English Poetry Essay Themes

Aspiring

Hi, so basically I have my English P2 tomorrow and am quite worried a theme question will come for my best poets and I won't have a clue what to do.
We have done many language questions and I scored in the 80-90% range so I'm happy with them.

However we have never done a question addressing themes and so I'm not really sure what to do. I usually do my paragraphs poem by poem e.g. for Plath I'd have one paragraph on Child, then one on Mirror, etc. So when doing it this way, do I do one theme to one poem? Or talk about maybe 3 themes in one paragraph (poem). Or more?

I know the best way to go about it would probably be to do the paragraphs theme by theme but I've never done that and don't have time to start working on it now as you can imagine.

Thanks for any help, and please don't tell me what's on P2 tomorrow

AAKZF

You can still structure your answers to theme questions poem by poem. However I think the most important thing when tackling the question using this method is to make sure that the essay flows

Personally, I do it poem by poem. When answering a question on theme, I generally discuss the themes (usually around three) that are present in each poem but I usually end the paragraph by mentioning a theme that is evident in the next poem I'll be discussing, so as to link everything together.

eg "the theme of... is also evident in the poem "Child""

Aspiring

AAKZF wrote: »

You can still structure your answers to theme questions poem by poem. However I think the most important thing when tacking the question using this method is to make sure that the essay flows

Personally, I do it poem by poem. When answering a question on theme, I generally discuss the themes (usually around three) that are present in each poem but I usually end the paragraph by mentioning a theme that is evident in the next poem I'll be discussing, so as to link everything together.

eg "the theme of... is also evident in the poem "Child""

Sounds good! For some poets the themes would be pretty obvious but I mean when they say theme do they mean for example "Death" or "The experience of death" or other sub themes. Once I get past these hurdles I should be grand and be able to churn out a decent essay.

Also, is subject matter the same as theme?

AAKZF

I would say that subject matter is the same as theme. In order to identify the themes, you firstly need to consider what the poem is about. For example the themes of "I taste a liquor never brewed" by Emily Dickinson would be nature, religion and death.

I think a theme question is a lot easier than a question on style for example, just because it is essentially discussing subject matter.

Also, you can identify themes yourself that you think are present in the poem and discuss them. There are no 'set' themes for each poem that you must discuss, it's all about what you believe the poem is about

Aspiring

We did a Yeats question once about him being a difficult poet to read in terms of style and subject matter, I guess I unknowingly put in some themes at the time reading back on it now.

I'm sure I can come up with three+ themes for each poem anyway, thanks a million