Allusion and Intertextuality

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 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?

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 before answering the question.

The Loom of Noons

I set the shuttle to the heavy beam
And weave the grid of silver, line by line,
To shape a world of order and design,
And quiet those who wait outside the scheme.

5 But when the shadows lengthen on the floor,
I pull the threads apart with eager hands;
No ancient vessel nears these quiet sands,
No phantom hero knocks upon the door.

This nightly unraveling is not to wait
10 For some returning king to claim his right,
But to dismantle what is made by day,
And rule, in secret, the untangled night.

In the final stanza (lines 9–12), the speaker’s subversion of the Penelope myth primarily serves to do which of the following?

Read the following poem carefully before answering the question.

The Return

They called me back into the stinging light,
Unwinding linen from my stiffened clay,
And cheered the miracle that broke the night,
As if the dark were some malignant way.
But in that quiet vault, no shadows crept;
The silence was a cool, unbroken shield.
I did not dream, nor wish, but simply slept,
A crop forgotten in a winter field.
Now, bound again to breath and heavy bone,
I watch their celebration from afar,
And mourn the peace I gathered all alone,
Dragged back to carry this unwelcome star.

In the poem, how does the speaker’s allusion to a biblical resurrection (suggested by the "linen" and "miracle" in lines 2 and 3) function to subvert traditional expectations of rebirth?

Read the following poem carefully.

Naxos

The thread I wound to lead him through the dark
Lies tangled now upon this sun-bleached stone,
A crimson line that leaves no lasting mark
On tides that claim the shore and me alone.
They praise the hero's sail that catches wind,
The clever blade that sheared the monster's thread,
Yet in this quiet bay, the fears designed
By architects of stone are finally dead.
No labyrinth remains to map my pace;
The minotaur was but a shadow cast.
I watch the sails dissolve in empty space,
Escaped from both the savior and the past.

In the poem, the speaker's use of allusions to the labyrinth and the thread primarily functions to do which of the following?

Read the following poem carefully before answering the question.

The Threshold

We walked the narrow path of frozen lime,
The quiet shade of pines ahead;
I did not mean to challenge time,
Or doubt the promise of the dead.

But in the silence of the rise,
Where light first touched the upper air,
I turned to find your fading eyes,
And saw the shadow take you there.

In the second stanza, the speaker’s allusion to the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice ('I turned to find... And saw the shadow take you there') primarily serves to do which of the following?

Read the poem "No Second Troy" (1910) by William Butler Yeats:

Why should I blame her that she filled my days
With misery, or that she would of late
Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways,
Or hurled the little streets upon the great,
Had they but courage equal to desire?
What could have made her peaceful with a mind
That nobleness made simple as a fire,
With beauty like a tightened bow, a kind
That is not natural in an age like this,
Being high and solitary and most stern?
Why, what could she have done, being what she is?
Was there another Troy for her to burn?

In the context of the poem as a whole, the allusion in the final line ("Was there another Troy for her to burn?") primarily serves to do which of the following?

Read the following excerpt from William Butler Yeats’s poem "Leda and the Swan" (1923):

A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.

How can those terrified vague fingers push
The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?
And how can body, laid in that white rush,
But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?

A shudder in the loins engenders there
The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
And Agamemnon dead.
Being so caught up,
Did she put on his knowledge with his power
Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?

In the third stanza, the speaker's allusion to "The broken wall, the burning roof and tower / And Agamemnon dead" functions intertextually to do which of the following?

Read the following poem:

I draw the shuttle through the silent warp,
Not to delay the suitors at the sill,
Nor to preserve a hearth for one who drifts
Where sirens call and lesser currents pull.
The shroud I weave is not for Laertes’ limbs,
But for the memory of the sail we knew;
With every thread unspooled at dead of night,
I unbuild the myth of his returning tread.
Let Ithaca believe I count the hours;
This loom is not a tally of my grief,
But a quiet forge where I reshape the shore
To bar the wanderer from the gate he left.

Which of the following best describes the primary function of the speaker’s subversion of the classical myth of Penelope?

Read the following excerpt from T. S. Eliot’s poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1915):

Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it towards some overwhelming question,
To say: "I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all"—
If one, settling a pillow by her head,
Should say: "That is not what I meant at all;
That is not it, at all."

