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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. Of what does the first coming remind "us" in "The Cultivation of Christmas Trees"?

2. What sort bird calls through the fog at the end of "Marina"?

3. Where are children's voices heard in the Landscape of New Hampshire?

4. The juice of what does Mr. Hodgson press on "his palate fine" in "Five Finger Exercises"?

5. Where, in Part II of "Four Quartets: East Coker", have the houses all gone?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What does it mean to be "redeemed from fire by fire" as stated in the fourth part of "Little Gidding"?

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

4. What does Sweeney primarily describe in the "Fragment of an Agon"?

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

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

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

8. What is the nature of the speakers "affliction" in "Eyes that last I saw in tears"?

9. 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?

10. 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"?

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

The central theme of the last of Eliot's "Four Quartets", "Little Gidding," is fallen man's redemption. Analyze this theme as it is presented in "little Gidding." Why does man need redemption? From what is man redeemed? How does redemption come to man? What is the poetic imagery that Eliot uses to describe this need for redemption, that from which man is redeemed, and that by which he is redeemed? What does this need for redemption reveal about human nature? What does the manner of redemption reveal both about human nature and about the Divine, according to Eliot's portrayal?

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"?

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