If you're reading this, chances are, you've been subjected to the unfortunate torture

that is the English B (comparative) poetry essay. That's right- you've been allotted
around 30 minutes to write on two of the twenty poems CSEC prescribed for your
study over two years. Fun, right?
All jokes aside, we're all going to face a poetry essay at some point or another,
whether practice assigned at school or the 'real McCoy' on the exam.

Writing poetry essays can seem daunting though- you're presented with a three
part question demanding that you satisfy all necessary requirements to attain your
maximum 25 marks. And on top of that, no matter how hard you try to clear your
mind, it can be very difficult to arrange your thoughts well enough to put together
an essay that can convince your teacher that you deserve at least a passing grade.

Well, worry no more! One of the main reasons we make silly slip-ups in our essays
is because we don't necessarily know what it means to write a sufficient essay, and
therefore don't have a small plan in our minds to which we can abide calmly during
those nerve-wracking minutes. Hopefully after giving this guide a quick read, you'll
understand more about how to tackle a question, the parts of an essay, what you
want to try to achieve in each of those parts, and making an essay that stands out.

Step 1: The question

Poetry essay questions come in two varieties:
1) One where the poems you are to write on are named, for example:

“The poems ‘A Stone’s Throw’ and ‘The Woman Speaks to the Man Who has Employed
her Son’ are about how women are treated.” For EACH poem:
(a) Briefly describe what is taking place.
(b) Discuss the speaker’s attitude to the woman.
(c) Discuss ONE device which is used to effectively convey the treatment of women.

2) One where the poems you are to write on are unnamed, and you are to choose
two poems from the syllabus that fit a certain theme provided by the question. For
example:
Choose TWO poems which you have studied that focus on a significant experience
or event. For EACH poem:

(a) Describe the experience or event.

(b) Discuss the speaker’s attitude to this experience or event.
(c) Discuss ONE device that is used to present this experience or event.
(Both questions are taken from the January 2013 English B Paper 2)

In every CSEC poetry question you get, parts one and two of the question will ask
you to describe, discuss or explain some aspect of the poem. The third part of the
question will always ask you to discuss a poetic/literary device used in the poem.

I know that this may be repetitive to you, but you should always read both questions
through very carefully. It would be very unpleasant to begin writing on a question
only to glance back at the paper and realize that you mistook a crucial detail, or even
worse- that you can't fully answer the question you chose (this only applies to the
actual exam, where you will choose between the two types of questions).
The question literally gives you the instructions for your essay, so they should not be
overlooked.

Apart from ensuring that you don't mistake any details, reading the question also
gives you the time to plan your essay mentally. The first sentence of the question
will give you a guide as to what the theme of your essay will be, and what
information you will include in the introductory paragraph. The instant that you
read the question, you will be able to think about answers to each of the three parts
of the question on which you will expound throughout the essay.

Step 2: The Introductory Paragraph (5 sentences)

Depending on the type of writer you are, you may prefer to write a separate plan for
your essay before beginning writing. If you believe that you write better and more
efficiently after planning out your essay, then, by all means, do your prior planning. A
little time spent before arranging your thoughts is worth it, if it helps you.
A good plan can take the form of a few bullet points written loosely on a sheet of
paper, where you note key concepts surrounding each of the parts of the question.
For example, planning a first body paragraph for the question on the treatment of
women could look like this:

a) A Stone's Throw- the woman in question is being abused in the name of justice
by a group of ravenous men, who want to punish her for alleged promiscuity
The Woman Speaks to the Man who Has Employed Her Son- the mother, despite
having cared for her son and placing no limits on his potential, has to accept being
betrayed by this very son, who now seeks a father figure in a man offering him work
as part of a gang

Those are brief summaries, and it would be expected that you go into more detail
within the body paragraph.

While some may prefer to plan their essays, others (such as myself) prefer to just
jump right into the essay and keep themselves in check while writing.

The introductory paragraph is a very important start, and can even help you in
planning the essay overall. Let us first consider the parts of the introductory
paragraph of a poetry essay:
As shown above, the introductory paragraph of a poetry essay will contain five basic
parts: the hook, stating poems, and question parts 1, 2 and 3.

The Hook is one of the best ways to make your essay stand out. It is a statement
that should be based on the theme of the question chosen. So, for question 1 from
the past paper, the theme would be the treatment of women. Question 2's theme
would be significance experience or events.
Making an interesting general statement can seem very difficult at first, but it's really
about either trying to 'sound smart' or expressing your thoughts on the theme (just
make sure that you don't use any personal pronouns like 'I' and 'we.' For example,
look at the following hooks based on question 2:

"The length of the average human’s lifetime encompasses the interwoven intricacies of
several experiences which influence the internal mindscape of the person in question
as well as those around them."

