Skip to content
    English Literature A-Level

    Time and transience

    What Time and transience means in English Literature A-Level, as defined for Pearson Edexcel.

    Definitions of Time and transience

    Exam boards and our study guides word this term in slightly different ways. Learn the version your board uses.

    Check what you remember

    Read the wording for your board, then hide it and explain Time and transience in your own words. Rough notes are fine. This is a self-check, with no mark or grade.

    Reference: Pearson Edexcel

    The living's forward-looking perspective, emphasised by the recurring motif of 'To-morrow', which contrasts with the speaker's static existence in the past.
    Pearson Edexcel · Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – The Victorian Period – Christina Rossetti Selected Poems, editor Dinah Roe (Penguin, 2008) (study guide)
    Pleasure is protected from a drawback by not hurrying to end, while memory is protected by giving no pain.
    Pearson Edexcel · 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) (study guide)

    Topics that use Time and transience

    Related terms

    Using Time and transience in the exam

    Check the command word and mark scheme for your exact question. After comparing your explanation with the reference, use the term in an answer on the linked topic. This practice does not predict an exam mark.

    Practise English Literature questions

    Create a free account to answer exam-style questions on this topic and get feedback on your answers.

    Start free

    A week of Premium from your first lesson · Then the free plan continues · No card, no charge

    All English Literature A-Level terms