Final Examination

[ernesto thaddeus m. solmerano]

Lit 23: Anglo-American Literature
Final Examination
Prof. ETM Somerano
Poetry Analysis Test

Printed below are a number of poems. After each poem is a series of multiple choice questions. Read each poem carefully and answer the questions. Good luck. You need it.

Sonnet 146
By William Shakespeare

Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth,
Thrall to these rebel powers that thee array;
Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth,
Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?
Why so large cost, having so short a lease,
Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend?
Shall worms, inheritors of this excess,
Eat up thy charge? is this thy body's end?
Then soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss,
And let that pine to aggravate thy store;
Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross;
Within be fed, without be rich no more:
So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men,
And Death once dead, there's no more dying then.

1. The speaker of this poem:
a. has lived wisely
b. looks forward to death with resignation
c. regrets his sins and is repentant
d. is not afraid of death
e. has lived in abject poverty
2. In this poem the speaker states that death can be defeated by:
a. being ignored
b. acquiring courage through life
c. caring for one’s physical health
d. making a pact with the devil
e. attending to the soul
3. The inheritor of the human body, according to the poem, is:
a. God
b. Satan
c. the landlord
d. the worm
e. the cemetery
4. All of the following are metaphors used in the poem EXCEPT:
a. master and servant
b. landlord and tenant
c. seller and purchaser
d. clothing and feeding
e. worms and corpse
5. “Death once dead” is an example of:
a. hyperbole
b. paradox
c. metonymy
d. irony
e. all of these aforementioned
6. An irony of the poem is that:
a. neglecting the body fosters immortality
b. one cannot really defeat death
c. the center of the body is the brain, not the soul
d. spiritual happiness is an inherent, not a purchased, element
e. not even the soul can live without food
7. The rebel powers in the poem are the:
a. material demands of the body
b. four horsemen of the Apocalypse
c. seven deadly sins
d. fears of penury and illness
e. specters of death and decay
8. In this poem clothing is a metaphor for:
a. nobility
b. delusions
c. prayer and worship
d. indulgence or extravagance
e. truth or reality
9. The best interpretation of line 12 is:
a. man should seek happiness rather than wealth
b. the destiny of man is to be food for worms
c. man should consider his soul of greater worth than his body
d. spiritual sustenance is inferior to material gain
e. man’s wealth disappears when he dies
10. The dominant metaphor of the poem is related to:
a. clothing of the body
b. investment in a house
c. a battlefield against death
d. the terms of a will and testament
e. the cost of food

After Great Pain, A Formal Feeling Comes
By Emily Dickinson

After great pain, a formal feeling comes –
The nerves sit ceremonious like Tombs;
The stiff Heart questions--was it He that bore,
And Yesterday, or Centuries before?
The feet, mechanical, go round –

Of Ground, or Air, or Ought, –
A Wooden way
Regardless grown,
A Quartz contentment, like a stone –
This is the hour of lead –

Remembered if outlived,
As freezing persons recollect the Snow--
First Chill, then Stupor, then the letting go.

