H.L English Poetry... I'm screwed!

Man Down

Hey everyone!
I'm probably the most un-motivated dude on this thing but I just realised how screwed I actually am for the English poetry! I couldnt name you a Montague poem nevermind discuss it! I've covered Donne, Plath, Kavanagh & Yeats with a grinds teacher but I was looking back through the notes the other day and theres so many gaps I need to fill in that I've forgotten from lack of revision now thats it's all feeling a little overwhelming...

Can anybody please tell me the likely poets this year? My teacher is useless and says they all have as good a chance as another and I know this isnt true!

Also can somebody gimme some tips from cramming poetry study!? I always found this the hardest question on the paper...

Cheers!

md99

Montague Plath Kavanagh.....

Montague's easy, study him. If you want to do the minimum, take 4 poems by each poet and learn a couple of lines from each..... The poetry Q is only 50 marks, remember. Learn a little on what each poem is about, know a few lines and bluff it out a little, you'll be fine.

Plath is the MOST tipped, so if you REALLY wanna cut down do Plath on her own, although she can pretty complicated.

lilmizzme

hmm....this looks like a job for dan417 and Murderer on this one, they are fond of an English discussion or two...(see previous threads)

Basisically,law of probability says that learn 5 and one will definetely come up....the rumors Im hearing for this year are Plath, Frost, Montague, Eliot and Kavanagh, but of course, they are just rumors.....

Advice for the next few weeks??Get writing essays!Get out your papers, and start answering...maybe a poet a week?Get your teacher to correct everything and try work off that....don't panic, you still have time!

Corruptedmorals

Tends to be a woman poet and an Irish poet. So, Bishop and Plath. Bishop came up last year, so that lessens her chances. She's come up twice in a row before, but that lessens her chances further of that happening again. Plath is very likely, tbh.

Irish poet isn't something to bank on, unless you're doing all three. We're not doing Montague, so, yeah. Kavanagh is tipped, it's his 50th anniversary or something, but then Yeats barely ever comes up so it might be his year.

We did 5 poets, Bishop, Plath, Yeats, Frost and Kavanagh. Hoping for Plath or Kavanagh, but I'm covering all 5 and praying for it not to be Yeats...worst essays of the lot.

md99

Corruptedmorals wrote:

Irish poet isn't something to bank on, unless you're doing all three. We're not doing Montague, so, yeah. Kavanagh is tipped, it's his 50th anniversary or something, but then Yeats barely ever comes up so it might be his year.

Montagues last year on the course, I reckon he's got the best chances for Irish poet.

lilmizzme

i thought that too, but I could have sworn I saw Montague's name on a revision book for 2008 exam...either way, hes an easy enough poet to do....making sense of his past through his poetry and all that....

interpolian

Its definetley not to late, i get a bit over whealmed myself with english its easier said than done but try not panic, poetry isnt everything on the course but write an essay on each poet and u'll be fine, after my mocks i realised my poetry wasnt up to scratch and wrote an essay on 5 poets once its all written down its much easier to remember and refer back to,
for each poet i also made little codes to remeber the poems they have written for example Elizabeth bishop was in in 'the waiting room' near 'the prodical' 'filling station' she ate the 'fish' and it was 'the first death in Nova Scotia'

sounds stupid but hey if it helps remember!

Selphie

Corruptedmorals wrote:

praying for it not to be Yeats...worst essays of the lot.

I agree with you. I can't stand writing about him.
We did Plath, Bishop, Yeats, Kavanagh and Montague. Plath, Kavanagh or Montague would suit me best.
Like someone already suggested, do a poet a week. That makes four (gulp) so see if you can squeeze in a fifth sometime. There's good sample answers on the internet, especially on...(I think) edco.ie or e-xamit.ie where you type in the answer codes from the exam papers.
What works best for me is to write out personal responses, get them corrected and improve them. Learn those off, cause that's probably how the questions will be formatted. Best of luck

Steve01

If you get Exam and Career guide it would be very helpful, there's some nifty sample answers on Montague, Kavanagh, Plath and I think Frost is there too.

Nehpets

That reminds me that I haven't looked at poetry in ages

Naikon

I am going to just study Frost,Bishop and Montague:o

dan719

Its Montague's first year on the course. Not his last!
Also I personally think Elliot will be on the exam,mainly because so few study his supposedly difficult work. Learn off an essay about Elliot and you could be very happy indeed. Note Yeat's exhibition was on in the national library at the time the paper was set, I reckon he will also be on it.

And its dan719 not dan417 but there both primes which is cool!:cool:

The probability of you guessing a three digit number which is prime and not 719 is approximately pie(999) minus pie(100) all divided by 900 where pie(x) is the number of prime numbers up to and including x and is calculated using the pnt.(prime number theorem). Just to ensure there is some maths on this thread!:D

failsafe

Not wanting to go over pimping my own website, but.....!
check out http://www.zulunotes.com/wiki/index.php/Poetry
I lent my LC English notes to my girlfriend (now ex!) and never got them back, so I would have put up my plath/frost poetry essays if I had them!

What I did for them though was from during the year I had about an a4 page on each poem (some some stuff on imagery, theme and a few quotes) which I realise might not be the easiest thing for you to do now, but what I did around this time of the year was pick 5ish poems for each poet, and write a small paragraph on each. Then pick an overall theme for the poet, and little link sentences to go from one poem to the next. Eventually that can be condensed into an a4 page per poet (in bullet points) with maybe a learned off sentence for an intro, 3 key points for each poem (and what order they're in and how you'll link one to the next) and then learn off a sentence or two for a conclusion.

