Below you’ll find a list of specific IGCSE past paper poetry questions from ‘Songs of Ourselves’ — a variety of different parts and volumes of this collection as students usually study a specific set from the whole thing. These have all turned up on IGCSE exam papers in the last five years (2015–2020).
Use them to practise essay planning and writing, if you manage to plan and/or write most of them then by the time you take your exams you should feel very confident and well prepared!
If the poems you’re studying are different from the ones below, try adapting the question to suit your own poem: e.g. ‘How does MacCaig create a sense of the unexpected in Summer Farm?’ could be changed to ‘How does Heaney create a sense of the unexpected in Mid Term Break?’
Thanks for reading! If you find this page useful you can take a look at our full CIE Poetry course.
QUESTIONS
How does MacCaig create a sense of the unexpected in Summer Farm?
Explore the ways in which Bhatt uses powerful words and images in A Different History.
How does Larkin strikingly convey feelings of uncertainty in his poem ‘The Trees’?
Explore the ways in which Brontë vividly expresses feelings of grief in Cold In The Earth.
In what ways does Lochhead vividly create feelings of sadness in ‘For My Grandmother Knitting’?
Explore the ways in which Chong depicts powerful changes in lion heart.
How does Adcock’s writing make For Heidi with Blue Hair both amusing and serious?
Explore the ways in which Mew movingly writes about her feelings of loss in The Trees Are Down.
How does Keats movingly convey powerful emotions in his poem Last Sonnet?
Explore the ways in which Sitwell uses imagery to powerful effect in Heart and Mind.
How does Lochhead create a moving and affectionate portrait of her grandmother in For My Grandmother Knitting? (yes this one did come up twice!)
Explore the ways in which Wordsworth uses imagery to striking effect in ‘She was a Phantom of Delight’.
Explore the ways in which Muir vividly conveys a sense of mystery in Horses.
How does Rossetti strikingly create a sense of wonder in A Birthday?
To what extent does Atwood make you feel that human activities are pointless in The City Planners?
How does Rossetti create a sense of extreme emotion in The Woodspurge?
How does Chitre create a moving portrait of his father in Father Returning Home?
In what ways does Herbert vividly portray Love in Love (III)?
How does Beer strikingly convey the complex relationship the speaker has with her mother in The Lost Woman…?
‘On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year’ by Lord Byron – Poem Analysis
Thanks for reading! If you find this page useful you can take a look at our full CIE Poetry course.
