Effect of Specified Text: Poetry

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AP English Literature and Composition › Effect of Specified Text: Poetry

Questions 1 - 10
1

1 Suddenly I saw the cold and rook-delighting Heaven

2 That seemed as though ice burned and was but the more ice,

3 And thereupon imagination and heart were driven

4 So wild that every casual thought of that and this

5 Vanished, and left but memories, that should be out of season

6 With the hot blood of youth, of love crossed long ago;

7 And I took all the blame out of all sense and reason,

8 Until I cried and trembled and rocked to and fro,

9 Riddled with light. Ah! when the ghost begins to quicken,

10 Confusion of the death-bed over, is it sent

11 Out naked on the roads, as the books say, and stricken

12 By the injustice of the skies for punishment?

(1916)

If the speaker conveys that there is something good about the sky even though he finds it terrifying, what word or phrase most contributes to this?

"rook-delighting" (line 1)

"cold" (line 1)

"ice burned" (line 2)

"memories" (line 5)

"riddled with light" (line 9)

Explanation

In the first line of the poem, the descriptor "rook-delighting" conveys that the speaker recognizes something about the sky that is good rather than cold or harsh. A "rook" is a type of bird. The fact that the sky delights the rooks means that the sky is not cruel and cold to the rooks; it is their home, their habitat. This reveals, therefore, that even though the speaker finds the sky cold and harsh with respect to himself, he recognizes that there is something about it that could even "delight" a different kind of creature.

Passage adapted from William Butler Yeats' "The Cold Heaven" (1916)

2
  1. One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
  2. But came the waves and washed it away:
  3. Again I wrote it with a second hand,
  4. But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.
  5. Vain man, said she, that doest in vain assay
  6. A mortal thing so to immortalize,
  7. For I myself shall like to this decay,
  8. And eek my name be wiped out likewise.
  9. Not so (quoth I), let baser things devise
  10. To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:
  11. My verse your virtues rare shall eternize,
  12. And in the heavens write your glorious name.
  13. Where whenas Death shall all the world subdue,
  14. Our love shall live, and later life renew.

In line 10, the poet contrasts the word “dust” with which word?

Fame

Die

Live

You

Verse

Explanation

This line contains two pairs of contrasting words:

“die” and “live”
“dust” and “fame”

“. . . To DIE in DUST, but you shall LIVE by FAME.”

In other words: "They'll get death and dust -- you'll get life and fame."

Passage adapted from Edmund Spenser's "Sonnet 75" (1594)

3

Adapted from Life and Remains of John Clare "The Northamptonshire Peasant Poet" by John Clare (1872, ed. J. L. Cherry)

I am! Yet what I am who cares, or knows?
My friends forsake me, like a memory lost.
I am the self-consumer of my woes,
They rise and vanish, an oblivious host,
Shadows of life, whose very soul is lost.
And yet I am—I live—though I am toss'd

Into the nothingness of scorn and noise.
Into the living sea of waking dream,
Where there is neither sense of life, nor joys,
But the huge shipwreck of my own esteem
And all that's dear. Even those I loved the best
Are strange—nay, they are stranger than the rest.

I long for scenes where man has never trod—
For scenes where woman never smiled or wept—
There to abide with my Creator, God,
And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept,
Full of high thoughts, unborn. So let me lie,
The grass below; above, the vaulted sky.

The author begins the passage with the exclamation “I am” this allows him to _________.

lead in to a questioning of existence

turn the reader's attention to the reader's own being

question this statement and his or her own mentality

frame the poem in the first-person plural

show that he is conceited

Explanation

The first stanza rests on the first exclamation of “I am!” to the extent that it needs the assertion of being to question that being itself. We can tell that the exclamation leads into questioning as the next sentence is itself a question: “Yet what I am who cares, or knows?” We can also say it is a questioning of existence and not mentality as the stanza is questioning who the narrator is without his or her friends, confined with his or her woes.

4

Batter my heart (Holy Sonnet 14)

1 Batter my heart, three-person'd God; for you
2 As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
3 That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
4 Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
5 I, like an usurp'd town, to another due,
6 Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.
7 Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
8 But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
9 Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
10 But am betroth'd unto your enemy;
11 Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
12 Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
13 Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
14 Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

Which of the following excerpts represents for the poet God's more gentle, yet insufficient, manifestations of love?

"for you/As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;" (line 1 & 2)

"o'erthrow me" (line 3)

"Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new." (line 4)

"Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again," (line 11)

"imprison me" (line 12)

Explanation

For the poet, God's "as yet" (line 2) knocking, shining, breathing, and mending are not sufficiently extreme to "Batter" (line 1) his heart, as a battering ram would.

5

1 Red Rose, proud Rose, sad Rose of all my days!

2 Come near me, while I sing the ancient ways:

3 Cuchulain battling with the bitter tide;

4 The Druid, grey, wood-nurtured, quiet-eyed,

5 Who cast round Fergus dreams, and ruin untold;

6 And thine own sadness, whereof stars, grown old

7 In dancing silver-sandalled on the sea,

8 Sing in their high and lonely melody.

9 Come near, that no more blinded by man's fate,

10 I find under the boughs of love and hate,

11 In all poor foolish things that live a day,

12 Eternal beauty wandering on her way.

13 Come near, come near, come near—Ah, leave me still

14 A little space for the rose-breath to fill!

15 Lest I no more hear common things that crave;

16 The weak worm hiding down in its small cave,

17 The field-mouse running by me in the grass,

18 And heavy mortal hopes that toil and pass;

19 But seek alone to hear the strange things said

20 By God to the bright hearts of those long dead,

21 And learn to chaunt a tongue men do not know.

22 Come near; I would, before my time to go,

23 Sing of old Eire and the ancient ways:

24 Red Rose, proud Rose, sad Rose of all my days.

(1893)

The descriptor "poor" in line 11 suggests that the "foolish things that live a day" ________________.

should be pitied

have little money

have impoverished intellects

are to blame for their foolishness

are pure of heart

Explanation

In line 11 the "foolish things that live a day" are also described as "poor." The descriptor "poor" suggests that it is to some extent not the fault of these "foolish" things that they are foolish and short-lived. "Poor" suggests that they simply do not have what it would take for them to be otherwise. Since this is the case, the descriptor "poor" suggests that these things deserve pity, even if they are not the lofty, eternal things the poet really desires to write about.

Passage adapted from "To the Rose Upon the Rood of Time" by William Butler Yeats (1893)

6

1 Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;
2 My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy.
3 Seven years thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay,
4 Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.
5 Oh, could I lose all father now! For why
6 Will man lament the state he should envy?
7 To have so soon 'scaped world's and flesh's rage,
8 And if no other misery, yet age!
9 Rest in soft peace, and, asked, say, "Here doth lie
10 Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry,
11 For whose sake, henceforth, all his vows be such
12 As what he loves may never like too much."

"Seven years thou wert lent to me," (line 3), very likely tells the reader what?

The age of the son at his death

The length of time the child suffered

The years the speaker was absent from the child's life

The years since the child's death

The time period wherein the speaker will mourn

Explanation

"Seven years thou wert lent to me," (line 3), very likely tells the reader the age of the son at his death. In the same line, "I thee pay" inclines the reader to believe that after seven years, the speaker had to relinquish his son.

7

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

1 How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
2 I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
3 My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
4 For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
5 I love thee to the level of everyday's
6 Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
7 I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
8 I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
9 I love thee with the passion put to use
10 In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
11 I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
12 With my lost saints – I love thee with the breath,
13 Smiles, tears, of all my life! – and, if God choose,
14 I shall but love thee better after death.

The following excerpt seems to show that the speaker is mature:

"In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith," (line 10).

"I love thee to the level of everyday's / Most quiet need," (lines 5–6).

"I love thee with the breath, / Smiles, tears, of all my life!" (lines 12–13).

"I love thee to the depth and breadth and height/My soul can reach," (lines 2–3).

"I love thee freely," (line 7).

Explanation

"In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith" (line 10), seems to show that the speaker is mature, as he or she has had to contend with old griefs and a faith distinct to children.

8

Adapted from "Old Man Traveling" by William Wordsworth in Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1798 ed.)

The little hedge-row birds,
That peck along the road, regard him not.
He travels on, and in his face, his step,
His gait, is one expression; every limb,
His look and bending figure, all bespeak
A man who does not move with pain, but moves
With thought—He is insensibly subdued
To settled quiet: he is one by whom
All effort seems forgotten, one to whom
Long patience has such mild composure given,
That patience now doth seem a thing, of which
He hath no need. He is by nature led
To peace so perfect, that the young behold
With envy, what the old man hardly feels.
—I asked him whither he was bound, and what
The object of his journey; he replied
"Sir! I am going many miles to take
"A last leave of my son, a mariner,
"Who from a sea-fight has been brought to Falmouth,
And there is dying in an hospital."

