AS Drama and Poetry Past Questions for Revision

AS ENGLISH PAST PAPERS
Unit 1 Drama and Poetry

The Edexcel Poety Anthology (Section One: Post – 1770)

June 2001

Either:

(a) ‘Poetry allows poets to give form to experiences and feelings which are difficult to put into words’.

Do you agree with this view? You should base your answer on a detailed examination of two of the following: “Remember”; “All the Things You Are Not Yet”; an appropriate poem of your choice. Your two poems must cover two groups.

Or:

(b) From your reading of poems in this anthology do you agree that ‘a poem charts a developing thought’?

You should base your answer on a close examination of two or three poems, covering at least two groups.


TENNESSE WILLIAMS: A Streetcar Named Desire

(a) Using the opening stage directions of SCENE THREE as your starting point, explore the variety of Williams’s dramatic uses of colour and symbolism in the play as a whole.

Or:

(b) Stanley says to Stella in SCENE EIGHT ‘I am the king round here, so don’t forget it!’

Explore the ways in which Williams presents dramatically the relationships between men and women in the play as a whole. In your answer you should make detailed reference to at least two sequences from the play.

Unit 1 Drama and Poetry

January 2002

TENNESSE WILLIAMS: A streetcar named Desire

Either:

(a) It has been said that Williams deliberately sets up a patterns of tensions and conflicts in the play which culminate in the ending.

Do you agree? In your answer you should include a detailed examination of SCENE ELEVEN.

Or:

(b) ‘Blanche is. . . given to illusion, alcohol, dim lights and muted colours in the effort to make the harsh world bearable.’ (Elmer Andrews, 1996)

In the light of this comment, explore the varied means by which Williams presents the character, motivations and significance of Blanche. I your answer you should refer in detail to at least two scenes from the play.

The Edexcel Poety Anthology (Section One: Post – 1770)

Either:

(a) Do you agree that ‘a poet’s choice of form for their subject –matter can be surprising?

You should base your answer on a detailed examination of two of the following: ‘London’; ‘O What is That Sound’; an appropriate poem of your choice. Your two poems must cover two groups.

Or:

(b) Consider the various poetic means by which poets in this anthology explore the passage of time in their word.

You should base your answer on a detailed examination of two or three poems, covering at least two groups.

Unit 1 Drama and Poetry

June 2003

TENNESSE WILLIAMS: A streetcar named Desire

Either:

(a) Remind yourself of SCENE FIVE, from ‘BLANCHE: Ah me, ah, me, ah, me . . .’ to the end of the scene (pages 172-174 in the prescribed edition.)

‘Blanche deludes herself throughout the play’. Using an examination of the end of the SCENE FIVE as a starting point, explore Williams’s presentation of Blanche.

Or:

‘Death is my best theme, don’t you think?’ (Tennessee Williams)

Explore the varied dramatic uses Williams makes of death and dying in the play. In your answer you should refer to at least two extracts form the play.


The Edexcel Poety Anthology (Section One: Post – 1770)

Either:

(a) A poet claimed that he wrote poems, ‘to preserve things’ that he had seen, thought and felt.

Explore the things that poets in this anthology have preserved and the ways in which they have preserved them in their poetry. You should draw your appropriate material from at least two of the following: ‘Kubla Khan’; ‘An Arundel Tomb’; an appropriate poem of your own choice.

Your choice of poems must cover at least two groups.

Or:

(b) ‘Poetry is the best words in the best order.’

Explore at least two poems from the anthology where the poets’ choice of words and word order have made a particular impression on you as a reader or listener.

You choice of poems must cover at least two groups.