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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. The speaker says in Part II of "East Coker" that there is "only a limited value / In the knowledge derived from" what?

2. Which of the following does the speaker in Part I of "East Coker" not say replaces the lots where there used to be houses?

3. Where was the "unheard music" hidden in Part I of "Burnt Norton"?

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

5. The first part of "Burnt Norton" says that footfalls echo in what?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What does the speaker mean in Part II of "Burnt Norton" when he states at the still point of the turning world, "there the dance is, / But neither arrest nor movement"?

3. What does the speaker mean in Part IV of "East Coker" when he states that "Our only health is the disease"?

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. Why does the speaker of "East Coker" want only to hear of the folly of old men, in Part II of "East Coker"?

6. What is the significance of the "Eructation of unhealthy souls," mentioned in Part III of "Burnt Norton"?

7. What is a possible interpretation of the fourth part of "Burnt Norton"?

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

9. What are the other echoes which inhabit the rose-garden in Part I of "Burnt Norton"?

10. What is meant by the "intolerable wrestled / With words and meanings" in the second part of "East Coker"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Pat III of "East Coker" is eminently concerned with man's feelings of anxiety in the modern world, particularly as he is left with a sense of being conscious of nothing, or the content of the things of which he is conscious being essentially nothing. Examine this prevalence of anxiety as it is presented in the poem. What is anxiety? What does anxiety do to a person? In the face of what is man made anxious? Why does he have these feelings of anxiety? What does this indicate about the nature of the human person? What does this indicate about the nature of the things with which man regularly occupies himself in the world? How is this significant to the meaning of the poem as a whole? How is it significant to the whole of The Four Quartets?

Essay Topic 2

Part IV of "Little Gidding," a deeply religious section of the poem, uses fire as a metaphor both for suffering and for Love. Discuss this dual signification in a thoughtful analytical essay. How is fire alike to both suffering and to love? In what way is fire torturous? What does physical fire do to a human person? In what ways can it be positive? In what ways negative? What happens to a burnt person? In what way is fire like love? How does love set a person on fire? How are these opposed and yet similar ways of being for fire discussed in Part IV of "Little Gidding"? In what ways are they contrasted? In what ways are they compared? What is meant by the association of fire with a greater sort of Love? How is this significant for the poetical work as a whole?

Essay Topic 3

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?

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