SPEC 3.2.2 POWER & CONFLICT
Power and Conflict — Cluster Overview
15 poems three strands (Power Conflict Effects) and how the comparative response works. The strategic foundation for Section B of Paper 2.
What Section B Asks of You
Section B of Paper 2 is the poetry comparison. It is not single-poem analysis, and it is not a choice between essays — it is one sustained comparison between two poems from your cluster.
Definition Section B (Paper 2)
The poetry comparison question. 30 marks (no AO4). One named poem is printed; you compare it with one other poem of your choice from the same cluster.
Definition Comparison
Identifying both similarities and differences. It is not enough to write about both poems — you must explicitly link them.
What This Lesson Fixes
By the end you will know all 15 poems and their strands, and the exact shape a comparative answer needs to take. Everything else in Module 4 builds on this foundation.
The Cluster — 15 Poems, Three Strands
The 15 poems organise into three thematic strands. Every poem touches more than one — but each has a centre of gravity. Knowing which strand a poem sits in is the foundation of efficient pairing.
Five poems in each strand. The labels are not assigned by the syllabus — they emerge from how the poems argue. We take them one strand at a time next.
Strand 1 — Power & Tyranny
Five poems examine who holds power and how it is used. Collectively they argue that power is most analysable when it is failing or being challenged.
Ozymandias (Shelley) — political power as illusion
London (Blake) — institutional power and oppression
My Last Duchess (Browning) — individual male power over women
Tissue (Dharker) — the fragility of human power structures
Checking Out Me History (Agard) — power through the control of history
The Strand's Argument
These poems are sharpest where power is collapsing (Ozymandias's ruin), constraining (London's "charter'd" streets), or being reclaimed (Agard taking back the historical record). Power on display is less interesting than power coming apart.
Strand 2 — Conflict & War
Five poems examine the physical, mental and ethical reality of armed conflict. Collectively they argue that war is most truthfully presented when the heroic frame is refused.
The Charge of the Light Brigade (Tennyson) — historic battle; heroism with caveats
Exposure (Owen) — the slow death of trench warfare; weather as the enemy
Bayonet Charge (Hughes) — the single soldier's panic in the moment of action
Remains (Armitage) — the lasting psychological damage
Kamikaze (Garland) — the cost of refusing to fight
The Strand's Argument
Even Tennyson, writing in a heroic register, embeds doubt — "Someone had blunder'd". The strand's analytical centre is the gap between official heroism and lived experience.
Strand 3 — Effects: Memory, Loss, Identity, Place
Five poems examine the consequences of power and conflict on people, families and communities. Collectively they argue that identity is constituted through memory, place, and what we have lost.
Poppies (Weir) — a mother's grief
War Photographer (Duffy) — bearing witness to suffering
The Emigrée (Rumens) — exile and remembered place
Extract from The Prelude (Wordsworth) — nature's power over the individual mind
Storm on the Island (Heaney) — community under threat from natural force
A Note on War Photographer
It sits at the boundary with Conflict — bearing witness is itself a consequence of war. That dual pull is not a problem; it is exactly why this poem pairs flexibly across more than one theme axis.
The Strands Overlap — Pick by Centre of Gravity
No poem is only about one thing. The strands are clusters of emphasis, not walls. Strong responses choose the second poem whose centre of gravity aligns with the question's focus.
PoemPrimary strandAlso pulls toward
Bayonet ChargeConflictEffects — the soldier's interior, not the battle's outcome
TissuePowerEffects — the fragility of the human structures power builds
KamikazeConflictEffects — the family's silence and the community's shunning
War PhotographerEffectsConflict — the witness standing at war's edge
The Move
The question names a theme, not a strand. Match the second poem to the theme the question asks about — never to a memorised strand label.
How Section B Works
Section B prints one named poem from the cluster. The question reads: "Compare how poets present [theme] in '[named poem]' and in one other poem from 'Power and conflict.'"You choose the second poem.
Closed Book — This Changes Everything
Only the named poem is printed. Your second poem is not on the paper — you write about it, including its quotations, entirely from memory. This is why pairings and quotations must be rehearsed before the exam, not chosen in it.
