Question Constellation Sign up for free OCR · GCSE · English Literature · Higher
A Poem Wishing for Conflict to End
Explore in detail one other poem from your anthology which presents the wish for an end to conflict.
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Marking points
- 1 Choose a valid poem from the Conflict cluster other than ‘Songs for the People’ and keep the argument focused on the wish for conflict to end.
- 2 Use relevant textual references to develop an informed interpretation of the selected poem.
- 3 Analyse the effects of language, form and structure instead of narrating context or paraphrasing imagery.
Full-mark answer
In Caleb Femi’s ‘Thirteen’, the wish for conflict to end is expressed through a child’s experience of racial profiling. The speaker is ‘cornered’ by police while walking home, making the conflict feel threatening, unequal and imposed on an innocent young person. Femi’s extended ‘supernova’ metaphor changes in meaning as the poem develops: an image of brilliance and possibility becomes connected with the way institutions see and treat the child. The later visit of police to the school deepens the speaker’s understanding that the conflict is not a single encounter but part of a wider relationship between policing, education and race. By returning to and transforming the metaphor, Femi makes the loss of innocence structurally visible. The poem therefore wishes for more than the end of one confrontation; it challenges the institutional assumptions that make such confrontations recur.
Why this answer loses marks
Begin with a long historical-context introduction before addressing the poem.
Context is not assessed in this part. Start with a focused interpretation of how the poem presents the wish for conflict to end, then analyse the poet’s methods.