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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 does the poem's speaker ask if he has the right to do at the very end of "Portrait of a Lady"?

2. To what do the "lips that would kiss" in Part III of "The Hollow Men" form prayers?

3. In the fragrant brilliance of what does the subject of "Animula" take pleasure?

4. The "voice" in the second part of "Portrait of a Lady" says that her auditor, the poem's speaker, has no what?

5. In order to keep what warm does "our lot" crawl "between dry ribs" at the end of "Whispers of Immortality"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is a possible interpretation of the last two lines of "Whispers of Immortality", "But our lot crawls between dry ribs / To keep our metaphysics warm"?

2. What is the meaning of the phrase in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" , "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons"?

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

4. What does the "Boston Evening Transcript" seem to symbolize in the poem of the same name?

5. What does the reception of the viaticum in "Animula" do for the soul?

6. Why does the speaker not want Pipit in Heaven in "A Cooking Egg"?

7. What is the significance of the "guardians of the faith" keeping watch upon the shelves in "Cousin Nancy"?

8. What is meant in The Hippopotamus by stating that the "True Church remains below / Wrapt in the old miasmal mist"?

9. What is the tone of the speaker towards his life in "Rhapsody on a Windy Night", and how is this indicated in the poem?

10. What is the significance of the intimacy between the footman and the second housemaid in "Aunt Helen"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

A persistent theme throughout Eliot's later poetry, from "Ash-Wednesday" onwards, is the power of faith in the decaying world, which is the theme of Eliot's earlier poetry. Provide your own critical analysis of this theme, drawing upon texts from several of Eliot's poems. What is the essential nature of the world around man as described in Eliot's poems? How does modernity contribute to this nature? What is there for man to find in the modern world? In contradistinction, what is found in faith? How does faith contradict the nature of the modern world? What is described as lacking in Eliot's early poems but found in a different way in his later poems?

Essay Topic 2

His first major poem, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", is a commentary on the modern world and in particular on the modern man. Provide your own interpretation of this poem in an analytically interpretive essay. Who is Prufrock? What is Prufrock's status in society? What troubles the mind, thoughts, and desires of Prufrock? What characterizes Prufrock as a whole? How is Prufrock a symbol of modernity?

Essay Topic 3

In most of T.S. Eliot's poems, most notably "The Waste Land", there is a frequency of allusion and alteration of allusions. These are often used to great effect. Analyze the usage and purpose of these allusions in one or more of Eliot's poems, demonstrating how they contribute to the poem's meaning and style. From where are the allusions taken? How are they altered if at all? What is significant about the source of the allusions? What is significant about their alteration if they are altered? What is significant about their placement in the text? How do they contribute to the poem's meaning?

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