Poetry I

Read the following passage from John Donne's "Holy Sonnet XIV" (published in 1633) carefully:

(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.

Which of the following best characterizes the speaker's perspective in lines 1–8?

Read the following poem carefully before choosing your answer.

The pendulum dissects the afternoon
In equal slices of polished brass;
It does not care for the changing moon,
Or how the shadows lengthen on the grass.
5 Inside the case, the gilded wheels engage,
A neat bureaucracy of tooth and spring,
That keeps the fleeting second in its cage
And dictates when the heavy bell shall ring.
But when the weights run low, a stutter creeps
10 Into the pulse that seemed so absolute;
The ticking falters, and the shadow leaps
Beyond the dial, indifferent and mute.
The master-spring relaxes in the dark,
Leaving the dust to settle on the mark.

In the poem, the tonal shift that occurs in line 9 ("But when... creeps") primarily serves to do which of the following?

The brass wheels turn in orderly design,
Each cog and lever true to its decree;
A hundred metal voices click and chime
To mark the bounds of mortality.
Here time is measured, captured, and confined,
A captive spirit in a copper cage,
Where human hands have carefully aligned
The turning numbers on a painted page.
But when the window is flung open wide,
A sudden gust of April wind breaks in,
And all the structured harmony inside
Is drowned beneath the swallows’ wilder din.

In the poem, the tonal shift beginning in line 9 ("But when...") primarily functions to do which of the following?

Read the following poem carefully before choosing your answer:

The Glassblower's Art

(1) The iron pipe sustains the molten mass,
(2) A heavy gather glowing in the dark,
(3) Before the master breathes into the spark
(4) To shape the liquid clarity of glass.

(5) It swells, expanding outward, stretching wide,
(6) Yielding to force of breath that pushes through
(7) The thinning walls, which now begin to sue
(8) For freedom from the gravity inside,

(9) Until the cooling wind arrests the flow
(10) And locks the fragile bubble in its place.
(11) No longer fluid, fixed in static grace,
(12) It holds the light that once was fire's glow.

Which of the following best describes the function of the transition from the second stanza (lines 5–8) to the third stanza (lines 9–12)?

The Excavation

The spade reveals a boundary in the clay, (1)
A sudden line of charcoal and of ash
That marks the end of some forgotten reign;
We brush the centuries of dust away
And find, beneath the heavy earth, the clash (5)
Of broken bronze, the shield, the severed chain.

And yet the soil does not record the cry
Of those who fell before the city burned;
It only holds the shape of what was made.
Above the trench, a clear and empty sky (10)
Receives the questions we have not returned,
And casts a longer shadow on the spade.

Which of the following best describes how the division between the first and second stanzas contributes to the poem's thematic development?

Read the following poem excerpt carefully:

1 The velvet curtain falls, a heavy shroud,
2 Upon the boards where mimic kings have reigned;
3 The echoes of the cheering, fierce and loud,
4 Are in the dusty rafters now detained.
5 The painted skies of canvas shrink and fade,
6 The gilded crowns are swept into a chest,
7 And in the empty wings, a silent shade,
8 The tired actors put their masks to rest.
9 Yet in this hollow space, a chill remains,
10 Not of the night, but of the vanished air,
11 As if the ghosts of all their staged domains
12 Still whisper secrets in the darkness there.

Which of the following best describes the transition in tone from the first two stanzas (lines 1–8) to the final stanza (lines 9–12)?

Read the following lines carefully:

The spider spins her silver net,
Suspended in the dusty beam;
(3) A fragile mesh of wire and threat,
To snare the daylight's passing dream.

With silent, calculating grace,
(6) She anchors nodes of dew and steel,
And constructs in this forgotten space
A quiet, predatory wheel.

In line 6, the word "steel" most directly functions to underscore which of the following?

Read the following poem carefully:

The harbor rests beneath a velvet shroud,
As gentle waters lap the wooden quay;
No longer do the sailors cry aloud,
Nor ships advance across the restless sea.
A single lantern casts its amber light,
To guide the weary traveler to the shore,
While stars emerge to decorate the night,
And troubled winds are heard to rage no more.
The quiet tide, in soft, rhythmic sleep,
Now hushes all the clamor of the day,
And in this peace, both beautiful and deep,
The heavy thoughts of labor fade away.

Which of the following best describes the overall mood established in the poem?

Refer to the passage below:

The weary traveler climbs the final crest,
And looks upon the quiet vale below,
Where gentle waters in their channel flow,
And every bird is settled in its nest.
The golden evening sun begins to fade,
A purple shadow falls across the green,
And in this tranquil, solitary scene,
The cares of busy day are gently laid.
No heavy wind disturbs the peaceful trees,
No sudden cry disrupts the silent air;
A soft and cooling twilight-breathing breeze
Dispels the lingering shadows of despair.

Which of the following best describes the atmospheric mood established in the second stanza (lines 5–8)?

Read the following poem carefully before choosing the best answer.

The iron teeth devour the quiet thread,
And spit a rigid pattern to the floor;
No hand is raised to bless the daily bread,
Which rolls in grey monotony from the door.
The shuttle flies, a cold and silver bird,
That sings no song of summer or of leaf,
But clicks its metal testament, unheard,
To bind the weaver to a structured grief.

In the context of the poem, the word "testament" (line 7) primarily connotes which of the following?

Read the following poem carefully before choosing your answer:

The Common Field, 1795

The ancient paths are sliced by straight-edged stone,
And where the village grazed their scattered sheep,
A wall of mortar bids the poor begone,
And tells the soil what master it must keep.
The open down, once wild with gorse and weed, (5)
Is measured, bound, and broken to the plow;
The hawthorn hedge, planted for private greed,
Chokes out the wilding boughs that bloomed but now.
The oak, which sheltered generations past,
Now stands within a lord’s sequestered park, (10)
And shadows on the formal lawn are cast,
Where once the woodlark sang from dawn to dark.