I know it may be too much work too late (although I'd say it's doable) but I found starting with writing as much as I could think for each poem, then condensing that to a 3 page (5 poem) essay to get corrected by a teacher, then fixing that up, then writing an a4 essay plan page.

In the end I had 5 pages of bullet pointed essay plan, one for each poet, that I could read over the day before. 2 essays that I knew inside out, and a back up 3 that I could write confidently about.

What you could try is go to http://www.zulunotes.com/wiki/index.php/Sylvia_Plath and write up what you have so far under the sample essay "a personal essay to sylvia plath" If you're lucky other people might come along and fill in the gaps (boardsies are usually pretty good for a helping hand!) or if nothing else it'd be good practice! Even if you got a start on it I promise I'll add in what I can from memory! (I did my essay on Frost in the LC, but Plath was my best prepared!!)

estebancambias

At least your in honours English

Donald-Duck

md99 wrote:

Montague Plath Kavanagh.....

Montague's easy, study him. If you want to do the minimum, take 4 poems by each poet and learn a couple of lines from each..... The poetry Q is only 50 marks, remember. Learn a little on what each poem is about, know a few lines and bluff it out a little, you'll be fine.

Plath is the MOST tipped, so if you REALLY wanna cut down do Plath on her own, although she can pretty complicated.

I completely agree with these 3. This is the safest way to do as little as possible. I'd besuprised if all 3 of them didn't come up to be honest, the only questionable one is kavanagh

Choco

Frost might be a good one to 'chuck' in to that mix as well...

Selphie

dan719 wrote:

Its Montague's first year on the course. Not his last!

I thought that too! But so many people were saying last so I figured I was wrong.

And this...

dan719 wrote:

The probability of you guessing a three digit number which is prime and not 719 is approximately pie(999) minus pie(100) all divided by 900 where pie(x) is the number of prime numbers up to and including x and is calculated using the pnt.(prime number theorem). Just to ensure there is some maths on this thread!:D

Just went waaay over my head.

lilmizzme

dan719 wrote:

And its dan719 not dan417 but there both primes which is cool!:cool:

I knew it was something along those lines....I did that prime number thing on purpose as well...:p

And, Selphie...you get used to it around here....

lilmizzme

dan719 wrote:

The probability of you guessing a three digit number which is prime and not 719 is approximately pie(999) minus pie(100) all divided by 900 where pie(x) is the number of prime numbers up to and including x and is calculated using the pnt.(prime number theorem). Just to ensure there is some maths on this thread!:D

So what is answer...you wouldnt put up something like that then leave the rest of us non-mathamatical heads hanging, would you??;)

dan719

I have using the most basic version of pnt i.e pie(x)twiddles towards x divied by lnx the probability is .136584.
If anyone has a list of primes handy the exact answer can be easily found by substituting the actual number of primes less then 999 subtracting the number of primes less then 100. I took the top line as 123.(rounding up):D

eZe^

I find it amusing that everyone has narrowed there choices down to every poet on the course, between ye you have tipped every poet about 8 times.

lilmizzme

dan719 wrote:

I have using the most basic version of pnt i.e pie(x)twiddles towards x divied by lnx the probability is .136584.
If anyone has a list of primes handy the exact answer can be easily found by substituting the actual number of primes less then 999 subtracting the number of primes less then 100. I took the top line as 123.(rounding up):D

so what you're basically saying is.....im cool?

GretchenWieners

I'm studying Bishop Plath Yeats and Eliot. Strange mix but Plath or Bishop always comes up and I did them and Yeats last year. I'm doing Eliot because I was told by my teacher they'll be wanting to give more people marks for doing him because not many people will do him. Although the same was said about Hardy last year...

Enemy Of Fate

I'm doing Yeats, Kavangh, Bishop, Plath and Montague, although i'll be focusing on Kavangh and Plath.Am doing 4 poems from most of the poets and then 3 from Montague and Bishop (I'll probably just learn a line from a 4th poem and stick it into my answer somewhere).**** I hate poetry.Can't wait till the leaving is offer and I never have to learn poetry again!Yippee!!

Selphie

eZe^ wrote:

I find it amusing that everyone has narrowed there choices down to every poet on the course, between ye you have tipped every poet about 8 times.

Very thorough like that, boardsies are.

Donald-Duck

eZe^ wrote:

I find it amusing that everyone has narrowed there choices down to every poet on the course, between ye you have tipped every poet about 8 times.

And some poets will have been tipped 50times over, because they're much more likely to come up for variosu reasons :rolleyes:

Naikon

Enemy Of Fate wrote:

Can't wait till the leaving is offer and I never have to learn poetry again!Yippee!!

Amen to that:)
My poetry and Macbeth books will be the first on the barbeque along with my uniform and coupled with plenty of beer and sunshine, It will be an altogether very satisfying event indeed.

originalcupcake

interpolian wrote:

for each poet i also made little codes to remeber the poems they have written for example Elizabeth bishop was in in 'the waiting room' near 'the prodical' 'filling station' she ate the 'fish' and it was 'the first death in Nova Scotia'

sounds stupid but hey if it helps remember!

its a good idea actually!! cheers for the tip!:)

im learning plath, montague, bishop, kavanagh, and frost..but im hoping plath or kavanagh will come up.

id say eliot has a good chance of coming up...but just cudnt be bothered wading thru all the emtional baggage in his poetry and anaylising them in an exam....headwrecking galore...

lilmizzme

originalcupcake wrote:

id say eliot has a good chance of coming up...but just cudnt be bothered wading thru all the emtional baggage in his poetry and anaylising them in an exam....headwrecking galore...

:eek: Oh it hurts...how cud you say such things about such a legend of a poet...the only poet that gives me reason to go to english anymore!!!