I wrote this essay during a poetry lesson with a student who is taking the CIE / Cambridge IGCSE exam. It wasn’t written under timed conditions so the middle paragraphs are slightly longer than you’d ideally aim for on your own, but I tried to include all of the main important ideas that you’...
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Essay Examples: “Plenty”
by Isobel Dixon
I wrote this essay during a poetry lesson with a student who is taking the CIE / Cambridge IGCSE exam..
It wasn’t written under timed conditions so the middle paragraphs are slightly longer than you’d ideally
aim for in your own, but I tried to include all of the main important ideas that you’d need for a high A
or A* (L7L8/L9) grade at GCSE — including analysis of form, structure and language, a clear layout, a
central argument and understanding deeper meanings and alternative interpretations. Enjoy!
THE QUESTION
How does the poet present the theme of childhood in ‘Plenty’?
THE ESSAY
Dixon’s reflective poem explores the difficulties of growing up in poverty as the poet describes her
family’s ‘lean, dry times’ during her ‘long childhood’. However, at the same time she demonstrates
positive experiences that can develop from difficult times, and we realise that overall she had a happy
start to her life. Overall, though some children have less money than others, Dixon demonstrates that
a strong family relationship is the most important factor to a happy childhood, and we get a sense that
though she is now richer she also feels more lonely.
Firstly, Dixon explores her own childhood by looking back on the state of poverty she and her siblings
lived in as her single mother struggled to provide for them all. The title ‘Plenty’ directly juxtaposes
the imagery of the play, as it connotes abundance but we are presented with images of difficulty and
hardship: ‘my mother’s quiet despair’, ‘sums and worries’, ‘our expanse of drought’. This destabilises
the reader’s sense of the poem, as we at first expect the topic to be about the poet’s wealth and her
fortunate circumstances. In particular, the sibilance of the phrase ‘sums and worries’ creates a low
buzzing atmosphere, implying that there was always a constant anxiety hanging over the mother
when she tried hard to provide for her children. Furthermore, the metaphor ‘drought’ references the
central connecting image of the poem — taking a bath — and suggests that the poet views having
more than enough water as a sign of luxury. Water is symbolic of life, but it is also often considered
a basic necessity by many — especially those in the developed world. This makes us compare our
own childhood experiences to hers; we either find that we too struggled to have enough and similarly
remember basic needs such as water and heat being scarce, or we realise that we have taken them for
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