Posted: September 16th, 2017

English Exam

English Exam

Poems can choose from
-Narrative poetry
–Richard Cory” (Edward Arlington Robinson, 675)
–“Because I could not stop for Death” (Emily Dickinson, 807)
–“The Ruined Maid” (Thomas Hardy, 767)
–“Church Going” (Philip Larkin, 866)

-Lyric (677-81, 82528)
–“Stop all the clocks” (W. H. Auden, 775)
–“I wandered lonely as a cloud” (William Wordsworth, 677)

-Tone of Voice (707, 765, 788-94)
–“When I Consider How My Light Is Spent” (John Milton, 893)
–“Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” (Dylan Thomas, 878)
–“I celebrate myself” (Walt Whitman, 721)

-Figurative Language (802-10, 813-19)
–“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (T. S. Eliot, 1087)

-Poet in Depth: Robert Frost (Dramatic, 676, 681-84)
–“Home Burial” (715)
–“Design” (898)
–“The Road Not Taken” (1091)
–“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” (1091)
–“Range-Finding” (897)

PART ONE
Prove in at least one paragraph (of about 250 words) by using evidence that one of the poems we read fits into the category of narrative poetry.

PART TWO
Prove in at least one paragraph (of about 250 words) by using evidence from one of the poems we read that it fits into the category of lyric poetry. (Do not repeat the same poem as you referred to in Part One.)

PART THREE
We have noticed that the voice of the speaker (the persona) in each of our poems is a voice of commonsense, of moderation, of reason. In at least one paragraph (of about 250 words) support this claim with evidence from one of the poems. (Do not repeat the same poem as you referred to in Part One or Part Two.)

PART FOUR
Select any one of the following principles found in Robert Frost’s poetry and prove  in two or more paragraphs (minimum 150 words each) that it applies to the poetry of his that you have read in the assignment on Frost. Refer to as many of the poems as possible.

1. Poetry “begins in delight and ends in wisdom.”

2. Poetry provides “a momentary stay against confusion.”

3. “Every poem is an epitome of the great predicament: a figure of the will breaking alien entanglements.”

4. “In order to know where we are, we must know opposites.”

5. A poem is “not about what to think but about what thinking is, and where it might lead.”

6. The poet’s life is “a revelation in the felicities of language.”

7. In times of crisis or intensity, people don’t turn to poetry.

8. People who are preoccupied with an “unexamined wisdom of the past” never live at potentially deeper and therefore more meaningful levels.

9. Deceptively plain language, subtle rhythm, beauty of phrasing, irony, and the speaker’s stoic resolve – all these are identifiable elements found in Robert Frost’s poetry.

10. Exploring nature, other people, ideas, and ways of saying things for the sheer entertainment they can provide – all this captures Robert’s Frost delight in writing poetry and the reader’s delight in reading it.