So you now know the poems – but how do you structure your essay?

This clean & simple new guide from Accolade Press will walk you through how to plan and structure essay responses to questions on the Power & Conflict poetry anthology. By working through nine mock questions, these detailed essay plans will show you how to go about building a theme based answer – while the accompanying notes will illustrate not only how to masterfully structure your response, but also how to ensure all AQA's Assessment Objectives are being satisfied.

R.P. Davis has a First Class degree in English Literature from UCL, and a Masters in Literature from Cambridge University. Aside from teaching GCSE English (which he's done for nearly a decade now), he has also written a string of bestselling thriller novels.

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SAMPLE FROM THE GUIDE

Foreword

In your GCSE English Literature exam, you will be presented with a single poem from the Power and Conflict anthology and a question that invites you to compare and contrast this poem with one other anthology poem of your choosing. Of course, there are many methods one might use to tackle this style of question. However, there is one particular technique which, due to its sophistication, most readily allows students to unlock the highest marks: namely, the thematic method. 

To be clear, this study guide is not intended to walk you through the poems line-by-line: there are many great guides out there that do just that. No, this guide, by sifting through a series of mock exam questions, will demonstrate how to organise a response thematically and thus write a stellar essay: a skill we believe no other study guide adequately covers!

I have encountered students who have structured their essays all sorts of ways: some by writing about one or both of the poems line-by-line, others by identifying various language techniques and giving each its own paragraph. The method I’m advocating, on the other hand, involves picking out three themes that will allow you to holistically answer the question: these three themes will become the three content paragraphs of your essay, cushioned between a brief introduction and conclusion. Ideally, these themes will follow from one to the next to create a flowing argument. Within each of these thematic paragraphs, you can then ensure you are jumping through the mark scheme’s hoops. 

So to break things down further, each thematic paragraph will include various point-scoring components. In each paragraph, you will quote from the poem the exam board has set, offer analyses of these quotes, then discuss how the specific language techniques you have identified illustrate the theme you’re discussing. In each paragraph, you will then quote from the second poem (the one you've chosen to write on), and, while analysing these quotes and remarking on language techniques, also explain not only how the second poem relates to the chosen theme, but also how it does so differently (or not!) from the first poem.

Don’t worry if this all feels daunting. Throughout this guide, I will be illustrating in great detail – by means of examples – how to build an essay of this kind.

The beauty of the thematic approach is that, once you have your themes, you suddenly have a direction and a trajectory, and this makes essay writing a whole lot easier. However, it must also be noted that extracting themes in the first place is something students often find tricky. I have come across many candidates who understand the poems inside out; but when they are presented with a question under exam conditions, and the pressure kicks in, they find it tough to break their response down into themes. The fact of the matter is: the process is a creative one and the best themes require a bit of imagination. 

In this guide, I shall take nine different exam-style questions, and put together nine essay plans that ensure that every poem in the anthology is discussed in depth at least once. These essay plans will also be accompanied by notes illustrating how we will be satisfying the mark scheme’s criteria. Please do keep in mind that, when operating under timed conditions, your plans will necessarily be less detailed than those that appear in this volume.  

* * *

Before I move forward in earnest, I believe it to be worthwhile to run through the four Assessment Objectives the exam board want you to cover in your response – if only to demonstrate how effective the thematic response can be. I would argue that the first Assessment Objective (AO1) – the one that wants candidates to ‘read, understand and respond to texts’ and which is worth 12 of the total 30 marks up for grabs – will be wholly satisfied by selecting strong themes, then fleshing them out with quotes. Indeed, when it comes to identifying the top-scoring candidates for AO1, the mark scheme explicitly tells examiners to look for a ‘critical, exploratory, conceptualised response’ that makes ‘judicious use of precise references’ – the word ‘concept’ is a synonym of theme, and ‘judicious references’ simply refers to quotes that appropriately support the theme you’ve chosen.

