The 2027 guide is for students who plan to graduate in 2027. If you are graduating in 2026, please use the Complete Guide: H1 Leaving Cert English Guide 2026.
Leaving Cert English 2027 notes, sample essays, text analysis, examiners’ advice, video – it’s all in there. Free from AI
Contents:
Essentials
Paper I
Section I
Section II
Quotations in essays
Speech/Talk/The Language of Persuasion
Article / Opinion piece / Discursive Essay / Language of argument
Report/The language of information
Personal essay
Letter
– Letter to the Editor
– Personal letter
Descriptive essay
Short story
Paper II
Othello
Introduction
Themes
Style and imagery
Characters
What is the meaning of the play
Soliloquies and speeches
Sample essay: “Othello’s foolishness rather than Iago’s cleverness leads to the tragedy of Shakespeare’s Othello.” (2015)
Sample essay: “Shakespeare’s play Othello demonstrates the weakness of human judgement.” (2015)
Sample essay: “Despite the striking portrayals of goodness and nobility, the play Othello leaves the audience with a sense of dismal despair” (1998)
Comparative
General guidance
Link words
Cultural Context
General Vision and Viewpoint
Theme or Issue
Comparisons: making a comparative table
Novel/Memoir
Purple Hibiscus
The Silence of the Girls
Young Skins
Wuthering Heights
Lessons in Chemistry
Small Things Like These
Notes from a Coma
Hamnet
1984
Where the Crawdads Sing
Elena Knows
Drama
A Raisin in the Sun
Sive
A Doll’s House
Colder than Here
Macbeth
Film
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Mustang
Barbie
The Shawshank Redemption
Knives Out
Diego Maradona
The Banshees of Inisherin
Unseen poetry
General guidance
Sample answer
Prescribed poetry
Elizabeth Bishop
Introduction
Detailed analysis of each poem individually
The Fish
The Bight
At the Fishhouses
The Prodigal
Questions of Travel
The Armadillo
Sestina
First Death in Nova Scotia
Filling Station
In the Waiting Room
“Bishop’s carefully judged use of language aids the reader to uncover the intensity of feeling in her poetry.” To what extent do you agree or disagree with the above statement? Support your answer with reference to the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop on your course.
Emily Dickinson
Introduction
Detailed analysis of each poem individually
“Hope” is the thing with feathers
There’s a certain Slant of light
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain
A Bird came down the Walk
I heard a Fly buzz – when I died
The Soul has Bandaged moments
I could bring You Jewels – had I a mind to
A narrow Fellow in the Grass
I taste a liquor never brewed
After great pain, a formal feeling comes
Sample essay: “Dickinson’s use of an innovative style to explore intense experiences can both intrigue and confuse.” Discuss this statement, supporting your answer with reference to the poetry of Emily Dickinson on your course.
John Donne
Introduction
Detailed analysis of each poem individually
The Sunne Rising
Song: Go, and catch a falling star
The Anniversarie
Song: Sweetest love, I do not goe
The Dreame (Deare love, for nothing less than thee...)
A Valediction Forbidding Mourning
The Flea
Batter my heart
At the round earth’s imagined corners
Thou hast made me
Sample essay: “John Donne uses startling imagery and wit in his exploration of relationships.” Give your response to the poetry of John Donne in the light of this statement. Support your points with the aid of suitable reference to the poems you have studied.
Patrick Kavanagh
Introduction
Detailed analysis of each poem individually
Iniskeen Road: July Evening
Shancoduff
Advent
A Christmas Childhood
Epic
Canal Bank Walk
Lines Written on a Seat on the Grand Canal, Dublin
The Hospital
On Raglan Road
Sample essay: “Aspects of Kavanagh’s poetry could be seen as dated and irrelevant, but his unique poetic language has enduring appeal.” Do you agree with this assessment of his poetry? Support your points with suitable reference to the poetry of Patrick Kavanagh on your course.
Derek Mahon
Introduction
Detailed analysis of each poem individually
Grandfather
Day Trip to Donegal
Ecclisiastes
After the Titanic
As It Should Be
A Disused Shed in Co. Wexford
Rathlin
The Chinese Restaurant in Portrush
Kinsale, Antractica
Sample essay: “Mahon uses language and imagery to transform personal observations into universal reflections.” Write your response to this statement with reference to the poems by Derek Mahon on your course.
Paula Meehan
Introduction
Detailed analysis of each poem individually
Buying Winkles
The Pattern
The Statue of Virgin Mary at Granard Speaks
Cora, Auntie
The Exact Moment I Became a Poet
My Father Perceived as a Vision of St. Francis
Prayer for the Children of Longing
Death of a Field
Them Ducks Died for Ireland
Sample essay: “Meehan’s poetry communicates powerful feelings through thought-provoking images and symbols.” Write your response to this statement with reference to the poems by Paula Meehan on your course.
Adrienne Rich
Introduction
Detailed analysis of each poem individually
Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers
Uncle Speaks in the Drawing Room
Power
Storm Warnings
Living in Sin
The Roofwalker
Our Whole Life
Trying to Talk with a Man
Diving into the Wreck
From a Survivor
Sample essay: “Adrienne Rich explores the twin themes of power and powerlessness in a variety of interesting ways.” Write a response to the poetry of Adrienne Rich in the light of this statement, supporting your points with suitable reference to the poems on your course.
W.B. Yeats
Introduction
Detailed analysis of each poem individually
The Wild Swans at Coole
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
Sailing to Byzantium
September 1913
An Irish Airman Foresees His Death
Easter 1916
Stare’s Nest by My Window
The Second Coming
In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markiewicz
Swift’s Epitaph
An Acre of Grass
from Under Ben Bulben: V and VI
Politics
Sample essay: “Yeats uses evocative language to create poetry that includes both personal reflection and public commentary.” Discuss this statement, supporting your answer with reference to both the themes and language found in the poetry of W. B. Yeats on your course.
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