A Level English Literature: Paper 4 – Pre- and Post-1900 Poetry and Prose — Revision Notes

Paper 4 of Cambridge International AS & A Level Literature in English (9695) is a two-hour, closed-book A Level paper in which you write two essays, one on a pre-1900 set text (Section A) and one on a post-1900 set text (Section B), and one of the two must be on poetry and the other on prose. Each essay is worth 25 marks, and every question assesses all five assessment objectives, including AO5, the evaluation of other opinions and interpretations. For the full method, use the Paper 4 study guide.

Format at a glance

Detail	Value (syllabus for 2024, 2025 and 2026)
Duration	2 hours
Marks	50 (25 per section)
Weighting	25% of the A Level; not part of the AS Level
Sections	A: Pre-1900 Poetry and Prose; B: Post-1900 Poetry and Prose
Questions answered	Two: one from each section
Form rule	One essay on a poetry set text, one on a prose set text
Choice per text	(a) essay question or (b) question on a printed passage or poem
Books	Set texts not allowed; no dictionaries
AOs	AO1–AO5, all in every question

Timing: the sections carry equal marks, so give each essay about one hour, including a short plan.

Which routes include Paper 4?

Paper 4 belongs only to the A Level routes. On the staged route you take Papers 1 and 2 for AS Level in Year 1 and complete the A Level with Papers 3 and 4 in Year 2. On the single-series route you take all four papers together. AS-only candidates never sit Paper 4.

The form rule: the most expensive mistake

You study two set texts for Paper 4, one from each section, and the pair must be one poetry text and one prose text. Poetry texts carry an asterisk in the set-text list.

If your Section A text is…	…your Section B text must be
Poetry (e.g. Shakespeare’s Selected Sonnets)	Prose (e.g. Mansfield’s Selected Stories)
Prose (e.g. Middlemarch)	Poetry (e.g. Glück’s The Wild Iris)

Two prose essays, or two poetry essays, break the rubric.

Set texts for examination in 2026

Set texts rotate. Always check the list for your own examination year.

Section A: Pre-1900	Form	Section B: Post-1900	Form
Austen, Pride and Prejudice	Prose	Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians	Prose
Chaucer, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale	Poetry	Glück, The Wild Iris (selected poems)	Poetry
Eliot, Middlemarch	Prose	Mansfield, Selected Stories	Prose
Hardy, Jude the Obscure	Prose	Morrison, Beloved	Prose
Shakespeare, Selected Sonnets	Poetry	Okara, selected poems from Collected Poems (2016)	Poetry
Whitman, selected poems from Leaves of Grass (1891–1892)	Poetry	Trethewey, Native Guard	Poetry

Set texts for examination in 2027

From June 2027 the list comes from the 9695 syllabus for 2027 and 2028. Poetry texts are marked (P).

Section A: Pre-1900	Section B: Post-1900
Austen, Mansfield Park	Bishop, selected poems from Poems (P)
Byron, selected poems from Selected Poetry (P)	Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians
Chaucer, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale (P)	Mansfield, Selected Stories
Eliot, Middlemarch	Okara, selected poems from Collected Poems (2016) (P)
Hardy, Jude the Obscure	Powers, The Overstory
Shakespeare, Selected Sonnets (P)	Vuong, selected poems from Night Sky with Exit Wounds (P)

Pride and Prejudice, Whitman, Glück, Beloved and Native Guard are not set for 2027.

The five assessment objectives

At A Level each AO is worth 20%, and on Paper 4 each is 20% of the paper.

AO	Name	What it means in a Paper 4 essay
AO1	Knowledge and understanding	Secure knowledge of the whole text, with relevant contexts that illuminate readings
AO2	Analysis	How choices of language, form and structure shape meaning and effect
AO3	Personal response	Your informed, independent opinion and interpretation
AO4	Communication	A relevant, structured, supported argument in an appropriate register
AO5	Evaluation of opinion	Discussing and evaluating varying opinions and interpretations of the text

AO5 is the A Level addition. It does not require you to memorise critics’ names; it requires you to weigh alternative readings, which can come from critics, from different critical approaches, or from different readers and audiences, and to say which you find more convincing and why.

