Practise writing about an unfamiliar poem under time. Attempt each before revealing; every poem below is our own original writing, not a set text.
1Read our original lines: 'The kettle sings its small alarm, / and morning folds around the room; / outside, the frost has signed its name / across the glass in silver bloom.' Write the opening of a commentary on how the poet presents an ordinary morning.
Show plan, model opening & checklist
Plan: Comment on the imagery and sound; link the small domestic detail to a wider mood. Quote briefly and embed.
Model opening: The poet transforms a mundane moment through personification: the kettle 'sings its small alarm', giving the morning a gentle, almost ceremonial start.
Checklist:
- Focuses on the question (an ordinary morning)
- Embeds short quotations
- Comments on effect, not content alone
- Considers form or sound as well as image
2Read our original lines: 'They cut the old oak down at noon; / by four the sky felt oddly wide, / and no one on the street could say / exactly what it was that died.' Write the opening of a commentary on how loss is presented.
Show plan, model opening & checklist
Plan: Explore the understatement and the shift from the concrete (the tree) to the abstract (something died). Note structure across the stanza.
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Model opening: The poet presents loss through absence rather than drama: after the oak is felled, 'the sky felt oddly wide', a spaciousness that reads as emptiness rather than freedom.
Checklist:
- Addresses how loss is presented
- Analyses a specific technique
- Uses short, embedded quotation
- Offers a tentative, exploratory reading
3Read our original lines: 'I keep my grandmother's coat / though it fits no season now; / the pockets still remember / peppermints and prayer.' Write the opening of a commentary on how memory is presented.
Show plan, model opening & checklist
Plan: Comment on the personified pockets and the pairing of concrete and abstract nouns. Link them to memory and love.
Model opening: Memory is made physical here: the coat's pockets 'still remember', so that recollection is located in an object rather than the mind.
Checklist:
- Focuses on memory as asked
- Names a device and its effect
- Embeds a brief quotation
- Explores the connotations of key words
See the worked annotated model response for unseen poem commentary, or the method in our unseen poem commentary skills guide.