30
Marks
0
AO4 Marks
~42
Minutes
2
Poems Compared
Definition Rubric Infringement
Failing to address either the named poem or a second poem from the correct cluster. Caps the response at the top of Level 2 — regardless of how strong the analysis is.
This is the one binary trap in Section B: write about only one poem, or pick a second poem from the wrong cluster, and the whole response is capped. Check the cluster name in the question before you commit.
Structure Is the Discriminator
Weak A-then-B
Paragraphs 1–2 on Poem A, paragraphs 3–4 on Poem B, with a brief comparison bolted on at the end.
Problem: the comparison is an afterthought. The mark scheme cannot credit sustained comparison that is not there — bolted-on comparison caps around Level 4.
Strong Integrated
Every body paragraph compares both poems on one specific aspect: "Both poets use [method], but where A does X, B does Y."
Why it scores: comparison runs through the whole response. "Sustained comparison" is the exact phrase the mark scheme rewards in AO1.
Test
Could you delete one poem from a paragraph and have it still make sense as a paragraph? If yes, that paragraph is not yet comparing — it is just describing.
The Comparative Response — Six Steps
The shape of a Section B answer is fixed. Six moves, in order, name what you do at each stage.
1Read the question — identify the command ("compare") and the named theme.2Identify the theme axis — Power, Conflict, or Effects. This is your only real in-exam decision.3Deploy the rehearsed pairing — the named poem plus its pre-decided partner on that axis.4Write a thesis-led introduction — both poets named in the same thesis sentence.5Build integrated WHW+C paragraphs — both poems compared on one aspect per paragraph.6Refine in the conclusion — sharpen the thesis, name the comparative argument, then proofread.
Across ~42 Minutes
Roughly 5 plan 5 intro 25 body 7 conclusion. The plan time is for steps 1–3, which should take seconds if the pairing is rehearsed.
The Rehearsed-Pairing Principle
Any of the 15 poems can be the named poem — and because you write the second poem from memory, you must prepare all 15, each with a rehearsed partner. You cannot rehearse a pairing for every possible question, but you can rehearse one strong pairing for each named poem on each theme axis. When the named poem appears, the only decision left is the axis.
Named poemAxisRehearsed partner & why it works
OzymandiasPowerMy Last Duchess — both let a powerful man's own voice condemn him
LondonPowerOzymandias — institutional vs monumental power; both judge it illegitimate
Bayonet ChargeConflictExposure — the violent instant vs the slow attrition of war
RemainsEffectsPoppies — the aftermath of killing vs the aftermath of loss
Don't Over-Fix
Keep one strong default partner per axis — but stay ready to switch if the printed question's exact wording fits a different second poem better.
WHW+C — Built for Comparison
Every body paragraph uses the same chain — but in Section B each link compares both poems at once.
WWhat both poets do: name the shared method or shared move (e.g. both give a powerful man an unchallenged voice).HHow each method works: "where A does X, B does Y" — the comparison lives in this link.WWhy it matters: what the contrast reveals about the theme the question asked about.+CContext: the ideas-in-the-world each poem engages — and in Section B this is genuinely assessed.
The Marks Behind the Chain
Section B = AO1 (12) personal response, sustained comparison, apt references AO2 (12) analysis of methods and their effects AO3 (6) specific links between context, text and task no AO4. Methods (AO1+AO2) carry 24 of 30 marks — lead with comparison, support with context.
A Worked Comparative Opening
Theme: how poets present power. Pairing: Ozymandias (Shelley) and My Last Duchess (Browning).
Both Shelley and Browning preserve the voice of a powerful man so that the voice itself becomes the evidence against him — Shelley through the irony of ruin, Browning through the irony of confession. Integrated thesis
WBoth poets foreground the language of command: Shelley quotes the inscription "My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings"; Browning's Duke recalls "I gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together."HWhere Shelley strands the boast beside a "colossal Wreck", so the command is mocked by the desert that outlived it, Browning lets the Duke incriminate himself in real time through the dramatic monologue — the casual syntax exposes the murder he half-conceals.WThe contrast argues that unchallenged power destroys its own claim to authority — whether viewed across centuries (Shelley) or across a single speech (Browning).
