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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 desiccated when the speaker descends into a different world in the latter lines of "Burnt Norton," Part III?

2. What must there not be in the way wherein one goes in order to get "there," according to the speaker of Part III of "East Coker"?

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

4. What is the last phrase of Part I of "East Coker"?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

2. 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"?

3. What does the speaker mean by commanding, in Part III of "East Coker," that one wait without hoping or loving, and that "the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting"?

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

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

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

7. What does the speaker mean in the latter lines of Part III of "Burnt Norton" when he states that "This is the one way, and the other / Is the same"?

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

Set off of the coast of Cape Ann, Massachusetts, "The Dry Salvages" uses many seafaring and nautical images. Throughout the poem, water plays a prevalent role. Examine the role of water throughout the poem in a critical essay. Why is water important for man? How does water benefit man? How can water harm man? In what way is man dependent on what? How has man been dependent on water in past times? How has he overcome this dependence, and what are the consequences of his overcoming it? What is the significance of water in a religious context? How is this shown in the poem? How is this religious significance important to interpretation of the work as a whole?

Essay Topic 3

Compose an expository essay on the nature of poetic imagery, using Eliot's Four Quartets as an example. What is imagery? What is the purpose of imagery? How is imagery commonly used in poetry? What are some specific examples of poetic images? What are metaphorical images? What are some examples of metaphorical images in The Four Quartets? What are the literal significations of such images? What are their non-literal significations? How does one interpret their meaning? How are they important for interpretation of the meaning of the poem? What do they uniquely contribute to the poem?

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