CCEA GCSE English Literature Anthology One: Identity Exam Questions

About CCEA GCSE English Literature Anthology One: Identity

Anthology One: Identity is one of three poetry anthologies in CCEA GCSE English Literature Unit 2: The Study of Drama and Poetry, Section B. It contains 15 poems, from Shakespeare's Sonnet 29 and Arnold's Dover Beach to Seamus Heaney's Docker and Sinead Morrissey's Genetics. The poems explore how people are shaped by parents, childhood, place, faith, politics and the choices they make. In the exam each question names one poem and a theme, and you choose a second poem to compare with it. Examiners reward close analysis of language, clear comparison of what the speakers say, and relevant context.

Key poems and themes

• The 15 poems Sonnet 29 (Shakespeare), Dover Beach (Arnold), Invictus (Henley), The Road Not Taken (Frost), Piano (D H Lawrence), Prayer Before Birth (MacNeice), I Remember, I Remember (Larkin), Catrin (Gillian Clarke), Belfast Confetti (Ciaran Carson), In Mrs Tilscher's Class (Duffy), Kid (Armitage), Here (R S Thomas), Docker (Heaney), Genetics (Morrissey) and Efface (Paul Maddern).
• Discontent and defiance In Sonnet 29 the speaker, out of favour and envious of others, is lifted by thinking of the beloved, with the turn coming in the sestet. Henley wrote Invictus after losing a leg to tuberculosis of the bone, and its speaker defiantly insists he is the master of his own fate.
• Looking back on childhood Piano shows an adult overwhelmed by memories of sitting under the piano while his mother played. Larkin's I Remember, I Remember undercuts the idyllic childhood story, while Duffy's In Mrs Tilscher's Class moves from the safety of primary school to the unsettling start of growing up.
• Parents and inheritance Catrin presents the struggle between a mother and daughter from birth to the teenage years. Genetics is a villanelle in which the speaker finds her separated parents joined in her own hands, so identity is literally inherited.
• Choices and growing up The Road Not Taken considers a decision and how we later tell its story, with an ironic edge. In Armitage's Kid, Robin speaks to Batman in a dramatic monologue, rejecting the role of sidekick and claiming independence.
• Place, faith and politics Dover Beach mourns the retreat of religious faith in the Victorian age and turns to love for comfort. Belfast Confetti and Docker are set in Northern Ireland: Carson shows a speaker lost in his own city during a riot, and Heaney presents a shipyard worker whose identity is fixed by sectarian prejudice. Prayer Before Birth (1944) fears a world that will erase individuality.
• Good pairings Discontent: Sonnet 29 with Here or Dover Beach. Looking back: The Road Not Taken with Piano or I Remember, I Remember. Family: Catrin with Genetics. Growing up: Kid with In Mrs Tilscher's Class. Place and conflict: Belfast Confetti with Docker.

Common mistakes in Anthology One: Identity

• Choosing a second poem that only loosely fits the theme in the question. Pick a poem that clearly deals with the same theme so your comparison has real substance.
• Writing about the two poems one after the other. The question says compare and contrast, so link the poems throughout your answer.
• Writing about techniques without saying what the speaker says. CCEA asks what the speakers say about the theme, so connect every method to the speaker's attitude.
• Leaving out context. The question asks for relevant contextual material, such as Henley's illness, Victorian religious doubt in Dover Beach or the Troubles in Belfast Confetti, but it must explain the poem, not replace analysis.
• Confusing the poet with the speaker, especially in dramatic monologues such as Kid, where Armitage writes in Robin's voice.

Try three Anthology One: Identity practice questions