ]
• A Helpmeet for Him [ PDF Guide ]
• As froth on the face of the deep [ PDF Guide ]
• Our Mothers, lovely women pitiful [ PDF Guide ]
• Babylon the Great [ PDF Guide ]

Thomas Hardy [ PDF Guide ]

• At an Inn [ PDF Guide ]
• I Look into My Glass [ PDF Guide ]
• Drummer Hodge [ PDF Guide ]
• A Wife in London [ PDF Guide ]
• The Darkling Thrush [ PDF Guide ]

Post-1900 – The Modernist Period

Robert frost [ pdf guide ].

• The Runaway [ PDF Guide ]
• Mending Wall [ PDF Guide ]
• Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening [ PDF Guide ]
• Mowing [ PDF Guide ]
• The Road Not Taken [ PDF Guide ]
• Out, Out [ PDF Guide ]

William Carlos Williams

• The Red Wheelbarrow [ PDF Guide ]
• This is just to say [ PDF Guide ]
• Landscape with the Fall of Icarus [ PDF Guide ]
• The Hunters in the Snow [ PDF Guide ]
• The Great Figure [ PDF Guide ]

D.H. Lawrence

• Snake [ PDF Guide ]

Marianne Moore

• To a Snail [ PDF Guide ]
• What Are Years? [ PDF Guide ]

Edna St. Vincent Millay

• Time does not bring relief; you all have lied… [ PDF Guide ]
• Recuerdo [ PDF Guide ]
• Wild Swans [ PDF Guide ]
• The Fawn [ PDF Guide ]

E.E. Cummings

• in Just [ PDF Guide ]
• what if a much of a which of a wind [ PDF Guide ]
• pity this busy monster, manunkind [ PDF Guide ]

W.H. Auden [ PDF Guide ]

• Funeral Blues (Stop all the Clocks) [ PDF Guide ]
• Lullaby [ PDF Guide ]
• Musée des Beaux Arts [ PDF Guide ]
• The Shield of Achilles [ PDF Guide ]

T.S. Eliot [ PDF Guide ]

• La Figlia Che Piange [ PDF Guide ]
• The Love Song of by J. Alfred Prufrock [ PDF Guide ]
• Portrait of a Lady [ PDF Guide ]
• Preludes [ PDF Guide ]
• Rhapsody on a Windy Night [ PDF Guide ]
• Gerontion [ PDF Guide ]
• Sweeney Erect [ PDF Guide ]
• Whispers of Immortality [ PDF Guide ]
• I. The Burial of the Dead
• II. A Game of Chess
• III. The Fire Sermon
• IV. Death by Water
• V. What the Thunder said
• The Hollow Men [ PDF Guide ]
• Ash-Wednesday [ PDF Guide ]
• Ariel Poems: Journey of the Magi (1927) [ PDF Guide ]

Post-1900 – The Movement

Thomas blackburn.

• Hospital for Defectives [ PDF Guide ]
• Felo De Se [ PDF Guide ]
• Horror Comic Robert Conquest (still analyzing)
• Man and Woman (still analyzing)
• Apology for Understatement [ PDF Guide ]
• Au Jardin des Plantes [ PDF Guide ]
• A Song about Major Eatherly (still analyzing)
• Brooklyn Heights [ PDF Guide ]

Elizabeth Jennings

• Delay [ PDF Guide ]
• Song at the Beginning of Autumn [ PDF Guide ]
• Answers [ PDF Guide ]
• The Young Ones [ PDF Guide ]
• One Flesh [ PDF Guide ]

Molly Holden

• Photograph of Haymaker, 1890 [ PDF Guide ]
• [ PDF Guide ]
• Giant Decorative Dahlias [ PDF Guide ]

Peter Porter

• Metamorphosis (still analyzing)
• London is full of chickens on electric spit (still analyzing)
• Your Attention Please [ PDF Guide ]

Jenny Joseph

• Warning [ PDF Guide ]

George Macbeth

• The Miner’s Helmet [ PDF Guide ]
• The Wasps’ Nest (still analyzing)
• When I am Dead (still analyzing)

Rosemary Tonks

• Story of a Hotel Room [ PDF Guide ]
• Farewell to Kurdistan [ PDF Guide ]

Philip Larkin [ PDF Guide ]

