Eden Rock - GCSE Poetry

Eden Rock

This two-lesson mini-unit explores Charles Causley’s ‘Eden Rock’ in detail. Designed for GCSE pupils studying the AQA Love and Relationships cluster, this resource looks at the poem in depth and explains how to compare it to other poems from the anthology. The resource is made up of a 57-slide editable PowerPoint presentation and 7 accompanying worksheets.

The two lessons contain the following:

Lesson One

Context – A brief outline of Charles Causley’s life and factors that may have inspired the poem.

First Contact – An initial reading of ‘Eden Rock’ with a glossary included. Comprehension questions with answers.

Exploring Meaning – Analysing ‘Eden Rock’ in detail. Exploring key imagery and answering questions that delve deeper. Model answers provided.

Essay Writing – An essay question to assess initial understanding. An example answer is included.

Lesson Two

Themes – Analysing the themes of ‘Eden Rock’ - parent/child relationships, memory, distance and death.

Language – Exploring Causley’s use of language. An analysis of imagery and a line-by-line examination of the poem, with questions and answers.

Structure and Form – How Causley uses the first-person perspective, caesura, rhyme and enjambment.

The GCSE Exam – Comparing ‘Eden Rock’ with ‘Neutral Tones and ‘Mother, Any Distance’. Model answers included.