ENGLISH 222 EXAM
FALL 2014
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: 11:00 AM, NOV. 18TH
YOUR NAME: ________________________________
The purpose of this exam is to help me assess how much you’ve been learning, and, perhaps more
importantly, to give you further practice thinking about and applying the material we’ve covered. I.e., you
should understand this as a learning experience. You have over a week to complete it; please take your
time and feel free to use sources.
Instructions

Please type your responses below in Bold and/or a distinct font, and/or a distinct color (if you
are using a color printer); it’s easier to read that way (helps me distinguish your answers from
the questions).
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You may keep all of these initial instructions intact, or, if you wish, you can delete them. (Keep
the numbers to questions as-is.)
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Save your work frequently.
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Draw on course materials, Power Points, lectures, and discussions for your responses. If a word is
obscure to you, for example, search our Power Points—you’ll almost certainly find a definition
there. Feel free as well to do a little research on your own. (See info about using sources below.)

I don’t mind if you discuss the questions with your classmates, but you cannot have identical
answers where more than a word or two are required. And don’t be a dope and just take answers
from your classmates. Learn something.
When completed, do the following:
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4.
Be sure your name is on every page.
Print out a hardcopy.
Staple all sheets together.
Hand in your stapled hardcopy at 11:00 on Nov. 18th . I won’t accept any work which is not
stapled and handed in at 11:00.
All writing must be edited for concision and clarity, and proofread for mechanical errors.
Caution: If you use someone else’s idea, someone else’s exact sentences or phrasing, or just littleknown/debatable information, you must follow traditional guidelines for doing so honestly.
You have these options:
1) If you wish to use someone else’s sentences, phrasing, or ideas, you must paraphrase them
thoroughly in your own words. Do not just lift portions of our Power Point presentations or
Wikipedia (or whatever), and insert them into your exam; you need to restate them in your words
to show you actually understand them and to be fair to the original source. Use a rough (informal)
version of MLA-style documentation to cite the sources of your paraphrases and outside ideas, and
be sure they are thorough. (Three words or more in a row from someone else’s text must either be
enclosed in quotation marks or paraphrased. This includes anything in our Power Point
presentations.)
2) Alternately, if you want to use someone else’s sentences, phrasing, or ideas, you may quote them.
Keep quotations to a minimum, however; I’d rather see most answers in your own voice and
words. As with paraphrases, use MLA-style documentation to cite the sources of your quotes, and
be accurate. (Don’t misquote.)
Note: commonly known facts or ideas don’t need to be cited. Little-known, obscure, or challengable
material does need to be cited.
Failure to do any of the above is plagiarism and may result in an F for the term.
I.
3.5 pts. REAL-LIFE APPLICATION: YOU’RE THE TEACHER
Three Poets is a lengthy Power Point piece in our Bb which closely examines work by three
distinct writers. You should read/watch this Power Point carefully and thoughtfully—and that
includes reading any specified poems by the three poets.
Imagine that you’ve asked a friend or relative or imaginary person to read these poets. This friend
or relative or imaginary person should be someone who usually says that they don’t “get” poetry,
and/or someone who just flat has no interest in poetry, and/or someone who thinks poetry is a lot
of cutesy fluff or weird b.s.
What would you say to this person to convince him or her that TWO of these poets are actually a
kick, completely enjoyable (if challenging), understandable, and relevant to their lives?
You can write out your response to this question as a dialogue or as a regular essay. If you do this
as an essay, try for at least 650 words, or about a 1½ page, single-spaced paper. If you do it as
dialogue, be sure that your comments are full enough. (A page of dialogue may look long, but
actually not have much said in it. Be sure that the substance of the dialogue amounts to roughly
650 words or so.)
Be sure to comment on two of the three poets. (If you want to comment on all, that’s fine, but not
required.)
Include some examples and details from the work the poets, and, as always, feel free to draw on
course materials as well as outside sources.
This is a challenging part of the exam. Watch the Power Point
carefully, and give yourself several days to absorb it, along with the
poems by each writer. Then come back and tackle this essay!
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II.
UNDERSTANDING MODE
Poetry is a type of writing both utterly ancient and completely new. Some of the earliest human utterances
going back to antiquity were poetry, and yet some of the freshest, most vital and interesting uses of
language this very day are poetry. It is a vast ecology of evolving “life forms,” 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.
Some traditional textbooks, for instance, will label the types “narrative,” “lyric,” and “dramatic.” This
taxonomy goes back to Aristotle. Other texts may label them according to subject matter (what the poems
are about—nature, death, love). And still others may divide them according to historical periods in
literature: Old English, Medieval, Renaissance, Metaphysical, Romantic, Modernist, Postmodernist, and so
on.
In English 222, we’ve used a mixture of traditional and course-specific terms: The Personal Poem (The
Moaner); The Visionary Poem (The Mad Seer); The Formalist Poem (The Maker); The Spoken-Word
Poem (The Bard).
1.
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1 pt. Select two of the modes we’ve studied this term (your choice), and, for each one, write a very brief
informative essay about it, roughly 150-200 words. Be sure to cite sources for paraphrases and quotations.
Use plenty of specific details and examples, and consider the following questions as you focus, shape, and
develop your essays:
a.
From what impulses, needs, or feelings does poetry in that mode tend to arise?
b.
What subject matter or topics, if any, lend themselves especially well to that mode?
c.
What are the values, attitudes, and chief concerns of that mode?
d.
What challenges does a poet face in writing within that mode? What can go wrong with that sort of
poetry? What can go well?
e.
What was it like writing your own poem in that mode?
f.
What are some outstanding examples of poems written in the mode? You may draw these samples
from our text or elsewhere.
Be sure to support your assertions with specific examples and details.
Revise your sentences for clarity and concision.
Mode 1: _______________
Essay:
Mode 2: _______________
Essay:
2. 1/2 pt. Two Different Kinds of Poems by Louise Glück
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Poets sometimes write in more than one mode, and/or undergo a shift in mode during the course of
their writing career. Read the poems of Louise Glück in your packet—you’ll see two sections on
Gluck, #1 and #2.
How does she seem to have shifted mode from #1 to #2? What is the mode (species or strain) of
the poems in #1, and what is the mode of the long, segmented poem in #2? Explain in a paragraph
of at least 100 words or so and support your assertions with specific examples, details, quotes.
3. 1/2 pt.
In our packet of exam poems, identify one which is clearly in the visionary mode and one which is
clearly in the personal mode. For each one, briefly defend your choice in a brief paragraph. (Don’t
pick any of the Gluck poems you read for #3 above.)
III.
UNDERSTANDING FORM AND PROSODY
1. 1/2 pt. What is the traditional verse form of the poem below, and how do you know?
The Poet at Seven
—Donald Justice
And on the porch, across the upturned chair,
The boy would spread a dingy counterpane
Against the length and majesty of the rain,
And on all fours crawl under it like a bear
To lick his wounds in secret, in his lair;
And afterwards, in the windy yard again,
One hand cocked back, release his paper plane
Frail as a May fly to the faithless air.
And summer evenings he would whirl around
Faster and faster till the drunken ground
rose up to meet him; sometimes he would squat
Among the bent weeds of the vacant lot,
Waiting for the dusk and someone dear to come
And whip him down the street, but gently, home.
2. 1 pt.
Read “Blackberry Picking” by Seamus Heaney (in our packet) and write a brief,
approximately 150-250 word formal analysis in which you respond to some or all of the
following questions. It’s fine if you consult sources for ideas—just be sure to cite them.
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Explicate the poem, being sure to explain the primary situation. (Who is speaking,
where are they, and what’s happening, line by line?)
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What is the poem’s verse form?
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How would you describe the poem’s lineation?
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How would you describe its “music” (its sounds, rhythms, and rhymes)?
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How do form and meaning seem to be working together—mirroring or reinforcing
each other?
3. 1 pt.
The poet William Butler Yeats was incredibly attentive to form and lyricism in his poems. Read
through the Yeats selections at the end of your exam packet and then write a good, approximately
200-300 word essay describing the formal music of his poems. Draw on terms we’ve used this
term as well as anything you might find in web investigations.
4. 1 pt. Identifying Forms
i. Identify a poem in our packet which appears to be written in a two-beat accentual
meter.
ii. Identify a villanelle in our packet.
iii. Identify a blank verse poem in our packet.
iv. Identify a modified sestina in our packet.
IV.
EXPLICATIONS AND INTERPRETATIONS
For assistance in writing an “explication,” go to www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~cinichol/222/Explicating a
Poem.docx
1.
1 pt. Write brief, clear, accurate explications for two of the following poems (your choice). These
should be about 150 words each.
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Any poem by Ai
Any poem by William Stafford
The poem titled, “9” by e.e.cummings
Tony Hoagland’s, “America”
Wallace Stevens’ “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”
2. 1 pt. Now write a brief interpretation of one of the poems you explicated. An interpretation, unlike an
explication, attempts to articulate debatable meanings and themes in a poem. This should be roughly 150
words or so. Support your interpretation with examples, details, quotations, and reasons.
V.
4 pts. TRUE OR FALSE
For a statement to be true, all parts of it must be true. There are no trick statements, strictly
speaking, but you do need to read each one carefully. If you feel that the statement and/or your
answer is problematic, feel free to explain in a couple sentences.
1.
_______ The sonnet evolved from a natural peasant form. It was originally any short lyric of around 14
lines which tended to follow somewhat typical turns of thought.
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2.
_______ 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.
3.
_______ Rhyme only occurs at the ends of lines.
4.
_______ Elizabeth Bishop’s poems “Untitled” and “A Miracle for Breakfast” are written in a verse
form called the tanka. (See our exam packet of poems.)
5.
_______ Except for the spondee and the pyrrhic, a “foot” in poetic meter is a unit of measure made up
of a stressed syllable and its accompanying unstressed syllables.
6.
_______ When transcribing or copy-pasting someone else’s poem, its ok if the line-breaks shift or
come out differently, as long as all of the words are kept intact.
7.
_______ A long series of enjambed lines can have a bumpy, stuttery feel which calls attention to the
form (or makes it “opaque”).
8.
_______ A long series of end-stopped lines can have a fluid, natural feel which makes the form
relatively unnoticed (or “transparent”).
9.
_______ The oral tradition in poetry is actually alive and quite well these days in the form of poetry
slams and coffeehouse readings.
10. _______ A visionary poem may include strange, uncanny, even paradoxical statements and images.
11. _______ In a confessional poem, the writer basically spills their guts without worrying about craft,
audience, or the risks of narcissism.
12. _______ The following lines are in iambic pentameter:
When I went out to kill myself, I caught
A pack of hoodlums beating up a man.
13.
_______ According to your instructor, poetry is a lot like music: before jumping to analyze it, it’s
good to first just enjoy it. Let your body, brain, and intuition respond naturally to its rhythms and
textures, its emotional resonances. Even if you don’t “get” the poem at first, you can still get a kick out
of the language, or be moved or intrigued by its images.
14. ________ Poems that are funny, poems that are easy to understand, and poems that are entertaining are
against state and federal law.
15. ________ The poems of Greg Orr tend to be straightforward, plainspoken, and literal. He never uses
figurative language or provocative imagery.
16. _______ Free verse is poetry that has no prescribed rules, and free verse poems therefore lack any kind
of rhyme, rhythm, or structure.
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