Topic Summaries

Summary

GCSE > English Literature > AQA > GCSE AQA English Literature Worlds and Lives Poetry Topic Summaries > ‘A Century Later’ by Imtiaz Dharker > Summary
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‘A Century Later’ by Imtiaz Dharker

‘A Portable Paradise’ by Roger Robinson

‘A Wider View’ by Seni Seneviratne

‘England in 1819’ by Percy Bysshe Shelley

‘In a London Drawingroom’ by George Eliot

‘Like an Heiress’ by Grace Nichols

‘Lines Written in Early Spring’ by William Wordsworth

‘Name Journeys’ by Raman Mundair

‘On an Afternoon Train from Purley to Victoria’ by James Berry

‘Shall Earth no More Inspire Thee’ by Emily Brontë

‘The Jewellery Maker’ by Louisa Adjoa Parker

‘With Birds You’re Never Lonely’ by Raymond Antrobus

Key ideas to compare between poems

This poem reimagines the school as a battlefield and education as a revolutionary act in the face of violence and repression. A 15-year-old girl, implied to be Malala (though the poem does not name her), steps into this battlefield where she is “the target” in a horrifying war against girls’ autonomy and education. She is shot by assailants, but this poem completely ignores their identities and motivations, instead using active voice to describe how she “takes the bullet” and continues walking, undaunted by this violent act. In fact, this experience is a victory for her, having secured her “right to be ordinary” and pursue her education, opening her mind further to beauty, growth, knowledge, and potential. She confidently declares the bullet is “stupid” for even trying to “kill a book” or to metaphorically destroy a person’s desire for knowledge. In the aftermath of the attack, more girls take her place on this metaphorical front line, suggesting a growing movement of resistance, hope, and empowerment.

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