GCSE Unseen Poetry Practice: Lightly Is the Language

Explore a new unseen poem by Stephen Sexton. A video interview with the poet and an accompanying worksheet illustrate techniques GCSE students can use to practise approaching unseen poems.

Aimed at Key Stage 4 students, the video introduces students to the ‘5 Ws - who/ what/ where/ why/ when’, the ‘2 Ts - theme and tone’, and the concept of ‘perspective’. Approaches to the unseen covered here can be applied to other poems students might meet in the future. The video comes with an accompanying worksheet, freely available to download.

We hear the poem, ‘Lightly Is the Language’, read aloud by the poet and watch an interview with him, explaining why he made particular poetic choices. Along the way, the video touches on features of language, aiming to bring literary terminology alive and offering a fascinating insight into why poets use different poetic devices.