AQA GCSE English Literature · 3.2.2

Poetry: Love and relationships

Revision questions with answers for 3.2.2 Poetry: Love and relationships in AQA GCSE English Literature (spec 8702). Practise with flashcards, a topic quiz, a random quiz across the course, 5 crosswords, or read every question and answer below.

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Question 1
How is the poetry anthology question set out in the exam?
Answer:
Paper 2 Section B (30 marks): you compare one named poem printed on the paper with one other poem of your choice from your cluster. You write about ideas, methods and links between the two.
Question 2
Which 15 poems are in the 'Love and relationships' cluster?
Answer:
When We Two Parted; Love's Philosophy; Porphyria's Lover; Sonnet 29; Neutral Tones; The Farmer's Bride; Walking Away; Letters from Yorkshire; Eden Rock; Follower; Mother, any distance; Before You Were Mine; Winter Swans; Singh Song!; Climbing My Grandfather.
Question 3
Which Love and relationships poems explore the love between parents and children?
Answer:
Follower, Walking Away, Mother, any distance, Before You Were Mine, Eden Rock and Climbing My Grandfather (family love across generations). They are useful to compare for memory, loss and letting go.
Question 4
Which Love and relationships poems show a relationship that has broken down or is unhealthy?
Answer:
When We Two Parted, Neutral Tones, Porphyria's Lover and The Farmer's Bride. They present love as painful, controlling or dead, so they are good for comparing negative views of love.
Question 5
How do you compare two poems well in the exam?
Answer:
Link ideas first (what each poet says about love), then compare methods (language, form and structure). Use connectives such as 'similarly', 'in contrast' and 'whereas', and refer to context only where it helps.
Question 6
When We Two Parted: who wrote it and what is it about?
Answer:
Lord Byron (published 1816). The speaker looks back on a secret love affair that ended in parting, and now feels grief and shame at hearing his former lover's name spoken.
Question 7
When We Two Parted: what language and imagery stand out?
Answer:
Images of cold (pale cheek, cold kiss, cold dew) and death (the sound of a 'knell') convey a sense of loss. The repeated 'silence and tears' links to secrecy and grief.
Question 8
When We Two Parted: how do form and structure work?
Answer:
Four eight-line stanzas with a regular rhyme scheme and short lines. The controlled form suggests restrained emotion, and the ending returns to silence, as in the opening.
Question 9
Love's Philosophy: who wrote it and what is it about?
Answer:
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1819). The speaker tries to persuade a woman to love him, arguing that everything in nature is joined in pairs and so they should be too.
Question 10
Love's Philosophy: what techniques does Shelley use?
Answer:
A list of natural images (fountains, rivers, winds, mountains, waves) mingling together, personification and repeated 'and' to build a persuasive pattern. Each stanza ends with a rhetorical question.
Question 11
Love's Philosophy: how do form and tone work?
Answer:
Two eight-line stanzas with a regular rhyme scheme give a neat, persuasive argument. The tone is passionate but may seem manipulative or desperate, as nature does not prove he is loved.
Question 12
Porphyria's Lover: who wrote it and what is it about?
Answer:
Robert Browning (1836). It is a dramatic monologue by a man who strangles his lover with her own hair to keep her perfect forever.
Question 13
Porphyria's Lover: how does Browning present the speaker's mind?
Answer:
Calm, matter-of-fact language and possessive ideas ('mine'), with no remorse. The contrast between the gentle tone and the violence shows his madness and control.
Question 14
Porphyria's Lover: how do form and structure work?
Answer:
A single stanza with a rhyme scheme of ABABB and run-on lines (enjambment) that show his thoughts flowing. The storm outside is pathetic fallacy that reflects his disturbed state, and the poem ends with a chilling comment about God.
Question 15
Sonnet 29 ('I think of thee!'): who wrote it and what is it about?
Answer:
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1850), from Sonnets from the Portuguese. The speaker is overwhelmed by thoughts of her lover and realises she would rather have his real presence than her thoughts.
Question 16
Sonnet 29: what imagery does Barrett Browning use?
Answer:
An extended metaphor of a vine growing around a tree, which stands for her thoughts of him covering the tree itself. It shows how love can be all-consuming and how she longs for the real man.
Question 17
Sonnet 29: how do form and structure work?
Answer:
A Petrarchan sonnet with a turn (volta) after eight lines where she moves from thought to wanting real presence. Frequent exclamations and repetition give it an excited, passionate tone.
Question 18
Neutral Tones: who wrote it and what is it about?
Answer:
Thomas Hardy (written 1867, published 1898). It recalls the end of a relationship on a bleak winter day by a pond, and the lasting bitterness it left.
Question 19
Neutral Tones: what language and imagery stand out?
Answer:
Colours and images of lifelessness: a white sun 'chidden of God', grey leaves, a smile like the 'deadest thing'. The dull, bleak vocabulary and pathetic fallacy reflect emotional emptiness.
Question 20
Neutral Tones: how do form and structure work?
Answer:
Four quatrains with a regular ABBA rhyme scheme. The last stanza returns to the setting of the first, so the memory is fixed in his mind and love seems to deceive.
Question 21
The Farmer's Bride: who wrote it and what is it about?
Answer:
Charlotte Mew (1916). A farmer describes his young wife, who is terrified of him and sleeps apart. He is frustrated and longs for her, which exposes his lack of understanding of her fear.
Question 22
The Farmer's Bride: how is the bride presented?
Answer:
Through hunting and animal imagery, such as a hunted hare, which presents her as frightened prey. Her silence and 'brown' eyes show her fear, which the farmer fails to understand.
Question 23
The Farmer's Bride: how do form and voice work?
Answer:
A dramatic monologue in the farmer's rural voice, with irregular line lengths and rhyme. The uneven rhythm reflects his uneasy feelings, and the ending shows his obsession and desire.
Question 24
Walking Away: who wrote it and what is it about?
Answer:
Cecil Day-Lewis (1962). A father remembers watching his young son drift away from him during a first football game at school, and reflects on parents having to let children go.
Question 25
Walking Away: what techniques does Day-Lewis use?
Answer:
A simile comparing the boy to a satellite drifting out of its orbit, plus gentle, reflective language. The poem suggests that love is shown by 'letting go'.
Question 26
Walking Away: how do form and structure work?
Answer:
Regular stanzas with a controlled rhyme scheme give a reflective, steady tone. The shift from the past scene to the present reflection shows the father's growth in understanding.
Question 27
Letters from Yorkshire: who wrote it and what is it about?
Answer:
Maura Dooley (2002). Someone who works outdoors in Yorkshire, often read as the speaker's father, writes letters to the speaker, who lives and works with words elsewhere. It shows how writing keeps a relationship close across distance.
Question 28
Letters from Yorkshire: what imagery and contrast does Dooley use?
Answer:
Contrasts between the outdoor, physical work of digging and planting and the speaker's life of words and news. Images of nature and touch (such as 'knuckles singing') and 'pouring air and light into an envelope' show how the letters close the gap.
Question 29
Letters from Yorkshire: how do form and structure work?
Answer:
Free verse in five three-line stanzas, with a quiet, conversational voice and no regular rhyme. The form echoes a letter, and the gentle ending stresses connection across distance.
Question 30
Eden Rock: who wrote it and what is it about?
Answer:
Charles Causley (1988). The speaker sees his parents, young again, having a picnic on the far side of a stream. They beckon him across, and the poem is read as a vision of death and reunion or a treasured memory.
Question 31
Eden Rock: what imagery and symbols are used?
Answer:
Warm, ordinary domestic details such as tea poured at a picnic, and a stream as a boundary between life and death. 'Eden' suggests paradise and innocence.
Question 32
Eden Rock: how do form and structure work?
Answer:
Regular stanzas with simple language and a calm tone. The ending is ambiguous because we are not told whether the speaker crosses, which leaves a sense of distance and longing.
Question 33
Follower: who wrote it and what is it about?
Answer:
Seamus Heaney (1966). A son remembers watching his father ploughing with horses, admiring his skill, and ends by noting that now the father follows him.
Question 34
Follower: what language does Heaney use?
Answer:
Farming vocabulary and strong verbs, with similes that show the father's strength, and the child's clumsy following. The shift in the final stanza shows how roles reverse with age.
Question 35
Follower: how do form and structure work?
Answer:
Regular quatrains with a rhyme scheme that gives a rhythm like ploughing. The structure moves from the child's admiration to the adult's reflection on ageing.
Question 36
Mother, any distance: who wrote it and what is it about?
Answer:
Simon Armitage (1993). A young man is leaving home to move into a new house, and uses a tape measure held by his mother as a symbol of their bond and his growing independence.
Question 37
Mother, any distance: what imagery does Armitage use?
Answer:
The tape measure stretching between them as a symbol of the link between parent and child, with exaggerated images of space ('prairies of the floors'). The imagery moves from practical measuring to ideas of freedom and letting go.
Question 38
Mother, any distance: how do form and structure work?
Answer:
Three stanzas that are loosely like a sonnet, with half-rhyme and enjambment, and an ending that breaks the pattern. The short final line, about falling or flying, suggests release and independence.
Question 39
Before You Were Mine: who wrote it and what is it about?
Answer:
Carol Ann Duffy (1993). The speaker imagines her mother as a carefree young woman, enjoying life before she became a mother, and shows love mixed with loss and curiosity.
Question 40
Before You Were Mine: what imagery does Duffy use?
Answer:
Glamorous 1950s images (dancing, laughing, red high-heeled shoes, comparison to a film star) which show the mother's youthful freedom. The colloquial voice makes it personal.
Question 41
Before You Were Mine: how do form and structure work?
Answer:
Regular stanzas with an informal, conversational voice. The title is repeated and changed at the end, showing that the mother belongs to the speaker, while recognising her earlier life.
Question 42
Winter Swans: who wrote it and what is it about?
Answer:
Owen Sheers (2005, from Skirrid Hill). A couple walk silently and apart around a lake after days of rain, until a pair of swans catches their attention and helps them to reconnect.
Question 43
Winter Swans: what imagery and symbolism are used?
Answer:
Pathetic fallacy (the storm and waterlogged earth) mirrors their conflict, while the swans moving in unison symbolise loyalty and unity. The shift from separation to togetherness suggests healing.
Question 44
Winter Swans: how do form and structure work?
Answer:
Six three-line stanzas followed by a closing couplet. The slow, uneven pace reflects emotional distance, and the final couplet, like a sonnet's, brings the couple together as they walk away hand in hand.
Question 45
Singh Song!: who wrote it and what is it about?
Answer:
Daljit Nagra (2007, from Look We Have Coming to Dover!). A young British Asian man who runs his father's corner shop keeps slipping upstairs to his new wife, and the poem celebrates love while showing generational and cultural tension.
Question 46
Singh Song!: what language is notable?
Answer:
'Punglish', a comic mix of Punjabi and English with phonetic spelling, as in the customers' complaints. It shows the speaker's dual identity and gives the poem its energy and humour.
Question 47
Singh Song!: how do form and structure work?
Answer:
A dramatic monologue with a lively, bouncing rhythm, rhyme and the repeated comic action of locking up the till. The tone is playful and tender, and it ends with the couple's voices blending in a song.
Question 48
Climbing My Grandfather: who wrote it and what is it about?
Answer:
Andrew Waterhouse (2000). The speaker imagines climbing his grandfather like a mountain, which expresses love and the closeness of generations, and also hints at old age.
Question 49
Climbing My Grandfather: what imagery and language are used?
Answer:
An extended metaphor of climbing, with specific physical details and verbs of effort. It shows affection and respect, and the 'summit' suggests achievement and perhaps mortality.
Question 50
Climbing My Grandfather: how do form and structure work?
Answer:
Free verse in one continuous stanza, giving the sense of a steady, step-by-step ascent. The ending, at rest, suggests tenderness and peace.

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