Our resource this week is a great Poetry revision pack from Bicester School. It is designed for GCSE students studying the Power & Conflict Anthology of poems in preparation for their AQA GCSE English Literature Paper 2. You can download the resource by visiting our English resources section on our website or download it directly from Bicester School by clicking here.

This is a great resource for students to use to develop their poetry analysis in preparation for the AQA GCSE English Literature Paper 2 examination - specifically regarding the historical context of the poems and the identification of key features. The resource provides an annotated copy of each poem in the anthology as well as the historical context. The resource itself is quite explanatory, however, below is our general advice for students when studying the Power and Conflict Anthology:

• Make sure you have a good understanding of the key vocabulary used within poetry analysis and are able to use them appropriately in your analysis. The resource includes a glossary of poetic devices on the 6th page.

• Print out fresh copies of the poems and annotate each for poetic devices and how they contribute to the meaning of the poem. For further guidance on how to analyse and annotate poetry, consult our earlier article on poetry analysis here.

• Practise writing essays using your poetry analysis in response to essay titles. Practise writing essays to compare poems, the methods used by the poets and the perspectives they show. You are aiming to have a critical opinion to share on each poem.

  (e.g. how does the poet present power in this poem?)

  (e.g. how does the poet present conflict in this poem?).

• Understand the cultural and historical context of the poems by doing further research on the poet and their time period. In particular, ensure that you have a good understanding of the Romantic poets as several of their poems are within the anthology (Shelley, Wordsworth, Blake).

We hope that this resource will be used to aid students’ understanding of the poems within the Power & Conflict and improve their analysis in written responses to exam questions on these poems. From all of us at Libra Education, never stop learning!