“Hi everyone, if you are new here I’m GAG, the GCSE and A-Level Goblin. I’m held captive by demons in a disgustingly damp hell forest until ‘enough’ young people have good GCSE and A-Level grades, ya de ya, blah blah.

So, today I want to introduce a neat way of analysing poetry for GCSE that makes sure you cover every topic you need to. Gareth! Draxos is tired now, stop kicking him!

GCSE Poetry Analysis Table Contents

This template for analysing GCSE poetry contains sections for:

• Title

• Poet (A03)

• Structure (A02)

• Content (A01)

• Literary Devices (A02)

• Themes (A01)

• Context (A03, but only for the anthology of poems you are given to study)

• Parts to Memorise (A01)

• Which anthology poems to compare it with

The table is quite comprehensive for poetry analysis but to score higher in your exam answers, make sure you consider where you can make connections between each of the four pillars of poetry analysis. Where does structure link to content or themes? Where does the literary device you are looking at link to theme or content?

The Four Pillars of Poetry Analysis

To give yourself the best chance of a high grade, I recommend commenting on each of these concepts whenever you analyse a poem:

1. Structure (A02) - you can begin analysing structure without even reading the text.

2. Content (A01) - read the poem through and look at the topics and ideas in the poem.

3. Themes (A01) - which main ideas and topics come up again and again. Is there an overall idea?

4. Literary Devices (A02) - now look closely at the words used, the methods the poet has used to make their points.

Download Your Free GCSE Poetry Analysis Table

The table is free to download from the button below, I promise it’s just a Word document! Please keep Lana’s name and website on the form if you give it out to other people. You are welcome to copy it as many times as you like and use it wherever you want, but please keep her attribution in the document.

Wrapping Up

It’s a simple way to make sure you’ve thought about everything you need to get the higher grades in GCSE and a great way to begin making your revision notes. I recommend adding to these tables as you go through the poems the first time, because it will save you a lot of time in the future. You can always fill it out again if you need to make it tidier.

Kids? Please push Draxos behind the equipment hut and take that saddle off of him. Who made that anyway?”