Undergraduate Comprehensive Examination in English
The Catholic University of America
January 2010
Section I
You have three hours to answer the following questions. Please pay careful attention to the
instructions. Note that the value of each question (out of 100 total points) is given in
parentheses.
1. Name the full name of the author of each of the following works. (10 points)
1. Astrophil and Stella
2. Don Juan
3. ‘Dover Beach’
4. ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’
5. Idylls of the King
6. Le Morte D’Arthur
7. Mrs. Dalloway
8. The Taming of the Shrew
9. The Importance of Being Ernest
10. The Rape of the Lock
2. Match each of the followings authors with the period of his/her literary activity. One literary
period may have more than one corresponding author, and some of the periods listed may have
none. (10 points)
Literary periods
A. Old English period
B. Middle English period
C. The English Renaissance
D. Restoration period
E. Romantic period
F. Victorian period
G. 19th century American
H. First half of the 20th century
I. Second half of the 20th century
(post-1945) to the present
Authors
1. Charles Dickens
2. Christopher Marlowe
3. George Eliot
4. Harold Pinter
5. James Joyce
6. John Donne
7. Alexander Pope
8. T.S. Eliot
9. John Keats
10. William Langland
3. Name ONE work by each of the following authors. If the poem does not have a title, use the
first line of the poem as its name. (10 points)
1. Edgar Allan Poe
2. Emily Dickinson
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3. Eugene O’Neill
4. Langston Hughes
5. Marianne Moore
6. Mark Twain
7. Robert Frost
8. Toni Morrison
9. Walt Whitman
10. William Faulkner
4. For FIVE of the following passages, name the author and the work. If you answer more than
five, the first five will be graded as your answers. If the poem does not have a title, use the first
line of the poem as its name. (10 points)
a)
Whan that April with his showres soote
The droughte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veine in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flower . . . .
b)
“A wise sentence!” remarked the stranger, gravely bowing his head. “Thus she will be a
living sermon against sin, until the ignominious letter be engraved upon her tombstone. It irks
me, nevertheless, that the partner of her iniquity should not, at least, stand on the scaffold by her
side. But he will be known!—her will be known!—he will be known!”
c)
I am a little world made cunningly
Of elements, and an angelic sprite;
But black sin hath betrayed to endless night
My world’s both parts, and O, both parts must die.
d)
A child said, What is the grass? Fetching it to me with full hands;
How could I answer the child? . . . . I do not know what it is any more than he.
I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven.
Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
A scented gift designedly dropped,
Bearing the owner’s name someway in the corners, that we may see and remark, and say
Whose?
e)
I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
f)
But trust the Muse—she saw it upward rise . . .
A sudden star, it shot through liquid air,
And drew behind a radiant trail of hair.
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Not Berenice’s locks first rose so bright,
The heavens bespangling with disheveled light.
g)
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.
h)
It had been dead eight days, Albert said. They came from some place in Yoknapatawpha
County, trying to get to Jefferson with it. It must have been like a piece of rotten cheese coming
into an anti-hill, in that ramshackle wagon that Albert said folks were scared would fall all to
pieces before they could get it out of town, with that home-made box and another fellow with a
broken leg lying on a quilt on top of it, and the father and a little boy sitting on the seat and the
marshal trying to make them get out of town.
i)
Standing to America, bringing home
black gold, black ivory, black seed.
Deep in the festering hold thy father lies,
of his bones New England pews were made,
those are altar lights that were his eyes.
Jesus Savior Pilot Me
Over Life’s Tempestuous
j)
Sea
In, boy; go first. You houseless poverty –
Nay, get thee in. I’ll pray, and then I’ll sleep.
[FOOL goes in]
Poor naked wretches, whereso’er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall you houseless heads and unfed sides,
Your looped and windowed raggedness, defend you
From seasons such as these? O, I have ta’en
Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp;
Expose thyself to feel what naked wretches feel,
That thou mayst shake the superflux to them,
And show the heavens more just.
5. Give a definition of FIVE of the following seven literary terms in a few well-formulated
sentences. Make sure to name at least one example for each term that you define. (10 points)
1.
2.
3.
4.
Byronic hero
comedy of manners
litotes
onomatopoeia
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5.
6.
7.
