View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Who is the literal "he" that devours "us" in line 48 of "Gerontion"?

2. What, in "A Song for Simeon", are said to be "blooming in bowls"?

3. Which of the following phrases is repeated throughout Part II of "The Waste Land", "A Game of Chess"?

4. What does the speaker of "La Figlia che Piange" tell his auditor to weave in her hair?

5. The speaker of the "Preludes" has a notion of something infinitely what?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. Who are the "ladies of the corridor" in "Sweeney Erect"?

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

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

7. 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"?

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

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

10. For what does Simeon hope in his encounter with the Christ child?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

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 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?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 976 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample