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

2. The speaker's interlocutor in Part II of "Little Gidding" says that "next year's words await another" 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. What is a synonymous word or phrase for the word "fructify," used in Part III of "The Dry Salvages"?

5. In the final lines of "The Dry Salvages," the speaker says that contentment is found at last "If our temporal reversion nourish / (Not too far from the yew-tree) / The life of" what?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

5. What is meant by the statement in Part II of "Little Gidding" that "Water and fire deride / The sacrifice that we denied"?

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

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

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 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"?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Throughout all four of the poems in The Four Quartets, circularity and wholeness are brought to light and the object of hints and vague statements. In the final part of "Little Gidding," they are summed up and the poems are brought into a sort of unity. Discuss the manner in which they are unified and how they are all interrelated, as demonstrated in this final part. In what way is the final part of the work a conclusion of the whole? How does it relate to each of the four poems? How does it contain them all? How is the beginning shown to be in the end? How is the end found in the beginning? What does this indicate about human nature? What does this indicate about the world and about time? How does it relate to the prevalent concern with the universal and infinite that pervades the poetry?

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

Though explicitly mentioned only once, in Part V of "Burnt Norton," the Word, a conventional Christian signifier for Christ, is a vitally important concept to understanding the whole of The Four Quartets. Through careful exegesis, discuss the way in which the Word is central to the four poems. What is the Word? Why is Christ called the Word? What other significations does the Greek word "logos" have that are associated with Christ as the Word? In what way is this Word unlike all others? What is expressed by the Word? What is the relation of the Word to perfection? How is this Word, as perfection, within the world? What is significant about Its presence in the world? How can this be seen throughout the poem?

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