English Poets HL 2014

nailforhammer

Just wondering what poets ye are all doing and thought I'd make it into a poll just to see which are most popular on here. Obviously Heaney will be, but just to know the others out of curiosity.

nailforhammer

Derek Mahon

You can list them as well if you want I don't know which is better really. I suppose the poll is. Mine:
Dickinson
Yeats
Bishop
Kinsella
Heaney

and we might be doing Larkin

aleatorio

Thomas Kinsella

In order of preference:

Bishop
Yeats
Larkin
Heaney

We're doing Dickenson too

SChique00

Seamus Heaney

In order of preference:
Heaney
Dickinson
Bishop
Kinsella
Yeats

nailforhammer

Derek Mahon

Yeah putting it in order of preference is a good idea actually. Personally I don't like Heaney's poetry very much. I just can't connect with it like the others. It seems boring to me. Everyone else's seems to see him as their favourite poet.

Judging by the poll so far Dickinson and Yeats are more popular though, than Heaney

robman60

Derek Mahon

Yeats
Dickinson
Bishop
Kinsella
Unsure for fifth.


Yeats' poems are just amazing, hope he comes up. Dickinson is excellent too, actually poses really profound questions. I feel she leaves scope for personal input too which is helpful.

I'd be very surprised if Dickinson doesn't come up really, but obviously anything can happen.

nailforhammer

Derek Mahon

robman60 wrote: »

Yeats
Dickinson
Bishop
Kinsella
Unsure for fifth.


Yeats' poems are just amazing, hope he comes up. Dickinson is excellent too, actually poses really profound questions. I feel she leaves scope for personal input too which is helpful.

I'd be very surprised if Dickinson doesn't come up really, but obviously anything can happen.

Yeah if Yeats and Dickinson came up I'd be so happy I wouldn't know who to choose. I find Yeats really philosophical and love his themes. Then Dickinson with her unique style and brilliantly she can express herself on plain black ink make her easy to write about

robman60

Derek Mahon

nailforhammer wrote: »

Yeah if Yeats and Dickinson came up I'd be so happy I wouldn't know who to choose. I find Yeats really philosophical and love his themes. Then Dickinson with her unique style and brilliantly she can express herself on plain black ink make her easy to write about

Good points. Perhaps it would be a disadvantage if both came up as I'd spend too much time pondering which one to do!

Mario95

Derek Mahon

In order of preference :
Sylvia Plath
Elizabeth Bishop
W.B. Yeats
Thomas Kinsella
Seamus Heaney

What are the chances of Plath coming up this year? Would the fact that she came up last year make it less likely?

accountname

Philip Larkin

Order of preference;
Plath
Bishop
Mahon
Heaney
Yeats

Doing Dickinson after the mocks and I reckon I'm going to love her!
I detest Heaney and Yeats though so I'm considering doing Kinsella myself as my other three all came up last year I was raging when I seen their paper, was so nice!

nailforhammer

Derek Mahon

accountname wrote: »

Order of preference;
Plath
Bishop
Mahon
Heaney
Yeats

Doing Dickinson after the mocks and I reckon I'm going to love her!
I detest Heaney and Yeats though so I'm considering doing Kinsella myself as my other three all came up last year I was raging when I seen their paper, was so nice!

Yeah I know what you mean they had cultural context and the Macbeth question wasn't too bad. I would have definitely managed the Bishop question well too.

Mario95 wrote: »

What are the chances of Plath coming up this year? Would the fact that she came up last year make it less likely?

Well you can't predict really but it is less likely than the ones who haven't come up in over two years. That said Yeats did come up 2 years in a row 2010 and 2011 but he is considered a national treasure. My teacher said some in the Department would argue that he should be one of the 8 poets every years. Plath is also a highly regarded poet so I wouldn't rule it out. You'd definitely need to have some strong back ups though, that you could answer almost as well as her.

robman60

Derek Mahon

Mario95 wrote: »

What are the chances of Plath coming up this year? Would the fact that she came up last year make it less likely?

Before I give you my opinion I'll stress anything can happen, but I think it's very unlikely she'll come up.

I was speaking to a corrector and he said of the 240 scripts he corrected last year about 190 of them answered on Plath. I'd guess that the people making the paper will avoid choosing her this year as she was answered so widely.

Keeks96

Thomas Kinsella

Order of Preference :
Larkin
Heaney
Dickinson
Plath
Yeats
We may also be studying Mahon. Really hope Larkin comes up on the day, find his poetry really easy to understand and easy to write about.

Peregrine

Thomas Kinsella

Here's the six I'm doing, in order of preference:

Plath
Heaney
Yeats
Larkin
Kinsella
Dickinson

Oh and my votes for Plath and Kinsella didn't go through for some reason..I don't know how I managed that :pac:

Lollipop95

Thomas Kinsella

Aw damn, I was really hoping it would be likely Plath would come up I'm surprised she was answered on a lot as most people in my year don't like her poetry and find it depressing but I personally think her being so tortured makes her poetry great to analyse! We're doing Plath,Heaney,Bishop,Mahon and Larkin. We haven't started Larkin yet. If Plath doesn't make an appearance,Mahon would be ideal. His poetry is very relatable in my opinon. I do like Heaney but I won't answer him if he comes up - the standard will be incredibly high and I feel the examiner will find it refreshing if they see an essay that isn't answered on Heaney. It must be quite tedious to correct numerous papers who contain the same poet! I'm not really a fan of Elizabeth Bishop at all,however I will probably focus on her. Great to read that Larkin is easy to understand. He could be a possible candidate for me to stongly focus on if so

nailforhammer

Derek Mahon

Lollipop95 wrote: »

Aw damn, I was really hoping it would be likely Plath would come up I'm surprised she was answered on a lot as most people in my year don't like her poetry and find it depressing but I personally think her being so tortured makes her poetry great to analyse! We're doing Plath,Heaney,Bishop,Mahon and Larkin. We haven't started Larkin yet. If Plath doesn't make an appearance,Mahon would be ideal. His poetry is very relatable in my opinon. I do like Heaney but I won't answer him if he comes up - the standard will be incredibly high and I feel the examiner will find it refreshing if they see an essay that isn't answered on Heaney. It must be quite tedious to correct numerous papers who contain the same poet! I'm not really a fan of Elizabeth Bishop at all,however I will probably focus on her. Great to read that Larkin is easy to understand. He could be a possible candidate for me to stongly focus on if so

Tbh i'm surprised your teacher decided to do all 3 of the ones that came up last year. One of them could come up but it's very unlikely that you'd have both Mahon and Plath again especially if Plath was over-answered last year.

Daire2013

Thomas Kinsella

Mine in order of preference are......
Heaney
Yeats
Plath
Larkin
Mahon

Lollipop95

Thomas Kinsella

nailforhammer wrote: »

Tbh i'm surprised your teacher decided to do all 3 of the ones that came up last year. One of them could come up but it's very unlikely that you'd have both Mahon and Plath again especially if Plath was over-answered last year.

Oh really,they all came up last year? :eek: Do you think there's a good chance Larkin/Heaney/Bishop may make an appearance this year? I'd love to answer on Heaney but like I said,the standard will be so high because everyone will have predicted him coming up due to his death last year. He came up on my mock paper(was the only poet I could answer as we hadn't covered any of the rest of the poets) so I guess there's a chance he will come up in June. Yeah,there are two higher level classes. The other teacher has done Dickinson,Yeats,Mahon,Heaney.. not sure what other poets they have covered or will cover

nailforhammer

Derek Mahon

Lollipop95 wrote: »

Oh really,they all came up last year? :eek: Do you think there's a good chance Larkin/Heaney/Bishop may make an appearance this year? I'd love to answer on Heaney but like I said,the standard will be so high because everyone will have predicted him coming up due to his death last year. He came up on my mock paper(was the only poet I could answer as we hadn't covered any of the rest of the poets) so I guess there's a chance he will come up in June. Yeah,there are two higher level classes. The other teacher has done Dickinson,Yeats,Mahon,Heaney.. not sure what other poets they have covered or will cover

Yeah Plath, Bishop, and Mahon came up last year. Larkin and Heaney would have a better chance of coming up I'd say not that one that came up last year won't come up this year. If you study 5 one or more of them has to come up.

thelad95

Thomas Kinsella

My order of preference and how likely I think they are to come up

1. Derek Mahon (highly unlikely, came up last year)
2. Thomas Kinsella (50-50 in my opinion)
3. Seamus Heaney (highly likely)
4. Philip Larkin (50-50)
5. Sylvia Plath (unlikely)

I know in theory every poet has a 50-50 chance but I think it's fair to say that 4 poets aren't just chosen at random.

I would say Plath was only so widely answered because people were expecting her to come up to be honest and not because they genuinely enjoyed her work. It came down to cutting your workload for some people and they chose the two most likely.
Plath came up in 2003 and 2004 so she could make an appearance this year. And I never analysed it completely but Rich and Bishop must have had some consecutive years also. Just remember that you should always go with the one you genuinely enjoy as that will translate into marks more than any set of well-learned notes. I would say 95% of my class did Plath last year because she was tipped even though they all hated her while we studied her in class and in the end I got 50/50 for her question because I could engage with the question and the poetry.

robman60

Derek Mahon

Deleted User wrote: »

I would say Plath was only so widely answered because people were expecting her to come up to be honest and not because they genuinely enjoyed her work. It came down to cutting your workload for some people and they chose the two most likely.
Plath came up in 2003 and 2004 so she could make an appearance this year. And I never analysed it completely but Rich and Bishop must have had some consecutive years also. Just remember that you should always go with the one you genuinely enjoy as that will translate into marks more than any set of well-learned notes. I would say 95% of my class did Plath last year because she was tipped even though they all hated her while we studied her in class and in the end I got 50/50 for her question because I could engage with the question and the poetry.

Very true. I find you can kind of "encourage" yourself to liking a poet by learning about their life and trying to see the world as they did, though. For example, I think Dickinson is possibly the most likely to appear this year so although I found her poems difficult at first I intentionally made an extra effort to try to understand her. As a result, she's right up there with Yeats as my favourite poet on the course now.

a0ifee

seeing a lot of Larkin and kinsella on this thread..we didn't do either and we're finished poetry


order of preference:

1.yeats
2.dickinson
3.plath
4.mahon

then there's heaney or elizabeth bishop but I'm trying to decide which one I dislike less :P

nailforhammer

Derek Mahon

a0ifee wrote: »

seeing a lot of Larkin and kinsella on this thread..we didn't do either and we're finished poetry

then there's heaney or elizabeth bishop but I'm trying to decide which one I dislike less :P

well I mean you can't do all the poets that would be too much study. To be honest if you study 5 poets and only 1 comes up you'd have to have been very unlucky with your combination. If you look at the poll Larkin and Kinsella are the least common so I wouldn't worry.

I too dislike Heaney but at the same time I hope he comes up so everyone in the country does him and then the examiner's brain will explode with joy when they see I've done Dickinson or Yeats instead

robman60

Derek Mahon

nailforhammer wrote: »

well I mean you can't do all the poets that would be too much study. To be honest if you study 5 poets and only 1 comes up you'd have to have been very unlucky with your combination. If you look at the poll Larkin and Kinsella are the least common so I wouldn't worry.

I too dislike Heaney but at the same time I hope he comes up so everyone in the country does him and then the examiner's brain will explode with joy when they see I've done Dickinson or Yeats instead

My sentiments exactly. I like the fact that we're doing Never Let Me Go as single text for the same reason. Examiners must get incredibly bored correcting the same things again and again. I could see it adversely affecting your mark in subject where quality is somewhat subjective, like English.

I don't feel there's much depth to Heaney's poetry but its simplicity is appealing to others I suppose. Larkin is my least favourite of the six poets I've studied (haven't done Plath or Mahon). I don't think you're missing much @a0ifee.

thelad95

Thomas Kinsella

robman60 wrote: »

My sentiments exactly. I like the fact that we're doing Never Let Me Go as single text for the same reason. Examiners must get incredibly bored correcting the same things again and again. I could see it adversely affecting your mark in subject where quality is somewhat subjective, like English.

I don't feel there's much depth to Heaney's poetry but its simplicity is appealing to others I suppose. Larkin is my least favourite of the six poets I've studied (haven't done Plath or Mahon). I don't think you're missing much @a0ifee.

I wouldn't necessarily read into the thing about examiners correcting the same material over and over again. If you produce a quality answer on Macbeth you will get a quality grade. Don't worry about that. Even if an examiner finds alternative answers refreshing to see you still have to earn your grade. They won' t give you an A just for making their job a little less tedious.

Peregrine

Thomas Kinsella

a0ifee wrote: »

seeing a lot of Larkin and kinsella on this thread..we didn't do either and we're finished poetry

Larkin is fairly popular alright but if you have 6 covered then you should be alright.

We did 6 too, didn't do Mahon or Bishop and I don't like 2 of the ones I did but I'm not too worried. I'll focus on five and do a little bit of the 6th one.

nailforhammer

Derek Mahon

Nimrod 7 wrote: »

Larkin is fairly popular alright but if you have 6 covered then you should be alright.

We did 6 too, didn't do Mahon or Bishop and I don't like 2 of the ones I did but I'm not too worried. I'll focus on five and do a little bit of the 6th one.

I don't think it's that important that you study a 6th at all. Some teacher only do 5 poets; we're only doing 6 if we've time at the end.

HelenAnn

Thomas Kinsella

thelad95 wrote: »

I wouldn't necessarily read into the thing about examiners correcting the same material over and over again. If you produce a quality answer on Macbeth you will get a quality grade. Don't worry about that. Even if an examiner finds alternative answers refreshing to see you still have to earn your grade. They won' t give you an A just for making their job a little less tedious.

Yeah, I agree with this! It definitely applies to the poetry even more so. If you take an interest in the poet's life and reflect on their works yourself, you can potentially write a stand-out essay on any of them. There might be one (maybe Heaney) again this year who the majority will answer on but regardless there's always plenty of room to give your analysis your own flair!

So far I've studied:
1. Yeats
2. Heaney
3. Dickinson
4. Plath

That's my rough order of preference but I find different elements of each one's poetry interesting so I'd probably be happy enough to answer on any of them if they came up.

We're starting on Larkin next week and that's it. I'm glad we're only doing 5 because it gives us the best possible chance to study each poet throughly.