Question 1 Poetry: Mark Scheme & Model Answer (CIE IGCSE English Literature)

AO1

• Demonstrate your knowledge by incorporating well-selected references to the text skillfully and with flair in your answers
• This means using quotations and indirect references to the poem to support your views or arguments

AO2

• Sustain a critical understanding of the text by showing individuality and insight
• This means showing that you understand the main ideas, settings, events and characters, and that you appreciate the deeper meanings of the poem

AO3

• Respond sensitively and in considerable detail to the way the writer achieves her/his effects
• This means that you are able to explore how writers use language, structure and form to convey impressions and ideas

AO4

• Sustain a personal and evaluative engagement with the task and text
• This means that you are able to give a personal response to the question and text, and support your response with references to the text

How does the poet’s writing strikingly portray the abandoned factory?

To help you answer this question, you might consider:

• How he portrays the gates and fence that surround the factory
• How he describes the inside of the building
• How he explores the relationship between the factory and the people who once worked there

The poet strikingly conveys the abandoned factory firstly by placing it in a particular city, Detroit, which is an industrial city. The use of the comma in the title, rather than saying “in Detroit”, implies that the factory is Detroit or that Detroit symbolises an abandoned factory.

The speaker is standing in front of an empty factory with barbed-wire fencing and chained gates running around it. The description of the “great presses” and “cast-iron wheels” imply that this was once a busy powerhouse of industry, but this contrasts with the description of the workers gradually losing their dignity and their human power because working at the factory has drained them. 

The introduction demonstrates the candidate has understood the focus of the question set

It critically analyses the writer’s choice of structure in the title and what this implies

This accurately summarises the poem, demonstrating to the examiner that the candidate understands it and has engaged with it

The poet goes on to describe the gates as being “chained” and the “barbed-wire fencing” as an “iron authority” against the snow. The imagery makes the factory resemble a prison, with the “iron authority” a prison guard, there to keep everything in order. However, the “corrosion of their minds” suggests that this is not a physical prison, but a mental one, as it locks up the workers’ intelligence through the relentless repetition of menial tasks. The destruction of the workers’ minds fuelled the “charge” that kept the fence active, keeping them trapped and unable to escape.

The response zooms in on particular language used to create an image of a prison keeping people trapped

Quotes are well integrated into each point – they are not separate

The windows in the factory are broken so that the inner workings of the building can be seen. The “cast-iron wheels” and “spokes” represent the dreams of the workers that were squashed by the factory. They are now forever stuck, “in air suspended” and “in the sure margin of eternity”, never to be realised. However, even the vast machinery now stands silent, rusted by time, as represented by the use of caesura in the second stanza. This abrupt pause perhaps symbolises the abruptness with which the factory’s operations stopped. A factory that has taken the lives and dreams of so many people suddenly closing down would have a devastating effect on its workers, who would have lost their jobs and source of income.

The candidate is clearly addressing the bullet points by moving on to the inside of the factory

Again, quotes are relevant, integrated and analysed in terms of why they have been used

Analysis of structure is appropriate and develops into a personal response

The third stanza uses emotive language to show how much the factory has taken away from the people who worked there. Their “loss of human power”, “loss of years” and “gradual decay of dignity” suggests that their dreams and ambitions have been slowly and gradually broken, and even in abandonment, the factory will always be there to outlive them and become their “eulogy”. A eulogy is a speech normally given at a funeral, so the use of this image implies that the workers’ lives have been the factory and nothing more.

This part of the response deals with the relationship between the factory and the workers

The candidate concentrates on the imagery used to represent the passing of time and loss, zooming in on particular words and phrases

The tone the poet creates is reflective and melancholy, as the fence is “charged” with memories, dreams and emotions, and inside all is stillness and decay. The poem strikingly evokes the passing of time with a sense of regret that even this monument to industry now lies abandoned and useless. The use of free verse adds to the sense of sadness, not for the factory, but for the lives given to the pursuit of industry, which eventually seems to be futile.

The candidate now zooms out to consider the poem as a whole, including tone and form

Each paragraph is concentrated, concise and focuses on the striking portrayal of the abandoned factory

The poet strikingly conveys the abandoned factory firstly by placing it in a particular city, Detroit, which is an industrial city. The use of the comma in the title, rather than saying “in Detroit”, implies that the factory is Detroit or that Detroit symbolises an abandoned factory.

The speaker is standing in front of an empty factory with barbed-wire fencing and chained gates running around it. The description of the “great presses” and “cast-iron wheels” imply that this was once a busy powerhouse of industry, but this contrasts with the description of the workers gradually losing their dignity and their human power because working at the factory has drained them. 

The poet goes on to describe the gates as being “chained” and the “barbed-wire fencing” as an “iron authority” against the snow. The imagery makes the factory resemble a prison, with the “iron authority” a prison guard, there to keep everything in order. However, the “corrosion of their minds” suggests that this is not a physical prison, but a mental one, as it locks up the workers’ intelligence through the relentless repetition of menial tasks. The destruction of the workers’ minds fuelled the “charge” that kept the fence active, keeping them trapped and unable to escape.

The windows in the factory are broken so that the inner workings of the building can be seen. The “cast-iron wheels” and “spokes” represent the dreams of the workers that were squashed by the factory. They are now forever stuck, “in air suspended” and “in the sure margin of eternity”, never to be realised. However, even the vast machinery now stands silent, rusted by time, as represented by the use of caesura in the second stanza. This abrupt pause perhaps symbolises the abruptness with which the factory’s operations stopped. A factory that has taken the lives and dreams of so many people suddenly closing down would have a devastating effect on its workers, who would have lost their jobs and source of income.

The third stanza uses emotive language to show how much the factory has taken away from the people who worked there. Their “loss of human power”, “loss of years” and “gradual decay of dignity” suggests that their dreams and ambitions have been slowly and gradually broken, and even in abandonment, the factory will always be there to outlive them and become their “eulogy”. A eulogy is a speech normally given at a funeral, so the use of this image implies that the workers’ lives have been the factory and nothing more.

The tone the poet creates is reflective and melancholy, as the fence is “charged” with memories, dreams and emotions, and inside all is stillness and decay. The poem strikingly evokes the passing of time with a sense of regret that even this monument to industry now lies abandoned and useless. The use of free verse adds to the sense of sadness, not for the factory, but for the lives given to the pursuit of industry, which eventually seems to be futile.