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IGCSE · Cambridge (CIE) · 0408

2026–2027 poetry · recall all fourteen and review the evidence

Test whole-poem knowledge beyond recognition · Check event, voice, form and ending accuracy · Plan a revision based on a specific gap

Cambridge IGCSE World Literature 0408 · SET-2026-5 / SET-2027-5 / 2025-P3-A / 2025-P3-B
Exam scope and assessment notes

0408 preparation for exam year(s) 2026, 2027. The assessment changes in 2028; follow the component and selected texts for your year. Original StudyForA commentary and practice for the 2026–2027 Songs of Ourselves Volume 1 Paper 3 option. Read all fourteen prescribed poems in your centre-selected anthology; linked texts may differ in spelling, punctuation or layout. Brief quotations are separated from commentary, and full protected poems are not reproduced here. Archival papers are sources for the poem text, not the current 0408 paper rules. Models do not award Cambridge marks or grades. Alternative supported interpretations can be valid. Teacher assessment and calibrated full papers remain unfinished. This is neither the 2025 Volume 2 selection nor the revised 2028–2030 compulsory Paper 2 selection, and listed poems are not eligible texts for 2026–2027 coursework.

Before you begin

  • Confirm that your centre selected the 2026 or 2027 Volume 1 poetry option. Have the complete poem and its original line/stanza layout open. For this option prepare every prescribed member, not only favourites; private candidates cannot enter 0408.

Work on paper. Try each question before revealing help, and explain why your method works.

Quick readiness check

What should support a claim about a literary text?

What you will learn

  • Test whole-poem knowledge beyond recognition
  • Check event, voice, form and ending accuracy
  • Plan a revision based on a specific gap

Fourteen-poem retrieval and evidence review

  • Attempt each question without the poem, then check the complete anthology text.
  • For every answer add two precise references, explain the methods and test a possible complication.
  • A model identifies a direction for reasoning; it does not certify complete reading, award marks or require identical interpretation.

These are self-review prompts covering every 2026–2027 prescribed poem. Complete poems, independent writing and teacher feedback are still needed; a remembered title is not evidence of understanding.

Childhood · Frances Cornford

Recall first; then reopen the complete poem and verify your references.

  1. 1. What changes in the remembered understanding, and what observed action supports that change?

    Compare after trying

    A mistaken belief about chosen age changes after the older woman struggles with her beads. The closing parallel extends vulnerability to the speaker.

    A complete response should use accurate details from distinct moments, explain how the wording or form matters, and address a relevant alternative or limit.

    Why this response fits

    • Check the event, voice or change against the full poem.
    • An assertion without precise textual support remains unfinished, even if it resembles the model.

Because I Could Not Stop for Death · Emily Dickinson

Recall first; then reopen the complete poem and verify your references.

  1. 1. How do the journey’s courtesy, later correction and final time scale complicate a wholly comforting reading?

    Compare after trying

    Polite presentation is tested by vulnerability and altered agency. The retrospective ending reaches beyond ordinary daily time.

    A complete response should use accurate details from distinct moments, explain how the wording or form matters, and address a relevant alternative or limit.

    Why this response fits

    • Check the event, voice or change against the full poem.
    • An assertion without precise textual support remains unfinished, even if it resembles the model.

One Art · Elizabeth Bishop

Recall first; then reopen the complete poem and verify your references.

  1. 1. How does the final language put pressure on the opening lesson about loss?

    Compare after trying

    The increasingly personal loss, modified claim and self-command complicate effortless mastery. Formal recurrence can show labour as well as control.

    A complete response should use accurate details from distinct moments, explain how the wording or form matters, and address a relevant alternative or limit.

    Why this response fits

    • Check the event, voice or change against the full poem.
    • An assertion without precise textual support remains unfinished, even if it resembles the model.

Song: Tears, Idle Tears · Alfred Lord Tennyson

Recall first; then reopen the complete poem and verify your references.

  1. 1. What changes around the recurring return to the past, and why does recurrence not resolve the loss?

    Compare after trying

    Varied sensory comparisons make recollection vivid, while the repeated return keeps irrecoverability present.

    A complete response should use accurate details from distinct moments, explain how the wording or form matters, and address a relevant alternative or limit.

    Why this response fits

    • Check the event, voice or change against the full poem.
    • An assertion without precise textual support remains unfinished, even if it resembles the model.

My Parents · Stephen Spender

Recall first; then reopen the complete poem and verify your references.

  1. 1. How does the ending distinguish a wish for connection from a connection achieved?

    Compare after trying

    Outward expression and inward desire are not matched by the other children’s response. The ending remains unresolved.

    A complete response should use accurate details from distinct moments, explain how the wording or form matters, and address a relevant alternative or limit.

