What the exam asks
In IB English A: Language and Literature, the IB guide lists both poems and song lyrics as literary text types, so a collection of either belongs to the literary form of poetry. A poetry “work” studied in class is one long poem of at least 600 lines (all of it or a large section of it), or 15–20 shorter poems by the same author. The guide gives that count for poems; Courselo treats a collection of song lyrics by one writer the same way.
- Paper 2 (Comparative essay, 25 marks): You write a closed-book essay comparing two literary works in response to one of four general questions. To score top marks in Criterion A (knowledge, understanding and interpretation) and Criterion B1 (analysis and evaluation of textual features and/or authorial choices), you must treat a poetry or lyric collection as a unified work. While the IB guide sets no fixed number of poems to discuss, Courselo advises discussing two or three poems from a collection in Paper 2 to show knowledge of the whole work.
- Individual Oral (SL and HL) and HL Essay (HL only): For the oral, your literary extract can be up to 40 lines of a poem or song lyric (a whole short poem can be the extract), which you must connect to the wider collection. For the HL Essay, you must investigate more than one poem across the collection rather than writing a commentary on a single poem. A work you use for one component (the oral, Paper 2 or the HL essay) cannot be used for another.
Core ideas
1. Poetic form and structure
Form is the visual and structural architecture of a poem or song. Always ask why the poet chose a specific container for their ideas—and where they break their own rules.
| Feature | Definition | How it shapes meaning (Evaluation) |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed form | Traditional structures with strict rules of metre, rhyme or stanza length (e.g., sonnet, villanelle, ballad, haiku). | Can suggest order, tradition or emotional control—or create productive tension when turbulent feelings strain against a rigid frame. |
| Free verse | Poetry without a regular metre or rhyme scheme. | Mimics natural speech, stream of consciousness, or liberation from constraint, though it still relies heavily on deliberate lineation and rhythm. |
| Stanza and lineation | The grouping of lines (couplet: two lines; tercet: three; quatrain: four) and where individual lines break. | Controls pacing and visual weight on the page; a single isolated line can spotlight sudden grief or isolation. |
| Enjambment | Running a sentence across a line or stanza break without punctuation. | Accelerates pace, creates visual cliffhangers, or forces a double meaning before the reader’s eye drops to the next line. |
| Caesura | A strong pause within a line, usually marked by punctuation (full stop, dash, semicolon). | Disrupts rhythm, creating hesitation, fracture, or a sudden dramatic intake of breath. |
| Volta | A sharp turn or shift in thought, tone or argument (classic in sonnets, common everywhere). | Signals epiphany, irony, or a reversal of perspective that reframes everything before it. |