Poetry I
139 soru
Read the following lines carefully:
The winter clock divides the shivering day
With precise and iron-cold intent;
Each second falls, a leaden weight of grey,
Upon the hours we have so blindly spent.
It does not weep for seasons cast aside,
Nor pause to catch the fleeting, golden heat;
But like a silent, sternly patient guide,
It marks the steady march of our retreat.
In line 3, the word "leaden" primarily connotes which of the following?
Read the following lines carefully:
The wind goes whispering through the sleepy trees,
A gentle breath that stirs the heavy bough;
It sings of distant lands and open seas,
And cools the fever of the weary brow.
In context, which of the following states does the word 'sleepy' (line 1) most directly connote?
Read the following poem carefully before choosing your answer:
The dial stands upon the terrace lawn,
A silent scribe of shadows and the sun;
It counted hours from the golden dawn,
Before the crawling ivy had begun
To bind its bronze and choke the Roman script.
Once, lovers came to read the fleeting day
Where now the shade of weeping ash is dipped,
And heavy moss has worn the glyphs away.
Yet look! A sudden wind disrupts the leaves,
Unveiling for a moment, sharp and clear,
A single line the rusted gnomon cleaves—
*I count but sunny hours*—written here.
The darkness crawls, but cannot quite erase
The stubborn promise etched upon its face.
Which of the following best describes the transition in tone between the octet (lines –) and the sestet (lines –)?
The Border Wall
Here where the Roman chisels split the stone
To bind the empire’s northern edge in place,
The moss has carved a kingdom of its own,
And grass grows green across the Caesar’s face.
The ancient ditch is leveled by the plow, 5
The watchtowers fall to feed the farmer’s wall;
No iron spears or crested helmets now
Disturb the quiet sheep that graze and fall.
Yet in the chill of this October mist,
The silent stones still breathe of shield and sword, 10
A boundary line the centuries resist,
Where empires crumbled at a nameless ford.
In the poem, the contrast between the ruins of the Roman empire and the quiet agricultural landscape primarily serves to highlight which of the following?
Read the following poem excerpt carefully:
The mallet falls; the chisel's iron bite
Shears clean the outer rind of chalky grey,
Revealing where the buried grain of white
Stands locked within its cold, diurnal clay.
No pulse disturbs this block of mountain stone,
No breath informs the posture of the limb,
Here silence reigns, indifferent and alone,
To make the sculptor's hope seem faint and dim.
And yet, beneath the hammer's steady beat,
A curve of shoulder wakes, a hand extends,
As if the marble felt some hidden heat
And strove to reach the touch of mortal friends;
The stubborn mass, once heavy and inert,
Now seems to breathe, and tremble, and assert.
Which of the following best describes the tonal shift that occurs in line 9 ("And yet")?
Read the following poem excerpt carefully:
The sand was endless, parched, and blinding white,
A silent furnace under midday sun,
Where weary steps dragged on in dusty flight,
And hope of shade or shelter there was none.
No cooling draft relieved the burning air,
Only the heat that shivered on the ground,
A barren kingdom ruled by grim despair,
Where neither leaf nor drop of rain was found.
But look! A sudden flash of emerald green,
Where silver waters bubble from the stone;
The traveler rests beneath the leafy screen,
And drinks the sweetest draught he e'er had known.
In the poem above, how does the transition in line 9 ("But look! ...") alter the tone of the passage?
The Harbor Gate
The iron steamer groans against the dock,
Discharging crates and souls onto the stone;
The custom house stands rigid as a block
Of grey granite, where fortunes are made known.
Here, languages collide like harbor waves,
A Babel built of hope and heavy chests;
The clerk behind the desk, indifferent, writes
The new-made names of weary, traveling guests.
Behind them lies the salt-worn, empty sea,
Before them rises brick and smoke and glass—
A crowded street of unfamiliar tongues,
Where all must wait for permission to pass.
In the poem, how does the description of the setting in lines 9–10 ("Behind them... glass") primarily function?
Read the following poem carefully before answering the question.
The candle stands, a slender shaft of white,
Against the gathering shadows of the room;
It casts a small, courageous ring of light,
To hold at bay the encroaching, silent gloom.
But inch by inch, the hot wax slips away,
And shorter grows the flame that bravely shone;
The darkness closes in to claim its prey,
Until the final spark is spent and gone.
Yet in the quiet air, a sweet perfume
Remains to show where light once chased the dark,
A gentle scent of honey fills the room,
To mark the passing of that fleeting spark.
Which of the following best describes the speaker’s tone toward the candle’s eventual extinction?
Read the following lines from Anne Bradstreet's poem "The Author to Her Book" (1678) carefully:
Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain,
Who after birth didst by my side remain,
Till snatched from thence by friends, less wise than true,
Who thee abroad exposed to public view,
Made thee in rags to wander, where errors were not lessened,
And thy blemishes amended,
At least not in my sight, for I was ashamed
Of thy deformed looks when first I named.
Which of the following best describes how the conceit functions in these lines?
Read the following poem carefully before answering the question.
Dry Harvest
The fence-posts sink beneath the rising clay,
As if the earth would swallow up the wood,
And bury every field where cattle stood,
And sweep the traces of our hands away.
