Best way to cram english poetry?

Incompetent

At the moment I'm going through a Heaney sample answer, and although I seem to be getting good information, I'm not sure it'll be relevant.

Should I try and learn the basics of 5 poems, or try and learn a typical answer (key notes)? I need to do Heaney, Plath, and Larkin, so nothing in depth

rosualt

Incompetent wrote: »

At the moment I'm going through a Heaney sample answer, and although I seem to be getting good information, I'm not sure it'll be relevant.

Should I try and learn the basics of 5 poems, or try and learn a typical answer (key notes)? I need to do Heaney, Plath, and Larkin, so nothing in depth

If I were you I'd learn the basics of five poems. You'll lose a lot marks on purpose if you can't adapt a learned off answer to fit the specific question asked on the day. It would be more worth your while to focus on the poetry itself I reckon

chomps_x

I know this probably isn't the best advice and someone will start giving out but I'm only learning the 3 female poets, as every year a female poets comes up

I learn the poetry point by point instead of poem by poem. For example for Plath I would start with the point of Inadaquecy. I would then contrast that across the 5 poems we studied (but i'd usually only refer to 2) so in this case I would refer to Arrival of the Beebox where Plath says "I am no Ceaser" then I would also refer to Morning Song where Plath says "I am no more your mother". I would of course explain them more in depth but this is just for illustration purposes.

You could try do that with Heaney and Larkin also. I could email you the plan I did on Plath if you would like? PM me your email address

Incompetent

chomps_x wrote: »

I know this probably isn't the best advice and someone will start giving out but I'm only learning the 3 female poets, as every year a female poets comes up

I learn the poetry point by point instead of poem by poem. For example for Plath I would start with the point of Inadaquecy. I would then contrast that across the 5 poems we studied (but i'd usually only refer to 2) so in this case I would refer to Arrival of the Beebox where Plath says "I am no Ceaser" then I would also refer to Morning Song where Plath says "I am no more your mother". I would of course explain them more in depth but this is just for illustration purposes.

You could try do that with Heaney and Larkin also. I could email you the plan I did on Plath if you would like? PM me your email address

Jaysus, I've got a fair bit to do yet! That sounds pretty good though, thanks. I'll PM you now

Cruel Sun

Incompetent wrote: »

At the moment I'm going through a Heaney sample answer, and although I seem to be getting good information, I'm not sure it'll be relevant.

Should I try and learn the basics of 5 poems, or try and learn a typical answer (key notes)? I need to do Heaney, Plath, and Larkin, so nothing in depth

Where did you get the sample answer from?

Incompetent

Martin_94 wrote: »

Where did you get the sample answer from?

English key notes revision book

leaveiton

I think the best way is to just know the poems well. Read over them, understand them, learn the key quotes, and you'll be able to answer on anything.

Damianlegend

chomps_x wrote: »

I know this probably isn't the best advice and someone will start giving out but I'm only learning the 3 female poets, as every year a female poets comes up

I learn the poetry point by point instead of poem by poem. For example for Plath I would start with the point of Inadaquecy. I would then contrast that across the 5 poems we studied (but i'd usually only refer to 2) so in this case I would refer to Arrival of the Beebox where Plath says "I am no Ceaser" then I would also refer to Morning Song where Plath says "I am no more your mother". I would of course explain them more in depth but this is just for illustration purposes.

You could try do that with Heaney and Larkin also. I could email you the plan I did on Plath if you would like? PM me your email address

can I have that plan also please for plath ? thanks.

Wesc.

Incompetent wrote: »

English key notes revision book

If I were you I'd stay well away from that book, almost everyone uses it!

If you want to do well in English, I find giving unique, individual opinions are much better than learnt off notes that everyone uses. Keep your response personal, the answer in the Key Notes won't be personal and if you can manage to keep referring back to yourself you'll do much better. If you actually study the poems yourself (read them a few times) you might notice something interesting, it might not be correct, but at the end of the day there's no right or wrong answer in poetry so you can say whatever you like in your answer! I remember in my mock I was talking about Larkin, and came up with an idea that in "The Trees" the grains of the tree trunk alluded to wrinkles on the human skin (the poem is about the transience of life) and the examiner wrote "v.good" beside it, and I got 46/50 in that answer! So what I'm saying here is, try to formulate your one opinions as well as those in that book, you'll do much better

padocon

The english key notes answers are way too long and I think their sample answers over complicate things!