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    Children in Wartime Unseen Answer

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    iffinichonchubhair
    The poet presents the ways that war affects children through the perspective of a child experiencing bombing raids. It takes away their innocence and childhood by violently waking them from sleep with sirens, representing the loss of dreams. While others claim the sounds are just storms, the child knows the reality of the danger from the "huge craters of silence." The broken window later symbolizes the shattered future the child sees before them, with "the sky lay broken on my floor." In just a few lines, the poet conveys how war destroys the safety and optimism of childhood, leaving children vulnerable and unable to regain normalcy.

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    Children in Wartime Unseen Answer

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    iffinichonchubhair
    362 views2 pages
    The poet presents the ways that war affects children through the perspective of a child experiencing bombing raids. It takes away their innocence and childhood by violently waking them from sleep with sirens, representing the loss of dreams. While others claim the sounds are just storms, the child knows the reality of the danger from the "huge craters of silence." The broken window later symbolizes the shattered future the child sees before them, with "the sky lay broken on my floor." In just a few lines, the poet conveys how war destroys the safety and optimism of childhood, leaving children vulnerable and unable to regain normalcy.

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    Children In Wartime unseen answer

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    The poet presents the ways that war affects children through the perspective of a child experiencing bombing raids. It takes away their innocence and childhood by violently waking them from sleep with sirens, representing the loss of dreams. While others claim the sounds are just storms, the child knows the reality of the danger from the "huge craters of silence." The broken window later symbolizes the shattered future the child sees before them, with "the sky lay broken on my floor." In just a few lines, the poet conveys how war destroys the safety and optimism of childhood, leaving children vulnerable and unable to regain normalcy.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    362 views2 pages

    Children in Wartime Unseen Answer

    Uploaded by

    iffinichonchubhair
    The poet presents the ways that war affects children through the perspective of a child experiencing bombing raids. It takes away their innocence and childhood by violently waking them from sleep with sirens, representing the loss of dreams. While others claim the sounds are just storms, the child knows the reality of the danger from the "huge craters of silence." The broken window later symbolizes the shattered future the child sees before them, with "the sky lay broken on my floor." In just a few lines, the poet conveys how war destroys the safety and optimism of childhood, leaving children vulnerable and unable to regain normalcy.

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    GCSE English Literature Unit 2: Poetry Across Time

    Section B: Unseen Poetry

    Children In Wartime

    Sirens ripped open


    the warm silk of sleep;
    we ricocheted to the shelter
    moated by streets
    that ran with darkness.
    People said it was a storm,
    but flak
    had not the right sound
    for rain;
    thunder left such huge craters
    of silence,
    we knew this was no giant
    playing bowls.
    And later,
    when I saw the jaw of glass,
    where once had hung
    my window spun with stars;
    it seemed the sky
    lay broken on my floor.

    Isobel Thrilling

    Below is a ‘specimen answer’ from AQA to give you an indication of what a 17 out of 18
    marks answer looks like. Think about how much the candidate has written and their level
    of language analysis. Remember the two Assessment Objectives being assessed in this
    section are:
    • AO1: respond to texts critically and imaginatively; select and evaluate relevant
    textual detail to illustrate and support interpretations
    • AO2: explain how language, structure and form contribute to writers’ presentation of
    ideas, themes and settings

    Q. 9. How does this poet present the ways


    children are affected by war?

    The  poet  presents  the  ways  that  children  are  affected  by  
    war  by  showing  that  it  takes  away  their  innocence  as  it  is  
    presented  from  the  perspective  of  a  child.    It  is  shown  
    5.3 (AO2) – analysis firstly  when  “sirens  ripped  open  the  warm  silk  of  sleep”.    
    of writer’s uses of
    language and/or
    This  literally  says  that  the  sirens  woke  them  while  they  
    structure and/or were  sleeping,  however  this  also  represents  that  during  
    form and effects on their  sleep  they  can  dream  however  they  please,  by  
    reader ripping  this  away  it  shows  that  the  war  took  away  all  of  
    their  dreams  and  forced  them  to  live  in  a  cold,  cruel  
    reality.    Before  the  war  they  lived  happily,  they  were  in  a   5.2 (AO2) –
    cocoon  of  childhood  which  was  “warm”  and  “silky”,  they   analytical use of
    detail to support
    5.1 (AO1&2) –
    were  protected  and  precious,  just  as  silk  is  but  this  was   interpretation
    exploratory taken  away  from  them  by  the  war  and  they  were  forced  
    response to to  live  in  a  cold,  cruel  world  and  experience  things  they  
    themes/ideas shouldn’t  have.  
     
    The  bombs  also  had  a  huge  impact  on  their  lives,  people  
    tried  to  protect  them  from  the  reality  but  they  “knew  this  
    was  no  giant  playing  bowls”.    The  poet  uses  this  to  show  
    that  for  a  child  everything  is  a  game,  they  play  and  invent  
    games  in  any  situation,  but  not  even  the  most  
    imaginative  child  could  pretend  that  the  bombings  were  
    6.1? (AO1&2) – anything  else.    This  is  used  by  the  poet  to  show  how  
    insightful greatly  a  child  is  affected  by  war,  they  can  no  longer  
    exploratory laugh  and  play  games  as  the  bombing  has  scarred  them  
    response to for  life.  
    ideas/themes
     
    It  also  affects  how  they  progress  in  later  life,  the  poet  shows   6.2 (AO1) – close
    this  as  the  window  is  now  just  a  “jaw  of  glass,  where  once  had   analysis of detail to
    hung  my  window  spun  with  stars”.    This  is  used  by  the  poet  as   support
    the  window  represents  the  child’s  future,  which  once  spun   interpretation
    with  dreams  and  opportunities,  just  like  stars.    Yet  the  war  
    destroyed  this  as  well  and  to  the  child  it  seems  that  “the  sky  
    lay  broken  on  my  floor”.    The  poet  has  ended  the  poem  like  
    6.1 (AO1&2) -
    this  to  show  that  the  whole  world  has  come  crashing  down  
    insightful
    exploratory
    around  him,  even  the  sky  has  fallen  and  lays  broken  around  
    response to him.    He  can  see  all  of  the  destruction  but  he  can  do  nothing  
    ideas/themes to  fix  it.      
     
    To  conclude,  the  poet  presents  the  way  children  are  affected  
    by  war  by  telling  the  poem  from  the  child’s  perspective  to  
    show  how  much  it  affects  their  lives  –  their  whole  world  has  
    been  broken  and  their  innocence  is  gone  and  they  are  left  to  
    All Band 6 but
    helpless  with  no  way  of  fixing  it.  
    missing 6.3 (AO2)
     
    – evaluation of
      writer’s uses of
    415  words   language and/or
    structure and/or
    form and effects
    on readers.
    17 marks

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