Que- Complete the following sentence. Yeats's "Sailing to Byzantium" is a good example of High Modernism, because it_____________?
a. embraces the rhythms and diction of common man's speech.
b. was written at the very beginning of the 20th century.
c. attempts to create a modernist high culture.
d. does not employ rhyme.
Answer- attempts to create a modernist high culture.
Que- In his essay "The Roots of Modernism," Christopher L.C.E. Witcombe defines the modern period in the history of art as the time from roughly 1860 to 1970. How does he say modernism is typically defined ?
a. Modernism is the art produced during the modern period.
b. Modernism is the historical period which followed the modern period.
c. Modernism is the philosophy of modern art.
d. Both A and C
Answer- Both A and C
Que- Siegfried Sassoon's "The Dragon and the Undying" includes the following lines: "Yet, though the slain are homeless as the breeze,/Vocal are they, like stormbewilder'd seas." Which of the following literary devices does Sassoon use in these lines and to what effect ?
a. Metaphor to suggest a connection between soldiers and nature
b. Simile to suggest a connection between soldiers and nature
c. Metonymy to describe the brutality of modern warfare
d. Onomatopoeia to describe the brutality of modern warfare
Answer- Simile to suggest a connection between soldiers and nature
Que- Which of the following statements accurately compares Rupert Brooke's "The Soldier" and Siegfried Sassoon's "The Rear Guard" ?
a. Both poems praise Britain's military power and its imperial ambitions.
b. Both poems describe Britain's civilizing mission in the world.
c. Both poems seek to respond to the harsh political and military realities of their day.
d. Both poems romanticize war and glorify the life of the soldier.
Answer- Both poems seek to respond to the harsh political and military realities of their day.
Que- Which of the following poets would most likely be categorized as a modernist poet ?
a. William Carlos Williams
b. John Greenleaf Whittier
c. George Herbert
d. Robert Browning
Answer- William Carlos Williams
Que- Which of the following literary devices is most prominent in Gertrude Stein's poem "New" ?
a. Assonance and word repetition
b. Simile
c. Metaphor and allusion
d. Circumlocution
Answer- Assonance and word repetition
Que- According to Professor Hammer, which of the following is the central question explored by T.S. Eliot in "The Waste Land" ?
a. Is authentic poetry possible in the aftermath of the carnage of World War I?
b. Given the diversity of the world's poetic traditions, can there be a universal language of poetic symbolism?
c. How can a shared world be created out of the fundamentally different and private experiences of individual people?
d. Given that each person experiences trauma differently, is it possible for all to understand the modern world as a shared "waste land"?
Answer- How can a shared world be created out of the fundamentally different and private experiences of individual people?
Que- Which of the following statements best characterizes Langston Hughes's poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" ?
a. It is a meditation on the alienation of the modern person from nature.
b. It is a meditation on the cultural isolation of African Americans in New England.
c. It is a meditation on the communal and historical aspects of individual identity.
d. It is a meditation on the poet's personal experience of assimilation.
Answer- It is a meditation on the communal and historical aspects of individual identity.
Que- Which of the following statements best characterizes Langston Hughes's poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" ?
a. Hughes uses a universal speaker for an exploration of a profound racial divide between blacks and whites.
b. The poem is an analytical exploration of racial differences in the United States.
c. Similar to Hart Crane and Whitman, Hughes uses a personal and universal "I" to address issues of history, race, and identity.
d. The poem is an indictment of racial prejudice in Harlem.
Answer- Similar to Hart Crane and Whitman, Hughes uses a personal and universal "I" to address issues of history, race, and identity.
Que- Which of the following poets would most likely be categorized as a late-Victorian poet ?
a. John Milton
b. Alfred Tennyson
c. Allen Ginsberg
d. Amy Lowell
Answer- Alfred Tennyson
Que- Which of the following political themes was explored by American Objectivist poets ?
a. Slavery
b. American attitudes toward Jews and Israel
c. Capitalism and social inequalities
d. All of these answers
Answer- All of these answers
Que- Which of the following poets did NOTwrite about his experiences in World War II ?
a. Wilfred Owen
b. Keith Douglas
c. Randall Jarrell
d. Karl Shapiro
Answer- Wilfred Owen
Que- Which of the following was an important influence on Charles Reznikoff's shift away from romantic rhetoric ?
a. His study of ancient history
b. His study of law
c. His study of medicine
d. His study of Sanskrit
Answer- His study of law
Que- Professor Hammer argues that in Hart Crane's poem "Legend," Crane introduces himself to his readers. The poem opens with the lines: "As silent as a mirror is believed/ Realities plunge in silence by …/I am not ready for repentance;" according to Professor Hammer, Crane's refusal to repent is an assertion of which of the following ?
a. His political views
b. His will to imaginative freedom
c. His will to sexual freedom
d. Both B and C
Answer- Both B and C
Que- What is the principal subject of Marianne Moore's poem "An Octopus" ?
a. Death
b. Mt. Rainier
c. The ocean
d. An octopus
Answer- Mt. Rainier
Que- Ezra Pound's "Canto I" opens with the following lines: "And then went down to the ship,/Set keel to breakers, forth on the godly sea, and(…)." Which of the following statements best characterizes these lines and the poem as a whole ?
a. These lines set an impersonal tone which dominates the entire poem.
b. These lines establish a rhythmical pattern, which is followed strictly throughout the poem.
c. These lines are the only impersonal lines in the poem, the rest of which is primarily focused on the complexity of human emotions.
d. These lines establish a personal tone, focusing on a lyrical perspective similar to late-Victorian era poetry.
Answer- These lines set an impersonal tone which dominates the entire poem.
Que- What are some of the surface similarities between Robert Frost's poem "Out, Out" and John Greenleaf Whittier's poem "Telling the Bees" ?
a. They both address the theme of death.
b. Both use formal meter to present a narrative structure.
c. They are both set in rural New England.
d. All of these answers
Answer- All of these answers
Que- Which of the following does Professor Hammer identify as one of the most important goals of Imagist poetry ?
a. The privileging of image over sound
b. The privileging of rhythm over meaning
c. The privileging of individual detail over the larger pattern
d. The privileging of colors over textures
Answer- The privileging of individual detail over the larger pattern
Que- Which of the following statements best describes the relationship between Georgian poetry and English World War I poetry ?
a. Georgian poetry was modeled on World War I poetry and adapted its insights to postwar realities.
b. Unlike World War I poetry, Georgian poetry was concerned primarily with the effects of urbanization and industrialization.
c. Unlike World War I poetry, Georgian poetry was concerned primarily with women's rights.
d. World War I poets like Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen adapted the Georgian poetic manner to write about modern subjects; most Georgian poets focused on individual experience and avoided writing about the upheavals of modernity.
Answer- World War I poets like Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen adapted the Georgian poetic manner to write about modern subjects; most Georgian poets focused on individual experience and avoided writing about the upheavals of modernity.
Que- Which of the following poets wrote about World War II ?
a. Rupert Brooke
b. Rudyard Kipling
c. Karl Shapiro
d. Hart Crane
Answer- Karl Shapiro
Que- Which of the following descriptions does NOT pertain to the Imagists ?
a. Total freedom in choosing the subject
b. Striving for concentrated expression and imagery
c. Reliance on the language of common speech
d. Creative reliance on conventional poetic forms
Answer- Creative reliance on conventional poetic forms
Que- Which of the following statements best characterizes Georgia Douglass Johnson's poem "Black Woman" ?
a. This poem focuses primarily on the different experiences of black and white women.
b. This poem describes the relationship between a black woman and her child.
c. This poem is a conversation between a black woman and a child who is not yet born.
d. The poem is a conversation between a black woman and her ancestors.
Answer- This poem is a conversation between a black woman and a child who is not yet born.
Que- H.D.'s poem "Oread" reads: "WHIRL up, sea-/Whirl your pointed pines./Splash your great pines/On our rocks./Hurl your green over us-/Cover us with your pools of fir." To which of the following categories does this poem belong ?
a. Objectivist poetry
b. Futurist poetry
c. Imagist poetry
d. Vorticist poetry
Answer- Imagist poetry
Que- Which of the following statements accurately characterizes the relationship between Italian Futurism and its historical context ?
a. The Italian Futurists were fascinated by the age of electric and chemical power, and they praised the beauty of automobiles.
b. The Italian Futurists lived within a quickly changing social world, and they praised speed.
c. Marinetti and other Italian Futurists supported Mussolini's fascism.
d. All of these answers
Answer- All of these answers
Que- In Wallace Stevens's poem "The Man on the Dump," one can say that the trash symbolizes which of the following ?
a. Artifacts from foreign cultures which do not fit into the American cultural context
b. The broken dreams of the American émigré community in Paris
c. Old poetry
d. The failed attempt of modern poetry
Answer- Old poetry
Que- What was the primary significance of "The Book of American Negro Poetry" (1922), edited by James Weldon Johnson ?
a. It established an authoritative and unquestionable canon of African American poetry.
b. It inspired Harlem Renaissance writers to establish a tradition of African American poetry.
c. It presented African American writers to a previously indifferent white audience.
d. It provided literary criticism on African American poetry.
