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. To whom are the lines of the first of the "Five Finger Exercises" written?

2. The speaker of "Eyes that last I saw in tears" says that what he sees, but that what he does not see, is his what?

3. With what did the old master met in Part II of "Four Quartets: Little Gidding" leave the poem's speaker?

4. The speaker asks if it is a dream or something else when the surface of a river looks like a what that "sweats with tears"?

5. Between what two things were the bells swinging in "The wind sprang up at four o'clock"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What characterizes the tone of the poem in "Triumphal March"?

2. What is a possible interpretation of the significance of the "Midwinter spring" described in Part I of "Little Gidding"?

3. How is Part IV of "The Dry Salvages" different from the other four sections of the poem?

4. What is implied about the owner of the eyes about whom the speaker is talking in "Eyes that last I saw in tears"?

5. How was the speaker awoken in "The wind sprang up at four o'clock"?

6. In the sixth chorus of 'The Rock,' why is it said that men must build with "the sword in one hand and the trowel in the other"?

7. Why do the "cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries," spoken of in the first chorus from 'The Rock,' bring man further away from God and closer to dust?

8. What does the speaker mean by saying that "Our only health is the disease" in Part IV of "East Coker"?

9. What is the tone of the five parts of the "Five-Finger Exercises" and how is this indicated?

10. How do love and desire contrast with one another in "Burnt Norton"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

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

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"?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,001 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample