Choosing a Line of Argument on Tone
A 4-mark poetry question asks: 'Discuss the tone of the poem.' The poem, printed on the paper, has four quatrains. The speaker addresses a friend who has moved away. Stanza 1 is affectionate ('your laugh in the doorway'); stanza 2 turns bitter ('you left the gate open for the wind'); stanza 3 returns to tenderness ('I keep your chair'); stanza 4 shifts to the present tense and ends, 'The road is a long sentence / I am learning to read.' The student has 8 minutes. Plan A lists five tone words - nostalgic, bitter, tender, resigned, hopeful - with one example each. Plan B argues that the tone moves from tender recollection to reproach and settles into resigned acceptance, using one device per shift. The marking scheme awards 1 mark for a clear overall claim and up to 3 for evidence tied to shifts and devices.
1. Which plan is more likely to score full marks, and why? Refer to the wording of the marking scheme and to the poem's structure.
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Plan B is more likely to score full marks. The marking scheme awards 1 mark for a clear overall claim and up to 3 for evidence tied to shifts and devices, so it is designed for a developing argument, not a list. Plan A's five adjectives might each be defensible, but with 8 minutes the student cannot tie five claims to five devices, and the answer will read as feature-spotting; it also lacks a controlling idea, so the first mark is at risk. Plan B matches the poem's four-quatrain movement and its turn in stanza 4: tender recollection, reproach, then resigned acceptance. 'Discuss' asks for weighing, so a claim that the tone is mixed and shifting is stronger than a single label. The plan also uses devices economically: one per shift, which is all 8 minutes allows.
2. Write a two-sentence topic sentence and one body sentence for Plan B, using at least one device accurately.
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Topic: 'The poem's tone is not single but graduated: it moves from affectionate recollection in the first stanza to reproach in the second and settles into resigned acceptance by the last.' Body: 'The gate left open for the wind is an image of carelessness, and the verb left turns a memory of departure into an accusation.' The topic sentence names the movement and gives the structure; the body sentence does not just name the image but explains its effect. Avoid saying 'the poet uses imagery' without saying what the image does. The device is tied to the shift from tender to bitter, which is exactly what the scheme's 'evidence tied to shifts and devices' rewards.