O-LevelLiterature in EnglishPoetry2010/12 · May/June 2019 · Q525 Marks
GILLIAN CLARKE: from Collected Poems Remember to support your ideas with details from the writing. Either 5 Read this poem, and then answer the question that follows it: Baby-sitting I am sitting in a strange room listening For the wrong baby. I don't love This baby. She is sleeping a snuffly Roseate, bubbling sleep; she is fair; She is a perfectly acceptable child. I am afraid of her. If she wakes She will hate me. She will shout 5 Her hot midnight rage, her nose Will stream disgustingly and the perfume Of her breath will fail to enchant me. To her I will represent absolute Abandonment. For her it will be worse Than for the lover cold in lonely 10 Sheets; worse than for the woman who waits A moment to collect her dignity Beside the bleached bone in the terminal ward. As she rises sobbing from the monstrous land Stretching for milk-familiar comforting, 15 She will find me and between us two It will not come. It will not come. 20
- How does Clarke memorably convey strong emotions in this poem?[25]
Mark scheme
Marking points from the official mark scheme (May/June 2019). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.
- demonstrates knowledge by incorporating well-selected reference to the text skilfully and with flair (AO1)
- sustains a critical understanding of the text showing individuality and insight (AO2)
- responds sensitively and in considerable detail to the way the writer achieves her / his effects (AO3)
- sustains personal and evaluative engagement with task and text (AO4)
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