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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 occurred in the past of the location of the fourth Landscape?

2. What does the speaker say is not more irritable than he in "Lines for an Old Man"?

3. In the first chorus of 'The Rock,' what is said to soar in the summit of Heaven?

4. How many weeks leave a year does "Arthur Edward Cyril Parker" receive from his job as a telephone operator in "Difficulties of a Statesman"?

5. The speaker of "Four Quartets: The Dry Salvages" wonders if whom meant that "the future is a faded song" in Part III?

Short Essay Questions

1. What characterizes the metaphors used as description of the old man bearing the "tooth of wit" in "Lines for an Old Man"?

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

3. What is characteristic of the gods described in all of the sections aside from Part IV of "The Dry Salvages"?

4. 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"?

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

6. Why does the speaker of "Lines for an Old Man" compare himself with a tiger?

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

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

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

10. About what is the speaker confused in "The wind sprang up at four o'clock"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Few poems, if any, have had as profound an impact on the world of poetry and literature as "The Waste Land", and yet its interpretation remains a subject of great dispute. In your own critical analysis, provide an interpretation of this complex and multi-layered poem. What is the significance of the major images and characters in the poem? What is meant by the often obscure and cryptic language? What is the relationship of the five parts to one another? What is the significance of the frequent inclusion of water as a symbolic figure in the poem? What is the overall, coherent signification of the poem?

Essay Topic 2

A subtle and often misinterpreted poem, "Mr. Eliot's Sunday Morning Service" features a complexity of thought on which the poem itself reflects. Examine this poem and provide an in-depth analysis of the poem's overall significance. What is the poem saying in its two individual halves? What is being said in each individual stanza? What is the meaning of the various images throughout the poem? How do they relate to one another? What is the overall literal significance of the poem? What does this overall literal significance indicate about the poem's deeper meaning? Most importantly, what is the significance of Sweeney in the poem?

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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