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For I-be Zeus my witness, who sees all things always-would not be silent if I saw ruin, instead of safety, coming to the citizens; nor would I ever deem the country's foe a friend to myself; remembering this, that our country is the ship that bears us safe, and that only while she prospers in our voyage can we make true friends.
(Fifth century BCE)
In the last line of the passage, "she" refers to __________.
The author compares the country to a ship, and refers to both at the ship and the country (which have been tied together by a simile) at the same time when he writes "she prospers in our voyage"
(Adapted from the R. C. Jebb translation of Antigone by Sophocles 211-218, Fifth century BCE)
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Adapted from Richard III by William Shakespeare, I.i.1-42
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
Grim-visaged war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front;
And now, instead of mounting barded steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,
Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deformed, unfinish'd, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;
Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to spy my shadow in the sun
And descant on mine own deformity:
And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
By drunken prophecies, libels and dreams,
To set my brother Clarence and the king
In deadly hate the one against the other:
And if King Edward be as true and just
As I am subtle, false and treacherous,
This day should Clarence closely be mew'd up,
About a prophecy, which says that 'G'
Of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be.
Dive, thoughts, down to my soul: here
Clarence comes.
The syntax of the first two lines __________.
The first two lines of the passage are “Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this sun of York.” What do you notice about the syntax, or the order in which words and phrases are presented? Whereas one might have phrased the line “The winter of our discontent is now made glorious summer by the sun of York” or “The sun of York has now made glorious summer of the winter of our discontent,” or in numerous other ways, Shakespeare has made the first word “Now.” This emphasizes the timing of the events described.
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Adapted from Richard III by William Shakespeare, I.i.1-42
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
Grim-visaged war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front;
And now, instead of mounting barded steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,
Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deformed, unfinish'd, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;
Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to spy my shadow in the sun
And descant on mine own deformity:
And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
By drunken prophecies, libels and dreams,
To set my brother Clarence and the king
In deadly hate the one against the other:
And if King Edward be as true and just
As I am subtle, false and treacherous,
This day should Clarence closely be mew'd up,
About a prophecy, which says that 'G'
Of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be.
Dive, thoughts, down to my soul: here
Clarence comes.
Consider the underlined selection. Which of the following is NOT true?
The syntax of the first two lines does indeed mirror that of the last two lines; they are similarly constructed in that they both follow the form of “I (cannot) prove a (noun) / to (verb) (descriptors) days.” The lover’s action in this sequence is to “entertain,” and the villain’s is to “hate.” The repetition of the words “prove” and “days” do contrast the two roles being discussed, as it places them in parallel to one another; similarly, the location of “lover” and “villain” at the ends of their respective lines place them in parallel with one another and contrast them. This leaves us with the correct answer, “‘Fair’ and ‘well-spoken’ are associated with the villain’s perspective, whereas ‘idle’ is associated with the lover’s perspective.” This is not true, as “fair” and “well-spoken” appear in the second line, which describes the action of the “lover,” whereas “idle” appears in the fourth line, which describes the action of the “villain.”
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1 Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
5 From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
9 The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
13 The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
(1595)
What is the subject of the verb "bury" in line 8?
The subject of a verb is the thing that performs the action of the verb. For instance, in the sentence, "The dog barks," the verb is "barks" and the subject is "the dog." The thing performing the action of the verb "bury" (line 8) is the "misadventured piteous overthrows" (line 7). The "overthrows" are what "bury" the parents' strife.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (1595).
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PROSPERO:
The syntax of the passage is characterized by __________________.
This entire speech consists of two complex sentences. It does not contain incomplete thoughts or omissions (ellipses.) It doesn’t move from simple to elaborate: the first lines are already grand and imposing, while the last half-line (“I’ll drown my book”) is most striking because of its simplicity. There are repeated themes and ideas — the list of supernatural spirits, the catalogue of natural cataclysms — but the effect is not sententious (that is, it’s not banal or pompous.)
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare's The Tempest (1611)
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PROSPERO:
The passage’s point of view can be characterized as ________________.
