asdfghjkl79 Posted November 4, 2015 Report Share Posted November 4, 2015 It doesn't seem as though anyone's started a discussion, so I thought i might as well. How did everyone go for English Paper 1 (literature)? I did the prose, but personally I found it quite challenging given the little time we had. I also heard the poem was quite difficult. How did everyone go? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
El :3 Posted November 5, 2015 Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 I did the poetry, and I absolutely loved it - I connected with it and I felt as if I could have written about it for hours :3 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
IBPlsWhy Posted November 5, 2015 Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 Yeah, I also did the poetry. I ended up looking up analysis for it after the fact and realised that I had gone a bit too TOK-ish, it was a bit more transparent than I had thought. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
El :3 Posted November 5, 2015 Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 Yeah, I also did the poetry. I ended up looking up analysis for it after the fact and realised that I had gone a bit too TOK-ish, it was a bit more transparent than I had thought. Especially with the last stanza - I loved how the poet compared the family to actors moving across a stage. That whole stanza was rather philosophical in terms of life and death Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aninda Saha Posted November 5, 2015 Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 Did the prose myself. Wasn't it absolutely enriched with imagery? I found it marvelous. I don't know exactly how my commentary was but the passage was great. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
UncleChopChop Posted November 5, 2015 Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 I didn't look too long at the prose, but I felt like the poetry was an odd choice for Standard Level. Ambiguity isn't necessarily a bad thing - but normally the guiding questions will provide a nudge in the direction of an appropriate interpretation for works like that, whereas ours didn't. It was a little evocative of Wilfred Owen (some works like The Show) in its tone and content, but I looked it up afterwards and feel like it was a poem with a bit too much real-life context to be well suited to an unseen commentary. The connection to death was one that most people seemed to make, but I'm not altogether convinced that was actually Szirtes' intention - his own comments on the matter seem to indicate it's more closely related to the manner in which potent traumatic memories are infused with ambiguity and imagination. To that end, I think the poem is pretty successful - particularly in the manner in which it questioned assertations, shifted in tense and even dropped first person pronouns towards the end. It had a very disorienting effect that was quite well aligned with the notion of ambiguity. I don't think it was a bad poem at all, I just think it was a poor choice for a commentary paper. 2 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
asdfghjkl79 Posted November 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2015 Did the prose myself. Wasn't it absolutely enriched with imagery? I found it marvelous. I don't know exactly how my commentary was but the passage was great.Yeah it was; I agree I found it quite fast-paced and "lure you into the moment" kinda thing. What was your big/main/overarching idea though? I discussed the power of nature (weather) against man, but I'm not quite sure if that was correct. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aninda Saha Posted November 6, 2015 Report Share Posted November 6, 2015 Did the prose myself. Wasn't it absolutely enriched with imagery? I found it marvelous. I don't know exactly how my commentary was but the passage was great.Yeah it was; I agree I found it quite fast-paced and "lure you into the moment" kinda thing. What was your big/main/overarching idea though? I discussed the power of nature (weather) against man, but I'm not quite sure if that was correct. I discussed the passage's ability to draw in the reader's senses and the irony that the characters themselves were losing connection from their senses. It is as though the art of writing has allowed the readers to have a more wholesome experience of this situation. Hey one question though: What was up with Alcock? Was he unconscious or something? Hardly anything seemed to be mentioned about him. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
beatriz Posted November 8, 2015 Report Share Posted November 8, 2015 I did the poem, thought it was really good. It was about refugees running away from the war right? Please haha if not I messed it up Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
UncleChopChop Posted November 8, 2015 Report Share Posted November 8, 2015 I did the poem, thought it was really good. It was about refugees running away from the war right? Please haha if not I messed it up Yep - it's apparently grounded in the poet's experience escaping Hungary with his father as a child. I wasn't willing to make that assertation in the commentary itself as there wasn't any explicit reference to anything that might suggest it, but it turns out that interpretation is completely correct. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
beatriz Posted November 8, 2015 Report Share Posted November 8, 2015 I did the poem, thought it was really good. It was about refugees running away from the war right? Please haha if not I messed it up Yep - it's apparently grounded in the poet's experience escaping Hungary with his father as a child. I wasn't willing to make that assertation in the commentary itself as there wasn't any explicit reference to anything that might suggest it, but it turns out that interpretation is completely correct. oh yess thank god haha well it did mention the trenches and they were running away from 'something frightening he didn't yet know' or something like that. & then he was remembering when he was all comfortable and clean in his bed so I guessed the war had recently broke out and they were running away...but still pretty risky yeah. Uff! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nntl Posted November 8, 2015 Report Share Posted November 8, 2015 I'm quite late, but if you're curious about the poem, there was an interview with the poet. You can find it here: http://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/poem/item/14254/auto/0/MY-FATHER-CARRIES-ME-ACROSS-A-FIELD Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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