CAIE IGCSE Literature in English - Poetry (2023-2024 List) PDF

ZNOTES.ORG UPDATED TO 2023-2025 SYLLABUS CAIE IGCSE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH SUMMARIZED NOTES ON THE THEORY SYLLABUS Prepared for DENIS for personal use only. CAIE IGCSE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH each in his own private blizzard; 1. The City Plann...

ZNOTES.ORG UPDATED TO 2023-2025 SYLLABUS CAIE IGCSE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH SUMMARIZED NOTES ON THE THEORY SYLLABUS Prepared for DENIS for personal use only. CAIE IGCSE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH each in his own private blizzard; 1. The City Planners - Stanza 6 Margaret Atwood guessing directions, they sketch transitory lines rigid as wooden borders on a wall in the white vanishing air 1.1. Poem Stanza 7 Stanza 1 tracing the panic of suburb Cruising these residential Sunday order in a bland madness of snows streets in dry August sunlight: what offends us is the sanities: 1.2. Overview the houses in pedantic rows, the planted sanitary trees, assert Structure - 38 lines, 7 stanzas levelness of surface like a rebuke Themes: to the dent in our car door. Order and control No shouting here, or Environmental destruction shatter of glass; nothing more abrupt Stanzas get shorter as the poem continues, showing the than the rational whine of a power mower deteriorating stability of the environment. cutting a straight swath in the discouraged grass. 1.3. Stanza 1 Stanza 2 But though the driveways neatly sidestep hysteria by being even, the roofs all display the same slant of avoidance to the hot sky, certain things: the smell of spilled oil a faint sickness lingering in the garages, a splash of paint on brick surprising as a bruise, a plastic hose poised in a vicious coil; even the too-fixed stare of the wide windows Stanza 4 give momentary access to the landscape behind or under the future cracks in the plaster Stanza 5 when the houses, capsized, will slide obliquely into the clay seas, gradual as glaciers that right now nobody notices. That is where the City Planners with the insane faces of political conspirators are scattered over unsurveyed territories, concealed from each other, WWW.ZNOTES.ORG Copyright © 2024 ZNotes Education & Foundation. All Rights Reserved. This document is authorised for personal use only by DENIS at Homeschooled on 13/12/24. CAIE IGCSE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH The third stanza begins with enjambement, as the 1.4. Stanza 2 sentence from the second stanza continues on without any punctuation demarcating the two stanzas. The second stanza begins with the word ‘But’, which The speaker explains that these imperfections give indicates that not everything is as it seems in the ‘momentary access to / the landscape behind of under / suburbs. the future cracks in the plaster’. The word ‘landscape’ The words ‘neatly’ and ‘even’ being used to describe the shows the massive scale of the world that the driveways and the roofs once again re-iterate the perfections of the suburbs have hidden away. mathematical precision with which the suburbs have The phrase ‘future cracks’ shows how the temporary been constructed. illusion of perfection that the suburbs exude is not The word ‘hysteria’ in the phrase ‘driveways neatly / bound to last for a very long time. sidestep hysteria’ seems to show the unstable mental The word ‘plaster’ refers to the fact that plaster is often state of the speaker. used to cover up cracks and imperfections on walls and The phrase ‘slant of avoidance to the hot sky’ has two other structures. points of note - first, the words ‘slant of avoidance’, which act as a reference to how the suburbs’ construction is an attempt to avoid the reality of life, and second, the word 1.6. Stanza 4 ‘hot’, which has a very harsh and negative connotation. The speaker follows up this description by providing a The fourth stanza continues with the same enjambement short list of all of the subtle imperfections that they have as the third. been able to make out in this highly controlled and It says that the ‘houses’, which are representative of the ‘perfect’ landscape. This list is juxtaposed with the list of false perfection that the suburbs have attempted to mathematical perfections which was given through the create, will slide into the ‘clay seas’, which represent the first stanza and the beginning of the second stanza. natural world. The word ‘sickness’ being used here shows how the smell The speaker describes this motion as being ‘gradual and of oil seems to be almost foreign. glaciers’ and states how ‘right now nobody notices’. The speaker also compares a ‘splash of paint on brick’ as These two phrases can be interpreted as references to being as ‘surprising as a bruise’ using a simile. It uses the the slow impact of climate change and environmental image of a bruise standing out on fair skin to show how destruction, and how it is often ignored and played down prominent the paint stain seems. by people and the media. The word ‘vicious’ describing the way in which a ‘plastic hose’ is ‘poised’ contrasts the winding pattern of the hose 1.7. Stanza 5 with the perfection of the houses. 1.5. Stanza 3 WWW.ZNOTES.ORG Copyright © 2024 ZNotes Education & Foundation. All Rights Reserved. This document is authorised for personal use only by DENIS at Homeschooled on 13/12/24. CAIE IGCSE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH The fifth stanza finally introduces the reader to the titular The final stanza is a short couplet, which summarizes City Planners, described as having the ‘insane faces of what the Planners are trying to do. political conspirators’. This shows how the speaker The word ‘panic’ shows how the suburbs exude a believes these Planners to all be together in a political concealed air of madness and hysteria despite seeming and immoral plot - the plot to create these false orderly and controlled. perfections. The words ‘panic’ and ‘order’ are juxtaposed from one These City Planners are ‘scattered over unsurveyed line to the next, showing the contrasting views of the territories’, showing how the Planners wish to take over Planners and the speaker. every part of the world they can. The couplet ending with the word ‘snows’ is significant as They are described as ‘concealed from each other’, well - ‘snows’ is not a grammatically correct word, and showing how despite each of them acting independently, this grammatical imperfection seems to be a sort of last they all share the same final motive of creating stand of the speaker’s and comes off as an attempt of mathematical precision and perfection. the speaker’s to safeguard the imperfection and The word ‘private blizzard’ seems to show nature’s randomness of their surroundings. attempts to fight against the Planners and their perfectionist regime. 2. The Planners - Boey Kim 1.8. Stanza 6 Cheng The sixth stanza is another very short paragraph, just like the third and fourth stanzas before it. These short 2.1. Poem paragraphs, and the abrupt ways in which they begin with enjambement, are indicative of the rushed manner Stanza 1 in which the speaker’s thoughts are flowing, and the gravity of what is being said. They plan. They build. All spaces are gridded, This paragraph describes what the Planners are doing in filled with permutations of possibilities. their territories. The speaker is informed that they are The buildings are in alignment with the roads ‘guessing directions’, which shows how they do not truly which meet at desired points know what they are doing despite the magnitude of the linked by bridges all hang perfection that these Planners are capable of creating. in the grace of mathematics. The lines that they sketch are told to be ‘rigid as wooden They build and will not stop. borders’. The rigid lines being made on snow show how Even the sea draws back they are bound to disappear as the snow melts, once and the skies surrender. again reiterating the theme that the Planners’ illusions of perfection are temporary in nature. Stanza 2 1.9. Stanza 7 They erase the flaws, the blemishes of the past, knock off useless blocks with dental dexterity. All gaps are plugged with gleaming gold. The country wears perfect rows of shining teeth. Anaesthesia, amnesia, hypnosis. They have the means. They have it all so it will not hurt, so history is new again. WWW.ZNOTES.ORG Copyright © 2024 ZNotes Education & Foundation. All Rights Reserved. This document is authorised for personal use only by DENIS at Homeschooled on 13/12/24. CAIE IGCSE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH The piling will not stop. The drilling goes right through 2.4. Stanza 2 the fossils of last century. Stanza 3 But my heart would not bleed poetry. Not a single drop to stain the blueprint of our past’s tomorrow. 2.2. Overview Structure - 27 lines, 3 stanzas Themes: Order and control Environmental destruction 2.3. Stanza 1 WWW.ZNOTES.ORG Copyright © 2024 ZNotes Education & Foundation. All Rights Reserved. This document is authorised for personal use only by DENIS at Homeschooled on 13/12/24. CAIE IGCSE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH 2.5. Stanza 3 Stanza 5 I cannot but be sorry The concluding stanza of the poem is only four short lines in length. The given shield was cracked, The speaker says that their ‘heart would not bleed / My mind reduced to hurry, poetry’ and that they would not want a ‘single drop to My flesh reduced and wrecked. stain the blueprint / of our past’s tomorrow’. This statement is ironic, as, in a poem about the Planners, the Stanza 6 speaker is stating that they would not write any poetry I have to change the bed, about the Planners. But catch myself instead The word ‘stain the blueprint’ seems to imply that poetry would have some form of negative impact on the Stanza 7 Planners’ plans for the future, and here, the speaker seems to be, in a veiled manner, trying to encourage any Stopped upright where I am poets reading the poem to follow suit and also write Hugging my body to me poetry about the future the Planners are trying to create. As if to shield it from The poem’s final words, ‘past’s tomorrow’, are an The pains that will go through me, oxymoron, and once again reiterate the Planners’ wish to erase the ‘past’ in order to create ‘tomorrow’ in their Stanza 8 image. As if hands were enough 3. The Man with Night Sweats To hold an avalanche off. - Thom Gunn 3.2. Overview Structure - 24 lines, 8 stanzas 3.1. Poem Themes: Solitude Stanza 1 Illness Lack of creativity I wake up cold, I who The entire event described has been narrated in the Prospered through dreams of heat present tense, making the speaker’s description of their Wake to their residue, struggle seem much more real and genuine to the Sweat, and a clinging sheet. reader. Stanza 2 3.3. Stanza 1 My flesh was its own shield: Where it was gashed, it healed. Stanza 3 I grew as I explored The body I could trust Even while I adored The risk that made robust, Stanza 4 A world of wonders in Each challenge to the skin. WWW.ZNOTES.ORG Copyright © 2024 ZNotes Education & Foundation. All Rights Reserved. This document is authorised for personal use only by DENIS at Homeschooled on 13/12/24. CAIE IGCSE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH The word ‘cold’ clues the reader in on the fact that the The second stanza introduces the aforementioned shield speaker has fallen victim to the titular ‘night sweats’ but metaphor, with ‘My flesh was its own shield: / Where it does not obviously state this. was gashed, it healed’. The word ‘heat’ is juxtaposed with the word ‘cold’ from This stanza being only two lines long can be interpreted the poem's first line. The word ‘prospered’ indicates as a subtle reference to the finality of this statement, and success, but the wealth and success the speaker feels how the speaker’s body no longer supports them like it like he attains in his ‘dreams of heat’ are all not actually did. real and are just - dreams. The word ‘was’ indicates usage of past tense, which is Here, ‘dreams of heat’ is a metaphorical reference to different from the tense used in the first stanza of the dreams of passion and love, which is a reference to how poem. This indicates that the speaker is no longer in the AIDS, the disease which the speaker suffers from in the present, and how he is reminiscing back to the past. This poem, is transmitted. indicates that what the speaker is talking about is what The speaker states that he wakes to the ‘residue’ of these used to hold true in the past, and that his situation is dreams, with the ‘residue’ here being ‘sweat, and a different in the present. clinging sheet’. The word ‘residue’ describes the sweat The word ‘gashed’ is a much harsher word than other and how these dreams have a longer-lasting impact on similar words such as ‘cut’ or ‘scratch’. The intent of using his mental state and strength. ‘gashed’ seems to be to show the great extent to which The reader’s possible suspicions from the first line are the speaker could, in the past, tolerate physical damage. finally confirmed here, with the reason for the speaker’s It also shows just how strong the ‘shield’ of the speaker’s coldness being revealed to be sweat. The sweat links ‘flesh’ was, and sets up the descriptions of the speaker’s together the ‘cold’ and ‘heat’ from the first two lines, present weakness which follow in the poem by showing how heat can lead to feeling cold, contextualising the change and allowing the reader to contextualising those lines and making their meaning understand the type of metamorphosis AIDS has put the clearer to the reader. speaker through. The words ‘clinging sheet’ are also relevant. As the speaker later discusses in the poem, their flesh once 3.5. Stanza 3 acted as a shield, but now, they require a sheet to shield themselves from external stimuli. This shows the impact of the disease. 3.4. Stanza 2 WWW.ZNOTES.ORG Copyright © 2024 ZNotes Education & Foundation. All Rights Reserved. This document is authorised for personal use only by DENIS at Homeschooled on 13/12/24. CAIE IGCSE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH The third stanza is still in past tense. It begins with ‘I grew as I explored’. The words ‘I grew’ 3.7. Stanza 5 shows how this is the same body which the speaker grew up in, and the same body with which the speaker has The fifth stanza returns back to the present, with ‘I cannot but be sorry’. experienced everything which he has done up to the The speaker regrets having been less careful in his present. The word ‘explored’ indicates that the speaker has younger days, and regrets having taken his body for experimented and taken many risks in his life, and it granted. leads the reader to wonder whether it was one of these He refers to his body as his ‘given shield’, which strengthens the idea that he took his body for granted in such mistakes that led to him having lost his ‘shield’ of the past - he took what he was given (his body) and did protection. The speaker describes their body as ‘The body I could not take enough care of it. trust’, and the fact that this is in past tense really shows He states that his given shield has been ‘cracked’. This the extent of the effect of AIDS on the reader - he can no shows how he thinks of his body as broken. A cracked shield cannot protect anyone, for any blow to it would longer put his trust in his own body. This line evokes a shatter it into pieces, and this is what he is comparing his sense of sympathy for the speaker in the reader’s mind. The speaker states that they ‘adored / The risk that made body to. robust’. This shows how the speaker once used to live a Since AIDS reduces your immunity and makes you more life of taking risks, and their body allowed them to vulnerable to other diseases and afflictions, he is likening the effect of the disease on his body to a cracked shield. sustain their lifestyle. The word ‘reduced’ is repeated twice in the following two The usage of the word ‘robust’ once again re-iterates how strong the speaker’s body was at that point in time. lines: ‘My mind reduced to hurry, / My flesh reduced and wrecked.’, which shows how the speaker believes that his mental and physical capacity has been reduced. It shows 3.6. Stanza 4 how harsh AIDS truly is, and how impactful it has been. The fourth stanza is once again only two lines long, much like the second stanza. 3.8. Stanza 6 This stanza reads ‘A world of wonders in / Every The sixth stanza is once again a couplet, and it reads, ‘I challenge to the skin’. The phrase ‘a world of wonders’ shows just how much the speaker enjoyed have to change the bed, / But catch myself instead’. experimenting and challenging themselves. It shows the Him stating that he has to ‘change the bed’ is a reminder reckless lifestyle which the speaker once led, and the of the fact that the bedsheets are soaked with sweat, and this can be interpreted as a metaphorical representation risks they took of the impact which his disease has on the people Even though the reader cannot help but feel sorry for the speaker, lines like this one make the reader completely around him. aware of the fact that the speaker did live a dangerous However, he is unable to do so, and instead ends up and reckless lifestyle. stopping in his tracks and standing still, showing his inability to reverse the damage which the disease has ‘Every challenge to the skin’ once again reminds the had on him and the people around him. reader of just how strong the speaker’s skin used to be, and how they used to get pleasure from challenging It also shows how he has gotten used to the disease by themselves and experimenting. now, and knows that something bad or painful is about Every event and act of intimacy would change him, and to happen soon. would make him develop as a person. 3.9. Stanza 7 WWW.ZNOTES.ORG Copyright © 2024 ZNotes Education & Foundation. All Rights Reserved. This document is authorised for personal use only by DENIS at Homeschooled on 13/12/24. CAIE IGCSE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH for ten nights now I've felt the creeping damp The seventh stanza starts with ‘Stopped upright where I float over my pajamas' wilted white… am’, which shows how he is completely stationary. Sweet salt embalms me and my head is wet, He knows by now that he is about to experience pain, everything streams and tells me this is right; something which is reinforced by his statements in the my life's fever is soaking in night sweat- last line of this stanza, which reads, ‘The pains that will one life, one writing! But the downward glide go through me’. and bias of existing wrings us dry- This gives an idea to the reader of how painful and always inside me is the child who died, chaotic his life is now and how his normal function is always inside me is his will to die- impaired by the constant cycle of pain that he goes one universe, one body… in this urn through. the animal night sweats of the spirit burn. The speaker states he stands there, ‘Hugging [his] body Behind me! You! Again I feel the light to [him] / As if to shield it’. This shows his subconscious lighten my leaded eyelids, while the gray instinct to protect himself. skulled horses whinny for the soot of night. Once again, the word ‘shield’ is brought into play, but I dabble in the dapple of the day, unlike the earlier descriptions of his body as a shield, the a heap of wet clothes, seamy, shivering, writer understands that his hands are useless as a shield. I see my flesh and bedding washed with light, This can be seen from his utilisation of ‘As if’. my child exploding into dynamite, my wife… your lightness alters everything, 3.10. Stanza 8 and tears the black web from the spider's sack, as your heart hops and flutters like a hare. The final lines of the poem read ‘As if hands were enough Poor turtle, tortoise, if I cannot clear / To hold an avalanche off’. This shows how the speaker the surface of these troubled waters here, is aware of the futility of his gesture, of wrapping his absolve me, help me, Dear Heart, as you bear arms around himself. this world's dead weight and cycle on your back. However, he still does it anyways, subconsciously, and it demonstrates a sort of regret of his, and a wish of his to 4.2. Overview have his old, strong, healthy body back. The word ‘avalanche’ here is a metaphorical reference to Structure - 28 lines, 1 stanza the speaker’s pain. Themes: The poem ends on a melancholy and sombre note, by Anguish giving the reader a visualisation of just how bad the pain Frustration and suffering of the speaker is, along with leaving them Power of love with an important message - to not take their ‘given The entirety of the poem takes place over a single stanza. shield’ for granted, and to take care of their body The lack of demarcation indicates the frenzied nature of properly. the speaker’s thoughts, and their lack of organisation It can be broken down, however, into two sonnets 4. Night Sweat - Robert condensed into a single stanza, the first being a Shakespearean sonnet, and the other being a Petrarchan Lowell sonnet This combination of two different styles once again shows how the speaker’s thoughts are not very 4.1. Poem organised and how he is unable to focus in only one direction at once. Work-table, litter, books and standing lamp, plain things, my stalled equipment, the old broom- but I am living in a tidied room, WWW.ZNOTES.ORG Copyright © 2024 ZNotes Education & Foundation. All Rights Reserved. This document is authorised for personal use only by DENIS at Homeschooled on 13/12/24. CAIE IGCSE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH 4.3. Sonnet 1 4.4. Sonnet 2 WWW.ZNOTES.ORG Copyright © 2024 ZNotes Education & Foundation. All Rights Reserved. This document is authorised for personal use only by DENIS at Homeschooled on 13/12/24. CAIE IGCSE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH 5. Rain - Edward Thomas 6. The Spirit is Too Blunt an 5.1. Poem Instrument - Anne Stevenson Rain, midnight rain, nothing but the wild rain 6.1. Poem On this bleak hut, and solitude, and me Remembering again that I shall die Stanza 1 And neither hear the rain nor give it thanks For washing me cleaner than I have been The spirit is too blunt an instrument Since I was born into this solitude. to have made this baby. Blessed are the dead that the rain rains upon: Nothing so unskilful as human passions But here I pray that none whom once I loved could have managed the intricate Is dying tonight or lying still awake exacting particulars: the tiny Solitary, listening to the rain, blind bones with their manipulating tendons, Either in pain or thus in sympathy the knee and the knucklebones, the resilient Helpless among the living and the dead, fine meshings of ganglia and vertebrae, Like a cold water among broken reeds, the chain of the difficult spine. Myriads of broken reeds all still and stiff, Like me who have no love which this wild rain Stanza 2 Has not dissolved except the love of death, If love it be towards what is perfect and Observe the distinct eyelashes and sharp crescent Cannot, the tempest tells me, disappoint. fingernails, the shell-like complexity of the ear, with its firm involutions concentric in miniature to minute 5.2. Overview ossicles. Imagine the Structure - 18 lines, 1 stanza infinitesimal capillaries, the flawless connections of the lungs, the invisible neural filaments Themes: Inevitability of death through which the completed body The comfort of solitude already answers to the brain. Lack of rhyme structure is reminiscent of the chaos of nature and the war Stanza 3 Metrical pattern of poem reminiscent of the sound or Then name any passion or sentiment rain possessed of the simplest accuracy. Poem is in present tense, which helps the reader better No, no desire or affection could have done visualise the scene with practice what habit Present tense gives effect that speaker is still in the war has done perfectly, indifferently, Speaker’s fate is left ambiguous, making the poem feel through the body's ignorant precision. unfinished It is left to the vagaries of the mind to invent love and despair and anxiety 5.3. Analysis and their pain. 6.2. Overview WWW.ZNOTES.ORG Copyright © 2024 ZNotes Education & Foundation. All Rights Reserved. This document is authorised for personal use only by DENIS at Homeschooled on 13/12/24. CAIE IGCSE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH Structure - 27 lines, 3 stanzas The poem begins by re-iterating the title of the poem, by Themes stating, ‘The spirit is too blunt an instrument / to have Life made this baby’. Creation The speaker is admiring a baby, and upon examining it, Possibility the speaker believes that it is impossible for the human Perfection of the Body vs Imperfection of Spirit soul to have created