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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. With whom, according to the last part of "Little Gidding," are "we" born?

2. By whom does the speaker say that the "brown god is almost forgotten" in the first part of "The Dry Salvages"?

3. What is the first of the "gifts reserved for age" that the speaker's interlocutor discloses in Part II of "Little Gidding"?

4. History is said, in Part V of "Little Gidding," to be a pattern of what?

5. In the final sentence of the third part of "The Dry Salvages," the speaker says, "Not fare well, but fare" what," voyagers"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the speaker mean by saying in Part I of "Little Gidding" that "prayer is more / Than an order of words, the conscious occupation / Of the praying mind, or the sound of the voice praying"?

2. What does the speaker mean in Part I of "The Dry Salvages" by "The tolling bell / Measures time not our time"?

3. What is meant by the line, "You are not the same people who left that station," in Part III of "The Dry Salvages"?

4. What is meant by saying in the final part of "Little Gidding" that "history is a pattern / Of timeless moments"?

5. What is an interpretative way to read the significance of the "ragged rock" being "what it always was," at the end of Part II of "The Dry Salvages"?

6. Why would anyone passing "this way" "have to put off / Sense and notion" in Part I of "Little Gidding"?

7. What does the speaker mean when he states, in the last part of "The Dry Salvages," that "Here the impossible union / Of spheres of existence is actual"?

8. 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"?

9. 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"?

10. 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"?

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

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 3

In a critical essay, evaluate the meaning and significance of the following lines:

"Only a flicker

Over the strained time-ridden faces

Distracted from distraction by distraction

Filled with fancies and empty of meaning

Tumid apathy with no concentration"

Specifically, what is being conveyed by these lines? What is the meaning of each line? What does each line demonstrate about the condition of the human person? What do they demonstrate about human nature? How is this conception important to the interpretation of The Four Quartets? Against what is modern man struggling?

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