JOHN KEATS: Poems Read these three stanzas from Ode to a Nightingale, and then answer the question that follows: 1 My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk: 'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot, But being too happy in thine happiness, That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees, In some melodious plot Of beechen green, and shadows numberless, Singest of summer in full-throated ease. 5 10 2 O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been Cool'd a long age in the deep-delved earth, Tasting of Flora and the country green, Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth! O for a beaker full of the warm South, Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene, With beaded bubbles winking at the brim, And purple-stained mouth; That I might drink, and leave the world unseen, And with thee fade away into the forest dim: 15 20 3 Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget What thou among the leaves hast never known, The weariness, the fever, and the fret Here, where men sit and hear each other groan; Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs, Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies; Where but to think is to be full of sorrow And leaden-eyed despairs, Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes, Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow. 25 30 How do Keats's words here vividly reveal his feelings to you?

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (May/June 2010). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. [25] Poetry is literary language at its most intense.
2. [25] A poem in a short space creates a multiplicity of resonances and hence possible meanings.
3. [25] We must expect that candidates will offer a very wide variety of responses and interpretations and as examiners must at all times keep a totally open mind when assessing work on a poem.
4. [25] In the exercise of our judgment, we shall, of course, read work which shows manifestly little or no understanding of a poem and we will mark that accordingly.
5. [25] However, it should also be a regular experience to find answers which offer valid perspectives new to the examiner and which, just as manifestly, deserve to be given high reward.
6. [25] We will differentiate first of all according to how directly the candidates answer the question.
7. [25] Where questions prescribe the poems from which the candidates should choose this is to ensure that the candidate is writing on a poem appropriate to the question.
8. [25] It is also designed to send a strong signal to candidates that they are taking a large risk going into the examination with only one or two poems which they are determined to fit to a question.
9. [25] The problem can be that some will choose a question because the poem they wish to write about appears in the list rather than because they can answer the question.
10. [25] We must be very careful not to give much reward for answers which manifestly are not addressing the question, even if they show a convincing grasp of the poem.
11. [25] Do not over-reward such run throughs and do not forget that all the tasks demand that the candidate engage with the poem through a specific route; they are never simple invitations to write about a poem.
12. [25] We should think very hard before putting such work in Band 3.
13. [25] Beyond focus on the question, we will also assess according to how well candidates convince us that they have engaged with the pleasure and excitement of good poetry.
14. [25] This means in effect that we do NOT give high reward to any explanation of "meaning" which shows little response to the words and how they create meaning.
15. [25] In all of the questions there is an explicit requirement to make a response to the words and it will be difficult for any work which fails to engage in this way to progress beyond Band 3.
16. [25] In addition, examiners should be careful not to over-reward comment which is able to isolate vivid features of a poem's language but which is unable to probe the reasons for their vividness.
17. [25] For instance, the noting of rhyme, sound and movement, the listing of significant words and figures of speech is only a very small first step to insightful personal response.
18. [25] Work given high reward should show the ability of the candidate to analyse how such features of a poem's language achieve their effect.
19. [25] Refer to the band descriptors in arriving at your mark.