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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 what metal ought the fleurs-de-lys be worked in A Birthday?

2. How do the goblins in Goblin Market react to Laura's sister's attempt to purchase their fruit?

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

4. What does the speaker in the first poem entitled Song say ought to be placed on the grave of those who died in their youth?

5. What is the last word of Spring?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. For what reason is the poem's speaker in a celebratory mood in A Birthday?

4. What does it mean to say that the life of the speaker in A Better Resurrection is like a broken bowl which cannot hold a drop of cordial?

5. What characterizes the tone of the speaker in the last six lines of Remember?

6. Why might the man in After Death pity the poem's speaker now that she is dead?

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

8. What is the attitude of the speaker in No Thank You, John towards John?

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

10. What is ironic and somewhat paradoxical about the new-life brought on by Spring in the poem of the same name?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Many of Rossetti's poems provide commentary on the uncertainty and the possibilities of life after death. Perusing the collection, compose an analytical essay which looks at the portrayals of life after death in-depth. In what ways is the uncertainty of life after death portrayed? Does it seem certain that there is life after death? What would indicate that there is? What would indicate that there is not? What do the poems indicate about speculating on life-after-death's existence? What do the poems seem to argue should be the disposition of someone towards life after death?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

As part of the consistent theme of temptation, The Three Enemies carries on a dialogue between the tempters to sin and the tempted speaker. Examine this poem in a carefully analytical essay, focusing on what the poem delivers as its ultimate signification. What are the temptations the Enemies use? What characterizes the temptations of the Enemies? How do the temptations correspond to the tempter, the particular Enemy? How does the speaker respond? What characterizes the speaker's responses? How do the responses correspond to the particular Enemy? In what way does the speaker conquer the temptations? What does this ultimately signify?

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