AQA A-Level English Literature A Paper 2: Texts in shared contexts (2B), June 2025: Question 2

25 marks · Hard difficulty · Extended Response

Examine the view that Feminine Gospels is 'a collection dominated by grief and mourning', referring to at least two poems.

Practise this question

Question

Question 02 asks students to examine the view that the poetry collection is 'a collection dominated by grief and mourning.' It specifies that students must write about at least two poems in their answer, worth 25 marks.
Question text

02 ‘A collection dominated by grief and mourning.’

Examine this view.

You must write about at least two poems in your answer.

[25 marks]

Mark scheme

Show the mark scheme Mark scheme for Question 02 on Carol Ann Duffy's Feminine Gospels. Outlines points for AO1 (articulate argument and technical accuracy), AO2 (poetic form, structure, language, and rhyme), AO3 (social and cultural contexts of grief, mourning, and historical change), AO4 (connections to wider modern literature), and AO5 (alternative interpretations regarding personal bereavement vs social injustice vs celebration and joy in poems like 'The Long Queen' and 'The Cord').

Question 02

Feminine Gospels – Carol Ann Duffy

‘A collection dominated by grief and mourning.’

Examine this view.

You must write about at least two poems in your answer.

[25 marks]

Possible content:

Please refer to pages 4 to 7.

AO5 Explore literary texts informed by different interpretations

Students might consider:

• ideas about grief and ideas about mourning equally, or choose to prioritise either aspect of the task

focus

• that grief and/or mourning are seen in response to injustice, oppression and/or suffering caused by

a variety of social and cultural factors in poems such as ‘Sub’, ‘White Writing’, ‘Anon’ and parts of

‘Beautiful’

• that grief and/or mourning are shown in poems about personal loss and bereavement, eg the

elegies ‘Wish’ and ‘Death and the Moon’

• that grief and/or mourning may be seen in poems that reflect attitudes of stoic endurance in the

face of suffering, eg ‘History’, ‘Work’, ‘Tall’ and ‘Loud’

• that alternatively, there is also much to celebrate and enjoy within the collection, such as the

female community in ‘The Long Queen’, the rebellion of the girls and staff in ‘TLOSGH’, the mother

and child bond in ‘The Cord’ or the vision of a woman succeeding in a ‘man’s world’ in ‘Sub’

• etc.

AO4 Explore connections across literary texts

Focus might be on:

• poetic representations of grief and/or mourning in modern literature

• etc.

AO3 Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which

literary texts are written and received

Focus might be on:

• how attitudes to grief and/or mourning are expressed within this poetry collection and how this

reflects changing attitudes over time

• the ways in which poetic methods are an integral part of strengthening the collection’s presentation

of grief and/or mourning

• etc.

AO2 Analyse ways in which meanings are shaped in literary texts

Focus might be on:

• aspects of poetic form and genre

• aspects of structure, eg use of stanzas

• aspects of language, eg rhyme, rhythm, imagery

• the overall organisational structure and coherence of the collection and the links and connections

that may be made between the sections

• methods that might affect the ways in which grief and/or mourning are presented within the

collection

• etc.

AO1 Articulate informed, personal and creative responses to literary texts, using associated

concepts and terminology, and coherent, accurate written expression

• quality of argument

• organisation of ideas

• use of appropriate concepts and terminology

• technical accuracy.

Accept any valid interpretations, any valid comments on contexts and any valid discussion of

authorial methods.

How to answer it

AQA A-Level English Literature A • Paper 2 (Modern Times)

Carol Ann Duffy: Feminine Gospels – 'Grief and Mourning'

What This Question Tests

This 25-mark comparative essay assesses your ability to engage in critical debate on whether Duffy's collection is comprehensively shaped by personal bereavement, collective historical loss, and cultural mourning, or if it is primarily an assertion of female resilience, vitality, and renewal.

  • AO1 (28%): Argumentation, conceptual framing, academic register, and precise textual illustration across at least two poems.
  • AO2 (24%): Close analytical engagement with poetic form, metre, strophic design, syntax, symbolism, and structural placement within the collection.
  • AO3 (24%): Contextual understanding of modern feminist discourse, historical erasure of women, changing cultural attitudes towards death, and the elegiac tradition.
  • AO4 (12%): Literary connections within modern poetry (e.g. subverting conventional masculine elegies and mythical frameworks).
  • AO5 (12%): Evaluative judgement of the keyword 'dominated' —balancing grief against celebration, subversion, and endurance.

Section 1: Unpacking the Question & Essay Architecture

Developing a Nuanced Thesis on "Dominated by Grief and Mourning"

💡 Key Knowledge: Defining the Scope

Top answers distinguish between distinct modes of grief in Feminine Gospels:

  • Personal Bereavement: Literal death and elegiac remembrance (e.g. Duffy's mother in 'Wish' ; her close friend Adrian Henri in 'Death and the Moon' ).
  • Historical & Cultural Loss: Mourning the structural suppression, commodification, and erasure of women throughout patriarchal history (e.g. 'Anon' , 'Beautiful' , 'History' ).
  • Alternative Dominant Tones: Subversion, exuberant joy, domestic transcendence, and rebellion (e.g. 'The Long Queen' , 'The Cord' , 'The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High' ).

