English poetry

Ashashi

Ok, in quite a bit of a situation. Our English teacher was pregnant and took 10 months off, between 5th and 6th, and we got a pretty good replacment. Now he covered Yeats brilliantly, I know Yeats like the back of my hand. Which is great, but he then left poetry and did Lear and the Com. study.

Now, with a week left, we have only done 4 poets (Yeats, Boland, Kavangh and Longley), and I am worried. We didn't touch on Elliot, Keats or Walcott. We don't have an international poet done, at all.

Now, I know 4 poets is not the end of the world, and I know them all pretty well, Yeats and Longley probably being my better ones, but I am still worried. Rich could come up instead of Boland, and then 3 international poets could appear, leaving me with nothing.

If I was to try and self teach myself an international poet, who should I pick. Elliot looks very long winded and tough, while I have not really looked at Keats or Walcott.

Just looking for an opinion. By the way, I am aiming for about a B1 or A2. In case it helps.

Cheers.

MavisDavis

Ashashi wrote: »

Ok, in quite a bit of a situation. Our English teacher was pregnant and took 10 months off, between 5th and 6th, and we got a pretty good replacment. Now he covered Yeats brilliantly, I know Yeats like the back of my hand. Which is great, but he then left poetry and did Lear and the Com. study.

Now, with a week left, we have only done 4 poets (Yeats, Boland, Kavangh and Longley), and I am worried. We didn't touch on Elliot, Keats or Walcott. We don't have an international poet done, at all.

Now, I know 4 poets is not the end of the world, and I know them all pretty well, Yeats and Longley probably being my better ones, but I am still worried. Rich could come up instead of Boland, and then 3 international poets could appear, leaving me with nothing.

If I was to try and self teach myself an international poet, who should I pick. Elliot looks very long winded and tough, while I have not really looked at Keats or Walcott.

Just looking for an opinion. By the way, I am aiming for about a B1 or A2. In case it helps.

Cheers.

I'd advise you to have a week look at Rich or Walcott. Rich because she's not too bad to understand (and is the second female poet) and Walcott because he's far more accessible than Keats and Elliot, who are romantic-era poets with more complex themes, etc. It's a time thing. If you had more of it, I'm sure Keats and Elliot would be perfectly easy for you to get, but you don't, so I'd leave them.

I don't think you need to worry too much, though: Keats and Walcott were on the paper last year and while you cannot trust predictions, it is highly unlikely that both of them will come up again. One, maybe, but not both.

And Rich is an "international" poet too, by the way.

You've done all the Irish poets though, you're pretty much guaranteed at least one of them will appear. It would be very unusual to see an Irish LC English exam with no Irish poets on it.

That being said, my class have covered all the poets you have and are now quickly doing Eliot. I don't think it's really necessary but there you go.

Walcott & Keats came up last year and Rich in 2008, so if you were to pick an extra poet to do you'd probably be better off with Eliot imo. His poems are quite long so you'd only have to know 3 and you'd be fine.

Still, if your teacher isn't doing it in class you may just be better off sticking with the poets you have already, because as I said I'm nearly completely certain one of them will come up.

Ashashi

Boland was a really quick skim over, and I really had to pick the poems I liked. My teacher picked This Moment and White Hawthron, instead of Love and The Pomegranate, which makes no sense to me. Those two poems alone could have 2 pages or more written about them.

I know Yeats hasn't come up in a long time, but I don't like banking on predictions, but if he comes up, I will be thrilled. Another problem is, my poetry book (Discovery) has no guidelines on Rich, which could be a bit of a pain. I know she is a very strong minded feminist, and much more vocal than Boland, but it seems a bit short notice.

I think I will look at Rich, but I am going to really concentrate on the 4 I know.

implausible

You're well covered with what you have here. As other posters have said, Keats and Walcott both came up last year, so I wouldn't waste time on studying either of them! Kavanagh and Yeats are both very likely options. You have covered all the Irish poets, so you'll be fine.

A word of advice - don't get bogged down in poetry. Prepare your essays and learn off your plans and then leave it. It is 50 marks out of 400 i.e. 1/8th of the course (and yet students tend to spend 1/2 their time on it)

MavisDavis

Ashashi wrote: »

Boland was a really quick skim over, and I really had to pick the poems I liked. My teacher picked This Moment and White Hawthron, instead of Love and The Pomegranate, which makes no sense to me. Those two poems alone could have 2 pages or more written about them.

I know Yeats hasn't come up in a long time, but I don't like banking on predictions, but if he comes up, I will be thrilled. Another problem is, my poetry book (Discovery) has no guidelines on Rich, which could be a bit of a pain. I know she is a very strong minded feminist, and much more vocal than Boland, but it seems a bit short notice.

I think I will look at Rich, but I am going to really concentrate on the 4 I know.

There are copyright issues surrounding printing notes about Rich. She won't let books give "official" interpretations on her poems. I can only suggest that you search the internet for inspiration and come to your own conclusions about her work.
Her main theme is definitely feminism, though.

Ashashi

That's good then. Yeah, it is fine really. My essay's are getting better, I wrote a speech in my mock, and got 65 out of 100, but then I wrote 2 essays and another speech and got 2 85's and an 80, so I just picked a poor title in my mocks.

Lear is ok as well, maybe gonna have to go over some Edgar and Edmund quotes, and the Fool is meant to be a surprise inclusion this year. That will be tough if he appears.

The comparative I find easy, and cultural context is easy as well, but can't do LG, but if I can do 2 out of the 3, I will be set.

Cheers guys