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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 is happening to "the hills and the trees, the distant panorama / And the bold imposing facade" in "East Coker"'s second part?

2. What, described in Part I of "Burnt Norton," lays on the other side of the door that the speaker and his auditor never opened?

3. How many years "largely wasted, the years of l'entre deux guerres," does the speaker mention having passed in Part V of "East Coker"?

4. If not, as stated in Part II, for what, there would be no dance?

5. By what is the "sultry light" absorbed in Part I of "East Coker"?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How is the "here" of Part III of "Burnt Norton" described, and what is significant about this description?

3. What is signified by the speaker's questioning of the deceitfulness of the "quiet-voiced elders" in Part II of "East Coker"?

4. What is the significance of the statement in the fifth part of "Burnt Norton," "Words strain, / Crack and sometimes break... Will not stay still"?

5. 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"?

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

7. What might be meant by the statement of the bird at the end of "Burnt Norton"'s first part, that "human kind / Cannot bear very much reality"?

8. What is meant in "Burnt Norton"'s first part by "What might have been... a world of speculation," lines 6-8?

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

10. What is signified by the statement "Distracted from distraction by distraction" in "Burnt Norton"'s third part?

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

In a thoughtful analytical essay, discuss the significance of "East Coker" as one part of the whole work. What is the overall signification of the poem? What is the significance of each of the parts? How does the poem as a whole relate to the whole of the work? How does each part thus relate? What images are the most powerful and significant? What insights into time, the world, and the human person are contained within the poem?

Essay Topic 3

Time is one of the three major components of The Four Quartets, and is pondered, questioned, and considered throughout the four poems. Of particular importance in Part I of "Burnt Norton" is the consideration the speaker makes of the past, particularly its relationship to possibility. Analyze this relationship in a thoughtful essay. What is time? What are the two distinct notions of time which Eliot considers throughout the poems? What is the past? How does the past relate to the present and to the future? How does one speak of the possibilities of the past? How does the past influence the possibilities of the present and the future? What images are associated with the past and its perceived and unperceived possibilities?

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