Edexcel A Level (9ET0) English Literature Poems Analysed

For those that are studying English Literature at A level on the Pearson Edexcel board of examiners, here is a list of the required poems analysed. This includes all the selected poems, mentioned in Appendix 5 of the GCE Level 3 Advanced Subsidary in English Literature (9ET0). 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.

Edexcel A Level (9ET0) English Literature Poems Analysed

Post-2000 Specified Poetry

1. Eat Me Patience by Agbabi (still analysing)
2. Chainsaw Versus the Pampas Grass by Simon Armitage (still analysing)
3. Material by Ros Barber
4. History by John Burnside (still analysing)
5. An Easy Passage by Julia Copus
6. The Deliverer by Tishani Doshi
7. The Lammas Hireling by Ian Duhig
8. To My Nine-Year-Old Self by Helen Dunmore
9. A Minor Role by U.A. Fanthorpe
10. The Gun by Vicki Feaver
11. The Furthest Distances I’ve Travelled by Leontia Flynn
12. Giuseppe by Roderick Ford
13. Out of the Bag by Seamus Heaney (still analysing)
14. Effects by Alan Jenkins
15. Genetics by Sinéad Morrissey
16. From the Journal of a Disappointed Man by Andrew Motion (still analysing)
17. Look We Have Coming to Dover! by Daljit Nagra
18. Please Hold by Ciaran O’Driscoll
19. On Her Blindness by Adam Thorpe (still analysing)
20. Ode on a Grayson Perry Urn by Tim Turnbull

Pre-1900 – The Medieval Period

1. Noah’s Flood (Chester) Anon 33 by Amal Dunqul
2. The Second Shepherds’ Pageant (Wakefield)
3. The Crucifixion (York)
4. Noah (Chester) Anon
5. The Second Shepherds’ Play
6. The Crucifixion
7. The Wife of Bath’s Prologue by Geoffrey Chaucer
8. The Wife of Bath’s Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer

Note for prescribed list of poems for medieval poetry:

• Noah’s Flood/Noah is counted as the equivalent of seven poems
• The Second Shepherds’ Pageant/Play is counted as the equivalent of seventeen poems
• The Crucifixion is counted as the equivalent of six poems.
• The Wife of Bath’s Prologue is counted as the equivalent of twenty poems
• The Wife of Bath’s Tale is counted as the equivalent of ten poems

Pre-1900 – Metaphysical Poetry

1. The Flea by John Donne
2. The Good Morrow by John Donne
3. Song (‘Go and catch a falling star’) by John Donne
4. Woman’s Constancy by John Donne
5. The Sun Rising by John Donne
6. A Valediction of Weeping by John Donne
7. A Nocturnal Upon St Lucy’s Day,Being the Shortest Day
8. The Apparition by John Donne
9. Elegy: To his Mistress Going to Bed by John Donne
10. At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners by John Donne
11. Death be not Proud by John Donne
12. Batter My Heart by John Donne
13. A Hymn to God the Father by John Donne
14. Redemption by George Herbert
15. The Collar by George Herbert
16. The Pulley by George Herbert
17. Love III by George Herbert
18. To My Mistress Sitting by a River’s Side: An Eddy by Thomas Carew
19. To a Lady that Desired I Would Love Her by Thomas Carew
20. A Song (‘Ask me no more where Jove bestows’) by Thomas Carew
21. A Letter to her Husband, Absent upon Public Engagement by Anne Bradstreet
22. Song: To Lucasta, Going to the Wars by Richard Lovelace
23. The Nymph Complaining for the Death of her Fawn by Andrew Marvell
24. To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell
25. The Definition of Love by Andrew Marvell
26. Unprofitableness by Henry Vaughan
27. The World by Henry Vaughan
28. To My Excellent Lucasia, on Our Friendship by Katherine Philips
29. A Dialogue of Friendship Multiplied by Katherine Philips
30. Orinda to Lucasia by Katherine Philips
31. The Canonization by John Donne
32. Song (‘Sweetest love I do not go’) by John Donne
33. Air and Angels by John Donne
34. The Anniversary by John Donne
35. Twicknam Garden by John Donne
36. Love’s Growth by John Donne
37. Love’s Alchemy by John Donne
38. A Valediction Forbidding Mourning by John Donne
39. The Ecstasy by John Donne
40. The Funeral by John Donne
41. The Relic by John Donne
42. Holy Sonnet I (‘Thou hast made me’) by John Donne
43. Holy Sonnet V (‘I am a little world’) by John Donne
44. Holy Sonnet VI (‘This is my play’s last scene’) by John Donne
45. Holy Sonnet VII (‘At the round earth’s imagined corners’) by John Donne
46. Holy Sonnet X (‘Death be not proud’) by John Donne
47. Holy Sonnet XI (‘Spit in my face, you Jews’) by John Donne
48. Holy Sonnet XIV (‘Batter my heart’) by John Donne
49. Goodfriday, 1613. Riding Westward by John Donne
50. Hymn to God my God, in My Sickness by John Donne
51. A Hymn to God the Father by John Donne

Pre-1900 – The Romantic Period

1. Holy Thursday by William Blake
2. The Sick Rose by William Blake
3. The Tyger by William Blake
4. London by William Blake
5. Lines Written in Early Spring by William Wordsworth
6. Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth
7. Ode: Intimations of Immortality by William Wordsworth (still analysing)
8. Lines Inscribed upon a Cup Formed from a Skull by Lord Byron
9. So We’ll Go no more A Roving by Lord Byron
10. On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year by Lord Byron
11. ‘The cold earth slept below’ by Percy Bysshe Shelley
12. Stanzas Written in Dejection, near Naples by Percy Bysshe Shelley
13. Ode to the West Wind by Percy Bysshe Shelley
14. The Question by Percy Bysshe Shelley
15. Sonnet on the Sea by John Keats
16. ‘O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell’ by John Keats
17. On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer by John Keats
18. On the Sea by John Keats
19. ‘In drear-nighted December’ by John Keats
20. On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again by John Keats
21. ‘When I have fears that I may cease to be’ by John Keats
22. To Sleep by John Keats
23. Ode to Psyche by John Keats
24. Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats
25. Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats
26. Ode on Melancholy by John Keats
27. ‘Bright Star! would I were steadfast as thou art’ by John Keats
28. To Autumn by John Keats
29. The Eve of St Agnes by John Keats.

Pre-1900 – The Victorian Period

1. From In Memoriam: VII ‘Dark house, by which once more I stand’ by Alfred Tennyson
2. From In Memoriam: XCV ‘By night we linger’d on the lawn’ by Alfred Tennyson
3. From Maud: I.xi ‘O let the solid ground’ by Alfred Tennyson
4. From Maud: I.xviii ‘I have led her home, my love, my only friend’ by Alfred Tennyson
5. From Maud: I.xxii ‘Come into the garden, Maud’ by Alfred Tennyson
6. From Maud: II.iv ‘O that ’twere possible’ by Alfred Tennyson
7. The Visionary by Emily Brontë
8. Grief by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
9. From Sonnets from the Portuguese XXIV ‘Let the world’s sharpness, like a closing knife’ by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
10. The Best Thing in the World by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
11. ‘Died…’ by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
12. My Last Duchess by Robert Browning
13. Home-Thoughts, from Abroad by Robert Browning
14. Meeting at Night by Robert Browning
15. Love in a Life by Robert Browning
16. ‘The Autumn day its course has run–the Autumn evening falls’ by Charlotte Brontë
17. ‘The house was still–the room was still’ by Charlotte Brontë
18. ‘I now had only to retrace’ by Charlotte Brontë
19. ‘The Nurse believed the sick man slept’ by Charlotte Brontë
20. Stanzas – [‘Often rebuked, yet always back returning’] Charlotte Brontë (perhaps by Emily Brontë)
21. Remember by Christina Rossetti
22. Echo by Christina Rossetti
23. May by Christina Rossetti
24. A Birthday by Christina Rossetti
25. Somewhere or Other by Christina Rossetti
26. At an Inn by Thomas Hardy
27. ‘I Look into My Glass’ by Thomas Hardy
28. Drummer Hodge by Thomas Hardy
29. A Wife in London by Thomas Hardy
30. The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy
31. Some ladies dress in muslin full and white by Christina Rossetti
32. The World by Christina Rossetti
33. An Apple-Gathering by Christina Rossetti
34. Maude Clare by Christina Rossetti
35. At Home by Christina Rossetti
36. Up-Hill by Christina Rossetti
37. Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti
38. What Would I Give? by Christina Rossetti
39. Twice by Christina Rossetti
40. Memory by Christina Rossetti
41. A Christmas Carol by Christina Rossetti
42. Passing and Glassing by Christina Rossetti
43. Piteous my rhyme is by Christina Rossetti
44. ‘A Helpmeet for Him’ by Christina Rossetti
45. As froth on the face of the deep by Christina Rossetti
46. Our Mothers, lovely women pitiful by Christina Rossetti
47. Babylon the Great by Christina Rossetti

Post-1900 – The Modernist Period

1. The Runaway by Robert Frost
2. Mending Wall by Robert Frost
3. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
4. Mowing by Robert Frost
5. The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
6. Out, Out by Robert Frost
7. The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams
8. This is just to say by William Carlos Williams
9. Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by William Carlos Williams
10. The Hunters in the Snow by William Carlos Williams
11. The Great Figure by William Carlos Williams
12. Snake by D.H. Lawrence
13. To a Snail by Marianne Moore
14. What Are Years? by Marianne Moore
15. La Figlia Che Piange by T S Eliot
16. The Love Song of by J. Alfred Prufrock by T S Eliot
17. Time does not bring relief; you all have lied… by Edna St Vincent Millay
18. Recuerdo by Edna St Vicent Millay
19. Wild Swans by Edna St Vicent Millay
20. The Fawn by Edna St Vicent Millay
21. in Just by E. E. Cummings
22. what if a much of a which of a wind by E. E. Cummings
23. pity this busy monster, manunkind by E. E. Cummings
24. Stop all the Clocks by W. H. Auden
25. Lullaby by W. H. Auden
26. Musée des Beaux Arts by W. H. Auden
27. The Shield of Achilles by W. H. Auden
28. Portrait of a Lady by W. H. Auden
29. Preludes by T.S. Eliot
30. Rhapsody on a Windy Night by W. H. Auden
31. Gerontion by W. H. Auden
32. Sweeney Erect by W. H. Auden
33. Whispers of Immortality by T.S. Eliot
34. The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot
35. I. The Burial of the Dead by T.S. Eliot
36. II. A Game of Chess by T.S. Eliot
37. III. The Fire Sermon by T.S. Eliot
38. IV. Death by Water by T.S. Eliot
39. V. What the Thunder said by by T.S. Eliot
40. The Hollow Men by by T.S. Eliot
41. Ash-Wednesday by T.S. Eliot
42. Ariel Poems: Journey of the Magi (1927) by T.S. Eliot

Post-1900 – The Movement

1. Hospital for Defectives by Thomas Blackburn
2. Felo De Se by Thomas Blackburn
3. Horror Comic Robert Conquest by Thomas Blackburn
4. Man and Woman by Thomas Blackburn
5. Toads by Philip Larkin
6. Coming by Philip Larkin
7. At Grass by Philip Larkin
8. Take One Home for the Kiddies by Philip Larkin
9. Nothing to be Said by Philip Larkin
10. The Whitsun Weddings by Philip Larkin
11. Apology for Understatement by John Wain
12. Au Jardin des Plantes by John Wain
13. A Song about Major Eatherly by John Wain
14. Brooklyn Heights by John Wain
15. Delay by Elizabeth Jennings
16. Song at the Beginning of Autumn by Elizabeth Jennings
17. Answers by Elizabeth Jennings
18. The Young Ones by Elizabeth Jennings
19. One Flesh by Elizabeth Jennings
20. Photograph of Haymaker, 1890 by Molly Holden
21. Giant Decorative Dahlias by Molly Holden
22. Metamorphosis by Peter Porter
23. London is full of chickens on electric spits by Peter Porter
24. Your Attention Please by Peter Porter
25. Warning by Jenny Joseph
26. The Miner’s Helmet by George Macbeth
27. The Wasps’ Nest by George Macbeth
28. When I am Dead by George Macbeth
29. Story of a Hotel Room by Rosemary Tonks
30. Farewell to Kurdistan by Rosemary Tonks
31. Lines On A Young Lady’s Photograph Album by Philip Larkin
32. Wedding-Wind by Philip Larkin
33. Places, Loved Ones by Philip Larkin
34. Coming by Philip Larkin
35. Reasons for Attendance by Philip Larkin
36. Dry-Point by Philip Larkin
37. Next, Please by Philip Larkin
38. Going by Philip Larkin
39. Wants by Philip Larkin
40. Maiden Name by Philip Larkin
41. Born Yesterday by Philip Larkin
42. Whatever Happened? by Philip Larkin
43. No Road by Philip Larkin
44. Wires by Philip Larkin
45. Church Going by Philip Larkin
46. Age by Philip Larkin
47. Myxomatosis by Philip Larkin
48. Toads by Philip Larkin
49. Poetry Of Departures by Philip Larkin
50. Triple Time by Philip Larkin
51. Spring by Philip Larkin
52. Deceptions by Philip Larkin
53. I Remember, I Remember by Philip Larkin
54. Absences by Philip Larkin
55. Latest Face by Philip Larkin
56. If, My Darling by Philip Larkin
57. Skin by Philip Larkin
58. Arrivals, Departures by Philip Larkin
59. At Grass by Philip Larkin