Reading Poetry for N(A)-Level Literature in English (SEAB 2022) quiz quiz

Explaining how the poet creates meaning and feeling through specific choices and their effect

A neat summary of what the poem is about

Naming as many poetic devices as possible

Reciting facts about the poet's life

The poet uses a metaphor in the first line.

There is alliteration in the second stanza.

The poem has four stanzas.

The image of the single watching light isolates the lighthouse and makes its vigilance feel lonely.

Count how many devices you have named

Delete the name of the device and check the sentence still explains how the words shape meaning

Make sure every quotation is at least two lines long

Mention the poet's nationality

Because form is never relevant to meaning

Because you should never mention form at all

Because the marks come from explaining how the shape, line breaks and pattern guide the reader and support meaning

Because only free verse is examined at N(A)-Level

The subject is what the poem is literally about; the theme is the idea or message the poem develops about it

There is no difference; they are the same thing

The theme is the title and the subject is the last line

The subject is figurative and the theme is literal

Only the literal meaning of each word

How many images the poem contains

Whether the image is a simile or a metaphor and nothing more

What the image makes the reader see and feel, and how it serves the poem's meaning

The dictionary definition of a word

The feelings and ideas a word suggests beyond its plain meaning

The number of syllables in a word

Whether a word rhymes with another

Stumbles in rhythm, unexpected line breaks and harsh sounds often mark where meaning is concentrated

It guarantees you will rhyme your own answer

It tells you the poet's intentions for certain

It is only useful for sonnets

It always makes a poem sound angry

It has no effect and should be ignored

It can carry the reader forward, delay a key word, or create a sense of flow or breathlessness

It only appears in poems that rhyme

Because poets never write about themselves

Because a poet often writes in the voice of an invented speaker with a particular situation or attitude

Because the speaker is always the reader

Because poems have no speaker at all

By guessing how the poet felt that day

By counting the number of lines

By assuming the tone is always sad

From clues in word choice and detail, for example warm, bitter or wistful word choices

Sound should be ignored in analysis

Effects like rhythm, alliteration and onomatopoeia carry feeling and support meaning

Only rhyme matters, not other sounds

Sound only matters when reading aloud in performance

Quote short, precise details, embed them, then analyse their effect

Quote long passages to show familiarity

Avoid quotation and describe the poem generally

Quote only the first and last lines

Because both reward memorised quotations

Because the unseen poem is always easier

Because both reward close reading that explains how choices create effect and meaning

Because set poems are never analysed closely

Add the poet's date of birth

Explain that the repetition enacts a tireless, circular motion, so the reader feels the monotony of an endless duty

Replace it with a summary of the whole poem

Remove all mention of repetition