The English Teacher's Pub Quiz - Resource: Revision Questions for AQA Conflict and Power Poems

I wrote a blog not so long ago about how I avoided starters now and consistently and constantly revise key bits of information about texts studied at GCSE. The full blog is here.

Well, here are the questions to go along with that. The idea is very simple. The students, after studying the poem, answer the questions. If they can't answer them, we learn the answers. Then, I test students a lesson, a week, month or term later. The revision is constant. The knowledge revised is only a small part of the poem. They represent the tip of the iceberg, but a good tip to cluster other knowledge around them.

Feel free to use and adapt. Note: answers not included! You are all grown-ups and you can work them out for yourselves.

Ozymandias

1.What remains intact from the original statue of Ozymandias? 

2.What does the pedestal say people should do when they look at the statue?

3.Where is the traveller from in the poem?

4.What ‘s’ and ‘v’ are used to describe the statue’s face? 

5.What ‘s’ did the statue’s face have?

6.What ‘n’ remains of his legacy?  

7.What typical form of love poetry is used here? 

8.What exaggerated and pompous language does the writer use to show Ozymandias’ arrogance and self-importance?

9.What piece of alliteration is used to suggest show empty and neglected the statue is now?

London

1.What does the voice see on the faces of people in London?

2.What types of people does the voice describe in London? 

3.What narrative perspective is the poem told from?

4.What ‘I’ and ‘E’ is the phrase repeated three times in the second stanza?  

5.What ‘b’ is used to describe the church?

6.What ‘w’ describes how the voice walks in London?  

7.What contrast is used to show that all types of people are affected in London? 

8.What metaphor is used to show how ordinary soldiers suffered while the politicians were protected from danger?

9.What metaphor is used to suggest that the problem lies in how people think rather than how they behave?

Extract from, The Prelude

1.When and where did he find the boat?

2.What is the voice scared of in the poem?

3.What does the voice do as result of seeing the answer to Question 2?

4.What ‘s’ is used to describe the sound of the lake? 

5.What ‘d’ hung in his thoughts after the experience?

6.What ‘d’ is the last word in the poem? 

7.What animal simile does the poet use to describe the movement of the boat?

8.What is personified to show voice’s awe and fear of nature?

9.What pronoun is used to describe the boat?

My Last Duchess

1.Where does the poem take place?

2.What type of poem is this?

3.What gift did he give her that he thinks she was ungrateful for? 

4.What ‘t’ did she often do? 

5.What ‘c’ is she covered with at the moment?

6.What ‘s’ was a noticeable thing she showed?

7.What two pronouns does he constant use to refer to the Duchess?

8.What piece of punctuation does the writer use to show anger and a breakdown in his thoughts?

9.What euphemism does the Duke use in relation to the Duchess?

The Charge of the Light Brigade

1.How many people were in the Light Brigade?

2.What did the soldiers ride on in battle?

3.What ‘v’ is where the battle took place?

4.What ‘c’ did the enemies have that the Light Brigade didn’t?

5.What ‘H’ is the way the writer describe the place where the battle took place?

6.What ‘s’ did the soldiers have instead of guns?

7.What is repeated at the end of every stanza?

8.What body part is used as a metaphor to describe the place?

9.Give an example of repetition in the poem.

Exposure

1.What is the poet’s connection to war?

2.What animals celebrate when the soldiers head back to war?

3.What is the weather like in the poem? 

4.What ‘n’ is repeated in the poem several times? 

5.What ‘g’ is used to describe the soldiers?

6.What ‘i’ is their eyes at the end? 

7.What punctuation mark does the writer use to make things seem very slow? 

8.What kind of sentences does the writer use to create an sense of never ending torture? 

9.What pronoun does the writer use to show us that the speaker isn’t alone?

Storm on the Island

1.How did they build their houses to make them prepared for the storm?

2.What has happened on the island in the past?

3.What do they not have to protect their houses?

4.What ‘c’ is the word used to describe how some people might view the sea? 

5.What ‘b’ is the verb to describe the way the storm attacks the houses?

6.What ‘h’ and ‘n’ describes the storm at the end of the poem? 

7.What key pronoun is used throughout the poem? 

8.What simile does the writer use to show how the storm attacks the windows?

9.What piece of alliteration is used to suggest peace and calm?

Bayonet Charge

1.What colour is the hare?

2.What kind of material was he wearing?

3.Who is he fighting for?

4.What ‘c’ is the shape the hare runs in?  

5.What ‘r’ is numb?

6.What ‘f’ is used to describe the way the hare moves?

7.What alliteration is used?

8.What is the last word and image of the poem?

9.What is personified in the poem?

Remains

1.How many people were shooting at the robber?

2.What stays on the street long after the death?

3.What is the last image of the poem?

4.What ‘l’ is used to describe the person shot? 

5.What ‘t’ and ‘g’ is used to describe how his body is treated?

6.What ‘p’ is the phrase that is repeated in the poem?

7.What does the writer do to show that this is like a conversation? 

8.What pronoun does the writer use more as the poem goes on? 

9.What does the poet use at the end of the poem to show that the experience is never-ending?

Poppies

1.Where and when does the opening of the poem take place?

2.What does the mother do to her son’s clothes? 

3.Where does the poem end? 

4.What ‘p’ and ‘v’ does she hope to hear at the end of the poem?

5.What ‘i’ describes how the mother feels when her child leaves home?

6.What ‘b’ is used to describe his hair as a teenager/child?

7.What metaphor is used to describe the child at home?

8.What running imagery, linked to motherhood, is used throughout the poem?

9.How does the poet use punctuation to give us a sense of never ending pain?

War Photographer

1.Where does the poem take place?

2.What colour is the light of the room?

3.Name three places the War Photographer has been.

4.What ‘r’ is how the poet describes England?

5.What ‘g’ is how the poet describes the person in the photograph?

6.What ‘s’ is what the pictures will be printed in?

7.What metaphor does the writer use to describe the photographs?

8.What contrast does the writer use to show us how lucky we are?

9.What religious reference is made in the poem?

Tissue

1.What different types of paper are referred to in the poem?

2.What might you find in the back of the Koran?

3.What is the last thing the poem mentions? 

4.What ‘t’ is  word used to describe what happens to paper over time? 

5.What three ‘r’s could be found on maps?

6.What ‘p’ starts the poem and what ‘s’ ends the poem?

7.What comparison is used to suggest the changes in life could be more obvious? 

8.What simile is used to show how money controls our lives?

9.What short sentence is used to show how paper can have a concrete and fixed quality?

The Emigree

1.What time of year did she never see in the old city?

2.What is the voice accused of in the new city? 

3.What hides behind the voice in the poem? 

4.What ‘s’ repeated four times in the poem? 

5.What ‘p’ does the voice not have? 

6.What ‘c’ has its hair combed? 

7.What metaphor is used to show us how the voice views her former home? 

8.What simile is used to describe her as a child arriving in a new country?

9.What metaphor is used to describe how the new city treats her?

Checking Out My History

1.What was the voice taught at school?

2.What wasn’t taught to the voice at school?

3.What do they do to his eyes? 

4.What ‘d’ is repeated throughout the poem? 

5.What ‘c’ is the verb the voice want to do with his/her identity?

6.What ‘t’ is the verb repeated often in the poem? 

7.What is missing from the poem to highlight a frustration with control, power and rules? 

8.What metaphor is used to show the importance of Toussaint in the voice’s identity?

9.What metaphor is used to show the significance of Mary Seacole? 

Kamikaze  

1.What does the word Kamikaze mean?

2.What did he notice when he looked down?

3.Whose boat does he think about? 

4.What ‘d’ is the last word in the poem? 

5.What ‘t’ is described as a dark prince?

6.What ‘e’ wouldn’t meet afterwards? 

7.What technique does the writer use to show us all the things he is leaving behind? 

8.What simile does the writer use to show us how good life used to be for him?

9.What piece of alliteration is used to suggest peace and calm?