    Why this response fits

    • Check the event, voice or change against the full poem.
    • An assertion without precise textual support remains unfinished, even if it resembles the model.

For Heidi with Blue Hair · Fleur Adcock

Recall first; then reopen the complete poem and verify your references.

  1. 1. How does the later disclosure change the dispute’s tone, and when does the friend’s gesture occur?

    Compare after trying

    Bereavement complicates the wit. The friend’s solidarity follows the school’s concession rather than causing it.

    A complete response should use accurate details from distinct moments, explain how the wording or form matters, and address a relevant alternative or limit.

    Why this response fits

    • Check the event, voice or change against the full poem.
    • An assertion without precise textual support remains unfinished, even if it resembles the model.

Praise Song for my Mother · Grace Nichols

Recall first; then reopen the complete poem and verify your references.

  1. 1. How does the final change of voice extend the earlier praise?

    Compare after trying

    The nourished relationship gains an outward future when the mother’s direct encouragement permits growth beyond herself.

    A complete response should use accurate details from distinct moments, explain how the wording or form matters, and address a relevant alternative or limit.

    Why this response fits

    • Check the event, voice or change against the full poem.
    • An assertion without precise textual support remains unfinished, even if it resembles the model.

Follower · Seamus Heaney

Recall first; then reopen the complete poem and verify your references.

  1. 1. What is reversed at the end, and how should a reading qualify its precise meaning?

    Compare after trying

    The leading father becomes the figure behind the speaker. Changed dependence or continuing burden needs support rather than a diagnosis.

    A complete response should use accurate details from distinct moments, explain how the wording or form matters, and address a relevant alternative or limit.

    Why this response fits

    • Check the event, voice or change against the full poem.
    • An assertion without precise textual support remains unfinished, even if it resembles the model.

The Trees are Down · Charlotte Mew

Recall first; then reopen the complete poem and verify your references.

  1. 1. How do sound, the animal memory and the closing frame develop the protest?

    Compare after trying

    The sensory cutting contrasts with sympathy extending beyond beauty; the returning warning sustains protest without restoring the trees.

    A complete response should use accurate details from distinct moments, explain how the wording or form matters, and address a relevant alternative or limit.

    Why this response fits

    • Check the event, voice or change against the full poem.
    • An assertion without precise textual support remains unfinished, even if it resembles the model.

The Trees · Philip Larkin

Recall first; then reopen the complete poem and verify your references.

  1. 1. What impression is corrected in the middle, and how does that qualify the ending?

    Compare after trying

    Renewal does not make the trees immortal. Recorded age lets a renewed beginning remain possible within time and death.

    A complete response should use accurate details from distinct moments, explain how the wording or form matters, and address a relevant alternative or limit.

    Why this response fits

    • Check the event, voice or change against the full poem.
    • An assertion without precise textual support remains unfinished, even if it resembles the model.

Time’s Fool · Ruth Pitter

Recall first; then reopen the complete poem and verify your references.

  1. 1. How do the imperfect objects and the changed kettle complicate a destruction-only reading?

    Compare after trying

    Material decay coexists with remembered sufficiency and another creature’s habitation, without a promised restoration.

    A complete response should use accurate details from distinct moments, explain how the wording or form matters, and address a relevant alternative or limit.

    Why this response fits

    • Check the event, voice or change against the full poem.
    • An assertion without precise textual support remains unfinished, even if it resembles the model.

A Quoi Bon Dire · Charlotte Mew

Recall first; then reopen the complete poem and verify your references.

  1. 1. How do short exceptions and the imagined younger couple challenge public accounts of time and love?

    Compare after trying

    Concentrated private refusal and projected continuity sit beside public judgement and a younger claim of uniqueness.

    A complete response should use accurate details from distinct moments, explain how the wording or form matters, and address a relevant alternative or limit.

    Why this response fits

    • Check the event, voice or change against the full poem.
    • An assertion without precise textual support remains unfinished, even if it resembles the model.

Meeting at Night · Robert Browning

Recall first; then reopen the complete poem and verify your references.

  1. 1. How does the change of sensory scale make quiet contact intense?

    Compare after trying

    The journey narrows from sea and land to light, voice and heartbeat; low volume does not imply weak emotion.

    A complete response should use accurate details from distinct moments, explain how the wording or form matters, and address a relevant alternative or limit.

    Why this response fits

    • Check the event, voice or change against the full poem.
    • An assertion without precise textual support remains unfinished, even if it resembles the model.

Because I Liked You Better · A E Housman

Recall first; then reopen the complete poem and verify your references.

  1. 1. Who makes the promise, whose grave is projected, and why does the projection matter?

    Compare after trying

    The speaker promises forgetting and imagines the addressee passing the speaker’s grave. The projected cost complicates restraint.

    A complete response should use accurate details from distinct moments, explain how the wording or form matters, and address a relevant alternative or limit.

