Placement — English Literature (unseen poem + recall)

2026-09-28 · marked · sat 26 of 120 min · handed in early

Whole paper

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English Literature

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English Literature 32 marks

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Section C: Unseen poetry

Read the poem below and answer the question that follows. Spend about 30 minutes on this question.

Shallows

You held me flat against the water's skin,
one hand beneath my ribs, one hand a wall,
and said the sea would carry me. I knew
it wouldn't. Salt was in my mouth. The small
green waves kept coming, each one lifting, each
one setting me back down. I counted them.
And then — I felt it — nothing. Just the reach
of water where your hand had been. A hem
of foam. The sky enormous. And the shore
so far. I did not sink. I did not call.
You stood a little way off, both hands raised,
the way you'd stand at some far later door,
smiling, and saying nothing, and not near,
and letting me. That was the whole of it.
That is the whole of it. I'm floating here.

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In 'Shallows', how does the poet present the relationship between the speaker and the parent?

[24 marks]

The poet shows that the parent is sending the speaker away, or the parent is giving the speaker to the sea

21 min on this question

Your one sentence is a correct reading of the poem — the parent is letting the speaker go — and you kept the poet as the subject. That earns marks on its own. What's missing is everything after it: pick one phrase from the poem, quote it, and say what the poet does with it and why. One what-how-why paragraph on one phrase would have doubled or tripled this mark. On a 24-mark question, aim for three paragraphs — but one is the first target.

22 / 8

From memory — no text is printed for this question.

William Blake, London (Power and Conflict anthology).

Give two quotations from the poem, as accurately as you can. For each, explain what it shows about how Blake presents the city.

State one thing about the poem's form or structure and what effect it has.

[8 marks]

1. "i walk tho' each charter'd street" and "Marks of weakness, marks of woe" 2. the poems structure shows that all of London is under control

4 min on this question

Both quotations were recognisable from memory — good, that's the hard bit. The marks you missed were the explanations: after each quotation, say what it shows about the city and name the word or method that does it (two more marks each). For the structure part, name an actual feature first — what shape or pattern the poem has — and then its effect. Check the first line of London again: it's 'thro'', and the verb isn't 'walk'.

This section on the English Literature record