Question Constellation Sign up for free OCR · GCSE · English Literature · Higher
Conflict damaging the lives of people not directly involved
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).
Explore in detail one other poem from your anthology which presents conflict damaging the lives of people not directly involved.
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Marking points
- 1 Selects one other anthology poem relevant to conflict damaging people not directly involved.
- 2 Maintains a critical personal response focused on indirect or wider damage caused by conflict.
- 3 Uses relevant textual references and quotations from the chosen poem.
- 4 Analyses language, form and structure used to create meanings and effects.
- 5 May use any valid poem and relevant interpretation, including but not limited to the examples named in the mark scheme.
Full-mark answer
One possible answer could explore Wilfred Owen's 'Anthem for Doomed Youth'. The poem presents conflict as damaging not only the soldiers who die but also those who mourn them. Its sonnet form usually suggests love, but Owen uses it to expose the absence of proper funeral rites: the soldiers receive the sound of guns instead of prayers. In the sestet the focus moves towards those left at home, with images such as girls' brows and the drawing down of blinds suggesting grief carried by families and communities. A strong response would connect these details to the task and analyse how Owen's sound, imagery and structure make the indirect damage of conflict feel solemn and unavoidable.
Why this answer loses marks
Choosing a poem but discussing only frontline violence.
The task focus is the damage conflict causes to people not directly involved, so the response must connect evidence to indirect or wider effects.