Prospero uses first and second person quite a lot. (“I have bedimm’d…” and “Ye elves…”) That means we can immediately eliminate three answer choices: “first person only”, “second person only”, and “third person only”. If we’re clear on how important first person is in this speech, we can eliminate “second and third person only” as well. The tricky part here is that Prospero does use the third person to a very limited extent. (“graves at my command/ Have waked their sleepers…”) But “first, second, and third person” is not one of the answer choices. First and second person appear far more than third person, so that’s the best answer.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare's The Tempest (1611)
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Passage adapted from Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand (1897)
Translated by Gladys Thomas and Mary F. Guillemard (in public domain)
\[Cyrano speaks to Roxane.\]
CYRANO:
In this context, the word “sweet” (line 10) is _____________.
Here, “sweet” is a noun. It is the name that Cyrano is calling Roxane. “Dost begin, sweet,/ To understand?” means, “Are you beginning to understand, sweetheart?” (The pronoun “thou” is implied.)
Cyrano starts out addressing Roxane as "you": the more formal form of the pronoun in those days, in the same way that modern French "vous" is more formal than "tu". In line 9, he switches to "thou":
"Each glance of thine awakes in me a virtue . . ."
This suggests that he's getting more emotional and feeling closer to Roxane.
In the next line, he's still using the familiar form, which is a big clue that "sweet" is an endearment.
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Passage adapted from Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand (1897)
Translated by Gladys Thomas and Mary F. Guillemard (in public domain)
\[Cyrano speaks to Roxane.\]
CYRANO:
The adjective “throned” (line 18) describes which noun/pronoun?
“You” is the pronoun described by “throned”. “Have words of mine the power/To make you tremble,--throned there in the branches?” In other words, “Do my words have the power to make you tremble, you who are sitting on a throne above me?”
This image emphasized Cyrano's worshipful attitude toward Roxane. It's as if he's asking, "Could any humble words of MINE have the power to rise up and affect YOU, who are so far above me?"
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1 Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
2 Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
3 Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
4 And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
5 Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
6 And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
7 And every fair from fair sometime declines,
8 By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
9 But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
10 Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
11 Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
12 When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st;
13 So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
14 So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
To what does "this" (line 14) refer?
"this" in line 14 refers to the poem: the "eternal lines," mentioned earlier in line 12.
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1 If but some vengeful god would call to me
2 From up the sky, and laugh: "Thou suffering thing,
3 Know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy,
4 That thy love's loss is my hate's profiting!"
5 Then would I bear it, clench myself, and die,
6 Steeled by the sense of ire unmerited;
7 Half-eased in that a Powerfuller than I
8 Had willed and meted me the tears I shed.
9 But not so. How arrives it joy lies slain,
10 And why unblooms the best hope ever sown?
11 —Crass Casualty obstructs the sun and rain,
12 And dicing Time for gladness casts a moan. . . .
13 These purblind Doomsters had as readily strown
14 Blisses about my pilgrimage as pain.
(1898)
In line 7, the speaker mentions "a Powerfuler than I" (line 7). To whom is this referring?
In line 7, the speaker is referring to a god when he mentions "a Powerfuler than I." The first two stanzas emphasize that the speaker would "bear it" (line 5) to know if "some vengeful god" (line 1) "had willed and meted me the tears I shed" (line 8). If a god has "willed and meted" the speaker's tears, then that god is "Powerfuller" (line 7).
(Passage adapted from "Hap" by Thomas Hardy)
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Adapted from “Solitary Death, make me thine own” in Underneath the Bough: A Book of Verses by Michael Field (pseudonym of Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper) (1893)
Solitary Death, make me thine own,
And let us wander the bare fields together;
Yea, thou and I alone
Roving in unembittered unison forever.
I will not harry thy treasure-graves,
I do not ask thy still hands a lover;
My heart within me craves
To travel till we twain Time’s wilderness discover.
To sojourn with thee my soul was bred,
And I, the courtly sights of life refusing,
To the wide shadows fled,
And mused upon thee often as I fell a-musing.
Escaped from chaos, thy mother Night,
In her maiden breast a burthen that awed her,
By cavern waters white
Drew thee her first-born, her unfathered off-spring toward her.
On dewey plats, near twilight dingle,
She oft, to still thee from men’s sobs and curses
In thine ears a-tingle,
Pours her cool charms, her weird, reviving chaunt rehearses.
Though mortals menace thee or elude,
And from thy confines break in swift transgression.
Thou for thyself art sued
Of me, I claim thy cloudy purlieus my possession.
To a long freshwater, where the sea
Stirs the silver flux of the reeds and willows,
Come thou, and beckon me
To lie in the lull of the sand-sequestered billows:
Then take the life I have called my own
And to the liquid universe deliver;
Loosening my spirit’s zone,
Wrap round me as thy limbs the wind, the light, the river.
In context, the use of the underlined and bolded phrase “have called” in the last stanza serves which of the following purposes?
The key word in this construction is “called”, by saying that he or she has merely “called” his or her life his or her own the speaker is suggesting that this is not, in fact, the case. This rigidly defined sense of self is overridden by the poem's focus on the abstract aspects of death, and the “liquid universe.”
The use of “called” calls into question only the speaker’s accuracy in having “called this life \[his or her\] own”, not his or her reliability as a speaker in the poem overall; it does not suggest that he or she is already dead, nor does it call into question Death’s power to end his or her life.
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Adapted from "The Mouse’s Petition" in Poems by Anna Letitia Barbauld (1773)
Found in the trap where he had been confined all night by Dr. Priestley, for the sake of making experiments with different kinds of air
“To spare the humbled, and to tame in war the proud.” - Virgil
OH! hear a pensive captive's prayer,
For liberty that sighs;
And never let thine heart be shut
Against the prisoner's cries.
For here forlorn and sad I sit,
Within the wiry grate;
And tremble at th' approaching morn,
Which brings impending fate.
If e'er thy breast with freedom glow'd,
And spurn'd a tyrant's chain,
Let not thy strong oppressive force
A free-born mouse detain.
Oh! do not stain with guiltless blood
Thy hospitable hearth;
Nor triumph that thy wiles betray'd
A prize so little worth.
The scatter'd gleanings of a feast
My scanty meals supply;
But if thine unrelenting heart
That slender boon deny,
The cheerful light, the vital air,
Are blessings widely given;
Let nature's commoners enjoy
The common gifts of heaven.
The well-taught philosophic mind
To all compassion gives;
Casts round the world an equal eye,
And feels for all that lives.
If mind, as ancient sages taught,
A never dying flame,
Still shifts thro' matter's varying forms,
In every form the same,
Beware, lest in the worm you crush
A brother's soul you find;
And tremble lest thy luckless hand
Dislodge a kindred mind.
Or, if this transient gleam of day
Be all of life we share,
Let pity plead within thy breast,
That little all to spare.
So may thy hospitable board
With health and peace be crown'd;
And every charm of heartfelt ease
Beneath thy roof be found.
So when unseen destruction lurks,
Which men like mice may share,
May some kind angel clear thy path,
And break the hidden snare.
In context, the use of the bolded and underlined word "trembled" serves what purpose?
In this context, the word "trembled" was chosen to illustrate the unease and sadness that captivity has engendered in the speaker with a physical manifestation of that mental state. The earlier reference to the speaker's sitting "forlorn and sad" in captivity ties directly with the statement that he "tremble\[s\] at th' approaching morn."
There is no indication given that the speaker is physically afraid of his captor (indeed, his petition is quite candid to this captor). The poem consists of the speaker petitioning for his release, so it stands to reason that this release has not yet been agreed to. The speaker does not seem morally or theologically confused, but is rather presenting a fairly cohesive moral viewpoint. While the speaker's physical circumstances in captivity are said to be uncomfortable, in this case the "trembl\[ing\] is attributed to mental states, rather than physical coldness or discomfort.
