comparative essay bbc bitesize

What Were They Like? by Denise Levertov - OCR Comparison

The poem What Were They Like? by Denise Levertov criticises the destructiveness of war. Content, ideas, language and structure are explored. Comparisons and alternative interpretations are considered.

Part of English Literature Poems

You can discover a lot about a poem by comparing it to one by another author that deals with a similar subject. You could compare features such as theme, form, structure, rhythm, language and figures of speech.

The key thing to do when comparing poems is to note the points where they are similar and the points where they differ . You could make a list noting similarities and differences between the two poems.

Comparison of 'What Were They Like?' by Denise Levertov and 'The Destruction of Sennacherib' by Lord Byron

Similarities.

• Both poems look at the effect war has on a specific nation and specifically at the aspect of loss.
• The after-effects of war are seen as lasting a long time and affecting more than those who were engaged in fighting.
• Both poems were written at a time when war was dominating the news – Levertov's during the Vietnam War and Byron's towards the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
• Both poets make use of alliteration close alliteration A sound feature; the repetition of the same sounds (mainly consonants) usually at the beginning of words. to convey emotion.
• Both poets use similes close simile A comparison using 'like' or 'as' to create a vivid image, eg as big as a whale; float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. which compare events to aspects of the natural world.

Differences

• Levertov uses two blocks of free verse to structure her poem. Byron uses a highly regular poetic form of four line stanzas.
• Levertov uses two speakers (the questioner and the responder) to be more openly critical of what has occurred than Byron’s speaker who is more of an observer and recorder of events.
• Byron's tone is more open to interpretation than Levertov's even though both raise questions about the destructiveness of war. In Byron's poem the sympathy of the speaker could lie with either side, but Levertov has sympathy for the Vietnamese people.
• Byron uses more figurative language throughout the poem, but Levertov restricts this to the second half to show a contrast with the straightforward and plain questions in the first half. There appears to be sadness for the loss of the culture.
• The reader has the sense that Byron tells a complete story but what happens in Levertov's poem is more open-ended.

Explore the study guide for 'The Destruction of Sennacherib' .

Try comparing What Were They Like? to these poems:

• Exposure by Wilfred Owen
• Anthem for Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen

Explore the study guide for 'Exposure' .

More guides on this topic

• Thirteen by Caleb Femi - OCR
• A Poison Tree by William Blake - OCR
• Love and Friendship by Emily Brontë - OCR
• The Destruction of Sennacherib by Lord Byron - OCR
• Dusting the Phone by Jackie Kay - OCR
• Envy by Mary Lamb - OCR

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• English Grammar

Comparative and superlative adjectives

Level: beginner

Comparative adjectives

We use comparative adjectives to show change or make comparisons:

This car is certainly better ,   but it's much more expensive . I'm feeling happier now. We need a bigger garden.

We use than when we want to compare one thing with another :

She is two years older than me. New York is much bigger than Boston. He is a better player than Ronaldo. France is a bigger country than Britain.

When we want to describe how something or someone changes we can use two comparatives with and :

The balloon got bigger and bigger . Everything is getting more and more expensive . Grandfather is looking older and older . 

We often use the with comparative adjectives to show that one thing depends on another :

The faster you drive, the more dangerous it is.   (= When you drive faster, it is more dangerous.) The higher they climbed, the colder it got.   (= When they climbed higher, it got colder.)

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Superlative adjectives

We use  the  with superlative adjectives :

It was  the happiest day  of my life. Everest is  the highest mountain  in the world. That’s  the best film  I have seen this year. I have three sisters: Jan is  the oldest  and Angela is  the youngest . 

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How to form comparative and superlative adjectives.

We usually add –er and –est to one-syllable words to make comparatives and superlatives:

If an adjective ends in –e , we add –r or –st :

If an adjective ends in a vowel and a consonant , we double the consonant:

If an adjective ends in a consonant and –y , we change –y to –i and add –er or –est :

We use more and most to make comparatives and superlatives for most two syllable adjectives and for all adjectives with three or more syllables:

However, with these common two-syllable adjectives , you can either add –er / –r and –est / –st or use more and most :

He is certainly handsomer than his brother. His brother is handsome, but he is more handsome . She is one of the politest people I have ever met. She is the most polite person I have ever met.

The adjectives good , bad and far have irregular comparatives and superlatives:

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Could you check this sentence for me please? The maintenance cost of electric buses are lower than diesel buses.

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Hello Khangvo2812,

You can say 'The maintenance cost... is' or 'The maintenance costs... are'. Other than that, the sentence is fine.

Please note that we generally don't just check sentences. The site focuses on explaining usage and rules rather than proof-reading.

The LearnEnglish Team

Is 'more naughty than' correct?

Hello  Paulinecwy,

Yes it is. Naughty is one of those adjectives where more than one form is possible: more naughty and naughtier .

Hello, Could you check this sentence for me pls? Vietnamese national football team is the strongest team among Asean countries.

