Exam Technique & Key Quotations
Exam Day: Anthology Comparison
This is your final revision lesson before the exam. We will cover: the typical format of the question, a step-by-step strategy for the time you have, a quotation bank covering all 15 poems, and a model paragraph you can use as a template. Everything here is designed to be practical — techniques you can use on the day.
The Question Format
A named poem is typically printed in full. Below it, the question will ask you to compare how the poets present a particular theme in the named poem and one other poem from the Conflict anthology. You choose your comparison poem. The question assesses AO2 (language, form and structure) and AO3 (context), and a strong answer is usually several sides of A4. Check your exam board’s specimen paper for the exact mark allocation and recommended length.
Timing strategy: spend roughly the first sixth of your time planning and the rest writing. In your plan, write down: (1) your chosen poem, (2) 3–4 comparison points, (3) key quotations from both poems, (4) one AO3 point per poem. This plan is your roadmap — it prevents you from drifting off-topic or repeating yourself.
Quotation Bank: All 15 Conflict Poems
Below is a core quotation for each poem with its key technique and theme. You do not need to memorise all 15 — focus on your 4–5 chosen poems — but having a working knowledge of the full list helps you make connections in the exam.
A Poison Tree (Blake): “I was angry with my foe: / I told it not, my wrath did grow.” Technique: Extended metaphor (tree), AABB rhyme. Theme: Suppressed anger becomes deadly. AO3: Blake challenged institutions that taught emotional repression.
The Destruction of Sennacherib (Byron): “The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold.” Technique: Simile, anapaestic rhythm. Theme: Divine destruction of military power. AO3: Biblical source (2 Kings 19); Byron’s fascination with power and its limits.
Extract from The Prelude (Wordsworth): “a huge peak, black and huge … Strode after me.” Technique: Personification, blank verse. Theme: Nature’s overwhelming power. AO3: Romantic belief in the sublime; autobiographical poem.
The Man He Killed (Hardy): “I shot him dead because — / Because he was my foe.” Technique: Caesura (dashes), ballad form. Theme: Absurdity of war; killing strangers. AO3: Hardy’s pacifism; Boer War context; working-class soldiers.
Cousin Kate (Rossetti): “He wore me like a silken knot, / He changed me like a glove.” Technique: Simile, ballad form. Theme: Sexual exploitation; defiance. AO3: Victorian sexual double standards; “fallen women.”
Exposure (Owen): “But nothing happens.” Technique: Refrain, half-rhyme, personification of nature. Theme: Futility of war; nature as the true enemy. AO3: Owen’s first-hand trench experience; died one week before the Armistice.
The Charge of the Light Brigade (Tennyson): “Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die.” Technique: Dactylic rhythm, anaphora, repetition. Theme: Heroic duty vs incompetent command. AO3: Tennyson was Poet Laureate; wrote in response to a newspaper report of the Crimean War.
Half-caste (Agard): “Explain yuself / wha yu mean / when yu say half-caste.” Technique: Caribbean dialect, no punctuation, satirical examples. Theme: Racial identity; language as resistance. AO3: Agard born in Guyana; challenges the English establishment through dialect.
Catrin (Clarke): “the tight / Red rope of love.” Technique: Extended symbol (umbilical cord/rope), two-stanza structure. Theme: Mother-child conflict; love as struggle. AO3: Clarke writing from personal experience of motherhood.
War Photographer (Satyamurti): “The reassurance of the frame.” Technique: Metaphor (camera as barrier). Theme: Moral dilemma of witnessing vs documenting. AO3: Role of media in representing conflict.
Belfast Confetti (Carson): “It was raining exclamation marks.” Technique: Punctuation as shrapnel metaphor, fragmented form. Theme: Violence shattering language and identity. AO3: The Troubles in Northern Ireland; street names from the Crimean War layering historical conflicts.
The Class Game (Casey): “How can you tell what class I’m from?” Technique: Listing, direct address, working-class dialect. Theme: Class prejudice. AO3: Casey’s working-class background; British class system.
Poppies (Weir): “hoping to hear / your playground voice catching on the wind.” Technique: Enjambment, textile extended metaphor. Theme: Mother’s grief; private loss. AO3: Commissioned for Remembrance Day; draws on mothers of serving soldiers.
No Problem (Zephaniah): “I am not de problem.” Technique: Refrain, dub rhythm. Theme: Confronting racism with defiance. AO3: British-Jamaican identity; dub poetry tradition.
What Were They Like? (Levertov): “Sir, laughter is bitter to the burned mouth.” Technique: Q&A structure, past tense. Theme: Cultural erasure; anti-war protest. AO3: Written during the Vietnam War as protest; American poet opposing US military action.
Model Paragraph
Here is a model comparative paragraph for the question: “Compare how the poets present the effects of conflict on individuals in Exposure and one other poem.”
Model: Both Owen in Exposure and Weir in Poppies present individuals trapped by the effects of conflict, yet while Owen portrays the soldier’s physical suffering, Weir portrays the mother’s emotional torment. Owen’s half-rhymes (“knive us / nervous”) deny the reader a satisfying resolution, creating a dissonant, unsettling atmosphere that mirrors the soldiers’ own denied expectations of heroism. In contrast, Weir uses flowing enjambment (“hoping to hear / your playground voice catching on the wind”) to create a breathless, reaching quality — the mother’s grief overflows the line just as it overflows her ability to contain it. Contextually, Owen draws on first-hand trench experience to expose the reality that soldiers’ greatest enemy was the weather, not the opposing army; Weir, writing for a Remembrance Day commission, gives voice to the mothers who are often invisible in war narratives.
Final Checklist: Before You Start Writing
Use this mental checklist in the exam:
- Read the named poem carefully — underline key phrases, note techniques in the margin.
- Identify the theme in the question — circle it. Every paragraph must link back to this theme.
- Choose your comparison poem — pick the one you know best that connects to the theme. Write down 3–4 quotations from memory immediately, before you forget.
- Plan 4–5 comparison points — each one should address the theme through a different angle (language, form, structure, imagery, context).
- Write — every paragraph compares both poems. Integrate AO3 throughout, not at the end.
- Proofread — check you have used subject terminology, comparison connectives, and have not just retold the poems.