Official June 2026 AQA AS ENGLISH LITERATURE B 7716/2A Paper 2A Literary genres: Prose and Poetry: Aspects of tragedy Merged Question Paper + Mark Scheme (42pages)

Official June 2026 AQA AS ENGLISH LITERATURE B 7716/2A Paper 2A Literary genres: Prose and Poetry: Aspects of tragedy Merged Question Paper + Mark Scheme Ace your Mocks!!! IB/G/Jun24/G4001/E3 7716/2A Friday 24 May 2026 Morning Time allowed: 1 hour 30 minutes Materials For this paper you must have: • an AQA 12-page answer book • a copy of the set text(s) you have studied. These texts must not be annotated and must not contain additional notes or materials. Instructions • Use black ink or black ball-point pen. • Write the information required on the front of your answer book. The Paper Reference is 7716/2A. • Do all rough work in your answer book. Cross through any work you do not want to be marked. • You must answer one question from Section A and one question from Section B. Information • The maximum mark for this paper is 50. • The marks for questions are shown in brackets. • You will be marked on your ability to: – use good English – organise information clearly – use specialist vocabulary where appropriate. • In your response you need to: – analyse carefully the writers’ methods – explore the contexts of the texts you are writing about – explore the connections across the texts you have studied – explore different interpretations of your texts. AS ENGLISH LITERATURE B Paper 2A Literary genres: Prose and Poetry: Aspects of tragedy 2 IB/G/Jun24/7716/2A 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. 3 IB/G/Jun24/7716/2A Turn over ► or 0 2 Thomas Hardy selection Explore the significance of the openings of Hardy’s poems to the tragic experiences that follow. You must refer to The Mock Wife and at least one other poem. In your answer you need to analyse closely Hardy’s authorial methods and include comments on the extract below. [25 marks] From The Mock Wife It’s a dark drama, this; and yet I know the house, and date; That is to say, the where and when John Channing met his fate. The house was one in High Street, seen of burghers still alive, The year was some two centuries bygone; seventeen-hundred and five. And dying was Channing the grocer. All the clocks had struck eleven, And the watchers saw that ere the dawn his soul would be in Heaven; When he said on a sudden: ‘I should like to kiss her before I go, – For one last time!’ They looked at each other and murmured, ‘Even so.’ She’d just been haled to prison, his wife; yea, charged with shaping his death: By poison, ’twas told; and now he was nearing the moment of his last breath: He, witless that his young housemate was suspect of such a crime, Lay thinking that his pangs were but a malady of the time. Turn over for the next question 4 IB/G/Jun24/7716/2A or 0 3 Poetry Anthology: Tragedy Explore the significance of the openings of the poems in the Poetry Anthology: Tragedy to the tragic experiences that follow. You must refer to “Out, out—” and at least one other poem. In your answer you need to analyse closely the poets’ authorial methods and include comments on the extract below. [25 marks] From “Out, out—” The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood, Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it. And from there those that lifted eyes could count Five mountain ranges one behind the other Under the sunset far into Vermont. And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled, As it ran light, or had to bear a load. And nothing happened: day was all but done. Call it a day, I wish they might have said To please the boy by giving him the half hour That a boy counts so much when saved from work. His sister stood beside them in her apron To tell them “Supper