English Poets

TX123

Has anyone strategically tried to predict what poets might come up. I think it will be Donne, Plath, Hopkins and Bishop/longley

shane0312

TX123 wrote:

I think it will be Donne, Plath, Hopkins and Bishop/longley

Why?

Faerie

Every year an Irish and a female poet have come up so it would be a good idea to learn Bishop, Plath, Yeats and Longley.
To go further, as Plath is on the course next year, I would say Bishop is a definite. It's tough to pick between Yeats and Longley, but my money is on Yeats.
To be honest though it's not hard to prepare for five poets and if you already have essays pepared for five poets then you could just go over them(even the night before!). Myabe concentrating on the above poets!

Attractive Nun

I reckon Bishop, Donne, Hardy, Yeats

They will surely have a female poet (plath came up 2 of the last 3 years, so Bishop is the obvious one there) and an irish poet (longley is probably the obvious one here, but they often put the same poet on 2 years in a row, and the easter rising anniversary yoke might swing it in Yeats' favour)

Eliot and Hopkins came up recently, and Donne and Hardy haven't, so they seem likely to me.

And that explains my choice.

fatal

Attractive Nun wrote:

I reckon Bishop, Donne, Hardy, Yeats

They will surely have a female poet (plath came up 2 of the last 3 years, so Bishop is the obvious one there) and an irish poet (longley is probably the obvious one here, but they often put the same poet on 2 years in a row, and the easter rising anniversary yoke might swing it in Yeats' favour)

Eliot and Hopkins came up recently, and Donne and Hardy haven't, so they seem likely to me.

And that explains my choice.

the papers were set AGES ago so i dont think that they would take the 1916 thing into mind when deciding

Garret

longley, plath, bishop will have you covered

shane0312

Garret wrote:

longley, plath, bishop will have you covered

Yeah im doing Bishop, Plath, Longley and Hardy.

Hardy hasnt come up since the new course was introduced and he wont be on the course again untill 2011, so I think he is fairly likely to come up.

:|

shane0312 wrote:

Yeah im doing Bishop, Plath, Longley and Hardy.

Hardy hasnt come up since the new course was introduced and he wont be on the course again untill 2011, so I think he is fairly likely to come up.

same here, just to be safe im learning a fifth, its between elliot and hopkins. i cant decide

Attractive Nun

fatal wrote:

the papers were set AGES ago so i dont think that they would take the 1916 thing into mind when deciding

You never know, the anniversary was pretty big news what with the whole parade thingy. And apparently the Dept like to take quirky things like that into account, like putting a poet on if it's the 100th anniversary of his death, for example. They certainly try to keep things relevant in subjects like Irish and other languages anyway.

Or I could be talking ****e. Yeats is my favourite poet, so maybe I'm just hoping.

smemon

just study Hardy. only Hardy, you're wasting your time on the rest. know him inside out and you can forget about poetry

thats my view, much more simpler and handier than all of you's. study all poets if you want, and i know some of yee will :rolleyes:

bottom line is: know 4 poets and you're safe. now stop wastefully trying to predict who'll come up and just study 4. thread locked

....*dam padlock won't close*....

Raphael

fatal wrote:

the papers were set AGES ago so i dont think that they would take the 1916 thing into mind when deciding

Yes, but they still knew it was the anniversary of 1916 when they were setting the papers.

I'm studying Yeats, Bishop, Plath and Longely so as to have at least a choice of two on the paper

shane0312

Does anyone here go to the institute? What are the teachers saying, because last year my friend went there and got told exactly the question on Yeats that was coming up. The teacher even put it on a tape for her so shed remember it!!

Dagnir Glaurung

smemon wrote:

just study Hardy. only Hardy, you're wasting your time on the rest. know him inside out and you can forget about poetry

thats my view, much more simpler and handier than all of you's. study all poets if you want, and i know some of yee will :rolleyes:

bottom line is: know 4 poets and you're safe. now stop wastefully trying to predict who'll come up and just study 4. thread locked

....*dam padlock won't close*....

If you know 4 poets you aren't safe. You could still be very, very unlucky. I wouldn't put that much faith in Hardy.

maggie_cork

is elizabeth bishops last year on the course so she could come alrite like.

im doin bishope plath longley and hardy.. but a female doesnt av to come, my teacher said they could put the females on the pass paper..
that would be feckd up if day did it.. but id say they wont

Funkstard

The Dept. are very scared that everyone will think that an Irish & female poet are guaranteed to come up every year, so I'm nearly expecting a nasty surprise one of these years. The course is only 5 or 6 years old, and we're going on the knowledge that they've asked a female & Irish poet every year so far...there's nothing making them do it every year.

I've a feeling about Yeats because of the anniversary of 1916, the examiners will have looked into what events happened this year when making the paper, so the anniversary could be a smart one to think about.

Well that's what I think anyway

Raphael

Why would they want to give people a nasty surprise?

Aoibheann

Because they hate you. Especially you..

