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Year 10
AQA

Identifying how poets reminisce and remember loved ones

I can identify similarities and differences between 'Eden Rock’, 'Climbing My Grandfather’ and 'Before You Were Mine’.

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New
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Year 10
AQA

Identifying how poets reminisce and remember loved ones

I can identify similarities and differences between 'Eden Rock’, 'Climbing My Grandfather’ and 'Before You Were Mine’.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. The poets reminisce on memories of familial relations.
  2. The poets convey the admiration they felt towards their loved ones.
  3. The poets present the process of reminiscing on a loved one as complicated and multifaceted.
  4. Duffy and Waterhouse reflect on childhood memories, but Causley creates ambiguity, possibly symbolising the afterlife.
  5. Exploring differences within similarities can result in a nuanced analysis.

Keywords

  • Familial - related to to familial bonds and relationships

  • Reminisce - recall past experiences or events with fondness or nostalgia

  • Ambiguous - unclear or having multiple interpretations

  • Multifaceted - having many different aspects or facets

  • Tentative language - words or expressions used to convey uncertainty

Common misconception

All three poems reflect on memories of a loved one who is now dead.

Causley's use of an uncanny setting implies that the two parents are now in the afterlife, guiding the speaker's "[c]rossing", however Duffy and Waterhouse use language linked to death/loss ("ghost", "pulse") but do not imply the relative has died.

Encourage students to use different coloured pens to mark out any similarities or nuanced differences they can see across all three poems.
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Teacher tip
equipment-required

Equipment

You will need access to 'Eden Rock' (Causley), 'Climbing My Grandfather' (Waterhouse) and 'Before You Were Mine' (Duffy). They can be found in the AQA Love and Relationships Poetry Anthology.

content-guidance

Content guidance

  • Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
supervision-level

Supervision

Adult supervision recommended

copyright

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on
Open Government Licence version 3.0
except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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Starter quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
'Before You Were Mine' focuses on...
the speaker's childhood memory of their Grandfather.
Correct answer: the speaker's perspective on how motherhood affected their mother's life.
an uncanny scene between the speaker and their parents.
a fragmented relationship; the speaker yearns to be reunited with their lover.
an illicit affair that the speaker now regrets their part in.
Q2.
'Eden Rock' is set in...
various locations in Scotland where the poet travelled extensively.
Wales, where the poet grew up and went to school.
Correct answer: a fictional location, rumoured to be based on the Cornish landscape.
London during the Victorian era.
the speaker's childhood home.
Q3.
'Climbing My Grandfather' conveys a multifaceted impression of the Grandfather, as familiar and ...
intimidating
self-conscious
Correct answer: mysterious
eccentric
Q4.
Match each of these key quotations to the correct poem.
Correct Answer:"scramble",'Climbing My Grandfather'
tick

'Climbing My Grandfather'

Correct Answer:"Thermos",'Eden Rock'
tick

'Eden Rock'

Correct Answer:"relics",'Before You Were Mine'
tick

'Before You Were Mine'

Q5.
Which of the three titles include possessive pronouns?
Correct answer: 'Climbing My Grandfather'
'Eden Rock'
Correct answer: 'Before You Were Mine'
Q6.
What does the word ambiguous mean?
explicit; clearly stated from the start
constantly changing or adapting
two opposite ideas found near to or next to each other
Correct answer: uncertain, unclear; open to multiple interpretations
consecutive lines of poetry that begin with the same word(s)

Exit quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Complete this sentence: 'In 'Climbing My Grandfather', Waterhouse presents the Grandfather as an ambiguous figure because the speaker's descriptions of him are .'
multiplicitous
tentative
Correct answer: multifaceted
explicit
implicit
Q2.
'Climbing My Grandfather', 'Eden Rock', and 'Before You Were Mine' all show examples of which type of relationship?
romantic
fragmented
parental
Correct answer: familial
Q3.
'Climbing My Grandfather', 'Eden Rock', and 'Before You Were Mine' describe...
the end of a relationship.
Correct answer: childhood memories.
a moment in the future.
a moment of conflict.
a moment of realisation.
Q4.
In 'Eden Rock', the speaker refers to his parents as "mother" and "father". This implies...
they have a really close relationship because they are his parents.
Correct answer: their relationship is detached and less familiar.
he doesn't want people to know their real names.
Q5.
Which of the following statements contains correlative conjunctions?
Waterhouse implies that speaker admires his grandfather
Correct answer: Both Waterhouse and Causley use the present tense to describe a childhood memory
Duffy use four stanzas whereas Waterhouse uses only one unbroken stanza
All three poems describe familial relationships
Q6.
Which of these quotations from 'Eden Rock' helps to create a sense of the uncanny?
Correct answer: "somewhere"
"Tweed"
"Thermos"
"drifted"
"beckon"