Moon on the Tides

Unseen Poetry
Literature Paper 2
Section C
Questions 1 and 2
Mark Scheme
The exam question is marked out of 24
You are only marked on A01 & AO2 (these are the same AOs as in the question
on the poem from the anthology)
You do not need to discuss context in these questions

AO1:
You discuss the poem in a wide ranging manner
fully discussing and covering all areas of the
question
You use a significant amount of quotations and
references to the poem to help support and
guide your ideas

AO2
You fully analyse the writers choices
(remembering that they are deliberate and for
effect) and you use subject terminology to help
you explain your thoughts and ideas
You discuss the effects of the writers choices
on the reader linking back to the writers aims
and choices
Section C Comparison Mark Scheme
8 Marks
You are only marked AO2 which is your ability to compare the two poems

AO2
Compare the two poems discussing language,
structure and form; using subject terminology
to support your views
Discuss the writers deliberate choices and the
effect on the reader
 Analysing the poems

When answering the questions focus on the poems:

Voice Imagery Tone Audience Language Structure

Always link everything to meaning. Ask yourself how does this contributes to the
meaning? Why has the poet used this technique?
Useful Phrases
This suggests
This may make the reader feel
The poet conveys a sense of
This word is particularly effective
Perhaps the poet has used this phrase to
The use of this adjective/verb/imperative
The choice of language is significant here because

Comparison phrases

Comparing Contrasting/Qualifying Illustrating

Equally Although For example
Likewise However In the case of
In the same way Whereas As revealed by
As with On the other hand For instance
Similarly Alternatively Such as

Comparing Poems

When comparing the poems keep the theme of the poems in mind and use this to
anchor your answer. If the two poems are about love focus your analysis on love

To achieve higher marks, try to think of alternative meanings or ideas about the
poems

Perhaps the writer is trying to suggest that

Alternatively we could see this as
Another interpretation of this could be
Tips for the exam

Section C Q1

Read the question before you read the poem. Underline/highlight any key parts
that you will need focus on in your answer

Read the poem once and highlight any interesting words phrases

Read the poem a second time and label techniques and features

Read the poem a third time and annotate the effect of the techniques around
the poem

Answer the question

For Q2
(the comparison question)

Follow the same technique for the second poem. Remember to focus on how the
two poems compare

If you get stuck

Count the number of lines in each stanza. Does the number of lines in
each stanza change? Think of a reason for this.

Look at the punctuation !?... Think of a reason for why the punctuation has
been used.

Look for a semantic field (linked words and ideas) what mood/feeling
does it create?

Focus on individual words. Which words really stand out what might be
the effect?

Are any obvious techniques or features used? Why might they have been
used?
Poetic Devices

Enjambment: When a sentence runs from one line of poetry into the next line
without any punctuation marks. Run on lines help to emphasise meaning or
excitement. "But in contentment I still feel/ the need of some imperishable bliss."

Alliteration: repetition of closely connected words beginning with the same letter,
usually a consonant. It is used to highlight the feeling of sound and movement, to
intensify meaning, or to bind words together, e.g. "the Burning Bushes" or " Sing a
Song of Sixpence"!

Assonance: repetition of identical vowel sounds in order to achieve a particular

effect. Broad Vowels (a,o,u) can slow down a line, making it sound sad and weary. E.g.
A four foot box, a foot for every year

Form: Form is how the poem is structured or organised? What are the effects of
this particular shape? In a sonnet, for example, the poem confines thoughts and
feelings to fourteen lines. This condensed form usually means that the feelings in
the poem are more intense.

Metaphor: A direct comparison, without using the words, like, as or than. E.G. "that
child is a perfect monkey."

Onomatopoeia: use of words which echo their meaning in sound, e.g. "snap",
crackle", miaow and "pop"! \

Personification: When a poet treats objects or something in nature as if they were

alive. E.g. the door groaned on its hinges, shes a beauty (talking about a car),
the wind whistled

Repetition: is a common feature of poetry, e.g. Wordsworths the solitary reaper:
Behold her, single in the field, Yon solitary highland lass! Reaping and singing by
herself. Poets often add emphasis to what they are describing by using words with
similar meanings several times. Sound effects, such as rhyme and alliteration, are
also types of repetition.

Rhyme: The use of words with matching sounds, usually at the end of each line.

Rhythm: is the beat or pace of the words. It can be regular or irregular, slow or
fast, depending on the effect the poet wants to create. In W H Audens poem Night
Mail the fast-moving rhythm gives the impression of a powerful train moving
through the countryside: This is the night mail crossing the border, Bringing the
 cheque and the postal order, Letters for the rich, letters for the poor, The shop at
the corner, the girl next door.

