HL English - Poetry

Smithwicks Man

Was reading through different threads but haven't found any answers so was hoping someone could help.

There's 8 poets on the course, is 3 (ie. Plath, Heaney and Larkin/Rich) enough for the exam? And how much needs to be known for each poet? For example our teacher said 3 of Larkin's poems is plenty cause they're so detailed yet it still takes a lot longer to learn him off than it does Plath/Rich.

Is 3.5 - 4 A4 pages enough?

Also, have many practised unseen poetry? We haven't touched it and I'm completely lost with it too...

Any thoughts?

Canard

Smithwicks Man wrote: »

Was reading through different threads but haven't found any answers so was hoping someone could help.

There's 8 poets on the course, is 3 (ie. Plath, Heaney and Larkin/Rich) enough for the exam? And how much needs to be known for each poet? For example our teacher said 3 of Larkin's poems is plenty cause they're so detailed yet it still takes a lot longer to learn him off than it does Plath/Rich.

Is 3.5 - 4 A4 pages enough?

Also, have many practised unseen poetry? We haven't touched it and I'm completely lost with it too...

Any thoughts?

No, its not enough, but you'd probably be okay with just those since they're apparently likely to come up. They could easily not though, and you technically need 5 to have enough
The SEC advise 6 poems by each but we only did 5 by a few, and its always been enough. I'd never leave it at 3...but then again we didn't do the Larkin poems that a lot of others seem to. I wrote about all 6 in detail in my mocks. 3.5-4 is fine, just make sure you get all the info in

We did a little and I'd advise you to - I got 13/20 in my mock because I just didnt know how to approach it. We had two tests and then I got 16/20 and 20/20, it takes no time at all to improve on but could easily bump you up a grade.

Smithwicks Man

Patchy~ wrote: »

No, its not enough, but you'd probably be okay with just those since they're apparently likely to come up. They could easily not though, and you technically need 5 to have enough
The SEC advise 6 poems by each but we only did 5 by a few, and its always been enough. I'd never leave it at 3...but then again we didn't do the Larkin poems that a lot of others seem to. I wrote about all 6 in detail in my mocks. 3.5-4 is fine, just make sure you get all the info in

We did a little and I'd advise you to - I got 13/20 in my mock because I just didnt know how to approach it. We had two tests and then I got 16/20 and 20/20, it takes no time at all to improve on but could easily bump you up a grade.

Cheers for the reply! 6 poems is a lot, especially considering we usually write just over an A4 page for each poem? .. Might learn the 5 then and play it safe. Yeah there is a serious amount in Larkin's poems, we do a page and half on each poem and then our teacher said to pick your 3 best poems :P

Not sure how to approach it really? Is the 20 mark question easier do you think or do you prefer to 2x10 q's? Only got 4/10 and 5/10 in the mocks... Haven't a clue where to begin with the unseen!

Togepi

I'd advise doing five poets as well, you need to really to be on the safe side. A lot of the time three or four poems is enough though if you discuss them well.

Canard

Smithwicks Man wrote: »

Cheers for the reply! 6 poems is a lot, especially considering we usually write just over an A4 page for each poem? .. Might learn the 5 then and play it safe. Yeah there is a serious amount in Larkin's poems, we do a page and half on each poem and then our teacher said to pick your 3 best poems :P

Not sure how to approach it really? Is the 20 mark question easier do you think or do you prefer to 2x10 q's? Only got 4/10 and 5/10 in the mocks... Haven't a clue where to begin with the unseen!

Thats probably where we differ - I usually just analyse the poem with reference to the text and point out how it relates to the question, usually I'd fit just under two poems into an A4 page Dunno how you'd get an A4 page on each :O I'd play it safe since he's a likely candidate anyways

Definitely the 2x10 in my opinion. You'd have to write a lot more for the 20m one so its nice to divide it up. How much did you write? You need an A4 page or so altogether I'm not 100% sure myself how to approach it, I just do it like the reading comprehensions a bit. I look at every line, see if I can somehow make it relevant and if I can, I put it in - works a charm :P

Smithwicks Man

It's just so annoying having to spend ages learning off 5 poets when you're only going to be answering on one :rolleyes: .. We do the poets in a lot of detail so there's a lot to write about for each poem we do.. too much for some of them! :P That's good advice! Thanks

PictureFrame

Smithwicks Man wrote: »

There's 8 poets on the course, is 3 (ie. Plath, Heaney and Larkin/Rich) enough for the exam?

Short answer, No. You need at least 4 or 5 to guarantee that one of the poets will be on the paper. Honestly, you're way better learning 4/5 and having your mind at ease going into the Paper.

I'm doing:

• Adrienne Rich
• Sylvia Plath
• Seamus Heaney
• Thomas Kinsella
• Philip Larkin

Honestly the poetry is not even that hard to study. I did a 5.5 page essay on Heaney yesterday after only looking over his poems for about 20 minutes, did the same last week with Rich. I usually only write about 3 poems in an answer though! Unlike a lot of people, I write loads on a poem but discuss few poems. Take for example my Heaney essay I did yesterday.

I layed it out like this:

• Quote from Seamus Heaney re: Poetry
• Discussed and gave Opinion on statement given
• Listed the 6 poems I have studied by Heaney
• Began discussing 'Mossbawn 1: Sunlight' approximately 1.5 pages
• Linked into 'The Forge'- About 1.5 page
• Linked into 'A Constable Calls'- 1.5 pages
• Discussed the 'Tollund Man' briefly- about 1/2 a page
• Conclusion, linked into given statement and ended

Question was:

'Heaney's poetry is rooted in his own life, especially in his background and his childhood'

Discuss the poetry of Seamus Heaney in light of the above statement.

fizzyorange

Yeah definitely do 4/5 poets. I'm doing five myself. Plath, Rich, Kavanagh, Larkin and Heaney. Just doing four poems per poet. I usually get 3-4 pages on that nO bother so I hope it works out on the day.

cillian95

Yeah i never have enough time to get in all the poems I want to on a poet.. thinking I might just try for four poems with brief references and comparisons to the others throughout

biohaiid

PictureFrame wrote: »

Short answer, No. You need at least 4 or 5 to guarantee that one of the poets will be on the paper. Honestly, you're way better learning 4/5 and having your mind at ease going into the Paper.

I'm doing:

• Adrienne Rich
• Sylvia Plath
• Seamus Heaney
• Thomas Kinsella
• Philip Larkin

Honestly the poetry is not even that hard to study. I did a 5.5 page essay on Heaney yesterday after only looking over his poems for about 20 minutes, did the same last week with Rich. I usually only write about 3 poems in an answer though! Unlike a lot of people, I write loads on a poem but discuss few poems. Take for example my Heaney essay I did yesterday.

I layed it out like this:

• Quote from Seamus Heaney re: Poetry
• Discussed and gave Opinion on statement given
• Listed the 6 poems I have studied by Heaney
• Began discussing 'Mossbawn 1: Sunlight' approximately 1.5 pages
• Linked into 'The Forge'- About 1.5 page
• Linked into 'A Constable Calls'- 1.5 pages
• Discussed the 'Tollund Man' briefly- about 1/2 a page
• Conclusion, linked into given statement and ended

Question was:

'Heaney's poetry is rooted in his own life, especially in his background and his childhood'

Discuss the poetry of Seamus Heaney in light of the above statement.

Im the exact same.
Did a heaney q yesterday too after going over all of his poetry, and even though I had planned writing on a 4th poem I was at 4 pages with 3 so left it there. Think Im best to do that with the rest of my poets.

Corruptedmorals

Four poems is fine, once it's detailed enough. I got 50/50 in the poetry question in the leaving cert with 4 poems on Plath, so they won't dock marks for not doing more once it's well done. (I looked at all of my papers after they were marked).

PictureFrame

Corruptedmorals wrote: »

Four poems is fine, once it's detailed enough. I got 50/50 in the poetry question in the leaving cert with 4 poems on Plath, so they won't dock marks for not doing more once it's well done. (I looked at all of my papers after they were marked).

The 2 poetry essays I've done in the last week (Plath and Rich) have scored 84% + 88% respectively. I think writing amount fewer poems in greater detail works better for me!