KNOWLEDGE
Unseen poetry
practice questions 5
There are two questions in the Unseen Poetry section, as well as two poems. The first question is worth most of the marks (24), and the second is worth just 8 marks. Also, the second is assessed on AO2 only. The questions are included below, or you can download the whole lot as a PDF.
1. In ‘To My Daughter in a Red Coat’, how does the poet present ideas about motherhood?
‘To My Daughter in a Red Coat’ by Anne Stevenson
Late October. It is afternoon.
My daughter and I walk through the leaf-strewn
Corridors of the park
In the light and the dark
Of the elms' thin arches.
Around us brown leaves fall and spread.
Small winds stir the minor dead.
Dust powders the air.
Those shrivelled women stare.
At us from their cold benches.
Child, your mittens tug your sleeves.
They lick your drumming feet, the leaves.
You come so fast, so fast.
You violate the past,
My daughter, as your coat dances.
2. In both ‘To My Daughter in a Red Coat’ and ‘Afternoons’ the poets present ideas about motherhood.
What are the similarities and/or differences between the methods the poets use to present these ideas?
‘Afternoons’ by Philip Larkin
Summer is fading:
The leaves fall in ones and twos
From trees bordering
The new recreation ground.
In the hollows of afternoons
Young mothers assemble
At swing and sandpit
Setting free their children.
Behind them, at intervals,
Stand husbands in skilled trades,
An estateful of washing,
And the albums, lettered
‘Our Wedding’, lying
Near the television:
Before them, the wind
Is ruining their courting-places
That are still courting-places
(But the lovers are all in school),
And their children, so intent on
Finding more unripe acorns,
Expect to be taken home.
Their beauty has thickened.
Something is pushing them
To the side of their own lives.