Dr. Prinsky
Engl. 3002: English Literature from Renaissance to Restoration
Quiz on the Poetry of George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, Henry Vaughan, and Thomas Traherne
(Abbreviations: NNERL = Norm’s Notes on English Renaissance Literature; PNQ = Prinsky’s Notes and Questions on an author; NAEL = Norton Anthology of English Literature; PDLT = Preston’s & Cuddon’s Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms; HTL = Harmon’s and Holman’s Handbook to Literature)
Poetry of George Herbert
1. From Barbara Lewalski’s introduction in NAEL7, as well as NNERL, PNQ, and your own experience of the poems, George Herbert’s poetry might be summed up as: (a) reaction against the poetry of John Donne (b) following of the school of Donne (c) both following of and reaction against the poetry of John Donne (d) indifference to the poetry of John Donne
2. Like John Donne and Robert Herrick, George Herbert was: (a) an Anglican minister (b) a member of parliament (c) poet laureate of Oxford and Cambridge (d) Latin corresponding secretary in the government
3. As indicated in Lewalski’s introduction to Herbert in NAEL, the collection of Herbert's poems was meant to correspond to the structure of a: (a) crucifix (b) temple (c) Star of David (d) human body
4. As indicated in the NAEL introduction to Herbert, Herbert makes frequent use of the kind of symbolism called: (a) typological (b) phenomenological (c) Romantic (d) art for art's sake
5. As indicated in PDLT/HTL, NNERL, and two selections in NAEL, Herbert is a distinctive and distinguished user of the poetic genre: (a) pantoum (b) irregular ode (c) double ballade (d) carmen figuratum
6. As indicated in PDLT/HTL and exemplified in his poem "Paradise" (from which a stanza or two are excerpted by PDLT/HTL), one special poetic genre used by Herbert is: (a) cinquain (b) pruning poem (c) dithyramb (d) macaronic verse
7. In Herbert’s poem “Coloss. 3.3,” the acrostic poetry genre is used in mimetic form to convey the idea of: (a) the embedded or hidden (b) education into a religious alphabet (c) Jesus’ Jerusalem entry on Palm Sunday (d) Moses’ parting of the Red Sea
8. In Herbert’s poem “Redemption,” a play or pun on the title word is made between religious meanings and: (a) current political situation (b) Puritan concept of predestination (c) intrigues at the royal court (d) ordinary financial or legal
9. In “Ana-Mary/Army-gram,” contrasts are suggested between all the following except which one: (a) small and large (b) colorful and colorless (c) gentle and forceful (d) passive and active
10. “A Dialogue-Anthem” has subject and theme reminiscent of John Donne’s Holy Sonnet: (a) 1 (b) 7 (c) 10 (d) 14 (e) 18
11. The title and title word of “The Collar” have how many meanings: (a) two (b) three (c) four (d) five
12. The imagery of “The Collar” frequently predicts the poem’s ending through containing all the following except which one: (a) conciliations (b) contradictions (c) conflations (d) secular meanings and religious allusions
13. In both “The Collar” and “Redemption,” Herbert or the speaker puns on the multiple meanings of the word: (a) “cross” (b) “die” (c) “number” (d) “suit”
14. A similar use of the poetry genre of Herbert’s poem “Heaven” occurs in: (a) Christopher Marlowe’s play Dr. Faustus (b) Ben Jonson’s The Masque of Blackness (c) Ben Jonson’s play Volpone (d) John Webster’s play The Duchess of Malfi
15. A pun on “leaves” in “Heaven” equates: (a) salvation and the fleeing from sin (b) paradise and the Bible (c) Exodus and expulsion from Eden (d) Renaissance discovery of the New World and religious freedom
16. Herbert’s poem “Paradise” has typological symbolism pointing to all of the following except which one: (a) garden of Eden (b) Psalm 1 (c) the Trinity (d) the flames in Acts
17. Herbert’s “Prayer (1)” makes stunning use of the grammatical device of: (a) loose sentence (b) periodic sentence (c) simple sentence (d) complex sentence (e) sentence fragment
