Comparing Theme and Subject Matter

When the AQA unseen poetry question asks you to compare two poems, it will typically indicate a shared subject or thematic area — love, loss, nature, memory, identity, conflict, time, place. Your task is not simply to show that both poems address this subject, but to explore how they address it differently — what each poet chooses to emphasise, what perspective they adopt, what aspects of the theme they illuminate or complicate.

This lesson focuses on comparing theme and subject matter with the depth and sophistication required at A-Level.

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Subject vs Theme: A Recap

The distinction is worth reinforcing because it underpins everything in this lesson:

• Subject = the concrete, specific focus of the poem (a father, a storm, a city street, a funeral)
• Theme = the abstract, universal idea explored through that subject (love, mortality, alienation, grief)

Two poems may share the same broad theme but treat entirely different subjects. Two poems may share a subject but explore different themes through it. The most productive comparisons often emerge from precisely this kind of mismatch.

Example

Consider two poems about "home":

• Poem A describes a speaker returning to their childhood house, now empty and decaying. Subject: a derelict house. Themes: memory, loss, the impossibility of returning to the past.
• Poem B describes a refugee's longing for a country they can never return to. Subject: exile. Themes: displacement, identity, the political dimensions of belonging.

Both poems are "about" home, but they engage with the idea in fundamentally different ways. A strong comparative essay would explore not just this difference but what it reveals — perhaps that "home" in Poem A is primarily a temporal concept (lost to time) while in Poem B it is primarily a spatial and political concept (lost to geography and power).

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Identifying Shared and Divergent Themes

When you first read the two unseen poems, begin by mapping their thematic territory:

Question	Purpose
What is the main subject of each poem?	Establishes the concrete focus
What theme(s) does each poem explore?	Identifies the abstract ideas
Where do the themes overlap?	Finds the basis for comparison
Where do they diverge?	Finds the basis for contrast
Is there a theme in one poem that is entirely absent from the other?	Identifies distinctive concerns

Mapping Technique

A simple two-column table in your planning can be invaluable:

Poem A	Poem B
Subject: a dying garden	Subject: a lover's absence
Themes: decay, ageing, beauty	Themes: longing, memory, presence/absence
Overlap: loss, the passage of time	Overlap: loss, the passage of time
Distinctive: natural cycles, acceptance	Distinctive: human relationships, desire

This kind of mapping takes two minutes and gives your essay a clear foundation.

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How Two Poets Treat the Same Subject Differently

The most revealing comparison often comes from examining how each poet approaches a shared subject, not just what they say about it.

Perspective

Aspect	Questions
Temporal perspective	Does the speaker look back on the subject from a distance, or experience it in the present moment?
Emotional distance	Is the speaker deeply involved or coolly observational?
Insider/outsider	Does the speaker experience the subject directly or observe it from outside?
Individual/collective	Is the experience presented as personal and unique, or as shared and universal?

For example, two poems about bereavement might differ profoundly in perspective. One might present grief as a raw, present-tense experience — chaotic, physical, uncontrollable. The other might present it from years later — more measured, more reflective, perhaps arriving at a kind of acceptance. The comparison is not just "both poems are about grief" but "these poems represent grief at different stages and from different emotional positions, revealing different truths about the experience."

Attitude

Attitude	Description
Celebratory	The poem embraces its subject with joy, admiration, or gratitude
Elegiac	The poem mourns its subject, conscious of loss
Critical	The poem interrogates or challenges its subject
Ambivalent	The poem is pulled in two directions — attracted and repelled, loving and resentful
Ironic	The poem maintains a gap between surface treatment and underlying meaning
Resigned	The poem accepts its subject with a sense of inevitability