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OCR · GCSE · English Literature · Higher

The widespread effects of conflict

Q02.1a 20 marks

Conflict. 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 the widespread effects of conflict.

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Marking points

  1. 1 Addresses both 'Vergissmeinnicht' and 'The Son' in relation to the widespread effects of conflict.
  2. 2 Develops comparison between the poems rather than treating them as two isolated responses.
  3. 3 Analyses language, form and structure used to create meanings and effects.
  4. 4 Uses relevant textual references and quotations to support interpretation.
  5. 5 Explores ideas, attitudes, tone and atmosphere in relation to conflict's wider consequences.
  6. 6 May use the mark scheme's specific indicative points about metaphor, sibilance, symbolic contrast, imagery, protest, guilt or unfairness.

Full-mark answer

A strong answer would compare how both poems show conflict damaging people beyond the battlefield. Douglas begins with the corpse of an enemy soldier, but the discovery of Steffi's photograph turns the dead man into both 'lover and killer'. This shift makes the effects of conflict spread from the physical horror of the body to the emotional injury done to someone absent. Dyment is more domestic and retrospective: the old letter brings the war into a quiet room, and the repeated image of luck 'at the bottom of the sea' links the father's death to all the other men lost in conflict. Both poems protest against war's wider damage, but Douglas uses shocking imagery and uneasy guilt, while Dyment uses restraint, contrast and repetition to show lasting grief.

Why this answer loses marks

Writing only about soldiers dying in war.

The task asks for the widespread effects of conflict, and the mark scheme stresses damage to lovers, children and others left behind.