• Toads [ PDF Guide ]
• Coming [ PDF Guide ]
• At Grass [ PDF Guide ]
• Take One Home for the Kiddies [ PDF Guide ]
• Nothing to be Said [ PDF Guide ]
• The Whitsun Weddings [ PDF Guide ]
• Lines On A Young Lady’s Photograph Album [ PDF Guide ]
• Wedding-Wind [ PDF Guide ]
• Places, Loved Ones [ PDF Guide ]
• Reasons for Attendance [ PDF Guide ]
• Dry-Point [ PDF Guide ]
• Next, Please [ PDF Guide ]
• Going [ PDF Guide ]
• Wants [ PDF Guide ]
• Maiden Name [ PDF Guide ]
• Born Yesterday [ PDF Guide ]
• Whatever Happened? [ PDF Guide ]
• No Road [ PDF Guide ]
• Wires [ PDF Guide ]
• Church Going [ PDF Guide ]
• Age [ PDF Guide ]
• Myxomatosis [ PDF Guide ]
• Poetry Of Departures [ PDF Guide ]
• Triple Time [ PDF Guide ]
• Spring [ PDF Guide ]
• Deceptions [ PDF Guide ]
• I Remember, I Remember [ PDF Guide ]
• Absences [ PDF Guide ]
• Latest Face (still analyzing)
• If, My Darling [ PDF Guide ]
• Skin [ PDF Guide ]
• Arrivals, Departures [ PDF Guide ]

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Home » Poetry Anthologies from Educational Syllabuses » Edexcel A Level (9ET0) English Literature

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Edexcel A Level English Literature

Tools to help you ace your exams, including: past papers, revision notes, and exam-style questions (organised by topic)

Past Papers

• Past papers
• Mark schemes

Edexcel A-Level English Literature Past Papers

This section includes recent A-Level English Literature past papers from Pearson Edexcel. You can download each of the Pearson Edexcel A-Level English Literature past papers and marking schemes by clicking the links below.

June 2022 Pearson Edexcel A-Level English Literature Past Papers (Specification 8ET0 and 9ET0)

A-Level Paper 1: Drama ( 9ET0/01 ) Download Past Paper     -    Download Mark Scheme

A-Level Paper 2: Prose ( 9ET0/02 )  Download Past Paper     -    Download Mark Scheme

A-Level Paper 3: Poetry ( 9ET0/03 )  Download Past Paper     -    Download Mark Scheme

November 2021 Pearson Edexcel A-Level English Literature Past Papers (Specification 8ET0 and 9ET0)

November 2020 Pearson Edexcel A-Level English Literature Past Papers (Specification 8ET0 and 9ET0)

A-Level Paper 1: Drama ( 9ET0/01 ) Download Past Paper    -   Download Mark Scheme

A-Level Paper 2: Prose ( 9ET0/02 )  Download Past Paper    -   Download Mark Scheme

A-Level Paper 3: Poetry ( 9ET0/03 )  Download Past Paper    -   Download Mark Scheme  

AS-Level Paper 1: Poetry and Drama ( 8ET0/01 ) Download Past Paper    -   Download Mark Scheme

AS-Level Paper 2: Prose ( 8ET0/02 )  Download Past Paper    -   Download Mark Scheme

The above papers are labelled June 2020  

June 2019 Pearson Edexcel A-Level English Literature Past Papers (Specification 8ET0 and 9ET0)

June 2018 Pearson Edexcel A-Level English Literature Past Papers (Specification 8ET0 and 9ET0)

June 2017 Edexcel A-Level English Literature Past Papers (Specification 8ET0 and 9ET0)

A-Level Paper 1: Drama ( 9ET0/01 ) Download Past Paper  -  Download Mark Scheme

A-Level Paper 2: Prose ( 9ET0/02 )  Download Past Paper  -  Download Mark Scheme

A-Level Paper 3: Poetry ( 9ET0/03 )  Download Past Paper  -  Download Mark Scheme  

AS-Level Paper 1: Poetry and Drama ( 8ET0/01 ) Download Past Paper  -  Download Mark Scheme

AS-Level Paper 2: Prose ( 8ET0/02 )  Download Past Paper  -  Download Mark Scheme

June 2016 Edexcel A-Level English Literature Past Papers (Specification 8ET0 and 9ET0)

AS-Level Paper 1: Poetry and Drama (8ET0/01) Download Past Paper  -  Download Mark Scheme

