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

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

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

4. Lines 18 and 19, "Sent up, in silence, from among the trees!/ With some uncertain notice, as might seem," contain which two techniques?

5. Which is the best interpretation of lines 30-31, "And passing even into my purer mind/ With tranquil restoration"?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

6. Describe the landscape that the speaker sees.

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay that considers how the speaker's elevation above the valley both obscures and reveals important aspects of the scene. Think about what he chooses to describe and how he describes it as well as what he chooses to leave out of his description of the scene. Consider how his elevation changes his perspective, leaves certain things in doubt, and clarifies other things. Connect your observations to the thematic motifs of unity and the sublime. Support your claims with evidence from the poem. Be sure to cite any outside sources in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about the relationship "Tintern Abbey'" posits between nature, the sublime, and transcendence. Establish the literary definitions of the Romantic terms "sublime" and "transcendence" and then provide analysis of how the poem treats these topics and their relationship to nature. Provide textual evidence to support your analysis, and cite all sources in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

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.

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