Exam Tips

🔤 THEME: Identity, Culture & Language

✅ ‘Half-Caste’ ↔ ‘Search for My Tongue’

  • Both explore cultural identity, bilingualism, and the struggle for self-expression.
  • Use of non-standard English/dialect and language as metaphor.

✅ ‘Search for My Tongue’ ↔ ‘Blessing’

  • Explore cultural displacement and the contrast between privileged vs. underprivileged worlds.
  • Focus on voice and visibility of marginalised people.

👶 THEME: Childhood, Innocence & Perspective

✅ ‘Half-past Two’ ↔ ‘Hide and Seek’

  • Both use a child’s perspective.
  • Themes of confusion, isolation, and adult misunderstanding.

✅ ‘Piano’ ↔ ‘Poem at Thirty-Nine’

  • Focus on childhood memories and parental relationships.
  • Emotional tone, use of nostalgia and reflection.

🕊️ THEME: Death & Mortality

✅ ‘Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night’ ↔ ‘Remember’

  • Different responses to death: rage vs. acceptance.
  • Structure: villanelle vs. sonnet.

✅ ‘Poem at Thirty-Nine’ ↔ ‘Remember’

  • Gentle, emotional reflection on loss of a parent/loved one.

🔥 THEME: Conflict & Suffering

✅ ‘War Photographer’ ↔ ‘Prayer Before Birth’

  • Highlight violence, war, and emotional trauma.
  • Critique of dehumanisation in modern society.

✅ ‘War Photographer’ ↔ ‘Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night’

  • Explore emotional responses to mortality: helplessness vs. resistance.

💘 THEME: Love & Relationships

✅ ‘Sonnet 116’ ↔ ‘Remember’

  • Different views on love and permanence.
  • Traditional form (sonnet) and use of religious/romantic language.

✅ ‘My Last Duchess’ ↔ ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’

  • Obsession, control, and betrayal in romantic relationships.
  • Narratives with ambiguous or unreliable male voices.

⚖️ THEME: Power & Control

✅ ‘My Last Duchess’ ↔ ‘Hide and Seek’

  • Authority and emotional manipulation: adult vs. child, duke vs. duchess.

✅ ‘My Last Duchess’ ↔ ‘Prayer Before Birth’

  • Loss of autonomy: pre-birth control vs. patriarchal domination.