AS-Level Paper 2: Prose (8ET0/02)  Download Past Paper  -  Download Mark Scheme  

June 2016 Edexcel A-Level English Literature Past Papers (Specification 6ET01)

Unit 1: Explorations in Prose and Poetry (6ET01) -  Download Past Paper  -  Download Mark Scheme

Unit 3: Interpretations of Prose and Poetry (6ET03)  -  Download Past Paper  -  Download Mark Scheme

Edexcel A-Level English Literature June 2015

Edexcel A-Level English Literature June 2014

A-Level Edexcel English Language and Literature past papers (8EL0 and 9EL0) can be found on the English Language section

For more A-Level English Literature past papers from other exam boards  click here .

English Literature revision notes, resources and analysis.

Poems of the Decade Example Questions

• Poems of the Decade Teaching Resources
• Love Poetry Through The Ages Revision
• Edexcel Relationships Poetry – GCSE Revision
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Interpreture has developed a reputation for high quality English Literature revision content, and now we are building on this with new Poems of the Decade Example Questions by Interpreture, so that you can develop your skills ready for the Poems of the Decade exam. If you have any questions or suggestions for content in addition to what is listed, be sure to leave a comment or contact us .

There are three categories of questions on this page, split into multiple difficulty ratings.

• Essay questions on individual poems (For AS and A Level)
• Comparison questions for studied poems (For AS and A Level)
• Comparison questions with studied and unseen poems (For A Level)

Additional Revision Resources

Please note –  a copy of the Poems of the Decade Anthology  will be required in order to complete some of the Poems of the Decade example questions, as we are unable to publish poems in full on Interpreture due to copyright restrictions. However, we have an extensive and growing range of example questions which use other non-prescribed poems from this anthology, making it an effective way to practice post-2000 poetry analysis, particularly for unseen poems.

If you need help with any of the prescribed poems, analysis and commentary is available by clicking here . They analyse key points about the poems, and help develop your skills with questions and thoughts. You can also see our range of teaching resources for this topic by clicking here .

Questions on Individual Poems

Use these questions to practice your essential essay writing skills, and consolidate your understanding of individual prescribed poems.

Difficulty Rating: Normal

• How are transgressions portrayed in ‘Eat Me’ by Patience Agbabi, and how do they impact a reader?
• How are personal experiences explored in ‘The Furthest Distances I’ve Travelled’ by Leonita Flynn?

Difficulty Rating: Hard

• Explore the ways in which femininity and masculinity are contrasted in ‘The Chainsaw Versus The Pampas Grass’ by Simon Armitage.
• Explore the emotion of fear in ‘A Minor Role’ by UA Fanthorpe.

Comparison Questions for Studied Poems

Use these questions to practice integrating comparison into essays, and strengthen your understanding of the prescribed poems, or as AS Level practice questions.

• Re read ‘To My Nine-Year-Old Self’ by Helen Dunmore and ‘From the Journal of a Disappointed Man’ by Andrew Motion. Compare the ways in which both poets portray personal experiences.
• Compare the way death is presented in ‘On Her Blindness’ by Adam Thorpe and ‘Effects’ by Alan Jenkins.

Difficulty Rating: Hard

• Compare the ways in which personal development and experience are presented in ‘The Furthest Distances I’ve Travelled’ by Leonita Flynn and ‘An Easy Passage’ by Julia Copus

Difficulty Rating: Challenging

• Explore and compare the ways in which readers are made complicit in the events of ‘The Gun’ by Vicki Feaver and ‘The Deliverer’ by Tishani Doshi.
• Compare the ways in which personal struggles are explored in ‘The Lammas Hireling’ by Ian Duhig and ‘Look We Have Coming to Dover!’ by Daljit Nagra.

Comparison Questions for Studied and Unseen Poetry

Use these questions to practice your essential analysis and comparison skills, either as a challenge for AS practice, or for the A Level exam.

• Read ‘Cooking with Blood’ ( page 67 ) by Linda France and re-read ‘Eat Me’ by Patience Agbabi. Compare the ways in which both poets explore human desire.
• Read ‘The Uncles’ ( page 72 ) by John Goodby and re-read ‘From the Journal of a Disappointed Man’ by Andrew Motion. Compare the exploration of masculinity.
• Read ‘The Far Side of the Island’ ( page 56 ) by Paul Durcan and re-read ‘The Furthest Distances I’ve Travelled’ by Leonita Flynn. Compare the ways in which both poets portray new experiences.
• Read ‘Song’ ( page 168 )* by George Szirtes and re-read ‘A Minor Role’ by UA Fanthorpe. Compare how ideas relating to hope are presented.
• Read ‘A Leisure Centre is also a Temple of Learning’ ( page 23 ) *  by Sue Boyle and re-read ‘Out of the Bag’ by Seamus Heaney. Compare the ways generational change is explored.
• Read ‘The Fox In the National Museum of Wales’ ( page 121 ) * by Robert Minhinnick and re-read ‘Ode on a Grayson Perry Urn’ by Tim Turnbull. Compare the ways both poets explore time and transition.
• Read ‘Along the Coast’ ( page 124 ) by Deborah Moffatt and re-read ‘Eat Me’ by Patience Agbabi.   Compare how both poets explore the concept of consumption.

* These poems were previously prescribed by Edexcel, and as such we have commentary and analysis available . 

These Poems of the Decade example questions have been created as an aid for your revision by Interpreture, and are not created or endorsed by Edexcel. You should always speak to your teacher for specific information regarding what you are studying and what resources are best for you.

13 Comments

Thank you! I haven’t been able to find sample Unseen comparison questions anywhere.

No problem, glad you’re finding them helpful!

Some more challenging ones for A Level that don’t include poems that were previously prescribed for AS then removed for A Level would be really helpful (so both poems are completely unseen). Thank you so much for these, they’re so useful!

We’re glad that you’re finding them helpful! More questions will be released in the next week or so.

Hi there – do you think you could release a few more comparative unseen questions with other poems from the anthology? This is a very helpful resource but could do with a few more!

Glad you’re finding the questions helpful. We’re planning on releasing new questions in January and then more in the run up to the 2019 exams.

This is so useful. Will anymore be coming out this month?

We’re aiming to have some more out before this year’s exams. Are there any categories or difficulty ratings you are looking for in particular?

Is it possible to have commentary and analysis on other poems in the other anthology i.e. Along the coast?

We’ll look to provide additional resources for our example questions in the future, but at the moment we’re prioritising content for prescribed poems in different exam boards.

Hi, I am doing edexcel A level , for the poetry paper, is there only one question comparing an unseen with a poem from Poems of The Decade ?

Or is there another poetry question comparing two poems from Poems of The Decade ?

For the A Level paper you will answer a question comparing one poem from the studied set from Poems of the Decade, and one will be unseen and could be any other modern poem.

Comparing two Poems of the Decade poems is for AS Level.

Alex you really are helpful, thank you

Comments are closed.

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Edexcel A Level English Lit Modern Poetry Analysis (selected poems)

Subject: English

Age range: 16+

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Last updated

19 June 2021

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This free resource contains detailed and highly original analysis of a substantial number of the poems on the Edexcel A Level English Literature syllabus, assessed as part of the Modern Poetry component (Poems of the Decade; Forward Poetry). The poems contained are:

‘To My Nine-Year-Old Self’

‘An Easy Passage’

‘The Deliverer’

‘The Furthest Distances I’ve Travelled’

‘Ode on a Grayson Perry Urn’

A total of 8206 words spanning 28 pages.

Looking for more Modern Poetry resources? Have a look at:

Modern Poetry Exemplar Essays - Edexcel English Lit: [ https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12542997 ]

Looking for more A Level English Literature resources? Why not check out the following:

(FREE) A Streetcar Named Desire exemplar essays: [ https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12538418 ]

A Streetcar Named Desire essay ideas: [ https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12273280 ]

(FREE) Romantic poets context notes: [ https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12538370 ]

Romantic poets notes: Wordsworth, Shelley, Byron & Blake: [ https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12391483 ]

Dorian Gray and Dracula comparative essays: [ https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12482074 ]

Dorian Gray context: [ https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12533905 ]

Hamlet essay plans: [ https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12276861 ]

If you need more A Level revision resources, check my shop out at: [ https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/NoteSeller2000 ]

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There are lots of useful notes here. Very helpful. It's also free! So, thank you very much.

NoteSeller2000

Glad you found them useful! I have more English Literature revision resources on my page (including many free ones) at https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/NoteSeller2000

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