"Each unique experience, whether triggered by disruptive forces such as nature,

contextual obligation and temporal necessity influence momentary revelations
described in most of the poems prescribed by the CSEC syllabus."

(Note that although the hook is important for distinguishing your essay, you should
not take too long to write it, since you still have 4 and a half paragraphs to write
afterwards.)
After the hook, you must state the poems you have chosen (or the poems provided
by the question) in a sentence that also compares the two. Maybe a bit
complicated? Look at the following example for question 2:

"The poems “South” by Kamau Brathwaite and “An African Thunderstorm” by David
Rubadiri both include vivid descriptions of significant experiences in the life of each
speaker."

See? In this sentence, you just want to mention both of the poems you will be
comparing. It connects what you said in your hook to the rest of the essay.

Question Parts 1, 2 and 3 simply involve you summarizing how you will answer each
part of the question in the rest of the essay. Maybe in previous grades, you've heard
of the thesis statement, where teachers would expect a simple sentence like "this
essay will..." and then you would restate the question.
However, at this higher level of writing (yes, you are at a higher academic level now,
yay), teachers want something a little less... bland.

For each part of the question, it is suggested that you write at least one sentence
outlining your answer (in relation to BOTH poems). So, part 1 of question 2 asks you
to "Describe the experience or event." So, your sentence would give a brief
description of the experience or event in both poems you chose (in this case, we
chose "South" and "An African Thunderstorm"):

"Brathwaite illustrates the incident of migration in “South” through a homesick islander

while Rubadiri presents a more concrete experience of the destructive force of nature
(a thunderstorm) through a member of an African village."

(Using the last names of the poets can be a good way to refer to the poems during
comparisons)

Notice that only a few words are used to describe the experience in each poem,
since you are only summarizing what you will discuss in a whole paragraph later.
"Brathwaite illustrates the incident of migration in “South” through a homesick islander
while Rubadiri presents a more concrete experience of the destructive force of nature
(a thunderstorm) through a member of an African village."

Comparing the poems like that in the sentence can be useful when you want to
write efficient sentences.

The same thing is done for question parts 2 and 3:

Part 2
"The persona of “South” is averse to his new surroundings after leaving his homeland,

and feels oppressed by a strange and cold environment, while the speaker of “An

African Thunderstorm” along with the members of his village react with fear towards

the cloud of impending doom."

Part 3
"Brathwaite employs personification to convey the impact of migration on the persona.

Rubadiri uses repetition to communicate the effect of the experience of the

thunderstorm."

Aaaand just like that, you've completed your introductory paragraph! The best

thing about introductory paragraphs like this is that they help you plan and think

about the answers to all the questions before actually expounding on each point.

Let's look at the combined introductory paragraph:

"The length of the average human’s lifetime encompasses the interwoven intricacies of

several experiences which influence the internal mindscape of the person in question

as well as those around them. Each unique experience, whether triggered by disruptive

forces such as nature, contextual obligation and temporal necessity influence

momentary revelations described in most of the poems prescribed by the CSEC

syllabus. The poems “South” by Kamau Brathwaite and “An African Thunderstorm” by

David Rubadiri both include vivid descriptions of significant experiences in the life of

each speaker. Brathwaite illustrates the incident of migration in “South” through a

homesick islander while Rubadiri presents a more concrete experience of the

destructive force of nature (a thunderstorm) through a member of an African village.

The persona of “South” is averse to his new surroundings after leaving his homeland,

and feels oppressed by a strange and cold environment, while the speaker of “An
African Thunderstorm” along with the members of his village react with fear towards

the cloud of impending doom. Brathwaite employs personification to convey the

impact of migration on the persona. Rubadiri uses repetition to communicate the effect

of the experience of the thunderstorm."

Step 3: The Body Paragraphs

You are probably already familiar with the three parts of a paragraph: the topic

sentence, body sentences and the concluding sentence. However, in a poetry

essay, you are comparing two poems, and you are doing that while answering a

question in 3 parts. As a result, your paragraphs may be a bit different.

Instead of that model, it may be useful to think of each paragraph as composed of

different chunks of points, examples and explanations for each poem. I like to think

of each paragraph as containing two paragraphs within it, a separate topic

sentence for each poem:

Overall Topic Sentence (Optional)- This sentence gives a general overview of both

poems. This is optional though, as it is more efficient to simply start with the topic

sentence for the first poem.

Look at the following examples for parts 1 and 2 (an overall topic sentence is not

very applicable to question part 3):

Part 1: "The poems both investigate very distinctive experiences in the lives of the

personas, each one important to the speaker in conflicting ways."