18. In Herbert’s “Prayer (1)” the number of metaphors, analogies, and abstract nouns (or pronoun) used to define the subject is: (a) 9 (b) 18 (c) 27 (d) 36
19. A notable imitation of Herbert’s “Prayer (1)” is: (a) Richard Crashaw’s “To the Infant Martyrs” (b) Thomas Traherne’s “Wonder” (c) Henry Vaughan’s “Unprofitableness” (d) Henry Vaughan’s “Son-days”
20. Herbert’s poem “Sin’s Round” exemplifies the genre of: (a) wreath poem (b) pruning poem (c) dream allegory (d) altar poem
21. To suggest the inevitability of sin in the human condition, Herbert uses in the poem referred to in the immediately preceding question not only the genre cited but also the figurative device of: (a) anastrophe (b) antimetabole (c) anacoluthon (d) anadiplosis
22. Herbert’s poem “Easter Wings” rather famously exemplifies the poetry genre of: (a) concrete poem (b) dawn song (c) epithalamium (d) sestina (e) vilanelle
23. Thematic motifs in Herbert’s “Easter Wings” include all of the following except which one: (a) expansion and contraction (b) rising and falling (c) original sin vs. salvation (d) the fortunate fall or felix culpa (e) lightening vs. darkening
24. Of all Herbert’s poems (in NAEL), probably the most clearly metapoetic (ideas about literature or poetry) are: (a) “Love (3)” and “Death” (b) “Discipline” and “The Pulley” (c) “The Holdfast” and “Time” (d) “Jordan (1)” and “Jordan (2)”
25. With reference to the immediately preceding question, Herbert often puns in several of the poems on the word: (a) “dear” (b) “lines” (c) “numbers” (d) “prey”
26. In “Denial,” the congruence of God’s graciousness with the speaker’s condition is thematically conveyed by: (a) numerological symbolism in the number of lines of each stanza (b) imagery of brick mason’s mortar (c) rhyme at the end of the stanzas (d) imagery of dry vs. liquid
27. By way of imagery and refrain, Herbert’s poem “Virtue” is clearly structured as: (a) four separate parts (b) the two parts of stanzas 1-2 vs. stanzas 3-4 (c) the two parts of stanza 1 vs. stanzas 2-4 (d) the two parts of stanzas 1-3 vs. stanza 4 (e) the three parts of stanza 1, stanzas 2-3, and stanza 4
Poetry of Richard Crashaw (in NAEL)
28. As pointed out in Barbara Lewalski’s NAEL introduction to Richard Crashaw, Crashaw, unlike the other of the four main religious and meditative poets of the “school of Herbert” (within the school of Donne), was: (a) Puritan (b) Methodist (c) Presbyterian (d) Catholic
29. As indicated in NAEL, PDLT/HTL, and PNQ, Crashaw was influenced by the contemporary Italian writer (and his literary school): (a) Cavalcanti (b) Marino (c) Ariosto (d) Tasso
30. As indicated in NAEL, PDLT/HTL, and NNERL, Crashaw's poetic style was influenced by the movement in the visual arts of: (a) Helenistic (b) Gothic (c) Baroque (d) Neoclassical
31. In several poems (in NAEL), Crashaw seems in imagery a precursor to which modern artist: (a) Marc Chagall (b) Salvador Dali (c) Paul Klee (d) Henri Matisse
32. In the imagery referred to in several preceding questions, Crashaw was analogous to or drew on which particular book of the Bible containing notable examples of such imagery: (a) Leviticus (b) 1-2 Chronicles (c) Ecclesiastes (d) Song of Songs
33. As footnoted in NAEL and graphically reproduced in NAEL, Crashaw in his lengthy poem "To the Countess of Denbigh" was influenced by which category of books popular in the Renaissance: (a) mirrors for princes (b) courtesy books (c) jest books (d) emblem books
34. Crashaw's “The Flaming Heart” ingeniously explores the confusion between: (a) British and Continental varieties of Christianity (b) the identities and genders of St. Teresa and the angel stabbing her (c) St. Teresa, St. George, St. John of the Cross, and the dragon (d) earth, wind, fire, water, and spirit
35. Crashaw’s “The Flaming Heart” parallels or draws on a famous sculpture of the period by: (a) Gianlorenzo Bernini (b) Gregorio Fernandez (c) Pierre Puget (d) Artus Quellin II
Poetry of Henry Vaughan
36. As pointed out in PNQ, a tenuous but specific connection exists between Henry Vaughan and which long-running science fiction television program: (a) Dr. Who (b) Farscape (c) Outer Limits (d) Stargate SG-1
37. As pointed out in the NAEL introduction to Vaughan, Vaughan, of the four main religious and meditative poets in what might be called the “school of Herbert” (within the school of Donne), was influenced by knowledge of: (a) physics (b) seamanship and navigation (c) the occult (d) practical politics
38. As pointed out in NNERL, Henry Vaughan and Thomas Traherne both have poems that are Pre-Romantic in their emphasis on the: (a) sublimity of nature (b) importance of romantic love (c) innocence of childhood (d) Goethean Weltschmerz and Sturm und Drang
39. Of Vaughan’s poems (included in NAEL), the one unsurpassed for its opening two lines in all of English literature would probably be: (a) “Regeneration” (b) “The Retreat” (c) “Silence and Stealth of Days” (d) “Unprofitableness” (e) ”The World”
40. Vaughan’s poem “Regeneration” has definite parallels with (and perhaps a basis in) which George Herbert poem: (a) “The Altar” (b) “Church Monuments” (c) “Man” (d) “The Pilgrimage”
41. “Regeneration” makes use of allusions to all of the following books of the Bible except which one: (a) Genesis (b) Malachi (c) 1 Peter (c) Romans (d) Song of Songs
42. “The Retreat” is structured by, and draws on, the imagery of all of the following except which one: (a) vegetation (b) river (c) light (d) ambulation
43. The closing couplet of “The Retreat” alludes to: (a) Revelation 3 (b) 1 Corinthians 3 (c) Isaiah 3 (d) Genesis 3
44. The principal genre of “Silence, and Stealth of Days” is: (a) bucolic (b) elegy (c) ode (d) panegyric
45. The opening words of “Corruption” show a debt more to what poet (and the poet’s style) than George Herbert: (a) John Donne (b) Ben Jonson (c) Philip Sidney (d) Thomas Wyatt
46. Both in imagery and subject, “Unprofitableness” is closest to Herbert’s poem: (a) “Church Monuments” (b) “Affliction” (c) “Love (3)” (d) ”The Flower”
47. The genre of “The World” — based on most of its stanzas — might best be described as: (a) epyllion (b) georgic (c) satire (d) verse epistle
48. “They Are All Gone into the World of Light” is closest in subject and implied genre to which other one of Vaughan’s poems: (a) “Regeneration” (b) “The Retreat” (c) “Silence, and Stealth of Day” (d) “The Night”
49. An implicit (and not uncommon) pun underlying “Cock-Crowing” and explicit in “The Night” is: (a) sun and son (b) die (cease living) and die (have orgasm) (c) hart (a deer) and heart (emotional center) (d) leaf (plant) and leaf (book page) (e) light (illumination) and light (frivolous or immoral)
50. In “The Waterfall,” as in “Cock-Crowing,” “Unprofitableness,” and “Silence, and Stealth of Days,” the over-arching or primary figure of speech governing the poem is: (a) zeugma (b) oxymoron (c) metonymy (d) apostrophe
Poetry of Thomas Traherne (in NAEL)
51. A striking fact about Thomas Traherne’s poetry is that it was first published (published, not discovered) in the: (a) eighteenth century (b) nineteenth century (c) twentieth century (d) twenty-first century
52. Traherne shared the same main occupation as all the following seventeenth-century poets except which one: (a) John Donne (b) Robert Herrick (c) George Herbert (d) Richard Crashaw (e) Henry Vaughan
53. The opening few lines of Traherne’s poem “Wonder” are strikingly similar to the opening lines of Henry Vaughan’s: (a) “Regeneration” (b) “The Retreat” (c) “The World” (d) “The Waterfall”
54. From some exterior features of “Wonder,” a significant (possibly thematic) number in the poem is: (a) four (b) six (c) eight (d) ten
55. The notion of dramatically reversed or suddenly changed perspective in “On Leaping over the Moon” is notable also in all the following poems except which one: (a) John Donne’s Holy Sonnet 7 (b) George Herbert’s “The Windows” (c) Henry Vaughan’s “They Are All Gone into the World of Light” (d) Richard Crashaw’s “The Flaming Heart”