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[lady_schrapnell]

Anyone who's enjoyed the perfect weather this Bank Holiday Monday should thank their nearest Leaving Cert student (Junior Cert at a pinch).  And if you don't happen to have one in mind, you can just thank Younger Daughter, who's been spending the last couple of weeks studying like mad.  No money necessary for the thanking, but good thoughts for intelligent exam setting and marking would be nice, not to mention endurance to get through the next couple of weeks.  English Paper I on Wednesday morning.  (Ooh - and a personal essay option on that paper would be excellent too.)

We were having a look at some past exam papers, and I hadn't quite taken on board the horror that is the English higher level Leaving Cert exam these days.  The 'single text' (generally done on the Shakespeare play) and 'comparative texts' (usually on the novels and modern play on the year's course) are fine, comprehension and functional writing variable, but the prescribed poetry is dreadful.  I give you the 2005 paper questions:

1. "The appeal of Eavan Boland's poetry"

Using the above title, write an essay outlining what you consider to be the appeal of Boland's poetry.  [Hard thought went into that 'title'! Nice of them to explain it though.]

2. What impact did the poetry of Emily Dickinson make on you as a reader?
     Your answer should deal with the following:
         - Your overall sense of the personality of the poet (!!)
         - The poet's use of language/imagery [oh, right - might as well devote a sentence or two to that, if there's time.]

3. Write about the feelings that T.S. Eliot's poetry creates in you and the aspects of his poetry (content and/or style) that help to create those feelings.  [Feeeeeelings.  Nothing more than -- feeeeeeelings. Trying to for-get my feeeeeelings of...]

4. Write an article for a school magazine introducing the poetry of W.B. Yeats to Leaving Certificate students.  Tell them what he wrote about and explain what you liked in his writing, suggesting some poems that you think they would enjoy reading. [i.e. - talk about the poems on the L.C. course this year, duh.]

I had thought Becca's chosen question "I like (or do not like) to read the poetry of Sylvia Plath" was just demonstrative of exam-question-writing burnout at its most blatant, but hadn't realised quite how lucky she was in getting such a non-nauseating question at least.  (She did like to read the poetry of Sylvia Plath, and knew it very well indeed, btw.)

Comments

[lady-schrapnell.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the good wishes! Eavan Boland is an Irish poet, alive and female. There was one poetry anthology used for the Leaving Cert for about 30 years , and though it was wonderful, Emily Dickinson was the only woman in it (and my year, she wasn't on the syllabus). So since retiring that anthology, they kind of seem to be making an effort to shake up the selection a bit.

I haven't heard that Yeats called it that, though that doesn't mean anything. Possibly it was just as well for him that he didn't get the girl in question though - and not just for the poetic inspiration of it!