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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. Which of the following does the speaker NOT say man must think of as forever doing in Part II of "The Dry Salvages"?

2. What is heard under "the oppression of the silent fog" in the first part of "The Dry Salvages"?

3. What is said in Part III of "The Dry Salvages" to be "no healer"?

4. The speaker asserts in Part II of "The Dry Salvages" that there "is no end, but" what?

5. From where does the "wailing warning " of Part I of "The Dry Salvages" come?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the speaker mean in Part I of "Little Gidding" when he states that "This is the spring time / But not in time's covenant"?

2. With whom does the speaker of Part II of "Little Gidding" converse, and what is their relationship to one another, on the literal level?

3. What is significant about the speaker's discussion of the strangeness of the sea in relation to man, in Part I of "The Dry Salvages"?

4. What is the significance of the lines in Part II of "The Dry Salvages," "Only the hardly, barely prayable / Prayer of the one Annunciation"?

5. What characterizes the "gifts reserved for age" which the interlocutor of Part II of "Little Gidding" describes to the poem's speaker?

6. How is "Time the destroyer" also "time the preserver," as stated in Part II of "The Dry Salvages"?

7. What is meant by the phrase, in Part V of "Little Gidding," "Every poem [is] an epitaph"?

8. What is the meaning of "Behovely" as it is used in the phrase, found in Part III of "Little Gidding" that, "Sin is Behovely"?

9. How can one be "redeemed from fire by fire," as is stated in Part IV of "Little Gidding"?

10. What is the purpose of the lines in Part V of "The Dry Salvages" from "To communicate with Mars, converse with spirits," to "Whether on the shores of Asia, or in the Edgware Road"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 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 Parts III & IV of "East Coker," the speaker uses a series of paradoxes in order to better illustrate certain truths. In a well-formed and well-planned critical essay, evaluate the use of these paradoxes in conveying meaning. What is a paradox? Of what does a paradox consist? How is a paradox constructed? What is the overall purpose of paradox? How does Eliot use paradox in The Four Quartets? Which paradoxes are the most significant? What do they show about human nature? What do they demonstrate about the human ability to know things? What do they show about the relationship between this world and the next, as it is conceived of in The Four Quartets?

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