Paper 1 wasn't a great paper, but not for lack of study.
Paper 1 involves writing a commentary on a piece of unseen prose or poetry (hence, no study); we always do poetry, because our Part 3 (a.k.a Paper 2) books are poetry, our unseen orals were on poetry, and it makes sense; we haven't done prose commentaries in years (well, maybe a year.)
The poem itself was obscure, so much so that I can't find it in full anywhere on the Net. Anywhere at all. I've found the poet - Penelope Shuttle - who may not be so obscure, but nothing on the poem, Three Lunulae, Truro Museum.
Essentially, it was about how Shuttle goes to Truro Museum and see these three lunulae. I just couldn't find that much in terms of literary features and a deeper meaning to write about. My line of argument was that Shuttle was reflecting on who were the women who wore the lunulae. Other people discussed how the lunulae was a symbol of the moon, which represented the cycle of time, the turning of the seasons, as well as cultural differences, and searching for identity by looking to the past in order to move forward. All of which sounds incredibly deep and meaningful and something I should have thought of. Nothing I can do about it now, though.
That's what I hate about after an exam; when people say "I wrote about this; what did you say?" and you say "well..." and feel all insignificant and wonder why you didn't write something like that. Especially with essays.
Everyone's celebrating - "no more English!" I'm not so sure, as it is the major I want to do as part of an Arts degree!
1 more dinner with my brother (tonight.) 2 more days left of school, and I'm starting to pack. 3 friends I've said goodbye to. 4 days until I go to Hawaii. 6 more exams. 7 more school meals.
5 things I'll miss about school
- My friends
- The house tutors
- The house, esp. the yr 12s
- The outings
- The events; the Christmas dinners, where all the catering staff dress up as elves; Christmas Balls, etc
5 things I won't really miss
- Slush
- Chapel
- Stealing
- Bells
- The food (although Sunday brunch was one of my favourite meals of the week)
x
Just a girl
2 comments:
So your whole school basically does the poem? Wow o_o
Damn, no copy on the net? I really wanted to read it, it's an intriguing title.
The thing with English (commentaries and essays) is that it doesn't matter what you say as long as it's somewhat relevant, it's how you say it and back it up. So you shouldn't feel insignificant because there's so much in a poem that of course you can't pick up on everything; in fact you're likely not to pick up on most things because you have to narrow your focus. And I know you're a good writer so you'll have no problem with the how of things. So yeah. Moral of this ramble is: don't feel insignificant ;)
Ahh slush. One of the few things I don't miss either :P
Thanks Sara. I feel much less insignificant now. =)
Yeah, I'm pretty sure all of IB does poetry. I can't think why they wouldn't. I mean, it makes sense for you guys to, because you study God of Small Things and all that, but as we haven't done prose in aaages, except for Virginia Woolf, which my class didn't do in great detail anyway - we're better at poetry. And would probably suck at prose. Seriously, I don't think I'd know how! The last time I did a prose commentary was last year's end of year exams, because I didn't like the poem. The only thing about only doing poetry is that if you don't like the poem (as I didn't) then you're kind of screwed either way. I looked at the prose though (I finished early.) About some girl's father dying. Bit sad.
x
Just a girl
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