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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 does the speaker of "The Cultivation of Christmas Trees" say should not be forgotten in later experience?

2. Whose hands wove the "intolerable shirt of flame" in Part IV of "Four Quartets: Little Gidding"?

3. Where is the speaker at the end of "Four Quartets: East Coker" according to Part I?

4. Which of the following is NOT an attitude towards Christmas which the speaker of "The Cultivation of Christmas Trees" states may be ignored?

5. At what door might the speaker of "Eyes that last I saw in tears" see the eyes again?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What is the "conscious art practiced with natural ease" of which Eliot writes in "To Walter de la Mare"?

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

4. What is the overall condition of true lovers described in "A Dedication to My Wife"?

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

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

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

8. 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"?

9. For what is the ship in "Marina" a symbolic signifier?

10. What is meant in "Burnt Norton" by the phrase, "Only a flicker / Over the strained time-ridden faces / Distracted from distraction by distraction"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In "The Journey of the Magi", it is said that, with the entrance of Christ into the world, the "old dispensation" cannot satisfy any longer. Analyze the significance of this statement in the context of "The Journey of the Magi". Why are the magi no longer comfortable in their old dispensation? What has changed for them? How did it change? What did they experience in the Christ child? What is the significance of the relationship between Birth and Death as described in the poem's final stanza? What is the significance of the rest of the poem in relation to the final stanza?

Essay Topic 2

In "Choruses from 'The Rock'", it is postulated that man without the Church at the center of his life is lost. Analyze this claim in a critical essay that evaluates the messages put forth in all ten of the choruses. What is the Church itself? What does the Church provide man that the rest of the world cannot? What happens to the rest of the world, particularly insofar as men interact with it, if men put the Church at the center of their lives? What does this indicate about the nature of humanity, at least in the way that Eliot perceives it and portrays it in "Choruses from 'The Rock'"?

Essay Topic 3

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?

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