Comparison Technique — Paper 2 Section B Part 1

This lesson teaches you the craft of comparison under exam pressure. You now know all 15 poems. You know pairings for each. This lesson shows you how to assemble what you know into a 30-minute response that scores well against both AO1 (12 marks: knowledge and personal response) and AO2 (8 marks: language, form and structure).

Comparison is not a second task after analysis; it is the task. Every paragraph you write should either compare or contrast. The examiner does not want a paragraph on poem A followed by a paragraph on poem B; the examiner wants a paragraph that moves between A and B on a shared point of meaning or method.

The Two Comparison Structures

There are two legitimate structures for a comparative response. Both can score full marks. You should pick one before the exam and practise it.

Structure 1: Point-by-Point (Integrated)

Each paragraph takes one comparative point and develops it using both poems.

Paragraph 1: Introduction — both poems deal with X
Paragraph 2: Shared theme — developed through poem A and poem B
Paragraph 3: Contrasting method — developed through poem A and poem B
Paragraph 4: Form / structure point — developed through both
Paragraph 5: Conclusion — comparative judgement

This is the method the examiner prefers because it shows genuine comparative thinking. It is also harder to execute under time pressure because you must shift between poems inside every paragraph.

Structure 2: Text-by-Text (Sequential)

Two paragraphs on poem A, two on poem B, with explicit comparative connectives binding them.

Paragraph 1: Introduction — both poems deal with X
Paragraph 2: Poem A (named poem) — theme + method
Paragraph 3: Poem B (chosen poem) — theme + method, with explicit comparison back to A
Paragraph 4: Form / structure comparison across both
Paragraph 5: Conclusion — comparative judgement

Text-by-text can still score highly if paragraph 3 uses strong comparative connectives and paragraph 4 holds both poems side by side. It is not recommended because weaker responses slide into writing two separate essays.

flowchart LR
    A[Point-by-point: compare in every paragraph] --> B[Harder to execute]
    A --> C[Shows comparative thinking]
    D[Text-by-text: A then B] --> E[Easier to structure]
    D --> F[Weaker unless strongly linked]

Recommendation for most students: point-by-point. Practise it until it is automatic.

Comparative Connectives

The difference between a mid-grade and top-grade response is often the density of comparative connectives. These are the phrases that signal to the examiner that you are comparing, not just describing.

Similarity

• "Similarly,"
• "In keeping with,"
• "Like Owen, Tennyson also…"
• "Both poets…"
• "Just as X uses… so Y uses…"
• "Both present the same concern through…"

Contrast

• "By contrast,"
• "Unlike Owen, Tennyson…"
• "Whereas Agard takes apart… Zephaniah counters by…"
• "Where X's form drives forward, Y's form refuses to."
• "The same technique produces the opposite effect…"

Nuance

• "While X appears to… she in fact…"
• "Although both poems share… they differ in…"
• "This similarity conceals a sharper contrast in…"

Dense connective use alone does not score; the content must be substantive. But connectives give your paragraphs their comparative shape.

Opening Paragraphs That Work

A good opening does three things in three sentences:

1. States the shared concern both poems address.
2. States the difference in method or tone.
3. Previews the thematic or formal point the response will develop.

Sample Opening for a Tennyson / Owen Question

Both Tennyson and Owen write about British soldiers under fire, and both use form rather than statement to carry their ethical arguments. Tennyson's dactylic dimeter in The Charge of the Light Brigade drives the reader forward with the cavalry and trains the ear to honour the charge; Owen's pararhyme in Exposure refuses the full resolution the ear expects and holds the reader in the same stasis as the soldiers. The central contrast this response will develop is that Tennyson's form conscripts the reader into heroism while Owen's form refuses that conscription.

(81 words. Thesis stated, comparative move made, two AO2 features previewed.)

Choosing the Second Poem Under Time Pressure

The named poem is printed; you must choose the second from memory. Use your pairing map. Your first-choice chosen poem should already be decided before you read the question. Only override that choice if the question's wording strongly suggests a different pair.

Decision Procedure (90 seconds)

1. Read the named poem on the page. Identify the thematic focus (war / identity / domestic / nature).
2. Recall your first-choice partner from the pairing map.
3. Ask: does the question's exact wording favour this partner, or does it favour a different one?
4. If in doubt, stick with the first-choice partner. Hesitation costs more marks than suboptimal choice.

Pairing Map (Memorise)

Named poem	First-choice partner	Core shared point
A Poison Tree	Cousin Kate	Hidden / suppressed emotion in tight form
Sennacherib	Charge of the Light Brigade	Triple-time metre for doomed armies
The Prelude	Exposure	Humans overwhelmed by elemental nature
The Man He Killed	War Photographer	Moral doubt after violence
Cousin Kate	The Class Game	Marginalised female voice reclaiming agency
Half-caste	No Problem	Dialect and rhetoric against racism
Exposure	Charge of the Light Brigade	Opposing forms on war
Charge of the Light Brigade	Exposure	As above
Catrin	Poppies	Mother-child bond in domestic free verse
War Photographer	The Man He Killed	Guilty survivor / witness
Belfast Confetti	Half-caste	Fragmented urban voice
The Class Game	Half-caste	Rhetorical-question identity poem
Poppies	Catrin	Mother and separation
No Problem	Half-caste	Companion protest
What Were They Like?	Exposure	Form enacting destruction

Balancing AO1 and AO2

The mark scheme gives 12 marks to AO1 (knowledge and personal response) and 8 to AO2 (language, form, structure). This means you should spend slightly more of your paragraph on what the poems mean and what you think about them than on how the language works — but you cannot neglect AO2.

AO1 Moves

• State what each poem is arguing (not what it narrates).
• Offer a personal response to that argument ("It seems to me that…" / "The poem appears to…").
• Use precise thematic vocabulary (suppression, sublime, elegy, interrogation, stasis).
• Show knowledge of the whole poem, not just the printed extract.

AO2 Moves

• Name the form precisely (ballad octet, dactylic dimeter, pararhyme, free verse).
• Link form to meaning in the same sentence.
• Quote briefly and analyse what the quotation does — never quote without following up.
• Notice punctuation, line-breaks, capitalisation, dialect — the visible surface of the page.

Integrated Example

Blake argues that suppressed anger is actively cultivated rather than passively endured [AO1 thematic claim], and he carries the argument through an AABB couplet form [AO2 form naming] whose nursery-rhyme simplicity enacts the speaker's hypocrisy [AO2 linking form to meaning]. The deceptive sweetness of "waterd it in fears, / Night & morning with my tears" [quotation] turns emotional behaviour into horticulture [AO1 interpretation], and the parallel verbs make clear that wrath requires work to maintain [AO1 developed response].

One sentence can carry both AOs if it is built carefully.

Worked Mini-Comparison Paragraphs

Here are three short worked paragraphs that model point-by-point comparison.