The Ultimate Guide to GAMSAT UK Section 1

The next question is based on a poem by Charlotte Smith.

On some rude fragment of the rocky shore,

Where on the fractured cliff the billows break,

Musing, my solitary seat I take,

And listen to the deep and solemn roar.

O’er the dark waves the winds tempestuous howl;

The screaming seabird quits the troubled sea:

But the wild gloomy scene has charms for me,

And suits the mournful temper of my soul.

Already shipwreck’d by the storms of Fate,

Like the poor mariner methinks I stand,

Cast on a rock; who sees the distant land

From whence no succour comes–or comes too late.

Faint and more faint are heard his feeble cries,

Till in the rising tide the exhausted sufferer dies.

The subject refers to herself multiple times throughout the poem in order…

A) to depict nature as unforgiving from a limited point of view.

B) to involve the reader further in desperation and melancholy

C) to contribute a sense of encasement for a solitary being in the tempestuous landscape.

D) none of the above. 

The correct answer is C.

Again, we have another question that utilises our Creative – Contextual Understanding skills to identify the specific part(s) of the Poem that speak to the consistent message found within it.  This information should be relatively clear and explicitly stated within the Poem and, given the answer choices do not contain any strong form of inference, requires little interpretation. Furthermore, due to the focus of this question being on the syntax given, we should focus on how the descriptions of the author work within certain parts of the text and also the text overall. So when we are asked to explain the purpose of the syntax as we are here, we focus on the micro and the macro. 

This question is essentially asking what the purpose of the first-person references are in the Poem. By using the first-person references in the context of the melancholic experiences of the Poem, the author serves to first ground herself and then to also protect herself from a raw and violent landscape. The sea and nature are depicted as unforgiving (tempestuous) and she herself is emotional and sorrowful. This is the only answer that covers what the author is projecting in terms of protecting herself leading to Option C as the best answer. 

When looking at our incorrect answers, we need to assess which of them are necessary for the poet to get the impact of their point across. For instance, do we need to refer to ourselves to depict nature as unforgiving from a limited point of view? No we don’t, which makes Option A incorrect. We can do this without referencing ourselves. The entire Poem is in a limited point of view, but it is not related to the issue of nature at all. This choice in and of itself is quite vague as first person references are almost always exclusive to the person, their grounding and their pivotal experiences. It cannot be used in the context of exploring a separate entity that does not belong in first person. Using the same reasoning, we can ask if we need to use first person to involve the reader in our melancholy as depicted in Option B. In this case, no we do not. This could be done without the aid of first person POV and references. The melancholy is a tonal descriptor and can be achieved without the first-person references, so this answer is wrong on all specifics. Lastly, Option D is incorrect as we do have a correct answer.