The second Assessment Objective (AO2) – which is also responsible for 12 marks – asks students to ‘analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate.’ As noted, you will already be quoting from the poems as you back up your themes, and it is a natural progression to then analyse the language techniques used. In fact, this is far more effective than simply observing language techniques (personification here, alliteration there), because by discussing how the language techniques relates to and shapes the theme, you will also be demonstrating how the writer ‘create[s] meanings and effects.’ 

Now, in my experience, language analysis is the most important element of AO2 – perhaps 8 of the 12 marks will go towards language analysis. You will also notice, however, that AO2 asks students to comment on ‘form and structure.’ Again, the thematic approach has your back – because though simply shoehorning in a point on form or structure will feel jarring, when you bring these points up while discussing a theme, as a means to further a thematic argument, you will again organically be discussing the way it ‘create[s] meanings and effects.’ 

AO3 requires you to ‘show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written’ and is responsible for a more modest 6 marks in total. These are easy enough to weave into a thematic argument; indeed, the theme gives the student a chance to bring up context in a relevant and fitting way. After all, you don’t want it to look like you’ve just shoehorned a contextual factoid into the mix.

Finally, you have AO4 – known also as “spelling and grammar.” Technically speaking, there are no AO4 marks up for grabs in this particular section of the paper. That said, I would still suggest that you take care on this front. The examiners are human beings, and if you are demonstrating a strong grasp of spelling and grammar, most examiners (whether rightly or wrongly!) will still be more inclined to mark your paper more generously.

* * *

My hope is that this book, by demonstrating how to tease out themes from a pair of poems, will help you feel more confident in doing so yourself. I believe it is also worth mentioning that the themes I have picked out are by no means definitive. Asked the very same question, someone else may pick out different themes, and write an answer that is just as good (if not better!). Obviously the exam is not likely to be fun – my memory of them is pretty much the exact opposite. But still, this is one of the very few chances that you will get at GCSE level to actually be creative. And to my mind at least, that was always more enjoyable – if enjoyable is the right word – than simply demonstrating that I had memorised loads of facts.

Essay Plan One

‘My Last Duchess’ & ‘Checking Out Me History’

My Last Duchess

Robert Browning

FERRARA

That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,

Looking as if she were alive. I call

That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf’s hands

Worked busily a day, and there she stands.

Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said

“Fra Pandolf” by design, for never read

Strangers like you that pictured countenance,

The depth and passion of its earnest glance,

But to myself they turned (since none puts by

The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)

And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,

How such a glance came there; so, not the first

Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, ’twas not

Her husband’s presence only, called that spot

Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek; perhaps

Fra Pandolf chanced to say, “Her mantle laps

Over my lady’s wrist too much,” or “Paint

Must never hope to reproduce the faint

Half-flush that dies along her throat.” Such stuff

Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough

For calling up that spot of joy. She had

A heart—how shall I say?— too soon made glad,

Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er

She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.

Sir, ’twas all one! My favour at her breast,

The dropping of the daylight in the West,

The bough of cherries some officious fool

Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule

She rode with round the terrace—all and each

Would draw from her alike the approving speech,

Or blush, at least. She thanked men—good! but thanked

Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked

My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name

With anybody’s gift. Who’d stoop to blame

This sort of trifling? Even had you skill

In speech—which I have not—to make your will

Quite clear to such an one, and say, “Just this

Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,

Or there exceed the mark”—and if she let

Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set

Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse—

E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose

Never to stoop. Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt,

Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without

Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;

Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands

As if alive. Will’t please you rise? We’ll meet

The company below, then. I repeat,

The Count your master’s known munificence

Is ample warrant that no just pretense

Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;

Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed

At starting, is my object. Nay, we’ll go

Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,

Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,

Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!

Compare the ways poets present ideas about power in ‘My Last Duchess’ and one other poem from ‘Power and Conflict.’

Introduction

I have opted to invoke ‘Checking Out Me History’ by John Agard for this particular comparison, because both poems are about controlling narratives. My philosophy insofar as the introduction is concerned is that it ought to be doing two things. First, it should be scoring early AO3 points by placing the poems in context. Second, it should be giving a hint as to where your discussion is heading, since, by doing so, you are allowing the examiner to gain their bearings and thus ready themselves to award you AO1 marks.

