The Jewellery Maker (AQA GCSE English Literature)

Revision Note

Flashcards
Sam Evans

Author

Sam Evans

The Jewellery Maker

Each poetry anthology at GCSE contains 15 poems, and in your exam question you will be given one poem – printed in full – and asked to compare this printed poem to another from the anthology. As this is a closed-book exam, you will not have access to the second poem, so you will need to know aspects of it from memory. Fifteen poems is a lot to revise. However, understanding four things will enable you to produce a top-grade response:

  • The meaning of the poem
  • The ideas and messages of the poet 
  • How the poet conveys these ideas through their methods
  • How these ideas compare and contrast with the ideas of other poets in the anthology

Below is a guide to Louisa Adjoa Parker’s poem “The Jewellery Maker”, from the Worlds and Lives anthology. It includes:

  • Overview: a breakdown of the poem, including its possible meanings and interpretations
  • Writer’s methods: an exploration of the poet’s techniques and methods
  • Context: an exploration of the context of the poem, relevant to its themes
  • What to compare it to: ideas about which poems to compare it to in the exam

Exam Tip

“The Jewellery Maker" is part of the Worlds and Lives anthology of poems, and if this is the poem printed on your exam paper, the question will ask you to compare this poem with one other from the anthology by theme.

It is therefore important that you learn about the similarities and differences in the way the poems present the theme or idea in the question. For example, you could consider the way “The Jewellery Maker" presents human relationships in the world they live in, and compare this with the way other poems in the anthology have presented this theme. See the section below on “What to compare it to” for detailed comparisons of “The Jewellery Maker" and other poems in the anthology.

Overview

In order to answer an essay question on any poem, it is vital that you understand what it is about. This section includes:

  • The poem in a nutshell
  • A “translation” of the poem, section-by-section
  • A commentary of each of these sections, outlining Louisa Adjoa Parker’s intention and message

“The Jewellery Maker" in a nutshell

“The Jewellery Maker” is a poem written by the British poet Louisa Adjoa Parker. Parker is of Ghanaian and English heritage, and this poem, like much of her poetry, examines individual lives and relationships, particularly in relation to cultural identity.

“The Jewellery Maker" breakdown

Lines 1–2

“Each day after sunrise he walks to the workshop 

- like his father before him, and his father too -” 

Translation

  • The first lines introduce a story: the daily life of a man who works in a workshop
  • The man is not named, suggesting he is an average person, but he is the jewellery maker of the poem’s title
  • The narrator tells readers the man has followed in his ancestors’ footsteps and does the same work as they did

Parker’s intention

  • Parker conveys the theme of belonging by depicting the routine of a man’s life
  • The continuous nature of family bonds is illustrated as the man continues the family business
  • His anonymity contributes to the theme of cultural identity; the man makes up one part of his family heritage:
    • It also implies, perhaps, his limited agency and marginalised identity 

Lines 3–6

“the slap of sandalled feet on heat-baked stone, 

the smell of blossom, a plate-blue sky. He greets

his neighbours with a smile. In the distance

a wild dog barks. ”

Translation

  • The narrator describes the man’s experience as he walks to his workshop
  • His environment is described as simple and rural:
    • His “sandalled feet” present his world as rustic 
    • She draws attention to the rural environment: a “wild dog barks”
  • The narrator also draws attention to the habitual nature of the man’s routine as he greets the neighbours

Parker’s intention

  • Parker’s imagery evokes the sensual nature of the man’s life and environment
  • This presents the joy and pleasure found in a simpler life connected to one’s cultural heritage 
  • It also implies a hidden tension through the juxtaposition of the friendly neighbours and the wild dog barking:
    • This juxtaposition may undermine the seemingly peaceful setting

Lines 7–8

“He sits straight-backed, lays out pointed tools

the way a surgeon might - neat as soldiers.”

