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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. To whom is the last line of "Ash Wednesday" addressed?

2. What two things are described as drifting above in the second stanza of "Sweeney Among the Nightingales"?

3. At the end of their journey, at what time did the speakers of the "Journey of the Magi" prefer to travel?

4. How does Prufrock say he shall wear the bottoms of his trousers?

5. What shall happen to those who praise the auditor of "A Song for Simeon"?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. How has Simeon passed his life, as described in "A Song for Simeon"?

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

5. What is implied by stating in "The Hippopotamus" that the "True Church need never stir / To gather in its dividends"?

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

7. What is meant at the end of the "Journey of the Magi" by the magi saying that they found death when they encountered the Christ child?

8. How does the simple soul begin its life, according to the first 13 lines of "Animula"?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the third part of "Four Quartets - Burnt Norton" is a line which reads, "Distracted from distraction by distraction." This line has often been quoted in reference to the condition of the modern world. Evaluate the meaning of this statement, within the context of both the particular section in which it is found, the poem in which it is a part, and the society which it describes, in a well-thought-out analytical essay. What are man's distractions? Why is he distracted from them? How is man distracted in modernity? What sort of things distract him? How is this idea fleshed out in the third part of "Burnt Norton"? How is it further fleshed out in the poem as a whole? What does this distracted condition indicate about human nature and the human condition in the modern world?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

Along with "The Waste Land", T.S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men" is often considered a vivid description of the bleariness of hell on earth. Evaluate this interpretation in a critical and analytical essay. What are the images put forth in "The Hollow Men"? Who are the speakers? What is significant about the speakers' descriptions of themselves? What coherence is to be found in the poem's five parts? What is said in each individual part? How does each part corroborate the interpretation of the whole? What is the significance of the failed attempt to pray in the final part? What is the significance of the way the world is said to end for the Hollow Men?

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