Renaissance Poetry Review
1. Who is the speaker in “Whoso List to Hunt” referring to when he says, “Who list her hunt?”
“hunters of the girl”
2. What does the author mean in “Whoso List to Hunt” when he states the hunters “may spend his time in vain?”
They will try for a long time but will not succeed.
3. Find the line in the poem that most clearly helps you to infer the speaker’s mood in “Whoso List to Hunt.”
The vain travail hath wearied me so score.
4. According to the speaker, what effect does fire have on ice in “Sonnet 30?”
It hardens ice, he’s in love with her but he keeps pursueing her the further she gets away.
5. How does the speaker describe love in “Sonnet 30?”
It can alter nature.
6. How would you best paraphrase the lines “And ice which is congealed with senseless cold, Should kindle fire by
wonderful device?”
Her coldness doesn’t prevent him from pursuing her even though she doesn’t want him.
7. Who is the speaker in “Sonnet 30?”
A man in love with a woman that does not want him
8. The contrasting images of fire and ice help us infer that the relationship between the man and woman in “Sonnet 30”
was:
They are opposing images of nature.
9. In “Sonnet 75,” the woman’s first reaction is that:
She is angry she is trying to write her name in the sand when it just washes away anyway.
10. In "Sonnet 75," the speaker compares the decay and anonymity of death to:
When you die no one knows you because your body isn’t present.
11. The tone of the final lines of “Sonnet 75” is:
Optimistic and loving
12. Who are the two speakers in “Sonnet 75?”
A man and a woman in love
13. The three poems stated above state what about love?
Love is difficult
14. In “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love,” the shepherd offers the charms of:
Nature
15. The shepherd’s plea might have been accepted by a woman who:
Loves being outdoors
16. State a line from “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” that gives you a clue that it is a pastoral poem.
By shallow rivers melodious birds sing.
17. The speaker in “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” regards the shepherd’s promised pleasures as being:
Good but they fade.
18. Based on “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd,” Sir Walter Raleigh’s view on rural living could be called:
Enjoyable but he would give it up to be with his love
19. How would you paraphrase the line “Had joys no date, nor age no need?”
Age doesn’t matter, time takes a toll on everyone
20. State two words that could be used to describe Marlowe’s and Raleigh’s different viewpoints in these poems.
Nature’s benefits, one is for them, one against
21. The speaker in “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” uses the setting of the sun to emphasize:
Time and how fast it goes by.
22. What is the speaker implying in the lines “And this same flower that smiles today,/ Tomorrow will be dying?”
All emotions are changeable. And you cannot stop time.
23. In “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time,” the line “That age is best which is the first” means:
The younger the better,
24. What warnings does Herrick give to young women if they fail to “seize the day?”
He warns them that if they waste their time, time will still go on.
25. The speaker in “to His Coy Mistress” is a man who is:
Loves a women that is tolerating him, but will not “be” with him.
26. In “To His Coy Mistress” the speaker says that he would wait patiently for the woman he addresses if:
If time stands still, and we never turn old.
27. Give an example of an image from “To His Coy Mistress” that best emphasizes the speaker’s sense of urgency.
Then worms shall try that long –preserved virginity.
28. Paraphrase the line “The grave’s a fine and private place, / But none, I think, do there embrace.”
In the ground is a private place, where one will find no embrace by someone that truly loves you.
29. Both Herrick and Marvell urge young women to:
Get married very soon, why still in their youth.
30. What is the tone of the two poems stated above?
Distress.
31. How would you best summarize the idea of carpe diem in the two poems?
They are saying don’t waste your beauty because you will only have it in your youth.
32. The speaker in “Song” seems to think that finding a sincere woman is:
Impossible. To find a women that is sincere and ugly is easy, but beautiful is impossible.
33. In the first stanza of “Song,” what does the speaker instruct the reader to do?
To go do the impossible.
34. Why is the speaker in “Song” wary of meeting an honest woman in the last stanza?
Because he believes that all women are flase, and have cheated on him before he as even met them.
35. What fact about Donne’s life seems to fit best with the fact that he wrote “Song?”
The fact that he went to Oxford and didn’t achieve a degree, because of his fate.
36. The tone of “Song” could be described as:
He is bitter and mournful.
37. State the line(s) that best convey the main idea of “Song.”
Yet she will be false, ere I come, to two or three.
38. In “Valediction” the lovers’ souls are said to resemble gold in that they:
It can be stretched but will never break.
39. What does the title “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” mean?
He is saying a farewell that is forbidding mourning.
40. In “A Valediction” Donne compares his parting from his beloved with an image of silent _____melting
quietly________ rather than loud crying.
41. In lines 7-8 in “A Valediction”, the words “’Twere profanation of our joys/ To tell the laity our love,” mean:
Where the lack of respect of our joys, to tell the understanding the religion of true love, which is our
love. Other people may not understand our love, so lets be quite about it.
42. What phrase does the speaker use to describe the opposite of his and his wife’s love?
“Care less eyes, lips, and hands to miss”
43. According to the speaker, absence from one’s beloved is easiest to bear when:
There love is so strong that they do not need physical contact.
44. An example of metaphysical conceit in this poem is:
There love to gold.
45. In “Meditation 17,” the phrase “No man is an island” means that:
Not one person is not effected by others.
46. In “Meditation 17,” the phrase “never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee” means that:
Don’t ask who died, but know that one day you will die.
47. What is the main idea in “Meditation 17?”
Everyone is effected by everyone. No one is a true island.
48. The tone of “Meditation 17” is:
Very understanding of how the world works.
49. What is an example of onomatopoeia from “Meditation 17?”
toll
50. According to the speaker in “Death be not proud,” how will Death die?
It will die when we go to heaven, because it can’t kill us anymore.
51. Paraphrase the line “And soonest our best men with thee do go.”
The best men out of us will die first.
52. What is the theme of “Death be not proud?”
Death doesn’t control us, we control death.
Melodious
Advance
Embroidered
Fragrant
Folly
Virtuous
Reckon
Endure
Diminish
Tribulation
Contemplation
Dreadful
Desperate
Affliction
Pilgrimage
53. Before installing new carpet, you must ______reckon_______ how much you will need.
54. Gabriel’s ____folly______ earned him detention.
55. My grandma ______embroidered________ a pillow with a garden scene.
56. Donne believes _______affliction________ brings humans closer to God.
57. The religious ______pilgrimage________ was long and arduous, but the participants’ faith helped them endure the
hardships.
58. The opposite of wicked is _____virtuous_________.
59. Ringing church bells triggers Donne’s __________contemplation_______ of his own mortality.
60. The speaker’s ______melodious________ voice was a pleasure to hear.
61. Donne believes that trials and _____tribulation_______________ can benefit a person.
62. The _______fragrant____________roses filled the room with their scent.
63. As the game went into triple overtime, fans found the suspense hard to ______endure_____________.
64. Senator Marshal proposed to ______advance_________ new legislation allocating more funds to education.
65. The grief arising from death does not necessarily _______diminish________ over time for Donne.
66. Donne does not believe that death is _______dreadful___________ because he believes in life after death.
67. She was ______desperate________ for a date to King of Hearts, so she took her ex.