ENGLISH 222 EXAM
FALL 2011
15 PTS. POSSIBLE (15% OF SEMESTER GRADE)
TYPE IN ANSWERS, THEN PRINT OUT AND STAPLE ALL PAGES. BE SURE YOUR NAME IS ON
EVERY PAGE.
DUE DATE: MON., NOV. 7TH
YOUR NAME: ________________________________
The purpose of this exam is to help me assess how much you’ve been learning, and—probably more than anything—
to give you further practice thinking about and applying the material we’ve covered. I.e., this is a learning experience.
Draw on course materials, lectures, and discussions for your responses, but feel free as well to do a little research on
your own.
Please type your responses below in Bold and/or RED font; it’s easier to read that way (helps me distinguish your
answers from the questions).
Save your work frequently.
When you are finished typing in your responses, re-save the document and print it out. Staple all pages and be
sure your name is on every page. I won’t accept any work which does not meet this criteria.
Caution: all words and ideas must be your own. If you quote or paraphrase someone else's words or ideas (including
material from our Power Point presentations), you should include an MLA-style in-text citation. Paraphrases should be
thorough (three words or more in a row from someone else’s texts must either be enclosed in quotation marks or
paraphrased). Failure to do any of the above is plagiarism and may result in an F for the term.
I.
Understanding Mode (Essay Response) 3 pts. possible
Poetry is a type of writing both utterly ancient and completely new. Some of the earliest human utterances going back
to antiquity were poetry; some of the freshest, most vital and interesting uses of language this very day are poetry. It
is a vast ecology of evolving species, a living category of language that cannot be pinned down or perfectly defined—
though we can certainly look around at the very least and observe “the lay of the land.” That is, we can survey some of
its many distinct types.
Write a brief but detailed essay for the three modes of poetry we studied and practiced during the first segment of the
semester, addressing these questions:
1.
What is each of those three modes?
2.
What sorts of impulses does each one arise from?
3.
What subject matter or topics does each tend to take?
4.
What are the values, attitudes, and chief concerns of each mode?
5.
What challenges does a poet face in writing within any one of those modes?
6.
What are some outstanding examples of poems written in each mode?
Draw on class Power Points, lectures, and discussions for your responses, but be sure to cite sources for any debatable
ideas which are not your own, and use quotation marks around words that are not your own. Feel free to do a little
extra research or exploration on your own (though this is not required), and to discuss possible answers with your
classmates or other people.
Provide specific examples where needed to illustrate or support your assertions.
Length: approximately 200 words per mode.
II.
Understanding Prosody (Essay Response) 3 pts. possible
Read the following poem by James Wright carefully and several times. Then, in about 200 words, describe the
poem’s prosody. That is, explain its form and formal features, responding to these questions:
1. In what mode does the poem seem to be written?
2. What is its primary situation? That is, who is speaking and where are they?
3. What principles govern its stanza and line breaks?
4. How would you describe its rhythm and meter (if any)?
5. How would you describe its sounds and rhymes (if any)?
6. How do form and meaning seem to be working together—mirroring or reinforcing each other?
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This is a free verse poem in the personal mode.
Almost no one commented on the SOUNDS in the
poem, so I’ve marked some of them here.
To a Blossoming Pear Tree
Beautiful natural blossoms, Long “u” assonance: beautiful, you, human, cute, cruel, dew.
Pure delicate body,
You stand without trembling.
All end-stopped lines in this stanza.
Little mist of fallen starlight,
Perfect, beyond my reach,
How I envy you.
For if you could only listen,
Partial-rhymes
I would tell you something,
Something human.
An old man
Long “o” assonance: old, own, cold, snow, stroke, both, so, hopeless.
Appeared to me once
In the unendurable snow. Short “u” assonance: something, young, unburdened, unendurable, slunk, love, just, fun,
brother, blood.
He had a singe of white Short “i” assonance: listen, tremble, envy, kick, him, singe, flinch, it, mist, listen, risk, willing.
Beard on his face.
He paused on a street in Minneapolis
Lines in this stanza are a mix of end-stopped and enjambed.
And stroked my face.
Give it to me, he begged. Heavy “b” alliteration: beyond, blossoms, begged, beautiful, burden, body, brother, beard, bother.
I’ll pay you anything.
I flinched. Both terrified,
We slunk away,
Each in his own way dodging Heavy “d” alliteration: delicate, dodge, endure, darts, dark, dead, death, dentures, drag,
down.
The cruel darts of the cold.
Beautiful natural blossoms,
How could you possibly
Worry or bother or care
About the ashamed, hopeless
Old man? He was so near death
He was willing to take
Any love he could get,
Even at the risk
Of some mocking policeman
Or some cute young wiseacre
Smashing his dentures,
Perhaps leading him on
To a dark place and there
Kicking him in his dead groin
Just for the fun of it.
All but one line in this stanza are end-stopped.
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Young tree, unburdened
By anything but your beautiful natural blossoms
And dew, the dark
Lines in this stanza are a mix of end-stopped and enjambed.
Blood in my body drags me
The enjambment contributes significantly to meaning/feel.
Down with my brother.
III.
Understanding Prosody II (Essay Response) 3 pts. possible
As with the Wright poem above, describe the form and formal features of the Donald Justice poem below,
responding to the same questions. And, as before, keep your essay to roughly 200 words.
This poem is a modified SESTINA.
Here in Katmandu
We have climbed the mountain.
There’s nothing more to do.
It is terrible to come down
To the valley
Where, amidst many flowers,
One thinks of snow,
As formerly, amidst snow,
Climbing the mountain,
One thought of flowers,
Tremulous, ruddy with dew,
In the valley.
One caught their scent coming down.
It is difficult to adjust, once down,
To the absence of snow.
Clear days, from the valley,
One looks up at the mountain.
What else is there to do?
Prayer wheels, flowers!
Let the flowers
Fade, the prayer wheels run down.
What have they to do
With us who have stood atop the snow
Atop the mountain,
Flags seen from the valley?
It might be possible to live in the valley,
To bury oneself among flowers,
If one could forget the mountain,
How, never once looking down,
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Stiff, blinded with snow,
One knew what to do.
Meanwhile it is not easy here in Katmandu,
Especially when to the valley
That wind which means snow
Elsewhere, but here means flowers,
Comes down,
As soon it must, from the mountain.
IV.
True-False .25 pts. each, 5 pts. total
For a statement to be true, all parts of it must be true. There are no trick statements. If you feel that the
statement is problematic, feel free to explain your response in a couple sentences.
1. __T__ The sonnet evolved from a natural peasant form which was originally any short lyric of around 14
lines, and which tended to follow somewhat typical turns of thought.
2. __T__ The “confessional poem” may be understood as a sub-set of the personal or “I”-centered mode of
poetry.
3. __T__ The “surrealist poem” may be understood as a sub-set of the visionary mode of poetry.
4.
The purpose of studying poetry is to memorize arcane terms such as “dactylic hexameter” and “rime
couée,” which you can then sling around to astonish your relatives at Thanksgiving, or to impress your
friends at parties, or to scare wee little children on Halloween.
5.
When a poet writes in a traditional form such as blank verse or the sonnet, it’s imperative that she/he
adhere strictly and with no variation to the rules of the form, otherwise they are cheating themselves and
their readers.
6.
Rhyme only occurs at the ends of lines.
7.
Free verse is poetry without rhyme, rhythm, or structure.
8. __T__ Most of Walt Whitman’s poems are in long, cadenced lines which have an expansive feel.
9. __T__ Most of Sharon Olds’ poem are in free verse and are generally written in an every-day vernacular—
meaning their diction and tone sound fairly casual and spoken.
10. __T__da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM. This is what a line of poetry in unvarying iambic
pentameter sounds like.
11. __T__ A “foot” in poetic meter is a unit of measure made up of a stressed syllable and it accompanying
unstressed syllables.
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12. __T__ Rhymed couplets often lend themselves to pithy statements or witty truisms, since they can have a
clipped, closed feel.
13. __T__A long series of enjambed lines can have a bumpy, stuttery feel which calls attention to the form (or
makes it “opaque”).
14. __T__A long series of end-stopped lines can have a fluid, natural feel which makes the form relatively
unnoticed (or “transparent”).
15. __T__ Blank verse often lends itself to long meditative or story-telling poems.
16. __T__ The oral tradition in poetry is actually alive and quite well these days in the form of poetry slams
and coffeehouse readings.
17.
If you don’t understand a poem the first time you read it, it’s best just to throw it away and forget
about it.
18. __T__A visionary poem may include strange, uncanny, even paradoxical statements and images.
V.
19.
In a confessional poem, the writer basically spills their guts without worrying about craft, audience,
or the risks of narcissism.
20.
James’ Wright’s poem “On The Skeleton of a Hound” is written in iambic pentameter. (You can
access the poem at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15817)
You Tell Me 1 pt. possible
Formulate a real question about poetry—something meaningful which you would genuinely like an answer to.
Your question: ________________________________________________________.
Now do a little research, and, in a brief paragraph, answer your question. Cite any sources you may use and
provide quotations around words which are not your own.
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