Don’t tell the story of the poem, appreciate the ideas it expresses.
Don’t point out techniques, rather discuss the effect each technique has on the reader.
Don’t state facts, instead aim to capture your emotional response.
That is all.
I recently came across a scrap of paper written after correcting a bundle of unseen poetry tests. I may as well commit it to virtual paper before dumping it.
You need to remember the following:
A quality response here will get you a lot more marks than sheer quantity. Divide your time equally between questions. [...]
Once upon a time, long long ago, a song and a poem were published side by side on the Junior Cert exam paper, unseen poetry section. Students were asked to discuss the difference between the style of writing in songs and poems. I stumbled across this question in my first year of teaching and [...]
Generally speaking you can answer one 20 mark question or two 10 mark questions so we’ll deal with them separately here.
The 20mark question usually goes a little something like this:
Write a personal response to this poem, highlighting the impact it makes on you. Describe the impact this poem makes on you as a [...]
WHAT THEY MEAN AND HOW THEY WORK:
Rather than alphabetical, the following list is organised from simple basic terms & techniques that you must be able to identify and discuss, to more complex ones of which a passing knowledge is sufficient.
THEME= the message of the poem; the point the author [...]
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