Which of the following can be inferred from the underlined text?

The man is composed and focused

The man is monotonous

The man is lost in thought and emotionally turbulent

The man is omnipotent

The man is duplicitous in his nature

Explanation

We can rule out “duplicitous,” “monotonous," and “omnipotent,” as none of them suit the passage or the characterization of the man: “duplicitous” means that he is false in his actions as they do not match his words; “monotonous” would suggest he is droning or boring; and "omnipotent" suggests the man has great power like a god. We could say the man is lost in thought, as the latter line suggests he “moves with thought,” but this does not necessarily mean he is “lost” in thought; he could instead be focused on his movements. Furthermore, the answer choice "The man is lost in thought and emotionally turbulent" cannot be correct because the man seems to be at peace, not subject to strong emotions. Therefore, we can assume the man is composed in that he shows discipline in his “face, step and gait” in that they all bespeak one frame of mind or one “expression.”

9

Adapted from Walt Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" in Leaves of Grass (1855)

1

Flood-tide below me! I see you face to face!
Clouds of the west—sun there half an hour high—I see you also face to face.

Crowds of men and women attired in the usual costumes, how curious you are to me!
On the ferry-boats the hundreds and hundreds that cross, returning home, are more curious to me than you suppose,
And you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence are more to me, and more in my meditations, than you might suppose.

2

The impalpable sustenance of me from all things at all hours of the day,
The simple, compact, well-join’d scheme, myself disintegrated, every one disintegrated yet part of the scheme,
The similitudes of the past and those of the future,
The glories strung like beads on my smallest sights and hearings, on the walk in the street and the passage over the river,
The current rushing so swiftly and swimming with me far away,
The others that are to follow me, the ties between me and them,
The certainty of others, the life, love, sight, hearing of others.

Others will enter the gates of the ferry and cross from shore to shore,
Others will watch the run of the flood-tide,
Others will see the shipping of Manhattan north and west, and the heights of Brooklyn to the south and east,
Others will see the islands large and small;
Fifty years hence, others will see them as they cross, the sun half an hour high,
A hundred years hence, or ever so many hundred years hence, others will see them,
Will enjoy the sunset, the pouring-in of the flood-tide, the falling-back to the sea of the ebb-tide.

3

It avails not, time nor place—distance avails not,
I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so many generations hence,
Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt,
Just as any of you is one of a living crowd, I was one of a crowd,
Just as you are refresh’d by the gladness of the river and the bright flow, I was refresh’d,
Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift current, I stood yet was hurried,
Just as you look on the numberless masts of ships and the thick-stemm’d pipes of steamboats, I look’d.

I too many and many a time cross’d the river of old,
Watched the Twelfth-month sea-gulls, saw them high in the air floating with motionless wings, oscillating their bodies,
Saw how the glistening yellow lit up parts of their bodies and left the rest in strong shadow,
Saw the slow-wheeling circles and the gradual edging toward the south,
Saw the reflection of the summer sky in the water,
Had my eyes dazzled by the shimmering track of beams . . .

Which of the following images serves as the closest metaphor for the speaker’s overall conception of time?

"Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift current, I stood, yet was hurried."

"Just as you look on the numberless masts of ships and the thick-stemm’d pipes of steamboats, I look’d."

"The glories strung like beads on my smallest sights and hearings."

"Others will enter the gates of the ferry and cross from shore to shore"

"Clouds of the west—sun there half an hour high."

Explanation

The speaker conceives of time in a way that seems contradictory; it is something that clearly exists but "avails not" (it moves on, but people can still be connected across it). The image of simultaneously standing and hurrying creates a similarly complex and paradoxical notion of time, allowing one to function in two different senses of time at once.

10

1 Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
2 Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
3 Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
4 And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
5 Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
6 And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
7 And every fair from fair sometime declines,
8 By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
9 But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
10 Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
11 Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
12 When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st;
13 So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
14 So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Psalm 23:4 reads, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death." The following plays upon this religious imagery:

"Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade" (line 11)

"Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines" (line 5)

"And often is his gold complexion dimm’d" (line 6)

"And every fair from fair sometime declines" (line 7)

**"**When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st" (line 12)

Explanation

"Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade," (line 11) plays upon the imagery of Psalm 23:4, as it refers to death's shade.

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