B.A. English Past Papers (Poetry)

POETRY

(A) EXPANATION WITH RTC

1. LEISURE BY WILLAIM DAVIES

(i) No time to turn at Beauty's glance, 

And watch her feet, how they can dance. (2005 Group II, 2013 Group I) 

2. TARTARY BY WALTER DE LA MARE

(ii) And ere should wane the morning-star, 

I'd don my robe and scimitar,
And zebras should draw my car. (2011 Group I) 

3. NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS BY ELIZABETH SEWELL

(iii) I will drain

Long draughts of quiet

As a purgation. (2004 Group II, 2012 Group I, 2012 Group II) 

(iv) Will lie O' nights

In the bony arms

Of Reality and be comforted. (2006 Group II, 2009 Group I, 2013 Group I) 

4. WOMAN WORK BY MAYA ANGELOU

(v) Cover me with white

Cold icy kisses and 

Let me rest tonight. (2008 Group II)

(vi) Sun, rain, curving sky
Mountain, oceans, leaf and stone,
Star shine, moon glow
You're all that I can call my own. (2004 Group I, 2012 Group I)

5. THE REBEL BY D.J ENRIGHT

(vii) In the company of dog lovers,

The Rebel expresses a preference for cats. (2005 Group I)

6. PATRIOT INTO TRAITOR BY ROBERT BROWNING

(viii) And you see my harvest, what I reap

This very day, now a year is run, (2010 Group II)

(ix) There's nobody on the housetops now

Just a palsied few at the windows set: (2009 Group I) 

(x) Thus I entered and thus I go

In triumphs, people have dropped down dead. (2005 Group II)

(xi) Paid by the world, what dost thou owe

Me? -- God might question; now instead,

'Tis God shall repay: I am safer so. (2012 Group II) 

7. THE HUNTSMAN BY EDWARD LOWBURY

(xii) And the dead man answered,

'Talking brought me here'. (2006 Group I, 2010 Group II) 

8. ONE ART BY ELIZABETH BISHOP

(xiii) Then practice losing farther, losing faster;

Places and names and where it was you went. (2006 Group II, 2010 Group I) 

9. THE SOLITARY REAPER BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

(xiv) Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow

For old, unhappy, far-off things,

And battles long ago. (2009 Group II)

10. ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

(xv) And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. (2009 Group I)

11. DEPARTURE AND ARRIVAL BY T.S. ELIOT

(xvi) Great duties call the twentieth century

More grandly dowered than those which came before, (2008 Group II)

What conquest over pain and misery,

(xvii) What heroes greater than were ever of yore. (2011 Group II) 

But if this century is to be made great

than those before, her sons must make her so. (2004 Group II, 2012 Group I)

(xviii) A legacy of benefits -- may we

In future years be found with those who try

To labour for the good until they die. (2011 Group I) 

(xix) And ask no other question than to know

That they have helped the cause of victory

That with their aid the flag is raised on high.(2009 Group II)

(xx) Or to what distant lands were may have gone

Through all the years will never have been forgot. (2013 Group II) 

12. A POISON TREE BY WILLIAM BLAKE
(xxi) I was angry with my friend;

I told my wrath, my wrath did end,
I was angry with my foe;
I told it not, my wrath did grow. (2004 Group I)

(xxii) And I sunned it with smiles

Ans with soft deceitful viles. (2010 Group I) 

(xxiii) And my foe beheld its shine

And he knew that it was mine. (2007 Group I)

(xxiv) And into my garden stole

When the night had veil'd the pole:

In the morning glad I see

My foe outstrech'd beneath the tree. (2013 Group II) 

13. BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH EMILY DICKINSON

(xxv) We passed the Field of Gazing grain

We passed the setting Sun ____ (2006 Group I)

(xxvi) For only gossamer, my gown --

My tippet -- only tulle --  (2007 Group I) 

(xxvii)We passed before a House that seemed

A Swelling of the Ground--

The roof was scarcely visible--

The Cornice--in the Ground-- (2005 Group I) 

14. LIGHTS OUT BY EDWARD THOMAS

(xxviii) To go into the unknown

I must enter, and leave, alone

I know not how. (2007 Group I, 2008 Group II)

(xxix) Its silence I hear and obey

That I may lose my way

And myself. (2008 Group I) 

15. AFTER APPLE PICKING BY ROBERT FROST

(xxx) I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight

I got from looking through a pane of glass

I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough (2010 Group I)

(xxxi) It melted and I let it fall and break

But I was well

Upon my way to sleep before it fell. (2008 Group I) 

16. THE VANISHING VILLAGE BY R.S. THOMAS

(xxxii) So little happens, the black dog

Cracking his fleas, in the hot sun 

Is history. (2005 Group II, 2007 Group II, 2011 Group II) 

17. WHEN I HAVE FEARS BY JOHN KEATS

18. KUBLA KHAN BY S.T. COLERIDE

(xxxiii) And on her dulcimer she played

Singing of Mount Abora (2008 Group II) 

(xxxiv) And all who heard should see them there,

And all should cry, beware! beware! (2007 Group II) 

19. HAWK'S MONOLOGUE BY TED HUGHES

(xxxv) The sun is behind me

Nothing has changed since I began

My eye has permitted no change

I am going to keep things like this. (2013 Group I) 

20. SAY THIS CITY HAS TEN MILLION SOULS BY W.H. AUDEN

(xxxvi) He was talking of you and me, my dear,

He talking of you and me. (2011 Group II) 

(xxxvii) Walked through a wood, saw the birds in the trees;

They had no politicians and sang at their ease. (2009 Group II) 

21. POLITICS BY W.B. YEATS

22. SNAKE BY D.H. LAWRENCE

(xxxviii) I came down the steps with my picture

And must wait, must stand and wait,

For there he was at the trough before me. (2006 Group II)

(xxxix) And depart peaceful, pacified, and thankless,

Into the burning bowels of this earth? (2010 Group II) 

(xxxx) And yet those voices:

If you were not afraid, you would kill him! (2007 Group II)

(xxxxi) But even so, honored still more 

That he should seek my hospitality

From out the dark door of the secret earth. (2011 Group I) 

(xxxxii) And so I missed my chance with one of the
lords of life. And I have something to expiate;
A pettiness. (2004 Group I) 

23. AUTUMN BY T.E. HULME

(xxxxiii) A touch of cold in the autumn night

I walked abroad

And saw the ruddy moon lean over hedge. (2005 Group I) 

24. FOG BY CARL SANDBURG

(xxxxiv) The fog comes 

On little cat feet. (2006 Group I, 2013 Group II) 

25. METRO:PARIS BY EZRA POUND

(xxxxv) The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet black bough. (2004 Group II, 2012 Group II)