How does the historical shift in setting described in the poem influence the speaker’s perspective?

Read the following poem carefully before choosing your answer.

1 The massive hammers rise and strike the stone,
2 In dark, unyielding rhythms of the floor;
3 Here labor shapes the iron, bone by bone,
4 Behind the heavy, double-bolted door.
5 No sunlit wind disturbs this dusty air,
6 No green leaf bends beneath a sudden rain;
7 We build our tombs with calculated care,
8 And forge the very links of human pain.
9 Yet when the final whistle breaks the hum,
10 And evening breathes a cool, forgiving sigh,
11 A quiet grace begins to slowly come,
12 Like starlight spilling from a darkened sky.

In the poem, the transition in line 9 ("Yet when the final whistle breaks the hum") marks a shift in the speaker's tone from which of the following?

The Telegraph Station

The brass key taps its frantic, metallic code
Into the hollow belly of the night;
Outside, the sleet assails the frozen road,
While here, a single lamp provides us light.

Across the wires, the distant cities weep,
In pulses sent through mountain, swamp, and wave,
Translating grief while safer mortals sleep,
Connecting isolated hearts to save.

The hum of copper carries wars and trade,
A web of lightning bound by human hands,
Where empires are dismantled and remade
Within this room of dust and iron strands.

How does the contrast between the immediate physical setting of the telegraph station and the global reach of the wires shape the speaker’s perspective?

Read the following poem carefully before choosing your answer.

The iron crank is rusted to the stone,
And dry leaves choke the throat where water rose;
A traveler might pass it by, alone,
And deem the well’s long history is closed.
(5) Yet bend your ear against the mossy lip:
Beneath the drift of autumn's dusty lease,
One hears the secret, slow, persistent drip—
A quiet pulse that will not grant us peace.
It does not care for sun or changing skies,
(10) But keeps its cold, subterranean vow,
A hidden source that silently defies
The superficial drought that holds us now.

Which of the following best characterizes the transition in the speaker's attitude over the course of the poem?

Read the following poem carefully before answering the question.

The cartographer traces lines of ink,
Inscribing borders on the silent sheet,
Fixing the rivers where the deer would drink,
And naming paths where ancient empires meet.
Here is the world, precise, contained, and still,
Bound by the compass and the copper plate,
A paper empire governed by his will,
Securely fenced against the winds of fate.

Yet as he dries the page, a shadow falls
From open windows where the wild winds blow,
And from the street, a sudden trumpet calls
To fields of green where nameless waters flow;
The steady hand begins to shake and veer,
The ink is smudged, the clean boundaries lost,
And all the structured kingdoms disappear
Beneath the shadow of the coming frost.

Which of the following best describes the transition in the speaker's tone over the course of the poem?

Read the following poem carefully before choosing your answer:

The Homestead, 1934

The wind has carved a dry, grey monument
Of what was once a fertile summer field;
The fence-posts lean, by heavy drifts half-spent,
And choke the seed that never got to yield.
Within the kitchen, grit lies on the sill,
A silent sediment of dry despair;
The iron stove is cold, the kettle still,
While grey dust settles in the mother's hair.
She looks across the dry, unyielding plain,
Where skeletons of oak trees claw the sky,
And counts the seasons since the last true rain,
And wonders if the earth itself must die.

In the poem, how does the desolate physical setting reflect the broader historical and economic context of the 1930s?

Read the following lines from John Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (1820) carefully before choosing your answer:

Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?

In these lines, the speaker addresses the urn using a series of metaphors ("bride of quietness," "foster-child of silence," "Sylvan historian"). Which of the following best describes how these figurative devices function to establish the speaker's relationship with the urn?

Consider the following lines of poetry:

(1) The evening settles in a pool of ink,
(2) And writes a silent end upon the hill;
(3) The weary traveler stops to watch and think
(4) Beside a stream that has forgot to trill.
(5) It is a heavy, leaden peace that falls,
(6) Not soft like sleep, but rigid as a stone,
(7) An iron hush that binds the crumbling walls,
(8) And leaves the ancient valley quite alone.

In line 5, the word "leaden" most specifically carries which of the following connotations?

Read the following poem carefully:

The specimen is dried and neatly pinned,
A remnant of the wildflower from the peak,
Its petals thin as paper, grey and thinned,
No longer yielding to the alpine wind
That whipped the summer color to its cheek.

Here in the archive, cataloged and cold,
It sits beneath the sterile, yellow pane,
A quiet testament of years untold,
Where dust and ink and heavy bindings hold
The landscape that it will not see again.

Yet through the glass, a sudden sunbeam falls,
And for a breath, the silent paper glows;
The static shadow on the plaster walls
Dissolves, and from the mountain slope there calls
The roaring torrent of the melting snows.

Which of the following best describes the tonal shift that occurs in the final stanza (lines 11–15)?

Read the following poem carefully before answering the question.

The orchard stood in sunlit, golden grace,
Where heavy branches bowed to touch the grass,
And lazy bees hummed low from place to place,
Content to let the summer afternoon pass.
But when the sudden shadow crossed the hill,
A sharp, metallic whistle split the air;
The hum of wings grew desolate and still,
And branches shivered in the sudden glare.
The golden fruit, once sweet and warm to sight,
Now seemed like heavy stones of hardened clay;
The garden waited, braced against the night,
As all the lazy warmth was swept away.

In the poem, the speaker's attitude undergoes a transition from which of the following?