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":