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My latest guide- Forward Poems of Decade for Edexcel A level
I'm pleased to say that my newest book-child is out on Amazon now. The Forward "poems of the decade" are all written post-2000 and Edexcel students have to understand 28 of them. There is very little published literary analysis, so- to help my daughter and one of my tutees- I thought I'd better do the right thing.
If anyone would like a review copy I'll be pleased to arrange it.
Comments
Patricia, it means that you will get a copy to read on the understanding that you leave a review.
Patricia, it means that you will get a copy to read on the understanding that you leave a review.
Good luck with it - you seem to have a knack for spotting gaps in the student market - and of course, have the ability to fill that gap.
Are these poems all archaic? Or are any of living poets? Did you ask the poets themselves about your analyses?
I did ask Roderick Ford about the symbolism in his poem "Giuseppe" and he was extraordinarily helpful.
There are 105 poems in the anthology and I've only looked at 28 of them for the purposes of the Edexcel exams. They are fascinating.
One of my favourites from the ones I haven't written about is Don Paterson's "Song for Natalie Tusje Beridze".
There is only one other attempt at a critical guide (because the poems are so new); I feel it misses some intertextual references in the poems (for example, to William Blake, to Benjamin Franklin, to Alice in Wonderland and to Romeo and Juliet) but the relevance of that to me will not invalidate other readings which miss it altogether.
I totally agree that poets are happy for different interpretations - but knowing poets and their complaints about interpretations as I do, one of the main ones is that the very act of saying 'this is what this poem is about' in such a guide, stifles the person reading the guide from interpreting the poem in their own or a different way. In fact the entire exam system is way too prescriptive - but having said that, it's always interesting seeing how someone else does interpret a or your poem!
People tend to come to me for help because they don't have away of analysing a poem and therefore lack confidence, even though the exam boards hint at the relevance of form, structure, language and a personal response and reward any defensible interpretations.
Perhaps we could say that analysing a poem for its meaning is a bit like a GP examining a patient in order to diagnose their condition. You can ask the patient some questions, and prod to find out where it hurts! (not that I go to the doctor much, as you may be able to tell). Once these readers have a method which works, they can personalise it and turn it into their method.
Son was always getting told he was wrong at school, when he WAS making innovative and interesting and plausible and defensible interpretations.
As you can probably tell I am thoroughly fed up with the school system! The marking systems used to be much more flexible. a friend had to give up recently because she used to award marks when she could see that a student understood something well but had just made a small mistake - which suddenly due to new guidelines now has to be marked wrong. She said you could see some students had the right answers but it was patently clear they had no idea why they were right. This sort of thing makes me mad.
Anything that makes them think and helps them get the right answers is fabulous!
Thank you so much re book. I will definitely review it.