Hi Khangvo2812,

It's good but a correction is needed: either add "the" ( The Vietnamese national football team ... ) or change the first word:  Vietnam's national football team ...

I hope that helps.

LearnEnglish team

These exercises were helpful for me, I didn't find them so difficult

Hi sir, I'm grateful for this lesson, actually it was interesting and useful to me, thanks!

I hope this message finds you well. I wanted to reach out to express my satisfaction with the exercises that were assigned. I am pleased to inform you that I have successfully completed them and found them to be incredibly comprehensive and beneficial. They have provided me with valuable opportunities to apply and reinforce the concepts explained in our sessions.

Hello Emiliano,

We're very pleased to hear that you found the explanation and exercises useful!

Thanks for letting us know.

Best wishes, Kirk LearnEnglish team

I wanted to express my gratitude for the exercises you assigned. I have completed them and found them to be incredibly helpful in reinforcing the concepts we discussed. They provided me with a valuable learning experience and I feel more equipped as a result.

Thank you for offering such comprehensive exercises that allowed me to put theory into practice. The knowledge gained from these exercises will undoubtedly benefit me in the future.

Example: México is the best country of the world

For example: México is better than Venezuela

Hello, Sir I have already done the exercises and I find them very complete and very helpful to put into practice what is explained. I take with me a great experience and a new learning experience.

If we learnt that adjectives ending in a CVC pattern must be doubled the last consonant and then added with -er, why isn't "slowwer" or "newwer" correct?

Hi thatha.,

It's because although these adjectives end in "w" (a consonant), the "w" is actually part of the vowel sound ("ow" in "slow", and "ew" in "new"). 

Thaks yo this page, the subject became clearer to me, with the excercises what I new was reinforced.

I am trying to figure out why, in an English sentence, if there are multiple adjectives used for one noun, and one of those adjectives is superlative, it seems that all of them must be superlative.

For example, my student wrote the following: I bought the three large freshest looking cabbages to make Korean Kimchi.

I couldn't explain why that was incorrect, I just knew that I would say 'three of the largest, freshest-looking cabbages...'.

Could one of you provide an explanation? Thanks in advance!

I'm not sure if there's a grammatical explanation for this! It might be more about the conventional ideas that we tend to express. The student is saying that there were only three large cabbages in the shop, and they were also the freshest-looking ones, but this might be a bit unclear for listeners/readers to understand and your suggestion sounds clearer and more natural.

Good day, dear experts! Please, help me to understand why there is "elder" in the name of the game "The Elder Scrolls" when we know that the comparative of "old" is "older". Is there a mistake in this name? Thank you in advance!

Hello Iryna_hn,

I don't know much about this game, but I suspect 'elder' refers to an important or respected person in a group rather than being a comparative form of 'old'. Have a look at the Longman entry for 'elder' and scroll down to line 2 of the second meaning and you'll see what I mean.

All the best, Kirk LearnEnglish team

Hello! Can I ask you a question? So, I know that we can use the definite article with comparative adjectives for showing that one thing depends on another as it's written in this website too. But, what about this sentence "the farther side of the mountain"? What's the explanation for it since there are no things depending one another in that sentence? Maybe when we have an implied comparison we can use the definite article too? Thank you in advance. :)

Hello leo15722,

I don't think this is a question of two things being related in the way described above. I think this is simply an identified and specific item. Just as we would say 'the side of the mountain' (we know which side of which mountain we are talking about), so we say 'the farther side of the mountain'. You could use other articles if you conceive other contexts:

a farther side of the mountain > we know which mountain; it has several farther sides and we are talking about one of them but not saying which one. For example: " This side looks easy to climb. Now I don't know the mountain well, but I've heard that there's a farther side of the mountain which is harder to climb. "

the farther side of a mountain > we are imagining that there are only two sides (rather like we say 'the dark side of the moon') and are talking about any mountain. For example: " The farther side of a mountain is always tempting to a mountaineer. "

Could you please clarify the following:

Should we always use "the" with superlatives forms? Is it a mistake to say "She is most beautiful woman in this city", "He is smartest boy in the class?" or "They bought most delicious cake"?

I'm very very grateful for the work you are doing, thank you for your important help, and thank you for answering this post beforehand!!!

Hello howtosay_

Yes, you should always use 'the' with superlative forms. It is definitely necessary when there is a phrase like 'in this city', 'in the class', 'in the world, etc.

Your sentence about cake isn't actually a superlative construction. Instead, 'most' means 'very'.

It's also possible to see a sentence like 'They bought the most delicious cake'. There might be some rare exceptions, but normally a sentence like this is superlative because of the context. For example, perhaps in the previous sentences they were talking about all the different cakes in a bakery. So even though the sentence doesn't explicitly mention the other cakes, it's clear from context that there are many cakes.

Hope this helps.

Hello, Kirk!

Yes, it does help. I haven't known before that "most" also means "very".

Thank you very much indeed for your precious help!!!

Hello. Good morning sir/ma'am. This question has been bugging me lately.. Which one is correct? 1.he's the cleverest of *all the other* students. 2.he's the cleverest of *the other students* Or are they both correct??

Hello AydaChan2003,

They're both OK, though I think people would probably say 1 more often than 2.

All the best, Kirk The LearnEnglish Team

Hello, Kirk Thanks a lot!! You're a life saver

Both are grammatically correct and any difference would depend on the context in which they are used.

Peter The LearnEnglish Team

Hello sir! Could you please elaborate on what types of context? Also I have a vocabulary question.. I'm fairly new here and I don't know whether there's a separate page for asking vocabulary questions; is there really one? If there's not, then I might as well ask it here (sorry I know this isn't related to the subject but I got to know this) what's the difference between deadly, lethal, and fatal?

It's really a question of emphasis. 'All' adds rhetorical emphasis so if you want to make your statement stronger (e.g. when making a speech or trying to persuade someone of something) then it might be useful.

The main difference in the words is that fatal means someone died. Deadly and lethal can also describe potential - in other words they can also describe something is extremely dangerous. Thus, I could say 'It was a truly deadly situation and I was lucky to escape alive' but I could not use the word 'fatal' there.

There are some other differences in use, so you can talk about a deadly/lethal poison, for example, or use the words metaphorically to mean that someone is very good at performing a task: a footballer can be lethal in front of goal, or a lawyer can be deadly during cross-examination.

For differences like this, which are really about use rather than meaning, the best thing is to look each word up in an online dictionary, where you'll be able to compare the different entries.

Hello sir! Oh my God that was the BEST explanation I've ever seen; thanks a lot!!! I had looked up their differences before but still couldn't distinguish each separately but now with your awesome explanation, I can! Once again, thanks a lot! May God bless you 🙏

Hi Jonathan Fewer and smaller are comparative (forms)of inferiority ,aren't they?

Hi cooler48,

Yes, right!

Hello Team . The sentences He can run faster than me . or He can run faster than I . Which is the correct usage?

I can run faster than he or I can run faster than him . Which is the correct usage? Kindly guide. Thanks.

Hello paddyjosy,

The standard use is 'me' and 'him'. After 'than' we use an object pronoun not a subject pronoun.

You may find some instances where some users prefer 'I' as they interpret the sentence to be 'He can run faster than I can run', but this is very much a minority view.

Thank you Peter .

Hello paddyjosy, (than) actually considered as a proposition in modern English. As a result, we use after than a pronoun in object form (for example: me, you, him, her, us, them, and whom)

Hi . This is regarding the use of the adjective' late 'in the comparative and superlative degrees. Some sources have mentioned it as later and latest (time)or latter and last (position). Can u kindly explain it with example sentences. Thanks.

'Later' refers to time. It is often used as an adverb: See you later!

When used as an adjective it is the opposite of 'earlier': Do you want to go to the earlier performance or the later one?

'Latest' means the most recent: Have you heard the latest news? / I just bought her latest novel. It's great!

As you say, 'latter' is most often used to refer to the second item when two are mentioned. Its opposite is 'former': Would you prefer tea or coffee? > The latter, please.

'Latter' can also refer to the something occurring nearer to the end of something than the beginning: The latter part of the century was more stable / In his latter years he suffered from heart disease.

Thanks a lot Peter. It was helpful. But is there a comparative and superlative degree for the adjective 'late'?

Hello again paddyjosy,

The comparative and superlative forms of 'late' are later and latest .

'Latter' does not have comparative or superlative forms. There is an adverb ( latterly ) which is a formal synonym for recently .

Thanks once again for the prompt reply Peter. It's really confusing though that 'later' means afterwards and 'latest' means the most recent ,hence a change in meaning all together.

Hello Peter Is this usage correct ? No other programme is as late as ours. Our performance is later than all other programmes . Other programmes are the latest.

Yes, the use of the different forms of 'late' are all correct in these sentences. I might suggest 'The latest programmes are other ones' for the last sentence because 'latest' meaning 'most recent' is more common than the meaning that refers to time, but your sentence would be fine in context and in any case is grammatically correct.

Thanks for the explanation.Indeed a wonderful resoirce for grammar . Keep up.the good work.

Hello. In this sentence "Lisa is the........of the two sisters" the choices were "1.young 2.more young 3.as young as 4.younger" So I believe there's no correct answer of them because that's a superlative case not comparative as the "two sisters" is the whole group therefore "Lisa" isn't compared with the other sister but preferred over the whole group "the other sister" and the usage of "the" before the adjective and "of" after it means it's superlative and a colleague of mine think it's just comparative because they are only "two sisters" so my question is "Is it acceptable to use the preposition 'of' after the comparative form of adjective?". Thanks in advance.

Hi Roman...

Yes, you could say "Lisa is the youngest of the two sisters". However, it may be considered non-standard and incorrect. A more standard answer would be to say "Lisa is the younger of the two sisters". As there are only two sisters and one is compared with the other, it is a comparative case. Yes, it is fine to use "the + comparative adj. + of" if there are exactly two things being compared.

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