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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, in the first line of "Burnt Norton," Part IV, are "time and the bell" said to have buried?

2. Across what does the light fall, mentioned by the speaker in Part I of "East Coker" after the second time he utters the phrase "In my beginning is my end"?

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

4. To what shall the vortex in "East Coker," Part II, bring the world?

5. What goes in and out of "unwholesome lungs" in Part III of "Burnt Norton"?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

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?

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