CCEA GCSE English Literature
CCEA GCSE English Literature Anthology Two: Relationships Exam Questions
Free CCEA GCSE English Literature practice questions for Anthology Two: Relationships. Covers the 15 CCEA Relationships anthology poems, from on My First son and sonnet 130 to before you Were Mine.
Anthology Two: Relationships practice questions
1 pack of exam-style practice questions for Anthology Two: Relationships. Plan and write as many answers as you can under timed conditions, then compare them with the guidance on this page and your notes.
About CCEA GCSE English Literature Anthology Two: Relationships
Anthology Two: Relationships is one of three poetry anthologies in CCEA GCSE English Literature Unit 2: The Study of Drama and Poetry, Section B. Its 15 poems run from Ben Jonson's On My First Son to Simon Armitage's I Am Very Bothered, covering romantic love, desire, jealousy, parents and children, grief and regret. Each exam question names one poem and a theme, and you compare it with a second poem you choose from the anthology. Examiners reward close analysis of language, a clear comparison of what the speakers say, and relevant context such as the period each poem was written in.
Key poems and themes
- The 15 poems On My First Son (Jonson), Sonnet 130 (Shakespeare), How Do I Love Thee? (Elizabeth Barrett Browning), To His Coy Mistress (Marvell), The Laboratory (Robert Browning), Remember (Rossetti), When You Are Old (Yeats), i carry your heart (E E Cummings), Funeral Blues (Auden), Long Distance II (Tony Harrison), Wild Oats (Larkin), Symptoms of Love (Graves), Before You Were Mine (Duffy), Clearances 7: In the Last Minutes (Heaney) and I Am Very Bothered (Armitage).
- Love and the sonnet Sonnet 130 mocks conventional love poetry by refusing flattering comparisons, yet ends by declaring real love. How Do I Love Thee? is a Petrarchan sonnet listing the ways the speaker loves, written to Robert Browning. Cummings' i carry your heart breaks rules of punctuation to show total devotion.
- Desire, persuasion and jealousy To His Coy Mistress builds a three-part argument urging a woman to seize the day. The Laboratory is a dramatic monologue in which a jealous woman watches poison being prepared for her rival. Symptoms of Love presents love as an illness.
- Grief and loss Jonson wrote On My First Son after his seven-year-old son died in 1603. Funeral Blues uses hyperbole and commands to express overwhelming grief. In Long Distance II a father cannot accept his wife's death, and the son reveals his own grief at the end. Clearances 7 records the moment of Heaney's mother's death.
- Memory and regret Remember is a sonnet in which the dying speaker asks to be remembered, then tells her lover it is better to forget and smile than to be sad. When You Are Old imagines Maud Gonne in old age regretting lost love. Wild Oats looks back with self-mocking regret on a failed engagement.
- Parents and the past Before You Were Mine imagines the speaker's mother as a glamorous young woman before her daughter's birth. I Am Very Bothered is a confession of a cruel prank in a school chemistry lab, raising questions of guilt and how we treat those we love.
- Good pairings Grief: On My First Son with Long Distance II or Funeral Blues. Being young: Wild Oats with Before You Were Mine. Persuasion and desire: To His Coy Mistress with The Laboratory. Lasting love: How Do I Love Thee? with i carry your heart. Loss and memory: Remember with When You Are Old.
Common mistakes in Anthology Two: Relationships
- Assuming every poem is about romantic love. Many deal with parents, children and death, and CCEA themes such as grief or being young often point to family poems.
- Taking Sonnet 130 as an insult. The speaker rejects exaggerated praise, and the couplet affirms that his love is genuine.
- Treating dramatic monologues such as The Laboratory or I Am Very Bothered as the poet's own feelings. Discuss the speaker and how the poet shapes our view of them.
- Writing about one poem then the other. Compare and contrast what each speaker says about the theme throughout the essay.
- Bolting on context. Use details such as Jonson losing his son or Barrett Browning writing to her future husband only where they explain the speaker's feelings.
Try three Anthology Two: Relationships practice questions
1. Look again at On My First Son by Ben Jonson, which deals with the theme of loss, and at one other poem from the RELATIONSHIPS anthology which also deals with the theme of loss. With close reference to the ways each poet uses language, compare and contrast what the speakers in the poems say about loss. You should include relevant contextual material. (40 marks)
Show what a strong answer includes
A strong answer would pair the poem with Long Distance II, Funeral Blues or Clearances 7; analyse Jonson's address to his son, his guilt and his attempt to find comfort in faith; compare how the other speaker copes, such as the father's denial in Long Distance II; use context such as seventeenth-century beliefs about death; and compare throughout.
2. Look again at To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell, which deals with the theme of desire, and at one other poem from the RELATIONSHIPS anthology which also deals with the theme of desire. With close reference to the ways each poet uses language, compare and contrast what the speakers in the poems say about desire. You should include relevant contextual material. (40 marks)
Show what a strong answer includes
A strong answer would pair the poem with The Laboratory or Wild Oats; analyse Marvell's three-stage argument, hyperbole and imagery of time; compare the other speaker's desire and how it is presented; comment on persuasion, power and tone; and use context briefly.
3. Look again at Before You Were Mine by Carol Ann Duffy, which deals with the theme of memory, and at one other poem from the RELATIONSHIPS anthology which also deals with the theme of memory. With close reference to the ways each poet uses language, compare and contrast what the speakers in the poems say about memory. You should include relevant contextual material. (40 marks)
Show what a strong answer includes
A strong answer would pair the poem with Remember or When You Are Old; analyse how Duffy's speaker imagines her mother's past and the shift in their relationship; compare how the other speaker uses memory; and reach a judgement about each speaker's attitude to the past.
Anthology Two: Relationships FAQs
What does CCEA GCSE English Literature Anthology Two: Relationships cover?
It covers the 15 Relationships poems, from On My First Son and Sonnet 130 to Before You Were Mine and I Am Very Bothered, and how to compare two of them on a shared theme such as love, grief, desire or memory.
Which unit is Anthology Two: Relationships examined in?
In Unit 2: The Study of Drama and Poetry, Section B, you spend about 1 hour on one 40-mark question. Each anthology has a choice of two questions, (a) or (b). Each names one poem and a theme, and you compare it with one other poem of your choice from the same anthology on that theme. You should have an unannotated copy of the anthology.
Which Relationships poems pair well for comparison?
Strong pairs include On My First Son and Long Distance II (grief), Sonnet 130 and How Do I Love Thee? (love and the sonnet), To His Coy Mistress and The Laboratory (desire) and Wild Oats and Before You Were Mine (being young). Prepare at least two partners for every poem.
