Name: ______________________________________
Reading Poetry Exam
February 15, 2007
Part A.
The Blue Bowl
Like primitives we buried the cat
with his bowl. (a) Bare-handed
we scraped sand and gravel
back into the hole.
They fell with a hiss
and thud on his side,
on his long red fur, the white feathers
between his toes, and his
long, not to say aquiline, nose.
We stood and brushed each other off.
There are sorrows keener than these.
Silent the rest of the day, we worked,
ate, started, and slept. It stormed
all night; now it clears, and a robin
burbles from a dripping bush
like the neighbor who means well
but always says the wrong thing. (b)
--Jane Kenyon
Spring
Spring
Spring
Spring
Spring
Spring
Spring
is like someone peeking in your window. (c)
is like waiting an hour for a green light.
is like someone drawing a picture of a flower.
is like falling off a chair.
is like looking out of a window and falling down. (d)
is when you drop something and when you reach down to pick it up your
pants split open.
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--Billy Constant
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1. Choose one of the poems to analyze. Plot both similes in the poem on each
continuum. Use the letter in parenthesis that follows the simile to refer to it below.
(12 points)
literal
figurative
__________________________________________________________________________
____________
open /
expansive
closed /
restricted
__________________________________________________________________________
____________
vehicle decoration or
clarification of tenor
tenor an excuse for
introducing vehicle
__________________________________________________________________________
____________
2. Explain the differences and similarities between the two similes as you've shown
above. Describe the effects of each simile. (12 points)
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Part B. Match the rhetorical figure with one example of that figure. Not all examples
will be used; a few examples contain multiple figures. (30 points)
1.
oxymoron
____
9.
antithesis
____
2.
anastrophe
____
10.
metonymy
____
3.
ellipsis
____
11.
apostrophe
4.
parenthesis
____
5.
anaphora
____
6.
ploce
____
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
I.
J.
K.
L.
M.
N.
O.
P.
7.
synechdoche
____
8.
parrelism
____
____
12.
personification
____
13.
apposition
____
14.
paradox
____
15.
infixation
____
The window winked at me.
Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful
A kiss is just a kiss.
We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any
friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
Man learns from history that man learns nothing from history.
And the sun will be bright and the dark glasses of strangers and the eyes of a
few friends. . .
Troubles, everybody's got.
And so to bed.
To raise a child, it takes a family; it takes teachers; it takes clergy; it takes
business people;
They promised freedom and provided slavery.
The White House doesn't approve of the Senate's new bill.
John Morgan, the president, could not be reached by phone.
Do you under-fucking-stand?
When I was last in Paris--but you wouldn't know what Paris is like, now
would you dear--I stopped at the most divine restaurant.
Look in that pile of valuable junk.
We need some new faces around here.
4
Q.
Then, there is nothing else but grace and measure,
Richness, quietness, and pleasure.
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Part C. Define the following terms. (16 points)
1.
Ode
2.
Free verse
3.
Epic
4.
Elegy
5.
Heroic Couplet
6. Epigram
7.
Sonnet
8.
Rhyme royal
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Part D. Write scansion marks above these lines, and identify the meter.
specific as possible. (12 points)
Be as
1.
Go, Soul, the body's guest,
Upon a thankless errand;
Fear not to touch the best;
The truth shall be thy warrant:
Go, since I needs must die,
And give the world the lie.
2.
'Tis the voice of the sluggard, I heard him complain,
You have waked me too soon, I must slumber again.
As a door on its hinges, so he on his bed,
Turns his side and his shoulders and his heavy head.
Part E. (12 points)
1.
Name one rule of scanning poetry.
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2.
Name one common substitution in iambic verse.
3.
What is the difference between a "light" and "heavy" foot?
4. Explain this statement in your own words: "we all live, and speak . . .
through our eye for resemblances."
Part F. True / False.
Answer three out of four. (6 points)
1.
Similes are always true.
____
2.
Free verse has no stressed syllables.
____
3.
An unstressed syllable has some stress.
4.
In English, stress is relative to the words surrounding it.
____
____
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