Rockerette

i would LOVE the department ****ed everyone over and didnt put an Irish, or a female poet on.

Just to shut everyone up... i hate this theory that they "have to" be on it.

its ridiculously boring.



Go on Dept. GO MAD.
i dare ya....




But unfortunately, i expect them to appear.


hhmmm.
I'd love Eliot to be there, thats just cos i love him.
Otherwise i'll write some speel on Bishop i expect, or maybe Hardy. depending on the questions

Raphael

It'd be a turn-up alright. But it won't happen. If the department are willing to mark down perfectly legitimate A1s to maintain the averages, then why would they sabotage so many peoples papers. It'll just make their lives difficult.

The real tragedy in all this is Elizabeth Bishop herself. If you read her bio, then you'll see that she refused to be tagged as a female poet, never let her work be published in anthologies for female poets. Now the majority of students in the country are concentrating on her because she's a female poet. Bit depressing.

OctavarIan

Bishop, Hardy and Longley. And I'll do a bit of Yeats too. But that's all ye need. I don't see the point in learning more than 4 poets.

joema

Just study Bishop and Plath - they are the only women and there is bound to be a question on them - "gender balance"

shane0312

OctavarIan wrote:

Bishop, Hardy and Longley. And I'll do a bit of Yeats too. But that's all ye need. I don't see the point in learning more than 4 poets.

Technically theres around a 1.5 percent chance of not getting any poet you've done if you do 4. But I still think a female and Hardy is going to come up.

Funkstard

Er, it's more like a 20% chance of being screwed if you only study 4

Why would they want to give people a nasty surprise?

To stop people from only studying 2 poets, and thus not being educated like the syllabus is set out to do

Rob30888

I'm doing Bishop, Plath, Yeats, Hardy and Longley. I know statistics beg to differ, but it's such a stupid move only doing 4. In the event the ones you've studied don't come up, you're first exam is ****ed, which will mess you up for the rest of the LC getting off on such a bad start...

shane0312

Funkstard wrote:

Er, it's more like a 20% chance of being screwed if you only study 4

Why would they want to give people a nasty surprise?

Er ,No its not 20%

If you do 4 the chances none coming : 4/8 * 3/7 * 2/6 * 1/5 =1.428571429% that no poet will show up.

Raphael

He's right! I checked that out another way because I'm paranoid and it worked out. Hurray!

Edit: Course, that assumes it's completely random.

shane0312

Raphael wrote:

Edit: Course, that assumes it's completely random.

Yeah i know the 1.4 percent doesnt really mean anything because at the end of the day its the examiner that picks the questions. I doubt he picks them out of a box;)

Funkstard

Well, my reckoning was this. If you study 5 poets you have a 100% chance of answering a question. Over 5 doesn't matter, because you still only have a 100% chance. 5 poets, 100%, 1 poet, 20%. Study 4 poets, and you have an 80% chance of being able to answer a question - 20% chance you'll be screwed.

Surely 1.4% seems a bit small doesn't it?

shane0312

Funkstard wrote:

Well, my reckoning was this. If you study 5 poets you have a 100% chance of answering a question. Over 5 doesn't matter, because you still only have a 100% chance. 5 poets, 100%, 1 poet, 20%. Study 4 poets, and you have an 80% chance of being able to answer a question - 20% chance you'll be screwed.

Surely 1.4% seems a bit small doesn't it?

Probability doesnt work like that. It is small but be careful cause my friend gambled with 4 last year and he got stung. He was the only one in his school that it happened too!!

PrettyInPunk

is it not a guaranteed female so you can just learn plath and Bishop?

Funkstard

Actually I'm seeing the failure in my logic too now on reflection....I ended up with having a 1/5 chance with one poet, when it should be 1/8.

deisedolly

I'm doin Bishop, Plath, Hopkins and either Donne or Longley.

Does nobody else love Hopkins?!

Rockerette

i like his dark sonnets, think theyre cool.. but the others are a bit... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz for my liking

DonaldDuck

Im learning 4,which I'd be shocked if none came up:
Bishop,Donne,Plath and Hardy.

Aoibheann

deisedolly wrote:

I'm doin Bishop, Plath, Hopkins and either Donne or Longley.

Does nobody else love Hopkins?!

I do love Hopkins, he's quite brilliant.. the dark sonnets are amazing, the Wreck of the Deutschland (now that is long, don't believe it's on our course) is too, and as for Windhover, it's fantastic. I love that, with Hopkins, it's all about how the poem sounds more so than his subject matter.

And he manages to complain about everything as much as the rest of the poets, yet not sound nearly as whingy! Hoping he comes up! But I'll study all my poets I reckon.

ThrownAway

I'm doing Plath and Bishop

and then Longley, Hardy and Hopkins.

At this stage it's just learning the 5 essays off by heart.

ThE_IVIAcIVIAIV

im thinking of just focusing on hardy and longley! is that a good idea do you guys think? im kinda short on time and want to cut as many shortcuts as possible!