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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. In the second stanza of "Eyes that last I saw in tears", the speaker says that the eyes he shall not see again are eyes of what?

2. In "A Note on War Poetry," what two forces are "beyond control by experiment"?

3. The enemy in "Lines for an Old Man" is said to be dangling from what?

4. In the fourth Landscape, which of the following does the road NOT wind?

5. Where is the speaker at the end of "Four Quartets: East Coker" according to Part I?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the nature of the speakers "affliction" in "Eyes that last I saw in tears"?

2. What is the apparent distinction between the attitude towards Christmas of the child and the childish in "The Cultivation of Christmas Trees"?

3. What characterizes the metaphors used as description of the old man bearing the "tooth of wit" in "Lines for an Old Man"?

4. Why do the "cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries," spoken of in the first chorus from 'The Rock,' bring man further away from God and closer to dust?

5. Why should the innocent approach of the child to Christmas not be lost, according to "The Cultivation of Christmas Trees"?

6. For what is the ship in "Marina" a symbolic signifier?

7. What is meant in "Burnt Norton" by the phrase, "Only a flicker / Over the strained time-ridden faces / Distracted from distraction by distraction"?

8. What are the women doing with the card game in the "Fragment of a Prologue"?

9. Where is the reader told to go and why in the third landscape, "Usk"?

10. About what is the speaker confused in "The wind sprang up at four o'clock"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The central theme of the last of Eliot's "Four Quartets", "Little Gidding," is fallen man's redemption. Analyze this theme as it is presented in "little Gidding." Why does man need redemption? From what is man redeemed? How does redemption come to man? What is the poetic imagery that Eliot uses to describe this need for redemption, that from which man is redeemed, and that by which he is redeemed? What does this need for redemption reveal about human nature? What does the manner of redemption reveal both about human nature and about the Divine, according to Eliot's portrayal?

Essay Topic 2

One of his most prominent poems, "Ash-Wednesday" describes the process of a man's conversion to a Catholic (albeit Anglo-Catholic) faith. Analyze the portrayal of a non-Catholic life against a Catholic life, as put forth in "Ash-Wednesday". What are the characteristics of a non-Catholic life? In what sort of action and substance does such a life consist? Alternatively, what is found in the Catholic life? What is unique to the Catholic life? What are the images Eliot uses to draw these distinctions? How are these images somewhat ambiguous, and wherein, and how, does one make them distinct individually and coherent as a whole?

Essay Topic 3

In most of T.S. Eliot's poems, most notably "The Waste Land", there is a frequency of allusion and alteration of allusions. These are often used to great effect. Analyze the usage and purpose of these allusions in one or more of Eliot's poems, demonstrating how they contribute to the poem's meaning and style. From where are the allusions taken? How are they altered if at all? What is significant about the source of the allusions? What is significant about their alteration if they are altered? What is significant about their placement in the text? How do they contribute to the poem's meaning?

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