Answer- It inspired Harlem Renaissance writers to establish a tradition of African American poetry.
Que- Professor Hammer argues that Hart Crane's poem "Voyages" is a complex reply to which of the following modernist works ?
a. Langston Hughes' "The Negro Speaks of Rivers"
b. Ezra Pound's "Cantos"
c. T.S. Eliot's "A Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
d. T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land
Answer- T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land
Que- Which of the following figures is the author of the 1909 "Futurist Manifesto" ?
a. Umberto Boccioni
b. Filippo Marinetti
c. Vladimir Mayakovsky
d. Aleksander Wat
Answer- Filippo Marinetti
Que- Professor Hammer points out that T.S. Eliot used quotation as an important literary technique. The use of quotations, according to Professor Hammer, suggests which of the following attitudes to the past ?
a. Curiosity about the past
b. Deference to the past
c. Violation of the past
d. Paradoxically both B and C
Answer- Paradoxically both B and C
Que- In T.S. Eliot's essay called "Tradition and Individual Talent," he argues that the progress of an artist consists of which of the following ?
a. Continual expansion of the personality and its diverse elements
b. Continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality
c. Continual transformation of the personality
d. Continual identification with the past
Answer- Continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality
Que- Why was World War II a defining event in the history of the 20th century ?
a. It brought unprecedented destruction and loss of life, thereby putting into question the entirecultural and political legacy of Western civilization.
b. It was followed by Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and by the entrenchment of the Soviet totalitarian system of rule.
c. It was followed by the Cold War, which affected international politics throughout the world.
d. All of these answers
Answer- All of these answers
Que- Ezra Pound's "Canto XIV" opens with the line "Io venni in luogo d'ogni luce muto" [I came to a place devoid of light]. This creates a connection between the Canto and which of the following works ?
a. Milton's "Paradise Lost"
b. Dante's "Divine Comedy"
c. Goethe's "Faust"
d. Thomas Mann's "Doctor Faustus"
Answer- Thomas Mann's "Doctor Faustus"
Que- In analyzing T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," Professor Hammer argues that Eliot creates something that might be called which of the following ?
a. A meditation on contradictions
b. Overheard inner speech
c. Implicit dialogue with the future
d. Objective correlative
Answer- Overheard inner speech
Que- Which of the following statements best characterizes the contrast between T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" and the futurist aesthetic project ?
a. The Waste Land is primarily concerned with nature, whereas the futurists are most interested in industrial and urban landscapes.
b. The Waste Land confronts the fragmentation of modernity by exploring a variety of modes and voices, whereas the futurists do not focus on the fragmentation of modern experience, praising speed and industrial progress instead.
c. The Waste Land is an ironic exploration of Romantic themes, whereas the futurists incorporate ironic evocations of the classical tradition in their poetry.
d. The Waste Land focuses on the personal connection between poet and speaker, whereas the futurists focus on an impersonal connection between humans and industry.
Answer- The Waste Land confronts the fragmentation of modernity by exploring a variety of modes and voices, whereas the futurists do not focus on the fragmentation of modern experience, praising speed and industrial progress instead.
Que- Professor Hammer argues that Marianne Moore's poem "England" suggests which of the following ?
a. Moore's emotional and aesthetic attachment to England
b. Moore's harsh critique of the carnage of World War I
c. Moore's particular kind of combative American cultural nationalism
d. Moore's interest in England's civilizing mission in the world
Answer- Moore's particular kind of combative American cultural nationalism
Que- What does Gertrude Stein's term "the Lost Generation" designate ?
a. It refers to a group of talented American émigré writers who lived in Europe after World War I.
b. It refers to the young generation whose coming of age was interrupted by World War I.
c. It refers to English poets who sought refuge in New York City after World War I ended.
d. Both A and B
Answer- Both A and B
Que- Which of the following was NOT a prominent theme of American and English modernist poetry ?
a. The search for a new poetic language and the idea that language can be reinvented by poets
b. The quest to describe objects with precision and without emotion
c. The idea that the self is neither unitary nor permanently stable
d. The approval of the norms and values of bourgeois culture
Answer- The approval of the norms and values of bourgeois culture
Que- Which of the following statements best characterizes the formal qualities of Langston Hughes's poem "Life is Fine" ?
a. The diction is much more polysyllabic than monosyllabic.
b. The use of alternating end rhymes and word repetitions enhance the music of the poem and along with its occasional dissonance give it an improvisational jazz-like quality.
c. It is written in Standard American English for middle-class readers.
d. This poem is structured like a villanelle.