8.
metaphysical conceit
mock-heroic epic
Petrarchan sonnet
caesura
6. Write one paragraph describing the impact of ONE of the following events on English
literature. (5 points)
The invention of the printing press
The Protestant Reformation
World War I
7. Respond to ONE of the following prompts in 3-5 paragraphs. (10 points)
a.) Community, courtesy, violence, time, and physical location are central concerns of
Gawain and the Green Knight. Discuss in specific terms how those general topics are
intertwined in the poem in a way that allows us not only to understand the late medieval world
better, but also to recognize the poem as quintessentially Christian.
b.) The sonnet is one of the most enduring lyric forms in English literature. Explain the
success of sonnets in both formal and historical terms. What is it about sonnets that has appealed
to such a wide variety of poets and readers throughout the course of English literary history?
What is it about the form itself that gives it its unique force? How and why have poets adapted
the sonnet form to accomplish various sorts of poetic goals? In the course of your discussion you
must make use of specific examples from at least two of the following poets: Sidney, Spenser,
Shakespeare, Donne. You may also refer to the works of other poets, of course.
c.) In a controversial lecture in 1975, Chinua Achebe argued that the inclusion of Joseph
Conrad's Heart of Darkness in the modern literary canon perpetuates the racism of colonialism.
Achebe asserted: "The question is whether a novel which celebrates this dehumanization, which
depersonalizes a portion of the human race, can be called a great work of art. My answer is: No,
it cannot."
Do you think Achebe is correct in his assessment of Conrad's novel? If so, use specific examples
from Things Fall Apart to discuss how Achebe's representation of Africans is different from
Conrad's depiction of Africans in Heart of Darkness. If you think Achebe is not correct, then
draw upon specific examples from Heart of Darkness to make an argument for why you think
Conrad's novel is not dehumanizing.
11. Please compose a well-organized essay responding to ONE of the following prompts. (20pts)
a.) Describe the nature and history of the tragic hero in British and/or American
Literature, drawing upon a minimum of three specific examples from three different time
periods. You should offer a succinct analysis of the relationship between authors’ treatments of
tragic heroes and the specific formal features of the works. You may, of course, draw from a
variety of genres.
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b.) Explain how the shift from the medieval to the Renaissance period affected the
development of English drama and theater. Consider questions of subject matter, audience,
authors and players, the nature of performances, theaters, and characteristic subgenres. Name
authors and works where appropriate to substantiate your argument. You must discuss specific
examples from at least three different authors from three different time periods.
12. Write a well-organized essay on the following topic (15 points):
Literary writers often make their ideas about what a poem, or story, or play, should be
evident in their works. A few writers have written arguments in essay form on the topic of what
literature is or what uses or value it has.
Choose at least two or three writers who’ve made clear statements like these or implicit ones in
their literary works. Explain what their ideas are, comparing and contrasting, and giving
examples of literary works or essays from which you draw your ideas.
Finally, write a paragraph on your own view of what literature is, what its value is, and/or what
uses it has.
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Undergraduate Comprehensive Examination in English
The Catholic University of America
January 2010
Section II
You have two hours to answer BOTH A and B. Please pay careful attention to the instructions.
Each question is worth 50 points.
A. Read and analyze the following poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay (poem published 1954).
[“I will put Chaos into fourteen lines”]
I will put Chaos into fourteen lines
And keep him there; and let him thence escape
If he be lucky; let him twist, and ape
Flood, fire, and demon—his adroit designs
Will strain to nothing in the strict confines
Of this sweet Order, where, in pious rape,
I hold his essence and amorphous shape,
Till he with Order mingles and combines.
Past are the hours, the years, or our duress,
His arrogance, our awful servitude:
I have him. He is nothing more or less
Than something simple not yet understood;
I shall not even force him to confess;
Or answer. I will only make him good.
1. a. Copy the entire poem and scan the rhythm.
b. Name the line type, by length and meter.
c. Mark the end rhyme scheme on your scanned copy.
d. Circle on the scanned copy as at least several examples of non-rhythmic sound cohesion
(e.g., assonance and consonance).
e. Locate and mark with a rectangle one example of each of the following:
metaphor, irony, and EITHER enjambment OR metonymy.
f. Name the kind of poem this is, as specifically as you can.
2. In a sentence or two describe the rhetorical structure of the poem.
3. In a sentence or two, note how the first and last lines provide a frame for the poem. Mention
both the situation that is framed, and its metaphorical larger theme.
4. Use this information as part of a well-organized essay in which you explain: what the poem is
indicating through its rhetorical and aesthetic structures; how these structures elicit meaning and
affect for the reader; and what meaning and affect you find in the poem. Give as full a reading
of the poem as you can. You do not have to write to the points in the order presented here—
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merely be sure to include as many as you can in a well-developed and well-written essay.
