1. AQA GCSE English Literature: Poems Past and Present Anthology Love and Relationships
Poet
Context
When We Two Parted
Lord Byron
( ) English poet and famous member of the Romantic movement.
Love's Philosophy
Percy Bysshe Shelley
( ) Friend of Lord Byron and also a famous Romantic movement poet
Porphyria’s Lover
Robert Browning
( ) Popular Victorian poet, known for dramatic monologues. Married to Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Sonnet 29 – ‘I think of thee’
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
( ) already a popular poet before she married Robert. Suffered ill health throughout her life and was often unable to leave the house.
Neutral Tones
Thomas Hardy
( ) Initially more popular for his novels such as ‘Far From the Madding Crowd’.
The Farmer’s Bride
Charlotte Mew
( ) Became more popular after her death. Her life was full of sadness and tragedy and many members of her family suffered mental illness. She committed suicide.
Walking Away
Cecil Day Lewis
( ) best remembered for being the Poet Laureate in the last few years of his life. Also wrote detective fiction.
Letters from Yorkshire
Maura Dooley
(born 1957) successful writer and teacher, lives in London
Eden Rock
Charles Causley
(1917 – 2003) quiet modest man, lived all his life in Cornwall. Famous for children’s poetry.
Follower
Seamus Heaney
( ) one of the most famous 20th century poets and won the Nobel prize for literature in Oldest son of a large farming family in Northern Ireland.
Mother, Any Distance
Simon Armitage
(born 1963) This poem is from a book of sonnets called ‘Book of Matches’ written around the poets 30th birthday.
Before You Were Mine
Carol Ann Duffy
(born 1959) Duffy is the first woman to be British Poet Laureate, a post she has held since 2009
Winter Swans
Owen Sheers
(born 1974) A Welsh writer and poet, Welsh history and identity features heavily in his poetry.
Singh Song
Daljit Nagra
(born 1966) British poet born to Sikh Punjabi parents. Lots of his poetry explores the experience of ‘first generation’ immigrants to Britain and pokes fun at his own culture and stereotypes
Climbing My Grandfather
Andrew Waterhouse
( ) A poet and musician who was passionate about the environment. He was a very private person who struggled with depression and eventually committed suicide.
Paper 2 AQA GCSE English Literature Modern Texts and Poetry
one question asking you to compare two of these poems plus two questions on Unseen Poetry
Assessment Objectives
AO1 (22.5%) Read, understand and respond to texts. Students should be able to:
maintain a critical style and develop an informed personal response
use textual references, including quotations, to support and illustrate interpretations
AO2 (27.5%): Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate.
AO3 (7.5%): Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written.
AO4 (2.5%) Use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation.
Themes
Love
Family relationships
Passionate feelings
Broken relationships
Tragic endings
Healed relationships
Differences between parent and child perspectives
Dependence and independence