Getting the Power and Conflict themes straight is the single most useful thing you can do for this exam, because the whole question is built on them. You are asked to compare how two poems present a theme, so if you know which poems share which ideas, you walk in with your pairings ready. This page groups all 15 anthology poems by theme so you can see the map at a glance.
AQA does not hand you a tidy list of themes, but the poems sort themselves into a few big ideas, and most poems belong to more than one. Do not try to file each poem under a single heading. The skill is seeing that Ozymandias is about human power and pride and time, so it can be pulled into several different comparisons depending on the question.
The power of humans
This is the biggest theme in the cluster, and it usually means power that is arrogant, temporary or abused. Ozymandias shows a tyrant's power crumbling to sand. My Last Duchess shows one man's controlling, murderous power over his wife. London attacks the institutional power of monarchy, Church and commerce. Checking Out Me History is about the power to control whose history gets told, and Tissue questions whether human power is as solid as it pretends. If a question is about pride or the abuse of power, these are your poems.
The power of nature
Where human power is shown as fragile, nature is shown as vast and unstoppable. Storm on the Island turns the weather into an attacking army. Extract from The Prelude has a mountain rear up and humble a confident boy. Exposure makes the freezing cold the real enemy, deadlier than any human. Notice how differently the poets feel about it: Wordsworth is full of awe, Heaney of fear, Owen of grim resignation.
The reality of conflict
Several poems strip away the glory and show what fighting is actually like. Bayonet Charge throws you into the panic of a soldier who forgets his patriotism the moment the bullets fly. Exposure shows war as boredom, cold and slow death. And The Charge of the Light Brigade sits interestingly against them, because Tennyson still finds honour in the deaths even while admitting the blunder that caused them. That makes it the perfect contrast poem.
The effects of conflict
This theme is about the damage war does to people, often far from any battlefield. Remains is a soldier haunted by a killing. War Photographer is a man tormented by the suffering he records and by everyone else's indifference to it. Poppies is a mother grieving a son who has left. If a question is about suffering, guilt or aftermath, reach here first.
Memory, loss and identity
Memory runs through a surprising number of these poems, usually as something that will not let go. The Emigree holds onto a sunlit memory of a lost homeland. Kamikaze is built on a daughter's memory of a shamed father, and on the childhood memories that turned him back. Poppies and Remains are both haunted by what cannot be forgotten, and Checking Out Me History is about reclaiming an identity built on history.
How to use themes in the exam
You do not get marks for listing themes. You get marks for using them to build a comparison. When you revise, take one theme at a time and force yourself to name two or three poems that fit it, then decide which pairing you could argue best. That habit turns this page into an exam plan. The next step is my Power and Conflict comparison guide, which shows exactly which poems to pair and why, and the Grade 9 essays page, which shows a themed comparison written out and annotated.