Analyzing Themes in Jackie Kay's Poetry: A Comparative Study
Explore the theme of relationships in Jackie Kay's poems such as "Divorce," "Lucozade," and "Gap Year." Understand how Kay portrays relationships through close textual references and comparisons with other poems by the same author. Learn to structure your analysis using bullet points and key features to enhance your understanding of the poems.
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Answering the Final Question Lucozade Divorce Gap Year
The Final Question The final question is worth 8 marks. It will ask you to compare or contrast the poem you have in front of you with at least one other you have studied by the same writer. Your answer should be set out in bullet points and should follow a set structure. The following slides provide guidance on how to do this.
Answering The Final Question 1. Commonality: Refer to another poem or poems and say what it has / they have in common / in contrast with the given poem. (2) (e.g. theme, central relationship, importance of setting, use of imagery, development in characterisation, use of personal experience, use of narrative style, any other key feature )
Answering The Final Question 2. Extract: Refer to the poem / extract you have been given in relation to the question. (2) (1 x relevant reference to technique / idea / feature (1) + 1 x appropriate comment (1))
Answering The Final Question 3. Other 1: Refer to a second poem / extract in relation to the question. (2) (1 x relevant reference to technique / idea / feature (1) + 1 x appropriate comment (1)) 4. Other 2: Repeat stage 3 for the second or a third poem. (2)
Answering The Final Question Summary 1. Commonality: refer to another poem or poems and say what it has / they have in common / in contrast with the given poem. (2) 2. Extract: refer to the extract / poem you have been given in relation to the question. (2) 3. Other 1: refer to a second poem / extract in relation to the question. (2) 4. Other 2: repeat stage 3 for the second or a third poem. (2)
We are going to look at a sample answer for the following question using the poems DIVORCE, LUCOZADE AND GAP YEAR: With close textual reference, show how the theme of relationships is explored in this poem ( Gap Year ), and in at least one other poem by Jackie Kay.
Commonality: Jackie Kay explores the theme of relationships in her poetry, for example in Divorce (about a teenage girl who wants to divorce her parents), Lucozade (in which a teenager visits their sick mother in hospital) and the one we have been focussing on here, Gap Year (which explores the close link between a mother and her son who is travelling abroad). 2 Extract: In the extract, the first section of Gap Year , Kay describes looking at the waiting Moses basket and how she would stare at the fleecy white sheet for days, weeks, / willing you to arrive, showing the intensity of her longing to meet her unborn baby and the closeness she already feels to him. Other 1: In Divorce , a humorous but moving poem, Kay creates an atmosphere of tension between the teenage girl and her parentswith expressions such as Father, your breath / smells like a camel s and gives me the hump indicating how negatively the girl sees her father. Other 2: In Lucozade the persona shows her closeness with and fear for her mother who is ill in hospital: I am scared my mum is going to die / on the bed next to the sad chrysanthemums. It is the persona herself who is sad, not the flowers, and this also shows that she fears that, like the flowers which will wilt and die , her mother is going to die. 2 2 2
Now its your turn. Choose one of the following 8 mark questions and write an answer which refers to at least two of Gap Year , Lucozade and Divorce . Where it is not specifically stated, it is up to you which poem you want to use as the extract poem.
1. With close textual reference, show how the ideas or language of this poem are similar or different to another poem (or poems) by Kay that you have read. (8) 2. Identify at least one theme from this poem. Using close textual reference, show how the theme (or themes) is explored in this poem, and in at least one other poem by Jackie Kay. (8) 3. By referring closely to this poem and to at least one other poem by Kay, show how the poet uses personal experience to explore wider themes. (8) 4. In this poem, ( Gap Year ) the speaker feels a mixture of happiness and sadness about her situation. Show how a speaker s mixed emotions are explored in another poem, or poems, by Kay. (8) 1. Commonality 2. Extract 3. Other 1 4. Other 2 Remember to use the correct structure:
