Practice with Sample Poems

The best way to improve at unseen poetry is to practise. This lesson provides sample poems with guided annotations, model responses, and timed practice exercises. Work through each example to build confidence and speed.

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Why Practice Matters

Unseen poetry is a skill, not a body of knowledge. You cannot revise your way to success by memorising facts — you must develop your analytical muscles through repeated practice. The more poems you analyse, the more patterns you will recognise and the more confident you will become.

The practice cycle

Read the poem
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Annotate (SMILE)
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Plan (3 minutes)
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Write (25 minutes for Section B)
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Review and improve
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Read the next poem

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Sample Poem 1: Guided Annotation

Storm

The sky cracked open like a dropped plate, spilling its grey cargo across the town. Trees bent double, whispering apologies to the ground they could not leave.

We pressed our faces to the window, children again — wide-eyed, electric, counting the seconds between the flash and the fall.

You said it was just weather. I said it was everything.

Guided annotation

Line / Phrase	Technique	Analysis
"cracked open like a dropped plate"	Simile	The sky is compared to something fragile and domestic — the violence of the storm is expressed through a familiar, household image. "Dropped" suggests something accidental or out of control.
"spilling its grey cargo"	Personification + metaphor	The sky is a vessel carrying rain. "Cargo" has industrial or commercial connotations — the rain is heavy, weighted, purposeful. "Grey" sets a sombre colour palette.
"Trees bent double, whispering apologies"	Personification	The trees are humanised — "bent double" suggests pain or submission, "whispering apologies" implies guilt. The trees seem sorry for their inability to protect.
"to the ground they could not leave"	Enjambment	The phrase continues from the previous line, mirroring the trees' inability to move. They are rooted, trapped.
"children again — wide-eyed, electric"	Dash (caesura) + adjectives	The dash marks a shift — the speakers are transformed by the storm into children. "Wide-eyed" connotes wonder. "Electric" connects them to the storm itself — they are energised, charged.
"counting the seconds between / the flash and the fall"	Enjambment + contrast	The enjambment across the line break creates suspense — the reader must wait, just as the speakers wait between lightning and thunder.
"You said it was just weather. / I said it was everything."	Contrast + short sentences	The two-sentence structure creates a stark contrast between the two speakers. "Just weather" is dismissive, rational. "Everything" is expansive, emotional. The poem ends on this unresolved difference.

Overall interpretation

The poem uses a storm as a lens for examining a relationship. The two speakers experience the same event differently — one rationally, one emotionally. The storm becomes a metaphor for the relationship itself: something powerful, beautiful, and potentially destructive that one person takes seriously and the other dismisses. The ending is unresolved, suggesting a fundamental disconnect between the two people.

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Sample Poem 1: Model Section B Response (Extract)

Question: How does the poet present the experience of the storm?

Introduction:

The poet presents the storm as a transformative, revelatory experience that exposes a fundamental difference between two people. Through vivid personification, structural contrast, and a shift from external description to internal reflection, the poem suggests that powerful natural events act as mirrors for human relationships.

Paragraph 1 (Language):

The poet opens with the simile "the sky cracked open like a dropped plate", immediately establishing the storm as sudden and violent. The comparison to a "dropped plate" is deliberately domestic — the vast, sublime power of a storm is expressed through the small, familiar image of breaking crockery. The verb "cracked" carries connotations of fracture and irreversible damage, foreshadowing the emotional fracture revealed at the poem's end. The subsequent metaphor "spilling its grey cargo" personifies the sky as a container, with "cargo" suggesting heaviness and burden — the rain is not gentle but weighted and industrial in its force.

Paragraph 2 (Structure):

Structurally, the poem moves from the external (the storm in stanza 1) to the internal (the speakers' emotional response in stanzas 2–3). This progression mirrors the way the storm penetrates beyond the physical — it enters the speakers' relationship. The enjambment in "counting the seconds between / the flash and the fall" is particularly effective: the line break forces the reader to wait, enacting the suspense of the gap between lightning and thunder. The structural pause mirrors the thematic pause — the space between two people who experience the world differently.

Paragraph 3 (Tone shift and meaning):

The most significant moment in the poem is the tonal shift in the final stanza. The conversational, almost dismissive tone of "You said it was just weather" contrasts sharply with the emotional weight of "I said it was everything." The parallel structure (both sentences begin "... said it was...") emphasises the difference between the two statements. "Just" is reductive, minimising the experience. "Everything" is expansive and absolute. The poem ends on this unresolved contrast — there is no reconciliation, no agreement, only two fundamentally different ways of seeing the world. This suggests that the storm has revealed, rather than created, a rift between the speakers.

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Sample Poem 2: Timed Practice

Hands

My daughter's hands are small planets, each finger a country I have not yet visited. She grips my thumb and I am held by something stronger than muscle.

How strange to make a person. How strange to watch them reach for things you cannot name, to see your own gestures returned in miniature.

One day she will let go. I practise the release the way you practise breathing — not because it is easy but because it must be done.

Your task

Set a timer for 28 minutes and write a full Section B response to this question:

"How does the poet present the speaker's feelings about parenthood?"

Planning prompts (use these if you are stuck)

1. Extended metaphor: Hands as "small planets" — what does this suggest about how the parent sees the child?
2. Enjambment and line structure: How does the poem's structure mirror the ideas of holding on and letting go?
3. Tone shift: How does the tone change from stanza 1 (wonder) to stanza 2 (strangeness) to stanza 3 (loss)?
4. The final simile: "The way you practise breathing" — what does this comparison reveal about the difficulty of letting go?
5. Tense and time: The poem moves from present (stanzas 1–2) to future (stanza 3). What is the effect of this shift?

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Sample Poems 1 and 2: Comparison Practice (Section C)

Your task

Set a timer for 18 minutes and write a Section C response to this question:

"In both 'Storm' and 'Hands', the speakers describe significant moments. What are the similarities and/or differences between the ways the poets present these moments?"

Planning table

Feature	Storm	Hands	Similar or different?
Subject	A storm observed with a partner	A parent holding their child's hand	Both: a moment of connection
Tone	Wonder mixed with unresolved tension	Wonder mixed with anticipatory loss	Both start with wonder; end differently
Key imagery	Natural: storm, lightning, trees	Bodily: hands, fingers, grip	Different registers
Structure	Moves from external to internal	Moves from present to future	Both use progression
Ending	Unresolved difference	Resigned acceptance	Different: unresolved vs resolved

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Timed Practice Schedule

To prepare for the exam, follow this practice schedule: