Dr. Norman Prinsky

English 1102 - Augusta State University

Quiz on Ch. 13 (“Meeting Poetry: An Overview”), RJ8

Directions: As per preceding "Quiz Directions" instructions.

1. According to Roberts and Jacobs, the Greek verb, poiein, from which the word poem is derived, means: (a) "beautify” (b) “rouse” (c) "exalt" (d) "make” (e) “teach”

2. According to Roberts and Jacobs, one main feature of poetry is its: (a) compression (b) rarefied subjects (c) obscurity (d) formal language

3. According to Roberts and Jacobs, the period of Old English (and Old English poetry) is: (a) 450 BCE to 10 CE (b) 10 CE to 450 CE (c) 450 CE to 1100 CE (d) 1100 CE to 1500 CE

4. According to Roberts and Jacobs, the period of Middle English (and Middle English poetry) is: (a) 450 BCE to 10 CE (b) 10 CE to 450 CE (c) 450 CE to 1100 CE (d) 1100 CE to 1500 CE

5. According to Roberts and Jacobs, one of the most famous Old English poems is: (a) the Aeneid (b) Beowulf (c) Canterbury Tales (d) Romeo and Juliet

6. According to Roberts and Jacobs, poetry today has: (a) more or less died (b) flourished mainly in colleges and universities (c) become popular in rock song lyrics (d) remained the same in its difficulty as in previous times

7. Roberts and Jacobs give a step-by-step guide to reading poetry (which could be applied to all genres of literature), involving how many steps and sub-steps: (a) five (b) six (c) eight (d) ten (e) twelve

8. The speaker in Billy Collins' poem "Schoolsville" is: (a) a teacher (b) a student (c) the schoolroom clock (d) the Principal

9. The basic structure or organization of “Schoolsville” into two parts (stanzas 1-2 [lines 1-6] and 7-8 [lines 27-36] [part 1] versus stanzas 3-6 [lines 7-26] [part 2]) is based on the content of: (a) heat vs. cold (b) student vs. teacher (c) good students vs. bad students (d) big schools vs. small schools

10. Collins’ “Schoolsville” makes comments about: (a) amusing aspects of teachers (b) sad aspects of students (c) sad aspects of teachers (d) amusing aspects of students (e) all of the foregoing

11. In its overall structure as well as within individual stanzas, Collins’ “Schoolsville” draws on the principle of: (a) simple chronology (b) alternation or comparison-contrast (c) spatial movement from inside to outside (d) analysis or division into parts

12. The simile describing the girl at the drugstore, as well as how she signed her papers (stanza 4), as well as the adjacent allusion to Hawthorne (in stanza 5), suggest that the girl’s actions at the drugstore are related to: (a) harlotry (b) illness (c) education (d) politics

13. In Collins' "Schoolsville," the word flurrying means: (a) flipping (b) hastening (c) breaking down (d) gusting

14. In Collins' "Schoolsville," the word alderman means: (a) senior citizen (b) town councilman (c) church elder (d) school principal

15. In Collins' "Schoolsville," the word haberdashery means: (a) men's clothing store (b) lowerclass eating establishment (c) a hurried action (d) owning of real estate

16. In Collins' "Schoolsville," the word recline means: (a) tell an untruth (b) climb back up (c) lie down (d) lessen in popularity

17. In Collins' "Schoolsville," the word lute means: (a) certainty (b) wind instrument (c) spoils from robbery (d) early guitar

18. In Collins' "Schoolsville," the word reprimanding means: (a) scolding (b) calling back (c) ordering (d) overturning

19. Lisel Mueller’s poem “Hope,” as shown by the first line of each of its four stanzas, is structured by the grammatical principle of: (a) cumulative sentences (b) parallelism (c) periodic sentences (d) antithesis

20. The visual shapes of the four stanzas of Mueller’s “Hope” indicate that the poem is divided into how many basic parts: (a) two (b) three (c) four (d) five

21. The subject of Mueller’s “Hope,” in contrast to the subject of Billy Collins’ “Schoolsville” is all of the following except which one: (a) religious (b) abstract (c) metapoetic [a poem about poetry] (d) pedagogical

22. Robert Herrick's poem "Here a Pretty Baby Lies," as explained by Roberts and Jacobs, is basically: (a) a lullaby, to quiet the child (b) a complaint, to correct the child's bad habit (c) an epitaph, addressed to visitors (d) a warning addressed to parents about corporal punishment

23. In order to get the chanting, magical sound for “Here a Pretty Baby Lies,” Herrick uses which meter: (a) iambic (b) trochaic (c) anapestic (d) spondaic

24. The length of the lines in Herrick’s “Here a Pretty Baby Lies” help convey all the following except which one: (a) the poem’s urbanity (b)the baby’s lifetime (c) the poem’s incantational quality (d) the baby’s innocent simplicity

25. The anonymous ballad “Sir Patrick Spens” (in some books the title is “Sir Patrick Spence”) has which of the problems causing difficulty in reading poetry (and indeed all reading matter): (a) word meaning (b) grammar (c) figurative language (d) all the foregoing

26. In “Sir Patrick Spens,” an overall subject (well analyzed by Roberts and Jacobs) is: (a) religion (b) philosophy (c) seamanship (d) politics

27. In “Sir Patrick Spens,” another central subject (that can be related to the subject referred to in the immediately preceding question) –- as suggested by the Eldern Knight, why Sir Patrick Spens goes on a fatal mission, what the crew repeatedly call the captain (their repeated adjective), and the ladies of the Scots Nobles — is the duality of: (a) book-learning and common sense (b) male and female (c) love and hate (d) science and superstition

28. In “Sir Patrick Spens,” as in many other folk or popular ballads (poems originating with the common people), the aristocracy or upper class is portrayed negatively, with only one person or group excepted: (a) the King (b) the Eldern Knight (c) Sir Patrick Spens (d) the Scots nobles

29. In “Sir Patrick Spens,” the irony of the narrator’s detail referring to the king having written a letter “and signed it wi’ his hand” (line 10) is that: (a) the King is illiterate (b) pens were unknown in the fifteenth century (c) the real content of the letter comes from someone else rather than the King (d) Sir Patrick Spens cherishes any personal memento from royalty

30. In “Sir Patrick Spens,” the rapidity of one emotion following its opposite when Sir Patrick reads the letter (stanza 4) helps convey the psychology of: (a) the emotional instability portrayed by those charged with command (b) a Scot’s famous emotional volatility, more so than other Europeans (c) bipolar problems of sailors forced to spend time on land (d) shocked disbelief followed by acknowledgment of reality

31. In “Sir Patrick Spens,” the first two lines of stanza 5 are characterized by a stylistic element known as: (a) ellipsis (b) redundancy (c) anacoluthon (d) parenthesis

32. In “Sir Patrick Spens,” the stylistic element referred to in the immediately preceding question helps express or communicate or convey all of the following except which one: (a) Sir Patrick’s being co-opted by bureaucratic practices (b) Sir Patrick’s vehement sorrow (c) the purposefulness of Sir Patrick’s enemy (d) Sir Patrick’s intense questioning

33. In “Sir Patrick Spens,” experienced sailors (as evidenced by Sir Patrick’s initial reaction to the letter, as well as the crew’s initial words) know that the mission is probably lethal; so when Sir Patrick addresses his crew as “my merry men all” (line 21) and refers to “our good ship” (line 22), he is attempting to: (a) rationalize away any problems (b) improve the group’s morale (c) downplay the crew’s antipathy towards the Eldern Knight (d) appeal to the crew’s feeling for the King

34. In “Sir Patrick Spens,” what the crew saw that they found so striking (stanza 7), regarding the mission, and a problem in interpreting figurative language, is: (a) the harvest moon (b) two moons (c) the crescent moon (d) a blue moon

35. In “Sir Patrick Spens,” the Scots nobles boarding the ship are shown to be ignorant by wearing: (a) any footwear (b) anything with cork as a component (c) any headgear (d) any clothing not supposed to get wet

36. In “Sir Patrick Spens,” the key word “play,” repeated in “the play were played” (line 31), accumulates all the following themes or meanings except which one: (a) the love of the King for going to see plays (b) ironic contrast to the crew’s assessment of the mission (c) misguided view of the mission by the Scots nobles (d) political chicanery by the Eldern Knight (e) discrepancy, as in drama, between appearance and reality

37. The almost instantaneous answer of Nature to the Scots nobles’ fastidious complaints (first two lines of stanza 8 vs. second two lines of stanza 8) could be characterized as: (a) sympathetic (b) neutral (c) ironic (d) egalitarian (e) humble

38. The ladies of the Scots nobles are portrayed (stanzas 9-10) as all the following except which one: (a) vain (b) faithful (c) loving (d) domineering

39. As pointed out by R&J, rewriting a poem in prose, to help straighten out its meaning, is termed: (a) explication (b) opportunity (c) paraphrase (d) reduction (e) proselytizing

40. As pointed out by R&J, giving an analysis of a poem is termed: (a) explication (b) opportunity (c) paraphrase (d) reduction (e) proselytizing

41. As pointed out by the second demo essay in Ch. 13, a strong irony in Thomas Hardy’s poem (in Ch. 13) “The Man He Killed” derives from: (a) the Ten Commandments (b) the basic affinity of the adversaries (c) the longtime hostility between England and France (d) the elemental homicidal instinct in humanity