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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 seventh line of Part II of "East Coker," with what are late roses said to be filled?

2. To whose funeral(s) do they all, in "East Coker," Part III, go?

3. Words and music are said to move, in the fifth part of "Burnt Norton," only in what?

4. The speaker says near the end of Part V of "East Coker" that old men ought to be what?

5. What inhabits the garden of "Burnt Norton"'s first part?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is signified by the phrase in Part III of "East Coker," "the growing terror of nothing to think about"?

2. What does the speaker mean by saying in Part V of "Burnt Norton" that love is caught "in the form of limitation"?

3. What is signified by the speaker's questioning of the deceitfulness of the "quiet-voiced elders" in Part II of "East Coker"?

4. What is meant in "Burnt Norton"'s first part by "What might have been... a world of speculation," lines 6-8?

5. What does the speaker mean in Part II of "Burnt Norton" when he states at the still point of the turning world, "there the dance is, / But neither arrest nor movement"?

6. What is the significance of the "Eructation of unhealthy souls," mentioned in Part III of "Burnt Norton"?

7. What does the speaker mean in the latter lines of Part III of "Burnt Norton" when he states that "This is the one way, and the other / Is the same"?

8. Why does the speaker claim in Part II of "Burnt Norton" that "To be conscious is not to be in time"?

9. Why does the speaker find "only a limited value / In the knowledge derived from experience" in Part II of "East Coker"?

10. What does the speaker mean when he states in Part V of "East Coker" that "there is no competition - / There is only the fight to recover what has been lost And found and lost again and again"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Though explicitly mentioned only once, in Part V of "Burnt Norton," the Word, a conventional Christian signifier for Christ, is a vitally important concept to understanding the whole of The Four Quartets. Through careful exegesis, discuss the way in which the Word is central to the four poems. What is the Word? Why is Christ called the Word? What other significations does the Greek word "logos" have that are associated with Christ as the Word? In what way is this Word unlike all others? What is expressed by the Word? What is the relation of the Word to perfection? How is this Word, as perfection, within the world? What is significant about Its presence in the world? How can this be seen throughout the poem?

Essay Topic 2

In a thoughtful analytical essay, discuss the significance of "East Coker" as one part of the whole work. What is the overall signification of the poem? What is the significance of each of the parts? How does the poem as a whole relate to the whole of the work? How does each part thus relate? What images are the most powerful and significant? What insights into time, the world, and the human person are contained within the poem?

Essay Topic 3

In Part III of "Burnt Norton," the speaker discusses the "world of perpetual solitude." Examine this discussion in an expository essay. What is solitude? What does it mean for a person to be in solitude? What happens to a person who is continually in solitude? What would a "world of perpetual solitude" be? What sort of conditions afflict the person in such a world of perpetual solitude? How is this significant to the condition of modern man? How is understanding this sort of solitude significant to interpreting "Burnt Norton"? How is it important to interpreting the poem as a whole?

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