something as intricate and perfect. The poem does not have any rhyme scheme. This lack of The words ‘too blunt’ makes it clear that the speaker rhyme scheme can be attributed to the fact that the believes that the spirit is not precise enough to have speaker is attempting to convey the imperfection of the created something like another human body. This spirit introduces, from the very first line, the theme of this poem, which is the perfection of the body in contrast to 6.3. Stanza 1 the imperfection of the spirit. The speaker also refers to the spirit as being an ‘instrument’, displaying their opinion that the human soul is a tool to be used for one’s own benefit. By calling ‘human passions’ ‘unskilful’, the speakers displays their disdain for human passions and emotions. This shows the speaker’s mindset and contextualises everything they say for the rest of the poem. The speaker goes on to describe the ‘tiny blind bones’ of the baby. The speaker is awed that despite being unable to see around themselves, the bones of the baby are all arranged perfectly in the right way. The next part of the baby which the speaker points out is the ‘manipulating tendons’. The word ‘manipulating’ here creates the image in the reader’s mind of the tendons weaving themselves around the bones in intricate patterns. This supports the speaker’s argument that the spirit is too imperfect to design something as complicated as this. The speaker then names various other bones and parts of the body, such as the ‘knee’, ‘knucklebones’, ‘ganglia’, ‘vertebrae’, and ‘spine’. The speaker ends the first stanza at this point, after having described many different body parts, and why they believe that it is impossible for the soul to make them. 6.4. Stanza 2 WWW.ZNOTES.ORG Copyright © 2024 ZNotes Education & Foundation. All Rights Reserved. This document is authorised for personal use only by DENIS at Homeschooled on 13/12/24. CAIE IGCSE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH The second stanza is also completely based on just The final stanza shifts its focus to the body’s creation, describing parts of the body and its anatomy. and how it is, in any way, linked with human emotions. The poem focuses on giving the reader an idea of just The speaker directly challenges the reader with a sort of how complex and beautiful human anatomy really is, rhetorical requisition, demand that they ‘name any and how its minute details are beyond the scope of our passion of sentiment possessed of the simplest imagination. accuracy’. The speaker mentions the ‘distinct eyelashes’. The usage As the reader would know, it is impossible to name any of the word ‘distinct’ emphasises how each eyelash is such element - emotions are not accurate, they are not perfectly shaped in a similar manner, despite there being precise, and they do not follow any particular trend. They so many of them. are too inaccurate, and lack the precision, to create They then mention the ‘sharp crescent fingernails’, with something such as the body, which the speaker states by the emphasis here being on how the shape of the saying ‘no, no desire or affection could have done with fingernails is the exact same for each one. practice what habit has done perfectly’. They describe the ‘shell-like complexity of the ear’, and The speaker acknowledges that it is impossible for one to emphasise just how intricate and exact it is by saying practice one’s emotions to produce such a perfect result, that ‘its firm involutions [are] concentric in miniature to and that it is simply habit that has led to the creation of minute ossicles’. the human body. Here, the word involutions has two meanings - first, the This habit has carried out this task ‘indifferently’ through shrinkage of an organ, so to show how the body has the ‘body’s ignorant precision’, by ignoring the been designed even on a minute scale, and second, the imperfections of the spirit in order to create a perfect state of being complete, which is what the speaker final product. believes the human body to be. The speaker ends on the note that the body initially has The words ‘infinitesimal’ and ‘flawless’ emphasise, once no pain or problems, it is ‘left to the vagaries of the mind again, the level of perfection that the body possesses. to invent love and despair and anxiety and their pain’. The word ‘imagine’ makes it clear that none of these features are visible, they are not for anyone’s viewing pleasure, but they are there just for the sake of being 7. From Long Distance - Tony perfectly in sync with one another. The word ‘completed’ is used to describe the body, which Harrison sums up the speaker’s opinion of the human body completely - it is like a perfect finished product. 7.1. Poem 6.5. Stanza 3 Stanza 1 Though my mother was already two years dead Dad kept her slippers warming by the gas, put hot water bottles her side of the bed and still went to renew her transport pass. Stanza 2 You couldn't just drop in. You had to phone. He'd put you off an hour to give him time to clear away her things and look alone as though his still raw love were such a crime. Stanza 3 He couldn't risk my blight of disbelief WWW.ZNOTES.ORG Copyright © 2024 ZNotes Education & Foundation. All Rights Reserved. This document is authorised for personal use only by DENIS at Homeschooled on 13/12/24. CAIE IGCSE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH though sure that very soon he'd hear her key scrape in the rusted lock and end his grief. 7.4. Stanza 2 He knew she'd just popped out to get the tea. The second stanza discusses how the father would put Stanza 4 away all signs of this love of his whenever someone was visiting the house. It shows how he is insecure of his love I believe life ends with death, and that is all. for her, and how he is, in fact, completely aware of the You haven't both gone shopping; just the same, fact that what he is doing is illogical to an extent. in my new black leather phone book there's your name The speaker informs the reader that one ‘couldn’t just and the disconnected number I still call. drop in’, and that one ‘had to phone’ before coming to his father’s house. The reason for this is explained - the 7.2. Overview father would ‘put you off an hour’ in order to ‘clear away her things and look alone’. Structure - 16 lines, 4 stanzas Despite the speaker’s father clearly holding on to his Themes dead wife’s image and being in some sort of denial, he is Grief extremely self-aware and insecure about this denial, to Death the point where he is ready to clear away all of the signs Coping of his love for his wife whenever guests, including his own son, were coming over. 7.3. Stanza 1 The fact that he is attempting to hide this coping mechanism from his own son shows how ashamed he is of these tendencies of his. The phrase ‘look alone’ is significant, as it seems to imply that the father is not actually alone, and is merely putting up a show to look as such. This is the opposite of what is actually happening, but the framing and structure used in the line conveys the message that the father is so deep in his grief that looking alone seems like an act. The speaker ends this stanza by stating that his father did all of this clearing up as if ‘his still raw were such a crime’. The way in which this is framed indicates that the speaker believes that the father is, in fact, committing no wrongdoing by keeping his mother’s personal effects out and living in denial. He understands how his father feels. The word ‘raw’ being used to describe the speaker’s father’s love is impactful. It metaphorically compares the father’s love and grief with a raw wound, showing just how much it affects him. 7.5. Stanza 3 WWW.ZNOTES.ORG Copyright © 2024 ZNotes Education & Foundation. All Rights Reserved. This document is authorised for personal use only by DENIS at Homeschooled on 13/12/24. CAIE IGCSE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH The third stanza begins with ‘He couldn’t risk my blight of The final stanza shifts tense from the past to the present. disbelief’. The phrase ‘couldn’t risk’ shows how the father While the first three stanzas were describing events from is afraid of being judged for his coping mechanisms. Even the past, this one now discusses what the speaker is though