In the context of the speaker's psychological state, which of the following best describes the thematic function of the allusion to Lazarus?

Read the following poem carefully before answering the question.

We map the stars and catalog the dust,
Confining ancient terrors to the drawer,
And place in gleaming steel our modern trust,
Believing we have locked the temple door.

Yet in the quiet room where data speaks,
I trace the rising curve, the warming sea,
And hear the phantom wind that wildly shrieks
Across the ruins of a state to be.

I play Cassandra to a room of stone,
Where polite murmurs greet the coming fire;
They praise the graph, the analytical tone,
Then turn to check the price of their desire.

In the final stanza (lines 9–12), how does the allusion to Cassandra primarily function?

Read the following poem carefully before answering the question.

The compass sweeps a perfect, bloodless ring,
No feathers drift upon this marble floor.
I carve the lintel, fit the lock and key,
And secure the heavy, calculated door.
They praise the builder of the modern dome,
Who keeps the ceiling low, the mortar bound,
Yet when the evening shadows stretch and fade,
I trace the shadow of a wingless mound.
Let others keep their feet upon the clay;
I built the cage that spared my sober breath,
But in the quiet of this structured room,
I envy him who fell to such a death.

In the final line, the speaker's allusion to the figure who "fell to such a death" primarily functions to do which of the following?

Read the following passage from Matthew Arnold's poem "Dover Beach" (1867) carefully:

Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.

In the context of this passage, the speaker's allusion to Sophocles primarily serves to do which of the following?

Read the following poem carefully before answering the question.

I did not mean to defy the high decree,
Nor did I yearn for ruins left behind;
I only wished to look once more and see
If mercy could be something we might find.
But now, encased in crystal white and cold,
A silent monument upon the plain,
I watch the travelers, hurried and bold,
Who flee the fire but carry still the pain.
They do not look, they run toward the dawn,
Obedient to the voice that bids them go,
While I remain, all agency withdrawn,
A pillar of the grief they’ll never know.

In the poem, the speaker's allusion to the biblical figure of Lot's wife serves primarily to do which of the following?

Read the following poem excerpt carefully:

We gather up the embers of the day,
Fanning the spark against the gathering cold,
And mock the eagle circling for his prey
Upon the barren heights we chose to hold.
No chains bind us to this unyielding stone,
Save the quiet habit of our own desire;
We stand in shadow, shivering and alone,
Yet warm our fingers at the stolen fire.

In the context of the poem as a whole, how does the allusion to the myth of Prometheus function to develop the speakers' perspective?

Read the following poem excerpt carefully:

"I would rather be the rough and silent bark
Than the green garland on a victor's brow;
Let the slow rings of wood compile my dark,
Immune to praise, forgotten by the plow.
He took the leaf to crown his own defeat,
And sang of chase, of triumph, and of grace,
While I, secure in sap and root's retreat,
Erase the memory of his golden face."

In the poem, the speaker's allusion to the laurel wreath ("the green garland on a victor's brow") and the myth of Daphne and Apollo functions intertextually to do which of the following?

Read the following poem carefully before answering the question.

The chisel yields to what the frost began,
Chipping the marble down to human form,
Yet leaving rough the shoulder and the hand
To face the onset of the coming storm.
(5) We sculpt our monuments of ancient grief,
And carve the weeping stone to match our own,
But find no solace in the brief relief
Of Niobe’s cold, unyielding, tear-washed throne.
For though she wept until her flesh was rock,
(10) She kept the quiet custody of pain;
While we, who stand before the ticking clock,
Dissolve in silence, wishing for the rain.

In the context of the poem, which of the following best describes the function of the allusion to Niobe (line 8)?

Read the following poem carefully before answering the question.

The Wake of Years

We stood beside the slow and silted stream,
Where heavy willows leaned to touch the dark,
And watched the silver ripples fade and gleam,
Like ash that drifts from some forgotten spark.
You reached to scoop the Lethe in your palm,
To wash the bitter salt of grief away,
Seeking the quiet of that ancient calm
That makes a ghost of every yesterday.
But I withheld my hand, and turned aside;
To lose the sting would be to lose the scar,
And I would rather keep the rising tide
Than drift where no remembered shorelines are.

In the poem, the allusion to "Lethe" (line 5) primarily serves to accomplish which of the following?