AQA Anthology
Encyclopedia
.jpg)
Assessment and Qualifications Alliance
AQA is an Awarding Body in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It compiles specifications and holds examinations in various subjects at GCSE, AS and A Level and offers vocational qualifications. AQA is a registered charity and independent of the Government...
(the AQA). The anthology is split into several sections covering poems from other cultures, the poetry of Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer. He lives in Dublin. Heaney has received the Nobel Prize in Literature , the Golden Wreath of Poetry , T. S. Eliot Prize and two Whitbread prizes...
, Gillian Clarke
Gillian Clarke
Gillian Clarke is a Welsh poet, playwright, editor, broadcaster, lecturer and translator from Welsh.-Life:Clarke was born in Cardiff and brought up in Cardiff and Penarth, though for part of the Second World War she was in Pembrokeshire...
, Carol Ann Duffy
Carol Ann Duffy
Carol Ann Duffy, CBE, FRSL is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is Professor of Contemporary Poetry at the Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Britain's poet laureate in May 2009...
and Simon Armitage
Simon Armitage
Simon Armitage CBE is a British poet, playwright, and novelist.-Life and career:Simon Armitage was born in Marsden, West Yorkshire. Armitage first studied at Colne Valley High School, Linthwaite, Huddersfield and went on to study geography at Portsmouth Polytechnic...
, and a bank of pre-1914 poems. There is also a section of prose pieces, which may be studied in schools that have chosen not to study a separate set text.
English: Poems from Other Cultures
Cluster 1
- Edward Kamau BrathwaiteEdward Kamau BrathwaiteEdward Kamau Brathwaite is widely considered one of the major voices in the Caribbean literary canon. A professor of Comparative Literature at New York University, Brathwaite is the 2006 International Winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize, for his volume of poetry, Born to Slow Horses.Brathwaite...
: LimboLimbo (Brathwaite poem)"Limbo" is a poem by Barbadian poet Edward Kamau Brathwaite.It describes the similarity between a limbo dance and the transportation of African slaves into the West Indies and America.... - Tatamkhulu Afrika: Nothing's Changed
- Grace NicholsGrace NicholsGrace Nichols is a Guyanese poet. She was born in Georgetown, Guyana, in 1950. After working in Guyana as a teacher and journalist, she emigrated to the UK in 1977. Much of her poetry is characterised by Caribbean rhythms and culture, and influenced by Guyanese and Amerindian folklore.Her first...
: Island ManIsland Man (poem)Island Man is a poem by Grace Nichols. It is a simple poem about a man who lives in London but thinks about home in the Caribbean.It was written in the 1970s.... - Imtiaz DharkerImtiaz DharkerImtiaz Dharker is a Scottish Muslim, poet, artist and documentary film-maker.- Family and background:She was born in Lahore to Pakistani parents. She was brought up in Glasgow where her family moved when she was less than a year old...
: BlessingBlessing (poem)Blessing is a poem by Imtiaz Dharker. It is set in a settlement in Dharavi in India, and it describes the pandemonium that would occur if a huge water folly were to burst and shower the parched locals with water. The water is described as "the voice of a kindly god", "silver" and a "blessing"... - Lawrence FerlinghettiLawrence FerlinghettiLawrence Ferlinghetti is an American poet, painter, liberal activist, and the co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers...
: Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People In A Mercedes - Nissim EzekielNissim Ezekiel' was an Indian Jewish poet, playwright, editor and art-critic. He was a foundational figure in postcolonial India's literary history, specifically for Indian writing in English....
: Night of the ScorpionNight of the Scorpion"Night of the Scorpion" is a poem by Nissim Ezekiel.It tells the story of a boy whose mother was stung by a scorpion, which had retreated underneath a sack of rice. The poem describes the attempts by the boy's father, the local peasants and the holy man to cure her, far away from Western medicine... - Chinua AchebeChinua AchebeAlbert Chinụalụmọgụ Achebe popularly known as Chinua Achebe is a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic...
: VulturesVultures (poem)"Vultures" is a poem by Chinua Achebe.The poem “Vultures” speaks broadly about life and humanity, using the specific example that evil beings like vultures and the commandant in the Belsen camp are alike, both fighting for survival and happiness. The vulture,... - Denise LevertovDenise Levertov-Early life and influences:Levertov was born and grew up in Ilford, Essex.Couzyn, Jeni Contemporary Women Poets. Bloodaxe, p74 Her mother, Beatrice Spooner-Jones Levertoff, came from a small mining village in North Wales...