Simile: a comparison using the words like, as or than. E.G. Shes as light as a
feather.

Stanza: is a section of a poem, sometimes called a verse (particularly if it rhymes)

Symbol: when a word, phrase or image 'stands for' or evokes a complex set of ideas,
the meaning of which is determined by the surrounding context, i.e. the sun can
symbolize life and energy, a red rose can symbolize romantic love.

Tone: this is tone of the voice that we can imagine when reading the poem. It could
be serious, sincere, angry, mocking, sad, persuasive, etc.

Voice: is the speaker in the poem either the poets own voice or a character
created by the poet.
 Individual poems to study

Character and Voice

Singh Song! (Daljit Nagra)

How does the poet present ideas about the speakers feelings towards his wife
and family?

Character and Voice

The River God (Stevie Smith)

How does the poet present the River God as a real person?

Place
The Black bird of Glanmore (Seamus Heaney)

How does the poet present the relationship between man and nature in the
poem?

Conflict
Flag (John Agard)

How does the poet present ideas about conflict in the poem?

Love
In Paris with You (James Fenton)

How does the poet present ideas about love in the poem?
 Poems to compare

Character and Voice

The Clown Punk and Give (Both Simon Armitage)

In the Clown Punk and Give the poet creates an isolated or lonely characters.
What are the similarities/ and or differences in the way the poet present these
lonely characters?

Place
A Vision and The Moment (Simon Armitage and Margaret Atwood)

In A Vision and The Moment, the poets describe a sense of time and place.
What are the similarities/ and or differences in the way the poet present their
versions of a particular time or place?

Conflict
The Right Word and At the Border, 1979 (Imtiaz Dhakar and Choman Hardi)

In the The Right Word and At the Border the poets describe their thoughts on
conflict. What are the similarities/ and or differences in the way the poet
present their ideas about conflict?

Relationships
Quickdraw and Sonnet 116 (Carol Ann Duffy and William Shakespeare)

In Quickdraw and Sonnet 116 the poets discuss different ideas about love.
What are the similarities/ and or differences in the way the poet present these
ideas?
Poems and
Questions
Singh Song! (Daljit Nagra)

How does the poet present ideas about the speakers feelings towards his wife
and family?

I run just one ov my daddy's shops

from 9 o'clock to 9 o'clock
and he vunt me not to hav a break
but ven nobody in, I do di lock -

cos up di stairs is my newly bride

vee share in chapatti
vee share in di chutney
after vee hav made luv
like vee rowing through Putney -

Ven I return vid my pinnie untied

di shoppers always point and cry:
Hey Singh,ver yoo bin?
Yor lemons are limes
yor bananas are plantain,
dis dirty little floor need a little bit of mop
in di worst Indian shop
on di whole Indian road -

Above my head high heel tap di ground

as my vife on di web is playing wid di mouse
ven she netting two cat on her Sikh lover site
she book dem for di meat at di cheese ov her price -

my bride
she effing at my mum
in all di colours of Punjabi
den stumble like a drunk
making fun at my daddy

my bride
tiny eyes ov a gun
and di tummy ov a teddy

my bride
she hav a red crew cut
 and she wear a Tartan sari
a donkey jacket and some pumps
on di squeak ov di girls dat are pinching my sweeties -

Ven I return from di tickle ov my bride

di shoppers always point and cry:
Hey Singh,ver yoo bin?
Di milk is out ov date
and di bread is alvays stale,
di tings yoo hav on offer yoo hav never got in stock
in di worst Indian shop
on di whole Indian road -

Late in di midnight hour

ven yoo shoppers are wrap up quiet
ven di precinct is concrete-cool
vee cum down whispering stairs
and sit on my silver stool,
from behind di chocolate bars
vee stare past di half-price window signs
at di beaches ov di UK in di brightey moon -

from di stool each night she say,

How much do yoo charge for dat moon baby?

from di stool each night I say,

Is half di cost ov yoo baby,

from di stool each night she say,

How much does dat come to baby?

from di stool each night I say,

Is priceless baby
The River God (Stevie Smith)

How does the poet present the River God as a real person?

