Poetry II

Read the following poem carefully before answering the question.

Our souls are like two lutist's strings, attuned
In perfect unison by hands divine;
Though by the distance of our bodies pruned,
When fret is touched on yours, it shakes on mine.
For though we dwell in separate chambers deep,
And silence wraps the space that lies between,
A single chord struck ere you fall asleep
Vibrates within my breast, unheard, unseen.
Yet if thy string should slacken or grow dry,
Or mine be strained by sorrow's sudden tension,
The music of our mutual lives must die,
Drowned in the jarring notes of apprehension.

Which of the following best describes the function of this conceit in the context of the poem?

Refer to the following poem excerpt:

(1) The traffic light counts down its amber breath,
(2) a mechanical pulse
(3) that dictates when we must move, when we must
(4) freeze like statues in the exhaust.
(5) Yet here, between the crosswalk's white ribs,
(6) a dandelion forces its yellow fist
(7) through a crack in the tar,
(8) claiming a square inch of soil
(9) as if the city were only a temporary crust,
(10) a fleeting winter
(11) that the earth will eventually
(12) shrug off.

In the final lines (lines 9–12), how do the varying line lengths and enjambments most directly contribute to the development of the poem's theme?

Read the poem below carefully:

The World Is Too Much with Us

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

In the final two lines of the poem, what function do the mythological allusions to Proteus and Triton serve?

Read the following poem by Robert Frost (1874–1963) carefully:

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
(5) Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

In the poem, how does the allusion to "Eden" in line 6 function in relation to the poem's central theme?

Read the following poem excerpt:

The crane swings its long, steel arm
against a sky the color of wet slate,
lifting blocks of cold stone
into the clouds.
No walls yet exist
to contain the wind
that whistles through the iron skeleton
of what will be.

In the excerpt, how does the poet's choice of an open poetic form and free verse reinforce the passage's central imagery?

Read the following excerpt from John Milton’s sonnet "When I Consider How My Light is Spent" (1673) carefully:

When I consider how my light is spent,
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide...

In the context of the excerpt, which of the following best describes the function of the allusion to the "one talent" in line 3?

Read the following poem excerpt carefully:

(1) The fog does not wait for permission
(2) to cross the highway;
(3) it flows through the wire fence,
(4) a gray sleeve
(5) catching on the barbs,
(6) then pulling itself free.
(7) It gathers in the low ditches,
(8) settling without shape,
(9) conforming to whatever earth
(10) it finds.

Which of the following best describes how the poem’s open poetic form relates to its subject?

The Sundial

Upon the garden’s terrace stands the plate of stone,
A silent watcher of the passing day,
Whose bronze gnomon, in darkness left alone,
Can shape no shadow when the sun's away.
It waits the touch of the celestial eye
To write the hours upon its marble breast;
So is my soul, which looks toward thy sky,
A useless block, by heavy shade oppressed.
For when thy countenance is turned from me,
And clouds of absence veil thy warming beam,
No shadow marks the hours of my decree,
No digits measure out my sorrow's stream.
The silent bronze remains, but tells no time;
I live unnumbered till thy light return.

In the poem, how does the extended metaphor of the sundial function to develop the speaker's portrayal of their emotional state?

Read the following poem excerpt carefully before choosing your answer.

(1) The draft enters without a key,
(2) slipping under the heavy oak door,
(3) a cool, invisible wedge
(4) that lifts the corner of the receipt,
(5) then the old letter,
(6) until the desk is a flutter
(7) of white wings.
(8) They rise,
(9) unanchored,
(10) descending in slow, erratic circles
(11) to the dark floor,
(12) where they lie
(13) like fallen sails
(14) after the wind has spent its breath.

How does the transition to the short lines in lines 8–9 ("They rise, / unanchored,") function within the context of the poem's open form?

Read the following passage carefully before choosing your answer:

(1) The iron gate swings shut; a rusted sound
(2) Divides the evening. We are left to stand
(3) Within the overgrown, neglected ground,
(4) Disowned by what we claimed—the quiet land
(5) Yields nothing to the touch. A solitary bird
(6) Calls out, and then is gone, before the word
(7) We sought is spoken. Still, the shadow grows
(8) Across the threshold of the dying rose.

In the context of the passage, how does the enjambment between lines 4 and 5 ('the quiet land / Yields') affect the reader's understanding of the relationship between the speakers and the setting?

Read the following lines from John Donne's "Holy Sonnet XIV" (1633):

1 Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you
2 As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
3 That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
4 Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
5 I, like an usurp'd town, to another due,
6 Labor to admit you, but Oh, to no end;
7 Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
8 But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue.