: What Were They Like?What Were They Like? (poem)What Were They Like? is a poem by Denise Levertov written as a protest against the Vietnam War, and envisages a future where the "genocide" that the American bombing campaign began has been completed, and nothing is known of Vietnam or its culture...
Cluster 2
- Sujata BhattSujata BhattSujata Bhatt is an Indian poet, a native speaker of Gujarati.-Life and career:Bhatt was born in Ahmedabad, and brought up in Pune until 1968, when she emigrated to the United States with her family. She has an MFA from the University of Iowa, and for a time was writer-in-residence at the...
: Search for My TongueSearch for My TongueSearch for My Tongue is a poem by Sujata Bhatt. The poem is studied in England as part of the AQA Anthology."I have always thought of myself as an Indian who is outside India," the writer has said in an interview, stating that her language is the deepest layer of her identity... - Tom LeonardTom Leonard (poet)Tom Leonard is a Scottish poet, best known for his poems written in Glaswegian dialect.Tom Leonard has been part of the Scottish literary renaissance for the past forty years...
: Unrelated IncidentsUnrelated IncidentsUnrelated Incidents is a series of poems by Tom Leonard. Written in 1976, One of the better-known of this series is "The Six o'clock news" where the poem takes the form of a Glaswegian as a BBC newsreader.The poem tackles working class alienation.... - John AgardJohn AgardJohn Agard is an Afro-Guyanese playwright, poet and children's writer, now living in the United Kingdom.-Background:...
: Half CasteHalf Caste (poem)Half-Caste is a poem by John Agard, which looks at people's ideas and usage of the word 'half-caste'. The poem is taken from Agard's 2005 collection of the same name, in which he explores a range of issues affecting black and mixed-race identity in the UK. Since 2002 the poem has been in the AQA... - Derek WalcottDerek WalcottDerek Alton Walcott, OBE OCC is a Saint Lucian poet, playwright, writer and visual artist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 and the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2011 for White Egrets. His works include the Homeric epic Omeros...
: Love After LoveLove After LoveLove After Love is a poem by Derek Walcott. The poem is about how people often forget themselves when they have been in a relationship for a very long time. It instructs the reader on how to love themselves and learn how to put their own needs first. . The poem is studied at GCSE level in... - Imtiaz DharkerImtiaz DharkerImtiaz Dharker is a Scottish Muslim, poet, artist and documentary film-maker.- Family and background:She was born in Lahore to Pakistani parents. She was brought up in Glasgow where her family moved when she was less than a year old...
: This RoomThis RoomThis Room is a poem by Imtiaz Dharker. It is included in Cluster 2, Poems from different cultures, of the AQA Anthology. -Description:The poem describes a room in which all of the furniture is stirring - this is a metaphor for a feeling of excitement at a new and strange event taking place.... - Niyi OsundareNiyi OsundareNiyi Osundare is a prolific poet, dramatist and literary critic. He gained degrees at the University of Ibadan , the University of Leeds and York University, Canada...
: Not My BusinessNot My BusinessNot My Business is a free verse poem by Niyi Osundare. It is included in Cluster 2, Poems from Different Cultures, of the AQA Anthology.-Description:... - Moniza AlviMoniza Alvi-Life and education:Moniza Alvi was born in Lahore, Pakistan. She was born to a Pakistani father and a British mother. Her father moved to Hatfield, Hertfordshire in England when she was a few months old. She did not revisit Pakistan until after the publication of her first book of poems - The...
: Presents from my 'Aunts' in Pakistan - Grace NicholsGrace NicholsGrace Nichols is a Guyanese poet. She was born in Georgetown, Guyana, in 1950. After working in Guyana as a teacher and journalist, she emigrated to the UK in 1977. Much of her poetry is characterised by Caribbean rhythms and culture, and influenced by Guyanese and Amerindian folklore.Her first...
: Hurricane Hits EnglandHurricane Hits EnglandHurricane Hits England is a poem by Grace Nichols. In the poem, Nichols talks about how the arrival of a hurricane in England reminds her of her West Indian heritage. This makes her feel closer to home....
Criticism
In 2005, Andrew Cunningham, an English teacher at Charterhouse SchoolCharterhouse School
Charterhouse School, originally The Hospital of King James and Thomas Sutton in Charterhouse, or more simply Charterhouse or House, is an English collegiate independent boarding school situated at Godalming in Surrey.Founded by Thomas Sutton in London in 1611 on the site of the old Carthusian...
complained in the Telegraph that the inclusion of the poems represented an "obsession with multi-culturalism".
After removing Education for Leisure from the anthology, the exam board was accused of censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
.
Seamus Heaney
- Storm on the Island
- Perch
- Blackberry-Picking
- Death of a Naturalist
- Digging
- Mid-Term Break
- FollowerFollowerFollower is a poem by Seamus Heaney released in his 1966 collection Death of a Naturalist. The poem is about how he admired and followed his father....
- At a Potato Digging
Gillian Clarke
- CatrinCatrin (poem)Catrin is a famous poem written by Welsh poet Gillian Clarke about her daughter, Catrin, growing up, and "the tight red rope of love", the strong bond between them that can never be broken.-Poem:I can remember you, child,As I stood in a hot, white...
- Baby-sitting
- Mali
- A Difficult Birth, Easter 1998
- The Field Mouse
- October
- On The TrainOn The Train (poem)On The Train is a poem by Gillian Clarke. Its chief subject matter is the Paddington rail crash and its aftermath.The poem imagines commuters on the train heading towards the "bone-ship" and refers to the anxiety of passengers and loved ones alike in the days following the disaster...
- Cold Knap Lake
Carol Ann Duffy
- HavishamHavishamHavisham is a poem written in 1998 by Carol Ann Duffy. It responds to Charles Dickens' character Miss Havisham from his novel Great Expectations, looking at Havisham's mental and physical state many decades after the conclusion of Great Expectations, when the bride is in her old age...
- Elvis's Twin SisterElvis's Twin SisterElvis' Twin Sister is a frequently-cited poem by Carol Ann Duffy, which is said to reflect "the hidden lives of generations of overlooked women" as part of the collection The World's Wife, of 30 similar poems dealing with the female relatives of famous men throughout history...
- Anne HathawayAnne Hathaway (poem)Anne Hathaway is a poem by Carol Ann Duffy about Anne Hathaway, the wife of William Shakespeare.This poem, a sonnet, appears in The World's Wife, published in 1999, a collection of poems. The poem is based on the famous passage from Shakespeare's will regarding his "second-best bed"...
- SalomeSalomeSalome , the Daughter of Herodias , is known from the New Testament...
- We Remember Your Childhood Well
- Before You Were Mine
Education for Leisure- removed from AnthologyEducation for Leisure"Education for Leisure" is a poem by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy which explores the mind of a person who is planning to commit a murder. Until 2008 the poem was studied at GCSE level in England and Wales as part of the AQA Anthology, a collection of poems by modern poets such as Duffy and Seamus...- Stealing- from 2010 onwards
Simon Armitage
- from Book of Matches, “Mother, any distance greater than a single span”
- from Book of Matches, “My father thought it...”
- HomecomingHomecomingHomecoming is the tradition of welcoming back alumni of a school. It most commonly refers to a tradition in many universities, colleges and high schools in North America...
- NovemberNovemberNovember is the 11th month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars and one of four months with the length of 30 days. November was the ninth month of the ancient Roman calendar...
- KidKid (book)Kid is a 1992 collection of poems by Simon Armitage. The title poem, 'Kid' is written from the point of view of comic book and TV series character Robin, companion of Batman. The poem talks about how Robin has grown up after separating from Batman...
- from Book of Matches, “Those bastards in their mansions”
- from Book of Matches, “I've made out a will; I'm leaving myself”
- Hitcher
Pre-1914 Poetry Bank
- Ben JonsonBen JonsonBenjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...
: On My First SonneOn My First SonneOn My First Sonne, a poem by Ben Jonson, was written in 1616 after the death of Jonson's first son Benjamin at age seven. The poem, a reflection of a father's pain in his young son's death, is rendered more acutely moving when compared with Jonson's other, usually more cynical or mocking, poetry.On... - William Butler YeatsWilliam Butler YeatsWilliam Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...
