This was not a popular question that requires the candidates to discuss how the use of simile portrays the persona’s attitude to Bats in the poem. The responses, however, lacked textual references.
This question demands that candidates explain:

• The themes of the opposition between perception/appearance and reality or prejudice.
• Explanation of simile.

• The poet’s first impression: he thinks he sees the swallows and is impressed with the beauty of their acrobatics:
• The poet’s studied observation: he sees bats instead and all the similes used to describe them convey images of disgust

‘little lumps that fly…’
‘wings like bits of umbrella’
‘Creatures that hang themselves up like an old rag to sleep’
Bats ‘hanging upside down like roles of disgusting old rags’

• The reader’s total impression of the poet’s attitude: nothing is attractive about the bats. They are ‘wildly vindictive.’ They are ‘grinning in their sleep’

Candidates’ performance in the question was average.