SECTION B, Part 2 – Unseen Poetry
Read the two poems and answer Question 11.
You should spend about 45 minutes on this section.
Poem 1: The Killer Snails
The killer snails
Have slung their silver trails
Along the doormat, out across the lawn,
Under the bushes
Where the alarming thrushes* 5
Give night its notice, making way for dawn,
And the obliging lizards drop their tails.
On webs of dew
The spiders stir their pots of glue
And drag their quartered victims to the shade. 10
Soaked in their rugs
Of grass and moss the slugs
Wind up another night of sluggish trade
And young ingredients get into a stew.
The sorrel** bends. 15
The path fades out but never ends
Where brambles clutch and bracken wipes your feet.
It goes in rings.
Its mind’s on other things.
Its way and its intentions never meet. 20
Meetings of friends?
It gives no undertaking. It depends.
James Fenton
Glossary:
* thrushes: a type of bird
** sorrel: a plant; a type of herb
Poem 2: Considering the Snail
The snail pushes through a green
night, for the grass is heavy
with water and meets over
the bright path he makes, where rain
has darkened the earth’s dark. He 5
moves in a wood of desire,
pale antlers barely stirring
as he hunts. I cannot tell
what power is at work, drenched there
with purpose, knowing nothing. 10
What is a snail’s fury? All
I think is that if later
I parted the blades above
the tunnel and saw the thin
trail of broken white across 15
litter, I would never have
imagined the slow passion
to that deliberate progress.
Thom Gunn
11 Compare the ways the writers present snails in The Killer
Snails and Considering
the Snail.
In your answer, you should compare:
• the ideas in the poems
• the poets’ use of language
• the poets’ use of form and structure.
Use evidence from the poems to support your comparison.