Answer- The use of alternating end rhymes and word repetitions enhance the music of the poem and along with its occasional dissonance give it an improvisational jazz-like quality.
Que- Generally speaking, African-American themes were very rare in white modernist poetry. Which of the following white poets attempted to evoke elements of black experience in his or her poems ?
a. H.
b. Hart Crane
c. William Carlos Williams
d. T.S. Eliot
Answer- Hart Crane
Que- Complete the following sentence. Poetic images which idealize war and ascribe spiritual qualities to battle can be found primarily in English poems written_______________?
a. around 1900.
b. in the early stages of World War I.
c. in the late stages of World War I.
d. in the 1920s.
Answer- in the late stages of World War I.
Que- Which of the following images in Arthur Rimbaud's poem "Eternity" undermines the idea that eternity is something fixed and permanent ?
a. The image of a sentinel
b. The image of the sun reflected on the sea
c. The image of a quest for knowledge
d. The image of satiny embers
Answer- The image of the sun reflected on the sea
Que- Professor Hammer argues that in a certain sense Wallace Stevens's poetry is always meta-poetry. What does this mean ?
a. Stevens's poetry is primarily, though not explicitly, concerned with metaphysics.
b. Stevens's poetry investigates its own rules.
c. Stevens's poetry always addresses several different audiences.
d. Stevens's poetry highlights an objective voice.
Answer- Stevens's poetry investigates its own rules.
Que- Which of the following writers wrote about trench warfare during the Great War ?
a. Siegfried Sassoon
b. Isaac Rosenberg
c. Wilfred Owen
d. All of these answers
Answer- All of these answers
Que- In the first lecture of his Modern Poetry course, what argument does Professor Langdon Hammer make about the relationship between the modern city and poetic modernism ?
a. Most modernist poets lived in large cities; therefore, they often used urban imagery in their poetry.
b. Many languages and many forms of language were used in large cities; modernist poets often treated language not as something given and natural but as a construct which they could manipulate.
c. Individuals often felt lost and alienated in large cities, and among poets this resulted in turning inward and focusing only on the world of one's own imagination.
d. All of these answers
Answer- Many languages and many forms of language were used in large cities; modernist poets often treated language not as something given and natural but as a construct which they could manipulate.
Que- Which of the following statements best characterizes Ezra Pound's poem "Hugh Selwyn Mauberley" ?
a. It is primarily a narrative poem.
b. It uses iambic pentameter to achieve tonal fluidity.
c. It undermines the idea of a single lyrical voice by using diverse cultural symbols and numerous phrases in various languages.
d. Its intensity derives from the combination of modern subject matter and alexandrine couplets.
Answer- It undermines the idea of a single lyrical voice by using diverse cultural symbols and numerous phrases in various languages.
Que- According to Langston Hughes's essay "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" (his answer to George Schuyler's essay "Negro Art Hokum"), what is the "mountain" that stands in the way of "any true Negro art in America" ?
a. It is the racial discrimination endemic in the white community.
b. It is the racial segregation in the South.
c. It is a widespread "urge toward whiteness" among African Americans.
d. It is a widespread "urge to incorporate and neutralize other cultures" among white Americans.
Answer- It is a widespread "urge toward whiteness" among African Americans.
Que- Which of the following statements best characterizes the form of Claude McKay's poem "The Harlem Dancer" ?
a. It is an English sonnet.
b. It is an Italian sonnet.
c. It is a Spenserian sonnet.
d. It is a free verse poem.
Answer- It is an English sonnet.
Que- Which of the following descriptors does NOT apply to the features of French Symbolist poetry that influenced other modernist poetry ?
a. French Symbolist poetry is full of exaggerated metaphors.
b. French Symbolist poetry has narrative clarity.
c. French Symbolist poetry is shocking.
d. French Symbolist poetry is formally experimental.
Answer- French Symbolist poetry has narrative clarity.
Que- What is the most notable characteristic of Ezra Pound's "In a Station at the Metro" ?
a. The form of a villanelle
b. The use of synesthesia
c. The use of simile
d. The use of metaphor
Answer- The use of metaphor
Que- Yeats's "Song of Wandering Aengus" ends with the lines: "And pluck till time and times are done/The silver apples of the moon/The golden apples of the sun." Which of the following is NOT a symbolic meaning of the apples ?
a. They symbolize the return to a lost paradise.
b. They point to alchemical elements, which in turn symbolize the body and the soul.
c. They symbolize the coming apocalypse.
d. They symbolize a fulfilled longing.
Answer- They symbolize the coming apocalypse.