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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 does the colon at the end of line 7, "Then practice losing farther, losing faster," indicate about the "places, and names" in line 8?

2. How many lines does "One Art" have?

3. In the first stanza, what does the speaker suggest makes the loss of some things especially easy to accept?

4. Which word in lines 10 and 11, "And look! my last,/ or next-to-last, of three loved houses went," creates a momentary shift in verb mood?

5. What is the meaning of the word "fluster" in line 4?

Short Essay Questions

1. Which two verb moods are used in "One Art," and where are they employed?

2. On the surface level, what is the main message of "One Art"?

3. How does the speaker arrange the examples of things that can be lost?

4. What difference is there in the way the two refrain lines are repeated throughout the poem?

5. What is the poem's dominant meter, and how is it regularly interrupted?

6. How does the change in stanza structure in the final stanza mimic the poem's changing meaning?

7. To whom is the parenthetical comment "(Write it!)" addressed in line 19, and how does this comment impact the reader's understanding of the poem?

8. How does the speaker's diction increase the emotional stakes as the poem progresses?

9. What are the refrains employed in "One Art"?

10. Describe the form of "One Art."

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about the use of verb mood in "One Art." Support your argument with both quoted and paraphrased evidence from the text.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay that explicates the poem's final stanza. Take a clear position about the stanza's relationship to the rest of the poem and show how the techniques you discuss in your explication support that relationship.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay that explicates the musicality of "One Art." Be sure to explain how the devices you name and explain create meaning within the context of the text as a whole. Support your claims with quoted evidence from the text.

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