Quick questions on The pre-1900 poetry two-part question: close analysis and wider response - Eduqas A-Level English Literature

Part (i) prints a poem (or, for a longer text such as Paradise Lost, an extract) and asks you to analyse how the poet shapes meaning. Read the printed lines twice, then build an argued reading. The pre-1900 texts each have a signature method to listen for.

Part (ii) shifts to the whole text, normally framing a stated view ("more interested in argument than in feeling", "the poetry of doubt rather than belief"). The mark scheme now leads on AO1, a coherent, developed argument, with AO2 supporting and a light touch of AO3 where the text calls for it. Because the section is closed book, you range across the text from memory, so a bank of short quotations tagged to themes is essential.

"Donne builds the argument through the restless movement of the syntax. The clauses pile through qualification and counter-qualification, enacting a mind reasoning at speed rather than a settled feeling, and the conceit that follows does not decorate the thought but advances it, so the form makes the case the speaker is too impatient to state plainly." The method (syntax, conceit) is read to effect, and stays inside the printed poem.

Responding to "more interested in argument than feeling", a strong answer concedes the argumentative surface (the conceits, the logical structures), then resists it: the very intensity of the argument is the feeling, so the view is half right but misses how argument and feeling are fused. This engages the view, ranges across the text, and reaches a judgement.

What are the two parts of Section A, and which objective dominates each? [2 marks]

Why should you not import context into a part (i) answer? [2 marks]

"The poet values doubt over certainty." In the light of this view, explore your prescribed pre-1900 text as a whole. [part ii; marked out of 30]