11. The poem deals with the:
a. numbing effects of bitter cold
b. gradual numbness of the body before death
c. progression deep grief
c. suffering of the Crucifixion
e. nature of contentment
12. The “hour of lead’ is the:
a. weight of remorse
b. period of grief
c. moral decadence of age
d. coming of death
e. advent of winter
13. The images in the last line of the poem represent:
a. dying
b. protest
c. escape
d. defeat
e. acceptance
14. The “He, that bore” in line 3 of the poem is a reference to:
a. the person who died
b. Death
c. an unknown martyr
d. Jesus
e. the speaker in the poem
15. The speaker can be best described as:
a. incoherent with grief
b. philosophical
c. resigned
d. indifferent
e. stoical or impassive
16. The effectiveness of the poetic statement in the first stanza is heightened by:
a. personification
b. paradox
c. understatement
d. hyperbole
e. synecdoche
17. the first line of the poem :
a. is an outburst of pain
b. introduces the speaker
c. states the subject
d. is cold and formal
e. cites the first illustration of the theme
18. The formal feeling that comes after great pain is a:
a. return to normal routines
b. willingness to profit from experience
c. desire to begin again
d. quiet acceptance of the tragic loss
e. refusal to accept the reality of death
19. Which of the following best describes the speaker’s approach to her subject?
a. She states her theme in the first line, develops it in the first and second stanzas, and resolves it in the third.
b. She does not state her theme but expects the reader to infer it.
c. She obscures her theme with dramatic metaphors that color her poem with ambiguity.
d. She states her theme in the first stanza and expands on it throughout the poem.
e. She provides metaphor and illustration in the first two stanzas and states her theme in the third.
20. The mood of the poem is best described as:
a. solemn
b. euphoric
c. bitter
d. sanguine
e. gloomy
21. Which of the following is Not true of the statements in the poem?
a. The formal feeling of grief suggests no overt demonstration.
b. To grieve excessively is necessary for catharsis.
c. Grief is a universal experience.
d. The pain in the poem is not a physical one.
e. If one is religious, he/she will associate pain with the sufferings of Christ.
22. All of the following are suggested by images in the poem EXCEPT:
a. lifelessness
b. the pain of the Crucifixion
c. death by freezing
d. mechanical movement
e. quiet weeping

A Deep-sworn Vow
By William Butler Yeats

Others because you did not keep
That deep-sworn vow have been friends of mine;
Yet always when I look death in the face,
When I clamber to the heights of sleep,
Or when I grow excited with wine,
Suddenly I meet your face.

23. The theme of this poem is that:
a. the loss of a friend will always haunt one
b. betrayals are remembered with regret
c. unfulfillment generates self-pity
d. memories of a lost-love remain forever in the unconscious
e. memories ease the fear of death
24. This poem states that the loved one has been forgotten:
a. because other friendships have been made
b. because the speaker has grown old
c. only on the conscious level of the mind
d. with the aid of wine and sleep
e. with the passage of time and the approach of death
25. The theme of this poem is accentuated by the:
a. simplicity of the statement
b. casualness of the comment
c. contrast in tone between the opening and closing lines
d. repetition of the word “face”
e. rhyme scheme
26. The “face” of the lost love appears in a vision:
a. only when the speaker is in a serious mood
b. only in convivial instances
c. in moments of danger
d. when the mind is at rest
e. when the concerns of everyday existence do not occupy the speaker
27. All of the following are true of “A Deep-sworn Vow” EXCEPT:
a. There are three instances when the face of the lost love appears to the speaker.
b. the three instances the speaker mentions reinforce the same idea.
c. The lover falsifies the experience by saying it occurs only when he thinks or fears he is dying.
d. The image of the loved one is imprinted in the subconscious.
e. The loved one was unfaithful to the speaker.
28. The expression “I clamber to the heights of sleep” is an image that suggests:
a. simply the restlessness of the speaker’s personality
b. that the memory of the lost loved one is all-pervasive
c. that sleep, like death, frightens the speaker
d. that the vision of the lost loved one does not appear casually
e. that the lost loved one haunts the speaker’s sleep
29. The repetition of the word “face” in lines 3 and 6:
a. suggests that the lineaments of the vision grow sharper with time
b. suggests that the face appears most strikingly at moments when the mind is tense or blurred
c. suggests that the original passion was a superficial one
d. creates a tone of tension
e. creates a tone of resignation
30. Which is a fair and accurate comment about the poem?
a. it is a sentimental affirmation of a remembered love experience.
b. It is an ironic statement about lovers who focus for a lifetime on a past romance.
c. It is a candid and dramatic expression of a universal experience.
d. It is a recording of a bitter memory that hampers sleep and spurs unrest.
e. it is an exaggerated and romantic outburst of an old man’s yearning for a lost love.

Bonus Question: The speaker in the poem is:
a. one who has reached old age and finds life empty
b. a self-centered egotist
c. a serious-minded and thoughtful individual
d. a sensitive but romantic dreamer
e. one who spends much time alone

Whoa, gotta run. Goodbye, folks.