Edexcel GCSE Belonging poems: all 15 poems with analysis

The 15 poems in the Belonging cluster of the Pearson Edexcel GCSE English Literature poetry anthology (Paper 2 Section B Part 1: Poetry Anthology (Belonging)), with the key ideas of each one, a printable comparison grid and pairs of poems to compare. Every poem has a free lesson on its context, form and key methods.

All 15 Belonging poems

Poems in lesson order. Key ideas are summaries in our own words; use your anthology for exact quotations.
Poem	Poet	Key ideas	Lesson
To My Sister	William Wordsworth	Shared joy in spring nature	Lesson
Sunday Dip	John Clare	Village boys' shared freedom	Lesson
Mild the Mist Upon the Hill	Emily Brontë	Memory of home and childhood, nostalgia	Lesson
Captain Cook (To My Brother)	Letitia Elizabeth Landon	Imaginative play with a brother, a world now gone	Lesson
Clear and Gentle Stream	Robert Bridges	Lasting bond with a place from youth	Lesson
I Remember, I Remember	Thomas Hood	Nostalgic repetition, loss of childhood innocence	Lesson
Island Man	Grace Nichols	Caribbean dreams against London traffic	Lesson
Peckham Rye Lane	Amy Blakemore	A busy London street and Blake's angels	Lesson
We Refugees	Benjamin Zephaniah	Anaphora and 'we', anyone can become a refugee	Lesson
Us	Zaffar Kunial	Who 'us' includes (wordplay, sea and wave images)	Lesson
In Wales, wanting to be Italian	Imtiaz Dharker	Longing for another identity (questions)	Lesson
Kumukanda	Kayo Chingonyi	A missed Luvale rite of passage; growing up through grief	Lesson
Jamaican British	Raymond Antrobus	Claiming both heritages (refrain)	Lesson
My Mother's Kitchen	Choman Hardi	Objects can be inherited, roots cannot	Lesson
The Émigrée	Carol Rumens	A city of childhood kept full of sunlight	Lesson

Belonging themes

These lessons group the poems by theme and compare them side by side.

Comparison grid

Print this grid and add your own notes and short quotations in the last column as you revise each poem.

Poem	Theme	Form	Compare with
To My Sister	nature and childhood	A series of quatrains with an ABAB rhyme scheme, in short lines.	Sunday Dip
Sunday Dip	nature and childhood	Fourteen lines of rhyming couplets (AABB) in a steady ten-syllable rhythm.	Captain Cook (To My Brother)
Mild the Mist Upon the Hill	nature and childhood	Four quatrains with an ABAB rhyme scheme and short, gentle lines.	I Remember, I Remember
Captain Cook (To My Brother)	memory, family and the past	Eight quatrains in rhyming couplets (AABB) with long, flowing lines.	I Remember, I Remember
Clear and Gentle Stream	nature and childhood	Four twelve-line stanzas of very short lines, each with three stresses, which give a light, song-like rhythm.	Mild the Mist Upon the Hill
I Remember, I Remember	memory, family and the past	Four eight-line stanzas in which the even-numbered lines rhyme, with a regular, song-like rhythm.	Clear and Gentle Stream
Island Man	migration and displacement	Short free verse stanzas with almost no punctuation.	The Émigrée
Peckham Rye Lane	identity, heritage and community	Free verse with no regular rhyme or rhythm, which suits the noise and variety of the street.	Island Man
We Refugees	migration and displacement	Free verse in stanzas of different lengths, with a plain, conversational voice.	My Mother's Kitchen
Us	identity, heritage and community	Seven tercets (three-line stanzas) followed by a single final line.	We Refugees
In Wales, wanting to be Italian	identity, heritage and community	Free verse in four stanzas of uneven length, with no regular rhyme.	Jamaican British
Kumukanda	identity, heritage and community	Three six-line stanzas of free verse, with long sentences carried across lines by enjambment, which makes it feel thoughtful and conversational.	Jamaican British
Jamaican British	identity, heritage and community	Free verse in short, loosely paired lines, with no regular rhyme or metre.	Kumukanda
My Mother's Kitchen	migration and displacement	Free verse in three unrhymed stanzas.	We Refugees
The Émigrée	migration and displacement	Free verse in three long stanzas, each ending with the word sunlight.	Island Man

Suggested pairs to compare

Each pair comes from the comparison question in one of our poem lessons, where you will find a worked answer.

To My Sister and Sunday Dip
Exam-style question: Compare how belonging in nature is presented in To My Sister and Sunday Dip.
Sunday Dip and Captain Cook (To My Brother)
Exam-style question: Compare how childhood play is presented in Sunday Dip and Captain Cook (To My Brother).
Mild the Mist Upon the Hill and I Remember, I Remember
Exam-style question: Compare how memories of a childhood home are presented in Mild the Mist Upon the Hill and I Remember, I Remember.
Captain Cook (To My Brother) and I Remember, I Remember
Exam-style question: Compare how the loss of childhood is presented in Captain Cook (To My Brother) and I Remember, I Remember.
Clear and Gentle Stream and Mild the Mist Upon the Hill
Exam-style question: Compare how places linked to childhood are presented in Clear and Gentle Stream and Mild the Mist Upon the Hill.
I Remember, I Remember and Clear and Gentle Stream
Exam-style question: Compare how adults looking back on childhood are presented in I Remember, I Remember and Clear and Gentle Stream.
Island Man and The Émigrée
Exam-style question: Compare how memories of a homeland are presented in Island Man and The Émigrée.
Peckham Rye Lane and Island Man
Exam-style question: Compare how life in London is presented in Peckham Rye Lane and Island Man.
We Refugees and My Mother's Kitchen
Exam-style question: Compare how leaving home is presented in We Refugees and My Mother's Kitchen.
Us and We Refugees
Exam-style question: Compare how shared belonging is presented in Us and We Refugees.
In Wales, wanting to be Italian and Jamaican British
Exam-style question: Compare how identity is presented in In Wales, wanting to be Italian and Jamaican British.
Kumukanda and Jamaican British
Exam-style question: Compare how heritage is presented in Kumukanda and Jamaican British.

How to compare two anthology poems in the exam →

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