Translation

  • The narrator describes the serious way the man attends to his work
  • He is compared to a surgeon to imply his care and skill as he makes jewellery
  • The man is described as self-disciplined as his tools are “neat as soldiers”

Parker’s intention

  • Parker draws attention to the man’s discipline:
    • This may allude to his sense of honour and pride working in the family business
    • It also suggests he values his skills

Lines 9–12

“He likes hot metal, the smell, the way it yields

to his touch. Under deft fingers gold butterflies dance;

flowers bloom; silvery moons wax and wane, 

then wax again; bright dragonflies flap two pairs of wings.”

Translation

  • The narrator comments on the man’s love for his work with vibrant images related to the beauty of nature
  • These lines describe the objects he moulds the metal into: butterflies, dragonflies, flowers and moons
  • The adjective “deft” presents the man as skillful 
  • The caesura draws attention to each image

Parker’s intention

  • The poet conveys again the sensual nature of the jewellery maker’s life:
    • The jewellery he makes is beautiful and seems to come alive:
      • The butterflies “dance”, the flowers “bloom”, wings “flap” and the moon changes
  • It is implied the man also feels a sense of control when he makes jewellery:
    • The metal “yields/to his touch”

Lines 13–16

“He likes the tiny loops and curls - he’d decorate

his house in this, drape his wife in fine-spun gold;

her skin wrinkled by sun, in simple cotton dress, 

her only jewellery a plain gold band, worn thin.”

Translation

  • The narrator expresses the man’s thoughts and desires:
    • He loves the beautiful jewellery he makes, but wishes he could decorate his house and wife in it
  • These lines describe the man’s wife and his frustration at what he cannot offer her:
    • She is described as natural, simple and humble
    • She has only one piece of old jewellery (perhaps a wedding ring)

Parker’s intention

  • Parker draws attention to the imbalances in the man’s life
  • He is unable to afford to use his talent making jewellery to decorate his own home:
    • This again suggests underlying tension in the outwardly peaceful scene
  • His wife is not able to enjoy the fruits of his labour beyond basic needs:
    • Although Parker does suggest a close bond between them nonetheless 

Lines 17–19

“He imagines the women who will wear

what he has made, clear-eyed, bird-boned, unlined skin

warming the metal his hands caress.”

Translation 

  • The omniscient narrator tells readers the man imagines the wealthier women who buy the jewellery he makes
  • They are described as very different to his wife - more refined and less weathered by life

Parker’s intention

  • Parker ends the poem raising significant differences between the man’s life and those in wealthier environments
  • The description of the women (“bird-boned” and with “unlined skin”) alludes to European women and wealth
  • Parker concludes the poem presenting imbalances regarding opportunity
  • The poem highlights discrepancies between certain individuals in traditional, rural communities and others from urban backgrounds

Writer’s methods

Although this section is organised into three separate sections – form, structure and language – it is always best to move from what the poet is presenting (the techniques they use; the overall form of the poem; what comes at the beginning, middle and end of a poem) to how and why they have made the choices they have. 

Focusing on the poet’s overarching ideas, rather than individual poetic techniques, will gain you far more marks. Crucially, in the sections below, all analysis is arranged by theme, and includes Louisa Adjoa Parker’s intentions behind her choices in terms of:

  • Form
  • Structure
  • Language

Exam Tip

It is important to avoid simply identifying the techniques a poet has used without analysis. Simply saying that the poet has used a caesura to draw attention to the images will not get a mark. You need to comment on what is significant about those images. Why does the poet draw attention to them? 

Form

The poem is a narrative description of a jewellery maker’s life. Parker’s omniscient narrator, however, allows readers into the man’s reflections to convey ideas about cultural identity.   

Theme

Evidence

Poet’s intention

Belonging and heritage

The poem is divided into three stanzas that relate to aspects of the jewellery maker’s life:

  • The narrative begins, typically, with a time marker: “Each day”
  • Parker uses present tense to bring the story to life: “He walks”

The poem brings an individual’s daily experiences to life to build a vivid characterisation of an anonymous man:

  • This conveys themes regarding personal identity
  • It draws attention to the simple and traditional life of an unnamed man

The narration highlights how his work continues the family tradition, like “his father before him” and “his father too”

Parker shows the influence of heritage on the individual’s life

Parker’s omniscient narrator allows readers insight into the man’s thoughts: 

  • “He imagines” the women who will wear the jewellery he makes
  • He notes those women are different to his wife 

The poem explores the jewellery maker’s responses to his experiences:

  • This explores attitudes to cultural identity 
  • It offers the perspective of a silent individual 

Parker examines the life of a humble individual and the positive influence of close bonds of heritage in his life    

Structure

The poem is written in free verse to establish a reflective mood. The rhythm of the poem contributes to the sentimental and dreamy narration.  

Theme

Evidence

Poet’s intention

Individual lives 

Free verse reflects the pensive nature of the poem

Through the narrator the man’s unrestrained thoughts are presented:

  • This shows the man’s everyday activities are instinctive
  • Enjambment contributes to this idea in the line: “He greets/his neighbours with a smile” 

Enjambment contributes to the sense of fluidity in the man’s life and work: The metal “yields/to his touch”:

  • The rambling nature of the sensual descriptions relate to the man’s pleasant and creative life

Parker describes the man’s calm and simple life, which is filled with introspection and creativity



Caesurae throughout the poem create pauses that help present the man’s disciplined nature:

  • This also highlights images Parker draws attention to
  • For example, “-neat as soldiers” 

The individual described in the poem presents Parker’s ideas related to the significance of cultural identity:

  • He is described as calm and creative within his traditional life

Parker’s narrator takes readers on a flowing journey through the jewellery maker’s daily life, and perhaps, in this way, suggests a close connection with one’s cultural identity brings peace through its constancy

Language

“The Jewellery Maker” describes, in vivid detail, aspects of the man’s identity that present him in a sympathetic light. This helps Parker draw attention to different cultural perspectives. 

Theme

Evidence

Poet’s intention

Relationships and worlds 

Parker uses sensory imagery, describing a “plate-blue sky” and “heat-baked stone”:

  • Onomatopoeia with sibilance draws attention to the sound of “the slap of sandalled feet”

Parker portrays the simplicity of the man’s rural life, notable, too, in the description of a “wild dog”

Contrasting imagery highlights differences between the man’s wife and the women who buy his jewellery:

  • His wife wears “simple” clothes and has “only” one “plain gold band”
  • She is “wrinkled by the sun” 
  • This is contrasted with the wealthy women who buy his jewellery who are “clear-eyed” with “unlined skin” 

Parker comments on cultural differences and divisions of wealth and opportunity: 

  • Sympathy is evoked for a simple jewellery maker who wishes he could “drape” his wife in “fine-spun gold”

Parker brings a simple jewellery maker’s life into focus to show different perspectives in order to show imbalances as a result of circumstance 

Exam Tip

Try not to separate “language”, “form” and “structure” into three separate elements in your answer. For the best response, you need an integrated comparison of the themes and ideas in this and the other poems in the anthology. This means keeping a focus on the theme in the question and explaining how the poets’ methods have presented their ideas.

A top answer identifies patterns in the language, and comments on how form and structure contribute to the presentation of the theme, rather than simply listing all of the techniques in a poem. Poets’ methods should be used as support for your exploration of themes and ideas. Stay focused on the task, and then choose your evidence based on the focus of the question.

Context

Examiners repeatedly state that context should not be considered as additional factual information, but should be connected to your analysis. Examiners ask for sophisticated contextual connections that are linked to the theme in the question. In this case, it is not biographical information about Louisa Adjoa Parker that is unrelated to the ideas in “The Jewellery Maker”. The best way to understand context is as the ideas and perspectives explored by Parker in the poem that relate to worlds and lives. This section has therefore been divided into two relevant themes that Parker explores:

  • Belonging and heritage 
  • Relationships and worlds

Belonging and heritage 

  • Louisa Adjoa Parker is a British writer and poet of Ghanaian and English heritage
  • Her poetry tells the stories of silenced and marginalised individuals whose voices Parker wants to make accessible to all
  • The poem, “The Jewellery Maker”, draws attention to an average individual’s cultural identity:
    • Parker alludes to a rural location where a “wild dog” barks
    • The jewellery maker “walks to the workshop” with sandalled feet on “heat-baked stone”
  • Parker’s writing is influenced by her identity as dual-culture:
    • The poem comments on the significance of tradition as the man walks to work  just like his “father before him” and “his father too”
    • The jewellery maker’s simple, rural life is described with natural imagery, such as dragonflies and butterflies, to convey the simple beauty of his world:
      • “Each day” he smells the “blossom” under a “plate-blue sky”

Relationships and worlds

  • Parker’s poetry is influenced by her childhood, growing up with Ghanaian heritage in England
  • The poem, “The Jewellery Maker”, draws comparisons between different lives and worlds, specifically highlighting varying degrees of opportunity and wealth: 
    • The narrator describes “unlined faces” of “bird-boned” women who buy the jewellery the man makes:
      • This may connote to European society
    • In contrast, the jewellery maker’s wife is “wrinkled” from the sun, in a “simple cotton dress” 
  • In this poem, Parker brings to life a simple jewellery maker
  • His love for his wife and hard work is emphasised to draw attention to unfulfilled potential:
    • He goes to his workshop “each day” at “sunrise”
    • He wants to “drape” his wife in “fine spun gold” and decorate his house in “loops and curls”
    • The man laments that his wife has “only” one piece of worn jewellery, implying he cannot afford to give her any of what he makes 

Exam Tip

Remember, AO3 is only worth up to 6 marks in this question. You will be expected to demonstrate your understanding of the relationship between the poem and the context in which it was written in an integrated way throughout your answer. It is therefore important to focus on the key themes, and to have a thorough knowledge of the cluster of poems. 

Context comes from the key word in the task, so your answer should emphasise the key themes. Writing a whole paragraph about Louisa Adjoa Parker or jewellery-making is not an integrated approach, and will not achieve high marks.

What to compare it to

The essay you are required to write in your exam is a comparison of the ideas and themes explored in two of your anthology poems. It is therefore essential that you revise the poems together, in pairs, to understand how each poet presents ideas about worlds and lives in comparison to other poets in the anthology. Given that “The Jewellery Maker” explores the ideas of relationships and worlds and differences between individual lives, the following comparisons are the most appropriate:

  • “The Jewellery Maker” and “Name Journeys”
  • “The Jewellery Maker” and “A Wider View”
  • “The Jewellery Maker” and “Homing” 

For each pair of poems, you will find:

  • The comparison in a nutshell
  • Similarities between the ideas presented in each poem
  • Differences between the ideas presented in each poem
  • Evidence and analysis of these similarities and differences

Exam Tip

You will be expected to not only explore this poem in depth, but to make perceptive comparisons to themes, language, form and structure used in other poems in the anthology that also comment on complex relationships and connections with personal and external worlds. It is therefore important that you have a thorough knowledge of all of the poems, rather than just memorising a series of quotations. It is also essential that you not only write about the named poem, but compare it to one other in the anthology. Only writing about the poem given on the paper will severely limit your marks.

“The Jewellery Maker" and “Name Journeys” 

Comparison in a nutshell:

Both Louisa Adjoa Parker’s “The Jewellery Maker” and Raman Mundair’s “Name Journeys” examine individuals’ lives related to cultural heritage. However, while Parker’s poem is written in a third-person narrative, Mundair uses a vibrant monologue to express personal identity. 

Similarities:

Topic sentence

Both poems explore relationships that are influenced by cultural heritage 

Evidence and analysis

“The Jewellery Maker"

“Name Journeys”

Parker’s narrator describes a jewellery maker and his close connections with his heritage:

  • His life is traditional: his jewellery business began with his “father before him” and “his father too”
  • He is dedicated to his work and his “deft fingers” work with tools “neat as soldiers”

Similarly, Mundair uses sensory imagery to present the rich vibrancy of her culture: 

  • The speaker compares themself to Hindu deities with whom they have a spiritual bond

Natural imagery is used to describe the man’s creative and vibrant rural life:

  • He walks on “heat-baked stone” under a “plate-blue sky”
  • Sensory imagery describes the “hot metal” that “yields/to his touch”

Mundair’s speaker describes her cultural identity with vivid sensory imagery to connote to its “exotic” nature:

  • Sibilance highlights references to “silk” and “sari-sisters”
  • The speaker describes the “Woven tapestries” of the journey through life that has influenced her identity 

Parker uses an omniscient narrator to show the man’s concerns:

  • Here, Parker draws attention to cultural issues as the man reflects on his life
  • The man describes his wife’s sun-weathered skin and “only” one worn ring
  • This is contrasted by women with “unlined skin” who can afford the jewellery he makes

Mundair’s speaker reflects on relationships that are impacted by differences in culture: 

  • The speaker relates how their name is a “stumble” that “filled English mouths”
  • Their language and their innocence was lost and “dislodged” as “milk teeth fell”

Both “The Jewellery Maker" and “Name Journeys” explore the significance of cultural heritage and its varying influence on individuals' lives 

Differences:

Topic sentence

While Parker describes an individual, silent and disciplined, Mundair’s monologue is a passionate expression of personal identity 

Evidence and analysis

“The Jewellery Maker"

“Name Journeys”

Parker’s speaker is controlled, narrating the man’s life in the third-person to create distance and reliability

In contrast, Mundair’s first-person speaker has a more fluid and emotional tone, in a reflective past-tense voice:

  • The poem is a series of coupled lines that run sentences across stanzas to present rambling thoughts 

Parker brings to life an individual who is reserved and self-contained: 

  • The jewellery maker is disciplined, sits “straight-backed” and works like a “surgeon”
  • Parker presents a quiet reflection as the man “imagines” the women who buy his jewellery
  • He silently fantasises about how he’d “drape” his wife in gold and decorate his house in “curls” and “loops” if he could afford it

In contrast, Mundair’s speaker offers a passionate challenge to issues of displacement

  • She describes “infertile English soil”, implying barren and hostile ground 
  • The speaker suggests conflict as they “toiled” to speak a new language and the English speaker stumbles over their name
  • The speaker feels the “mystery” of their name and language has been “dulled”

Parker’s poem ends reiterating the man’s love for his work:

  • Sensory imagery describes “warming” metal his hands “caress” 

In contrast, Mundair’s speaker expresses frustration in the final couplet:

  • They allude to a bleak future in an “Anglo echo chamber” that is “void of history and memory”

Parker relates a story about an individual’s simple life that is rich in imagination and natural beauty, whereas Mundair’s poem presents a bitter and personal comment on displacement

Exam Tip

It is a good idea to outline your choice of second poem in your introduction to your response, with a clear overview of the overarching themes within both poems. You can then use the theme to move between both poems to provide the substance to illustrate your arguments. However, this does not mean that you cannot focus on one poem first, and then the other, linking ideas back to the main poem. You should choose whichever structure suits you best, as long as comparison is embedded and ideas for both texts are well-developed.

“The Jewellery Maker" and “A Wider View”

Comparison in a nutshell:

Both Louisa Adjoa Parker and Seni Seneviratne use narrative poems to celebrate an individual’s cultural identity. However, while Parker describes daily life in a simple, rural setting, Seneviratne describes similar generational bonds in an urban setting where buildings transcend time.  

Similarities:

Topic sentence

Both poems examine an individual’s connections to heritage   

Evidence and analysis

“The Jewellery Maker"

“A Wider View”

Parker’s narrator describes, across three stanzas, the traditional life of a jewellery maker:

  • His work follows in the footsteps of his “father before him” and “his father too”

The first three stanzas focus on the life of the speaker’s great-great-grandfather in Leeds in 1869 at a time of industrialisation:

  • Third-person narrative describes how he worked “twelve hours combing flax

The story of the man’s life is vividly narrated in present tense to further present a sense of tradition: “Each day” he “walks” to his workshop

The speaker, standing in the same place as their great-great-grandfather, is taken back to the past:

  • However, this is described in present tense: “my footsteps echo”

Parker uses natural imagery to describe the man’s traditional life positively: 

  • After “sunrise” he greets his neighbours “with a smile”
  • The jewellery is described as alive: “bright dragonflies flap”, “gold butterflies dance” and “silvery moons wax and wane”

Seneviratne’s poem, similarly, celebrates heritage:

  • The city’s buildings are personified as they bring the speaker closer to distant relatives
  • They meet when “the red-brick vaults/begin to moan”

The speakers comment on the vibrancy of an individual’s cultural identity and how this brings pleasure to their life

Topic sentence

Both poems present speakers who respond emotionally to their worlds 

Evidence and analysis

“The Jewellery Maker"

“A Wider View” 

The jewellery maker “imagines” the women who buy his jewellery:

  • He wishes he could “drape” his wife in “fine spun gold” but she has “only” one worn ring

Seneviratne portrays an individual who take the long way home to draw “his sights beyond” “the limits of his working life”:

  • She describes how he “craved the comfort of a wider view”

Parker’s contrasting imagery draws attention to the man’s struggles in comparison to wealthier people: 

  • The “unlined” skin of wealthier women contrasts with his wife’s skin, “wrinkled by sun”
  • The man’s wife is in a “simple cotton dress” but the wealthier women are “clear-eyed” and “bird-boned”

Seneviratne uses imagery to describe the industrialised city of Leeds: 

  • The “smoke-filled sky” and “eyes dry with dust” connote to discomfort 
  • A triple stresses the “the din of engines, looms, and shuttles” in factories that need to be “drowned out”

Both poems examine individuals who experience restrictions and limitations as a result of their place in the world 

 Differences:

Topic sentence

Louisa Adjoa Parker’s poem, “The Jewellery Maker” is a celebratory exploration of the routine and beauty of rural life, whereas Seneviratne’s poem, “A Wider View” describes a timeless and illustrious city 

Evidence and analysis

“The Jewellery Maker”

“A Wider View”

The poem relates the simple, rural life of a jewellery maker, unnamed and anonymous:

  • He goes through a daily routine, smelling the flowers and hearing the “slap of sandalled feet” as he walks to his workshop

Whereas Seneviratne describes a city’s famous and historical architecture: 

  • The “Dark Arches” create a  “curve of past and future generations” 

Parker uses sensory imagery to present the beauty of the natural world: 

  • The man walks on “heat-baked stone” under a “plate-blue sky”

Powerful imagery describes the city’s history as sophisticated and wealthy:

  • The speaker refers to the “crown of Harding’s chimney” and “gilded tiles” of Italian buildings

Parker portrays the peaceful nature of a sensual and rural life, while Seneviratne presents the grandeur of an historical English city

“The Jewellery Maker” and “Homing” 

Comparison in a nutshell:

Both Louisa Adjoa Parker’s “The Jewellery Maker” and Liz Berry’s “Homing” celebrate the lives of marginalised individuals. However, while both poems describe the positive influence of cultural identity, Parker also describes imbalanced relationships as a result of wealth and opportunity, whereas Berry shows divisions as a result of language barriers. 

Similarities:

Topic sentence

Both poems explore the cultural identity and lives of silent individuals and convey the significance of heritage

Evidence and analysis

    “The Jewellery Maker”

“Homing”

Parker’s poem raises the profile of a quiet and dedicated individual:

  • The narrator highlights his skill (he is like a “surgeon”)
  • He is creative and disciplined, working hard “each day” creating beautiful and intricate jewellery

In Liz Berry’s poem, the speaker wants to release an individual's hidden identity and “shout it from the roofs”:

  • The speaker expresses their admiration for an absent listener’s accent: “I loved its thick drawl, g’s that rang”

Parker describes the man’s world with sensory imagery highlighting his love for his work:

  • He walks on “heat-baked stone” to his workshop
  • The “hot metal” “yields/to his touch” as his hands “caress”

Sensory imagery describes the listener’s cultural heritage:

  • The speaker refers to a “blacksmith’s furnace” and the “red-brick of home”
  • Onomatopoeia highlights the “railways, factories thunking and clanging”

Parker describes the man’s strong bonds with tradition:

  • The jewellery maker follows in the footsteps of his “father before him” and “his father too” 

Berry uses a metaphor to represent the significance of heritage:

  • The poem refers to homing pigeons, drawing on ideas related to belonging
  • The speaker “sends” the individual’s “lost words” back home

The poets both present the perspectives of anonymous individuals whose heritage is an integral part of their identity

Differences:

Topic sentence

Parker’s “The Jewellery Maker” considers imbalances as a result of difference in wealth and opportunity, whereas Berry’s “Homing” speaks on behalf of a silenced individual feeling restricted by their accent 

Evidence and analysis

“The Jewellery Maker”

“Homing"

Parker’s omniscient narrator conveys imbalances in a jewellery maker’s world:

  • The narrator tells us “he imagines” the women who buy his jewellery
  • He imagines them “warming the metal” his hands “caress”

Liz Berry’s poem is an intimate direct address to a silent listener about the way they repressed their accent:

  • The speaker says “For years you kept your accent/in a box beneath the bed”

The poem draws attention to contrasts between the man’s desires and his reality as a result of his traditional work:

  • He wants to “drape” his wife in “fine spun gold” 
  • But the wife’s “only” piece of jewellery is a worn gold band

The speaker draws attention to sacrifices made because of the listener’s accent:

  • They had “hours of elocution” lessons with the “teacher’s ruler” on their legs
  • They describe the “lock” on their language as “rusted shut”  

“The Jewellery Maker” examines imbalances in wealth and opportunity in a rural setting: 

  • The man sells his jewellery to “bird-boned” women with “unlined skin” who represent Europeans 
  • This contrasts with descriptions of his wife whose is “wrinkled by sun” and wears a “simple cotton dress”

However, “Homing” explores disconnections as a result of attitudes towards accents within England: 

  • The speaker is part of a group who notices the different accent: “We heard it escape sometimes”
  • The speaker cannot avoid speaking in their accent at times: “saft or blart to a taxi driver” 

While Parker’s distanced narrator describes limitations in the jewellery maker’s traditional and rural life, Berry speaks to a silent listener about their repressed identity in an urban environment 

Exam Tip

You can choose whichever poem you feel you are able to make the most in-depth comparisons to in the exam. For example, you could choose to compare the presentation of individuals’ observations about their worlds in “The Jewellery Maker” and “A Wider View”. Or you might wish to explore the way poets examine connections and relationships in “The Jewellery Maker” and “Homing”. What is important is that you view the poems thematically, with a clear emphasis on worlds and lives. This will give you a better framework in which to write your response in the exam.

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Sam Evans

Author: Sam Evans

Sam is a graduate in English Language and Literature, specialising in journalism and the history and varieties of English. Before teaching, Sam had a career in tourism in South Africa and Europe. After training to become a teacher, Sam taught English Language and Literature and Communication and Culture in three outstanding secondary schools across England. Her teaching experience began in nursery schools, where she achieved a qualification in Early Years Foundation education. Sam went on to train in the SEN department of a secondary school, working closely with visually impaired students. From there, she went on to manage KS3 and GCSE English language and literature, as well as leading the Sixth Form curriculum. During this time, Sam trained as an examiner in AQA and iGCSE and has marked GCSE English examinations across a range of specifications. She went on to tutor Business English, English as a Second Language and international GCSE English to students around the world, as well as tutoring A level, GCSE and KS3 students for educational provisions in England. Sam freelances as a ghostwriter on novels, business articles and reports, academic resources and non-fiction books.