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My Last Duchessby Robert BrowningRead the poem in your AQA Anthology, then complete the activities below.

Ozymandiasby Percy Bysshe ShelleyRead the poem in your AQA Anthology, then complete the activities below.

Activity 1Initial responses1 Ozymandias was a great king. What tells you this in the poem?2 Find and write down the adjectives in lines 2 and 4. What picture

do they create of the statue? How is this picture important to the message of the poem?

3 What do the ends of line 4 and line 5 suggest about the nature of the king?

4 How do you think the king treated his subjects? Try to fi nd a detail to support your view.

5 ‘Look on my works, Ye Mighty, and despair!’ What did Ozymandias mean when he had this written on his statue? What does it mean now that the statue has been destroyed?

6 Line 12 begins ‘Nothing beside remains.’ This is the shortest sentence in the poem.a Why do you think Shelley has used such a short sentence?b Why do you think he has placed it after the previous thought,

‘Look on my works, Ye Mighty, and despair!’? What effect does it have?

7 Find the adjectives in the last two lines. What do they emphasise?

Activity 2Words/phrases to explore (AO1 and A02)

At the beginning of the poem the traveller is ‘from an antique land’. Why do you think the writer isn’t more exact about the place? What difference would it make to the poem if he was more exact, and made it about a specifi c place?

Activity 3Comparing with other poems1 Comparing ideas and themes Compare the central characters

in ‘Ozymandias’ and ‘My Last Duchess’.

2 Comparing writers’ devices

Compare the ways that character is created in ‘Ozymandias’ and ‘My Last Duchess’.

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ContextOzymandias was another name for Rameses, one of the Egyptian pharaohs.

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ContextsFerrara a duchy in northern Italy. The Duke is probably based on Alfonso, whose wife Lucrezia died in 1561 at the age of 17.Frà Pandolf/Claus of Innsbruck these two artists are probably � ctional.

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Looking at the poems individually

Sample answerTo achieve a C on this AO1 descriptor, you need to show sustained response to elements of text. The following extract from a sample answer would hit the grade C requirement.

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Activity 2The Duke appears to admire other people, like Frà Pandolf, but really he only admires himself. He is the only person allowed to draw back the curtain over the picture, and he chooses ‘never to stoop’ as that would lessen his importance in his own eyes. He demands that others admire him too, and when the Duchess dares to ‘approve’ of anybody else, the Duke thinks they are ‘fools’ and disapproves of her so much it seems that he had her killed.

1 Character and voice

Sample answerTo achieve a C on this AO2 descriptor, you need to show explanation of e� ect(s) of writers’ choices of language and/or structure and/or form intended/achieved. The following extract from a sample answer would hit the grade C requirement.

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Activity 1, question 7In the last line the words ‘level’ and ‘stretch far away’ emphasise how complete the destruction is, because it suggests that absolutely nothing is breaking the surface of the sand, where there used to be a great civilisation’.

C

C

Activity 1Initial responses1 When you’ve read the whole poem,

what is your fi rst impression of the Duke? Find some details from the poem to support what you think.

2 This poem is a dramatic monologue. This means it is a poem where the speaker reveals things about himself to the reader. A lot is revealed through the Duchess here.a What facts do we learn about the Duchess in the poem?b What do other people think about the Duchess?c Now look again at what the Duke thinks of her. What does he

disapprove of in her words and actions? What do these things reveal about her, and about him?

3 Look at lines 33–43. What do you fi nd out about the Duke’s view of himself in these lines?

4 In line 46, what is the effect of the line break after the phrase ‘There she stands’? Think about what comes next.

5 The Duke stops looking at the portrait after ‘As if alive’ (line 47). What do you learn about the Duke after this point in the poem? How does it add to what you think of him?

Activity 2Words/phrases to explore (AO1)

The last two words of the poem are ‘for me’. Why do you think the writer chose these as the last words? How do they form a suitable end for the whole poem? You could write a paragraph about the Duke starting from those words.

Activity 3Comparing with other poems1 Comparing ideas and themes Compare the characters and situations of the duchess in ‘My Last

Duchess’ and the central character in ‘Les Grands Seigneurs’.2 Comparing writers’ devices Compare the ways in which the voice of the speaker is created in

‘My Last Duchess’ and ‘The River God’.

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