Instructions
First read Blake’s poem and then read the three responses to the poem. Discuss the success and weakness in responses before reading the comments.
Blake uses simple rhymes all the way through his poem, using an AABB rhyme scheme to get his ideas across which makes it sound a bit like a nursery rhyme. Blake is obviously enjoying feeding his wrath as he,
‘waterd it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears:
and I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles’
These verbs suggest that he’s working hard on building up his feelings towards his foe and shows how much he hates him.
The candidate clearly notices some patterns with the use of the verbs and the way the rhyme creates the feeling of it being like a nursery rhyme. The fact that they notice that Blake is ‘enjoying feeding his wrath’ shows some understanding of implicit meanings and this is linked to the use of verbs. However, the verbs aren’t noted in the quotation (which is also too long) and there isn’t enough close reading of the text. There is little sense of an overview either.