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. Describing the correct cohesion of language, the speaker in Part V of "Little Gidding" describes the "common word exact without vulgarity, / The formal word precise but not" what?

2. The speaker says in the first part of "Little Gidding" that "what you thought you came for / Is only a" what?

3. In the first few lines of Part II of "Little Gidding," it reads that "Dust in the air suspended / Marks the place where" what ended?

4. Which of the following are the passengers on the train, not said to be settled, in Part III of "The Dry Salvages"?

5. Where, according to the first three lines of Part V of "Little Gidding," do "we start from?"

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Why is the "strong brown god" of Part I of "The Dry Salvages" "almost forgotten / By the dwellers in cities"?

3. Explain what is meant by the paradoxical statement in Part V of "The Dry Salvages," "music heard so deeply / That it is not heard at all."

4. What is the "real destination" of the sailors, as described at the end of Part III of "The Dry Salvages"?

5. 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"?

6. What is signified by the statement, in the final part of "Little Gidding," that "the end of all our exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time"?

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

8. 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"?

9. Summarize the significance of the discussion of the past in Part II of "The Dry Salvages" (beginning with "It seems, as one becomes older" and ending with "Over the shoulder, towards the primitive terror").

10. What is meant in Part III of "Little Gidding" by "We cannot revive old factions / We cannot restore old policies / Or follow an antique drum"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

Time is one of the three major components of The Four Quartets, and is pondered, questioned, and considered throughout the four poems. Of particular importance in Part I of "Burnt Norton" is the consideration the speaker makes of the past, particularly its relationship to possibility. Analyze this relationship in a thoughtful essay. What is time? What are the two distinct notions of time which Eliot considers throughout the poems? What is the past? How does the past relate to the present and to the future? How does one speak of the possibilities of the past? How does the past influence the possibilities of the present and the future? What images are associated with the past and its perceived and unperceived possibilities?

Essay Topic 3

Part V of "The Dry Salvages" sees the speaker discuss the essential, inherent need of human persons for faith. Analyze this discussion in an essay both expository and critical. What is faith? Why is faith important? What sort of things do human persons ordinarily seek as objects of faith? Why do people seek this faith? Why, in the estimation of the speaker, are these common objects and common faiths unsatisfactory? What sort of faith is satisfactory? In what does this sort of faith consist? Who possesses this faith? What does this indicate about the nature of faith? What does this indicate about the nature of the human person in regards to faith and fulfillment?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,208 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample