Reading and Comprehension: Poetry Set 2
Reading and Comprehension: Poetry Set 2 is a further set of ISEB Common Entrance style questions on poetry, testing understanding of meaning, structure, form and poetic technique through practice on a new short poem.
Before you start
Make sure you're comfortable with these topics first:
Method
- Read the poem twice before answering any questions: once for the general meaning, then again for structure, form and technique.
- Look at the title, since it often signals the poem's subject or the poet's attitude towards it.
- Check whether the poem follows a regular rhyme scheme and rhythm, or whether it is written in free verse, and consider why.
- Identify techniques such as simile, metaphor, personification and repetition, and always explain what each one adds to the poem's meaning or mood.
- Support every point with a short, embedded quotation rather than a long copied section of the poem.
- For questions on tone or mood, consider word choice as well as imagery, and be ready to say how the tone changes across the poem if it does.
Worked example
In a poem about winter, the poet writes: "Frost fingers trace the window glass." Identify the technique used and explain its effect. (3 marks)
- Identify the technique: this is personification, since frost is given human "fingers" that can trace something.
- Note what is being described literally: ice patterns forming on a cold window.
- Link this to meaning: describing frost as having fingers that trace makes the process seem delicate, deliberate and almost artistic.
- Comment on the effect on the reader: it creates a quiet, gentle image of winter, making something ordinary feel magical or carefully crafted. Final answer: the personification of frost "tracing" the window with fingers makes an everyday winter detail feel delicate and almost magical, giving the poem a quiet, wondering tone.
Practice questions
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Q1In the line "Icicles hang like daggers from the eaves", which technique is used?Show answer
Answer: Simile (icicles are compared to daggers using the word "like").
Q2A poem has six lines in each stanza with no regular rhyme pattern. What is this style called?Show answer
Answer: Free verse (poetry without a fixed rhyme scheme or regular metre).
Q3In the phrase "silent, snow-hushed streets", which technique is being used?Show answer
Answer: Alliteration (the repeated "s" sound in "silent", "snow" and "streets").
Q4A poem describes wind as "howling" and "moaning" through bare branches. Name the technique shown by these two words.Show answer
Answer: Onomatopoeia (words that sound like the noises they describe, here the wind's sound).
Q5If a poem starts with long, flowing lines and ends with very short, clipped lines, what effect might this create?Show answer
Answer: It might create a sense of things slowing down, growing tense, or coming to an abrupt, sudden stop.
Q6A question asks you to explain "how the poet's feelings towards winter change across the poem." What should your answer focus on?Show answer
Answer: Tracking the poem stanza by stanza, showing how word choice, imagery or tone shift from the beginning to the end, using short quotations as evidence for each stage.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a 13+ Common Entrance exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
In a poem about a frozen lake, the poet writes: "The lake wears a coat of glass, brittle and bright." Explain what this metaphor suggests and comment on its effect on the reader.
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Read this stanza from a poem about a snowstorm: "Snow falls in silent, endless sheets / Burying paths where children played / The world holds its breath and waits / For colour to return, delayed." Explain how the poet creates a sense of stillness in this stanza. Refer to at least two techniques or details.
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Read this stanza from a poem about the first thaw of spring: "Ice cracks its long, reluctant sigh / Rivers wake and stretch their arms / Buds unclench their tight, closed fists / The frozen fields shrug off their charms." Explain how the poet presents the change from winter to spring. Refer to at least three details or techniques.
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Free printable worksheet
Want more practice on paper? Download the reading and comprehension: poetry set 2 worksheet pack - 10 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 7 of 13+ English Workbook, the whole course as one free printable PDF.
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