A yellow sky brings in the choking day, [Line 5]
No longer rain, but dust where water stood;
We seal the window-frames as best we could,
And watch the topsoil drift and blow away.
The kitchen table wears a coat of grey, [Line 9]
A silent clock counts out the empty noon,
While in the yard, beneath a rusted moon,
The parched soil whispers of a debt to pay.
In the poem, how does the description of the domestic interior in lines 7–10 ("We seal... empty noon") function in relation to the larger environmental setting?
Read the following excerpt from a poem:
(1) The salt-crusted wind bites the shingle-beach,
(2) Where dark swells of brine gather strength to reach
(3) The high, granite ledge where the sea-pinks cling.
(4) A low, hollow boom from the cave’s deep throat
(5) Drowns out the shrill cry of the gull afloat,
(6) While cold, driving spray masks the night-bird’s wing.
Which of the following best describes the primary function of the auditory and tactile imagery in lines 4–6 ('A low... wing')?
Read the following poem by William Shakespeare (1609) carefully:
1 That time of year thou mayst in me behold
2 When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
3 Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
4 Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
5 In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
6 As after sunset fadeth in the west,
7 Which by and by black night doth take away,
8 Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
9 In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
10 That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
11 As the death-bed whereon it must expire
12 Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by.
13 This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
14 To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
In the context of the poem’s progression, how does the metaphor of the fading fire in lines 9-12 function differently from the metaphors of autumn (lines 1-4) and twilight (lines 5-8)?
Read the following poem excerpt carefully:
With tiny gears he crafts the perfect day,
Aligning brass to force the hours to stand
In neat, precise battalions on the tray,
Submissive to the ticking of his hand.
He rules a world of absolute design,
Where seconds march and shadows never stray,
And order runs along a copper line,
And every pendulum must sing to play.
But through the pane, the wild and sudden rain
Erases paths and bends the ancient trees,
And washes out the boundaries of the lane,
Mocking the hand that measures by degrees.
He drops his glass, and watches from the sill
The grand, unmetered rush that mocks his skill.
In the poem, the shift in tone in line 9 ("But through the pane...") primarily serves to highlight which of the following contrasts?
The Loom-Room, 1848
The iron looms, in iron rows aligned,
Devour the cotton and defeat the mind;
A hundred spindles whirl in deafening glee,
While daylight dies behind the smoky glass;
No seasonal change of leaf or bud we see,
Only the shadows that in silence pass.
The bell dictates the morning and the night,
And chains the spirit to the moving wheel;
No longer guided by the solar light,
We serve the cold, unyielding reign of steel.
In the poem, how does the setting of the loom-room shape the speaker's perspective on the historical transition to industrial labor?
Read the following poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar (published in 1895) carefully:
(1) We wear the mask that grins and lies,
(2) It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
(3) This debt we pay to human guile;
(4) With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
(5) And mouth with myriad subtleties.
(6) Why should the world be over-wise,
(7) In counting all our tears and sighs?
(8) Nay, let them only see us, while
(9) We wear the mask.
(10) We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
(11) To thee from tortured souls arise.
(12) We sing, but oh the clay is vile
(13) Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
(14) But let the world dream otherwise,
(15) We wear the mask!
Based on the poem, which of the following best describes the speaker’s perspective regarding how the collective "we" should interact with the "world"?
Read the following lines from James Shirley’s poem "Death the Leveller" (published in 1659) carefully before choosing your answer:
The glories of our blood and state
Are shadows, not substantial things;
There is no armour against Fate;
Death lays his icy hand on kings:
Sceptre and Crown
Must tumble down,
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade;
In lines 5–8, the speaker's use of metonymy ("Sceptre and Crown" and "scythe and spade") primarily functions to do which of the following?
Read the following lines carefully:
The candle eats the silent dark,
With yellow teeth and smoky breath;
It leaves a small, domestic mark
Upon the shadow-lands of death.
In the third line, the word "domestic" most nearly connotes which of the following?
Read the following lines from Claude McKay's sonnet "America" (1921) carefully before choosing your answer:
Although she feeds me bread of bitterness,
And sinks into my throat her tiger's tooth,
Stealing my breath of life, I will confess
I love this cultured hell that tests my youth!
Her vigor flows like tides into my blood,
Giving me strength erect against her hate,
In these lines, how does the personification of America primarily function to develop the speaker's perspective?
Read the following poem carefully:
The heavy cage was barred with iron threat,
A narrow cell of shadow and of sigh,
Where wings were folded in a dull regret,
And song was but a low, forgotten cry.
But then the rusted latch was pushed aside,
The tiny door swung open to the day;
With one swift leap into the blue and wide,
The captive soared, singing its grief away.
Which of the following best describes the shift in tone between the first stanza (lines 1–4) and the second stanza (lines 5–8)?
Read the following poem excerpt carefully:
*The winter wind blew cold and sharp and shrill,*
*And locked the sleeping world in silent white;*
*No bird did sing upon the frozen hill,*
*No leaf did stir beneath the heavy night.*
*But then the morning sun began to rise,*
*And breathed a golden warmth upon the land;*
*The melting snow revealed the spring's surprise,*
*As green shoots opened like a welcoming hand.*
Which of the following best describes the tonal shift that occurs between the first four lines and the last four lines of the poem?