Poetry III
130 questions
Read the poem carefully:
The Foundry and the Forest
Within the brick-walled yard, the engines roar,
And heavy hammers strike the glowing sheet;
A hundred chimneys spill their smoky store,
Where soot and iron choke the narrow street.
But just beyond the high, stone-bordered wall,
The quiet birches bend to meet the breeze;
No iron weights or heavy shadows fall
Upon the mossy roots of silent trees.
In the poem, how does the structural division between the first stanza and the second stanza function?
The Loom
The wooden frame stands silent in the room, (1)
Where once the busy shuttle used to fly;
A half-spun thread still hangs upon the loom,
Like some forgotten promise left to dry.
The dusty threads of amber, red, and gold (5)
Now catch the fading evening's final light,
A tapestry of stories left untold,
Before the room is gathered by the night. (8)
In the poem, the "half-spun thread" (line 3) most likely symbolizes which of the following?
Read the following poem excerpt carefully.
The Daily Climb
Each morning brings the same steep hill,
The weight that must be pushed uphill,
A heavy stone of routine care,
Upwards through the heavy air.
It slips, it rolls, it falls once more,
To mock the labor done before,
Yet daily at the slope's cold base,
He stands to meet it face to face.
In the poem, the allusion to the myth of Sisyphus (the 'heavy stone' that 'slips, it rolls, it falls once more') primarily functions to highlight which of the following?
Read the following lines from William Wordsworth's poem "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey" (1798).
... Once again
Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,
That on a wild secluded scene impress
Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect
Landscape with the quiet of the sky.
In the excerpt, the enjambment across the line breaks in lines 3–5 ("That on... sky") primarily functions to do which of the following?
Read the following poem by Walt Whitman, first published in 1865:
When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
Which of the following best describes how the structural development of the poem mirrors the speaker’s cognitive and emotional shift?
Read the following lines from John Keats’s poem "Ode to a Nightingale" (1819):
My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
Which of the following best describes the effect of the enjambment between lines 1 and 2 ("pains / My sense")?
Based on the poem below, answer the question.
The Compass
The brass-bound compass rests upon the deck, (1)
Its trembling needle pointing to the north,
Indifferent to the clouds that form a speck,
Or to the stormy seas that call us forth.
It does not feel the stinging of the spray, (5)
Nor fear the hidden rocks beneath the foam;
It only holds its steady, narrow way,
And guides the wandering vessel safely home.
In the poem, the compass needle’s persistent alignment with "the north" (line 2) primarily serves as a symbol of which of the following?
Read the following poem carefully before answering the question.
The Astrolabe and the Aurora
Upon the copper plate, the builder drew
Each concentric orbit, etched in cold design,
To trap the wandering stars within a line
And lock the shifting heavens to a view.
Here, rule and pivot hold the cosmos still,
A brass epitome of time and space,
Where nothing strays beyond the scribed will,
And order reigns within a static place.
But overhead, the green aurora spills
Its silent, green-and-violet, lawless fire,
A shifting curtain draped across the hills
That mocks the astrolabe’s precise desire.
No needle tracks the ribbon of its flight,
No brass rule counts the waves of spectral grace;
It writes in light upon the scroll of night,
Then leaves the dark without a single trace.
The juxtaposition of the astrolabe in the first stanza and the aurora in the second stanza primarily serves to highlight which of the following?
Read the following poem carefully before answering the question.
The Prophet’s Salon
We sit and watch the steady rain,
And sip the tea and speak of weather,
While underneath the porcelain vein
The floorboards creak and press together.
I see the shadow on the lawn, 5
The silent horse of wood and ash,
The smoke that eats the quiet dawn,
The falling tower, the sudden crash.
But when I turn to speak the name
Of what will burn this gentle hall, 10
They laugh and trace the golden frame,
And tell me shadows cannot fall.
My words are leaves upon the wind,
A useless, heavy silver coin;
The thread is spun, the fates are pinned, 15
And none will see the seam we join.
Which of the following best describes the primary function of the allusion to the "horse of wood and ash" (line 6) in developing the speaker's perspective?
Read the following lines from George Herbert's poem "The Collar," first published in 1633:
I struck the board, and cry'd, No more.
I will abroad.
What? shall I ever sigh and pine?
My lines and life are free; free as the rode,
Loose as the winde, as large as store.
Shall I be still in suit?
Have I no harvest but a thorn
To let me bloud, and not restore
What I have lost with cordiall fruit?
Sure there was wine
Before my sighs did drie it: there was corn
Before my tears did drown it.
In these opening lines, how do the irregular line lengths and varied indentations primarily function to convey the speaker’s state of mind?
Read the following poem by W. B. Yeats (1865–1939), published in 1890:
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.
In the final stanza, how does the transition in setting from the idealized island of Innisfree to the "roadway" and "pavements grey" contribute to the thematic argument of the poem?
Read the following poem carefully:
The Clockwork and the Clover
Within the casing of the gilded clock,
The interlocking gears of brass align,
To measure with a cold, relentless tick
The strict divisions of a grand design;
No gear may pause, no balance wheel may stray
From the prescribed and artificial day.
But in the grass beneath the shifting sky,
The clover bends before the passing wind,
Unmeasured by the dials of the eye,
Leaving its wild, unguided seed behind;
It blossoms, fades, and yields to winter’s frost,
Unconscious of the hours it has lost.
Which of the following best describes how the juxtaposition of the clockwork and the clover develops the poem's central theme?
Read the following lines from John Milton’s sonnet 'When I Consider How My Light is Spent,' first published in 1673:
'Doth God exact day-labour, light deny'd?'
I fondly ask. But patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, 'God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts; who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best.'
In context, how does the enjambment across the transition from line 8 to line 9 ('But patience, to prevent / That murmur') function?
Read the following poem carefully, then answer the question.
The Greenhouse and the Glacier
Within the steamed and rounded glass, the fern
Unfurls its frond in artificial noon,
While orchids in their painted pots in turn
Sip at the vapor of a captured June.
Here all is coaxed, and all is held secure;
The climate obeys a gardener's quiet key,
And fragile blossoms, pampered to endure,
Forget the bitter wind's harsh decree.
But lift the eye to meet the mountain's crown,
Where the blue glacier cuts its heavy path,
A frozen torrent shearing slowly down,
Untamed by any human art or wrath.
It does not yield to glass or iron grate;
It writes its history in crushing stone,
A silent monument to ancient weight,
Enduring in the barren cold, alone.
How does the structural contrast between the controlled environment of the greenhouse and the wild expanse of the glacier develop the speaker's perspective on human control?
The speaker in the following poem reflects on a relationship:
I traced your features in the silent dark,
Configuring a grace you did not possess,
As if my stubborn fingers could impart
A warmth to stone, a pulse to emptiness.
Like Pygmalion beside the ivory bed,
I prayed to silent gods to breathe you in,
To wake the phantom model of my head
And spark a soul beneath the simulated skin.
But when the morning broke and touched your hand,
No crimson flushed the marble of your cheek;
I stood alone upon the barren sand,
Subdued by gods who do not care to speak.
In the second and third stanzas, how does the allusion to Pygmalion (line 5) primarily function to develop the speaker's attitude toward the beloved?
Read the following poem carefully before answering the question.
The glass is dark until the current wakes,
And throws a silver outline on the screen;
A phantom face the silent water makes,
More clear than any living eye has seen.
I bend above the cold, reflective pool, (5)
And trace the glowing contours of the self,
Content to play the captive and the fool,
Far from the dusty volumes on the shelf.
No Echo calls me from the forest deep,
No ancient hunger turns my skin to stone; (10)
I watch the shallow, digital waters creep,
And drown in light, untroubled and alone.
In the final stanza (lines 9–12), the speaker’s allusion to Echo and the Narcissus myth primarily functions to do which of the following?
Read the following poem carefully:
The Clepsydra
The brass vessel drips its measured spark
Into the basin of the gathering dark;
No hand of iron moves, no shadow falls
Across the dampness of these stony walls.
Yet rise the waters, silent and profound,
To submerge the marks upon the vessel's bound,
As if each drop, in falling, must erase
Some fragile memory of a human face.
We watch the level climb, a steady tide,
And feel the coldness of the stone inside,
Knowing the vessel, though it holds the day,
Must let the silent current leak away.
In the context of the poem, the rising water in the basin primarily symbolizes which of the following?
Read the following poem by Emily Dickinson carefully before choosing your answer.
My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -
In Corners - till a Day
The Owner passed - identified -
And carried Me away -
And now We roam in Sovereign Woods -
And now We hunt the Doe -
And every time I speak for Him
The Mountains straight reply -
And do I smile, such cordial light
Upon the Valley glow -
It is as a Vesuvian face
Had let its pleasure through -
In the passage, the conceit of the speaker as a 'Loaded Gun' primarily functions to dramatize which of the following dynamics?
Read the following poem, "No, Thank You, John" (1862) by Christina Rossetti:
I never said I loved you, John:
No fault of mine made me your toast:
Why will you haunt me with a show as pale
As quite a ghost?
I dare say Meg or Moll would take
Pity upon you, if you'd ask:
And bid you shear, as she has shorn,
Your tasks.
I have no heart?—Perhaps I have not;
But then you're matching hearts with stone:
I'd rather answer "No" to fifty Johns
Than answer "Yes" to one.
Which of the following best describes the speaker’s tone and persona in the poem?
Read the following poem carefully before answering the question.
The Cartographer’s Confession
Our borders are but threads of ink we stretch
Across the wilderness we cannot tame;
With compass and with rule we strive to sketch
The wild, unreckoned lands and give them name.
How grandly does the gilded crest declare
The sovereign's reach across the azure main!
Yet wind and tide dismantle what we swear,
And rivers twist to mock our neat domain.
We trace the lines of conquest, bold and neat,
Confining mountain ranges to the page,
While in the dust beneath our mapping feet,
The silent hills outlive the monarch's rage.
I draw the world in lines of gold and blue,
And sell the lie that what I draw is true.
Which of the following best characterizes the shift in the speaker's voice and attitude over the course of the poem?