Study Guide for Mid-term Exam
English 323, Fall 2015
The mid-term on October 29 will consist of several short essays.
Each essay will deal with a short poem, excerpt from a longer poem, or passage from a
prose work, which I will give you on the test. Questions may ask you to paraphrase or
analyze the selection; to discuss the selection as an example of the time period, the
genre, or of the author’s work; to compare two poems; etc.
Passages will be chosen from these works:
Utopia
Wyatt, “They flee from me” (#80), “Mine own John Poyns” (#149), “Whoso list to
hunt” (p. 123)
Surrey, “Love that doth reign,” “Alas! So all things now do hold their peace”
Sidney, Astrophil and Stella 1, 7, 31, 41, 49, 53, 71
Spenser, Amoretti 6, 10, 15, 34, 37, 64, 67, 68, 75; Epithalamion; Shepheardes
Calendar (selections read)
Shakespeare: Sonnets 12, 18, 20, 30, 55, 87, 130, 144
Wroth, Pamphilia to Amphilanthus 1, 6, 7
Marlowe, Hero and Leander
Lanyer, selections read
Whitney, “Is.W. to Her Unconstant Lover,” “The Manner of Her Will”
The Defence of Poesy
In grading the essays, I will be looking for both the analytic skill and the broad knowledge
of the time period and the body of works that you demonstrate in discussing the passage.