How should I tackle an unseen poem during the exam?

First, it is always a good idea to read through the poem twice so you have an idea of what the poem is about. Once you've completed this, pick out at least one theme you think runs really strongly throughout the poem. (It is sometimes better to have two themes as this can guarantee you have enough to write - even better if the themes are linked together!) For this example, the theme could be 'change'. Once you have the theme in your head, read through the poem again, this time circling anything of interest (for example the use of foreign language) and any literary features or poetic terms. These could be things like a really beautiful piece of imagery, the rhyme scheme, presence of a semantic field, metaphors, similes, enjambement, endstopp or a caesura. It is a good idea to make sure you have at least one point of interest circled on most lines of the poem. Now comes the time to write your answer - start at the very top with the title, and link it to one or two of your themes that you picked out earlier. If our example poem is Goethe's 'Constancy in Change', you could write something like "In his poem 'Constancy in Change', Goethe invites the reader to think about how change is such a common feature of life that it has become the antithesis of itself: constancy." Next, proceed through your poem by linking the features you've circled in the lines to your theme. For example, if your first line has an enjambement, you could suggest that Goethe has placed this here in order to suggest the continuous flow of change, which is reflected in the structure of his poem. Proceed by linking the features from the rest of the lines to your theme - make sure to keep an eye on the clock though during the exam, and if time is running out skip a couple of circled features! To conclude, note how the theme changes during the duration of the poem.