Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Maud
Learner Resource 2
Task: Follow the following tasks as a guideline to making notes on each section as you read them.
Exam context: Examiners often comment that candidates do not show awareness of the text as poetry. It is particularly important that AS candidates are aware of the characteristics of Tennyson’s poetic technique as they will be required to closely analyse a set passage in relation to the broader text.
A Level candidates will be required to compare Tennyson’s ‘Maud’ with one of the selected drama texts in relation to how each presents ideas, characters and settings.
Write a brief overview of this section.
(Writing a brief overview (a couple of sentences) of each section is an excellent way of fixing the poem in your memory. If you do this as you go along it makes revision easier later.)
Identify the form of this section.
You should consider:
- How many lines does each stanza have?
- What is the rhyme scheme?
- What type of rhyme?
- Is it masculine or feminine?
- Is it consistent throughout?
- What effect do these features have?
- How do they compare/contrast to other sections?
- Is there anything interesting about the poet’s use of line breaks (caesura), end stopped lines, enjambment etc?
- What is significant about the choice of formal features?
Tennyson’s poetry typically uses sound to great effect.
- Are there any sounds, words or phrases repeated in this section?
- Look for the use of alliteration, assonance, consonance and onomatopoeia to create auditory impact?
- How are auditory features used to influence pace, rhythm, tone, and atmosphere?
Version 11© OCR 2016
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Maud
- What effect do these features have?
Identify rhetorical devices used and explain their effect:
Examples: groups of three, parallel phrasing, rhetorical questions.
Voice and tone are key to this monodrama. Assess the way voice and tone are created in this section.
Note: ‘Voice’ is often linked to characterisation and tone is often linked to attitudinal stance or feelings.
- How is language used to convey character in this section?
- What impressions of the speaker’s character do we get as a result of the crafting of ‘voice’ within this section of the poem?
- How far do you feel Tennyson seeks to create sympathy for the speaker in this section?
- How far are the characters presented in a way that is typical of the whole poem?
- What tone is conveyed in this section?
- How does the tone employed hint at the attitudes or feelings of the speaker?
- Is there a gap between the ‘character’s’ attitudes and yours as a reader?
- How far is the tone in this section typical of the poem as a whole?
What figurative devices are used in this section?
Examples: similes, metaphors, personification, pathetic fallacy.
What effect do these features have?
Consider both specific and general effects.
Are there particular images or words with particular connotations that are important to our understanding of this section?
In particular, consider the significance of the language used in association:
- nature,
- commerce,
- corruption,
- the maternal,
- the paternal,
- war
- Is the language used in this section characteristic of the poem as a whole?
- What is the setting of this particular section?
- How is the setting presented? (What devices are used to craft a sense of setting?)
- What impact does the setting have on the effect of this section?
Consider the structure of the poem.
- Why are action, ideas, feelings, images etc introduced to us in the order that they are?
- How are transitions between actions, ideas, feelings images etc managed?
- How does Tennyson use structure to illicit and guide his readers’ responses to the speaker (and the content/ideas etc raised within the poem)?
What other significant aspects of this section could be discussed?
Remember to consider the significance of these aspects.
Extension work: A Level
Can you see any interesting links or comparisons with your dramatist’s use of language?
Version 11© OCR 2016
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Maud