Comparison Skills
The Part 1 Comparison Question
The Edexcel poetry section, Part 1, asks you to compare a named poem (printed in the exam paper) with one other poem of your choice from the same collection. The question is worth 20 marks: 15 for AO2 (language, form and structure) and 5 for AO3 (context). You are expected to write a sustained, comparative essay — not two separate analyses.
The named poem is printed on the exam paper, so you can quote directly from it. Your chosen poem is closed book — you must quote from memory. This means you need to memorise 4–5 short, versatile quotations from every poem you might choose. Practise writing them out from memory before the exam.
Step 1: Read the Question Carefully
The question will always follow the same pattern: “Compare how [poet] in [named poem] and one other poem from the Relationships collection present [theme/aspect].” The theme might be “love,” “loss,” “power,” “family,” “desire” or a more specific aspect. Your first job is to identify the focus of the question and choose a comparison poem that gives you plenty to say about that focus.
Choosing your poem: Pick a poem that has clear similarities and differences with the named poem on the given theme. If the named poem presents love as destructive (e.g. “La Belle Dame Sans Merci”), you could compare with “My Last Duchess” (love as possession) for a similarity-based comparison, or “Sonnet 43” (love as devotion) for a contrast-based comparison. Both approaches work — the key is that you can discuss method (AO2) in both poems.
Step 2: Plan Before You Write
Spend 5 minutes planning. A strong plan has 3–4 comparative points, each covering both poems:
Named poem: La Belle Dame Sans Merci (Keats). Chosen poem: Sonnet 43 (Barrett Browning).
Point 1 — Both present love as overwhelming: Keats: the knight is enchanted, enslaved (“in thrall”). Barrett Browning: the speaker is consumed (“I love thee to the depth and breadth and height / My soul can reach”). But Keats’s love destroys; Barrett Browning’s transcends death.
Point 2 — Form shapes meaning: Keats uses the ballad — folk-tale, cyclical, suggesting love’s destructive power is timeless. Barrett Browning uses the Petrarchan sonnet — traditional love form, subverted by a female voice. Both use established forms but to opposite ends: Keats shows love’s curse, Barrett Browning shows love’s blessing.
Point 3 — Context: Keats (TB, early death) sees beauty as fleeting and dangerous. Barrett Browning (elopement, defying her father) channels hard-won love into the sonnet tradition she was excluded from as a woman.
Step 3: Write Comparatively Throughout
The biggest mistake students make is writing about Poem A, then writing about Poem B, then bolting on a comparison at the end. This is called the “tennis match” approach and it limits your marks. Instead, use a comparative structure where every paragraph discusses both poems:
Use this paragraph structure: Point (what both poets do), Evidence from Poem A (quote + AO2 analysis), Link to Poem B (comparative connective), Evidence from Poem B (quote + AO2 analysis), AO3 context (for one or both poems). This ensures every paragraph is genuinely comparative.
Comparative connectives: Use these to link your analysis of both poems within each paragraph:
For similarities: “Similarly,” “Both poets…,” “In the same way,” “Like [poet A], [poet B] also…”
For differences: “In contrast,” “Whereas,” “However,” “While [poet A]…, [poet B]…,” “Unlike [poet A], [poet B]…”
For nuance: “Although both poets…, they differ in…,” “On the surface…, but on closer analysis…,” “This is complicated by…”
Step 4: Embed AO2 and AO3
AO2 (15 marks): This is where most marks are. You must analyse how poets create meaning through language (imagery, metaphor, word choice), form (sonnet, ballad, free verse, dramatic monologue) and structure (stanza patterns, volta, cyclical structure, progression). Always name the technique, quote, and explain the effect.
AO3 (5 marks): Context should be woven in, not bolted on. Instead of a separate context paragraph, integrate it into your analysis: “Barrett Browning’s use of the Petrarchan sonnet is particularly significant because this form was traditionally reserved for male poets praising distant, silent women; by writing as a woman declaring her own desire, she subverts a centuries-old convention.”
[Point] Both Keats and Barrett Browning present love as an overwhelming force that consumes the speaker entirely, yet the consequences of that overwhelming love are radically different. [Poem A + AO2] In “La Belle Dame Sans Merci,” Keats describes the knight as being held “in thrall” by the beautiful lady — the word “thrall” means slavery, suggesting love has imprisoned him. The cyclical ballad structure reinforces this: the poem begins and ends with the knight “alone and palely loitering” where “no birds sing,” trapping him in a repeating cycle of enchantment and loss. [Link] In contrast, Barrett Browning presents overwhelming love as liberating rather than imprisoning. [Poem B + AO2] In “Sonnet 43,” the anaphora of “I love thee” builds through the octave like a rising tide, reaching its climax in “I shall but love thee better after death” — love here transcends even mortality. [AO3] Barrett Browning’s confident declaration is all the more striking given that she wrote this as a woman in 1850, subverting the Petrarchan sonnet tradition in which women were silent objects of male admiration.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
1. Writing two separate essays: Every paragraph must discuss both poems. 2. Retelling the poem: The reader already knows the poems — analyse, don’t summarise. 3. Spotting techniques without explaining their effect: “Keats uses alliteration” earns almost nothing. “Keats’s alliteration in ‘cold hill side’ creates a hard, bitter sound that…” earns marks. 4. Forgetting AO3: Context is worth 5 marks — a quarter of the total. 5. Choosing a weak comparison poem: Pick one you know well and that offers clear points of comparison. Don’t choose a poem just because you know quotes from it.