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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. What does the speaker in the first poem entitled Song say ought to be given to her?

2. What does the poem's speaker do in the final stanza in An Apple Gathering?

3. How many eyes ought the peacocks have in A Birthday?

4. In At Home, what is the topic of conversation for those yet living?

5. What do the neighbors call the poem's speaker in the 4th stanza of Cousin Kate?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Maude betray her sister, the speaker in Sister Maude?

2. What is the attitude of the first speaker in A Bruised Reed Shall He Not Break to his auditor?

3. For what reason does the speaker of The Convent Threshold prefer the joys of the heavenly life over those of the earthly?

4. To interpret beyond the literal meaning of the poem, why does the speaker not wish to reveal her secret in Winter: My Secret?

5. What is the tone of the speaker in the first stanza of A Better Resurrection?

6. Why is the poem's speaker permanently separated from her once lover in An Apple Gathering?

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

8. Who is Ruth, as used in the last line of Sweet Death?

9. Why does the great lord cast aside the poem's speaker in Cousin Kate?

10. Why is Thomas loathe to have married Nell in Maude Clare?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Goblin Market and Other Poems contains two poems which can definitively be identified as dramatic monologues: Winter: My Secret and No Thank You, John. Compose an analytical essay which examines these two works. How are they identified as dramatic monologues? Who are the speakers, and who are their auditors? What is the tone of the speakers towards their auditors? What do the speakers unwittingly reveal about themselves? What is the overall significance of each poem?

Essay Topic 2

A conventional poetic motif is introduced, but also partially inferred, in Rossetti's Another Spring, which operates primarily on the "If, then; but, therefore" structure. In this poem, the "if, then" half of the structure is explicitly stated, and the reader is supposed to infer the "but, therefore" half. Compose an essay which thoroughly analyzes this sort of poetic presentation, but the overall impact of the "If, then; but, therefore" structure and the immediate impact of the inference insisted upon by Another Spring. What purpose does the particular structure serve? How does this motif help to indicate truth? What purpose is served by the contrast? What purpose is served by having the reader supply half of the contrast himself? What does the poem signify overall? How is this signification accomplished?

Essay Topic 3

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?

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