This exam focus covers 🎯 Exam Connection within Tissue (Dharker) for GCSE English Literature. Revise Tissue (Dharker) in Power and Conflict Poetry for GCSE English Literature with 10 exam-style questions and 15 flashcards. This topic appears regularly enough that it should still be part of a steady revision cycle. It is section 18 of 20 in this topic. Treat this as a marking guide for what examiners are looking for, not just a fact list.
🎯 Exam Connection
Paper 2 Section B — you answer on one named poem from the Power and Conflict anthology AND compare it to a poem of your choice. Tissue is frequently named in questions about power, identity, and the human body.
Typical question stems:
- "How does Dharker present ideas about power in 'Tissue'?" (then compare)
- "How do both poets present the idea that human power is fragile or limited?"
- "Compare how poets explore the relationship between the human body and power"
- "How do poets challenge the idea that political and social structures are permanent?"
Mark allocation: 30 marks total (24 AO1/AO2/AO3 + 4 AO4 SPaG — SPaG is marked across the whole Section B answer). 45 minutes recommended.
For Level 5-6 (perceptive): Engage with Dharker's structural argument — show that the poem builds stage by stage through the extended paper metaphor, that light imagery threads every stage, and that the volta is not simply a "twist" but the logical conclusion of the argument. Show that the free verse form is itself part of the meaning: Dharker refuses the rigid structure she critiques.
Practice questions for Tissue (Dharker)
In 'Tissue', what is the final image Dharker uses at the end of the poem?
How does Dharker use form in 'Tissue' to enact her argument about power? [2 marks]