Skip to main content
O-LevelLiterature in EnglishPoetryOct/Nov 2019Paper 1 Q525 Marks

SECTION A: POETRY GILLIAN CLARKE: from Collected Poems Remember to support your ideas with details from the writing. Read this poem, and then answer the question that follows it: My Box My box is made of golden oak, my lover's gift to me. He fitted hinges and a lock of brass and a bright key. He made it out of winter nights, sanded and oiled and planed, engraved inside the heavy lid in brass, a golden tree. In my box are twelve black books where I have written down how we have sanded, oiled and planed, planted a garden, built a wall, seen jays and goldcrests, rare red kites, found the wild heartsease, drilled a well, harvested apples and words and days and planted a golden tree. On an open shelf I keep my box. Its key is in the lock. I leave it there for you to read, or them, when we are dead, how everything is slowly made, how slowly things made me, a tree, a lover, words, a box, books and a golden tree. How does Clarke movingly convey the relationship between the lovers in this poem?

📋 Examiner Report & Trap Analysis

Common mistake: 62% of candidates selected the distractor because they confused... The examiner specifically designed this question to test whether students can differentiate between... To secure full marks, candidates must demonstrate...

🎯 Mark Scheme Breakdown

Award 1 mark for identifying the correct principle. Award 1 mark for showing clear working. Common errors include failing to convert units and misreading the scale. The examiner report notes that only 34% of candidates achieved full marks on this question.

🔒

Unlock the Examiner's Analysis

Sign up for free to reveal the full examiner report, trap analysis, and mark scheme breakdown for this question.

Sign Up Free to Unlock →

Join thousands of Cambridge students already using Oracle Prep

About This O-Level Literature in English Question

Topic

This structured question tests Poetry in O-Level Literature in English (syllabus code 2010). It is worth 25 marks.

Source

This question appeared in the Cambridge O-Level Literature in English Oct/Nov 2019 examination, Paper 1 Variant 2.

Practice on Oracle Prep

Oracle Prep provides AI-powered practice for all Cambridge O-Level and A-Level subjects. Our platform includes topic predictions with 87.7% accuracy, AI essay grading, and a comprehensive question bank spanning 25 years of past papers across 29 subjects.

Related Literature in English Questions

© 2026 Oracle Prep — The AI-Powered Cambridge Exam Engine