gcse english poetry comparison essay example

Comparing Poems

After studying this section you should be able to understand:

• what features to look for in each poem
• how to plan and write your response

As part of the GCSE English Literature course, one of the things you will need to do is to ‘explore relationships and comparisons between text, selecting and evaluating relevant material ’. One of the ways in which you might be asked to do this is to compare two poems.

When comparing poems you need to look for all the features that you look for when studying a single poem.

You need to look at the:

• content of the poem
• tone and mood of the poem
• form in which it is written and structured
• ways in which language is used

When writing your response, avoid writing an examination of one poem and then the other and comparing them in a final paragraph. Integrate your comments on the poems throughout.

However, you also need to compare these features in both poems.

You will need to look at each poem individually to plan your response, but when writing your response you need to integrate your ideas on both poems.

Watch the video below to help you understand key poetic terms and the forms and structure of poetry to help you analyse and compare poems for your unseen poetry paper.

Here’s one way you could approach this task:

Planning your response

1. Read both poems through carefully and get an overall sense of what each poem is about and how the poets handle their topics.

2. Re-read poem ‘A’ and make brief notes either around the poem, if you are able, or on a separate sheet, noting key words, phrases, images etc. and your response to it. Do the same with poem ‘B’.

3. Note down some brief quotations from each poem that you will use to illustrate your ideas. You could underline or circle these if you can write on the copy of the poem.

4. Make two lists – one headed similarities and one headed differences and list the main points under each heading.

Writing the response

It is important that you avoid writing an essay on each poem and then try to join them together. The best responses are those that integrate the ideas in parallel throughout the essay.

Here’s one way you could approach this:

INTRODUCTION

Introductory paragraph commenting on what each poem is about and capturing the ‘flavour’ of each.

Several paragraphs based on your detailed reading of the poems. It is a good idea to make a point about poem ‘A’ and then a point about poem ‘B’.

It can help you structure your ideas in a logical way, e.g. one paragraph could compare the way each uses imagery , while another paragraph could focus on structure etc.

A concluding paragraph, summing up the main similarities and differences, saying which you find more effective and why, if you are asked this .

Keep both poems at the centre of your focus and don’t be tempted to write all about one and then the other.

• Primary Hub
• Art & Design
• Design & Technology
• Health & Wellbeing
• Secondary Hub
• Citizenship
• Primary CPD
• Secondary CPD
• Book Awards
• All Products
• Primary Products
• Secondary Products
• School Trips
• Trip Directory
• Trips by Subject
• Trips by Type
• Trips by Region
• Submit a Trip Venue

Trending stories

Top results

• How To Write The Perfect Comparative Essay On Poetry

Poetry comparison – How to write the perfect comparative essay

When it comes to poetry analysis, Phil Beadle knows what examiners want to see – and he’s here to make sure you can help every student can deliver it

Poetry comparison – or writing a comparative essay about two poems, seen or unseen – is what students will eventually be assessed on when they come to sit the poetry analysis part of their English Literature GCSE .

It makes sense, therefore, to get some early poetry comparison practice in. See what the assessment criteria will be asking for in preparation for the day the stakes are high.

The first door we must knock on is the one housing the crone of context. What the GCSE mark schemes will eventually ask for is a well constructed, conceptual response replete with oodles of subject terminology and a fairly deep mention of context.

It asks students to do this, however, in very little time. It also ignores the fact that contextual analysis in poetry – aside from the obvious modern/ancient dichotomy – is a rich brew that requires, firstly, a lot of contextual knowledge.

Also ignored is the fact that the biographical takes you away from the textual. Since the value in poetry analysis is the study of how words and form align to construct beauty or its antithesis, mention of context inevitably takes you into the realms of history. This is a whole other subject.

Poetry comparison example

Resources: ‘My Last Duchess’, by Robert Browning ‘Remains’, by Simon Armitage

Context – theme

So, my recommendation to students when constructing the first paragraph of a poetry comparison essay is, if appropriate, to make glancing reference to the titles. Only go so far as linking these to comparison of theme. The contextual is in the thematic.

On comparing theme, they should make explicit reference to the word ‘subtextual’. This flags to the examiner that this is an answer rich in apposite use of subject terminology quite early on. For example:

“The subtextual theme of ‘My Last Duchess’ is that sexual jealousy can cause the empowered (in this case titled) men – or, indeed, just men – to so lose their minds. They become murderous. Whereas the subtextual theme of ‘Remains’ links to the ambiguities of the title.