Notice both poems appear in every link. That is sustained comparison — and it is the difference between Level 4 and Level 6.
Examiner Alert — Don't Write a List
Examiner Report Poetry Anthology 2022
Some students "simply 'go through' the poems with a comment / reference approach — almost like a list — which will be unlikely to achieve above Level 2 AO1."
This is the single most common Section B failure: two competent descriptions sitting side by side with no comparison between them. The mark scheme rewards comparison through the response, not a comparison paragraph tacked on at the end.
What Examiners Reward Instead
The same report notes that integrating references "into a line of discussion" works far better than "tacked on" references, and that choosing a second poem which "works well" with the named poem helps a student fare better. Pick a poem you can genuinely link — then link it in every paragraph.
Level 5 vs Level 6 — The Discriminator
Level 5 21–25
Thoughtful, developed comparison. References integrated into interpretation; a detailed examination of the effects of methods; examination of ideas and contextual factors, possibly with alternative readings.
Level 6 26–30
Critical, exploratory comparison. A conceptualised approach to the whole task; fine-grained, insightful analysis of methods; convincing exploration of ideas, perspectives and contextual factors.
The Jump
The mark scheme word is "conceptualised". Level 6 does not just observe similarities and differences — it argues an interpretation of the comparison: what the two poets, taken together, claim that neither could claim alone.
Practice — The Opening Move
Question: Compare how poets present attitudes to war in 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' and in one other poem from 'Power and conflict'. 30 marks
Constructed example in AQA's Section B format — not reproduced from a past paper. Plan the opening move only: axis, pairing, thesis, and one comparative point.
Axis
"Attitudes to war" sits on the Conflict axis. Pair the Charge with a poem that takes an opposed attitude, so the comparison has something to argue.
Pair
Exposure (Owen) — the rehearsed conflict-axis partner. Tennyson's heroic action set against Owen's frozen futility.
Thesis
Both Tennyson and Owen confront the distance between war's official heroism and its lived reality — but where Tennyson preserves honour even inside catastrophe, Owen lets the heroic frame freeze and fail entirely.
W
What: both control the reader through movement and its absence — Tennyson drives forward with "Half a league, half a league, / Half a league onward"; Owen suspends his soldiers with the refrain "But nothing happens."
H
How: where Tennyson's insistent rhythm and the command "Theirs but to do and die" dignify obedience even after "Someone had blunder'd", Owen's repeated "But nothing happens" drains war of event, so the real enemy becomes the "merciless iced east winds" rather than any human foe.
Why
Why it matters: the contrast sets a Victorian attitude that still finds honour in doomed sacrifice against a modern attitude that finds only futility — two opposed answers to what war is for.
+C
Context (AO3): Tennyson, Poet Laureate, wrote in 1854 within a culture of imperial military glory; Owen, writing from the Western Front of the First World War, dismantled that inherited heroism from first-hand experience.
Checkpoint
You should now be able to do six things:
1
Name all 15 poems and their strands — five in Power, five in Conflict, five in Effects.
2
Identify the theme axis from any Section B question — Power, Conflict, or Effects.
3
Deploy a rehearsed pairing in seconds, leaving in-exam time for the thesis.
4
Write a thesis-led integrated introduction with both poets in one sentence.
5
Build a comparative WHW+C paragraph with both poems present in every link.
6
Aim for Level 6 by arguing an interpretation of the comparison, not listing observations.
Remember the AO Split
Section B = AO1 (12) AO2 (12) AO3 (6) no AO4. Methods and comparison carry the most marks — and rubric infringement caps you at Level 2.
Module 4 — What's Next
The Foundation Is Set
You have the map of the whole cluster and the shape of the comparative answer. From here, Module 4 takes the poems one at a time — close-reading each so that, by the linking lessons, you can pair any two on demand.
The Three Strands
PowerConflictEffects. Five poems each; every poem overlaps. Pick the second poem by the question's theme.
The One Rule
Sustained comparison in every paragraph. Two poems, one argument — never two essays side by side.
Next Lesson
Lesson 4.02 — Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The first poem in the Power strand, and one of the most reliable second-poem partners in the whole cluster.
Next: What Section B Asks of You