The pre-1900 poetry two-part question (Component 1 Section A): part (i) close analysis of a printed poem or extract, part (ii) a wider response on the whole text, assessed mainly on AO1 and AO2.

What this dot point is asking

Eduqas Component 1, Section A examines one prescribed pre-1900 poetry text (recent lists have included Chaucer's The Merchant's Prologue and Tale, Donne's Selected Poems and Milton's Paradise Lost Book IX) through a single question in two separate but linked parts. Part (i) prints a poem or extract and asks for close analysis; part (ii) asks for a wider response on the text as a whole, usually in the light of a stated view. The section is closed book. This dot point covers how the two parts differ, what each rewards, and how to move between close reading and whole-text argument.

The answer

The two parts reward different skills, and the commonest error is to write the same kind of answer for both. Part (i) is a close reading of a printed poem or extract: the marks are overwhelmingly in AO2, with AO1 for a controlled argument. Part (ii) is a whole-text response in the light of a stated view: the marks lead on AO1, with AO2 supporting and AO3 admitted lightly. Mastering the section means switching register: microscope for part (i), telescope for part (ii).

Part (i): close analysis of the printed text

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.

• Chaucer (The Merchant's Tale): the controlling narrative voice, its irony and the gap between what the narrator says and what we are meant to see.
• Donne (Selected Poems): the conceit, the argumentative drive of the verse, paradox, and the restless, speaking syntax.
• Milton (Paradise Lost Book IX): the grand suspended syntax, the epic simile and classical allusion.

Part (ii): the wider response across the text

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.

Move from feature to effect, and from view to judgement

In part (i) the band-defining habit is the move from feature to effect: name the method, quote briefly, read its effect on meaning. In part (ii) it is the move from the stated view to a judgement: engage the view, test it across the text, and commit to a position. "In the light of this view" is an invitation to debate, not to agree.

Examples in context

The prescribed pre-1900 texts rotate across specification cycles; confirm yours against the current Eduqas set-text list. The moves below are illustrative of method.

A model part (i) AO2 paragraph (Donne). "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.

A model part (ii) move (whole-text argument). 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.

Try this

Q1. What are the two parts of Section A, and which objective dominates each? [2 marks]

• Cue. Part (i) is close analysis of a printed poem or extract, AO2 dominant with AO1 supporting; part (ii) is a wider response across the text, AO1 leading with AO2 supporting and light AO3.

Q2. Why should you not import context into a part (i) answer? [2 marks]

• Cue. Part (i) does not assess AO3, so context earns nothing and uses time better spent on close analysis of the printed lines.

Q3. "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]

• What the marker wants. A sustained personal argument that engages the view, ranges across the whole text from memory, grounds claims in method, and reaches a judgement.

A note on set texts

This guide is AI-written and not individually human-reviewed. The prescribed pre-1900 poetry texts change across specification cycles; confirm yours against the current Eduqas A720 set-text list. The two-part structure transfers across the texts.