Paper 1 Literature

• Engels
• Upper Secondary (Key Stage 4)
• GCSE

Goals for today 

Paper 1 LITERATURE 

Considering differing uses of text 

Exploring a poem and discussing notes 

Using focused questions to structure your ideas 

Picking and using a guiding question for this poem 

Exploring 

In your groups, look at the extracts 

Make notes on 

Language, literary style, content and purpose.

Text type 

• What are the text types? How do you know? 
  
• Don Paterson - poetry 
  
• Fergal Keane - journalism - non-fiction prose (literary) 
  
• Leslie Marmon Silko - prose fiction 
  
• Scattered Black and Whites - Elbow - song lyrics 
  

Comparison text types 

1. Which extract do you like best? Why?
   
2. What elements of language and style make each unique?
   
3. What can they say about narrative voice and point of view?
   
4. Are there any points of cross over in terms of content - i.e. what the extracts are 'about'?
   
5. How would they describe the overall aim and the overall impact of each?
   

Poetry 

1. Consider the notes on the poem "The Voice".

2. Turn over and answer the questions for "An Advancement of Learning". 

3. Look at the answer ideas. 

4. Choose a guiding questions for this poem. 

Q 1 & 2  ideas 

Q1: An advancement' is a somewhat clinical, detached phrase - perhaps reflective of the speaker's distance (in time) from the memory.

Q2: Clearly the use of the first person pronoun 'I' helps to create this, but the use of techniques such as parenthesis also contributes; it is as if the speaker is talking to us in an informal manner. This sense of informality is also generated through the mixture of end stopped and run on lines.

Q 3 & 4  ideas 

Q3: Nosed' and 'wearing' personify the river, lending it a sense of life and autonomy that is a motif throughout the poem. Visual imagery in 'oil skinned' and 'transfer of gables and sky' suggests the river's reflectivity - and the kind of remembered detail that is repeated throughout the poem. 

Q4: There is extensive sibilance, which announces the rat as something physical and repulsive. 'Slimed' and 'sickened' depict the speaker's instinctive, visceral reaction to its appearance.

Q5 & 6   ideas 

Q5: This is another example of the way the speaker registers an informal tone, but at this point in the poem, the effect is exclamatory as he communicates his remembered fear and dread at the appearance of a second rat. Through techniques like these, Heaney creates a sense that the memory is happening now, in the present.

Q6: The speaker is both terrified and yet enthralled by the rat; he runs from it and yet turns to face it. 'Thrilled' communicates this ambiguous response - he watches it in a 'deliberate' manner having previously 'snubbed' it.

Q7 ideas 

Q7: Sounds in particular realise the poem's interest in physical experience. Plosive sounds in 'back bunched', 'plastered' and 'knobbed' are very physical and actual - a sense that is furthered in the imagery of 'ears plastered down', 'knobbed skull' and 'tapered tail.'

Q8 ideas 

Q8: There is a fairly consistent iambic rhythm established here. In addition, lines 1 and 3, and 2 and 4 mirror each other in their syntactic structure - e.g. through the mid line caesurae in 2 and 4. There is a sense of forward momentum and an increase in intensity as the rat and the speaker momentarily stare at each other. This is an important moment, as if the rat is briefly as interested in the speaker as he is in it.

Q9 ideas 

Q9: Here, as elsewhere in the poem, Heaney makes use of compound nouns, which capture significant visual detail. There is, in addition, a use of synecdoche, as the speaker refers to the rat through its particular parts. The 'terror' he describes is communicated, as before, through visceral, instinctive response.

Q10: There is a strong degree of development at the end. The speaker relays a sense of something having been overcome - a childhood fear, perhaps even childhood itself. This is made clear by the simple, abrupt statements inthe final two lines - as if to register the speaker's new-found confidence.

Q10 ideas 

Q10: There is a strong degree of development at the end. The speaker relays a sense of something having been overcome - a childhood fear, perhaps even childhood itself. This is made clear by the simple, abrupt statements inthe final two lines - as if to register the speaker's new-found confidence.

 1. How is imagery used in this poem to portray (the subject)?

2. How does the poem’s form contribute to its changing moods and the development of ideas?

3. How does the poem portray the development of the speaker’s attitude towards (the subject)?

4. How does the poem use compressed/concentrated language to express complex ideas and/or feelings?

5. How does the poem use contrasts and/or parallels, and what effects are created?

6. How does the poem use metaphors and/or similes and how do these contribute to the overall meaning of the poem?

7. How does the poem convey the passing of time and what effects are achieved?

8. How is the tone of the poem established and how does this develop? 

9. How does the poem use sounds to enhance its meaning? 

10. How does the speaker impact and shape the reader’s response to this poem?

Choose a guiding question for this poem 

Explore this question by annotating your poem accordingly.