what do people mean when they say "how many poets are you doing?"

montown

We've done 6; Frost, Plath, Larkin, Heaney, Kavanagh and Kinsella. I feel confident I could answer a question on any of them, simply because I can remember the poems in general, the main themes and any language features that stand out. I also remember lines that I could quote in an answer.

Is that what's referred to as "learning a poet" ? I haven't actually learned anything, I can simply remember them relatively well. Am i missing something? What does everyone else do when they "learn a poet" ?

Stalin and rugby

You sir are a genius.Forget about it, you are extremely gifted that you don't have to learn anything in English.

Other people find it hard to learn quotes themes etc so they tend to do only a few not all 6. So jelly you don't have to learn anything :rolleyes:

PictureFrame

People, (including myself i'll admit) would just love to learn a Sample essay for a Poet and slap it down on the page. You can't really do that anymore so we have to learn all about language and imagery of each poem and then apply it to the question. That's basically what 'learning a poet' is.

Namlub

If you know quotes, language and themes you obviously must have learned something

Raeone

Theres eight poets, we are ment to study six so we can be guaranteed we will have a choice on the paper. So many will not even bother reading two of the poets and just forget about them altogether.
Some people only choose to study four-five, or even less if they predict one poet to come up.
By studying, its up to you how much study you do/need to do.

Basically when someone asks you, how many poets you are doing, it means how many you are going to prepare to answer for the exam.

Since you have studied six and sound like you are preparing yourself to answer a question on them six then your answer is: 6