How should I approach an unseen commentary on a piece of poetry?

Writing a commentary in an exam on an unseen poem or piece of prose is one of the most daunting tasks that the IB english assessment has to offer. However, there is a formula that will help you to achieve high grades every time. First, you must read through the poem once to gain an initial understanding. I often gave the poem a second read to be sure I've grasped the overall message and to establish any notable themes throughout the poem that will shape your later commentary. Remember to be wary of time. You must then read the poem in more detail, annotating any point that seems important or comment-worthy. The best way to approach this is to break your commentary down into 3 parts: text, line and word level. (I often found that using a different coloured pen for each part when annotating was useful, and made life much easier when it came to organising your points in an essay quickly later in the exam.) These 3 parts, essentially, ensure you analyse the poem at every level. Analysing the poem at text level entails looking at the overall shape of the poem and commenting on whether this has any significance or how it contributes to the meaning of the poem. For example, you may notice that it has 14 lines, making it a sonnet, or that the paragraphs get progressively shorter throughout the poem, possibly adding some intensity. Line level, means counting the number of words or analysing the length of the line to assess its significance. For example, a line may be much shorter than the rest in order to make a certain emotion particularly poignant. Thirdly, word level. This is the most important in my opinion as each individual word was carefully selected by the author to convey an emotion or to add to an overall symbolic meaning. This section often gives you the most to write about I find, but be careful not to get carried away and include so much that you don't have time to fit it into the finished essay. Having a good structure and a finished essay with an introduction and a conclusion is of the utmost importance. This may seem like a lot to do quickly in an exam, but with practice, it is very much doable in the time and will really improve your commentary. Once you have all your points, I often write a very brief plan, selecting what order to put them in and how to structure them. Every essay must start with a a brief introduction which states the overall message and themes of the poem that you will explore, along with a short conclusion at the end that summarises your key points. Within that, you can structure your essay how you see fit according to the nature of the essay, but a structure is necessary. For example, you could stricture it according to the text-line-word level that I have described, but that doesn't always work for every poem. I have often structured an essay by theme, having a paragraph for each and using my comments at text, line and word level to justify my analysis. But no matter what, justification is very important when you are making a point, so be sure to structure each paragraph using the formula "PEE" - Point, evidence (being an analysis of a line, word or the structure of the poem) and explanation. Finally, once you have written your essay, if you have time, be sure to read it through, checking for grammar and spelling errors as much as you can before the end of the exam. Take care with your handwriting as well as this can make life a lot easier for the examiner to understand your points and to give you the grade that you deserve.