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Adapted from "The Mouse’s Petition" in Poems by Anna Letitia Barbauld (1773)
Found in the trap where he had been confined all night by Dr. Priestley, for the sake of making experiments with different kinds of air
“To spare the humbled, and to tame in war the proud.” - Virgil
OH! hear a pensive captive's prayer,
For liberty that sighs;
And never let thine heart be shut
Against the prisoner's cries.
For here forlorn and sad I sit,
Within the wiry grate;
And tremble at th' approaching morn,
Which brings impending fate.
If e'er thy breast with freedom glow'd,
And spurn'd a tyrant's chain,
Let not thy strong oppressive force
A free-born mouse detain.
Oh! do not stain with guiltless blood
Thy hospitable hearth;
Nor triumph that thy wiles betray'd
A prize so little worth.
The scatter'd gleanings of a feast
My scanty meals supply;
But if thine unrelenting heart
That slender boon deny,
The cheerful light, the vital air,
Are blessings widely given;
Let nature's commoners enjoy
The common gifts of heaven.
The well-taught philosophic mind
To all compassion gives;
Casts round the world an equal eye,
And feels for all that lives.
If mind, as ancient sages taught,
A never dying flame,
Still shifts thro' matter's varying forms,
In every form the same,
Beware, lest in the worm you crush
A brother's soul you find;
And tremble lest thy luckless hand
Dislodge a kindred mind.
Or, if this transient gleam of day
Be all of life we share,
Let pity plead within thy breast,
That little all to spare.
So may thy hospitable board
With health and peace be crown'd;
And every charm of heartfelt ease
Beneath thy roof be found.
So when unseen destruction lurks,
Which men like mice may share,
May some kind angel clear thy path,
And break the hidden snare.
The underlined excerpt is framed as a conditional for what rhetorical purpose?
The highlighted excerpt is framed as a conditional (accomplished through the use of "if" at the beginning of the stanza) in order to relate the addressee's personal sense of freedom ("thy breast with freedom glowed") and justice ("spurn'd a tyrant's chain") to the conditions he is imposing ("thy strong oppressive force") on the speaker by "detain\[ing\]" him.
The excerpt is concerned with the speaker's sense of justice, not his physical circumstances. The use of "if" actually hints that the addressee has, in fact, felt the glow of freedom in his breast and has "spurn'd a tyrant's chain." If the addressee had never been concerned with these issues, the entreaty would bear no rhetorical weight. Human prisoners are not mentioned. Throughout the poem, the speaker is "petitioning" for justice and ethical consideration, not imposing ultimatums on his addressee.
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Adapted from Life and Remains of John Clare "The Northamptonshire Peasant Poet" by John Clare (1872, ed. J. L. Cherry)
I am! Yet what I am who cares, or knows?
My friends forsake me, like a memory lost.
I am the self-consumer of my woes,
They rise and vanish, an oblivious host,
Shadows of life, whose very soul is lost.
And yet I am—I live—though I am toss'd
Into the nothingness of scorn and noise.
Into the living sea of waking dream,
Where there is neither sense of life, nor joys,
But the huge shipwreck of my own esteem
And all that's dear. Even those I loved the best
Are strange—nay, they are stranger than the rest.
I long for scenes where man has never trod—
For scenes where woman never smiled or wept—
There to abide with my Creator, God,
And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept,
Full of high thoughts, unborn. So let me lie,
The grass below; above, the vaulted sky.
What is the effect of the enjambment of the underlined text?
We can say that the sentence that spans from the end of the first stanza to the start of the second stanza allows the author to keep the same idea while adhering to the form of six-line stanzas. We can also say that it emphasizes both the nothingness of the first line of the stanza and the action of being “tossed into the nothingness.” We can also say it causes confusion for the reader, as it is attempting to draw the reader into the confusion portrayed in the first two stanzas; therefore, we can say all of these answers are correct.
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Passage adapted from Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Spring" (1921).
To what purpose, April, do you return again?
Beauty is not enough.
You can no longer quiet me with the redness
Of leaves opening stickily.
