Grief and Loss
What Grief and Loss means in English Literature A-Level, as defined for OCR, Pearson Edexcel.
Definitions of Grief and Loss
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Reference: Pearson Edexcel
The profound sorrow experienced by a son following the death of his mother, conveyed through an overwhelming outpouring of emotion and a stream of consciousness.
The profound tragedy of ordinary lives destroyed by distant, unseen wars, which Hardy highlights by focusing on the home front rather than the battlefield.
The speaker, a young nymph, mourns the fawn killed by passing troopers, and her grief is transformed into a permanent, monumental state.
The devastating, all-consuming nature of grief that halts the speaker's universe and renders love and life itself meaningless.
A poignant theme in the poem, linked to the complexities of loss and the handkerchiefs as a symbol for a lost generation.
The sequence is a series of elegies written after the sudden death of the poet's estranged first wife.
Topics that use Grief and Loss
- 5e. Literature post-1900 (Non-exam assessment component) suggested texts - TIME (OCR A-Level)
- Component 3: Poetry – Section A: Post-2000 Poetry – Poems of the Decade: An Anthology of the Forward Books of Poetry 2002–2011 (Pearson Edexcel A-Level)
- Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Post-1900 – The Modernist Period – The Great Modern Poets, editor Michael Schmidt (Quercus, 2014) (Pearson Edexcel A-Level)
- Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – Metaphysical Poetry – Metaphysical Poetry, editor Colin Burrow (Penguin, 2006) (Pearson Edexcel A-Level)
- Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – The Victorian Period – The New Oxford Book of Victorian Verse, editor Christopher Ricks (OUP, 2008) (Pearson Edexcel A-Level)
Related terms
- Ageing and mortality
- Alienation
- Alienation and isolation
- Enjambment
- Gender and Patriarchy
- Guilt and Regret
- Isolation and alienation
- Masculinity
Using Grief and Loss in the exam
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