“As a noun, it links to the idea of the human remains of the looter around which the narrative revolves. As a verb, all that is left is memory.

“Both these poems linger around ideas of memory. Both narrators are tortured. But whereas the narrator in ‘Remains’ realises that he is stained by his actions, the narrator of ‘My Last Duchess’ is oblivious and has learned altogether nothing.”

Structure – rhyme

This is as far as we might want to go with context. Otherwise, we are addressing the poetic with its opposite and scribing a list of dates.

So, the next paragraph should examine structure. We do so by using rhyme scheme and form as a way of unlocking it. First of all, say what you see and, where possible, state the form:

“‘My Last Duchess’ is from Browning’s collection of ‘Dramatic Monologues’. It’s a substantial block of text with one person, the Duke, speaking. ‘Remains’ is seven quatrain stanzas and a couplet.”

Analysis of rhyme scheme

This is simple to do and gives students an opportunity to shovel a bit of subject terminology the examiners’ way. Generally, it is best to leave this unanalysed however. This is because analysis of rhyme scheme is much richer in terms of unlocking structure.

“The rhyme scheme in ‘My Last Duchess’ is in perfect couplets. On the other hand, ‘Remains’ is the epitome of deliberate irregularity.

“If one is to take this as a symbolic suggestion of the degree of order in both dramatic and moral worlds, one might conclude that the world of the former poem is ordered and correct, whereas that of the latter is chaotic and incongruent.

“There is an irony in the Duke speaking in perfect rhyme, being able to rhyme “munificence” and “pretence” and then suggesting he has no “Skill in speech”. This suggests him to be the liar he is.

“But the more interesting approach is in ‘Remains’: three out of four of the end words in stanza one, in which the looters raid the bank, are repeated in stanza six, when the incident is replayed in the narrator’s memory.

“The fact that only three of the four words -“out”, “bank”, “not” – are repeated suggests the decay of memory. Internal rhyme also plays a part in the pivot between action turning into memory. The fourth stanza features eye rhymes ”agony”, “by”, “body” before going into near perfect rhyme that carries on into the next stanza, “lorry”, “really”.

“But “really” is an add on, a coda to the phrase “End of story”. It suggests that the death of the looter should have been the finish of the event, but that there is an unpleasant coda. This is the fact that memory ‘remains’.”

You can get a lot from a poem through examining the rhyme in detail.

Metre – stress

From there, we go onto a fairly stunted form of metrical analysis; and we do this precisely because others avoid it.

I am not suggesting that students attempt analysis of trochees and anapests. After all, to our modern untrained ears, the differences between stressed and unstressed syllables can be unfathomable.

But where there is obvious metric change, we take this as a signal from the poet to pay special attention to this line (and to analyse it).

“ Metrically, ‘My Last Duchess’ appears to be in tetrameter with the odd substitution, “I call”. This, again, might be taken to suggest the narrator’s level of control over his circumstances.

“ The metre in ‘Remains’ is used to create specific effects. It is broadly irregular except in stanzas one, three and six (even, event, recall) where it goes into tetrameter.

“ The substitutions on “Sleep” and “Dream”, however, give a jarring effect, an elongated stutter, a metric pause. This sets up the brief moment of peace before the nightmare of replayed events comes back to haunt him.”

Language – reflections

We do not go over the top with metrical analysis. Just one comparison is enough to let the examiner know we are on top of the brief.

“We do not go over the top with metrical analysis”

From there, we divert into the linguistic. Show the examiner that you can recognise the idea that the soundtrack of the poem is somehow a representation or mirror of the poem’s themes. One killer comparison is all we need:

“Ultimately, the distinction is between a narrator rich in self delusion and one haunted by self knowledge. Both are murderers, but one has no guilt over an action he considered before committing. The other took a rapid action that now haunts him.

“The difference in consideration is signalled by the punctuation. There is a difference between the time implied by the commas in “probably armed, possibly not” and the semi colons in “This grew; I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together”.

“It tells us much about their comparative level of ruthlessness and design at the moment of decision. There is also a distinction in maturity that is signalled by the howling childishness of the ‘oo’ sounds in “forsooth”, “choose” and “stoop” and the deadening emotional stutter of pain in the repetitive ‘n’ sounds in the penultimate line of ‘Remains’.”

