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O-LevelLiterature in EnglishPoetryMay/June 2017Paper 1 Q425 Marks

Or 4 Explore the ways in which Sitwell uses imagery to powerful effect in Heart and Mind. Heart and Mind Said the Lion to the Lioness–'When you are amber dust, – No more a raging fire like the heat of the Sun (No liking but all lust) — Remember still the flowering of the amber blood and bone, The rippling of bright muscles like a sea, Remember the rose-prickles of bright paws Though we shall mate no more Till the fire of that sun the heart and the moon-cold bone are one.' Said the Skeleton lying upon the sands of Time– 'The great gold planet that is the mourning heat of the Sun Is greater than all gold, more powerful Than the tawny body of a Lion that fire consumes Like all that grows or leaps so is the heart More powerful than all dust. Once I was Hercules Or Samson, strong as the pillars of the seas: But the flames of the heart consumed me, and the mind Is but a foolish wind.' Said the Sun to the Moon–'When you are but a lonely white crone, And I, a dead King in my golden armour somewhere in a dark wood, Remember only this of our hopeless love That never till Time is done Will the fire of the heart and the fire of the mind be one.' (Edith Sitwell)

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About This O-Level Literature in English Question

This structured question appeared in the Cambridge O-Level Literature in English (2010) May/June 2017 examination, Paper 1 Variant 2. It tests the topic of Poetry and is worth 25 marks.

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