In line 7 ("Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend"), the inverted word order primarily serves to do which of the following?

Read the following lines from Emily Dickinson's poem "The Sky is low – the Clouds are mean" (1890):

The Sky is low – the Clouds are mean –
A Travelling Flake of Snow
Across a Barn or through a Rut
Debates if it will go –

A Narrow Wind complains all Day
How some one treated him
Nature, like Us is sometimes caught
Without her Diadem –

In the second stanza, the personification of the wind and Nature serves primarily to accomplish which of the following?

Read the following poem by Ernest Dowson (1867–1900) carefully before choosing your answer.

Villanelle of Sunset

Come hither, Child! and lay your hand on mine, (1)
And let us talk of many things:
Of the white road and the dim evening line. (3)

We have no care; we need no more design;
The day is finished with the buzz of wings:
Come hither, Child! and lay your hand on mine. (6)

The shadow gathers on the darkling vine,
And through the trees a sudden whisper rings:
Of the white road and the dim evening line. (9)

A little while, and then the stars will shine,
And we shall hear the nightingales of kings:
Come hither, Child! and lay your hand on mine. (12)

Wait not, nor weep: the night is very fine,
And in the darkness some sweet singer sings:
Of the white road and the dim evening line. (15)

Now is the hour when all things must resign
Their separate lives into the night that brings:
Come hither, Child! and lay your hand on mine: (18)
Of the white road and the dim evening line. (19)

Which of the following best describes how the structural constraints of the villanelle form, specifically the repetition of the alternating refrain lines, contribute to the poem's theme?

Read the following lines from Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem 'The Windhover' (written 1877):

1 I caught this morning morning's minion, king-
2 dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
3 Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
4 High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
5 In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
6 As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
7 Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
8 Stirred for a bird,—the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!

In lines 2–3, the syntax of the phrase 'the rolling level underneath him steady air' deviates from standard grammatical word order. Which of the following best describes the primary function of this syntactical deviation?

Read the following poem by Emma Lazarus carefully before choosing your answer.

The New Colossus (1883)

[1] Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
[2] With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
[3] Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
[4] A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
[5] Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
[6] Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
[7] Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
[8] The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
[9] 'Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!' cries she
[10] With silent lips. 'Give me your tired, your poor,
[11] Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
[12] The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
[13] Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
[14] I lift my lamp beside the golden door!'

Which of the following best describes the function of the transition (the volta) between the octave and the sestet (lines 8-9)?

Frost at Midnight (1798)

The Frost performs its secret ministry,
Unhelped by any wind. The owlet's cry
Came loud—and hark, again! loud as before.
The inmates of my cottage, all at rest,
Have left me to that solitude, which suits
Abstruser musings: save that at my side
My cradled infant slumbers peacefully.

In the excerpt above, the speaker characterizes the frost as performing a "secret ministry." What is the primary thematic effect of this personification?

Read the following poem carefully before choosing your answer.

The Sculptor's Clay

He shapes the cold white stone with frantic hand,
Demanding breath from what his chisel made,
As if a mortal gesture could command
The stubborn marble in the studio's shade.
No warming pulse responds to his embrace,
No ivory flesh begins to flush or glow;
He stands a failed Pygmalion in this place,
Bound to the silence of the stone below.

In the context of the poem, how does the allusion to Pygmalion in line 7 function to develop the speaker's portrayal of the sculptor?

Read the following lines from John Keats’s poem "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (1819):

1 Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
2 To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
3 Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
4 And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
5 What little town by river or sea shore,
6 Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
7 Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn?
8 And, little town, thy streets for evermore
9 Will silent be; and not a soul to tell
10 Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.

In lines 8–10 ("And, little town . . . e'er return"), which of the following best describes the effect of the syntactical structure of the clause "and not a soul to tell / Why thou art desolate, can e'er return"?

Read the following excerpt from John Keats’s poem "Ode to a Nightingale" (1819) carefully:

Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown:
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
She stood in tears amid the alien corn;
The same that oft-times hath
Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.

In the context of the poem, how does the speaker’s allusion to the biblical figure of Ruth (lines 5–7) contribute to the development of the poem's theme?

Read the following poem excerpt carefully before answering the question.

(1) The climber grips the cold, unyielding stone—
(2) A ledge no wider than a finger's cast—
(3) And hangs; the valley yawns, a sudden, vast
(4) Abyss of blue and shadow. High, alone,
(5) He reaches for the root that splits the seam
(6) Of granite, feeling how the fibers strain
(7) Against his weight, and snap—a sudden pain
(8) That ends the silent passage of the dream.

In lines 3–4, how does the combination of the punctuation after 'hangs' and the line break between 'vast' and 'Abyss' shape the representation of the climber's situation?