Unseen Poetry - Written response

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Instructions

In order to successfully express your ideas analytically you must be quite sure that you recognize the differences between 3 kinds of writing:

  • Descriptive
  • Commentary on meaning
  • Critical analysis and evaluation

Look at these three pieces of text and discuss their merits before clicking the Notes button.

This poem by Babette Deutsch is a description of a city in spring. The poem doesn’t rhyme and is written in free verse. The start of the poem describes that the city is ‘more domestic than elegant’. It says that the ladies are ‘Like parched pigeons’ which is a simile. Pigeons are often referred to in the poem.

Notes

This is a rather weak opening. It struggles to go beyond the surface of the poem and although the candidate has picked up on some of the main points – city in spring, use of pigeons – there is very little analysis. Comments on poetic techniques - rhyme, free verse, repetition, similies - without any consideration of how they’re used to create meaning are superfluous.