How to I approach an unseen text/poem

To any student who is required to analyse an unseen text in an exam setting, I would advise them to a set of techniques to notice when annotating the poem which would allow them to uncover literary techniques. These techniques would be in accordance to what the exam marking criteria states to ensure the student meets all the assessment objectives to achieve the highest mark. Having annotated poem in this way, I would ask the student to look at the poem overall in accordance with the question and give an overall answer. I would then direct the student to formulate a paragraph following a structure of Point, Evidence, Technique/Device, Analysis/Evaluation, Link (or a helpful anagram pedal/petal). This would ensure a secure answer that meets all the marking criteria. Here is an example for a pedal paragraph from a previous unseen GCSE poem: 'Explore how Margaret Atwood presents a childhood fascination with snakes' ('Snake Woman') Margaret AtwoodAtwood presents the childhood fascination with snakes as a source of joy and also as a point of empathy for the child. Atwood uses a simple direct opening 'I was once the snake woman' to suggest the child's identification with the snake. The dehumanisation of the speaker 'snake woman' which echoes the title of the poem, is continued in the third stanza when she 'used to hunt with two sticks / among milkweed and under porches and logs'. Here the child has almost become the snake as she 'hunt(s)' like the predator and moves 'under porches and logs', like a snake would. The connotations of cold and dark 'milkweed' and 'logs' demonstrates Atwood using vivid imagery to liken the child to the snake. Overall these similarities in action at the start of the poem and use of imagery emphasise the joy the child took in hunting and watching snakes, so much so that she almost becomes one. This paragraph follows the structure, identifying a technique, analysing it and giving an overall thesis that answers the question sufficiently. I would encourage the student to replicate this across the whole essay using evidence and identifying techniques that cover a range of literary devices (language, form, structure, rhyme etc) while also answering the question engagingly to receive the top mark. I would encourage the student further in the essay to develop surface analysis to find a deeper meaning, for example the snake representing a wider tension in the child's life, her empathy for it therefore having a different connotations. Therefore, even an unseen poem can result in a sophisticated answer.