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

2. According to the speaker, the brown god's rhythm "was present in the nursery bedroom, / In the rank ailanthus of" the dooryard of what month?

3. In the litany of "usual / Pastimes and drugs, and features of the press," given in Part V of "The Dry Salvages," communication with which god is listed?

4. The "time" which the speaker mentions in Part I of "The Dry Salvages" is older than "time counted by" what?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What is meant in Part III of "Little Gidding" by "not less of love but expanding / Of love beyond desire, and so liberation / From the future as well as the past"?

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

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

5. 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"?

6. 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"?

7. 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"?

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

9. What does the speaker mean in Part III of "The Dry Salvages" when he states that, "the future is a faded song, a Royal Rose or a lavender spray / Of wistful regret for those who are not yet here to regret"?

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

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

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

One of the principal themes in the final part of "Burnt Norton" is the relationship between words, music, and pattern and form. Analyze this relationship in a thoroughly developed critical essay. In what does the relationship consist? How is the relationship significant? What are some instances of the way in which the relationship exists? Can any words or music exist without pattern and form? How does form enable words and music to "reach / The stillness"? What does this imply about the nature of pattern and form? What does it reveal about the natures of music and words?

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