Advice for revising Poetry

Have a look at the blog and the index will take you to my year 11 poetry revision:

PRELUDE
Annotated poems
How to compare poems one idea
(please note this refers to Character and Voice from old spec. It's now CONFLICT AND POWER)

There is some stuff about poetry there and I will add some more tonight that is relevant. Try revising them all using STIFF on revision cards:

SUBJECT- What is the poem literally ABOUT? What is the underlying / inferred / hidden meaning? What is the poet's intention with writing this poem? Try and sum this up in one line with the themes eg Shelley wrote Ozymandias in order to draw our attention to the majesty of nature and its longevity in comparison to the reputation of man.

TONE- Is the tone predominantly nostalgic and wistful? Celebratory and triumphant? Melancholy and regretful? Positive or negative? Juxtaposition of both? What is the tone at the start and the end? Eg Checking out Me History changes from angry and confrontational at the start to reclaiming identity in a triumphant and personal way at the end.

IMAGERY- Look for three really decent language quotes - main ones. Look for figurative language, emotive language etc. Then add any small words as secondary quotes eg if you have identified personification of weather in Exposure, there is a lot more of this later on. So add 'secondary' short quotes.

FORM- Two structural points that you can use to reinforce your ideas about the poem from the 'S' subject part - is there enjambment / caesura / regularity or irregularity? Any lines on their own isolated? Any interesting or unusual stanzas? Why? + Effect.

FEELING- What is the overwhelming feeling at the end of the poem? What is the message that the poet wants us to go away with? What emotions are dealt with in the poem? How do these emotions add to our overall feelings? (Personal opinion- what you think!)

Go on to Slide Share- www.slideshare.com and start an account - it's free! And having an account means you can download any useful power points. Then search for the poem that you want to revise and all sorts of useful stuff comes up from teachers and other students.

Also check GCSE Pod (I think your login is your school email and password 'greenford' unless you have been given another) as that has videos and interesting debates etc for each poem. Also if you go into Youtube and type [POEM NAME] BBC Teach into the search bar, there are a lot of short videos made with the poets that sheds light on their motivations and intentions.