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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. Hugo maintains that once the poet has a certain amount of _____, one can forget it in the act of writing.

2. Hugo states that some traditionalists seem to think that _____ exist to be solved for their own sake, as if the poet is an engineer.

3. According to Hugo, poets can go into the world of the imagination, and not feel so threatened that they _____.

4. Yeats is noted by Hugo as saying that, "as a writer, your most important arguments are with _____".

5. Hugo believes that a public poet must be more intelligent than the reader so his _____ doesn't get in the way.

Short Essay Questions

1. In Hugo's opinion, why do most students respect Roethke as a teacher?

2. What are the reasons Hugo gives when he agrees with Auden's view that poets don't take things as seriously as other people do?

3. In the poem "At Stillit's Mouth", what does Hugo say about his own sense of the dramatic?

4. What is Hugo's impression of Roethke's demeanor?

5. What is the nature of the initiating subject?

6. In what way does Hugo feel that young poets find it difficult to free themselves from the initiating subject of a poem?

7. Why does Hugo say to "think small" when writing a poem?

8. According to Hugo, what can happen to facts when writing a poem?

9. What are some of the ways Hugo suggests moving away from the initiating subject?

10. What happens to Hugo when he lives in New York in one assumption?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What are the advantages pointed out by Hugo of making up the rules as the poet goes along? What should making up rules do for the poet?

Essay Topic 2

What is Hugo's experience in the grassy field near Spinazzola? How does a psychoanalyst categorize his experience years later? What is the poem that he writes about Spinazzola about?

Essay Topic 3

What are Hugo's thoughts on having a stance in writing a poem? What examples does he give regarding stance and how does the presence or absence of a stance determine the poem's effectiveness?

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