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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. Of what has the poem's auditor planned in Remember?

2. Upon what does the poem's speaker's head rest in After Death?

3. What is a halcyon sea as used in A Birthday?

4. With what does the great lord fill the poem's speaker's heart in the first stanza of Cousin Kate?

5. In the second stanza of Echo, the speaker says that the dream's wakening should have been in what location?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Why might the man in After Death pity the poem's speaker now that she is dead?

3. What is the meaning of the word "deprecate" as used in the context of A Bruised Reed Shall He Not Break?

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

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

6. How does Maude Clare, in the poem of the same name confront the newly-wedded couple?

7. What is the meaning of the phrase, "The bright hues vanish and the odors fly, / The grass hath lasting worth" in Sweet Death?

8. How does the "she" change from day to night in The World?

9. To interpret beyond the literal meaning of the poem, why does the speaker not wish to reveal her secret in Winter: My Secret?

10. For what reason does the poem's speaker feel the need to seek repentance in The Convent Threshold?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

As the second longest poem in the collection, The Convent Threshold provides an interesting and extended commentary on sin and redemption. Compose an analytical essay which examines the poem's portrayal of these two themes. How does the poem portray sin? How does the poem portray redemption? How does the poem's speaker perceive the world? How does this perception contrast with the perspective of her beloved? What is the significance of the speaker's dreams? What sort of love does the speaker choose, and what sort of love does she reject? What is the significance of the title to the overall meaning of the poem?

Essay Topic 2

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?

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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