Can you feel it? The power of Unseen Poetry

Afrequent question on an unseen poem is to identify or describe the feelings expressed within it, for example, from last year’s paper: 1. (b) Identify a mood or feeling evoked in the above poem and explain how the poet creates this mood or feeling. Support your answer with reference to the poem.

In an exam situation, with your adrenaline pumping from nerves, it can be hard to be open to sensing the emotions in a piece of writing accurately. It’s a skill that needs to be practised many times so that it comes quickly and naturally in the exam hall.

Here’s what to do:

1. Read the poem for the gist of it and jot down any immediate reactions or gut feelings even if you don’t fully understand the poem.

2. Read it again and this time underline or highlight words or phrases in the poem that relate to emotion or make you feel something.

3. Read it a third time and, if you’re still feeling lost, try to summarise your understanding of the poem in a few lines – this is not to be used in your answer, just to help you get your bearings.

4. Decide what mood or feeling you are going to focus on and select three or four quotations that back up your argument. 5. For a 10 mark question write a minimum of half an A4 page and for a 20 mark question a full A4 page.

Here’s a sample answer to the above question done with a poem by Patrick Kavanagh:

Canal Bank Patrick Walk Kavanagh

Leafy-with-love banks and the green waters of the canal

Pouring redemption for me, that I do The will of God, wallow in the habitual, the banal,

Grow with nature again as before I grew. The bright stick trapped, the breeze adding a third

Party to the couple kissing on an old seat, And a bird gathering materials for the nest for the Word

Eloquently new and abandoned to its delirious beat.

O unworn world enrapture me, encapture me in a web

Of fabulous grass and eternal voices by a beech,

Feed the gaping need of my senses, give me ad lib

To pray unselfconsciously with overflowing speech

For this soul needs to be honoured with a new dress woven

From green and blue things and arguments that cannot be proven.

Answer: The strongest emotion I sense from this poem is the joy of being alive. There is a rich positivity to the language of the poet as he describes some ordinary sights such as the canal water and a bird gathering twigs. Words like ‘redemption’, ‘bright’, ‘new’ and ‘delirious’ hint at a deep sense of renewal and appreciation for the everyday moments of life.

The poet uses a range of techniques to evoke this emotion. He opens the poem with a neologism: ‘leafy-with-love’, a fusion of words that depicts the lush green foliage of spring. Vivid natural imagery of the canal scene add to the sense of joy: ‘the green waters of the canal pouring redemption for me,’ ‘The bright stick trapped,’ ‘a web of fabulous grass and eternal voices by a beech’.

The use of sonnet form and the regular rhyming scheme too add to the feeling of elation. Sonnets traditionally move from proposition, in the octet, to resolution in the sestet. In this poem the poet uses the sestet to address the world directly begging it to inspire him: ‘give me ad lib to pray unselfconsciously with overflowing speech’. He seems to suddenly value his own soul and life and sees the need to nurture it:

For this soul needs to be honoured with a new dress woven

From green and blue things and arguments that cannot be proven.

Finally, there is a musicality to this poem created by the poet’s use of alliteration and assonance that really augments the jubilant mood: ‘O unworn world enrapture me, encapture me in a web…’ It flows like the rushing waters of the canal he centred the poem around.