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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 kind of metrical foot is the most frequent in "One Art"?

2. What does the speaker use in line 5 as an example of a common lost object?

3. In the first stanza, what does the speaker suggest makes the loss of some things especially easy to accept?

4. What is the verb mood of line 4, "Lose something every day"?

5. Which word in lines 10 and 11, "And look! my last,/ or next-to-last, of three loved houses went," creates a momentary shift in verb mood?

Short Essay Questions

1. To whom is the parenthetical comment "(Write it!)" addressed in line 19, and how does this comment impact the reader's understanding of the poem?

2. What are the refrains employed in "One Art"?

3. Which two verb moods are used in "One Art," and where are they employed?

4. What difference is there in the way the two refrain lines are repeated throughout the poem?

5. What is the poem's dominant meter, and how is it regularly interrupted?

6. On the surface level, what is the main message of "One Art"?

7. How does the speaker arrange the examples of things that can be lost?

8. How does the speaker's diction increase the emotional stakes as the poem progresses?

9. Describe the form of "One Art."

10. How does the change in stanza structure in the final stanza mimic the poem's changing meaning?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay that analyzes the significance of the parenthetical instruction "Write it!" in the poem's final line. Support your argument with both quoted and paraphrased evidence from the text.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about the meter of "One Art." Support your argument with both quoted and paraphrased evidence from the text.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about the use of refrains in "One Art." Support your argument with both quoted and paraphrased evidence from the text.

(see the answer keys)

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