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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. How does the narrator suggest the reader should respond to the poet who praises the month of May?

2. Why does Mr. Coulson hesitate as he says, "In the spring...a y -- that is a man's -- fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love" (333)?

3. What information does Mrs. Widdup give Mr. Coulson that contradicts what Miss Coulson told him earlier?

4. The narrator says,"Pixies and flibbertigibbits haunt the budding woods" (332). What is in the woods?

5. The story opens with the word "prithee" (332). What does this word mean in this context?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens when Mrs. Widdup makes an excuse to go into Mr. Coulson's room to speak with him after the ice is delivered?

2. Explain the technique at work in the sentences "Sparrows wrangled happily everywhere outdoors. Never trust May" (333).

3. In the passage where Miss Coulson stares out the window, the reader is told "The chirp of the sparrows gave her a pain. She mocked at May" (334). To what earlier passage is this a reference, and what is the significance of the reference?

4. What is the thematic significance of the olfactory image of the city in springtime?

5. Explain the significance of the diction "foxy" to describe Mrs. Widdup (333).

6. What is Miss Coulson's plan to head off her father's budding romance?

7. When Mr. Coulson comments that the spring weather is "lovely," his daughter replies "That's just it" (334). What does she mean by her reply?

8. When Miss Coulson says that the supposedly chilly weather is "An instance...of winter lingering in the lap of spring," what double meaning does she have in mind? (335).

9. When rhetorical purposes are served by the passage where the narrator says that the scent of flowers was carried in through the window and "fought" with the scent of Mr. Coulson's gout medicine?

10. Explain the titular allusion and the allusion to "the poet" in the first sentence of the story.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay in which you analyze the characterization of Mr. Coulson and make a claim about its significance in the story. Use textual evidence to support your claim.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay in which you explore the beliefs about marriage revealed in "The Marry Month of May." Give textual support for your claims.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay in which you affirm, refute, or qualify the statement "The month of May functions essentially as another character in "The Marry Month of May." Offer textual evidence to support your ideas.

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