I may be smelly, and I may be old,

Rough in my pebbles, reedy in my pools,
But where my fish float by I bless their swimming
And I like the people to bathe in me, especially women.
But I can drown the fools
Who bathe too close to the weir, contrary to rules.
And they take their time drowning
As I throw them up now and then in a spirit of clowning.
Hi yih, yippity-yap, merrily I flow,
O I may be an old foul river but I have plenty of go.
Once there was a lady who was too bold
She bathed in me by the tall black cliff where the water runs cold,
So I brought her down here
To be my beautiful dear.
Oh will she stay with me will she stay
This beautiful lady, or will she go away?
She lies in my beautiful deep river bed with many a weed
To hold her, and many a waving reed.
Oh who would guess what a beautiful white face lies there
Waiting for me to smooth and wash away the fear
She looks at me with. Hi yih, do not let her
Go. There is no one on earth who does not forget her
Now. They say I am a foolish old smelly river
But they do not know of my wide original bed
Where the lady waits, with her golden sleepy head.
If she wishes to go I will not forgive her.
The Black bird of Glanmore (Seamus Heaney)

How does the poet present the relationship between man and nature in the
poem?

On the grass when I arrive,

Filling the stillness with life,
But ready to scare off
At the very first wrong move.
In the ivy when I leave.

Its you, blackbird, I love.

I park, pause, take heed.

Breathe. Just breathe and sit
And lines I once translated
Come back: I want away
To the house of death, to my father

Under the low clay roof.

And I think of one gone to him,

A little stillness dancer
Haunter-son, lost brother
Cavorting through the yard,
So glad to see me home,

My homesick first term over.

And think of a neighbours words

Long after the accident:
Yon bird on the shed roof,
Up on the ridge for weeks
I said nothing at the time

But I never liked yon bird.

The automatic lock

Clunks shut, the blackbirds panic
Is shortlived, for a second
Ive a birds eye view of myself,
A shadow on raked gravel

In front of my house of life.

Hedge-hop, I am absolute
For you, your ready talkback,
Your each stand-offish comeback,
Your picky, nervy goldbeak
On the grass when I arrive,

In the ivy when I leave.

Flag (John Agard)

How does the poet present ideas about conflict in the poem?

Whats that fluttering in the breeze?

Its just a piece of cloth
that brings a nation to its knees.

Whats that unfurling from a pole?

Its just a piece of cloth
that makes the guts of men grow bold.

Whats that rising over a tent?

Its just a piece of cloth
that dares the crowd to relent.

Whats that flying across a field?

Its just a piece of cloth
that will outlive the blood you bleed.

How can I possess such a cloth?

Just ask for a flag, my friend.
Then blind your conscience to the end.
In Paris with You (James Fenton)

How does the poet present ideas about love in the poem?

Don't talk to me of love. I've had an earful

And I get tearful when I've downed a drink or two.
I'm one of your talking wounded.
I'm a hostage. I'm maroonded.
But I'm in Paris with you.

Yes I'm angry at the way I've been bamboozled

And resentful at the mess I've been through.
I admit I'm on the rebound
And I don't care where are we bound.
I'm in Paris with you.

Do you mind if we do not go to the Louvre

If we say sod off to sodding Notre Dame,
If we skip the Champs Elyses
And remain here in this sleazy

Old hotel room

Doing this and that
To what and whom
Learning who you are,
Learning what I am.

Don't talk to me of love. Let's talk of Paris,

The little bit of Paris in our view.
There's that crack across the ceiling
And the hotel walls are peeling
And I'm in Paris with you.
 Don't talk to me of love. Let's talk of Paris.
I'm in Paris with the slightest thing you do.
I'm in Paris with your eyes, your mouth,
I'm in Paris with... all points south.
Am I embarrassing you?
I'm in Paris with you.

Character and Voice

The Clown Punk and Give (Both Simon Armitage)

In the Clown Punk and Give the poet creates an isolated or lonely characters.
What are the similarities/ and or differences in the way the poet present these
lonely characters?

The Clown Punk

Driving home through the shonky side of town,

three times out of ten youll see the town clown,
like a basket of washing that got up
and walked, towing a dog on a rope. But

dont laugh: every pixel of that mans skin

is shot through with indelible ink;
as he steps out at the traffic lights,
think what hell look like in thirty years time

the deflated face and shrunken scalp

still daubed with the sad tattoos of high punk.
You kids in the back seat who wince and scream
when he slathers his daft mush on the
windscreen,

remember the clown punk with his dyed brain,

then picture windscreen wipers, and let it rain
Give

Of all the public places, dear,

to make a scene, Ive chosen here

Of all the doorways in the world

to choose to sleep, Ive chosen yours.
Im on the street, under the stars.

For coppers I can dance or sing.

