AQA GCSE English Literature 8702 (Poems Past and Present)

For those that are studying English Literature (8702) at GCSE level on the AQA board of examiners, here is a list of the poems from their Past and Present: poetry anthology analysed. This includes both sections from the ‘Love and Relationships’ and ‘Power and Conflict’ lists, as well as the ‘Worlds and Lives’ cluster, which is for teaching 2023 onwards and exams 2025 onwards.

Therefore, please feel free to skip to the poem most relevant to you. If you want a poem to be analysed that you cannot find on the site too, please feel free to contact us.

AQA English Literature (8702) – Past and Present: Poems Anthology

Love and Relationships

1. When We Two Parted ^{[PDF Guide]} by Lord Byron ^{[PDF Guide]}
2. Love’s Philosophy ^{[PDF Guide]} by Percy Bysshe Shelley ^{[PDF Guide]}
3. Porphyria’s Lover ^{[PDF Guide]} by Robert Browning ^{[PDF Guide]}
4. Sonnet 29 – ‘I think of thee!’ ^{[PDF Guide]} by Elizabeth Barrett Browning ^{[PDF Guide]}
5. Neutral Tones ^{[PDF Guide]} by Thomas Hardy ^{[PDF Guide]}
6. Letters From Yorkshire ^{[PDF Guide]} by Maura Dooley
7. The Farmer’s Bride ^{[PDF Guide]} by Charlotte Mew
8. Walking Away ^{[PDF Guide]} by Cecil Day Lewis
9. Eden Rock ^{[PDF Guide]} by Charles Causley
10. Follower ^{[PDF Guide]} by Seamus Heaney ^{[PDF Guide]}
11. Mother, any distance ^{[PDF Guide]} by Simon Armitage
12. Before You Were Mine ^{[PDF Guide]} by Carol Ann Duffy ^{[PDF Guide]}
13. Winter Swans ^{[PDF Guide]} by Owen Sheers
14. Singh Song! ^{[PDF Guide]} by Daljit Nagra
15. Climbing My Grandfather ^{[PDF Guide]} by Andrew Waterhouse

Power and Conflict

1. Ozymandias ^{[PDF Guide]} by Percy Bysshe Shelley ^{[PDF Guide]}
2. London ^{[PDF Guide]} by William Blake ^{[PDF Guide]}
3. Extract from, The Prelude ^{[PDF Guide]} by William Wordsworth ^{[PDF Guide]}
4. My Last Duchess ^{[PDF Guide]} by Robert Browning ^{[PDF Guide]}
5. The Charge of the Light Brigade ^{[PDF Guide]} by Alfred Lord Tennyson ^{[PDF Guide]}
6. Exposure ^{[PDF Guide]} by Wilfred Owen ^{[PDF Guide]}
7. Storm on the Island ^{[PDF Guide]} by Seamus Heaney ^{[PDF Guide]}
8. Bayonet Charge ^{[PDF Guide]} by Ted Hughes ^{[PDF Guide]}
9. Remains ^{[PDF Guide]} by Simon Armitage
10. Poppies ^{[PDF Guide]} by Jane Weir
11. War Photographer ^{[PDF Guide]} by Carol Ann Duffy ^{[PDF Guide]}
12. Tissue ^{[PDF Guide]} by Imtiaz Dharker
13. The Émigrée ^{[PDF Guide]} by Carol Rumens
14. Checking Out Me History ^{[PDF Guide]} by John Agard
15. Kamikaze ^{[PDF Guide]} by Beatrice Garland

Worlds and Lives

1. Lines Written in Early Spring ^{[PDF Guide]} by William Wordsworth ^{[PDF Guide]}
2. England in 1819 ^{[PDF Guide]} by Percy Bysshe Shelley ^{[PDF Guide]}
3. Shall earth no more inspire thee ^{[PDF Guide]} by Emily Brontë ^{[PDF Guide]}
4. In a London Drawingroom by George Eliot (still analyzing)
5. On an Afternoon Train from Purley to Victoria, 1955 by James Berry (still analyzing)
6. Name Journeys by Raman Mundair (still analyzing)
7. Pot by Shamshad Khan (still analyzing)
8. A Wider View by Seni Seneviratne (still analyzing)
9. Homing by Liz Berry (still analyzing)
10. A Century Later by Imtiaz Dharker (still analyzing)
11. The Jewellery Maker by Louisa Adjoa Parker (still analyzing)
12. With Birds You’re Never Lonely by Raymond Antrobus (still analyzing)
13. A Portable Paradise by Roger Robinson (still analyzing)
14. Like an Heiress by Grace Nichols (still analyzing)
15. Thirteen by Caleb Femi (still analyzing)