View a FREE sample

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

3. Of what does Maude Clare, in the poem of the same name, wash her hands?

4. In the final stanza of Echo, the speaker's life is described as being cold in what?

5. At what time does the rose drop down its dew in A Summer Wish?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

6. 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?

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

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

9. What fills the poem's speaker with sadness in At Home?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Goblin Market, one theme which emerges from the overall story is the strength of and relation between love and sacrifice. In a well-developed essay analyze the portrayal of love and love's manifestation by sacrifice. How is love portrayed in the poem? Why is sacrifice necessary to love? Against what do love and sacrifice contrast? What sort of actions accompany true love and genuine sacrifice? The etymological root of sacrifice means to "make sacred"; how is this portrayed and demonstrated in the characters and actions of Goblin Market? What does the poem demonstrate about the relationships between love, sacrifice, and human nature?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 831 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample