IGCSE English Literature: Exam Guide for Songs of Ourselves Volume 1 - Paper 1 Essay Writing

Written for: Students writing IGCSE English Literature 0475 from 2026 till 2028

Why is it so hard to score marks for literature essays? Let me tell you the answer. You need to have a good understanding of how to structure them, how to analyse them, how to add your own personal opinion, and how to sound sophisticated while doing this! Worry not, since all of these things can be solved if you stay here with me.

These are the 15 poems chosen by Cambridge from the anthology, written by various poets from different time periods and countries. They are listed alphabetically in this blog post, and new blog posts will be added every week.

1. Love Armed, by Aphra Behn

At first glance, this poem may seem radically feminist – in fact, students even find it hard to analyse the poem in essay format since they feel it's being too harsh on men! However, Aphra Behn's poem is critiquing society, and painting men and women as equal victims: both are suffering from the lack of love within societies that require too much from them, whilst giving back so little.

Whilst Love is negatively presented as a tyrannical man, the second stanza shows us how men are also lacking agency and choice in society when it comes to loving someone properly, with freedom and sincerity. Even though Behn's poem is set in the Restoration era, it contains timeless themes that we can discuss even today, such as: 1) can a relationship be harmful instead of beneficial, 2) can relationships or marriage be purely performative, and 3) how vulnerable and defenseless do we become when we open our hearts to love.

2. A Different History, by Sujata Bhatt

Bhatt's memorable poem is one of the highlights of this collection since contains multiple themes students that can be analysed for the essay. A Different History speaks about the actual value of indigenous and traditional cultures, and the need for these customs to be preserved instead of overlooked in the name of progress.

Moreover, it highlights the role of respect, religion and faith in our lives. It makes us think of how important it is to make sure our identities are holistic, and not something we develop just to seamlessly blend into society, even when (or especially when) we have to ignore certain parts of ourselves in order to fit in. When analysing this poem, we will look at numerous interesting examples that also explore this same topic.

3. Chimney Sweeper, by William Blake

In his collection titled Songs of Innocence and Experience, Blake wrote two Chimney Sweeper poems of the same name: this is the second poem. Its themes persist even today though it was written in the 18th century, and the poem is used to criticize society's harsh attitudes toward the helpless. Blake addresses how numerous children in Britain were forced to sweep chimneys and sleep outdoors on the ground even during harsh winters, and he speaks directly from the perspective of the children.

This poem is a gold-mine for CIE exams due to how layered the interpretations can get. The poem also critiques the Catholic church, which co-existed alongside poverty on the streets, in what can be seen as an attitude that is seemingly indifferent to the sufferings around it. There are themes of religion in this poem, which is also one of the central themes in the collection this poem is taken from.

4. Where I Come From, Elizabeth Brewster

This might be one of the easier poems since it has such memorable imagery and a straightforward commentary. Brewster speaks about how disorienting it can be to move to a new place and leave behind everything you have ever known. While the new place may bring good prospects, new experiences, or a different perspective, the newness it represents may not be wholeheartedly accepted by the newcomer.

This poem explores themes of memory and identity, contrasting pastoral imagery with urban life. Brewster's poem is slightly similar to A Different History, since they both explore how identity can become fragmented, and how we can fight against such fragmentation by introspecting about what means more to us while consciously nurturing our individual identity.

5. Report to Wordsworth, by Boey Kim Cheng

Boey Kim Cheng speaks of how the Earth is dying from industrial waste in the oceans and other forms of pollution. Have you read Daffodils by William Wordsworth? It's one of Wordsworth's many poems that openly celebrate the beauty of nature. Cheng clearly considers Wordsworth, who was a Romantic, as someone who would feel immense disappointment in how nature is being treated by humanity in the 21st century.

In true Romantic fashion, he adds hyperbole and literary allusions likening man-made environmental pollution to be a failure of divine power, and a result of humans not respecting the gods or nature anymore. In this manner, Cheng's poem is similar to A Different History by Sujata Bhatt, since they both touch upon themes such as faith, mythology, and cultural memory, while exploring how modern life may value profit over protecting things we could safeguard.

6. Lament, by Gillian Clarke

Have you looked through war photographs? This poem by Gillian Clarke depicts similar visuals through emotional imagery that highlights different aspects of war. Her main focus is on the harmful and life-threatening effects that war leaves on the environment and on wildlife. The poem explores how these un-alterable damages are caused by us humans, and cries or laments at this loss.

However, the poem also looks into other issues and not just environmental loss. It explores the motivations that humans may have as some selfishly seek self-gain while actually causing a lot of pain. It also muses about the other half of humanity, who are simply affected by war, receiving pain along with nature and the animals. So, the poem is quite nuanced and can fetch a really good grade if you understand it well and add your personal response!

7. The Cockroach, by Kevin Halligan

In my opinion, this is the funniest poem in the collection, and the only one that explores the absurdity of life. The speaker sees himself reflected in a confused cockroach that skitters around rather aimlessly in his room. And the speaker is thinking, does this cockroach know what he's doing? This is anthropomorphic since the cockroach upon such inspection is almost relatable, seemingly having some qualities that we have.

But how to write about this poem in an essay? This is the dilemma students face. If you are familiar with the idea of the Kafkaesque, it will be easier to understand the nuances in the poem. Also, Halligan adds a few existential musings in the poem, exploring questions about why we are all given our own set of luck, or own little puzzle of life that we need to solve. Surprisingly, there is a lot we can analyse in this poem, and it can score a really high grade.

8. Follower, by Seamus Heaney

The Follower is a sweet poem about the circle of life, a phrase I was first introduced to when I watched The Lion King - and the same applies here. The speaker is the son of a farmer, a hardworking laborer working his own fields. We get the perspective of a child again, like we did in Chimney Sweeper, but here the child is well-protected and well-loved by his father, who he also looks up to.

Since he has now grown into a full-fledged adult, the nostalgic tone shifts to his current perspective, which is more ambiguous and loaded with nuance. This poem can be evaluated in multiple ways, as long as you keep your focus on the bonds between the father and son, father and farm, and their connection to the land.

9. Storyteller, Liz Lochhead

This poem becomes a lot easier to understand and analyse if you have Things Fall Apart as part of your Prose Paper. In Lochhead's poem, the woman muses about how people could claim stories are 'useless' when they do so much. In patriarchal settings, stories are sustained by female oral tradition in most cultures, which means they are passed on from mother to children.

However, since the female voice is discredited in such patriarchal settings, the importance of stories is also minimized as a result of this mentality, which values the literal and practical, for the sake of upholding masculinity. According to Lochhead, the dismissal of both of these essentials – the female voice and the importance of stories – overlook something very important in cultural upbringing.

10. Before the Sun, by Charles Mungoshi

Mungoshi's poem is easy to understand but can seem hard when you're trying to write a full essay on it. However, there are many topics you can cover with this poem. It presents a slice-of-life perspective of a boy who is not distracted by technology or the urgencies of industrialism and modern life. Mungoshi presents rural life just like Heaney did in Follower, except the boy is in direct contact with nature, working and sweating much like the other boy's father.

The poem shows romantic and pastoral aspects in the way nature is described with appreciation. The poem also speaks of the importance of physical rest as a reward after work, the benefits we get from slowing down and being fully conscious of time passing around us, and how beautiful it can be when we use nature to our benefit without destroying nature in the process.

11. A Married State, by Katherine Philips

Written during the Restoration period like Aphra Behn's Love Armed, this poem depicts marriage as a burden that women are required to carry with utmost grace. While Behn focuses on whether love could truly exist within marriages during her era, Philip's narrator is more cool, calm and composed as she logically breaks down the drawbacks of marriage during her time period. She addresses young women who are not married yet and uses a cautionary tone.

The poem delves into various gender expectations that women are supposed to follow as they grow into the shoes of a 'wife'. Philips also highlights how men follow a different set of roles in society paired with desirable benefits since societies can condone patriarchal narratives. An important distinction between Philips and Behn: Behn blames society slightly more than she blames the behaviour of men, but Philips finds no reason to give the men around her any excuses for their behaviour.

12. Carpet-Weavers, Morocco, by Carol Rumens

Unsurprisingly one of the best poems that can turn up in your exam since students find it easier to add personal responses to this extremely urgent topic, the poem continues what Blake was speaking about in Chimney Sweeper. By positioning the children as commodified objects who create profitable objects, Rumens highlights how labour can be unethically sources at low prices from people who are at an economic disadvantage, highlighting the faults of capitalism.

Similar to Chimney Sweeper, the Carpet Weavers are losing their childhood as they are forced to function as adults and contribute to a society that fails to consider them. The poem also criticises cultural insensitivity, where people separate products from their source, and Rumens also hints at how artistry and artistic potential can go uncredited.

13. Sonnet 18, by William Shakespeare

Sonnet about love can be interesting since they compartmentalise something passionate into the constraints of traditional, structured order. This Shakespearean sonnet shows abject admiration for the person the narrator seems to fancy and also hints at the theme of unrequited love. The poem is written for someone who is a youth, and someone who is seen as perfect by the poet – in a manner that seems like they are being idealised for their beauty.

The poem also speaks about how love has the ability to transcend, or the capacity to elevate us beyond our mere physicality or even our mortality, in the eyes of the person who loves us. The poet speaks of how death, or the effects of time or nature, cannot touch this specific beauty that the person holds.

14. Hunting Snake, by Judith Wright

This is definitely one of the easiest poems in this collection to understand, but one of the harder ones to write an essay on, since students tend to repeat words like 'beauty' one too many times. In true Romantic fashion, Wright's speaker is frozen in time and space as they witness the breathtaking quality of the hunting snake: witnessing the strength and duality of the sublime.

Judith Wright writes about nature with the same awe and respect that Sujata Bhatt prescribed as ideal in A Different History. Also, the speaker is in a natural environment, harmlessly trekking through the habitat of the hunting snake -instead of the other way around- which poets like Clarke and Cheng would appreciate, as evident in their respective poems, Lament and A Report to Wordsworth.

15. From 'An Essay on Man', by Alexander Pope

We only have to learn a small portion of Pope's Essay on Man, and yet this is one of the hardest poems for students. This portion is taken from the opening verse of the second epistle and is one of the most famous parts of this work. Pope uses this verse to talk about humans are to introspect and to understand our own human nature.

Pope mentions faith and religion, as well as mankind's connection to the divine. However, he also speaks about the existential nature of our condition, as we try to find a good balance between what we may be supposed to do, and what are actually able to do. So, we have a poem full of contradictions, which is the dilemma that Pope wanted the readers to deeply consider.