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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 is placed at the foot of the deceased in the first stanza of An End?

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

3. What might the poem's speaker have been instead of an "unclean thing" in Cousin Kate?

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

5. What is the last word of Spring?

Short Essay Questions

1. For what is the speaker of Echo in longing?

2. For what reason is the poem's speaker in a celebratory mood in A Birthday?

3. Who are the wayfarers who have gone before the poem's inquisitive speaker in Up-Hill?

4. In Another Spring, what is the literal implication of the repetition of the phrase, "If I might see another Spring"?

5. What sort of descriptions does the poem's speaker give to her mood and what characterizes these descriptions in A Birthday?

6. What characterizes the tone of the speaker in the last six lines of Remember?

7. What does it mean to say that the life of the speaker in A Better Resurrection is like a broken bowl which cannot hold a drop of cordial?

8. What is meant by the line "Or in this world, or in the world to come" in the last stanza of The First Spring Day?

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

10. What does the "Spring" in the second stanza of The First Spring Day interpretatively signify?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

A consistent theme in Rossetti's poems is the significance of Spring. Write an analytical essay which discusses the various significations which Spring has throughout her poetry. What imagery is associated with Spring? What does this imagery signify? What emotions are attached to the arrival of Spring? How does the season of Spring correlate to the human condition? In what ways does the internal disposition of a human person cohere with or reject the seasonal activity of Spring? What does this reveal about human nature, particularly human emotions and desires?

Essay Topic 2

A theme primarily exposed in Maude Clare is the contrast between a fleeting, passionate love and a lasting, committed love. This theme does appear, though not so evidently, in other poems, in which the temporality of certain joys is contrasted with more permanent emotions. In a well-developed essay, analyze this theme of contrast in loves. How is each portrayed? With what is passionate love commonly associated? With what is committed love commonly associated? How do the characters associated with each regularly comport themselves? What do these presentations reveal about human nature and its disposition towards love and relationships?

Essay Topic 3

As part of the consistent theme of temptation, The Three Enemies carries on a dialogue between the tempters to sin and the tempted speaker. Examine this poem in a carefully analytical essay, focusing on what the poem delivers as its ultimate signification. What are the temptations the Enemies use? What characterizes the temptations of the Enemies? How do the temptations correspond to the tempter, the particular Enemy? How does the speaker respond? What characterizes the speaker's responses? How do the responses correspond to the particular Enemy? In what way does the speaker conquer the temptations? What does this ultimately signify?

(see the answer keys)

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