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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. In what are the "Earth feet, loam feet" of Part I of "East Coker" lifted?

2. The speaker says near the end of Part V of "East Coker" that old men ought to be what?

3. The speaker states, in the first part of "Burnt Norton," that what "might have been" is a(n) what?

4. Which flowers had "the look of flowers that are looked at" in Part I of "Burnt Norton"?

5. In what do faith, hope, and love all reside, according to Part III of "East Coker"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is meant by "Only by the form, the pattern, / Can words or music reach / The stillness" in "Burnt Norton"'s fifth part?

2. What is an interpretative possibility for the scene the speaker describes in the open field in the first part of "East Coker"?

3. What is the purpose of the line, repeated and modified throughout the first part of "East Coker," "In my beginning is my end"?

4. What is the significance of the dark, mentioned repeatedly at the beginning of Part III of "East Coker," into which "they" all go?

5. What is meant in the lines, "But to what purpose... I do not know," in the first part of "Burnt Norton"?

6. What does the speaker mean in the latter lines of Part III of "Burnt Norton" when he states that "This is the one way, and the other / Is the same"?

7. Who is the "wounded surgeon" of Part IV of "East Coker," and what indicates this within the stanza?

8. Why does the speaker find "only a limited value / In the knowledge derived from experience" in Part II of "East Coker"?

9. What purpose is served by the string of paradoxical statements at the end of Part III of "East Coker"?

10. What does it mean to say, as the speaker does in the final line of Part II of "Burnt Norton," that "Only through time time is conquered"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Part II of "East Coker," the speaker disdains the conventional wisdom of old men, and instead prefers to hear of their follies, stating that humility is the only true wisdom. Examine this sequence of statements as it is presented in the poem in a thoughtful essay. What is wisdom? What is humility? In what way are they related as concepts? In what way are they related in reality? How is this shown by the speaker in "East Coker"? How is this dependent upon the speaker's beliefs? How is this related to the larger concepts within The Four Quartets? How does this rejection of conventional wisdom cohere with the rest of the poem?

Essay Topic 2

Set off of the coast of Cape Ann, Massachusetts, "The Dry Salvages" uses many seafaring and nautical images. Throughout the poem, water plays a prevalent role. Examine the role of water throughout the poem in a critical essay. Why is water important for man? How does water benefit man? How can water harm man? In what way is man dependent on what? How has man been dependent on water in past times? How has he overcome this dependence, and what are the consequences of his overcoming it? What is the significance of water in a religious context? How is this shown in the poem? How is this religious significance important to interpretation of the work as a whole?

Essay Topic 3

One of the most complicated metaphysical threads running through The Four Quartets is Eliot's conception of Time as a whole. It is constantly surrounded by paradoxes and non sequitur. In a thorough and thoughtful analytical essay, unpack the complications surrounding Eliot's conception of Time. How does his thinking contrast with that of convention? How are the past, present, and future distinct and yet comparable? In what do they each consist? How are they unified? How is time an imperfection? How is man outside of time? How is man nonetheless constrained to temporal existence?

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