“Although Browning’s mid-nineteenth-century dramatic monologue and Agard’s post-colonial, free-verse protest are greatly different in style, both share a fascination with the power derived from controlling and shaping narratives.1 However, whereas Agard’s piece pillories the imbalances wrought by the forces who have historically controlled narratives, Browning’s piece is in fact written from the perspective of just such a powerful individual: it explores his attempts to control the narrative surrounding his ex-wife.”

Theme/Paragraph One: Both poems explore how power is brokered by those in control of the narrative. In ‘Checking Out Me History,’ the narrator is self-consciously pointing this out, as he rails against the power of the dominant historical narrative. ‘My Last Duchess,’ however, is written from the perspective of the individual who is in fact in control of the narrative.

• In Agard’s poem, there is an explicit awareness that power is brokered by those forces who decide which areas of history and culture are worthy of attention: his refrain ‘Dem tell me’ not only invokes the impersonal entity that arbitrates on the worthiness of certain narratives, but also, through its repetition, mimics the incessant repetition in which dominant narratives reverberate through culture. As Agard enumerates the topics deemed worthy by the powers-that-be – ‘1066;’ ‘Dick Whittington;’ ‘de Cow who jump over de moon’ – he outlines in shorthand the contours of a version of Britain’s history and culture that constitute a kind of canonical, legitimised history. [AO1 for advancing the argument with a judiciously selected quote].

• However, Agard observes that, by overlooking his Guyanese cultural heritage – the heritage of a former colony – the dominant culture enacts a colonial erasure. He states that it functions to ‘Blind me to me own identity.’ The spondee at the line’s start, as well as the physical violence evoked by ‘blind me,’ reflect the narrator’s indignation at this attempt to remove his people’s history from sight.2 [AO2 for the close analysis of the language; AO3 for placing the poem in historical context].

• Pivot to a comparison: Browning’s poem, however, does not rail against those who control narratives; rather, it dramatises a powerful individual’s attempts to control a narrative. The narrator controls not only what his interlocutors hear, but also what they see: he takes pride in the fact that nobody else ‘puts by / The curtain’ concealing the duchess’s portrait.3 The poem becomes a study in how powerful entities peddle their narrative. Particularly striking is the narrator’s use of self-deprecating rhetoric. By claiming he lacks oratory skill (‘which I have not,’ he claims), the narrator seduces his interlocutors into dropping their guard, ironically revealing his oratory prowess. [AO1 for advancing the argument with a judiciously selected quote].

Theme/Paragraph Two: Hegemonic power is presented as something that can in fact be challenged.4 In ‘Checking Out Me History,’ the colonial narrative is challenged through a powerful alternative narrative, which places emphasis on the experience of the oppressed and marginalised. In ‘My Last Duchess,’ the narrator’s description of the Duchess inadvertently offers a case study of female sexuality challenging patriarchal command.

• Agard’s poem does not simply posit the dangers of a dominant, colonial narrative: it also explores the power of counter-narratives that place emphasis instead on the experiences of the oppressed and marginalised. At the end of each of the stanzas that enumerate “traditional” British culture, Agard pitches an alternative cultural touchstone that he believes ought to be given weight: ‘Nanny de maroon;’ ‘de Caribs and de Arawaks too.’ By concluding these non-italicised stanzas with these counter-narratives, Agard uses structure to enact a literal undermining of the dominant narrative. [AO1 for advancing the argument with a judiciously selected quote; AO2 for discussing how structure shapes meaning].

• However, Agard takes his counter-narrative a step further: he interpolates italicised stanzas that elaborate on the stories that underpin his cultural touchstones. For instance, he discusses ‘Touissant:’ a ‘slave / with vision / lick back / Napoleon.’ The phrase ‘with vision’ is a wordplay: it refers to both Touissant’s revolutionary vision, but also the poet’s vision of an alternative version of history. [AO2 for the close analysis of the language].

