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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. On what does the speaker in "La Figlia che Piange" tell his auditor to lean?

2. On what is it said that Burbank in "Burbank with a Baedeker: Bleistein with a Cigar" is meditating at the poem's end?

3. From whose hand does the simple soul issue in "Animula"?

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

5. What compels the "scampering marmoset" in "Whispers of Immortality"?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What characterizes the speech of the stuffed men in "The Hollow Men"?

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

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

5. What is the significance of the two stanzas concerned with Donne in "Whispers of Immortality"?

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

7. What is the tone of the speaker in "Morning at the Window" and why?

8. 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"?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

In "Choruses from 'The Rock'", it is postulated that man without the Church at the center of his life is lost. Analyze this claim in a critical essay that evaluates the messages put forth in all ten of the choruses. What is the Church itself? What does the Church provide man that the rest of the world cannot? What happens to the rest of the world, particularly insofar as men interact with it, if men put the Church at the center of their lives? What does this indicate about the nature of humanity, at least in the way that Eliot perceives it and portrays it in "Choruses from 'The Rock'"?

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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