View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 8 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How many additional syllables does the final line in each stanza contain?

2. What does the phrase "'Twas so" in line 5 mean?

3. What is the time of day in this poem's setting?

4. To whom is the speaker addressing this poem?

5. In line 14, "Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one," what two things are being compared?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the structure of this poem.

2. Explain how the conceit of exploration is incorporated into the speaker's argument in stanza two.

3. Explain the poem's final conceit about the hemispheres of a planet.

4. What element of hyperbole is contained in the poem's allusion to the Seven Sleepers?

5. Explain the rhetorical purpose of the image that begins the third stanza.

6. Explain how the conceit of dreaming unifies the first stanza.

7. Where is this poem set, and what is happening there?

8. Explain the poem's allusion to the Seven Sleepers.

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 motif of vision in "The Good Morrow." How do language and detail choices create this motif? What different aspects of vision are invoked? How does this motif support the poem's overall meaning? Support your ideas with both quoted and paraphrased evidence from the poem's text. Cite your evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about the tension between merging and individuation in "The Good Morrow." In what sense does the poem portray the lovers as one singular thing? What purpose does it serve to portray them as one united and completely merged entity? In what sense does the poem portray them as still two separate entities? What purpose does it serve to portray them as still two distinct people? How does the poem seem to reconcile these opposite ideas? Support your ideas with both quoted and paraphrased evidence from the poem's text. Cite your evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about the impact of Donne's choice to frame his poem as an apostrophe to the beloved. What is an apostrophe? How does the reader recognize that the poem is an apostrophe to the beloved? What impact does this choice have on tone? How does this choice support the poem's claims about an all-consuming love? Support your ideas with both quoted and paraphrased evidence from the poem's text. Cite your evidence in MLA format.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 997 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample