I. Rhythm and meter (15 points)
a) Using the notation given below, mark the accented and unaccented syllables in the following words (You may use a dictionary).
x = unaccented syllable
' = accented syllable
gyroscope handicap hieroglyphic impala impale imperious infection infidel
memorandum menagerie metronome organize ordeal pancake parabola
b) Mark the accented and unaccented syllables in the following lines, using the same system:
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot
II. Sound effects (15 points)
Give at least 15 examples of the sound effects rhyme, assonance, consonance, and alliteration in the following poem, by writing on the right the pairs of words in which each sound effect occurs, underlining the letters involved, and labeling the sound effect employed in each example. Remember that sound effects are defined not by how the words are spelled but by how they sound.
Example: bayonet-blade = alliteration 1)
2)
Arms and the Boy by Wilfred Owen 3)
4)
Let the boy try along this bayonet blade 5)
How cold steel is, and keen with hunger of blood; 6)
Blue with all malice, like a madman's flash; 7)
And thinly drawn with famishing for flesh. 8)
9)
Lend him to stroke these blind, blunt bullet heads 10
Which long to muzzle in the hearts of lads. 11)
Or give him cartridges of fine zinc teeth, 12)
Sharp with the sharpness of grief and death. 13)
14)
For his teeth seem for laughing round an apple. 15)
There lurk no claws behind his fingers supple;
And God will grow no talons at his heels,
Nor antlers through the thickness of his curls.
III. Imagery (20 points)
Identify at least five images as you can in the following stanza, and state which sense each appeals to:
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.
- image: sense:
2.image: sense:
3.image: sense:
4.image: sense:
5.image: sense:
IV. Figures of Speech (20 points)
Identify at least 5 metaphors or similes in the following poem (quote the words in which each is expressed), and state in each case whether it is a metaphor or simile, what is being described (the tenor) and what it is being compared to (the vehicle).
That time of year thou mayest in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire
Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by.
This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
V. Persona: Speaker and Tone (15 points)
In a short paragraph, compare and contrast the speaker(s) and tone of the following poems. Describe the speaker (or speakers) in each poem, and define as accurately as possibly the tone of each poem.
Nurse’s Song
When the voices of children are heard on the green,
And laughing is heard on the hill,
My heart is at rest within my breast,
And everything else is still.
“Then come home, my children, the sun is gone down,
And the dews of night arise;
Come, come, leave off play, and let us away
Till the morning appears in the skies.”
“No, no, let us play, for it is yet day,
and we cannot go to sleep;
Besides, in the sky the little birds fly,
And the hills are all cover’d with sheep.”
“Well, well, go & play till the light fades away,
And then go home to bed.”
The little ones leaped & shouted & laugh’d
And all the hills ecchoed.
Nurses Song
When the voices of children, are heard on the green
And whisperings are in the dale:
The days of my youth rise fresh in my mind,
My face turns green and pale.
Then come home my children, the sun is gone down
And the dews of night arise
Your spring and your day, are wasted in play
And your winter and night in disguise.
VI. Diction and Syntax (15 points)
In a short paragraph, discuss the diction and syntax (choice and arrangement of words) in the following poem. In what ways are the choice and arrangement of words different than they would be in prose? Give several examples of inversion, showing how the normal prose word order is changed in the poem, and several examples of poetic diction, or the use of words associated with poetry rather than prose.
Now fades the last long streak of snow,
Now burgeons every maze of quick
About the flowering squares, and thick
By ashen roots the violets blow.
Now rings the woodland loud and long,
The distance takes a lovelier hue,
And drown’d in yonder living blue
The lark becomes a sightless song.
Now dance the lights on lawn and lea,
The flocks are whiter down the vale,
And milkier every milky sail
On winding stream or distant sea;
Where now the seamew pipes, or dives
In yonder greening gleam, and fly
The happy birds, that change the sky
To build and brood; that live their lives
From land to land; and in my breast
Spring wakens too; and my regret
Becomes an April violet,
And buds and blossoms like the rest.