And as for conclusions for your comparisons in poetry essay, don’t bother. We haven’t got the time, and they are always rubbish anyway.

Phil Beadle is a teacher and the author of several books. This includes Rules for Mavericks: A Manifesto for dissident creatives (Crown House). Check out our AQA English Literature Paper 1 revision resource .

Sign up to our newsletter

You'll also receive regular updates from Teachwire with free lesson plans, great new teaching ideas, offers and more. (You can unsubscribe at any time.)

Which sectors are you interested in?

Early Years

Thank you for signing up to our emails!

You might also be interested in...

Why join Teachwire?

Get what you need to become a better teacher with unlimited access to exclusive free classroom resources and expert CPD downloads.

Exclusive classroom resource downloads

Free worksheets and lesson plans

CPD downloads, written by experts

Resource packs to supercharge your planning

Special web-only magazine editions

Educational podcasts & resources

Access to free literacy webinars

Newsletters and offers

Create free account

By signing up you agree to our terms and conditions and privacy policy .

Already have an account? Log in here

Thanks, you're almost there

To help us show you teaching resources, downloads and more you’ll love, complete your profile below.

Welcome to Teachwire!

Set up your account.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipisicing elit. Commodi nulla quos inventore beatae tenetur.

I would like to receive regular updates from Teachwire with free lesson plans, great new teaching ideas, offers and more. (You can unsubscribe at any time.)

Log in to Teachwire

Not registered with Teachwire? Sign up for free

Reset Password

Remembered your password? Login here

Anthony Cockerill

| Writing | The written word | Teaching English |

Teach your students how to compare poems for GCSE English Literature, Paper 2, Section B

Learn some of these brilliant strategies for teaching really effective poetry comparison for  GCSE English Literature, Paper 2, Section B.

One of the elements of our students’ exam performance we identified as a weakness in last summer’s examination series was comparing poems from the AQA poetry anthology, Poems Past and Present, which forms part of GCSE English Literature Paper Two. In the English Department at Boroughbridge High School, where we teach the Power and Conflict cluster, we’ve been spending time over these past few weeks taking a closer look at what our students need to do in order to write a great poetry comparison. Using our current students’ work alongside papers we recalled from last summer – plus the ever helpful examiner’s report – we’re working to establish some maxims for how we teach this particular aspect of the examination, which I’d like to share with you in this blog post.

1. Get your students to know the poems really well.

‘Students who knew the text were able to move around and within it in order to respond to the specifics of the task.’ AQA Examiners’ report, June 2017. 

There are some great ways to introduce students to poems, such as D irected A ctivities R elated to T exts, in which a student is usually instructed to reconstruct or resequence a text. An activity might encourage students to think about the form of the text, the structure, or the recurrence of particular types of language.

As a first encounter with Seamus Heaney’s ‘Storm on the Island’, students might consider what the poem could be about by exploring the nouns. Are there any patterns? Could they be classified into lexical fields? Or they might attempt to write a poem or description using words sorted by their function. Alternatively, a teacher might encourage students to engage intellectually or emotionally with the poem by exploring a still image, a moving image clip or by sharing a story.

The subsequent process of the shared reading of the poem in its entirety and the ensuing discussion is a great opportunity to model the process of reading, understanding and thinking analytically.  A series of prompts – or something akin to ‘Key Questions’ – can work as a framework for class discussion, enabling students to think, and ultimately write, about the poems and also to provide a ‘schema’ to help them build and consolidate their knowledge and understanding.

When helping students to deal with aspects of language and structure, a teacher might provide a tool to help students structure their thinking and note-making (the acronym FLIRTS, for example, which stands for F orm and Structure, L anguage and Sounds, I magery, R hyme, Rhythm and Repetition, T heme and Tone, S peaker).

2. Cluster and study the poems thematically to help  students to make a good choice of second poem.

‘The selection of the second poem is one of the keys to success as this gives the student the material to construct a holistic response.’ AQA Examiners’ report, June 2017.

The Power and Conflict cluster could be usefully divided into poems about power and legacy; poems about the power of natural world and conflict with humans; poems about conflict that can happen as a result of culture and belonging; poems about war and conflict. Thinking about the poems in these clusters will guide students toward making a helpful choice of second poem.

