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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 room is mentioned in the poem "Absences"?

2. In the poem "The Bottle Is Drunk," what is the narrator sick from?

3. In the poem "Morning Has Spread Again," how many times has the narrator and his subject met?

4. In "The Horns of the Morning," what does the poet say the mornings are bright with?

5. What "irritant" is mentioned in the poem "Dry-Point"?

Short Essay Questions

1. In "Going, Going," what is tougher than humans? How is it tougher than humans?

2. In the poem "Self's the Man," who does the narrator compare himself to? What conclusion does he come to?

3. In "A Writer," what gift did the writer possess? How was the narrator different from other people then?

4. Where is the narrator in the poem "Spring"? How does the narrator characterize Spring?

5. Who is the subject of the poem "Like the Train's Beat"? How does the narrator describe this person?

6. In "Breadfruit," what do the boys dream of? Where do these visions end?

7. What is the narrator looking at in the poem "Lines on a Young Lady's Photograph Album"? What does the narrator say about the nature of photography?

8. In "Portrait," to what do the woman's hands devote themselves? What are her enemies?

9. What is the narrator talking to in the poem "I Put My Mouth"? What is the poem about?

10. In "Posterity," who is Jake Balokowsky? What did he want to do with his life that he seemingly will no longer be able to?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

A unique theme in Larkin's collection "The Less Deceived" is photography. Using a minimum of two poems, write an essay on the theme of photography in this collection.

Essay Topic 2

Like dance, song plays a key role in many of Larkin's poems. Write an essay on Larkin's use of song in the collection "The Whitsun Weddings."

Essay Topic 3

Using the poems "Kick Up the Fire" and "If Grief Could Burn," write a compare/contrast essay on the nature of fire and grief in the collection "The North Ship."

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