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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 7 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What kind of image opens the poem?

2. What is the name of the river the speaker is near?

3. Line 33's use of the phrase "As have no slight or trivial influence" is an example of which technique?

4. Which is most likely to be the intended effect of the repetition and redundancies throughout the first two verse paragraphs?

5. What is the best definition of "sublime" in the context of line 38?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the landscape that the speaker sees.

2. What are two possibilities that the speaker imagines as the origin of the smoke he sees?

3. What does the speaker say about the hedge-rows, and what does this reveal about his perspective on the scene?

4. Where has the speaker been for the past five years, and how has the memory of this landscape impacted him?

5. What literal and philosophical impact do the cliffs have on the landscape the speaker is viewing?

6. What does the speaker mean in line 47 when he talks about becoming "a living soul"?

7. What two elements does the first stanza mention that contribute to the sense that the scene is unbroken and whole?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Go online and read about the industrialization of the Wye Valley in Wordsworth's time and the questions critics have asked about the accuracy of his depiction of the landscape. Then, think back to your ideas about the elision of the abbey in the poem. Write an essay that takes and defends a position about whether Wordsworth's elision of the abbey has the same purpose as his elision of the industrial buildings that had begun to appear in the valley during this time period. Support your assertions with evidence from both "Tintern Abbey" and online sources; cite all sources in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about the purpose of the prosody of "Tintern Abbey." Describe the poem's prosody and how it strikes a balance between traditional meter and natural speech. Consider the poem's occasion, tone, and subject matter as you explain the need to balance elevation and informality. Finally, connect the poem's prosody with one or more thematic ideas expressed in "Tintern Abbey." Support your observations with both quoted and paraphrased evidence from the poem.

Essay Topic 3

Choose one image of nature and one image of urban life from the poem. Write an essay that explicates these two passages, explaining how the techniques used in these passages create tone and meaning. Consider techniques such as diction, detail, sound devices, symbolism, and figurative language. Not all of these will be found in every chosen passage, but comment on those that do appear in the passages you choose and show how these contribute to each passage's overall effect. After you have finished your explications of these two passages, provide a paragraph of analysis that discusses how the two passages differ and what purpose this serves in the poem as a whole. Provide both quoted and paraphrased evidence from the poem to support your claims.

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