View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What, in the desert of "Burnt Norton," Part V, is "most attacked by voices of temptation"?

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

3. Which of the following is found at the still point of the world, as described in Part II?

4. Of what instrument's stillness, "while the note lasts," does the speaker explicitly speak in Part V of "Burnt Norton"?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

6. 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"?

7. What is the significance of the first 13 lines of "East Coker"?

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

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

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 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 2

Recurrent as a character throughout The Four Quartets, Christ is referred to in many different ways. In Part IV of "East Coker," he is called the "wounded surgeon." Analyze this identity of Christ in Part IV, both within its particular analogy and as significant to the whole of the work. Why is Christ called the "wounded surgeon"? What are his wounds? In what way is he a surgeon? What surgery does he perform? Upon whom does he perform it? What is the relationship between health and disease in Part IV of "East Coker"? How is this significant to the whole of the poem? How is it significant to the interpretation of all four poems? How is Christ's role as healer significant to the whole of the work?

Essay Topic 3

In Part III of "Burnt Norton," the speaker discusses the "world of perpetual solitude." Examine this discussion in an expository essay. What is solitude? What does it mean for a person to be in solitude? What happens to a person who is continually in solitude? What would a "world of perpetual solitude" be? What sort of conditions afflict the person in such a world of perpetual solitude? How is this significant to the condition of modern man? How is understanding this sort of solitude significant to interpreting "Burnt Norton"? How is it important to interpreting the poem as a whole?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,198 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample