Grade 9 comparison of two Robert Browning dramatic monologues about possessive love. Thesis, three comparison paragraphs, quotations and context. Written by GCSE markers.
What you need to know about AQA Love and Relationships
Fifteen poems on love and relationships - familial, romantic, tragic, obsessive, lost. One of two AQA anthology clusters and the most commonly studied at KS4.
About AQA Love and Relationships
The AQA Love and Relationships cluster sits in Section B of AQA Paper 2 (8702/2). Candidates answer one comparison question on one named poem plus one unseen poem of their choice from the rest of the cluster. The comparison is worth 30 marks plus 4 marks for SPaG.
The cluster spans four centuries: Shakespeare's Sonnet 29, Browning's dramatic monologues, Duffy's post-feminist love lyrics, Sheenagh Pugh's contemporary voices. Students find the range of form and period challenging - sonnet vs dramatic monologue vs free verse - but this variety is also what makes the cluster examinable in depth.
Strong Love and Relationships essays treat the poems as a conversation across time about what love means. Weak essays treat them as fifteen unrelated set texts. The single best move for most students is to map out 4-5 "thematic pairings" (e.g. grief of losing a parent: Walking Away + Mother Any Distance) that they can deploy regardless of which poem is named on the paper.
How this is assessed
AQA 8702
Paper 2: Modern texts and poetry · Section B - Anthology poetry comparison
30 marks · 45 minutes recommended
- AO1 (12 marks) - Response to both poems, textual reference
- AO2 (12 marks) - Methods analysis (language, form, structure) in BOTH poems
- AO3 (6 marks) - Context - romantic, Victorian, modern, contemporary
- AO4 (+ 4 marks) - SPaG
Key quotations
"I love thee to the depth and breadth and height"
Sonnet 43, Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Tricolon + spatial metaphor + archaic "thee". EBB maps love onto dimensions - its hyperbole is sincere rather than comic, reinforced by the Petrarchan sonnet form.
"I gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together"
My Last Duchess, Robert Browning
Caesura + euphemism. The Duke's three-word admission of uxoricide is made more chilling by the calm syntactic control - the line break does the work.
"I can see / You walking away from me towards the school"
Walking Away, C. Day-Lewis
Present tense + direct address. Day-Lewis collapses the eighteen-year gap between the moment and the writing, making memory feel immediate. The line break enacts the separation it describes.
"Love's not Time's fool"
Sonnet 116, Shakespeare
Personification + possessive. Love defies the temporal logic that governs every other human thing. The closed Shakespearean couplet enacts the permanence it claims.
"my bride / she effing at my mum"
Singh Song!, Daljit Nagra
Code-switching + Punjabi-English vernacular. Nagra dramatises a mixed-heritage marriage in the very texture of the language - comic, affectionate, irreverent.
"She sleeps up in the attic there / Alone, poor maid."
The Farmer's Bride, Charlotte Mew
Spatial separation + tonal slip. The farmer's pity ("poor maid") sits uncomfortably with his role in her isolation; Mew lets the dramatic monologue indict its own speaker.
Exam tips for AQA Love and Relationships
- Use a comparative thesis in your opening paragraph that names both poems and the shared theme explicitly.
- Alternate poems paragraph-by-paragraph or point-by-point. Do NOT write all of Poem A and then all of Poem B - that scores lower on AQA AO2.
- Memorise 3-4 quotes per poem. Thirty quotes across the 15-poem cluster is enough to answer any question.
- Context matters but do not over-historicise. "Browning's dramatic monologue ventriloquises male power in Victorian marriage" is better than "In Victorian times men were in charge".
- For the unseen paired poem, pick one you have prepared - AQA lets you choose. Pick the easiest valid comparison, not the most thematically ambitious.
- Name the form: sonnet, dramatic monologue, free verse, ballad. Naming form is the fastest route to three AO2 marks.
What Grade 9 answers do
- Genuinely comparative structure - every paragraph develops BOTH poems
- Context anchored to specific literary-historical movements (Petrarchan tradition, Victorian dramatic monologue, confessional poetry)
- Form and structure named correctly and related to meaning
- Zoom into single-word analysis in both poems
- Conceptual thesis that names a shared idea and an important difference
- Acknowledgement of alternative readings
Applying this to Porphyrias Lover Vs My Last Duchess
Grade 9 comparison of two Robert Browning dramatic monologues about possessive love. Thesis, three comparison paragraphs, quotations and context. Written by GCSE markers. Use the analysis above as a structural frame for your own response - pick two or three quotations, attach the methods analysis, and weave the assessment context into your conclusion.
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Frequently asked questions
Which 3 AQA Love and Relationships poems should I prioritise?
Strong starter trio: Sonnet 29 (Browning) - sonnet form is explicit, context is clear; Walking Away - emotional range and modern voice; My Last Duchess - dramatic monologue for gender/power essays.
Do I have to compare the named poem with a specific second poem?
No. AQA prints one poem and asks you to compare it with any other of your choice from the cluster. Practise pairings in advance - pick the one that gives you the richest points.
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