Liz Croft

Poems Past and Present Liz Croft

The Guide has been written primarily for students of GCSE English Literature as specified by AQA in the post-2015 syllabus (8702). It addresses the requirement to study one cluster of poems taken from the AQA poetry anthology: Past and Present and the requirement to analyse and compare Unseen Poetry. The Guide covers all the poems in both the "Love and Relationships" and the "Power and Conflict" clusters in the Anthology. The poems are explored individually, and links and connections between them are drawn as appropriate. The format of each exploration is similar: -An explanation of key features of the poem that require contextual knowledge or illustration and the relationship between the text and its context. -A summary of the key themes of the poems, with a note on possible connections and links to other poems in the cluster-A brief summary of the metric form, rhyme scheme or other structural features-A "walk-through" (or explication) of the poem, ensuring that what is happening in the poem is understood, how the rhythm and rhyme contribute to meaning, an explanation of the meaning of words which may be unfamiliar, an exploration of language and imagery and a comment on main themes.