Prescribed poetry, what's everyone studying?

matTNT

lc_2013 wrote: »

Rich came up last year, I'm leaving her out and doing Plath & Bishop only. Bit risky but Plath will be on it this year, I can feel it on my bones

Could be a bitch of a question :P

Leaving Cert Student

What order you guys doing the paper in. I think I will start with comparative and leave poetry till the end, won't even check who came up till then as it could throw me off!

ray2012

I usually go with studied poetry first, then Macbeth, then Comparative and then the unseen poetry

decisions

I go Macbeth, Poetry, Comparitive and Unseen.

Leaving Cert Student

Wouldnt like to leave unseen til the end as I might never get round to it. its a nice 15 minute break from remembering quotes etc. midway through aswell haha! I go

Comparative
Macbeth
Unseen
Seen

ray2012

Leaving Cert Student wrote: »

Wouldnt like to leave unseen til the end as I might never get round to it. its a nice 15 minute break from remembering quotes etc. midway through aswell haha! I go

Comparative
Macbeth
Unseen
Seen

I always leave unseen until the end just in case I don't have enough time to finish the whole paper. The unseen is the lowest marked so :P

Slow Show

I have a glance at all the questions, then do comparative to settle in as in fairness you can have the bulk of it learned off before you go in, then Macbeth, then studied poetry, then unseen. So basically going in importance of marks.

I think leaving the unseen last is the best way to go, you've less to lose by leaving it. Also I think if you have only a few minutes to do it you can salvage a few marks out of the twenty by bullet-pointing the sh*t out of it.

Copper Nikus.

I usually scribble down a few poetry quotes relevant to the question first, then I get the Comparative out of the way, then Macbeth and then I go back to the poetry. I leave the unseen poem until the end because it's easier to concentrate on it when you're not trying to remember different quotes and chunks of information for other essays.

If Mahon comes up, I really hope it's something like "Mahon presents us with a dark vision of life..." Or something about how he gives a voice to the voiceless.

For Plath I'd say it'd be related to the 50th anniversary of her death and how is her poetry still relevant today.

Bishop - Something about her imagery or how she deals with the human condition.

Let's hope one of the above comes up, so I won't have to resort to Rich or Kinsella. :P

ray2012

Copper Nikus. wrote: »

If Mahon comes up, I really hope it's something like "Mahon presents us with a dark vision of life..." Or something about how he gives a voice to the voiceless.

I never really know how to answer that question.. That question would put me off answering him! How would you go about answering that? :S

SeaDaily

matTNT wrote: »

Mahon - Similar to Plath, dark view of humanity bar Antartica which is a qualifier.

Maybe you haven't studied them but The Chinese Restaurant In Portrush and Kinsale have a seriously positive vibe to them..

ynwa14

Is is likely they'll throw Rich on again? I'd say not but at the same time I'm scared to not prepare her

Copper Nikus.

ray2012 wrote: »

I never really know how to answer that question.. That question would put me off answering him! How would you go about answering that? :S

A similar question came up on my pre and I got 49/50 on it, so it's a handy one for marks. The poems I've studied are A Disused Shed, After the Titanic, Rathlin, As It Should Be, Ecclesiastes and Antarctica. I basically went through his poetry discussing how he creates a dark atmosphere, how he deals with dark aspects of the human condition etc. You can also add in bits about his unique language/imagery etc. but make sure not to wander away from the question. Leave Antarctica until last and discuss how this contradicts the statement, as it shows an honourable side of humanity blah blah blah. Sorry, if I'm terrible at explaining things, my mind is a bit melted at the moment. :P

Copper Nikus.

ynwa14 wrote: »

Is is likely they'll throw Rich on again? I'd say not but at the same time I'm scared to not prepare her

Just make sure you know three really well and have two others as a back up just in case you're ridiculously stuck. Learn a few quotes and you won't be too bad if she is the only one you can answer on.

ray2012

Copper Nikus. wrote: »

A similar question came up on my pre and I got 49/50 on it, so it's a handy one for marks. The poems I've studied are A Disused Shed, After the Titanic, Rathlin, As It Should Be, Ecclesiastes and Antarctica. I basically went through his poetry discussing how he creates a dark atmosphere, how he deals with dark aspects of the human condition etc. You can also add in bits about his unique language/imagery etc. but make sure not to wander away from the question. Leave Antarctica until last and discuss how this contradicts the statement, as it shows an honourable side of humanity blah blah blah. Sorry, if I'm terrible at explaining things, my mind is a bit melted at the moment. :P

I've done 4 of those poems and a few ones not mentioned anyways! I'll try and produce an answer on a question similar to that and see where it gets me! If Mahon does come up I can see that question definitely coming up. There is no way it'll be the easy "People and places" question! Thanks for the help!

