2021HSCShort answer

Q2

3 marks

Question

Text 2 — Poem
How effectively does the use of imagery convey a human experience?

Text 2 — Poem
For B, at Plaza Blanca, New Mexico*,
having known each other three days.
Here, you said, this is a piece of quartz.
Take it, and close your hand around it.
The rock was heavy for something so small. Its rough
edges pressed my outline, changed my shape in a small way.
I turned it over. I closed my hand around it.
The rock made me think of difficult work
like lowering yourself into a bath. The quartz made me think
of the enormous past, a vast plateau, on which the present moment holds still—
full and complete. I looked around. We were wrapped in the loose embrace
of the ground, and the bare trees, and the low-slung clouds. The rock
is ancient. The white formations of Plaza Blanca are ancient, as sleep is ancient—
and our young lives are winks in a deep night, wrinkles
on a long green sea. The sea is more alien than the moon to that white place. You
smiled. You smiled as if to say we are two odd birds, aren’t we?
I unclosed my hand
and the quartz bloomed there—
CHARLOTTE GUEST
With kind permission of Charlotte Guest / AP Anthology

Plaza Blanca, New Mexico ‘Plaza Blanca’ translates from the Spanish as ‘the white place’.
It is a region that is famous for large white limestone formations.

Try the question before revealing the answer.

Solution

Criteria	Marks
Demonstrates an effective understanding of how imagery is used in the poem to convey a human experience	3
Demonstrates an understanding of how imagery is used in the poem to convey a human experience	2
Demonstrates some knowledge of imagery in the poem	1

Sample answer:

The poet uses imagery to portray the persona’s memorable experience with B at Plaza Blanca. The quartz is an effective image as it is a part of the ancient landscape that symbolises ‘the enormous past’. There are also evocative contrasting images when the persona realises how momentary they are in comparison to the landscape. For example, the simile that describes ‘the white formations’ as being ‘ancient, as sleep is ancient’ is sharply contrasted with the metaphors describing their lives as ‘winks in a deep night, wrinkles/on a long green sea’.

Supplied marking guidance · human reviewed

Compare this with your working, not only your final sentence.

Syllabus alignment

Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences

Texts and Human ExperiencesAnalyse and evaluate how texts use language to represent human experiences, qualities, emotions, anomalies, paradoxes and inconsistencies.

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