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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. In Dream Land, what bird does the poem's subject hear singing?

2. What lyrical form of poem is Remember?

3. What creeps through the lattice near the poem's speaker in After Death?

4. What does the speaker in the first poem entitled Song say ought to be placed on her own grave?

5. In the first line of Echo, the speaker demands that her auditor come to her in the silence of the what?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the significance of "night" in the second poem entitled Song?

2. What characterizes the poem's speaker's commands to the rose and the bird in the first two stanzas of A Summer Wish?

3. Who is Ruth, as used in the last line of Sweet Death?

4. What does the coldness in Winter: My Secret symbolize?

5. Why is Thomas loathe to have married Nell in Maude Clare?

6. What revenge is given to the poem's speaker in Cousin Kate?

7. With what sort of temptations does the Devil assail the second speaker in The Three Enemies?

8. What appears to be the speaker's assumption about life after death in the final poem entitled Song?

9. What might be the reason for John's unwarranted affection towards the poem's speaker in No Thank You, John?

10. What is the attitude of the speaker in No Thank You, John towards John?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Many of Rossetti's poems provide commentary on the uncertainty and the possibilities of life after death. Perusing the collection, compose an analytical essay which looks at the portrayals of life after death in-depth. In what ways is the uncertainty of life after death portrayed? Does it seem certain that there is life after death? What would indicate that there is? What would indicate that there is not? What do the poems indicate about speculating on life-after-death's existence? What do the poems seem to argue should be the disposition of someone towards life after death?

Essay Topic 2

Throughout a great deal of Rossetti's poetry, there is a connection drawn between life and love, between living and loving. This can be seen in At Home, A Triad, A Birthday, After Death, An End, and many others. Explicate in a thoroughly-developed analytical essay the significance of this connection. In what way are the two states or actions comparable? Why would one be linked with the other? What makes the two similar? How is this demonstrated in the various poems of Christina Rossetti? What does this connection reveal about human nature?

Essay Topic 3

Goblin Market and Other Poems contains two poems which can definitively be identified as dramatic monologues: Winter: My Secret and No Thank You, John. Compose an analytical essay which examines these two works. How are they identified as dramatic monologues? Who are the speakers, and who are their auditors? What is the tone of the speakers towards their auditors? What do the speakers unwittingly reveal about themselves? What is the overall significance of each poem?

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