WJEC Level 3 Advanced GCE in English Literature

analyse how meanings are shaped in poetry texts and the ways writers adapt structure, form and language in poetry for effect

D H Lawrence: Selected Poems (Penguin Classics, edited by James Fenton) (prescribed sections: Love Poems and Others, Amores, New Poems, Birds, Beasts and Flowers, Last Poems) & Gillian Clarke: Making the Beds for the Dead (Carcanet) both for assessment in 2020 & 2021 only

draw on their understanding of different interpretations in responding to and evaluating texts

Edward Thomas: Selected Poems (Faber) (prescribed section: poems listed in Appendix B) & Alun Lewis: Collected Poems (Seren) (prescribed section: poems listed in Appendix B)

For this unit learners are required to read two paired poetry texts from the list below:

identify and consider how attitudes and values are expressed in texts

organise responses in a clear and effective academic style and register with coherent written expression.

Philip Larkin: The Whitsun Weddings (Faber) & Carol Ann Duffy: Mean Time (Picador)

Seamus Heaney: Field Work (Faber) & Owen Sheers: Skirrid Hill (Seren)

show understanding of the cultural and contextual influences on readers and writers

show understanding of ways in which poems relate to one another as they compare works by different poets

Ted Hughes: Poems selected by Simon Armitage (Faber) (prescribed section: all poems up to and including page 68) & Sylvia Plath: Poems selected by Ted Hughes (Faber)

use accurately a range of literary concepts and terminology

use accurately quotations from and references to texts and sources

W. B. Yeats: Poems selected by Seamus Heaney (Faber) (prescribed sections: In the Seven Woods, The Green Helmet and Other Poems, Responsibilities, The Wild Swans at Coole, Michael Robartes and the Dancer, The Tower) & Dannie Abse: Welsh Retrospective (Seren) both for assessment from summer 2022

Where prescribed sections of the text are indicated, only poems from these sections are required for study and reference in the examination. Discussion of any poems outside these sections will not gain credit.

A Welsh Night

After Dunkirk

All Day It Has Rained...

Autumn, 1939

Corfe Castle

Destruction

Goodbye

In Hospital: Poona (1)

Lady in Black

On Embarkation

Peace

Post-Script: for Gweno

Raiders' Dawn

Sacco Writes to his Son

The Dancer

The Defeated:for Wales

The Jungle

The Mahratta Ghats

The Mountain over Aberdare

The Odyssey

The Peasants

The Public Gardens

The Rhondda

The Sentry

The Swimmer

The Tiger of Camden Town

To Edward Thomas

Village Funeral: Maharashtra

Water Music

Ways

A Private

Adlestrop

And you, Helen

As the team's head-brass

Aspens

Beauty

But these things also

Digging

February Afternoon

Home ('Often I had gone this way before')

If I should ever by chance

In Memoriam (Easter, 1915)

Lights Out

Lob

Man and Dog

No one so much as you

Old Man

Out in the dark

Rain

Roads

Tall Nettles

The Combe

The Manor Farm

The Owl

The Path

The sun used to shine

The Trumpet

This is no case of petty right or wrong

Up in the Wind

Words

Candidates must answer one question from a choice of two, requiring critical analysis of one poem taken from their selected texts from the above list.

Candidates must answer one question from a choice of two, requiring comparison of their two selected poetry texts from the list above.

112 Memory

114 Amor Mundi

13 Have you forgotten?

131 A Daughter of Eve

131 A Smile and a Sigh

132 ‘They Desire a Better Country’

132 Autumn Violets

14 Sweet Death

142 Confluents

152 The Key-Note

153 De Profundis

157 The Thread of Life

16 Remember

179 A Castle-Builder’s World

187 The Greatest of these is Charity

192 ‘Standing afar off for the fear of her torment’

192 Vigil of St Bartholomew

193 ‘Who hath despised the day of small things?’

193 Tune me, O Lord, into one harmony

27 From the Antique

30 Echo

47 A Triad

50 ‘Whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive’

53 An Apple-Gathering

58 Up-Hill

67 Goblin Market

83 ‘No, Thank You, John’

84 ‘Out of the Deep’

85 The Queen of Hearts

89 Twice

12 Song (‘Sweetest love, I do not go’)

15 Air and Angels

17 The Anniversary

178 Holy Sonnet III (‘Oh might those sighs and tears’)

179 Holy Sonnet V (‘I am a little world’)

179 Holy Sonnet VI (‘This is my play’s last scene’)

181 Holy Sonnet IX (‘If poisonous minerals’)

181 Holy Sonnet X (‘Death be not proud’)

182 Holy Sonnet XI (‘Spit in my face, you Jews’)

183 Holy Sonnet XIII (‘What if this present’)

184 Holy Sonnet XIV ('Batter my heart')

185 Holy Sonnet XVII (‘Since she, whom I loved’)

186 Holy Sonnet XIX (‘O, to vex me’)

190 Good Friday, 1613. Riding Westward

195 Hymn to God my God, in my Sickness

197 A Hymn to God the Father

20 Twicknam Garden

25 Love’s Exchange

28 A Valediction of Weeping

29 Love’s Alchemy

3 Song ('Go and catch a falling star')

3 The Good Morrow

30 The Flea

33 A Nocturnal upon St Lucy’s Day, Being the Shortest Day

36 The Apparition

37 A Valediction Forbidding Mourning

39 The Ecstasy

41 Love’s Deity

45 The Funeral

46 The Blossom

48 The Relic

50 The Dissolution

54 Farewell to Love

6 The Sun Rising

62 Elegy: Change

65 Elegy: His Picture

68 Elegy: The Comparison

70 Elegy: The Autumnal

80 Elegy: To His Mistress Going to Bed

9 The Canonization

100 ‘When I have fears that I may cease to be’

109 Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil

12 On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer

127 On Visiting the Tomb of Burns

165 The Eve of St Agnes

184 La Belle Dame sans Merci. A Ballad

186 To Sleep

187 Ode to Psyche

191 Ode on a Grecian Urn

193 Ode to a Nightingale

195 Ode on Melancholy

219 ‘Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou art’

219 To Autumn

3 Imitation of Spenser

35 On the Sea

99 On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again

analyse how meanings are shaped in poetry texts and the ways writers adapt structure, form and language in poetry for effect

Candidates are required to answer one question based on the reading of one poetry text from the list below. The question will be in two separate but linked parts: part (i) a question based on an extract from the set text, assessing knowledge and understanding and close analysis of the extract; part (ii) a question requiring candidates to show wider knowledge and understanding of the text as a whole.

Christina Rossetti: Selected Poems (Penguin Classics)

Geoffrey Chaucer: The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale (Cambridge)

identify and consider how attitudes and values are expressed in texts

John Donne: Selected Poems (Penguin Classics)

John Keats: Selected Poems (Penguin Classics) for assessment in 2020 and 2021 only

John Milton: Paradise Lost Book IX (Oxford)

organise responses in a clear and effective academic style and register with coherent written expression.

Prescribed poems for study of Donne, Keats, Blake (from 2022) and Rossetti are listed in Appendix C

show understanding of the cultural and contextual influences on readers and writers

use accurately a range of literary concepts and terminology

use accurately quotations from and references to texts and sources

William Blake: Poems selected by Patti Smith (Vintage) for assessment from 2022

analyse how meanings are shaped in poetry texts and the ways writers adapt structure, form and language in poetry for effect

articulate informed, personal and creative responses to poetry texts

Candidates are required to respond to one question. The question will require the candidate to write a comparative analysis of two poems: one compulsory poem or poetry extract and another chosen from a further three poems or poetry extracts. All the poems published in this section of the paper will be taken from any period.

identify and consider how attitudes and values are expressed in texts

In preparation for this section, learners should be given the opportunity to read a wide range of poetry of different periods and forms.

In their response to the unseen poetry, candidates must focus on the ways in which meanings are shaped and on the connections between one text and another.

organise responses in a clear and effective academic style and register with coherent written expression.

show understanding of ways in which poems relate to one another as they compare works by different poets

This section gives learners the opportunity to synthesise and reflect upon the knowledge they have gained from the course as a whole and to apply their skills of literary analysis to the examination of unseen poetry texts. Here, learners have the opportunity to approach poems or extracts in a personal and engaged way, demonstrating their own critical skills as they encounter texts that have not been previously set for study as part of the course.

use accurately a range of literary concepts and terminology

100 Introduction

101 Earth's Answer

102 The Clod & The Pebble

103 Holy Thursday

104 The Little Girl Lost

106 The Little Girl Found

108 The Chimney Sweeper

109 Nurse's Song

110 The Sick Rose

111 The Fly

112 The Angel

113 The Tyger

114 My Pretty Rose Tree

115 Ah! Sun-flower

116 The Lilly

117 The Garden of Love

118 The Little Vagabond

119 London

12 To the Muses

120 The Human Abstract

121 Infant Sorrow

122 A Poison Tree

123 A Little Boy Lost

124 A Little Girl Lost

126 To Tirzah

127 The School Boy

129 The Voice of the Ancient Bard

27 The Smile

29 The Mental Traveller

36 The Crystal Cabinet

37 Auguries of Innocence

4 To Spring

49 from Milton, A Poem in 2 Books

5 To Summer

6 To Autumn

7 To Winter

78 Introduction

79 The Shepherd

80 The Ecchoing Green

81 The Lamb

82 The Little Black Boy

83 The Blossom

84 The Chimney Sweeper

85 The Little Boy Lost

86 The Little Boy Found

87 Laughing Song

88 A Cradle Song

90 The Divine Image

91 Holy Thursday

92 Night

94 Spring

95 Nurse's Song

96 Infant Joy

97 A Dream

98 On Another's Sorrow

adopt a clear and appropriate academic style and register

Candidates are required to answer one question based on the reading of one prose fiction text from the list below. The question will be in two separate but linked parts: part (i) a question based on a printed extract from the set text, assessing knowledge and understanding and close analysis of the extract; part (ii) a question requiring candidates to show wider knowledge and understanding of the text as a whole.

Charles Dickens: David Copperfield (Penguin Classics)

Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre (Penguin Classics)

communicate fluently, accurately and effectively their knowledge, understanding and judgement of texts

draw on their understanding of different interpretations in responding to and evaluating texts

Elizabeth Gaskell: North and South (Penguin Classics)

identify and consider how attitudes and values are expressed in texts

Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility (Penguin Classics)

read prose texts in a variety of ways and respond critically and creatively

show understanding of the cultural and contextual influences on readers and writers

Thomas Hardy: The Mayor of Casterbridge (Penguin Classics)

use accurately quotations from and references to texts and sources.

use literary critical concepts and terminology with understanding and discrimination

adopt a clear and appropriate academic style and register

analyse how meanings are shaped in drama texts

Brian Friel: Translations (Faber) for assessment from summer 2022

Candidates are required to answer one question from a choice of two based on the reading of one drama text from the list below:

Caryl Churchill: Top Girls (Methuen)

Christopher Marlowe: Doctor Faustus (Longman)

communicate fluently, accurately and effectively their knowledge, understanding and judgement of texts

draw on their understanding of different interpretations in responding to and evaluating texts

identify and consider how attitudes and values are expressed in texts

Joe Orton: Loot (Methuen) for assessment in 2020 & 2021 only

Oscar Wilde: Lady Windermere’s Fan (New Mermaids)

read drama texts in a variety of ways and respond critically and creatively

show understanding of the cultural and contextual influences on readers and writers

Tennessee Williams: A Streetcar Named Desire (Penguin)

use accurately quotations from and references to texts and sources.

use literary critical concepts and terminology with understanding and discrimination

adopt a clear and appropriate academic style and register

communicate fluently, accurately and effectively their knowledge, understanding and judgement of texts

draw on their understanding of different interpretations and the influence of different contexts in responding to and evaluating texts

explore comparisons and contrasts between texts, establishing links and relationships

For the purposes of this unit, the term 'prose text' will be taken to include the novel, a collection of short stories, autobiography and memoir, travel writing and essays.

identify and consider how attitudes and values are expressed in texts

read texts in a variety of ways and respond critically and creatively

show understanding of the cultural and contextual influences on readers and writers

Texts must be substantial and of sufficient literary merit for A level study. No texts which appear on the set text list for Unit 1 of this specification may be submitted for study.

The task for this assignment must allow learners to show knowledge and understanding of ways in which texts relate to one another and to literary traditions, movements and genres. Learners are also required to consider the significance of different cultural and contextual influences in relation to their chosen texts for study.

This unit is designed to enable learners to pursue wider reading that is of interest to them and to undertake independent and sustained studies of literary texts. In selecting a text from post-2000, learners are given the opportunity to engage with, and reflect on, literature published within their own lifetime.

This unit is internally assessed and externally moderated. It requires learners to submit a 2500-3500 word assignment based on the reading of two prose texts by different authors, one published pre-2000 and the other published post-2000.

use accurately quotations from and references to texts and sources.

use literary critical concepts and terminology with understanding and discrimination

analyse how meanings are shaped in drama texts

Antony and Cleopatra

Both Section A and Section B are based on the study of one Shakespeare play from the list below:

Hamlet

Henry IV Part 1

identify and consider how attitudes and values are expressed in texts

King Lear

organise responses in a clear and effective academic style and register with coherent written expression

The Tempest

use accurately a range of literary concepts and terminology, including knowledge of the principles and conventions of drama and dramatic verse

use accurately quotations and references to texts and sources.

Candidates are required to answer the set question on their chosen play. This question is based on a printed extract from the play, and it will assess knowledge and understanding and close analysis of the extract.

Candidates are required to answer one essay question from a choice of two on their chosen play. This question will assess wider knowledge and understanding of the play as a whole.

reflect on different interpretations of literary texts, including, where relevant, critical interpretation; debate alternative ideas about a text and consider multiple readings.

show understanding of the cultural and contextual influences on readers and writers

As learners progress through the two year course, their studies will be extended in breadth and depth, developing and enhancing learners’ techniques of analysis, evaluation and comparison of literary texts in the context of a wider range of texts of cultural and literary significance.

Each unit, whether internally or externally assessed, offers a choice of texts for study. The texts set for study within this specification have been carefully selected for their richness and diversity. As this specification is designed for learners in Wales, text choices include Welsh writers. Welsh poets feature prominently in Unit 2, and Welsh authors may be selected for the non-exam assessment unit, Unit 5, Prose Study.

English literature is a subject that by its nature requires learners to consider individual, moral, ethical, social, cultural and contemporary issues. The specification provides a framework for exploration of such issues and includes specific content through which individual courses may address these issues.

For example, in meeting the assessment objective AO3, learners are engaged in considering the significance and influence of contexts in which literary texts are written and received. Spiritual, moral, ethical, social and cultural aspects are pertinent to such contexts.

how texts relate to one another and to literary traditions, movements and genres

the cultural and contextual influences on readers and writers.

the interpretation of texts by different readers, including over time

the ways in which writers use and adapt language, form and structure in texts

Where two texts are specified for study together, they have been selected to illuminate each other, and to enable learners to make connections between literary texts.