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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. What, according to the end of Part V of "The Hollow Men", is the way the world ends?

2. Whose "Russian eye" in "Whispers of Immortality" is "underlined for emphasis"?

3. What was for the speakers of the "Journey of the Magi"a death?

4. To where do the speakers of the "Journey of the Magi" come in the second stanza?

5. Which of the following is used in Part I of "The Hollow Men" as a metaphor for the "dried voices" of the hollow men whispering to one another?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Mr. Apollinax contrast with his hosts?

2. What is the significance of the lion made tame in the final stanza of "Burbank with a Baedeker: Bleistein with a Cigar"?

3. What happened to Phlebas the Phoenician, as described in Part IV of "The Waste Land"?

4. For what is the speaker yearning in "La Figlia che Piange", and what indicates this?

5. What sort of life did the speaker of "Gerontion" live?

6. What is a possible interpretation of the "notion of some infinitely gentle / Infinitely suffering thing" described near the end of the "Preludes"?

7. What is the apparent distinction between the two speakers in "Conversation Galante"?

8. Why is Sweeney uncomfortable in "Mr. Eliot's Sunday Morning Service"?

9. What is a possible interpretation of the line, "Teach us to care and not to care" in "Ash-Wednesday"?

10. What evidently characterizes the woman in "Hysteria"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

As one of Eliot's more controversial poems, "The Hippopotamus" is a commentary on religious belief and religious practice. Analyze and provide your own interpretation of this poem. What is the overall meaning of the poem? What are the individual parts which indicate this meaning? For what does the Hippopotamus within the poem stand? What is significant about the Hippopotamus' analogous portrayal? What is significant about the Church being referred to as the "True Church"? What is meant by the "old miasmal mist"?

Essay Topic 2

Important to many of Eliot's poems are the devices of simile, metaphor, and analogy. Considering a wide selection of his poems, craft an analytical essay on these poetic devices. What are they? How do they aid in the creation of poetic imagery and poetic meaning? What are some specific instances of each? How do these specific instances aid the reader in both visualizing the poem's literal significance and its deeper meaning?

Essay Topic 3

Few poems, if any, have had as profound an impact on the world of poetry and literature as "The Waste Land", and yet its interpretation remains a subject of great dispute. In your own critical analysis, provide an interpretation of this complex and multi-layered poem. What is the significance of the major images and characters in the poem? What is meant by the often obscure and cryptic language? What is the relationship of the five parts to one another? What is the significance of the frequent inclusion of water as a symbolic figure in the poem? What is the overall, coherent signification of the poem?

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