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English Literature Answers 2
English Literature Answers 2
61–135
67 1 Possible answers:
Examples:
o ‘marriage of true minds’ suggesting emotional and intellectual
closeness
o ‘an ever-fixed mark’ emphasising the permanence of love
o ‘It is the star to every wandering bark’ suggesting that, like the
stars to sailors, love guides and shows the way.
o ‘Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks/Within his
bending sickle’s compass come’: a vicious image of time which
cuts down physical beauty but cannot destroy true love.
The use of metaphor allows the writer to create immediate images that
convey complex ideas succinctly and vividly.
67 Exam-style Responses may focus on:
question The permanence of love shown in Sonnet 116 in contrast to the
impermanence of life shown in ‘Remember’ by Christina Rossetti.
The ideal of love shown in Sonnet 116 in contrast to the brutality
and arrogance of ‘My Last Duchess’ by Robert Browning.
68 1 Possible answers:
‘burn’: connotations of light, heat, energy
‘rave’: connotations of frenzy, madness
‘rage’: connotations of anger, defiance
‘night’: connotations of darkness, silence
‘frail’: connotations of old age, fragility
‘light’: connotations of life, energy
81 1 Possible answers:
An adult reflects on childhood.
As a child, the narrator picked sweet blackberries, eating the delicious
fruit voraciously as they picked.
The narrator tried to store huge quantities of the fruit but it rotted.
Despite this, the narrator recalls picking and storing blackberries every
year, hoping the fruit would not rot – which it inevitably did.
81 2 Possible answers:
Additional points relating to ‘Piano’:
o fond memories of childhood recalled
o the impact of memory on the present
Points relating to ‘Blackberry Picking’:
o An adult remembering childhood
o Linked to all five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste and touch
o Memory recalls the eternal optimism of childhood and the
disappointment that inevitably followed.
82 3 Possible answers:
Blackberry Picking
Figurative Language Effect
Simile: ‘Among others, red, green, Transforms the blackberries, which
hard as a knot’ would normally be imagined as
soft, into something hard and tight.
Simile: ‘its flesh was sweet/Like Suggests the intoxicating
thickened wine’ sweetness of the fruit
Personification: ‘summer’s blood Implies the life that summer gave
was in it’ the fruit but also its mortality
Simile: on top big dark blobs A vivid, visual description
burned/Like a plate of eyes. contrasting deliciousness and
revulsion.
Simile: ‘our palms sticky as The reference to a murderous fairy
Bluebeard’s. tale character suggests the ruthless
gathering of the fruit with
overtones of violence and death.
Metaphor: ‘A rat-grey fungus’ Connotations of disgust and decay
Piano
Figurative Language Effect
Metaphor: ‘the heart of me Ambiguous: ‘heart’ has
weeps’ connotations of life and love but
also suggests the very core of the
speaker’s being. The image
suggests overwhelming
unhappiness.
Simile: ‘I weep like a child for An ironic image: the grown man’s
the past’ happy memories of his childhood
bring the emotional reaction of an
unhappy child.
‘If you can wait and not be tired by He should show patience.
waiting’
‘If you can dream—and not make This repetitive structure used
dreams your master’ throughout, first as positive advice
then a warning
‘build ’em up with worn-out tools’ A metaphor implying the
dedication and exhaustion it can
take to achieve goals.
‘If all men count with you, but Respect everyone – and treat all
none too much’ equally.
‘fill the unforgiving minute/with Personification: time passes
sixty seconds’ relentlessly; make the most of your
time.
86 Some Possible answers:
questions Some teenagers might be grateful for this advice; others may reject
to consider their parent’s views and values.
The structure of the poem features a repeated conditional (‘If you…)
and a further qualification (‘…and….’) in a series of subordinate clauses,
building to the climax of the final main clause. The effect is to highlight
the huge range of qualities needed to achieve manhood, and to
emphasise the value of these qualities.
The poem encourages stoicism, for example suggesting:
o the listener will encounter ‘triumph and disaster’ and should
treat them ‘just the same’
o the listener may risk ‘all your winnings’ and ‘lose’ but should
‘never breathe a word about your loss’
The link to sport may be intended to appeal to the teenage listener – or
could perhaps suggest that life is a sport like any other, in which players
will encounter victory and loss, and that how you play the game is the
most important consideration.
86 Exam-style 1. Responses may focus on:
questions the resolute tone of both poems
the poems’ structure, building to an emphatic conclusion
the, perhaps, more realistic and nuanced view of life shown in ‘If - ’
in comparison to the high expectation demanded in Sonnet 116.
89 1 Possible answers:
Language Comment on meaning/effect
‘blood sucking bat… These harsh-sounding words give
club-footed ghoul’ an immediate impression of a
world of vampire and ghost films,
with creatures that would terrify a
young child.
‘Otherwise kill me’ The strong request at the end is
sudden and unexpected. The child
does not want to be born into a
world of such horrors unless it can
be protected.
‘the human race may with tall Repetition and rhyme emphasise
walls wall me’ the impact and impenetrability of
the walls the speaker expects to
face
‘Water… grass … trees … sky … Natural imagery suggests a much
birds‘ more positive view of the life that
awaits the speaker
‘sins… treason… murder’ In contrast the speaker then
focuses on the worst actions of
humanity
‘a cog in a machine’ Metaphor: implying mechanisation
and dehumanisation
‘blow me like thistledown hither Simile/repetition: highlights the
and/thither or hither and thither’ image of a lack of control
‘like water held in the/hands Simile: suggests the fragility of a
would spill me.’ life when that life is in other
people’s hands
92 1 Possible answers:
Language Comment on meaning/effect
‘There never is enough water.’ This bold statement acts to label water as
precious. The use of punctuation enforces
this.
‘silver crashes to the ground’ This image of liquid metal is vivid,
portraying the water as something valuable
and beautiful.
‘the skin cracks like a pod’ This metaphor compares the earth
to a living creature, its dry skin
cracking.
‘the voice of a kindly god” A metaphor suggesting the divine
power of water, giving and
sustaining life
‘a roar of tongues’ An onomatopoeic image begins
building impressions of the
significance of water in this
community.
‘congregation’ Religious connotations highlight
the significance of water, drawing
a worshipping crowd
‘brass, copper, aluminium/plastic Listing and short lines suggest the
buckets/frantic hands, urgent desperation of the people
‘the liquid sun… highlights polished Positive images of beauty and
to perfection, … the blessing sings’ celebration
95 1 Possible answers:
Language Comment on meaning/effect
‘You ask me what I mean’ Through direct address, the reader
is immediately drawn into the
poem and is encouraged to form
their own view.
‘the foreign tongue’ The other tongue is alien and
isolated – represented literally by
placing it on a line of its own.
‘rot and die in your mouth’ The use of emotive and strong
language creates a vivid, striking
image.
‘if you had two tongues in your A powerful image conveying the
mouth’ confusion and discomfort of the
speaker’s situation.
‘munay hattoo kay….’ The prominence given to the
‘foreign tongue’ and its phonetic
representation, creates a strong
visual and verbal interruption to
the poem, reflecting the speaker’s
experience.
‘stump of a shoot/grows longer, A vivid metaphor of natural but
grows moist, grows strong veins/it predatory imagery highlights the
ties the other tongue in knots’ speaker’s struggle.
‘blossoms out of my mouth’ After the unsettling predatory
imagery, this contrasting image of
natural beauty brings the poem to
a positive resolution.
96 Some Possible answers:
questions the reference to a ‘mother tongue’ suggests the early and close bond of
to consider parent and child; it suggests a relationship between the speaker’s
language and her very existence.
The use of Gujarati, and its phonetic representation, is likely to prove
challenging and discomforting for any non-native speaker, both in
terms of pronouncing the unfamiliar syllables and having no clues to
their meaning.
The use of a dream suggests a subconscious return to the mother
tongue of the speaker’s earlier life while the imagery of the dream has
distinctly nightmarish qualities.
The image of ‘two tongues’ suggests the speaker’s constant struggle
with the challenge of two languages and two cultures.
99 1 Possible answers:
Language Comment on meaning/effect
‘He knew the clockface, the/little This shows how the child in his
eyes’ imagination compared the clock to
a ‘person’ with a face and legs,
although he did not realise how it
told the time.
‘time hides tick-less waiting to/be ‘Time’ is personified as someone
born’ not yet born, which shows time as
set in an eternal world; time was
not yet born for the child in the
sense that he had not been able to
measure it.
‘Something Very Wrong’ The use of capital letters highlights,
perhaps humorously, the
significance of the child’s
wrongdoing.
‘Gettinguptime, These elisions of familiar phrases
timeyouwereofftime,..’ suggest a child-like understanding
of language.
‘he couldn’t click its language’ A surprising image suggesting the
child’s belief that the clock
communicates time through its
clicks (or ticking).
‘Into the smell of old A disconcerting series of images
chrysanthemums on Her desk… suggesting the loss of time creates
into ever’ a loss of place and meaning.
99 Some Possible answers:
questions The use of compound words suggests a childlike understanding of
to consider meaning but not of language: an association between the phrase and
the event to which it refers.
The verb ‘escaped’ suggests a positive experience of freedom, while the
images of ‘the smell of old chrysanthemums … the silent noise his
hangnail made’ suggest isolation and disorientation.
Initially the teacher is presented unsympathetically: the bracketed line
‘I forget what it was’ suggests the child’s wrongdoing was insignificant
and, by implication, that the teacher may be over-reacting. However,
the teacher’s ‘scuttling’ and her honest admission that she ‘forgot all
about you’ creates a more sympathetic impression.
99 Exam-style 1. Responses may focus on:
questions The use of sensory detail to convey the experience of isolation in both
poems: for example, ‘the smell of old chrysanthemums’ in ‘Half-past
Two’ and ‘smell like the seaside... this salty dark’ in ‘Hide and Seek’.
The sense of disorientation in both characters’ experiences of isolation.
The resolution in ‘Half-past Two’ ending the child’s isolation in contrast
to the unresolved question on which ‘Hide and Seek’ ends.