How to answer a poetry comparison question
The second question you’ll answer on English Literature Paper 2 will be the poetry comparison question based on the Love and Relationships section of the AQA anthology. You have 1 hour 45 minutes for his paper so you should spend around 45 minutes on this question. You will be given the text of one poem which you must write about in your comparison; you can choose whichever poem you want to use as the comparison, though you’ll need to do this from memory.
One possible structure for this essay
When you’re planning your poetry essays, there are several possible structures that can work, but this guide will explain one structure which can be good for meeting the assessment objectives, while being manageable in the time available. It is not necessarily the best structure to use, and you should follow the advice of your teacher first and foremost, but this is one way that you could structure this essay:
A comparative thesis as an introduction – this only need be two or three sentences long
3 analysis paragraphs
a. Poem 1 – core difference/similarity from thesis
b. Poem 2 – core difference/similarity from thesis
c. Thoughtful comparative paragraph [AKA the guitar solo paragraph] which will generally be a difference within the core similarity or a similarity within the core difference
Conclusion which summarises your thesis in a bit more detail, bringing in the ideas from the final paragraph too
Example plans
Below are a couple of examples of essay plans which use this structure, with a thesis and three paragraph points for each plan. These plans would then need a conclusion in the final essay, but you don’t need to plan the conclusion – just write it to finish off your essay.
Comparison between ‘Before You Were Mine’ and ‘Follower’
Thesis: Both poems explore the relationship between parents and children, though Duffy’s poem looks at motherhood whilst Heaney’s poem looks at fatherhood. Taken together, though, the poems suggest that parenthood has a bigger impact on mothers than it does on fathers.
Poem 1: Duffy shows that becoming a mother can have a huge impact on a woman’s life.
Poem 2: In ‘Follower’, however, the impact that fatherhood has seems to be smaller.
Guitar solo paragraph: Nevertheless, both poems suggest that, either way, parents will change in the end and this will lead their children to feel a sense of disappointment. [similarity within the core difference]
Comparison between ‘Neutral Tones’ and ‘When We Two Parted’
Thesis: Both poems explore the consequences of a failed relationship, with both Hardy and Byron suggesting that even after a relationship has ended it can come back to haunt a person later in their life, causing them further pain.
Poem 1: Hardy presents the ending of a dying relationship which has haunted the speaker in all his relationships ever since.
Poem 2: Similarly, Byron shows how a relationship which ended many years before can still go on to cause pain in the right circumstances.
Guitar solo paragraph: However, the nature of the pain is different in the two poems: in Byron’s poem it is a very specific, localised pain, relating to one particular individual, whilst in Hardy’s poem it is a more general hopelessness and a rejection of the very idea of love. [difference within the core similarity]
The ‘guitar solo’ paragraph – example using the 2nd plan above
In this paragraph you will develop the core comparison from your thesis, either finding a similarity within the difference, or a difference within the similarity. By doing this, you are trying to lift your essay above the merely clear or thoughtful, and up into the stratosphere of exploratory and perceptive, the very top of the mark scheme.
Below is an example of what this paragraph might look like. It finds a difference within the core similarity outlined in the thesis of this essay plan.
Notice that there doesn’t necessarily need to be detailed analysis of methods (AO2) in this paragraph, nor a great deal of evidence (part of AO1) – you can meet these AOs in your first two paragraphs.
This paragraph should be focussed on comparison (AO1) and on trying to be perceptive in your interpretation of the poems (AO1) and insightful in your discussion of big ideas (AO3). It’s about showing that you understand, in an interesting way, the themes of the poems (either romantic love or family love), and that you understand how those themes are explored in the two poems.
Key
Bold = the comparative point
Italics = evidence from the poems
Regular type = standard analysis; explanation of meaning
Red text = comparison of the poems
Green text = discussion of big ideas
However, the nature of the pain romantic relationships can cause is different in the two poems: in Byron’s poem it is a very specific, localised pain, relating to one particular individual, whilst in Hardy’s poem it is a more general hopelessness and a rejection of the very idea of love. This can be seen most clearly in the way the two poems deal with the idea of deception in their respective final stanzas. Byron’s speaker is grieving over the fact his ex-lover’s “heart could forget [him]” and her “spirit deceive [him].” In other words, what upsets him is not the loss of her, but her unfaithfulness. It’s not clear if this is just unfaithfulness to his memory – the fact she moved on – or if he’s implying that she cheated on him while they were together; either way, it is she (personally) who deceived him (personally), and her deceitfulness is deep-rooted in her character, as implied by the use of “spirit” which suggests she was deceiving him in the very core of her being – deceiving him in her soul or essence. This feeling is typical of a jilted lover – to lose trust and to feel a growing dislike or bitterness towards the one who does not return their love. It’s textbook breakup stuff. But Hardy’s poem is different, bleaker, more desperate. The lesson he learnt from his failed relationship is not that she deceived him, but that “love deceives, / And wrings with wrong.” There is none of the anger that we see in Byron’s speaker here. Hardy’s speaker doesn’t have the energy for that. Any anger that he may have felt for his ex-lover has long since faded away, and in its place is just the jaded sense that all love is deception. It was love that deceived him, not his ex-lover, like in Byron’s poem. The whole institution of romantic love is, according to Hardy’s poem, a lie. This comes not as a result of one failed relationship but from a lifetime of failure in love. For Hardy’s speaker, love is so full of ‘wrong’ that when you squeeze it, metaphorically speaking, ‘wrong’ is all that comes out; there’s no ‘right’ in there at all. This is not the typical post-break-up misery and angst that we see in Byron’s poem; this is something darker; this is utter despair. These are the words of a man who has given up on love forever.
An example of a conclusion
This is what a conclusion to the 2nd plan might look like. Notice how it takes the thesis, using similar words to the introduction, but brings in more specific details, as well as the ideas from the ‘guitar solo’ paragraph.
In conclusion, both poets explore the after-effects of love gone wrong and show how one failed relationship can come back to haunt a person later in their life, causing them further pain. In his poem, Byron focuses on a particular individual and a particular break-up which has left his speaker sad, angry and isolated, even after “long years” of separation, showing just how much love can hurt. Hardy, on the other hand, suggests that one failed relationship can become a kind of template for all future relationships, leaving a person hopeless, loveless and alone, no longer believing in the wonder of romantic love, which so many other poets and novelists write so powerfully about.
Some other important things to remember in a poetry comparison essay
Introduce the poem when you first write about it – say what’s going on in the poem, who the speaker is, etc, as part of the evidence for your first paragraph. Don’t just analyse quotations out of context: show your understanding of the poem.
Make sure Paragraph 2 includes lots of comparative phrases to link it back Paragraph 1 (e.g. ‘however’, ‘similarly’, ‘unlike in Duffy’s poem’, etc).
Make sure you write about the big ideas in the poem. This means going outside the text and writing about romantic love in general, or family relationships in general, rather than just about the specific characters in the poems you’re analysing.