• Pivot to comparison: In ‘My Last Duchess,’ there is no such explicit assertion of a counter narrative by the oppressed party. However, the narrator’s description of the Duchess inadvertently offers a case study of jealous patriarchal power rattled by natural female behaviour.5 Although the narrator seeks to convince the interlocutor that his duchess is ungrateful – ‘she ranked / My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name / With anybody’s gift’ – it is clear the narrator is attempting to excuse his jealousy and paranoia. The only transgressions he can identify are ‘approving speech[es]’ or the occasional ‘blush’ the duchess directs towards other men. [AO1 for advancing the argument with a judiciously selected quote].

• As a result, there is a secret counter-narrative lurking between the lines – a narrative in which a petty tyrant attempts to police every aspect of a young woman’s life – and which, once seen, challenges the contours of the dominant narrative. Browning’s poem therefore suggests that there is power in holding a dominant narrative up to scrutiny.

Theme/Paragraph Three: While shaping narrative is posited as the central battleground in both poems, each piece also explores other means by which dominant powers can be challenged.

• Perhaps most striking in ‘Checking Out Me History’ is the poet’s attempt to manipulate and alter the English language. The English language is, in many ways, the most potent symbol of colonialism: it was imposed on other cultures – even threatening to erase the tongues of those cultures: Agard’s native Guyana, which was colonised by Britain from 1796 onwards, is an English-speaking country to this day. By colonising English with idiosyncrasies of his own Creole tongue – ‘dem tell;’ ‘bout dat’ – Agard is enacting a counter-punch: he is powerfully subverting English’s grammar and spelling in a way that ironically reverses English’s subversion of the colonies’ languages. [AO1 for advancing the argument with a judiciously selected quote; AO2 for discussing how structure shapes meaning].

• Agard uses form to achieve a similar result: in alternate stanzas, he forces English into the confines of two-and-three-word-long lines that jar with hegemonic patterns of English speech. [AO2 for discussing how form shapes meaning].

• Pivot to comparison: Browning’s poem, however, explores a different method of challenging language-based narratives: visual art. Although Browning’s narrator might attempt to foist an interpretation onto Fran Pandolf’s ‘design,’ the mere presence of the artwork offers an alternative narrative. Of course, the potency of the painting to challenge the narrative is limited from a readerly point of view: we are unable to view the artwork. However, within the fictional universe conjured by the monologue, the interlocutors are able to see the ‘Duchess painted on the wall’ and will be deciding whether it tallies with the narrator’s narrative, or in fact undermines it. [AO1 for advancing the argument with a judiciously selected quote].

Conclusion

There is no set way to tackle the conclusion. Sometimes I’ll have an extra mini theme up my sleeve, and in that case I’ll integrate it into the conclusion to satisfy AO1 criteria. It can also be a good opportunity to score some extra AO3 (historical context) marks, as I have done here. I suppose the key thing, as you are wrapping things up, is to ensure you keep one eye on the assessment objectives.

“Agard and Browning are both fascinated with the power of narrative, and how it allows those who control it to curate and delineate which historical events are deemed worthy of attention. However, Agard’s piece more aggressively embraces the power of the counter-narrative. The poem is an attempt to pull back the ‘curtain’ that British colonialism has for so long drawn over his culture; to change the calls of ‘notice Neptune,’ as Browning’s narrator exclaims at the poem’s end, into notice ‘Mary Seacole.’”

Notes

1 A dramatic monologue is used to describe a poem in which a narrator is giving a speech and, in the process, reveals aspects of his/her personality.

Free verse refers to a type of poem that is not characterised by a regular rhyme scheme or a regular metre. It became increasingly popular post 1945.

2 I suspect you are probably asking: what in the heck is a spondee? Let me start from the top.

GCSE students have often heard of the phrase iambic pentameter when talking about Shakespeare. The first word – iamb – refers to something called a metrical foot, whereas the word ‘pentameter’ refers to the fact that almost all of Shakespeare’s lines have five metrical feet per line.

It is almost certainly easiest to illustrate this with an example. Let’s take the second line from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet; however, we are going to mark out each metrical foot with a vertical line, and all of the stressed syllables with bold font: ‘In fair | Vero| na, where | we lay | our scene.’ As you can see, each metrical foot here is made up of two consecutive syllables, making five metrical feet in all – hence pentameter (as opposed to, say, trimester, which would suggest that there are three feet). You can also see that the stress in each metrical foot is on the second syllable. This is what makes the metrical foot an iamb.

