How to tackle unseen poetry

Back at college and been asked to tackle an unseen poem? Maria shows you how…

Today we’re going to explore the unseen poetry element of your exam.  (For Edexcel A Level Literature you are asked to compare – so we will also look at how to do this.)  

Many students worry unnecessarily about trying to get to grips with a poem that they have not studied before.   However, by following some simple advice you will actually be looking forward to the exam!  (OK maybe that’s a bit of hyperbole there…)

Read on to discover how to solve the unseen poem Like Maria:

The most important thing about analysing a new poem is to have a system or framework for analysis.  This can be something your teacher showed you or one you designed for yourself.  It acts as a checklist for the exam to make sure you consider all aspects of a poem.  

Below is the checklist of 10 prompts that Maria likes to use:

TITLE
REACTION
VOICE
TONE
SOUND
STRUCTURE
IMAGERY
TECHNIQUES
THEMES
GENRE

Click here for further explanation of the prompts.  

In the Edexcel exam on unseen poetry, you are required to compare the unseen poem with one you have studied from the ‘Poems of the Decade’ anthology.   The question will provide you with a focus for the essay – this will also give you a clue as to what the unseen poem is about.  

Use this focus to inform your reading of the poem and annotate accordingly.  Make sure you think about the 10 prompts – some of them might be irrelevant to your particular unseen or the question focus but they are designed to make sure that you don’t miss anything major.  (For example – if it’s a sonnet you should recognise it by considering genre or structure…)

Now you need to think about the comparison.  You have limited time in the exam so aim to cover maybe 3 key points of comparison.

Let’s try an example question:

Click here to read Fred D’Aguiar’s ‘Boy Soldier’.
Copy, paste and print to get a real life experience of the exam.
– you will need to scroll down a bit – don’t read the analysis until afterwards!!!!

Use the 10 prompts to get an overall feel for the poem – but don’t over annotate yet!

Now think about answering the question below:

Compare how both poets explore the presentation of victims in ‘Boy Soldier’ and Roderick Ford’s ‘Giuseppe’.  

Look for points of comparison – annotate the poem according to the question
and write a plan:

e.g.

Boy Soldier

1. boy not named –  ‘a face just like / his’ kills him’ – many victims – mass graves
2. victim of violence – hardly noticeable ‘flick of finger on the trigger’
3. innocence -light imagery ‘snuffs out the wicks’ – muscle

Giuseppe

1. woman not named – identity removed – and ‘ripe golden roe’
2. victim of violence – ‘butchered’ and eaten – separate head etc.
3. innocence – men = guilty, mermaid can’t speak – minorities etc.

Now write a point up – you might write something like this for point 3:

​Both the boy soldier and the mermaid are presented as innocent victims of war.  D’Aguiar immediately establishes the boy’s innocence by the imagery of light in the ‘large lamp’ and ‘smaller lanterns’ used to describe his face.  The child’s youth is also emphasised by the image of his bones ‘waiting for muscle’ implying that he lacks the physical power of a man.    The use of the verb ‘snuffs’ shows how easily this light is to extinguish, enhancing the boy’s vulnerability and combining with the flippant alliteration of ‘flick of a finger’ to show how fragile his life is.  D’Aguiar portrays the boy as a tragic victim of the relentless machine of war and highlights the innocence of children trapped in such circumstances.  

Unlike the boy, Ford’s mermaid is not immediately described.  Instead we see her innocence through the guilty behaviour of the men surrounding her.  The uncle cannot look the nephew in the eye, the priest holds her hand and the doctor uses the defensive adverb ‘anyway’ to avoid responsibility.  The whole scene takes place out of site ‘behind the aquarium’ suggesting that the crime needs to be hidden.  The mermaid is repeatedly described as not being able to speak and is never given a voice except for the scream.  She is unable to defend herself as the men create her story through both their words ‘just a fish’ and actions such as separating her head and hands from her body.  The mermaid is a victim not only of war but of men’s appetites in the face of ‘starvation’. Ford uses the  vulnerable mermaid as a symbol to explore on the exploitation of innocent minorities, amongst them women, who are without a voice.  In a similar way, D’Aguiar shows how innocent children are caught up in the horrors of war and exploited unknowingly.  

​Now return to the Guardian article here and read a fuller appreciation of the poem.  

Use this format for exploring lots of unseen poems until you feel confident that you can tackle anything.

REMEMBER you do not need to understand everything about the poem – you are in control of what you talk about.  

You can find a good selection of modern verse here:

So that’s how to solve the problem of unseen poetry!