Copper Nikus.

Does anyone else feel like studying anything is futile? Nothing seems to be going into my head.

Bridge93

Ok everyone give your opinion:
Plath
Mahon
Wordsworth
and give me one more...

matTNT

Jesus guys don't put your chances in the lap of the gods in the leaving cert, study 5 poets. Looks over 5 at least!

matTNT

matTNT wrote: »

Jesus guys don't put your chances in the lap of the gods in the leaving cert, study 5 poets. Looks over 5 at least!

I want to do 5 but we only covered 5 in class and I can't bring myself to study Shakespeare? Does anybody else feel that with him you're just repeating yourself over and over in a waffling sort of fashion?

I'll be ready for:
Plath
Mahon
Hopkins
Wordsworth

DannyD95

how safe would it be to study mahon and plath? considering i hate english and have paid no attention in class or done any study up to this point. id be happy with a high c/low b

lc_2013

DannyD95 wrote: »

how safe would it be to study mahon and plath? considering i hate english and have paid no attention in class or done any study up to this point. id be happy with a high c/low b

I think pretty safe, high C possible without answering the poetry haha I didn't do poetry last year and survived but never know what could happen this year

matTNT

Deleted User wrote: »

I want to do 5 but we only covered 5 in class and I can't bring myself to study Shakespeare? Does anybody else feel that with him you're just repeating yourself over and over in a waffling sort of fashion?

I'll be ready for:
Plath
Mahon
Hopkins
Wordsworth

Exact same five poets we're doing. Shakepeare is easy, divide his poems into

Transience of beauty
12
18
60

Value of friendship
23
29
30

Use this:
http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/sonnet/19

SuperSayian

I really want Shakespeare to come up but knowing my luck he won't

David1994

SuperSayian wrote: »

I really want Shakespeare to come up but knowing my luck he won't

Yeah I have a feeling Shakespeare might come up because there have been talks about it.
Our class didn't do him anyways but it seems he is very popular in other schools :P

jools95

Does anyone think that Hopkins is a possible question for this year?
He hasn't come up in quite a while...

Leaving Cert Student

What type of question would you predict for bishop, hopkins and mahon? as in a certain theme or what? and If the question is something like "give a talk to students on the poetry of elizabeth bishop", does this mean I have to use the appropriate format and language... ie simple enough language, because that could limit my ability to show off with nice words and express myself adequately you know?

Leaving Cert Student

Leaving Cert Student wrote: »

What type of question would you predict for bishop, hopkins and mahon? as in a certain theme or what? and If the question is something like "give a talk to students on the poetry of elizabeth bishop", does this mean I have to use the appropriate format and language... ie simple enough language, because that could limit my ability to show off with nice words and express myself adequately you know?

Someone on boards was talking to a Chief marker and he said he would expect them to stick with theme/style questions as opposed to personal response. They can't ask much else really.
And yes, 30% of the marks is for purpose. If the purpose in the question is to write a speech, well then you need to write it as a speech i.e include the audience, don't confuse them with words they wouldn't understand (now as it is an English exam, you could use a high standard of English, just not as my teacher would say "flowery" words), engage the audience with questions etc.

Hazardous Garden Of Eden

Even though I know I should do more, I'm taking the plunge and just doing Plath, Bishop and Mahon. They haven't come up in ages so I'm hoping for a rub of the green vis-a-vis the S.E.C.

mixery

Hazardous Garden Of Eden wrote: »

Even though I know I should do more, I'm taking the plunge and just doing Plath, Bishop and Mahon. They haven't come up in ages so I'm hoping for a rub of the green vis-a-vis the S.E.C.

I'm pretty much the same. I might, just might look over Shakey and Kinsella the night before, but 95% of effort is going into the 3 you mentioned.

Vito Corleone

Plath, Mahon and Bishop is all I'm learning. Sure it'll be a bit of excitement on the day.

Hazardous Garden Of Eden

mixery wrote: »

I'm pretty much the same. I might, just might look over Shakey and Kinsella the night before, but 95% of effort is going into the 3 you mentioned.

Our teacher only did 5 poets with us - the three I mentioned and Kinsella / Rich.
But those other two came up last year (and I absolutely detest their stuff) so I figure Sylvia, Derek or Liz have to make an appearance.