2026 AQA AS ENGLISH LITERATURE B 7716/2A Paper 2A Merged Question Paper + Mark Scheme

2026 AQA AS ENGLISH LITERATURE B 7716/2A Paper 2A Merged Question Paper + Mark Scheme

Section A
Answer one question from this section.
Either
0 1 John Keats selection
Explore the significance of the openings of Keats’ poems to the tragic experiences that
follow.
You must refer to Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil and at least one other poem.
In your answer you need to analyse closely Keats’ authorial methods and include
comments on the extract below.
[25 marks]
From Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil
l
Fair Isabel, poor simple Isabel!
Lorenzo, a young palmer in Love’s eye!
They could not in the self-same mansion dwell
Without some stir of heart, some malady;
They could not sit at meals but feel how well
It soothed each to be the other by;
They could not, sure, beneath the same roof sleep
But to each other dream, and nightly weep.
 ll
With every morn their love grew tenderer,
With every eve deeper and tenderer still;
He might not in house, field, or garden stir,
But her full shape would all his seeing fill;
And his continual voice was pleasanter
To her than noise of trees or hidden rill;
Her lute-string gave an echo of his name,
She spoilt her half-done broidery with the same.
 lll
He knew whose gentle hand was at the latch
Before the door had given her to his eyes;
And from her chamber-window he would catch
Her beauty farther than the falcon spies;
And constant as her vespers would he watch,
Because her face was turned to the same skies;
And with sick longing all the night outwear,
To hear her morning-step upon the stair.