5. Last, write a couple of sentences about how you would evaluate this poem. Is it a good
poem? Why or why not? Justify your answer with some specific aspects of the poem.
B. Write a well-organized essay in which you compare and contrast the opening choruses of
William Shakespeare’s The Life of Henry the Fifth and T. S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral.
Explain how the similarities and differences in the openings of these two plays illuminate
important differences in the dramatic styles and goals of the two authors.
You are not expected to know or write about what comes after these opening passages. Write
your essay as if you were encountering these choruses for the first time. Base your argument on
details that can be found in the texts that are provided here.
You may make whatever sort of argument about them that you wish, but in the course of your
discussion, you must consider the following questions: 1.) How do the playwrights use language
to paint the physical scene in minds of audiences and what do these verbal cues tell us about how
they imagine their audiences?; 2.) What do these monologues tell us about their speakers? How
does WHO the Chorus is relate to how we should think about WHAT they are saying?; 3.) What
sorts of major themes do the choruses introduce and what do they tell us about the deeper
questions that may be at issue in the plays?; 4.) How do details such as diction, meter, rhetorical
structure, and poetic techniques influence our understanding of the choruses, and how do they
reflect distinctive features of the styles of the two playwrights?
Passage 1 (From Shakespeare’s Henry V):
Chorus
O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention,
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,
Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire
Crouch for employment. But pardon, and gentles all,
The flat unraised spirits that have dared
On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth
So great an object: can this cockpit hold
The vasty fields of France? or may we cram
Within this wooden O the very casques
That did affright the air at Agincourt?
O, pardon! since a crooked figure may
Attest in little place a million;
And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,
On your imaginary forces work.
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Suppose within the girdle of these walls
Are now confined two mighty monarchies,
Whose high upreared and abutting fronts
The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder:
Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;
Into a thousand parts divide on man,
And make imaginary puissance;
Think when we talk of horses, that you see them
Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth;
For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times,
Turning the accomplishment of many years
Into an hour-glass: for the which supply,
Admit me Chorus to this history;
Who prologue-like your humble patience pray,
Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.
[Exit.]
Passage 2 (From T.S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral):
Chorus
Here let us stand, close by the cathedral. Here let us wait.
Are we drawn by danger? Is it the knowledge of safety that draws our feet
Towards the cathedral? What danger can be
For us, the poor, the poor women of Canterbury? what tribulation
With which we are not already familiar? There is no danger
For us, and there is no safety in the cathedral. Some presage of an act
Which our eyes are compelled to witness, has forced our feet
Towards the cathedral. We are forced to bear witness.
Since golden October declined into sombre November
And the apples were gathered and stored, and the land became brown sharp points of
death in a waste of water and mud,
The New Year waits, breathes, waits, whispers in darkness.
While the labourer kicks off a muddy boot and stretches his hand to the fire,
The New Year waits, destiny waits for the coming.
Who has stretched out his hand to the fire and remembered the Saints at All Hallows
Remembered the martyrs and saints who wait? and who shall
Stretch out his hand to the fire, and deny his master? who shall be warm
By the fire, and deny his master?
Seven years and the summer is over
Seven years since the Archbishop left us,
He who was always kind to his people.
But it would not be well if he should return.
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King rules or barons rule;
We have suffered various oppression,
But mostly we are left to our own devices,
And we are content if we are left alone.
We try to keep our households in order;
The merchant, shy and cautious, tries to compile a little fortune,
And the labourer bends to his piece of earth, earth-colour, his own colour,
Preferring to pass unobserved.
Now I fear disturbance of the quiet seasons:
Winter shall come bringing death from the sea,
Ruinous spring shall beat at our doors,
Root and shoot shall eat our eyes and our ears,
Disastrous summer bum up the beds of our streams
And the poor shall wait for another decaying October.
Why should the summer bring consolation
For autumn fires and winter fogs?
What shall we do in the heat of summer
But wait in barren orchards for another October?
Some malady is coming upon us. We wait, we wait,
And the saints and martyrs wait, for those who shall be martyrs and saints.
Destiny waits in the hand of God, shaping the still unshapen:
I have seen these things in a shaft of sunlight.
Destiny waits in the hand of God, not in the hands of statesmen
Who do, some well, some ill, planning and guessing,
Having their aims which turn in their hands in the pattern of time.
Come, happy December, who shall observe you, who shall preserve you?
Shall the Son of Man be born again in the litter of scorn?
For us, the poor, there is no action,
But only to wait and to witness.
[Enter PRIESTS.]