🧠 Exam Technique: Interrogating "Dominated"

Do not simply write a one-sided essay agreeing with the premise. The highest marks (Level 5) require you to interrogate the word "dominated":

  • Is grief the final verdict of the collection, or merely the necessary catalyst for political reclamation?
  • Note the structural placement: the collection opens with mythical sovereignty ( 'The Long Queen' ) and concludes with raw, intimate elegies ( 'Wish' , 'Death and the Moon' ). Does this mean grief has the "last word"?

Section 2: High-Scoring Textual Arguments & Pairings

Detailed Comparative Pathways

✅ Argument 1: Grief as the Pervasive Core (Personal & Collective)

Primary Poems: 'Death and the Moon' paired with 'Anon' or 'Beautiful' .

  • Personal Elegy: In 'Death and the Moon' , mourning is unassuaged. The distance of the moon symbolizes absolute cosmic separation: "unreachable / by prayer, or poetry, or music" . Formally, fragmented stanzas mirror psychological dissolution.
  • Historical Mourning: In 'Anon' , Duffy laments centuries of unnamed, silenced women artists whose voices passed "from ear to ear" into oblivion. Mourning here is socio-political.
  • Commodified Tragedy: In 'Beautiful' , the destruction of iconic women (Helen, Cleopatra, Monroe, Diana) turns history into a repetitive, predatory wake.

✅ Argument 2: Transcending Grief through Resilience & Celebration

Primary Poems: 'The Long Queen' paired with 'The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High' or 'The Cord' .

  • Sovereign Matriarchy: 'The Long Queen' ritualizes female suffering (childbirth, menstruation) not as causes for helpless grief, but as constitutional laws of endurance: "sore pain was a royal decree" .
  • Subversive Vitality: In 'The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High' , infectious, anarchic female laughter physically tears down patriarchal institutional repressions; joy overtakes sombreness.
  • Maternal Continuity: 'The Cord' frames maternal love and lineage as unbreakable life forces that conquer temporal loss and separation.

📐 Structural Mechanics: Tracing the Collection's Arc

Examiners reward students who look at the collection as a cohesive macro-text rather than isolated poems:

  1. Opening Mythologizing: Begins with communal, quasi-mythical archetypes ( 'The Long Queen' , 'The Map-Woman' ) celebrating female endurance over millennia.
  2. Middle Satire & Protest: Shifts to surreal physicalized protests against systemic oppression ( 'Tall' , 'Loud' , 'Work' , 'Anon' ) where suffering turns into vocal resistance.
  3. Closing Intimate Elegies: Strips away fantastical allegories to end on unvarnished personal grief ( 'Wish' , 'North-West' , 'Death and the Moon' ). This tonal arc suggests grief is not all-consuming, but is the emotional reality beneath public myth.

Section 3: Examiner Commentary & Pitfalls

What Separates Band 3/4 from Band 5 (Level 5)

❌ Common Errors (Where Marks are Lost)

  • Feature-Spotting without Effect: Spotting caesuras, alliteration, or enjambment without tying them to how grief or mourning is internalized or defied.
  • Ignoring the Counter-Perspective: Treating the statement as an uncontested fact and only writing about sad moments, entirely missing the collection's humour, satire, and defiant joy.
  • Imbalanced Text Selection: Writing 80% on one poem and squeezing in a second poem in a brief concluding paragraph. Both poems require balanced, integrated examination.
  • Biographical Fallacy: Treating poems solely as Carol Ann Duffy's personal diary entries rather than crafted universal and political artistic constructs.

🧠 Examiner Insight: Achieving Level 5

  • Debate "Grief" vs "Mourning": Top scripts distinguish between the *internal emotion* (grief) and the *external, ritualized practice* (mourning). Does Duffy provide formal rituals of mourning where society failed to do so?
  • Co-existence over Exclusivity: Conclude that while grief provides the collection's emotional depth and political impetus, it does not "dominate"—instead, it coexists with endurance, anger, transformation, and celebration.
  • Precision in Lexical Analysis: Unpack micro-details, such as the monosyllabic bluntness of bereavement versus polysyllabic, buoyant descriptions of female community.
Mark Scheme Alignment (AQA 25-mark Band 5 Descriptor): "Perceptive, assured, and sophisticated engagement with the debate; detailed and analytical exploration of authorial methods and structural effects; fully integrated awareness of relevant contexts."

Topics

Modern times: literature from 1945 to the present day · Feminine Gospels

Question and mark scheme from the AQA A-Level English Literature A examination, Paper 2: Texts in shared contexts (2B), June 2025. QuestionVault is an independent revision resource; questions remain the copyright of the awarding body.