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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 in the first poem entitled Song say ought to be given to those in the flush of youth?

2. To which of the following does the poem's speaker insist the bird should sing in A Summer Wish?

3. Of what are the souls of the dream in the second stanza of Echo "brimful"?

4. What is nursed in its grave by Death in Spring?

5. In the first stanza of Echo, the speaker demands that her auditor come to her with eyes as bright as what?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the tone of the speaker in the first stanza of A Better Resurrection?

2. What is ironic and somewhat paradoxical about the new-life brought on by Spring in the poem of the same name?

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

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

5. Does The One Certainty indicate a pure negativity or is there some indication of hope in the message?

6. Why would the flowers given to the youth change from roses to violets after death in the first poem entitled Song?

7. What is the attitude of the first speaker in A Bruised Reed Shall He Not Break to his auditor?

8. How is it that life comes out of the depths of winter according to Rossetti's Spring?

9. What is "the one certainty," as proposed in the poem of the same name?

10. Who is the "she" of The World, and what indicates this interpretation?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compose an analytical essay on the theme revealed in the last poem of the collection, The World, namely that of struggling with the World's two-faced transformation, its false beauty and true ugliness. How is this theme portrayed throughout Rossetti's poems? In which poems does the World appear seductively beautiful? In which poems is its hideousness revealed? What does this help the reader to see about the World in which he lives? What do the poems overall seem to suggest as a contrary way of living? What other beauties can and should a person pursue? How should one react to both faces of the World?

Essay Topic 2

Compose an essay which investigates the Christological allegory presented in Goblin Market. Such an allegory, one which relates in its non-literal signification a well-known story or historical occurrence, will not necessarily have direct correlations between the literal and the non-literal significations, but relate the two by universal types of actions, the exemplar of which being found in the non-literally signified story. What are the universal types by which the story of Christ and Goblin Market are related? In what ways does the story parallel that of Christ, or of salvation history in general? Of what are the various characters and actions in the story symbolic? What impact does Goblin Market have on the reader's perception of the story of Christ?

Essay Topic 3

Throughout Rossetti's poetry, there is a persistent theme of seeking hope. Though the speakers in her poems often indicate feelings of despair, and though all seems oftentimes to be lost, there is a recurrence of if not hope, at the very least the hoping for, the desiring for hope. This is particularly evident in the devotional poems towards the end of the collection. Compose an analytical essay which examines this theme. In which poems is it evident? How is it generally portrayed? In what ways is hope persistently present throughout the collection? What imagery is used to represent hope? How is this imagery portrayed? What is significant about this imagery? In what ways is hope eventually found? In what does hope subsist?

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