3. Don’t constrict written responses with a rigid framework, but instead provide more flexible ways of comparing the poems.

‘One examiner commented that one of their key teaching points for next year will be that “comparison comes in a variety of shapes and does not have to be formulaic”‘. AQA Examiners’ report, June 2017.

Some of the possible ways of structuring a poetry comparison can lead to answers which can constrain the level of the response. This can usually be evident when ‘essay plans’ are too simplistic (Poem A, then Poem B) or too artificial (Similarities and Differences) but also when they become too unwieldy. But the examiners’ report suggests that ‘…the key message here is to enable and guide students to form a comparison relative to their level of ability.’ In engaging with the poems, a student aiming for a top grade should aim for a conceptualised response which is exploratory in nature. A confident student might write an ambitious introduction which outlines their ‘angle’ on the question. They might seek an interesting angle on the task, such as how patriotism might lead soldiers into combat. Then they might develop their response along a series of conceptual lines of enquiry, integrating analysis of the writers’ methods as they go; illuminating their interpretation with contextual insight relevant to the task.

Rather than offering up a rigid ‘essay plan’, the ‘series of prompts’ I described above as a cognitive tool can function, when applied to both poems, as a sort of ‘loose structure’ to help students produce a more focused written response. I have found these ‘Key Questions’ to be useful in encouraging students to focus on a comparison of two poems. ‘What are the poems about?’ serves as an introduction to the whole response.

‘Who is ‘speaking’ in the poems?’, as I discuss in more detail below, allows the student to engage with the ‘constructed voice’ of the poem. ‘How has the poet used language and structure to convey their message?’ allows students to consider the writers’ methods. ‘Why have the poems been written?’ offers the opportunity to explore deeper layers of meaning, authorial intent and conceptual interpretations. However, it’s important to think of this approach as flexibly as possible. It wouldn’t be good, for example, to encourage students to think of the Key Question ‘why have the poems been written?’ as an opportunity to shoehorn context into their response. Ideas, exploration of the writers’ methods and apt integration of context should be evident throughout the response. 

4. Think about the voice as a construct.

‘Students who recognised where the voice was a construct were more successful than those who regurgitated biographical information about the poet that they then attempted to link to the poetic voice.’ AQA Examiners’ report, June 2017.

Addressing the task itself – and considering why the poems might have been written – will enable the student to naturally explore context – rather than including lots of biographical information. But the ‘persona’ of the constructed voice might also provide a very useful way of considering context. In Simon Armitage’s ‘Remains’, for example, the narrative voice deftly reflects the turmoil of someone struggling to come to terms with what they’ve seen. Armitage’s narrator uses first-person plural pronouns, for example, to emphasise the narrator’s attempt to redistribute his own guilt among his comrades. Similarly in ‘Beatrice Garland’s ‘Kamikaze’, the modulating narrative perspective creates distance between the reader and the narrator that reflect the gulf between pilot and family. Context in this analysis, therefore, becomes implicitly connected to the student’s understanding of the task.

5. Make sure students understand the importance of answering the question.

When students start to write their responses – and if they’re using my ‘Key Questions’ approach, they’ll begin by considering what the poems are about – they must respond in terms of the question rather than with something generic. ‘Ozymandias’ by Percy Bysshe Shelley for example, explores the power of the natural world, but if the question is about the theme of mortality, then it is through this filter that the student must construct their response. It’s useful reiterate the key word from the question throughout throughout the answer to keep the response on track.

6. Get students to engage with the poem, rather than obsessing about poetry terminology.

‘Some responses set out to identify poetic techniques and employ as much terminology as possible before engaging with the poems themselves.’ AQA Examiners’ report, June 2017.

Sometimes, a student who is too heavy handed with various poetry terms can find themselves attributing questionable effects to the features they’ve ‘spotted’. It’s much better to encourage students to consider different layers of meaning in language and to consider possible interpretations.

7. Flexible analytical writing is much more effective than the PEE paragraph.

‘The use of structures such as PEE / PEA and its variants worked in the sense that they allowed students working at the lower levels to access Level 3 in the mark scheme. However less rigid structures worked better for those working at higher levels.’ AQA Examiners’ report, June 2017.

As I have explained in an earlier blog post , I’m not sure I always taught analytical writing well earlier in my teaching career. For me, like many, the PEE paragraph was a formula to get students through coursework essays and to use as a model for exam-style responses.