I know what I know. 5
The sun is hot on my neck as I observe
The spikes of the crocus.
The smell of the earth is good.
It is apparent that there is no death.
But what does that signify? 10
Not only under the ground are the brains of men
Eaten by maggots.
Life in itself
Is nothing,
An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs. 15
It is not enough that yearly, down this hill,
April
Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.
The word "You" in line 3 refers to __________.
The "you" in line 3 refers to the month of April. The first line of the poem establishes April as the "you" that will be spoken to throughout the poem. The key clue for this question is the direct reference to "April" in line 1.
One can infer that the April that is being addressed is the month of April and not a person because of the title of the poem, "Spring," and the description of April returning each year.
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Passage adapted from Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Spring" (1921).
To what purpose, April, do you return again?
Beauty is not enough.
You can no longer quiet me with the redness
Of leaves opening stickily.
I know what I know. 5
The sun is hot on my neck as I observe
The spikes of the crocus.
The smell of the earth is good.
It is apparent that there is no death.
But what does that signify? 10
Not only under the ground are the brains of men
Eaten by maggots.
Life in itself
Is nothing,
An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs. 15
It is not enough that yearly, down this hill,
April
Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.
The final three lines are primarily developed through __________.
These lines are developed primarily through personification because the month of April (a time of the year, something not human) is being described with human attributes, such as the ability to run and throw flowers.
An "anecdote" is a short, amusing story told for the purpose of demonstrating a point or for entertainment. An "idiom" is an expression that is not interpreted literally but has a commonly accepted meaning that is different from what the individual words in the phrase would imply. A "simile" is a figure of speech that makes a compares two different things using the words "like" or "as." "Consonance" is _the use of the same consonant sound throughout a sentence or phras_e.
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1 They are not long, the weeping and the laughter,
2 Love and desire and hate:
3 I think they have no portion in us after
4 We pass the gate.
5 They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
6 Out of a misty dream
7 Our path emerges for a while, then closes
8 Within a dream.
(1896)
What is the subject of the verb "closes" (line 7)?
The subject of a verb is the thing that performs the action of the verb. For example: In the sentence, "The dog barks," "dog" is the subject of the verb "barks."
In line 7, "path" is the thing that performs the action of the verb "closes," so it is the subject of that verb. In the same line, "path" is also the subject of the verb "emerges."
Passage adapted from "They are not long" by Ernest Dowson (1896)
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In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it. (5)
I said, “Is it good, friend?”
“It is bitter—bitter,” he answered;
“But I like it
“Because it is bitter,
“And because it is my heart.” (10)
(1895)
What type of sentence is the first sentence in this passage (lines 1-5)?
A periodic sentence is one in which the main clause and important idea comes at the end, which is the case here. Telegraphic sentence refers to any concise sentence (usually five or fewer words in length) that omits unnecessary words and parts of speech. Parataxis or paratactic sentences are ones in which short, simple clauses are placed beside each other without subordination (e.g. “I am late; I overslept”). Interrogatory sentences are simply questions.
Passage adapted from Stephen Crane’s “In the Desert” (1895)
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In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it. (5)
I said, “Is it good, friend?”
“It is bitter—bitter,” he answered;
“But I like it
“Because it is bitter,
“And because it is my heart.” (10)
(1895)
What is this passage’s meter?
The lines do not have a set number of syllables nor any pattern of stressed and unstressed beats, so we can deduce that this is free verse. Blank verse is lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter, and sprung rhythm is a pattern designed to mimic the cadences of natural spoken speech. Pathos and bathos are both rhetorical strategies, not types of poetic meter.
Passage adapted from Stephen Crane’s “In the Desert” (1895)
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Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard; (5)
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea; (10)
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
(1886)
In the majority of this passage’s lines, what is the poetic meter?
A few of these lines are indeed written in iambic tetrameter. However, most are in iambic trimeter – a pattern of three pairs of syllables. These syllables alternate in an unstressed-stressed rhythm, as with all iambs.
Passage adapted from Emily Dickinson’s “Hope is the Thing With Feathers” (1886)
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