Final Exam Study Guide
English 200, Fall 2013
Our final exam time is Tuesday, December 17, 2:45-4:45 pm. The exam will consist of
five essays as described below. The exam will be closed book, but I will supply you
with copies of the poems for reference. The most successful essays will refer to specific
details in the play or poems.
1. Be prepared to do one of these (your choice.) 25 points
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Use Antigone and A Midsummer Night’s Dream to discuss how the structure of
comedy and tragedy differ, and what they have in common.
Discuss either Dr. Rank or Mrs. Linde as a foil for one of the central characters,
Nora and Torwald, in A Doll House.
2. Be prepared to do one of these (your choice). 20 points
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Compare the perspectives of the speaker and the speaker’s neighbor in
“Mending Wall.”
What character traits of the speaker are evident in “My Last Duchess”?
3. Be prepared to write on one of these topics. Of these four, I will give you three on
the exam, and you will choose one of those. 15 points
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How is Shakespeare’s sonnet #18 a typical sixteenth-century sonnet, and how is
it unusual?
How is Shakespeare’s sonnet #130 a typical sixteenth-century sonnet, and how
is it unusual?
How is Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” a typical “carpe diem” poem, and how is it
unusual?
How is Wilbur’s “A Late Aubade” a typical “carpe diem” poem, and how is it
unusual?
4. Compare two of these poems, making at least one point about the formal aspects of
the poems (rhythm, rhyme, diction, imagery, etc.) and at least one point about
content (ideas conveyed by the poems). I will give you three of these, and you will
choose two to compare. 20 points
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“Battle-Piece”
“Dulce et Decorum Est”
“Buttons”
“The Charge of the Light Brigade”
5. Choose any of the poems on the class schedule for December 11 and any one from
December 13 and compare them. You may choose to discuss formal aspects of the
poems, the ideas conveyed, or both, and should include at least one point of
similarity and at least one difference between them. 20 points