8. Teach students to integrate and embed short quotations – it’s much more effective than copying out longer quotations.

It’s much more productive when students embed judiciously chosen, short quotations into the essay, rather than wasting time copying out large chunks of text. The response will feel much more fluid.

9. Encourage students to write individual responses with precise, cogent expression and more sophisticated analytical writing techniques.

When aiming for top flight responses, there are several techniques students can deploy as part of a well-structured, insightful essay. These include evaluation, anticipating the response of the reader, tentativity, spotting patterns and deepening analysis are some great ways of making analytical writing more ambitious. 

Here, the student has spotted patterns of language throughout the poem.

The student here has noted the ambiguity of the poem in this example of deepening analysis…

10. Familiarise students with how their work will be marked.

‘Mark schemes’ should be used with care, as the process of arriving at a level is a subjective judgement based around a guided standardisation process. Futhermore, the meta-language around each level needs to be properly exemplified and understood – something even experienced teachers and examiners need ongoing support with. This said, it is always a worthwhile exercise to share with students an exemplar script or two and a ‘friendly’ version of the mark scheme they can use to become familiar with the standard and where their own writing sits.

Photo by Artur Matosyan on Unsplash

• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

• Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
• Subscribe Subscribed
• Copy shortlink
• Report this content
• View post in Reader
• Manage subscriptions
• Collapse this bar

• International
• Schools directory
• Resources Jobs Schools directory News Search

GCSE English Poetry Level 9 Model Essay- 'London' vs. 'Checking out me History'

Subject: English

Age range: 14-16

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Last updated

22 November 2020

• Share through email
• Share through twitter
• Share through linkedin
• Share through facebook
• Share through pinterest

An exceptional-quality poetical comparison essay written by a level 9 GCSE Student in accordance with the AQA English Literature syllabus. This essay has been marked as level 9. The resource is also suitable for other exam boards such as Edexcel and OCR.

‘London’ by Blake is compared with ‘Checking out me History’ by Agard on the theme of the power of humans. Both poems are part of the AQA poetry anthology in the Power and Conflict section.

Useful for both individuals and classes- to analyse the points, language and structure of the essay in order to help one to understand the quality and techniques that AQA are looking for in the GCSE English Literature exam.

Key Terms: Level 9, Grade 9, AQA, English Literature, Exemplar Essay, Example Essay, Model Essay, OCR, Edexcel, The Charge of the Light Brigade, London, Checking Out Me History, Bayonet Charge, Power and Conflict, Poetry, GCSE, analyse, learn, mark, 9-1

Tes paid licence How can I reuse this?

Get this resource as part of a bundle and save up to 12%

A bundle is a package of resources grouped together to teach a particular topic, or a series of lessons, in one place.

3x GCSE English Lit Model Poetry Essays

**I got a level 9 in GCSE English Literature after revising from these essays!** Save 31% (subject to prices changing)- an excellent offer considering that several essays on here cost that much individually, and you get 3! Three exceptional-quality poetical comparison essays written by a level 9 GCSE Student in accordance with the AQA English Literature syllabus. This essay has been marked as level 9. The resource is also suitable for other exam boards such as Edexcel and OCR. Useful for both individuals and classes- to analyse the points, language and structure of the essay in order to help one to understand the quality and techniques that AQA are looking for in the GCSE English Literature exam. All poems are part of the AQA poetry anthology in the Power and Conflict section. Titles: - ‘Compare the ways poets present ideas about power in ‘Tissue’ and one other poem in the Power and Conflict anthology.’ - Compare how Blake’s presentation of the power of humans in ‘London’ compares with that of one other poet in the Power and Conflict anthology. - Discuss the presentation of the reality of war in ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ and one other poem from the Power and Conflict anthology. See individual resources for more information. Key Terms: Level 9, Grade 9, AQA, English Language, Literature, exemplar, model, new GCSE, OCR, Edexcel, GCSE, analyse, learn, mark, 9-1

Your rating is required to reflect your happiness.

It's good to leave some feedback.

Something went wrong, please try again later.

This resource hasn't been reviewed yet

To ensure quality for our reviews, only customers who have purchased this resource can review it

Report this resource to let us know if it violates our terms and conditions. Our customer service team will review your report and will be in touch.

Not quite what you were looking for? Search by keyword to find the right resource: