Christmas Tests-English Poetry-How to form a answer

Soby

Well this test is today and only doing poetry really now been doing Othello since which i have sorted..Found a Q we have coming up and have a sample answer for it..how sorted is that..just need help for Slyvia Plath..Types of Q that are asked..i know its ussaly "Personal Response."But been told i dont answer the question properly..any help...thx a lot.....

Well i have found all this info[see link]..Would i basicly just re-produce that and just add in the quotes and then my Opinion?
http://www.skool.ie/skoool/examcentre_sc.asp?id=1246

Corruptedmorals

Plan it! 5 poems at least, and compare and contrast similar ones. For example, we leave Bee Box on it's own, compare Morning Song with Child, and Poppies in July with Mirror. Morning Song and Child are both child-related, though Child obviously has the deep theme of depression and hopelessness- it's a good ender. Poppies in July and Mirror are both, loss of control..kind of. I forget Mirror's main theme. We also did Elm, but it's so difficult.

The biography should be very very brief, only in your introduction, and possibly in your conclusion. Tie it in to the themes.

KEEP REFERRING TO THE QUESTION! if it's a personal response, keep saying 'I liked this poem because...', always I, and give opinions, you can't really if it's not a personal response.

You could get a statement question, something to do with Plath's suicide overshadowing her poetry, or her poetry in light of her suicide. Easier than they look, don;t be thrown by a statement.

Plath looks difficult, but it's actually the easiest essay. I hope she comes up.

tolosenc

Paper 2 is like my worst of all the 10 I will sit next June, but I've come to realise that you can go im there with yout comparitive study and poetry answers pretty much learnt off. Poetry always asks you for a personal response, basically.

Plath is likely to come up next June. They have never not asked a female poet, and Bishop(the only other female on this year) came up in '06.

JC 2K3

^Plath also came up twice in a row before this.

Corruptedmorals wrote:

Plan it! 5 poems at least, and compare and contrast similar ones. For example, we leave Bee Box on it's own, compare Morning Song with Child, and Poppies in July with Mirror. Morning Song and Child are both child-related, though Child obviously has the deep theme of depression and hopelessness- it's a good ender. Poppies in July and Mirror are both, loss of control..kind of. I forget Mirror's main theme. We also did Elm, but it's so difficult.

That's only one way of answering and mightn't even be suitable to the question asked....

Corruptedmorals wrote:

The biography should be very very brief, only in your introduction, and possibly in your conclusion. Tie it in to the themes.

Only in the introduction or conclusion? You do know that a question on Plath came up a few years ago asking you how a biographical knowledge of Plath affected one's understanding of her poetry.

Corruptedmorals wrote:

KEEP REFERRING TO THE QUESTION! if it's a personal response, keep saying 'I liked this poem because...', always I, and give opinions, you can't really if it's not a personal response.

???
What are you supposed to write about if you can't give opinions?

Corruptedmorals wrote:

Plath looks difficult, but it's actually the easiest essay. I hope she comes up.

Easiest? How? I'm not saying she's hard or anything, but how can you state that one poet is the easiest? Surely it's a matter of the students opinion on a poet?

Soby wrote:

Well i have found all this info[see link]..Would i basicly just re-produce that and just add in the quotes and then my Opinion?
http://www.skool.ie/skoool/examcentre_sc.asp?id=1246

No.

Remember this is a "personal response", and despite their various guises, this tends to be the heart of all poetry questions. Have you actually read the poems or just notes on them?

Screw the notes for a while and just READ the poems. Get as much out of them as you can, develop your own personal opinions towards them. Ok, notes aren't useless, and it's a good idea to know a poet's biography, but work them into your opinions, don't just reproduce reems of learned off stuff.

If you have difficulty answering the actual questions then try just taking it poem by poem(5 or 6) and discussing how that poem relates to the question.

ZorbaTehZ

Well, JC 2K3, seems to me that you like nothing better than to get inside a thread and shoot down every single comment others make.
*golfclapping*

No.

Remember this is a "personal response", and despite their various guises, this tends to be the heart of all poetry questions. Have you actually read the poems or just notes on them?

Screw the notes for a while and just READ the poems. Get as much out of them as you can, develop your own personal opinions towards them. Ok, notes aren't useless, and it's a good idea to know a poet's biography, but work them into your opinions, don't just reproduce reems of learned off stuff.

ehmm, you do realise that reproducing "reems of learned off stuff" is what will get you the points? And if it works, why the hell would you not do it?
Since at the end of the day its the points that matter.

JC 2K3

ZorbaTehZ wrote:

ehmm, you do realise that reproducing "reems of learned off stuff" is what will get you the points? And if it works, why the hell would you not do it?

It's a lot more work, a lot less interesting and there's a higher chance of making a mistake/not being able to answer a tricky question.

Attol

The basic structure we've been encouraged to do is start off with what you'll be discussing very briefly eg. This poet was [line on major feature of their poetry or something]. Main themes for this poet are... This poet showed this theme in the poems.... The political aspects of his work are shown in ....

Just start off like that then refer back to it when your going through your writing. It'll also help you stay on track and keep your essay neatly formed. The conclusion can just be a short line of why you think the poems were written like that by this person or something.

My basic structure is :

Intro including basic themes and poems that'll be discussed

Quick summary of poem, personal response with analysis X3

Conclusion of a line or 2 that doesn't just repeat everything you already wrote.


This is very vague, sorry. I'm bad at describing these things.

analyse this

I have a very unorthodox way of answering my poetry questions and while I always get A's my teacher is constantly pleading with me to conform! I really don’t go into much detail in each poem. I prefer to give an overview of the poetry as a whole e.g. I may not discuss a theme from each poem, but I chose certain themes that seem to have a regular occurrence in the poetry.

For Plath, what I did was first gave a brief introduction discussing how it is essential to understand Plath to understand her poetry and how her poetry allows us to examine the darker side of our own nature. Then I talked about Plath's extremities of character (blissful happiness to utter melancholy etc). Then I discussed her poems dealing with the child (in the general sense, not just that specific poem) and then I went on to talk about her imagery and her rather blunt/pragmatic approach to life/poetry. I hope that helps!

balzarywex

learning stuff off might get u ur B but it often either doesnt directly address d question or lacks personal engagement/ actual sincerity.

if ur aiming for ur A, formulate ur opinions (without being too pretentious), back up with quotation (preferably) or reference and constantly refer to d question.

snapjiggyfluff

analyse this I'd change my style if I were you. English is marked pretty strictly, in the sense that the marks are split up into 4 sections, with certain marks for each section. At the beginning of the year our teacher told us that general answers covering universal themes of the poet will not get you the A. At least 5 poems need to be studied somewhat in depth to get the top marks. I'm not saying that you won't get a good mark with your style, around 80, but the top marks are granted to the conformists! Just some food for thought!

Mushy

Eugh, poetry, on Friday(Christmas test) I delibrately soent WAY too long on Comparitive and Macbeth so as to avoid this question. Poetry is the bain of my life in English, its a disgusting part of the curriculum. Hell, I even enjoy Irish poetry more:eek: I think I learnt one theme of one poem(Frost) for the test and it didnt come up at all, its just something I cant get my head around. Come June, Im gonna just blab on for about a page if lucky!

Soby, that link ya gave, thats what Im pretty much doing. Few quotes, general opinions, then personal, its the only way I will write anything on this godforsaken subject

PeterMC

snapjiggyfluff wrote:

analyse this I'd change my style if I were you. English is marked pretty strictly, in the sense that the marks are split up into 4 sections, with certain marks for each section. At the beginning of the year our teacher told us that general answers covering universal themes of the poet will not get you the A. At least 5 poems need to be studied somewhat in depth to get the top marks. I'm not saying that you won't get a good mark with your style, around 80, but the top marks are granted to the conformists! Just some food for thought!

I have got to disagree with this statement. A well thought out, simple, personal and above all relevant (to the question) response is what is looked for. Conformist IMO are not rewarded with As. In English, a personal and unique approach is best.

For each poet, pick YOUR favourite poem -why is this? What do YOU like or dislike about this poet in general? Make sure to keep on mentioning what YOU thought of the poets work.The more you opinions are not the same as those in your class(and hence those who will be marked @ the same time as you) the better! Last year my teacher insisted that a great poetry answer never mentions more then four poems - any more and you are simply not saying enough about those you do speak about. Keep your answer personal and straight forward and you should do fine.

snapjiggyfluff

I'm not saying that this is my opinion, I'm just saying that that is what I was told, and it was backed up by another english teacher.

ryanj

ya don't have to write your essay poem by poem; what I did and still think is the best thing to do is pick 4/5 characteristics on each poet and write a paragraph on each to show how the characteristic applies to the poet. Each paragraph will be full of quotes and parts of the poems you use - the essay will fill up easier than you think! for example; Plath - write a paragraph on some of these: her striking originality - a distinctive poetic voice; her unusual and striking language and imagery; how her poetry offers insight into her life; the intensity and energy of her verse; her interesting preoccupation with life's darker side; the density and complexity of her poems. For intro I just listed the poems and characteristics; a simple answer and a brief snippet of what your essay will be on. I got 50/50 for it, only doing 4 poems in depth with the briefest of references to a fifth, but that's just me.