Six weeks into your course, you may be realising that A Level English is more demanding than you thought it was going to be! Suddenly there are whole texts to get through at speed, rather than individual scenes, and you need to grasp far more than plot and characterisation.
We’ve noticed at www.crossref-it.info that lots of people are coming for help as they encounter the Metaphysical poets. These contemporaries of Shakespeare and Webster wrote some amazing and memorable poems. Many of them are either arguments to persuade their beloved into bed, or debates with God as the poets struggle to submit to him. Sometimes there is quite a cross over between the two!
An alien world
Both types of poem are tightly woven with images which need unpacking. They were written within a society that expected women to be chaste until they married (though not men!), and was convinced of the reality of God, heaven and hell. The poets could take for granted that everyone understood these ideas and the language associated with them – terms which today might seem alien.
If you regularly get this blog you’ll know that Crossref-it.info exists to help students confronting this sort of information. Handy pop-ups deal with unfamiliar words and concepts and everything a student needs to know about the poem is explained simply and clearly.
But don’t take our word for it. Check it out yourself.
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