How do I analyse the poems and structure an answer (paper 1) ?

Paper one assesses your ability to analyse a completely unfamiliar poem and your competence in demonstrating your understanding of the poem’s fundamental meaning, through a comprehensively structured essay. Paper one’s challenges stand in your ability to quickly grasp the nuances of the poem, under timed conditions. Once you are seated in the exam and you receive the poem, it is very possible that you might panic, where you quickly become frustrated at your lack of understanding. However, this lack of understanding is simply superficial and once you start to annotate the poem, looking at language and tone, that momentary panic will recede and your understanding of the poem will slowly develop. I would recommend highlighting literary devices and particular words that you consider important and unpack them. The process of unpacking and analysing these words within the context of the poem will enable you to gain a deeper understanding of the overall meaning and complex nuances.Before writing the essay, it is essential that you make a detailed plan. Within the examiners mark scheme, structure is a large component. Creating a plan will guide your essay and eradicate the possibility of an incomplete analysis; where a clear structure will set the base for the examiner. Moreover, it will order your thoughts, automatically allowing you to obtain a higher mark. Firstly your essay must start with an introduction. Within the introduction you should briefly explain the context of the poem and then indicate to the examiner what you will be looking at throughout your essay. You would then go onto the body of your text. I suggest in the second paragraph set the base for your evaluation by analysing possible rhyme schemes, overall tone and distinguishing features in the stanzas. I would then take 3-4 themes within the poem and write a paragraph on each. Within each of these paragraphs, I recommend taking a quote and unpacking the language, the punctuation and the tone. Here you would explicitly state, to the examiner, what types of literacy devices are used, their effectiveness and how they add to the overall meaning of the poem. I would then write a paragraph on the final stanza. The final stanza is often written to create lasting impact, and without analysing this, your evaluation would be incomplete. To conclude you need to summarise all your points and then proceed to leave a punchy last line on what you consider to be the true meaning of the poem and it’s impact. This is a very general structure for an unseen poetry commentary, but it gives you a good base from which you can work from.