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

Short Answer Questions

1. Which term describes the use of the word "beauty" in line 6?

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

3. What is the rhyme scheme within each stanza?

4. What is the best interpretation of the meaning of "but this" in line 5?

5. What does the speaker say is "waking" in line 8?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

6. Describe the structure of this poem.

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

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

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 poem's theme. What are the various claims this poem makes? What patterns of meaning--motifs--do you see in the poem? How do language and detail choices support these motifs? What overall idea sums up all of these smaller claims and patterns of 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 poem's tone. How would you describe the tone? Does it shift? What techniques create it? How does it contribute to 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 3

Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about the poem's religious overtones. What diction choices have religious connotations? How do the allusion to the Seven Sleepers and the poem's motif of awakenings support the poem's religious aspect? How is the rising sun related to Christian religious symbolism? Be sure to make clear how the religious overtones in the poem support its overall meaning. Support your ideas with both quoted and paraphrased evidence from the poem's text. Cite your evidence in MLA format.

(see the answer keys)

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