Pearson Edexcel · A-Level · English Literature
Course version: 9ET0 · Version from Sept 2015
Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Pre-1900 – The…
Full specification wording
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): Somewhere or Other
Rossetti’s ‘Somewhere or Other’ voices hope for an answering face, voice and heart that remain unseen and unheard.
Checked against the Pearson Edexcel 9ET0 specification (opens in a new tab) on .
- Point 12 of 17
- 4 key terms
Study notes
From the checked teaching notes for this specification point.
The idea
Rossetti’s ‘Somewhere or Other’ voices hope for an answering face, voice and heart that remain unseen and unheard. Each of three quatrains begins with the title phrase, while the second and third balance ‘near or far’ against ‘far or near’. The imagined distance expands beyond land, sea, moon and star, then contracts to ‘just a wall, a hedge, between’. Regular alternating rhyme and alternating longer and shorter lines give the uncertainty a controlled, song-like pattern.
What earns the marks
- Analyse repetition of ‘Somewhere or other’ and the reversal from ‘near or far’ to ‘far or near’ as expressions of hope and uncertainty.
- Evaluate how three quatrains use regular alternating rhyme and alternating longer and shorter lines to control the speaker’s longing.
- Explore the expansion beyond land, sea, moon and star and the later contraction to a wall or hedge as competing measures of distance.
- Assess different readings of the unanswered heart while distinguishing romantic, spiritual and existential interpretations from textual fact.
Common mistakes and how to put them right
Assuming the sought figure is definitely a lover or God.
Put it right: The poem leaves the face, voice and heart unidentified, so argue from its ambiguity.
Calling the form monotonous without analysis.
Put it right: Explain how repeated openings, balanced locatives and alternating line lengths create variation inside a regular pattern.
Inventing locative wording such as ‘there or here’ or a description of ‘blank’ space.
Put it right: Use the exact phrases ‘near or far’, ‘far or near’, ‘wall’ and ‘hedge’.
Exam tips
- Track how the scale moves from an unheard human response to cosmic distance and back to ordinary barriers.
- Compare the poem’s deliberately vague figure with a more concretely pictured relationship elsewhere in Rossetti’s work.
- Use the final contrast between leaves of the ‘dying year’ and ‘turf grown green’ to test both hopeful and unresolved readings.
Try the lesson
The start of the 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): Somewhere or Other lesson, made from checked teaching notes for this specification point.
Have a go first
What is the central theme of Christina Rossetti's poem 'Somewhere or Other'?
Listen
Rossetti’s ‘Somewhere or Other’ voices hope for an answering face, voice and heart that remain unseen and unheard. Each of three quatrains begins with the title phrase, while the second and third balance ‘near or far’ against ‘far or near’. The imagined distance expands beyond land, sea, moon and star, then contracts to ‘just a wall, a hedge, between’. Regular alternating rhyme and alternating longer and shorter lines give the uncertainty a controlled, song-like pattern. A strong answer earns marks for these points. Analyse repetition of ‘Somewhere or other’ and the reversal from ‘near or far’ to ‘far or near’ as expressions of hope and uncertainty. Evaluate how three quatrains use regular alternating rhyme and alternating longer and shorter lines to control the speaker’s longing. Explore the expansion beyond land, sea, moon and star and the later contraction to a wall or hedge as competing measures of distance. Assess different readings of the unanswered heart while distinguishing romantic, spiritual and existential interpretations from textual fact. A common slip: Assuming the sought figure is definitely a lover or God. Instead, the poem leaves the face, voice and heart unidentified, so argue from its ambiguity. Exam tip: Track how the scale moves from an unheard human response to cosmic distance and back to ordinary barriers.
Key words
Say what each word means before you turn the card.
Longing and unanswered connection
Try answering aloud or in your head before turning the card.
Distance and proximity
Try answering aloud or in your head before turning the card.
Hope and uncertainty
Try answering aloud or in your head before turning the card.
Loss and renewal
Try answering aloud or in your head before turning the card.
See every definition
- Longing and unanswered connection
- The speaker's hope for an answering face, voice and heart that remain unseen and unheard.
- Distance and proximity
- The balance of 'near or far' against 'far or near', with distance expanding beyond land, sea, moon and star then contracting to a wall or hedge.
- Hope and uncertainty
- The repetition of 'Somewhere or other' and the reversal from 'near or far' to 'far or near' express this.
- Loss and renewal
- The final image of dying-year leaves on green turf joins these without revealing whether the desired relationship is earthly, spiritual or imagined.
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