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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. What does the speaker say that he believes to be a "strong brown god" in Part I of "The Dry Salvages"?

2. The speaker, in the first line of Part III of "The Dry Salvages," says that he sometimes wonders if "that" is what he meant?

3. The last two lines of Part IV of "Little Gidding" state that "We only live, only suspire / Consumed by either" what or what?

4. What is said to be "heard so deeply / That it is not heard at all," in Part V of "The Dry Salvages"?

5. The speaker of Part II of "The Dry Salvages" states that "the moments of" what "are likewise permanent"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is meant by the speaker's interlocutor's phrase that "next year's words await another voice" in Part II of "Little Gidding"?

2. 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"?

3. What does the speaker mean by saying in Part V of "The Dry Salvages" that "to apprehend / The point of intersection of the timeless / With time, is an occupation for the saint"?

4. 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"?

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

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

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

9. 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"?

10. 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"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

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

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?

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