Edexcel GCSE Time and Place poems: all 15 poems with analysis

The 15 poems in the Time and Place cluster of the Pearson Edexcel GCSE English Literature poetry anthology (Paper 2 Section B Part 1: Poetry Anthology (Time and Place)), 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 Time and Place 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 Autumn	John Keats	Personified, ripe, peaceful acceptance of change	Lesson
Composed upon Westminster Bridge	William Wordsworth	London calm and beautiful at dawn	Lesson
London	William Blake	Blake's angry view of suffering and control	Lesson
I started Early - Took my Dog	Emily Dickinson	The sea personified	Lesson
Where the Picnic was	Thomas Hardy	Return to a place changed by loss	Lesson
Adlestrop	Edward Thomas	A peaceful remembered moment	Lesson
Home Thoughts from Abroad	Robert Browning	Longing for an English spring	Lesson
First Flight	U A Fanthorpe	Wonder versus boredom on a first flight	Lesson
Stewart Island	Fleur Adcock	A 'paradise' remembered without love (irony)	Lesson
Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan	Moniza Alvi	Pakistani gifts, awkwardness, divided identity, scattered lines	Lesson
Hurricane Hits England	Grace Nichols	The 1987 storm, Caribbean gods, from 'she' to 'I', one earth	Lesson
Nothing's Changed	Tatamkhulu Afrika	District Six after apartheid, the glass symbol, anger that nothing has changed	Lesson
Postcard from a Travel Snob	Sophie Hannah	Satire of a snobbish tourist	Lesson
In Romney Marsh	John Davidson	A vivid English landscape	Lesson
Absence	Elizabeth Jennings	An unchanged garden makes loss painful (earthquake image)	Lesson

Time and Place 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 Autumn	cities and seasons	An ode of three eleven-line stanzas, with a regular rhyme scheme and iambic pentameter.	Where the Picnic was
Composed upon Westminster Bridge	cities and seasons	A Petrarchan sonnet in iambic pentameter: an octave describing the view, then a sestet comparing it with nature and reacting with wonder.	London
London	cities and seasons	Four quatrains with an ABAB rhyme scheme and a steady, marching rhythm, like the speaker's walk, or the trap that holds the people.	Nothing's Changed
I started Early - Took my Dog	memory, journeys and home	Six quatrains in ballad metre (lines alternating four and three beats), the rhythm of hymns Dickinson grew up with.	In Romney Marsh
Where the Picnic was	memory, journeys and home	Four stanzas of short lines with a strong rhyme pattern, which gives a simple, song-like sound that contrasts with the grief beneath.	Absence
Adlestrop	memory, journeys and home	Four quatrains with an ABCB rhyme scheme and a conversational rhythm.	Home Thoughts from Abroad
Home Thoughts from Abroad	memory, journeys and home	Two stanzas: the first about April, the second moving on to May.	Hurricane Hits England
First Flight	travel, distance and absence	Free verse with no rhyme scheme and stanzas of very different lengths, some only a single line.	Postcard from a Travel Snob
Stewart Island	travel, distance and absence	Written as one block of free verse with no stanza breaks, which reads like a spoken memory.	Composed upon Westminster Bridge
Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan	places and identity	Free verse with irregular stanzas.	Hurricane Hits England
Hurricane Hits England	places and identity	Free verse with irregular stanzas.	Home Thoughts from Abroad
Nothing's Changed	places and identity	Free verse in six stanzas, with short lines that build tension.	London
Postcard from a Travel Snob	travel, distance and absence	Written as a postcard, playing on the usual phrase about wishing someone were there: this speaker does not want anyone else to come.	First Flight
In Romney Marsh	memory, journeys and home	Regular quatrains with an ABAB rhyme scheme and iambic tetrameter.	Composed upon Westminster Bridge
Absence	travel, distance and absence	Three stanzas of five lines with a tight rhyme pattern.	Where the Picnic was

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 Autumn and Where the Picnic was
Exam-style question: Compare how the passing of time is presented in To Autumn and Where the Picnic was.
Composed upon Westminster Bridge and London
Exam-style question: Compare how cities are presented in Composed upon Westminster Bridge and London.
London and Nothing's Changed
Exam-style question: Compare how places are presented in London and Nothing's Changed.
I started Early - Took my Dog and In Romney Marsh
Exam-style question: Compare how the sea is presented in I started Early and In Romney Marsh.
Where the Picnic was and Absence
Exam-style question: Compare how places linked to lost loved ones are presented in Where the Picnic was and Absence.
Adlestrop and Home Thoughts from Abroad
Exam-style question: Compare how memories of England are presented in Adlestrop and Home Thoughts from Abroad.
Home Thoughts from Abroad and Hurricane Hits England
Exam-style question: Compare how feelings about home are presented in Home Thoughts from Abroad and Hurricane Hits England.
First Flight and Postcard from a Travel Snob
Exam-style question: Compare how journeys are presented in First Flight and Postcard from a Travel Snob.
Stewart Island and Composed upon Westminster Bridge
Exam-style question: Compare how the beauty of a place is presented in Stewart Island and Composed upon Westminster Bridge.
Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan and Hurricane Hits England
Exam-style question: Compare how identity is presented in Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan and Hurricane Hits England.
In Romney Marsh and Composed upon Westminster Bridge
Exam-style question: Compare how a moment in a place is presented in In Romney Marsh and Composed upon Westminster Bridge.

How to compare two anthology poems in the exam →

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