Part 2: "Each persona finds himself in the midst of a strange and somewhat threatening
circumstance, and their own reactions as well as those of the people around them
reflect the severity of what is occurring."
Poem Topic Sentences
The poem topic sentence should be a specific connection of the poem to the
question, and can be similar to what was written in the introductory paragraph. Each
poem topic sentence should be the start of what you will write on that particular
poem, so your body paragraph will be like two paragraphs in one.
For example, for question 2 part 1, the topic sentences for the two poems selected

could be:

"Firstly, the persona of “South” explores the experience of migration and the impact of
abandoning his homeland."
and
"On the other hand, the persona of “An African Thunderstorm” finds himself and his
village threatened by an immensely powerful thunderstorm. The poem explores this
terrifying experience by relating in evocative detail the destructive power of the storm."

Note: Using comparative phrases such as 'on the other hand,' 'contrarily,' 'by
comparison,' and 'similar to' can help to better connect the content of your essay.
The topic sentences are only meant to introduce the content (body sentences) of
your paragraph, so your description of South would follow the topic sentence
concerning South, and the same would go for An African Thunderstorm.

Body Sentences (Point, Example, Explanation)

The body sentences of your paragraphs are where you get to contribute the real
content of your essay. When writing your body sentences, you should try to follow
the structure Point, Example, Explanation, abbreviated as P.E.E., (if you're into that, I
guess you can remember it like that).

Point- This is where you state an aspect of your answer to the question. So, for part
1, you would 'describe the event or experience.'
Example- Use an example (a quote) from the poem to support your point.
Explanation- Explain your point more and show how your example supports your
point.

These three parts can be in three separate sentences, in one sentence, or even just
two. You can even mix up the order of the parts to how you see fit. How much you
write is fully dependent on what you find sufficient for answering the question.
Look at the following example of a completed body paragraph (the body sentences
are underlined and colour-coded, red for point, blue for example and green for
explanation):

"Firstly, the persona of “South” explores the experience of migration and the impact

of abandoning his homeland. The speaker leaves his island home, a picturesque

landscape of shimmering ocean waves and sand, as shown in “I have travelled:

moved far from the beaches.” He has gone to “stoniest cities,” towns of stony

foundations and even stonier people, contrary to the warm people he remembers

from his home. The northern lands he traversed were plagued with unpleasant

weather conditions, like “slanting sleet and… hail.” Travelling to the “saltless savannas”

of Africa, he noticed they were completely devoid of the salty ocean of his

homeland which he misses so dearly. Now, he lives in a house amongst the trees in

the forest “where the shadows oppress [him]" and the darkness around him reflects

the longing for his island home. In the forest, there is only the rain and the river,

which, to him, can never substitute for the boundless opportunity and joy of the sea.

Leaving his home has brought him to several places in the northern world; each a

stark contrast to the one place he feels he belongs. Now, he settles in a place that

lacks the ocean and its distinct character, and the “tepid taste of the river” cannot

satisfy him in its ordinary and saltless nature. On the other hand, the persona of “An

African Thunderstorm” finds himself and his village threatened by an immensely

powerful thunderstorm. The poem explores this terrifying experience by relating in

evocative detail the destructive power of the storm. The clouds are said to “come

hurrying with the wind,” denoting the speed with which the winds propel them

towards the settlement. “Like a madman chasing nothing,” the wind darts and turns,
whirling about with no definite direction or purpose, bound to cause damage to the

things around it. The persona sees the wind tossing things up as it moves by at

breakneck speeds, carrying the “pregnant clouds” (filled with rain and other

hallmarks of meteorological terror) on its back. The “trees bend to let [the wind] pass”

as it whistles by, showing the sheer force of its movement- even forcing the strong,

tall-standing trees to bend as though prostrating themselves before the wind’s

undeniable power. Around the persona in the village, the wind sends the clothes of

the people flying off, waving in the wind like “tattered flags.” Blinding flashes of

lightning strike in the distance followed by the low rumble of thunder, a chaotic

image of the imminent tempest. The “pelting march of the storm” is continuous and

seemingly unstoppable as it approaches the village, communicating the idea of

doom associated with this experience."

Note that in the paragraph above,a separate sentence explanation is not as

necessary since you are simply describing the poems.

Step 4: Concluding Paragraph

Sometimes, writing a concluding paragraph can seem like the most difficult part,

because you don't have a clear path as to what to write. In these cases, for the sake

of efficiency, you can think of the concluding paragraph as having 4 parts:

General Statement on the Theme or the Poems- This can be similar to your hook
Summary Sentence of Body Paragraph 1

Summary Sentence of Body Paragraph 2

Summary Sentence of Body Paragraph 3

For example:

"In conclusion, experiences define both the premise and particularities of human life.

Distinct significant events create both momentary and long-lasting impacts to the

person in question as well as those around them. The poems “South” and “An African

Thunderstorm” both present a significant experience in the lives of the personas.

While the speaker’s reaction to migration in “South” is in phases, beginning with a

denial of oppressive memory followed by acceptance, the people around the

speaker in “An African Thunderstorm” react with both fear and seemingly

malapropos joy to the imminent thunderstorm. Brathwaite implements

personification to relay the impact of external migration on the persona. Rubadiri

employs repetition to convey the thunderstorm’s impact on the environment, and

therefore rationalizes the fear of the members of the village."

(Starting with "In conclusion" is very common, so you can usually omit such clichéd

connectors)
Now, let's take a look at the completed essay:

The length of the average human’s lifetime encompasses the interwoven intricacies

of several experiences which influence the internal mindscape of the person in

question as well as those around them. Each unique experience, whether triggered

by disruptive forces such as nature, contextual obligation and temporal necessity

influence momentary revelations described in most of the poems prescribed by the

CSEC syllabus. The poems “South” by Kamau Brathwaite and “An African

Thunderstorm” by David Rubadiri both include vivid descriptions of significant

experiences in the life of each speaker. Brathwaite illustrates the incident of

migration in “South” through a homesick islander while Rubadiri presents a more

concrete experience of the destructive force of nature (a thunderstorm) through a

member of an African village. The persona of “South” is averse to his new

surroundings after leaving his homeland, and feels oppressed by a strange and cold

environment, while the speaker of “An African Thunderstorm” along with the

members of his village react with fear towards the cloud of impending doom.

Brathwaite employs personification to convey the impact of migration on the

persona. Rubadiri uses repetition to communicate the effect of the experience of the

thunderstorm.
Firstly, the persona of “South” explores the experience of migration and the impact

of abandoning his homeland. The speaker leaves his island home, a picturesque

landscape of shimmering ocean waves and sand, as shown in “I have travelled:

moved far from the beaches.” He has gone to “stoniest cities,” towns of stony

foundations and even stonier people, contrary to the warm people he remembers

from his home. The northern lands he traversed were plagued with unpleasant

weather conditions, like “slanting sleet and… hail.” Travelling to the “saltless savannas”

of Africa, he noticed they were completely devoid of the salty ocean of his

homeland which he misses so dearly. Now, he lives in a house amongst the trees in

the forest “where the shadows oppress [him]" and the darkness around him reflects

the longing for his island home. In the forest, there is only the rain and the river,

which, to him, can never substitute for the boundless opportunity and joy of the sea.

Leaving his home has brought him to several places in the northern world; each a

stark contrast to the one place he feels he belongs. Now, he settles in a place that

lacks the ocean and its distinct character, and the “tepid taste of the river” cannot

satisfy him in its ordinary and saltless nature. On the other hand, the persona of “An

African Thunderstorm” finds himself and his village threatened by an immensely

powerful thunderstorm. The poem explores this terrifying experience by relating in

evocative detail the destructive power of the storm. The clouds are said to “come

hurrying with the wind,” denoting the speed with which the winds propel them

towards the settlement. “Like a madman chasing nothing,” the wind darts and turns,

whirling about with no definite direction or purpose, bound to cause damage to the

things around it. The persona sees the wind tossing things up as it moves by at
breakneck speeds, carrying the “pregnant clouds” (filled with rain and other

hallmarks of meteorological terror) on its back. The “trees bend to let [the wind] pass”

as it whistles by, showing the sheer force of its movement- even forcing the strong,

tall-standing trees to bend as though prostrating themselves before the wind’s

undeniable power. Around the persona in the village, the wind sends the clothes of

the people flying off, waving in the wind like “tattered flags.” Blinding flashes of

lightning strike in the distance followed by the low rumble of thunder, a chaotic

image of the imminent tempest. The “pelting march of the storm” is continuous and

seemingly unstoppable as it approaches the village, communicating the idea of

doom associated with this experience.

Each persona finds himself in the midst of a strange and somewhat threatening

circumstance, and their own reactions as well as those of the people around them

reflect the severity of what is occurring. In “South,” the persona’s reaction to

migration can be divided into two distinct stages as related by the poem. His initial

reaction is one in which he is ‘oppressed’ by the darkness of his surroundings and

seems overtaken by an emotion of inextricable gloom. He is now in a place so unlike

his island home, devoid of the ocean which he so loves and has lacked in all the

places he has gone to since migrating. The only water he finds here is from the rain

or the river, whose ‘tepid taste’ is unappealing and bland to him. In this initial

reaction, he denies the river. He, who is “born of the ocean,” cannot “seek solace in

rivers.” While the ocean has a characteristic ebb and flow, the river runs on ad

infinitum, without end. Instead of representing limitless renewal like the ocean, the

river instead flows on “like [his] longing” for his homeland. By denying the river, he
also denies himself longing for home- even though it is the absence of things he

cherishes and misses so dearly that creates his sense of gloom in the first place. His

second reaction, shown in the volta of the poem, is when he accepts the river and

decides to join it. The river, though constantly flowing like the persona’s longing, is

both a conduit of humanity’s past events as well as a path to the sea. In accepting

the river and in turn his longing, he also is able to tap into the historical archive of the

river and recall his own childhood. Thus, the persona’s reaction is an abridged

version of the Kubler-Ross Model of Grief- he begins with denial of the river and

what it represents in reaction to being parted with his homeland, and ends with

accepting its repertoire of past events (good and bad) to reminisce happily on

visions from his childhood. He is able to return to the sea. On the other hand, the

persona of “An African Thunderstorm” does not have a reaction illustrated by the

poem to the experience of the thunderstorm. Instead, the poem focuses on the

reactions of women and children in the village. The children are said to scream with

delight in the ‘whirling wind,’ seemingly malapropos given the context of the

destructive force of the storm. However, it makes sense as a puerile reaction to a

novel experience. A child, not understanding the workings of the world as of yet, is

most likely going to be delighted when confronted by something new, like strong

winds or the beginnings of rain. The women and mothers of the village have a

completely opposite reaction to the children. They instead “dart about… madly”

showing a frenzied response to an obvious threat. They seem to be in a panic, either

trying to complete preparations for the imminent storm, or, darting about aimlessly

unsure of any way they can mitigate the its effects. The women’s babies are said to
be “clinging on their backs” reflecting a possible fear which they share with their

mothers. The startling nature of the advent of something so undeniably malignant

would be cause for babies to be fearful- and even if they were unable to

comprehend it, they would be inheriting the evident fear displayed by their frantic

mothers.

Finally, Brathwaite employs personification in “South” in order to convey the effect

of migration on the persona. After migrating, the persona comes to live in a house in

the forest. He specifically says “the shadows oppress me,” giving the shadows a

human-like quality in being able to abuse him in some way. The context of this line

is based around his sojourns far away from the beaches of his home and now

settling in a forest house. The shadows cast by trees in the canopy of a forest over

the forest floor are likely what he refers to- so very different from the “bright

beaches” full of sunshine from his island home. However, he may also refer to

shadows figuratively, and thus the line may take on a dual meaning. Shadows could

also refer to recurrent memories of his home, in line with the common association of

shadows with memories. So, having left the beaches he so dearly loves, he is stuck

amidst the shadows of trees which only remind him of how far he has gone from

where he belongs. The gloominess of this forest contradicts what he is used to, so it

is as if he is being victimized by his own environment. In the same way, memories of

his past, which only remind him of how incongruous the forest is to his island,

subject him to constant longing and yearning for a return home. On the other hand,

repetition is used in Rubadiri’s “An African Thunderstorm” to convey the impact of

the experience of the thunderstorm on the environment. The line “trees bend to let it
pass” is repeated twice throughout the poem and denotes the motion of the trees in

relation to the wind. The trees lean and bend over when the wind passes by, shifting

from its path due to its violence and strength. However, this also conveys a

subservience in the trees in that they bend to allow the wind to pass. It is as though

the trees are prostrating themselves before a powerful king as he strolls stately by.

In the same way, the trees, tall and robust stalwarts of nature are bent forcefully by

the mighty wind. Thus, the thunderstorm is shown to be immensely powerful,

forcing everything around it to morph and change to accommodate its unhindered

passage.

In conclusion, experiences define both the premise and particularities of human life.

Distinct significant events create both momentary and long-lasting impacts to the

person in question as well as those around them. The poems “South” and “An African

Thunderstorm” both present a significant experience in the lives of the personas.

While the speaker’s reaction to migration in “South” is in phases, beginning with a

denial of oppressive memory followed by acceptance, the people around the

speaker in “An African Thunderstorm” react with both fear and seemingly

malapropos joy to the imminent thunderstorm. Brathwaite implements

personification to relay the impact of external migration on the persona. Rubadiri

employs repetition to convey the thunderstorm’s impact on the environment, and

therefore rationalizes the fear of the members of the village.