: The Song of the Old MotherSong of the Old Mother"Song of the Old Mother" is a poem by William Butler Yeats which first appeared in The Wind Among the Reeds anthology, published in 1899. The poem echoes Yeats' fascination with the Irish peasantry.... - William WordsworthWilliam WordsworthWilliam Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
: The Affliction of Margaret - William BlakeWilliam BlakeWilliam Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
: The Little Boy Lost and The Little Boy Found - Charles TichborneChidiock TichborneChidiock Tichborne is remembered as an English conspirator and poet.-Biography:He was born in Southampton sometime after 24 August 1562 to Roman Catholic parents, Peter Tichborne and his wife Elizabeth . His birth date has been given as circa 1558 in many sources, though unverified, and thus...
: Tichborne's Elegy - Thomas HardyThomas HardyThomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...
: The Man He Killed - Walt WhitmanWalt WhitmanWalter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
: Patrolling BarnegatPatrolling Barnegat (poem)"Patrolling Barnegat" is a poem by Walt Whitman, first published in Leaves of Grass.... - William ShakespeareWilliam ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
: Sonnet 130Sonnet 130Shakespeare's Sonnet CXXX mocks the conventions of the showy and flowery courtly sonnets in its realistic portrayal of his mistress.-Synopsis:...
- “My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun” - Robert BrowningRobert BrowningRobert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.-Early years:...
: My Last DuchessMy Last Duchess"My Last Duchess" is a poem by Robert Browning, frequently anthologized as an example of the dramatic monologue. It first appeared in 1842 in Browning's Dramatic Lyrics.-Poem structure and historical background:... - Robert BrowningRobert BrowningRobert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.-Early years:...
: The LaboratoryThe Laboratory"The Laboratory" is a poem and monologue by Robert Browning. It was first published in June 1844 in Hood's Magazine and Comic Miscellany, and later Dramatic Romances and Lyrics in 1845.... - Alfred Tennyson: Ulysses
- Oliver GoldsmithOliver GoldsmithOliver Goldsmith was an Irish writer, poet and physician known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield , his pastoral poem The Deserted Village , and his plays The Good-Natur'd Man and She Stoops to Conquer...
: The Village Schoolmaster - Alfred Tennyson: The EagleThe Eagle (poem)"The Eagle" is a short poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson and was first published in 1851, when it was added to the seventh edition of Tennyson’s Poems, which had itself been published first in 1842. The first stanza of this consciously styled "fragment" poem personifies an eagle, describing its claws as...
- John ClareJohn ClareJohn Clare was an English poet, born the son of a farm labourer who came to be known for his celebratory representations of the English countryside and his lamentation of its disruption. His poetry underwent a major re-evaluation in the late 20th century and he is often now considered to be among...
: Sonnet - “I love to see the summer...”
English Literature: Prose
- Doris LessingDoris LessingDoris May Lessing CH is a British writer. Her novels include The Grass is Singing, The Golden Notebook, and five novels collectively known as Canopus in Argos....
: Flight - Sylvia PlathSylvia PlathSylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. Born in Massachusetts, she studied at Smith College and Newnham College, Cambridge before receiving acclaim as a professional poet and writer...
: Superman and Paula Brown's New Snowsuit - Michèle RobertsMichèle RobertsMichèle Brigitte Roberts is a British writer, novelist and poet. Roberts was the daughter of a French Catholic teacher mother and English Protestant father ; she has dual UK-France nationality.-Early life:She was raised in Edgware, Middlesex and educated at a convent, expecting to become a nun,...
: Your Shoes - Joyce CaryJoyce CaryJoyce Cary was an Anglo-Irish novelist and artist.-Youth and education:...
: Growing Up - Ernest HemingwayErnest HemingwayErnest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
: The End of Something - Graham SwiftGraham SwiftGraham Colin Swift FRSL is a British author. He was born in London, England and educated at Dulwich College, London, Queens' College, Cambridge, and later the University of York. He was a friend of Ted Hughes...
: Chemistry - Leslie NorrisLeslie NorrisGeorge Leslie Norris FRSL , was a prize-winning Welsh poet and short story writer. Up to 1974 he earned his living as a college lecturer, teacher and headmaster...
: Snowdrops