For silver swallow swords, eat fire.
For gold escape from locks and chains.

Its not as if Im holding out

for frankincense or myrrh, just change.

You give me tea. Thats big of you.

Im on my knees. I beg of you. Place
A Vision and The Moment (Simon
Armitage and Margaret Atwood)

In A Vision and The Moment, the

poets describe a sense of time and place. What are the similarities/ and or
differences in the way the poet present their versions of a particular time or
place?

A Vision

The future was a beautiful place, once.

Remember the full-blown balsa-wood town
on public display in the Civic Hall.
The ring-bound sketches, artists impressions,

blueprints of smoked glass and tubular steel,

board-game suburbs, modes of transportation
like fairground rides or executive toys.
Cities like dreams, cantilevered by light.

And people like us at the bottle-bank

next to the cycle-path, or dog-walking
over tended strips of fuzzy-felt grass,
model drivers or motoring home in
electric cars. Or after the late show
strolling the boulevard. They were the plans,
all underwritten in the neat left-hand
of architects a true, legible script.
I pulled that future out of the north wind
at the landfill site, stamped with todays
date,
riding the air with other such futures,
all unlived in and now fully extinct.
Conflict
The Right Word and At the Border,
1979 (Imtiaz Dhakar and Choman Hardi)
In the The Right Word and At the Border the poets describe their thoughts on
conflict. What are the similarities/ and or differences in the way the poet
present their ideas about conflict?
The Right Word
Outside the door,
lurking in the shadows,
is a terrorist.
Is that the wrong description?
Outside that door,
taking shelter in the shadows,
is a freedom fighter.
I havent got this right.
Outside, waiting in the shadows,
is a hostile militant.
The Moment
The moment when, after many years
of hard work and a long voyage
you stand in the centre of your room,
house, half-acre, square mile, island, country,
knowing at last how you got there,
and say, I own this,
is the same moment when the trees unloose
their soft arms from around you,
the birds take back their language,
the cliffs fissure and collapse,
the air moves back from you like a wave
and you can't breathe.
No, they whisper. You own nothing.
You were a visitor, time after time
climbing the hill, planting the flag, proclaiming.
We never belonged to you.
You never found us.
It was always the other way round.
Are words no more
than waving, wavering flags?
Outside your door,
watchful in the shadows,
is a guerrilla warrior.
God help me.
Outside, defying every shadow,
stands a martyr.
I saw his face.
No words can help me now.
Just outside the door,
lost in shadows, I open the door.
is a child who looks like mine. Come in, I say.
Come in and eat with us.
One word for you.
Outside my door, The child steps in
his hand too steady, and carefully, at my door,
his eyes too hard takes off his shoes.
is a boy who looks like your son, too.
At the Border, 1979

It is your last check-in point in this country!

We grabbed a drink-
soon everything would taste different.

The land under our feet continued

divided by a thick iron chain.

My sister put her leg across it.

Look over here, she said to us,
my right leg is in this country
and my left leg in the other.
The border guards told her off.

My mother informed me: We are going home.

She said that the roads are much cleaner
the landscape is more beautiful
and people are much kinder.

Dozens of families waited in the rain.

I can inhale home, somebody said.
Now our mothers were crying. I was five years old
standing by the check-in point
comparing both sides of the border.

The autumn soil continued on the other side

with the same colour, the same texture.
It rained on both sides of the chain.

We waited while our papers were checked,

our faces thoroughly inspected.
Then the chain was removed to let us through.
A man bent down and kissed his muddy homeland.
The same chain of mountains encompassed all of us.

Relationships
Quickdraw and Sonnet 116 (Carol Ann Duffy and William Shakespeare)

In Quickdraw and Sonnet 116 the poets discuss different ideas about love.
What are the similarities/ and or differences in the way the poet present these
ideas?

Quickdraw

I wear the two, the mobile and the landline phones,

like guns, slung from the pockets on my hips. Im all
alone. You ring, quickdraw, your voice a pellet
in my ear, and hear me groan.

Youve wounded me.

Next time, you speak after the tone. I twirl the phone,
then squeeze the trigger of my tongue, wide of the mark.
You choose your spot, then blast me

through the heart.

And this is love, high noon, calamity, hard liqour
in the old Last Chance saloon. I show the mobile
to the sheriff; in my boot, another ones

concealed. You text them both at once. I reel.

Down on my knees, I fumble for the phone,
read the silver bullets of your kiss. Take this
and this and this and this and this

Sonnet 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be
taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and
cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.