Question Constellation Sign up for free OCR · GCSE · English Literature · Higher
Babies and their parents' feelings for them
Section A: Poetry across Time. Youth and Age. Read the two poems below and then answer both part a) and part b). You are advised to spend about 45 minutes on part a) and 30 minutes on part b).
Compare how these poems present babies and their parents' feelings for them.
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Marking points
- 1 Compares both named poems directly and keeps the response focused on babies and parental feelings.
- 2 Uses relevant quotations or textual references from both poems.
- 3 Analyses language, form and structure such as imagery, voice, rhythm, enjambment, sound or ending.
- 4 Develops comparison of tone, ideas and attitudes rather than treating the poems in isolation.
Full-mark answer
A strong answer would compare Plath's lively, expectant presentation of the unborn baby with Lawrence's heavier, anxious presentation of a baby asleep after pain. It would analyse Plath's inventive images, rhythm and direct address as signs of delight and anticipation, and Lawrence's repeated heaviness, bee simile and awkward movement as signs of vulnerability and parental burden. It would support the comparison with close quotation from both poems.
Why this answer loses marks
Both poems show that parents love babies.
This identifies the broad subject but misses comparison of methods, tone and differing attitudes to babies and parenthood.