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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. Where does the "golden vision" reappear in "Eyes that last I saw in tears"?

2. Who is said to be unpleasantly met in the fifth of the "Five Finger Exercises"?

3. What word is notably repeated throughout the first half of "Marina"?

4. How many male voices speak in the third chorus of 'The Rock'?

5. Between what two things are "Whispers and small laughter" found in "Marina"?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where is the reader told to go and why in the third landscape, "Usk"?

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

3. Why should the innocent approach of the child to Christmas not be lost, according to "The Cultivation of Christmas Trees"?

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

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

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

7. What is the significance of the final landscape, "Cape Ann"?

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

9. What is implied by the repetition of the phrase "meaning / Death," in reference to the various stages of life's enjoyment in "Marina"?

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

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

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"?

Essay Topic 3

The majority of T.S. Eliot's poetry is written in the deliberately unstructured form of free verse. Prior to Eliot, many poets considered this an inferior form, and in some cases, not a form at all. Evaluate Eliot's use of free verse in one or more of his poems, and judge whether or not it is truly poetic. What does free verse enable the poet to do that regularly structured meter does not? What effects does the free verse employed by Eliot produce? How does the free verse employed by Eliot produce effects? In the poem chosen, what particular effects does the free verse used produce? Why is this fitting for the poem's overall meaning? In what way is the poem truly or not truly poetic because of the free verse form?

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