How to answer: 'Discuss and compare the role of the speaker or persona in poems you have studied. You must refer closely to the work of two or three poets in your study and base your answer on a total of three or four poems.'

As you can see, the question requires breadth (3-4 poems) and depth (it wants you to refer closely). How should you start? Begin with the basics: quickly list 3-4 poems (making sure they're written by 2-3 poets) which you like. Don't worry too much about the choosing because a topic like this will give you plenty to say - just make sure you feel comfortable with the texts. Once you've chosen, make a short plan. This will give your essay direction and ensure you bring out the contrasts - the 'compare' aspect of the question. The factors you can consider at this stage are: the pronoun the speaker uses (I, we etc.); who the addressee is (a group, a lover, a stranger); the certainty of the voice (does the persona/ speaker break itself down through ambiguities or is the confidence of the voice in some way a bit too much to be convincing?); how sympathetic the character is (perhaps you are supposed to dislike them!); and where the author is in all of this. Choose some themes that give you a good contrast and find which words and literary techniques create the impressions you're getting. Try and end with pushing the contrast a bit further by asking why you saw these differences.