View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What creeps through the lattice near the poem's speaker in After Death?

2. Who is said to be dead in the first stanza in An End?

3. What happens to the golden fruit in summer, as said in the fourth stanza of Winter: My Secret?

4. What sprouts in the lane in Spring?

5. In the final stanza of Echo, the speaker's life is described as being cold in what?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why would the speaker not plant summer flowers and wait, as described in the first stanza of Another Spring?

2. Why, of all the women in A Triad, do none achieve life?

3. What is "the one certainty," as proposed in the poem of the same name?

4. What is to be inferred from the last clause of After Death, "and very sweet it is / To know he still is warm though I am cold"?

5. For what does the inn in Up-Hill stand as a metaphor, and what indicates this?

6. Why does the speaker attempt to cast off her expectations in A Pause of Thought?

7. What revenge is given to the poem's speaker in Cousin Kate?

8. What is implied to be the meaning of the poem by the final stanza of An End?

9. Who is the "she" of The World, and what indicates this interpretation?

10. What is the significance of "night" in the second poem entitled Song?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Many of the poems in this collection are in the traditional Italian sonnet form. This includes A Triad, Remember, After Death, The One Certainty, and The World. Using either a few, or all, of these sonnets, compose an analytical essay which demonstrates how the Italian sonnet form conveys its significance through exposition in the octave and explication or resolution in the sestet. How do the two parts interact with one another? What does the commentary or resolution in the sestet achieve? What opportunities of conveying significance does the form of the sonnet allow? What is the significance of some of the sonnets in the collection?

Essay Topic 2

A consistent theme in Rossetti's poems is the significance of Spring. Write an analytical essay which discusses the various significations which Spring has throughout her poetry. What imagery is associated with Spring? What does this imagery signify? What emotions are attached to the arrival of Spring? How does the season of Spring correlate to the human condition? In what ways does the internal disposition of a human person cohere with or reject the seasonal activity of Spring? What does this reveal about human nature, particularly human emotions and desires?

Essay Topic 3

Compose an essay which investigates the Christological allegory presented in Goblin Market. Such an allegory, one which relates in its non-literal signification a well-known story or historical occurrence, will not necessarily have direct correlations between the literal and the non-literal significations, but relate the two by universal types of actions, the exemplar of which being found in the non-literally signified story. What are the universal types by which the story of Christ and Goblin Market are related? In what ways does the story parallel that of Christ, or of salvation history in general? Of what are the various characters and actions in the story symbolic? What impact does Goblin Market have on the reader's perception of the story of Christ?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 849 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample