Comprehension: Poetry Set 2
Comprehension: Poetry Set 2 gives a further unseen poem for GL Assessment and CSSE-style practice, this time using an urban, night-time setting, with questions on meaning, structure, rhyme and figurative language.
Method
- Read the whole poem through once quickly to get a general sense of the scene and mood, then read it again slowly, line by line.
- Decide what the poem's speaker can see, hear or feel, and how this builds up a picture of the setting.
- Look at the poem's shape on the page: the number of stanzas, the length of lines, and whether a rhyme scheme is used regularly or only in places.
- Underline any simile, metaphor or personification you find, and note exactly which two things are being compared or given human qualities.
- When a question asks for the 'effect' of a technique, always name it, quote it, and then explain the feeling it creates, rather than stopping at naming alone.
- Compare the poem's opening lines with its closing lines to see whether the mood lifts, darkens or stays the same overall.
Worked example
Extract from a poem: 'Streetlights blink awake one by one, / stitching the dark city back together.' Question: Explain the effect of describing the streetlights as 'stitching' the city together. (3 marks)
- Identify the technique: this is a metaphor, comparing the streetlights switching on to the act of stitching, as if with a needle and thread.
- Consider what stitching usually does: it joins separate pieces of fabric into one connected whole.
- Link this to the city: the darkness has made the city feel broken or separated, and the lights coming on one by one 'joins' it back into a single, connected place.
- Explain the effect on the reader: the image makes the ordinary act of streetlights switching on feel careful and almost gentle, like mending something.
- Final answer: The metaphor of the streetlights 'stitching' the city together presents the darkness as having broken the city apart, so that the lights coming on one by one feels like a careful, gentle act of repair rather than simply illumination.
Practice questions
Type your answer and press Check to be marked straight away, or reveal the answer and mark yourself.
Q1'Streetlights blink awake one by one.' Which word gives the streetlights a human quality?Show answer
Answer: 'awake' (personification, as though the lights can wake up like a person).
Q2How many lines are quoted in 'Streetlights blink awake one by one, / stitching the dark city back together'?Show answer
Answer: Two lines.
Q3True or False: a poem with a strict ABAB rhyme scheme in every stanza has no regular pattern.Show answer
Answer: False (ABAB repeated in every stanza is a regular pattern).
Q4'The traffic hummed like a river of light.' Name the simile in this line.Show answer
Answer: 'like a river of light'.
Q5'The city exhales its last warmth into the cold night air.' Explain what is being compared to what in this metaphor.Show answer
Answer: The city is compared to a living creature breathing out; its remaining warmth escaping into the night is compared to an exhaled breath.
Q6A poem opens with images of noise and rushing, then ends with images of stillness and quiet. Give one reason a poet might structure a poem this way.Show answer
Answer: This structure can show the city settling down for the night, taking the reader on a journey from busy daytime energy to peaceful night-time calm.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a 11+ exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Line: 'Windows glow like a hundred watching eyes.' Identify the technique used and explain its effect. (2 marks)
Show mark scheme
Tick each line you got. Your score builds from the marks on the scheme.
Nothing ticked yet - 2 available
One stanza describes the city by day using busy, hurried words ('rushes', 'crowds', 'clatters'), while a later stanza describes the same city by night using slow, quiet words ('drifts', 'hushes', 'settles'). Explain how this contrast in language affects the reader's understanding of the poem. (4 marks)
Show mark scheme
Tick each line you got. Your score builds from the marks on the scheme.
Nothing ticked yet - 4 available
A poem describes a lone streetlamp in its first stanza as 'flickering, uncertain, barely holding back the dark' and in its final stanza as 'steady now, a small gold coin against the night'. Explain how the poet presents the streetlamp across the whole poem, referring to language and structure. (5 marks)
Show mark scheme
Tick each line you got. Your score builds from the marks on the scheme.
Nothing ticked yet - 5 available
Free printable worksheet
Want more practice on paper? Download the comprehension: poetry set 2 worksheet pack - 11 pages of exam-style questions with a full mark scheme. One email opens every download in this browser for 14 days - no account, no card. Print it for personal and classroom use.
This topic is chapter 3 of 11+ English Workbook 2, the whole course as one free printable PDF.
Next topics
Not quite what you needed?
Tell us what is missing on comprehension: poetry set 2, or which topic to write up next. Every request is read, and we reply to every one.
Build a full practice pack.
This topic is one of hundreds in the library - pick the ones a student needs and generate a printable PDF in minutes.