3 exam-style questions with full mark schemes and model answers. Write your own answer and the AI examiner marks it against the mark scheme.
Read the following poem, Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley, and then answer the question that follows.
Ozymandias — Percy Bysshe Shelley
I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things, The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed; And on the pedestal these words appear: "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Compare how poets present ideas about power and pride in Ozymandias and in one other poem from 'Power and Conflict'. You should compare your chosen poem with Ozymandias and in 'My Last Duchess' by Robert Browning. (30 marks)
Read the following poem, London by William Blake, and then answer the question that follows.
London — William Blake
I wander thro' each charter'd street, Near where the charter'd Thames does flow, And mark in every face I meet, Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
In every cry of every Man, In every Infant's cry of fear, In every voice, in every ban, The mind-forg'd manacles I hear.
How the Chimney-sweeper's cry Every black'ning Church appalls; And the hapless Soldier's sigh Runs in blood down Palace walls.
But most, thro' midnight streets I hear How the youthful Harlot's curse Blasts the new born Infant's tear, And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.
Compare how poets present ideas about power, authority and human suffering in London and in one other poem from 'Power and Conflict'. You should compare your chosen poem with London and in 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. (30 marks)
Read the following poem, Neutral Tones by Thomas Hardy, and then answer the question that follows.
Neutral Tones — Thomas Hardy
We stood by a pond that winter day, And the sun was white, as though chidden of God, And a few leaves lay on the starving sod, --They had fallen from an ash, and were gray.
Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove Over tedious riddles solved years ago; And some words played between us to and fro - On which lost the more by our love.
The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing Alive enough to have strength to die; And a grin of bitterness swept thereby Like an ominous bird a-wing . . .
Since then, keen lessons that love deceives, And wrings with wrong, have shaped to me Your face, and the God-curst sun, and a tree, And a pond edged with grayish leaves.
Compare how poets present the bitter aftermath of love in Neutral Tones and in one other poem from 'Love and Relationships'. You should compare your chosen poem with Neutral Tones and in 'When We Two Parted' by Lord Byron. (30 marks)