AQA A-Level English Literature A Paper 2: Texts in shared contexts (2B), June 2025: Question 4

25 marks · Hard difficulty · Extended Response

Examine the significance of time in Owen Sheers' poetry collection Skirrid Hill, referring to at least two poems.

Practise this question

Question

Question 04: Examine the significance of time in the collection. You must write about at least two poems in your answer. Worth 25 marks.
Question text

04 Examine the significance of time in the collection.

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

[25 marks]

Mark scheme

Show the mark scheme Mark scheme for Question 04 on Skirrid Hill by Owen Sheers. Highlights possible content across assessment objectives AO1 to AO5, including representations of time, past, present and future, personal aging, stages of relationships, poetic methods, and historical or social context.

Question 04

Skirrid Hill – Owen Sheers

Examine the significance of time in the collection.

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:

• poems within the collection that present ideas about the past, present and future, or continuity and

change, or time passing, or social, cultural and historical change, eg ‘Calendar’, ‘History’, ‘Y Gaer’,

‘The Hill Fort’, ‘Farrier’, ‘Border Country’, ‘Skirrid Hill’ and ‘The Steelworks’

• time as a more personal concept that can be measured in terms of individual human lives, or the

ageing process, such as ‘L.A. Evening’, ‘Inheritance’, ‘Amazon’, ‘On Going’ and ‘The Wake’

• time as a concept linked to the stages of developing human relationships, eg ‘Winter Swans’ or

‘Inheritance’

• the extent to which ideas about time may be linked to the major themes and ideas presented

across the collection as a whole

• etc.

AO4 Explore connections across literary texts

Focus might be on:

• poetic representations of time in modern literature

• poetic representations of the past, present and future, and the passing of time, 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 time are expressed within this poetry collection and how this reflects changing

attitudes over time

• ideas about time as expressed within this poetry collection and how this reflects changing attitudes

over time

• the ways in which poetic methods are integral to the presentation of time in the collection

• 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, and also the collection’s overall organisational structure

18 and coherence, and the links and connections that may be made across and between individual

poems

• aspects of language, eg rhyme, rhythm, imagery

• methods that might affect the ways in which time is 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.

Option 1

Section B: Drama and Prose Contextual Linking

How to answer it

AQA A-Level English Literature A • Paper 2 • Section A

Owen Sheers: Skirrid Hill – The Significance of Time

What this question tests

Question 04 assesses your ability to deliver a comparative, analytically rigorous critique of Sheers’ treatment of time across Skirrid Hill. You are marked against five Assessment Objectives:

AO1: Coherent Argument & Literary Terminology AO2: Poetic Methods, Form & Structure AO3: Historical, Cultural & Biographical Context AO4: Cross-Collection Thematic Cohesion AO5: Alternative Readings & Critical Interpretations

Essay Architecture & Deconstructing the Prompt

Developing a Band 5 Conceptual Framework

💡 Three Dimensions of "Time" in the Collection

  • Geological & Historical Time: Deep, cyclical, ancient time contrasting human fragility (e.g., 'History' , 'Y Gaer' , 'Skirrid Hill' ). The Welsh landscape acts as a palimpsest.
  • Socio-Economic & Industrial Change: Transition from Wales’ industrial heritage to decay and consumerism (e.g., 'The Steelworks' , 'Border Country' ).
  • Biological & Mortal Time: Ageing, bodily fragility, generational continuity, and romantic healing (e.g., 'On Going' , 'Inheritance' , 'Winter Swans' ).

🧠 Essay Strategy & Selection

  • Pairing Strategy: Choose two poems with contrasting or complementary temporal modes. For instance:
    • Pair A (Loss & Industrial/Personal Rupture): 'Border Country' and 'The Steelworks' .
    • Pair B (Mortal Transience vs Generational Continuity): 'On Going' and 'Inheritance' .
  • Whole-Collection Awareness: Mention structural bookends (the elegiac arc from separation to reconciliation) to hit higher AO4 criteria.

📐 Essay Blueprint: Building the Comparative Argument

A Step-by-Step Structural Guide to Secure 25 Marks

1 Introduction: Conceptual Thesis

Define time not merely as chronology, but as an active, dialectical force in Sheers’ poetry. State clearly: while time inflicts erosion, physical mortality, and industrial obsolescence, it also operates as an agent of healing, generational preservation, and cyclical renewal.

2 Focus 1: Time as Rupture & Loss (Past vs Present)

Explore a poem such as 'Border Country' . Examine how Sheers uses elegiac tone, shifts between childhood innocence and adult disillusionment, and imagery of rusted car bodies to symbolise the death of friendship alongside Wales’ industrial decay.

3 Focus 2: Bodily Mortality vs Temporal Endurance

Pivot to 'On Going' or 'Inheritance' . In 'On Going' , time slows down to micro-units in an ICU, where modern medicine fruitlessly resists biological entropy. Contrast this with 'Inheritance' , where genetic time transcends death through inherited mannerisms.

4 Focus 3: Cyclical, Geological Time as Reconciliation

Examine the landscape (e.g., 'Skirrid Hill' or 'Winter Swans' ). Link personal healing to natural rhythms: the "parting" hill becomes an emblem of enduring connection despite tectonic rupture.

Model Analysis & Examiner Insights

High-Scoring Comparative Close-Reading Extract

✅ Exemplar Paragraph (Band 5 Standard)

Sheers frequently conceptualises time as an entropic weight that dismantles both industrial legacy and youth. In 'Border Country', the car graveyard serves as a visceral metaphor for temporal obsolescence, where vehicles "lie like skulls / of dinosaurs" . The simile bridges human and prehistoric time, rendering the transition from childhood play to adolescent suicide as an inevitable extinction event. Sheers’ use of enjambment between stanzas mimics the uncontrollable slip of chronological time, pulling the speaker inexorably away from the prelapsarian innocence of the quarry.

However, in 'Inheritance', Sheers resists this destructive linearity by presenting time as restorative and helical. Physical and psychological traits are rendered as genetic heirlooms: "the chalk and cheese / of my mother’s and my father’s traits" which time has not eroded, but rather "joined, however slowly, in the joint" of his own body. Thus, across the collection, Sheers presents time through an unresolved dialectic: it is the executioner of individual vitality, but the conservator of collective memory.

❌ Common Student Traps

  • Descriptive narrative recap: Simply retelling the story of the poems rather than interrogating poetic mechanics (AO2).
  • Isolating poems sequentially: Writing half an essay on Poem 1 and half on Poem 2 with no connective connective tissue (AO4).
  • Ignoring Form and Structure: Neglecting how stanza breaks, caesurae, and verse shape embody temporal pauses or acceleration.
  • Vague biographical context: Treating Wales as mere background scenery rather than an active socio-historical environment (AO3).

🧠 What Distinguishes Top-Level (Band 5) Work?

  • Forensic Form Analysis: Connecting temporal themes to poetic architecture (e.g., Sheers’ use of tercets creating an unstable, forward-leaning progression).
  • Title Synthesis: Explicitly linking the collection’s title (Y Sgidi Fawr / Skirrid Hill = "shattered mountain") to the dual meaning of time as both rupture and enduring myth.
  • Nuanced AO5 debate: Debating whether Sheers’ speakers are trapped by nostalgia or empowered by temporal continuity.

Checklist: Poetic Devices Linked to Time

Essential Terminology for Band 5 AO2

Method / Device Function in Portraying Time Poem Reference
Caesura & Enjambment Disrupts temporal pace; pauses mirror fading breath or arrested remembrance. 'On Going'
Palimpsestic Landscape Layering past historical conflicts beneath contemporary quietude. 'Y Gaer' / 'History'
Cyclical Motifs Seasonal transitions mirroring relational resolution and renewal. 'Winter Swans'

Topics

Modern times: literature from 1945 to the present day · Skirrid Hill

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.