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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. At what hour does the sun scorch up the world in Spring?

2. What creeps through the lattice near the poem's speaker in After Death?

3. What does the poem's speaker do in the final stanza in An Apple Gathering?

4. What might the poem's speaker have been instead of an "unclean thing" in Cousin Kate?

5. Like what flower does one of the women singing of love bloom like in A Triad?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the meaning of the phrase, "Where thirsting longing eyes / Watch the slow door / That opening, letting in, lets out no more" in Echo?

2. What does the coldness in Winter: My Secret symbolize?

3. For what reason does the speaker of The Convent Threshold prefer the joys of the heavenly life over those of the earthly?

4. In Another Spring, what is the literal implication of the repetition of the phrase, "If I might see another Spring"?

5. What is the tone of the speaker in the first stanza of A Better Resurrection?

6. What is the attitude of the first speaker in A Bruised Reed Shall He Not Break to his auditor?

7. How does Maude betray her sister, the speaker in Sister Maude?

8. How does the "she" change from day to night in The World?

9. What is implied to be the meaning of the poem by the final stanza of An End?

10. With what sort of temptations do the first two enemies beleaguer the second speaker in The Three Enemies?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compose an essay which investigates the Christological allegory presented in Goblin Market. Such an allegory, one which relates in its non-literal signification a well-known story or historical occurrence, will not necessarily have direct correlations between the literal and the non-literal significations, but relate the two by universal types of actions, the exemplar of which being found in the non-literally signified story. What are the universal types by which the story of Christ and Goblin Market are related? In what ways does the story parallel that of Christ, or of salvation history in general? Of what are the various characters and actions in the story symbolic? What impact does Goblin Market have on the reader's perception of the story of Christ?

Essay Topic 2

A common narrative motif throughout this collection of poetry is the allegorical story. The two most eminent allegories in the story are An Apple Gathering and Goblin Market, but there are other stories which carry elements of allegory, such as Up-Hill or any of the poems involving Spring. Compose on analytical essay on the motif of allegory using the poems of Christina Rossetti to explicate. What defines allegory? How do the allegorical poems of Christina Rossetti differ from her non-allegorical poems? How does allegory achieve its non-literal signification? What are some specific examples, from Rossetti's poems, of allegory's means to achieving its non-literal signification?

Essay Topic 3

Goblin Market and Other Poems contains two poems which can definitively be identified as dramatic monologues: Winter: My Secret and No Thank You, John. Compose an analytical essay which examines these two works. How are they identified as dramatic monologues? Who are the speakers, and who are their auditors? What is the tone of the speakers towards their auditors? What do the speakers unwittingly reveal about themselves? What is the overall significance of each poem?

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