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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 line is repeated in "All Catches Alight"?

2. What is the subject of the poem "Places, Loved Ones"?

3. In the poem "Toads," what does the toad represent?

4. In the poem "Spring," where is the narrator?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. In the poem "An Arundel Tomb," who are the subjects of the poem? What are they doing?

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

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

4. In "This Be the Verse," what does the narrator say "man hands on to man"? What does the narrator say in the last line?

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

6. To whom is the poem "Conscript" dedicated? What does the subject of the poem have to defend?

7. In the poem "To Write One Song," what does the narrator want to do? Where does he have to go in order to do this?

8. In the poem "Love Songs in an Age," what object(s) did the woman keep? What does this do for the woman?

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

10. In the poem "A Study of Reading Habits," what does the narrator say reading helped him do? How does the poem end?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In contrast to the topic of loneliness, the theme of the desire to be alone is prevalent in Larkin's poetry. Write an essay using at least two examples of this theme in the collection "The Less Deceived."

Essay Topic 2

In the collection "The Whitsun Weddings," death is a popular theme. Write an essay on the theme of death in the collection. Make sure you use at least four examples in your argument.

Essay Topic 3

Ships are a common element that Larkin uses in his poetry. Write an essay on the symbolism of the ship in Larkin's collection "The Less Deceived."

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