the reader is aware that the son would not judge doing today, and what his situation is. his father, and does not judge him, the father is unsure The first line of this stanza is ‘I believe life ends with of this. death, and that is all’. This is an intriguing statement - it As elaborated on earlier, he is insecure and ashamed, shows the rational way in which the speaker likes to and does not want others to know of what he does to think of things, and how he believes in the finality of grieve. The irrationality of his actions is not lost on him. death. The word ‘blight’ indicates that the father believes that This is reinforced by him ending the sentence with ‘and his son’s disbelief would be like a disease, and that it that is all’, which gives it a final and concluding tone to it. could lead to the destruction or weakening of their The next sentence, ‘You haven’t both gone shopping; just relationship; something which he does not wish to risk. the same’, provides the first indication that both of the However, the father is ‘sure that very soon he’d hear her speaker’s parents have now passed away, and even key / scrape in the rusted lock and end his grief’. The though it is not explicitly stated in the following lines, it is word ‘sure’ indicates the strength of the father’s love and certain that this is the case. grief. The subtle and veiled way in which the speaker implies The usage of ‘key’ shows how to the father, his wife is his father’s death shows how raw the grief that he is locked away, just out of reach, but very much present. feeling is, and how he does not wish to directly state it, This is reinforced by ‘rusted lock’. The adjective ‘rusted’ unlike the direct and straightforward way in which he being used to describe the lock shows how it has not addresses his mother’s death in the first stanza. been used for a very long time, indicating just how long it The poem ends with the speaker stating that he still has has been since the speaker’s mother has died his father’s name in his ‘new black leather phone book’, This stanza ends with the line ‘He knew she’d just and he sometimes still calls the ‘disconnected number’. popped out to get the tea’. The italicisation of ‘knew’ The word ‘new’ being used to describe the phone book shows the strength of the father’s belief. The phrase shows how despite the speaker having gotten a new ‘popped out’ makes it seem like the mother has only book, he has still copied his father’s name across, and been gone for a very short time. the fact that he still calls the number directly contrasts with his statement in the first line of this stanza. 7.6. Stanza 4 This shows how grief can truly affect a person, and no matter what their ideals are, it can change the way in which one acts, much like the speaker in this poem. 8. Funeral Blues - W H Auden 8.1. Poem Stanza 1 Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, Silence the pianos and with muffled drum Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. Stanza 2 WWW.ZNOTES.ORG Copyright © 2024 ZNotes Education & Foundation. All Rights Reserved. This document is authorised for personal use only by DENIS at Homeschooled on 13/12/24. CAIE IGCSE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead Scribbling on the sky the message 'He is Dead'. The first stanza begins with the words ‘stop all of the Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves, clocks.’ The speaker’s grief and wish to be in peace is Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves. evident from the first statement - they wish to grieve without the pressure of time. Stanza 3 It may also be a metaphorical reference to how time seems to pass excruciatingly slow when one is in He was my North, my South, my East and West, mourning. My working week and my Sunday rest, The next demand of the speakers is to ‘cut off the My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; telephone’, which shows how they do not wish to I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong. communicate with anyone, along with how they do not wish to be disturbed by the sounds of the phone ringing. Stanza 4 The speaker’s wish to ‘Prevent the dog from barking’ is an early manifestation of their wish to manipulate and The stars are not wanted now; put out every one, control nature, something that becomes more apparent Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun, later on in the play. Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood; They provide a reasonable way to silence the dog - giving For nothing now can ever come to any good. it a ‘juicy bone.’ They also state that they wish to ‘silence the pianos.’ 8.2. Overview Music is typically associated with feelings of positivity and celebration, and the speaker does not wish to Structure - 16 lines, 4 stanzas indulge in the joys of life at the moment Themes This shows how grief is all-encompassing and how it Grief tends to make people wish they did not enjoy other Death things in life. The poem is made up of four quatrains, each following This stanza concludes with another demand of the an AABB rhyme scheme. speaker - ‘with muffled drum / Bring out the coffin, let The orderly manner in which the poem is structured is the mourners come’. The phrase ‘muffled drum’ can be juxtaposed with the speaker’s grief and fractured state of interpreted in two ways - first, as the actual beating of a mind. drum at a funeral, and two, the sound made by the feet The stanzas are structured as stairs, which each stanza of the pallbearers. acting as a further step down towards irrationality and The usage of ‘muffled’ shows the speaker’s wish to grief-struck madness. subdue the sound of an instrument that is as loud as the drum, showing, once again, their aversion to music and distractions and their will to grieve in peace. 8.3. Stanza 1 The ‘coffin’ and the ‘mourners’ serve as the first indications in the poem that the reason for the speaker’s fractured mental state is that someone close to them has died. 8.4. Stanza 2 WWW.ZNOTES.ORG Copyright © 2024 ZNotes Education & Foundation. All Rights Reserved. This document is authorised for personal use only by DENIS at Homeschooled on 13/12/24. CAIE IGCSE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH The second stanza opens with the lines, ‘Let aeroplanes The third stanza veers away from the discussion of the circle moaning overhead / Scribbling on the sky the speaker’s many wishes, and instead, focuses on what the message He Is Dead’. This is the beginning of a trend that deceased meant to the speaker. becomes more and more clear as the poem goes on - the This stanza’s main themes are the themes of love, loss speaker’s demands escalating in scale with every stanza. and grief. The stanza is representative of the speaker The sound ‘moaning’ is typically associated with learning to open up more, and to allow themselves to mourning or sadness, and its use illustrates the fact that grieve properly. the speaker wishes for even inanimate objects to show The stanza opens with the words, ‘He was my North, my grief for the death of the speaker’s loved one. South, my East and West’. This can be interpreted two It is clear that the deceased meant a lot to the speaker, ways. and that is the reason for their demands. One, no matter what direction the speaker looks in, all The next request of the speaker’s reads ‘Put crêpe bows they can remember and think of is their dead love one. round the white necks of the public doves’. This is a This shows just how much the deceased meant to them, highly difficult, but yet not outside the bounds of reality, and the significance they held in their life. demand, and it once again, acts as the speaker’s despair The second interpretation is that the mentioning the four and grief put into words. directions is a metaphorical way for the speaker to say Doves are also typically symbols of peace and equality, that the deceased represented their purpose and and the speaker’s wish to put bows round their necks is direction in life, and how now, they feel like they have indicative of their wish for peace and calm. lost all sense of direction, but literally and figuratively. The speaker’s final demand is that ‘the traffic policemen The speaker’s metaphoric declarations continue, with ‘My wear black cotton gloves’. The colour black is often working week and my Sunday rest’. The working week, associated with mourning in many cultures, so wanting combined with Sunday, make up all of the days of the policemen to wear black gloves shows the speaker’s wish week. for everyone and everything around them to mourn for Here, the speaker is trying to say that their love for the their lost loved one. deceased was perennial and that it penetrated into their Policemen, especially traffic policemen, are tasked with lives everyday. maintaining the normal and safe flow of traffic, and by This is further emphasised by the next metaphorical extension, people’s lives. The wish for traffic policemen comparison, with the speaker saying that the deceased to wear black gloves is also representative of how the was the speaker’s ’midnight’ and their ’noon’. speaker wishes for their life to also be brought back into The speaker goes on to say that the deceased was their its normal course, and how they wish for their loved one ’talk’ and their ’song’. Through this, what the speaker is to be back with them. trying to convey is that the deceased was a very large part of their personality (‘talk’) and energy (‘song’). 8.5. Stanza 3 The speaker concludes this stanza by stating, ‘I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong’, which sets the melancholy and despair-filled tone of the last stanza, and adds depth to the speaker’s grief. 8.6. Stanza 4 WWW.ZNOTES.ORG Copyright © 2024 ZNotes Education & Foundation. All Rights Reserved. This document is authorised for personal use only by DENIS at Homeschooled on 13/12/24. CAIE IGCSE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH Since as a child I used to lie The final stanza returns back to the topic of the speaker’s Upon the leaze and watch the sky, demands. However, as per the trend set in the earlier Never, I own, expected I stanzas, the outlandishness of the demands has That life would all be fair. increased even further. The speaker states that ‘the stars are not wanted now’ Stanza 2 and asks that someone ‘put out every one’. The declaration of the speaker’s that ‘the stars are not 'Twas then you said, and since have said, wanted’ shows how to them, it feels like nothing matters Times since have said, anymore in life. It is a representation of the apathy that In that mysterious voice you shed comes with grief, and is an accurate depiction of how From clouds and hills around: many people tend to react to such scenarios. "Many have loved me desperately, The speaker’s demands, which up till now, had been Many with smooth serenity, humanly possible to carry out, have now escalated to the While some have shown contempt of me point of being simply impossible. Till they dropped underground. The next demand of the speaker is to ‘Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun’. The speaker wishes for time to Stanza 3 stop, and does not want the days to keep passing. It shows how they have lost all interest in moving forward "I do not promise overmuch, with their lives, and how they feel like they will be stuck Child; overmuch; in this moment of grieving forever. Just neutral-tinted haps and such," They ask that someone ‘Pour away the ocean and sweep You said to minds like mine. up the wood’. These elements of nature, that are usually Wise warning for your credit's sake! associated with beauty and positive experiences, have Which I for one failed not to take, lost all meaning in the speaker’s life, and all they want is And hence could stem such strain and ache for all the visual distractions in their life to go away. As each year might assign. They justify all of these demands by stating that ‘nothing now can ever come to any good’. This shows how 9.2. Overview hopeless the speaker, and by extension, most mourners, feel, and shows how they feel like the world has come to Structure - 24 lines, 3 stanzas an end for them. Themes It is an extremely impactful line, and does a good job at Simplicity getting across to the reader how the speaker feels. Expectations Wisdom 9. He Never Expected Much - The poem is made up of three octets. Each octet follows the same AABCCCB rhyme scheme. Thomas Hardy The uniformity of the rhyme scheme is an indication of the neutral and simple way in which the speaker prefers to live life. 9.1. Poem 9.3. Stanza 1 Stanza 1 Well, World, you have kept faith with me, Kept faith with me; Upon the whole you have proved to be Much as you said you were. WWW.ZNOTES.ORG Copyright © 2024 ZNotes Education & Foundation. All Rights Reserved. This document is authorised for personal use only by DENIS at Homeschooled on 13/12/24. CAIE IGCSE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH 9.4. Stanza 2 9.5. Stanza 3 The third and final octet of the poem introduces the reader to the advice which the ‘World’ gave to the speaker. The ‘World’ tells the speaker, ‘I do not promise overmuch’. This line is repeated in the next line of the stanza, with ‘Child; overmuch’. Throughout the poem, the second line of each stanza is a repetition of the final part of the first line of that same stanza. This trend, much like the uniform rhyme scheme, acts as an expression of the speaker’s neutral approach to life. his neutral approach to life stems from what the ‘World’ would tell the speaker, as the ‘World’ telling them that it does not ‘promise overmuch’ led them to live life with the ideals of never expecting too much from life. This neutrality is further solidified by the following line of the poem, which reads, ‘Just neutral-tinted haps and such’. This is a comment on the way in which, for the most part, life is bland and uninteresting, and how the speaker has recognised that the path to success is to never expect anything more than just that - bland and uninteresting. The speaker says that this was a ‘warning’ for their ‘credit’s sake’. They continue on by saying that they ‘failed not to take’ this warning. The structure of this sentence is unusual, as the two chained negative words ‘failed not’ essentially mean that the speaker succeeded in heeding the world’s advice. This shows the speaker’s creative nature, along with showing how they do not believe in expecting a lot (which is why they did not directly state that they succeeded). The speaker ends the poem by attributing their ability to ‘stem such strain and ache as each year might assign’ to not expecting to much from life, and it shows how they believe that they have achieved, for the most part, success. WWW.ZNOTES.ORG Copyright © 2024 ZNotes Education & Foundation. All Rights Reserved. This document is authorised for personal use only by DENIS at Homeschooled on 13/12/24. CAIE IGCSE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH A retrospective Chances Module. 10. The Telephone Call - Fleur Stanza 5 Adcock Nearly everyone’s bought a ticket in some lottery or another, once at least. We buy up the files, 10.1. Poem feed the names into our computer, and see who the lucky person is.’ Stanza 1 ‘Well, that’s incredible’ I said. ‘It’s marvelous. I still can’t quite… They asked me ‘Are you sitting down? I’ll believe it when I see the cheque.’ Right? This is Universal Lotteries’, they said. ‘You’ve won the top prize, the Ultra-super Global Special. Stanza 6 What would you do with a million pounds? ‘Oh,’ they said, ‘there’s no cheque.’ Or, actually, with more than a million – ‘But the money?’ ‘We don’t deal in money. not that it makes a lot of difference Experiences are what we deal in. once you’re a millionaire.’ And they laughed. You’ve had a great experience, right? Exciting? Something you’ll remember? Stanza 2 That’s your prize. So congratulations from all of us at Universal. ‘Are you OK?’ they asked – ‘Still there? Have a nice day!’ And the line went dead. Come on, now, tell us, how does it feel?’ I said ‘I just…I can’t believe it!’ They said ‘That’s what they all say. 10.2. Overview What else? Go on, tell us about it.’ I said ‘I feel the top of my head Structure - 48 lines, 8 stanzas has floated off, out through the window, Themes revolving like a flying saucer.’ Experiences Emotions Stanza 3 10.3. Stanza 1 ‘That’s unusual’ they said. ‘Go on.’ I said ‘I’m finding it hard to talk. My throat’s gone dry, my nose is tingling. I think I’m going to sneeze – or cry.’ ‘That’s right’ they said, ‘don’t be ashamed of giving way to your emotions. It isn’t every day you hear you’re going to get a million pounds. Stanza 4 Relax, now, have a little cry; we’ll give you a moment…’ ‘Hang on!’ I said. ‘I haven’t bought a lottery ticket for years and years. And what did you say the company’s called?’ They laughed again. ‘Not to worry about a ticket. We’re Universal. We operate WWW.ZNOTES.ORG Copyright © 2024 ZNotes Education & Foundation. All Rights Reserved. This document is authorised for personal use only by DENIS at Homeschooled on 13/12/24. CAIE IGCSE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH The first stanza of the poem begins on an abrupt note, without any preamble. The poem straight launches into 10.4. Stanza 2 the story of the telephone call, with ‘They asked me ‘Are you sitting down?’. The speaker does not say anything to respond to what the caller says, indicating the state of shock and disbelief The abrupt way in which this begins without describing that they are in. The caller reacts to this silence by asking any of the events leading up to the call, shows how unexpected and out of place the call was. It also shows the speaker if they are ‘OK’ and if they are ‘still there’. how rushed the speaker’s emotions were without the Despite the presence of words of concern, the delivery of call, and how the call was so stunning to them that they these words seems aggressive, as if they are mocking the speaker. forgot everything that happened before it. Their patronising attitude continues with the next The usage of the word ‘they’ exudes a sense of mystery. It sets an ominous tone for the rest of the poem, and dialogue of theirs, which reads, ‘Come on, no, tell us, how creates the image in the reader’s mind that all is not as it does it feel?’. The caller’s emphasis on emotions, and seems. how the speaker feels upon learning of having ‘won’ the lottery, is a recurring theme throughout the poem. The caller asking the speaker to sit down sets up a sense The speaker finally responds to the caller, saying, ‘I just… of anticipation for what will come next. The caller then seems to introduce themselves, by saying I can’t believe it!’. This phrase is ironic in the context of that they are ‘Universal Lotteries’. This name is very the entire poem - the speaker’s initial instincts were, in ambiguous, and this is probably intentional. fact, correct. The poem acts as a depiction of how emotions can lead The caller declares that the speaker has won their ‘top to clouded judgement. prize, / the Ultra-super Global Special’. The extremely over-the-top name of this prize, along with how The caller responds to this by saying, ‘That’s what they all ridiculous it seems to sound, acts as the first indicator say. / What else? Go on, tell us about it’. The first part of that the prize is not actually real. this response is extremely suspicious - how has the caller given away the ‘top prize’ so many times? The caller’s deceptive techniques continue. They do not The caller’s insistent tone shows their impatience, and outright state what the speaker has won, instead asking them what they would ‘do with a million pounds’. The their constant stress on asking the speaker how they feel phrasing of this sentence comes back to haunt the shows how their ultimate objective here is to understand speaker as the poem goes on, when it is eventually what emotions the speaker is going through. The speaker responds by saying that they feel as if ‘the revealed that all of this is fake. top of [their] head has floated off, out through the The caller saying ‘Or, actually, with more than a million’ is also foreshadowing the fact that this is all a trick - an window, revolving like a flying saucer’. This can actual lottery company would state the actual amount, interpreted as a metaphorical reference to how the especially if it was a very large amount. speaker has lost all sense of rational thinking due to the surprise and shock that they are going through - it is as if They say that it does not make ‘a lot of difference once you’re a millionaire’. This can be interpreted as Adcock their capacity to think with reason and ration has ‘floated commenting on how after a certain point, people start off, out through the window’. losing interest in their money, and how money cannot The phrase ‘revolving like a flying saucer’ uses a simile to translate directly to happiness. create a whimsical image in the speaker’s mind, and it maintains the overall humorous tone of the poem. The stanza ends with the speaker informing the reader that the caller ‘laughed’, which foreshadows the eventual reveal of the poem. 10.5. Stanza 3 WWW.ZNOTES.ORG Copyright © 2024 ZNotes Education & Foundation. All Rights Reserved. This document is authorised for personal use only by DENIS at Homeschooled on 13/12/24. CAIE IGCSE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH The third stanza begins with the caller saying that the The caller’s patronising words continue in the fourth speaker’s feelings are ‘unusual’. However, they urge them stanza, with, ‘Relax, now, have a little cry; we’ll give you a to ‘Go on’, which, once again, shows their insistence and moment…’. The way in which the caller says that they will wish to find out as much as possible about how the ‘give’ the speaker a moment insinuates that the caller is speaker is feeling. doing the speaker a favour by allowing them to sit and The speaker, still oblivious and without suspicion, goes enjoy the moment. on to explain the impact with the shock and surprise has This once again reinforces the idea that the caller’s intent had on them physically, saying that their throat has ‘gone is to give the speaker a new experience, and not actual dry’, their ‘nose is tingling’. money. Their throat going dry is metaphorically symbolic of how The speaker starts snapping out of their shocked state, people are often unable to speak up for themselves as they start questioning the motives of the caller. They when they are filled with emotion. say that they ‘haven’t bought a lottery ticket for years Nose tingling is usually a sensation that is typically and years’. associated with the cold, showing how the speaker feels This is one of the first definite clues to the reader that like they have gone cold with shock. the caller is not what they claim to be. All of the hints The speaker continues, saying that they are unsure thus far have been subtle. whether thay are ‘going to sneeze - or cry’, which shows The caller laughs again, showing their sarcastic and the confusion of their mental state. The word ‘sneeze’ mocking tone. They attempt to cover their tracks, telling furthers the ‘cold’ image given off my the reference to the speaker to not ‘worry about a ticket’. nose tingling in the previous line. They say that they are ‘Universal’, which is a double The caller encourages this emotion of the speaker’s, entendre based on the fact that their company is called telling them to not ‘be ashamed of giving way to your Universal, and the fact that they are trying to say that emotions’. This shows the core beliefs of the caller - that they are universally accepted. experiences and memories are more important than They use a long and fancy name, the ‘retrospective actual wealth. Chances Module’ in an attempt to sound more genuine The caller continues by saying ‘It isn’t every day you hear and confuse the speaker. you’re going to get a million pounds’. This continues the deception that the caller has been attempting to 10.7. Stanza 5 propagate from the beginning of the poem, as instead of saying that they are going to be giving the speaker a million pounds, they merely say that the speaker has heard that they are going to get a million pounds. This shows the human mind’s ability to manipulate reality into seeing and hearing only what people want to see or hear, no matter what was actually said. 10.6. Stanza 4 WWW.ZNOTES.ORG Copyright © 2024 ZNotes Education & Foundation. All Rights Reserved. This document is authorised for personal use only by DENIS at Homeschooled on 13/12/24. CAIE IGCSE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH They explain what this ‘retrospective Chances Module is’, saying that ‘Nearly everyone’s bought a ticket in some 11. A Consumer’s Report - lottery or another, once at least’. The way in which this statement, which is clearly an assumption, is presented Peter Porter as a fact, shows the nature of the caller. The interesting thing here is that all lotteries operate using the fact that when people buy tickets, most people 11.1. Poem will not earn anything, and so the company will make enough money to pay the winners and still make a profit. Stanza 1 With a business model like this, there are no revenue sources, and only costs. This is a definite marker that the The name of the product I tested is Life, caller is not who they claim to be, and, at the very least, I have completed the form you sent me they do not actually intend to give the speaker any and understand that my answers are confidential. money. Them calling the winner the ‘lucky person’ shows how Stanza 2 some of the best experiences of life often come out of I had it as a gift, luck. I didn’t feel much while using it, The speaker starts believing the claims of the caller, as in fact I think I’d have liked to be more excited. they say, ‘Well, that’s incredible’ and call the system It seemed gentle on the hands ‘marvellous’. but left an embarrassing deposit behind. However, they are still in disbelief, and they do not It was not economical completely believe the caller, which is why they say that and I have used much more than I thought they will believe the caller ‘what [they] see the cheque’. (I suppose I have about half left but it’s difficult to tell)— 10.8. Stanza 6 although the instructions are fairly large there are so many of them This is the point where the caller pulls the curtain down I don’t know which to follow, especially on their scheme, and finally states that ‘there’s no as they seem to contradict each other. cheque’. I’m not sure such a thing The speaker is astonished, and in their confusion, asks should be put in the way of children— the caller what would happen of ‘the money’. It’s difficult to think of a purpose The caller explains that they ‘don’t deal in money’ and for it. One of my friends says that ‘experiences are what [they] deal in’. This show the it’s just to keep its maker in a job. caller’s opinion that memorable experiences are more Also the price is much too high. important than money. Things are piling up so fast, They hope that the speaker has had a ‘great’ and after all, the world got by ‘exciting’ experience, and say that their real ‘prize’ is this for thousand million years memory. without this, do we need it now? They congratulate them, and then, for the first time in (Incidentally, please ask your man the poem, they show what seems to be proper respect, to stop calling me ‘the respondent’, telling the speaker to ‘have a nice day’. I don’t like the sound of it.) The speaker describes in the last line of the stanza that There seems to be a lot of different labels, the ‘line went dead’. The word ‘dead’ here is a metaphor sizes and colours should be uniform, for how fast their fascination fell apart. the shape is awkward, it’s waterproof but not heat resistant, it doesn’t keep yet it’s very difficult to get rid of: WWW.ZNOTES.ORG Copyright © 2024 ZNotes Education & Foundation. All Rights Reserved. This document is authorised for personal use only by DENIS at Homeschooled on 13/12/24. CAIE IGCSE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH whenever they make it cheaper they tend to put less in—if you say you don’t want it, then it’s delivered anyway. 12. Request to a Year - Judith I’d agree it’s a popular product, it’s got into the language; people Wright even say they’re on the side of it. Personally I think it’s overdone, 12.1. Poem a small thing people are ready to behave badly about. I think Stanza 1 we should take it for granted. If its experts are called philosophers or market If the year is meditating a suitable gift, researchers or historians, we shouldn’t I should like it to be the attitude care. We are the consumers and the last of my great- great- grandmother, law makers. So finally, I’d buy it. legendary devotee of the arts, But the question of a ‘best buy’ I’d like to leave until I get Stanza 2 the competitive product you said you’d send. who having eight children 11.2. Overview and little opportunity for painting pictures, sat one day on a high rock Structure: 51 lines, 2 stanzas beside a river in Switzerland Themes: Irony of Life Stanza 3 Inevitability of Life and Death Life as the only Constant and from a difficult distance viewed The poem in its entirety functions as an extended her second son, balanced on a small ice flow, metaphor. The product being described throughout the drift down the current toward a waterfall poem is life, and the ‘consumers’ of the product are all that struck rock bottom eighty feet below, living humans. Stanza 4 11.3. Stanza 1 while her second daughter, impeded, no doubt, by the petticoats of the day, The poem begins with the first stanza. This stanza is a stretched out a last-hope alpenstock short three-line affair, and it acts as a sort of header for (which luckily later caught him on his way). the speaker’s ‘review’ of the product of ‘Life’. Whom they are addressing when they say that they have Stanza 5 ‘completed the form you sent me’ is ambiguous, but it can be interpreted as a reference to God. Nothing, it was evident, could be done; And with the artist's isolating eye 11.4. Stanza 2 My great-great-grandmother hastily sketched the scene. The sketch survives to prove the story by. Stanza 6 Year, if you have no Mother's day present planned, Reach back and bring me the firmness of her hand. 12.2. Overview Structure: 22 lines, 6 stanzas Themes: Eternal Nature of Art Double Standards of Society Strength of the Mind Motherhood WWW.ZNOTES.ORG Copyright © 2024 ZNotes Education & Foundation. All Rights Reserved. This document is authorised for personal use only by DENIS at Homeschooled on 13/12/24. CAIE IGCSE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH The second stanza begins with enjambment, as its first 12.3. Stanza 1 line continues the sentence that was still incomplete in the last line of the first stanza. This shows the fluidity of The poem begins with the speaker directly addressing the speaker’s thoughts, and how she has clearly thought ‘the year’, asking if it ‘is meditating a suitable gift’. This is about this before, and knows what to say. the speaker using the literary technique known as She says that her great-great-grandmother ‘had eight ‘apostrophe’, which is when a speaker directly addresses children’. This introduces another theme of the poem, or attempts to converse with someone, or something, which is motherhood. which does not exist or is not present there. By stating that the grandmother had so many children, The reason why the speaker believes that the year may the speaker sets up the next line of the poem, which be meditating on a gift for her is left ambiguous for the informs the reader that the great-great-grandmother time being, and it draws the reader in, intriguing them. had, therefore, ‘little opportunity for painting pictures’. This also acts as personification and metaphor. This shows how she had the will to paint, but did not The speaker then states that she ‘should like it to be the have the time. attitude of [her] great-great-grandmother’. The phrase It is a representation of how societal obligations often ‘should like it’ indicates a firmness of will, and indicates tend to oppress artistic tendencies. how much the speaker strives to be like her great-great- The speaker then describes the setting of the events grandmother. which she is going to describe in the rest of the poem, by It is interesting that the speaker seems to admire and saying that her great-great-grandmother ‘sat one day on know much about a woman that she has never actually a high rock / beside a river in Switzerland’. This allows the met. reader to visualise the scene better. She goes on to describe her great-great-grandmother as a ‘legendary devotee of the art’. This, and the previous line, is indicative of one of the biggest themes of this 12.5. Stanza 3 poem - the importance and eternal nature of art. Despite having died a very long time ago, the great-great- The speaker continues with enjambement in the third grandmother’s legacy still lives on in her