So: what is a spondee? This is a type of metrical foot in which both syllables are stressed. Let’s take a look at Agard’s line, but let’s mark out the feet and stressed syllables: ‘Blind me | to me | own i|denti|ty.’ Because Agard’s poem – unlike Shakespeare’s work - is rendered in free verse, there is no metrical regularity here. However, we can see that the first metrical foot has two stressed syllables, rendering it a spondee.

3 The interlocutor is the individual to whom a narrator is talking.

4 If something is hegemonic, it means it is dominant.

5 A patriarchal system is one in which men are the ones who hold the power. A system in which women are in charge is called the matriarchy.

Proceeding Chapters…

Essay Plan Two

Alfred Lord Tennyson's ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’ & Ted Hughes's ‘Bayonet Charge’

Essay Plan Three

Percy Shelley's ‘Ozymandias’ & Beatrice Garland's ‘Kamikaze’

Essay Plan Four

Wilfred Owen's ‘Exposure’ & William Wordsworth's The Prelude

Essay Plan Five

William Wordsworth's The Prelude & Seamus Heaney's ‘Storm on the Island’

Essay Plan Six

William Blake's ‘London’ & Simon Armitage's ‘Remains’

Essay Plan Seven

Simon Armitage's ‘Remains’ & Carol Ann Duffy's ‘War Photographer’

Essay Plan Eight

Imtiaz Dharker's ‘Tissue’ & Carol Rumens's ‘The Émigrée’

Essay Plan Nine

Robert Browning's ‘My Last Duchess’ & Jane Weir's ‘Poppies’

Alternatively, you can purchase and download an electronically delivered PDF directly from us here.

QUOTES FROM OUR CUSTOMERS

Not like other revision resources for Power and Conflict. This actually demonstrates in detail how to write an essay that makes sophisticated comparisons between the poems, as well as including detailed commentary on how the examples satisfy the exam board's assessment objectives. Invaluable resource.

This book sets out clearly the thematic method for tackling the Power and Conflict topic. It is laid out clearly, almost deceptively as it gives a great deal of detail in a simple and easy to follow page layout. It explains the mark scheme, shows how to structure an essay which flows from introduction to conclusion, how to extract and analyse the themes for this anthology, I am very impressed.

This book is very useful as it has several examples of exam questions and answers. It's not just a regular study guide, this book helps you learn the poems, whilst also helping you learn how to answer exam questions and receive top marks. In the essays it identifies the different sections so that you don't miss any crucial marks. It also compares the poems to each other so that you learn the skill of finding connections between the poems and know how to compare them in exams. It holds several essay plans with points that you can use for your own essays that use a range of vocabulary.

Great guide to writing, with thoughts and ideas. Clearly good balance for all levels. Very helpful and a great accompaniment to lessons.

This, and the other books in the series are absolutely brilliant at helping students to plan essays for the English Lit exams. Many other revision guides focus on theme analysis or quotation analysis but don't help students pull it altogether in an essay plan. This guide has been invaluable, giving my son a clear way of structuring his paragraphs and a clear way of comparing the poems - something he struggled with previously. These guides fill a clear gap in the market and I would highly recommend them.

I am studying english for GCSE and i found this revision guide very useful in improving my essay writing ability and helping me understand what is expected in my exam and how to manage the questions. It also shows detailed examples of points to make about each poem in the anthology and how the points relate to the assessment objectives. this guide is clear to read and easily accessible.

The essay guide for Power and Conflict poems is an extremely well-written and detailed guide that is filled with useful information. It helps students to be able to structure their answers accurately and with cohesion in order to achieve higher marks in their GCSE exams. In addition to containing helpful information, the study guide gives students both model questions and answers that are very well-written, making good use of knowledge, analysis and context.

Thanks so very much really helped my GCSE son and daughter understand difficult concepts easily. Easy read even for my teens but yet most insightful it really helped them understand this complex topic. Worth every penny thanks.

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