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Year 10
Eduqas

Analysing 'Cozy Apologia' by Rita Dove

I can analyse how Dove presents her love in ‘Cozy Apologia’.

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Year 10
Eduqas

Analysing 'Cozy Apologia' by Rita Dove

I can analyse how Dove presents her love in ‘Cozy Apologia’.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Arguably, Dove tells a series of stories in the poem that all illustrate her love for her husband.
  2. Dove uses humour to avoid this becoming a cliched poem about love.
  3. Dove portrays her relationship as mundane, but secure and safe.
  4. A person’s interpretation of a poem is unique to them; as long as it can be supported with evidence, it is valid.
  5. It can be useful to consider multiple interpretations of a poem to enhance your understanding of it.

Keywords

  • Mundane - ordinary/usual.

  • Inseparable - never apart - always together.

  • Interpretation - your personal response to a text.

  • Proximity - the nearness or closeness of something.

Common misconception

Students may fail to recognise that arguably, this poem is a series of stories instead of one 'big' story.

Dove arguably tells several small stories which all contribute to our understanding of the depth of love between her and her husband - Fred.


To help you plan your year 10 english lesson on: Analysing 'Cozy Apologia' by Rita Dove, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

As an extension of the lesson, you could ask students to come up with as many explanations for Dove's comparison of her teenage relationships to 'licorice' as possible - what is she trying to say about them?
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Teacher tip
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Equipment

You will need access to a copy of the Eduqas poetry anthology for this lesson.

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Content guidance

  • Depiction or discussion of discriminatory behaviour
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.
Who is the 'you' in 'Cozy Apologia'?
Dove's son
Dove's cousin
Dove's brother
Correct answer: Dove's husband
Dove's father
Q2.
What does Dove compare her teenage relationships to in 'Cozy Apologia'?
spearmint
jelly
Correct answer: licorice
gum
Q3.
What does Dove compare her and her husband's desks to in 'Cozy Apologia'?
cradles
Correct answer: birds' nests
a warm embrace
a fox's den
Q4.
What method does Dove use to compare the desks to birds' nests 'Cozy Apologia'?
onomatopoeia
Correct answer: metaphor
simile
personification
Q5.
What image of her husband does Dove evoke in the first stanza of the poem 'Cozy Apologia'?
him as a bird of prey
him as chewy licorice
him as a strong hurricane
Correct answer: him as a knight-in-shining armour
Q6.
How does Dove portray her relationship with her husband in 'Cozy Apologia'?
as exciting and unpredictable
as extraordinarily-romantic
Correct answer: as mundane, but secure
as strained and delicate

Exit quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
What is the last word in the poem 'Cozy Apologia'?
stolen
me
Correct answer: you
ordinary
Floyd
Q2.
Which word does Dove use to describe her and her husband's desks in 'Cozy Apologia'?
Correct Answer: twin, "twin"
Q3.
Which of the following are connotations of the word "astride" in 'Cozy Apologia'?
Correct answer: boldness
cowardice
Correct answer: bravery
weakness
humour
Q4.
Which of the following words means 'the nearness or the closeness of something'?
inseparable
interpretation
Correct answer: proximity
mundanity
Q5.
Starting with the first, put the stories Dove tells in 'Cozy Apologia' in order of when they appear in the poem.
1 - She tells the story of sitting at her desk writing a poem.
2 - She tells the story of a heroic knight preparing to defeat a common enemy.
3 - She tells the story of the fast-approaching hurricane Floyd.
4 - She tells the story of her childhood/teenage crushes.
5 - She tells the story of two people working remotely, but together.
Q6.
What might be the significance of Dove opening 'Cozy Apologia' by describing the objects around the desk she is sitting at?
It shows us the wealth the couple have acquired together over the years.
Correct answer: He is her biggest inspiration so she embraces the opportunity to write about him
She can't escape her husband's influence even though she wants to.
It shows her anxiety as she waits for hurricane Floyd to arrive.