Home > Subjects > English > English level 3 > 3.5 Unfamiliar texts > Subject content > Reading poetry
- Subject: English
- AS: 90724
- Level: 3
- Credits: 3
- External
3.5 Read and respond critically to unfamiliar prose and poetry texts
Reading poetry
Reading an unfamiliar poem can be daunting unless you have a methodical approach. See the following sites for guidance:
- How to read a poem (PDF 164KB) list of questions that can be applied to any poem
- GCSE English Literature (PDF 160KB) how to get an overall understanding of a poem
- Reading individual poems
- Poetic terms
- Alliteration
- The use of figurative language, and interpreting imagery
- Making Comparisons
- The Language of Literary Analysis
Example of a poetry question and answer, to show the importance of analysing the text
Read the extract from Son's Flat (Word 27KB) by Judith Dell Panny (from Unfurling – Poems by Judith Dell Panny, Dunmore Press, Palmerston North, 2004) and answer the following question in detail.
Describe the effects achieved by the combination of the following phrases to describe the flat in lines 4–9. 'scrim spinnakers' 'breezy window sashes' 'out of kilter'.
Possible answers
- Achieve: The flat is old and in a bad state of repair. It needs to be fixed before it falls down.
- Merit: (as for achieve plus) The cracks in the house let in so much wind it looks and feels like a sail boat.
- Excellence: (as for merit plus) The wind could blow the house away, 'floating foundation,' 'crazy gables poised for flight'. The house has not been given the money required to maintain it, much like the students, their workload and lack of money 'plights of youth'.
