All fifteen poems, and the one choice that decides your grade

Which matters more in this exam: the poem that gets printed, or the poem you choose to put beside it? One of fifteen poems will be printed in front of you, and you do not get to pick it. So the printed one feels like the danger. You cannot choose it, and it could be any of the fifteen. But the poem beside it is yours, and that choice shapes the whole answer. The answer comes from five big ideas, and before them, the fifteen poems themselves.

Here are the fifteen poems in the order the anthology prints them, each with what happens in it and one line worth knowing by heart. Ozymandias, by Percy Bysshe Shelley, is a traveller describing the ruined statue of a boastful king, alone in the desert. Its line: "Nothing beside remains." London, by William Blake, is a walk through a city where every face is marked by the people in charge. Its line: "The mind-forged manacles I hear." The Prelude extract, written by William Wordsworth, follows a boy who takes a boat at night and feels a mountain rise up and follow him. Its line: "a trouble to my dreams." My Last Duchess, by Robert Browning, has a duke show a visitor the portrait of his dead wife, and give away that he had her silenced. Its line: "I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together." The Charge of the Light Brigade, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, sends six hundred cavalrymen into the enemy's guns after a mistaken order. Its line: "Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die." Exposure, by Wilfred Owen, leaves soldiers freezing in a trench through a night when no attack ever comes. Its line: "But nothing happens." Storm on the Island, by Seamus Heaney, shows an island community braced for a storm and still afraid of it. Its line: "it is a huge nothing that we fear." Bayonet Charge, by Ted Hughes, puts you inside one soldier running at the enemy, who almost stops mid-stride to wonder why. Its line: the "cold clockwork of the stars and the nations." Remains, by Simon Armitage, is a soldier who shoots a looter on patrol and cannot stop seeing him once he is home. Its line: "probably armed, possibly not." Poppies, by Jane Weir, has a mother say goodbye to her son at the front door and later walk to a war memorial. Its line: "hoping to hear your playground voice catching on the wind." War Photographer, by Carol Ann Duffy, follows a photographer developing his pictures of war in a darkroom back in England. Its line: "A hundred agonies in black-and-white." Tissue, by Imtiaz Dharker, is about paper, the maps, money and records that run our lives, and how thin they are. Its line: a structure "never meant to last." The Emigree, by Carol Rumens, is a woman who left her country as a child and keeps it bright in her memory. Its line: "I am branded by an impression of sunlight." Checking Out Me History, by John Agard, is a man taught British history who has to find his own history for himself. Its lines: "Bandage up me eye with me own history." "Blind me to me own identity." And Kamikaze, by Beatrice Garland, is a Japanese pilot who turns back from a suicide mission, and the family that shuts him out. Its line: "he must have wondered which had been the better way to die."

Now the five big ideas. A strand is one of the big ideas a question can ask about, and every one of the fifteen poems belongs to at least one. The first strand is power: who holds it, how they use it, and how long it lasts. Ozymandias, London, My Last Duchess, the Light Brigade, Tissue, The Emigree and Checking Out Me History all answer it. The second is the reality of conflict, what fighting does to the person doing it. The Light Brigade, Exposure, Bayonet Charge and Remains live here, with London, Storm on the Island, War Photographer and Kamikaze. The third is what conflict leaves behind: memory, grief, and the people who were never in the fighting. Poppies, War Photographer, Remains and Kamikaze sit here, joined by Exposure, the Light Brigade and Checking Out Me History. The fourth is the power of nature, a force that does not know you are there. The Prelude, Storm on the Island and Exposure answer it, and so do Ozymandias and Bayonet Charge. The fifth is identity and belonging, who you are when your place or your history is taken. The Emigree, Checking Out Me History and Tissue answer it, along with London, Storm on the Island and Kamikaze. Here is a poem that is not in your anthology, described in one line: a flood sweeps through a valley village while the people watch from the hill above. Which strand does that poem answer best: power, the power of nature, or identity and belonging? The middle one, nature. The water is a force that does not care who stands in its way. Losing a home might pull you towards identity and belonging, but the poem is about the force itself. Now look at how many strands each poem reaches. Six of them sit in three strands at once: London, the Light Brigade, Exposure, Storm on the Island, Checking Out Me History and Kamikaze. Why can a poem that sits in three strands go beside almost any printed poem? Because whatever the printed poem is about, a poem in three strands is likely to share one of them, and a shared strand is what a comparison stands on.

In the exam itself, one of the fifteen is printed on the paper, and you compare it with one other poem from the fifteen, written from memory.

So back to the opening question. The printed poem is chance, but the second poem is a decision, and it is a strand decision, not a favourites decision. Pick the poem that shares the printed poem's strand, and the comparison has something to stand on.

The rest of this chapter has a video on each of the fifteen poems, then one on each of the five strands, then two on the exam itself. The poem videos come in two kinds. Six poems are old enough to be out of copyright: Exposure, The Charge of the Light Brigade, London, Ozymandias, My Last Duchess and The Prelude. Each of their videos reads the whole poem aloud, a section at a time, with what each part is doing. The other nine are still in copyright: Kamikaze, Checking Out Me History, Storm on the Island, Remains, Bayonet Charge, Poppies, War Photographer, Tissue and The Emigree. Their videos quote short pieces, each followed straight away by its analysis, so keep your anthology open. Where a free reading of the poem is online, the link is in the description. Begin with Exposure, the Light Brigade and London. Each of them sits in three strands, and between them they reach all five. Ozymandias, My Last Duchess and The Prelude come next, the other three read in full. Then Kamikaze and Checking Out Me History, which both answer identity and belonging. That order is where to start, not what to leave out: any of the fifteen can be printed, so you study all fifteen. Which of the three-strand poems to know coldest, and the evidence for it, is the job of the video called Bedrock poems: the six to know coldest, and why.

Before you go, a quick check on the map. Each question takes a moment, and the answer follows. Which strand do Exposure, The Prelude and Storm on the Island all share? The power of nature. The frozen night in Exposure, the mountain in The Prelude and the gale in Storm on the Island never know the people are there. Now a harder one. Kamikaze is printed. Which strand could link it to Poppies? What conflict leaves behind. Both poems keep a family at home living with a war, so that strand is the shared ground. Try one with a twist. My Last Duchess is printed. Which three-strand poem shares its strand? London, the Light Brigade or Checking Out Me History. My Last Duchess only answers power, and all three of those carry power among their strands. So the poem you cannot choose is one of fifteen, and the poem you can choose is the half of the answer you control. Five strand names and six three-strand poems are what you carry into that room.

Match any of the fifteen to its strands, and this one's done: tap the thumb so it never needs a second watch. Still fuzzy on the map, keep the playlist handy, because each poem video brings it back round.

Next in the chapter: Exposure: the war where nothing happens and the men die anyway. Hopefully that's next in your feed, but if not, search for ScholaFly E L four oh, oh two.

Every other video is on scholafly.com too, easy to search by video code or by keyword. Whatever you're revising, go there and have a look, or, watch the next video.