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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. "Old timber" goes to what, in Part I of "East Coker"?

2. With what are the "tattered arras" woven in Part I of "East Coker"?

3. In the opening eight lines of the third part of "East Coker", the speaker mentions the "Directory of" what?

4. The pattern of what, according to the speaker's meditation in Part V of "East Coker," becomes more complicated?

5. Of what world's inoperancy does the poem's narrator speak of in "Burnt Norton," Part III?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Why is it said by the speaker in "Burnt Norton"'s second part that "the enchainment of past and future / Woven in the weakness of the changing body, / Protects mankind from heaven and damnation / Which flesh cannot endure"?

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

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

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

7. Why does the speaker claim in Part II of "Burnt Norton" that "To be conscious is not to be in time"?

8. What is an interpretative possibility for the final four lines of the first part of "East Coker"?

9. Why is the final sentence of "East Coker" an inversion of the first sentence?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

One of the recurring themes, but emphasized in "Burnt Norton," throughout The Four Quartets, is the notion of stillness as perfection. Analyze this notion as it is presented throughout the poems, focusing on the non-conventional ways in which stillness is spoken. What is stillness in the conventional sense? In what sense does Eliot speak of it in "Burnt Norton"? How is this different from the conventional sense? What characterizes Eliot's notion of stillness? Why is this notion of stillness a perfection? In what way is it related to movement? With what images and metaphors is it explicated and exposed? What is its overall importance in the poems?

Essay Topic 2

In a critical essay, evaluate the meaning and significance of the following lines:

"Only a flicker

Over the strained time-ridden faces

Distracted from distraction by distraction

Filled with fancies and empty of meaning

Tumid apathy with no concentration"

Specifically, what is being conveyed by these lines? What is the meaning of each line? What does each line demonstrate about the condition of the human person? What do they demonstrate about human nature? How is this conception important to the interpretation of The Four Quartets? Against what is modern man struggling?

Essay Topic 3

Each of The Four Quartets is both united to the others and yet distinct with a complete meaning unto itself. Discuss the principal themes in "Burnt Norton," including time, the past, stillness, motion, and pattern, indicating the ways in which they are unified and present a coherent thought. How are these themes presented in the poem? What unites them? How are they, as a coherent whole, related to the other poems in the work? What is the significance of these relations? How do they help to unveil the overall meaning of "Burnt Norton"? How does this overall meaning contribute to interpretation of the whole work?

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