    Why this response fits

    • Check the event, voice or change against the full poem.
    • An assertion without precise textual support remains unfinished, even if it resembles the model.

Recall meaning and method, not just the title

Use the fourteen prompts below after reading the whole selection. An accurate event, formal label or interpretation needs explanation and precise support. Reopen the poem to correct uncertain quotations and to find contrary evidence. A missing ending can change the argument even when the opening is remembered accurately.

Turn a weak answer into a next action

If you confuse voices, mark speaker changes. If you omit a correction, make a beginning–turn–ending record. If you name a device without effect, choose one small detail and write a supported paragraph. These self-checks do not award Cambridge marks, certify completion or replace teacher assessment; they help choose what to reread and practise.

Sources for this lesson

Pause and explain

Does a response matching a model’s main idea automatically earn a Cambridge grade?

Put the idea to work

Worked example

A learner remembers that Larkin’s trees look young but misses the correction. What should the next review target?

Show the worked solution
  1. Read the question and answer in the middle stanza.
  2. Explain the rings, mortality and their effect on the final invitation.

Answer Review the internal change in the poem before repeating the opening interpretation.

Try a topic test

Choose Easy, Normal or Difficult. Save your answers and open worked review after finishing.

Test this topic →

From guided practice to a new situation

Write your answer and reasoning first. Use a hint only if you are stuck. The model solution is for self-checking; your written work is not automatically marked.

1 · Guided

A recall answer names a metaphor but cannot explain it. Choose the next action.

Give me a hint

Work with one actual detail.

Compare my reasoning
  1. Reopen the relevant lines.
  2. Explain what the comparison contributes to the particular question.

Write a detail–effect–argument link rather than repeat the device name.

Look for these in your work

  • Use verified words
  • Explain relevance
2 · Independent

A Housman answer reverses whose grave is imagined. How should it be corrected?

Give me a hint

Trace first and second person through the conditional address.

Compare my reasoning
  1. Identify the speaker’s promise.
  2. Recheck the projected grave and the person invited to pass it.

Correct the speaker/addressee relation before interpreting the emotional cost.

Look for these in your work

  • Fix the factual relation
  • Then explain the effect
3 · Transfer

Create a revision task after missing the ending of Follower.

Give me a hint

Target the absent change, not the entire poem indiscriminately.

Compare my reasoning
  1. Compare the early skilled leader with the late figure behind the speaker.
  2. Write a qualified paragraph on the reversal and closing tone.

Reread and explain the ending’s change of dependence, testing a literal or psychological interpretation against the words.

Look for these in your work

  • Target the real gap
  • Keep the reading supported

Common mistakes

  • Do not treat familiar titles as evidence of whole-poem understanding.
  • Correct invented quotations rather than polishing them.
Recall without your notes

What can you explain now?

Does a response matching a model’s main idea automatically earn a Cambridge grade?

Compare with the explanation

No; accurate supported writing and formal assessment are still required.

The models guide self-review rather than certify performance.

After trying it yourself, choose your next review. This is your self-assessment.

Your review choice appears on Today. Sign in to sync it across devices.

Make it stick

Does a response matching a model’s main idea automatically earn a Cambridge grade?

If you needed the solution, close it and solve the problem again from a blank page. A correct answer is stronger when you can explain the reason for each step.

Keep learning World Literature

Course scope and assessment

238 original lessons provide 714 guided, independent and transfer tasks, plus 431 reading-tracker and long-response prompts. Twenty skill and route entries, three year-specific Cherry Orchard entries, two Anowa entries, three Crocodiles entries, one 2027 Little Foxes entry, two year-specific Volume 1 poetry entries, one historical 2025 Volume 2 poetry entry and three year-specific Volume 2 story entries link teaching. Anowa has ten lessons through the Prologue and all three phases, with thirty staged tasks and ten original developed responses. Complete primary reading locators support analysis of the contested community frame, partnership, enslavement, the children, remembered dream, separation and ending. The protected play is linked rather than reproduced; editorial BECE material is not reused. Both eligible 2025–2026 Anowa rows link the whole-play pathway. Twenty-eight lessons teach the Author’s Note and all six country chapters of In the Sea There Are Crocodiles, with eighty-four staged tasks and sixty original developed responses. Four workshops teach passage analysis, whole-book argument, layered voice and retrieval/revision. All three complete 2025–2027 book entries link the whole-book pathway; the existing supplemental route remains available without adding another counted requirement. The public reflowed reading is linked rather than reproduced, with edition limits explicit. Twenty-two Little Foxes lessons teach all three acts for 2027, with sixty-six staged tasks and forty-eight original developed responses. Hospitality, silenced voices, the mill, financial negotiation, the proposed marriage, Horace’s return and refusal, the bonds, Birdie’s disclosure, withheld help, the final bargain and Alexandra’s decision are taught through actual stage directions and dialogue locators. Four workshops develop passage analysis, whole-play argument, stagecraft and corrective retrieval. SET-2027-2 links the full sequence; the existing supplemental route remains available without inflating counted requirements. The protected acting script is linked rather than reproduced; exact centre-edition wording and revisions must be checked. The Cherry Orchard has an 18-lesson whole-text sequence with five actual Julius West excerpts and three argument models. The 2026–2027 poetry option has teaching for all fourteen members, three complete public-domain poems and close-reading, comparison and retrieval workshops. Twenty-four lessons teach all ten 2026–2028 Stories of Ourselves Volume 2 members, with named reading and writing sequences and evidence, passage-context, essay and ten-member retrieval workshops. Two complete public-domain narratives, nineteen actual prose extracts and Katie’s complete twenty-line poem within Besant’s prose story support close reading and whole-story writing. The Shrinking Shoe follows the original 1895 prose and its five sections; the embedded poem is not a Paper 2 set poem. All three eligible ten-story selection rows link the complete pathway. Wodehouse and Woolf use brief quotations and original commentary with complete reading sources; their full texts are not reproduced here. Twelve lessons teach twelve compulsory 2028–2030 Volume 3 poems, with thirty-six staged tasks and twenty-four developed-response prompts. The Dutt and Kingsley excerpts and Cissoko’s exact translation still need verified reading and teaching; full-selection workshops remain unfinished, so all three complete poetry rows remain unlinked. Fourteen lessons teach seven 2029–2030 Volume 3 stories with thirty-five developed-response prompts. Twelve actual older primary excerpts support four stories; Achebe, Desai and Danticat use original commentary with complete primary reading links rather than reproducing their protected texts. A separate partial-member pathway supports The Necklace, The Model Millionaire, Sultana’s Dream, The Interlopers, The Sacrificial Egg, Sale and New York Day Women without linking either complete ten-story row. The three other members and full-selection workshops remain unfinished. Read the full centre-selected works and protected anthology; check edition differences, including Weissenhorn’s older Necklace translation. The historical 2025 poetry pathway teaches all fourteen members through eighteen lessons, fifty-four staged tasks and fifty-one developed-response models. Three complete public-domain poems remain printed with line breaks; eleven protected poems use complete primary reading links and original commentary. Four workshops teach close analysis, whole-poem argument, preparation comparisons and specific retrieval of all fourteen members. The complete SET-2025-5 option links this sequence; the historical supplemental route remains without increasing counted requirements. Archival Cambridge and WJEC papers supply primary poems, not reused questions or later-year assessment rules. Centre-edition differences remain explicit. Forty-six lessons provide original teaching and practice for nine historical 2025 story members: The Doll’s House, The Gold Watch, A Visit, A Walk to the Jetty, In the Mountains, Mrs. Sen’s, Promenade, The Plantation and The Paper Menagerie. Together they provide one hundred and thirty-eight staged tasks and one hundred and one developed-response models. A Visit uses complete primary reading visually checked across printed pages 306–310. Promenade follows the complete seven-page narrative on printed pages 416–422; its four lessons trace bodily control, wordless meetings, the interrupted circuit and changed final walk. Mrs. Sen’s has six lessons through the complete story, with eighteen staged tasks and thirteen developed-response models. Teaching follows the collection scan from its unnumbered opening through printed p.135, with food, letters, recordings, separate journeys and the changed final care arrangement. The Plantation has five lessons, fifteen staged tasks and eleven developed-response models through all four numbered sections, visually checked against printed pages 423–429 through the final dawn bird-call. In the Mountains has seven lessons, twenty-one staged tasks and fifteen developed-response models through the final invitation to eat. The complete publisher transcription supports scene-based reading; automated-text errors and subscription access remain explicit, and original printed pages were not visually verified. A Walk to the Jetty has seven lessons, twenty-one staged tasks and fifteen developed-response models through the complete six-page retype’s final berth. Reader annotations and the appended question are separate; the complete publisher version has wording differences, so exact quotations require the approved edition. The centre edition remains required for exact quotations. The protected stories are linked, not reproduced. The partial member pathway is supplemental; Words and full-selection workshops remain unfinished, so SET-2025-6 stays unlinked. Fifteen year-specific prescribed-work entries remain unfinished; complete centre-selected coursework reading also needs substantive text-specific teaching. The 51-entry map is a StudyForA preparation map, not official numbered syllabus sections or a percentage of student mastery. Written practice is self-checked and is not officially marked. Full timed papers and qualified literature-teacher assessment remain unfinished. Fictional exercises are labelled separately from actual excerpts; alternative well-supported readings can be valid. Centre-authenticated coursework and Cambridge moderation are separate from self-check practice.

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