(a) or (b)? Choosing your question

	(a) Essay question	(b) Passage or poem question
What is printed	Question only	A passage from the novel or a poem from the selection
Demands	Range across the whole text from memory	Close analysis of the printed text, linked to the wider text
Suits you if	You know the text’s structure and can quote from memory	You analyse closely and can connect a passage to the whole
Common risk	Generalising without detail	Line-by-line paraphrase with no wider reference

Read both before deciding; the syllabus lets you choose freely.

Pre-1900 versus post-1900: what to expect

• Pre-1900 texts often reward attention to period conventions: Chaucer’s frame narrative and estates satire, the sonnet form and its volta, the omniscient narrator of Eliot and Hardy, Austen’s free indirect style and irony.
• Post-1900 texts often reward attention to experiment: fragmented chronology in Beloved, allegorical setting in Waiting for the Barbarians, Mansfield’s interior focus and open endings, the sequence structure of The Wild Iris and Native Guard.
• In both, context is useful only where it helps explain a writer’s choice.

How to build an AO5 sentence

1. State a reading: “One reading sees Dorothea’s marriage to Casaubon as the novel’s central tragedy.”
2. Test it against the text: “Yet the Finale claims that ‘the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts’.”
3. Judge: “This makes the stronger case that Eliot values unhistoric influence over visible success.”

Worked example: a (b) opening on a sonnet

Question: Discuss Shakespeare’s presentation of time in Sonnet 73, considering it in relation to your wider reading of the selection.

Strong opening: “Sonnet 73 divides its first twelve lines into three quatrains, each a smaller unit of time (a season, a day, a fire), so that the speaker’s ageing seems to speed up as the images contract. The final couplet then turns from the speaker to the listener, and from decay to love; readers who find the turn consoling and those who find it a demand for pity are both responding to that structural shift.” This addresses AO2 (structure), AO3 (argument), AO1 (wider text implied) and AO5 (two readings) in three sentences.

Common mistakes / exam traps

• Breaking the form rule. One poetry essay and one prose essay, always.
• Treating AO5 as name-dropping. A critic quoted without evaluation earns little; an evaluated alternative reading earns AO5.
• (b) answers that stay inside the passage. Link the passage or poem to the wider text.
• (a) answers with no detail. Closed book means you must learn short quotations and precise references.
• Biography instead of analysis. Context must illuminate a choice in the text.
• Uneven timing. Each section is 25 marks; a short second essay costs as much as a weak first one.

Frequently asked questions

Can I take my set texts into the Paper 4 exam? No. The 9695 syllabus states that set texts are not allowed in the examination room, so you need to know key passages and quotations from memory.

Do I have to write about one poem or several? For a poetry (a) question you should range across your studied selection. A (b) question prints one poem for close analysis, but strong answers relate it to the wider selection.

Is AO5 assessed in every Paper 4 question? Yes. The syllabus says all questions on Paper 4 assess AO1, AO2, AO3, AO4 and AO5.

Why does Paper 4 not count for AS Level? Paper 4 and Paper 3 are A Level components. AS Level consists of Papers 1 and 2, and AO5 carries 0% at AS Level.

Syllabus coverage

Cambridge International AS & A Level Literature in English 9695, syllabus for 2024, 2025 and 2026: Paper 4 Pre- and Post-1900 Poetry and Prose, Section A (Pre-1900 Poetry and Prose) and Section B (Post-1900 Poetry and Prose); assessment objectives AO1–AO5; set texts for examination in 2026.

Self-test

1. How many marks is each Paper 4 essay worth? (25.)
2. What must your two essays cover in terms of form? (One poetry text and one prose text.)
3. What is printed for a (b) question? (A passage or poem from the set text.)
4. Which AO is assessed at A Level but not at AS Level? (AO5.)
5. What percentage of the A Level is Paper 4? (25%.)

Related pages

• Paper 4 study guide
• Paper 4 practice questions
• Paper 3 – Shakespeare and Drama revision notes

Official syllabus

Cambridge International AS & A Level Literature in English (9695) syllabus for 2024, 2025 and 2026 — cambridgeinternational.org.