CLEP Humanities : Understanding Terminology That Describes Poetry

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for CLEP Humanities

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Example Questions

Example Question #1 : Understanding Terminology That Describes Twentieth Century Poetry

Call the roller of big cigars,

The muscular one, and bid him whip

In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.

Let the wenches dawdle in such dress

As they are used to wear, and let the boys

Bring flowers in last month's newspapers.

Let be be finale of seem.

The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

 

Take from the dresser of deal,

Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet

On which she embroidered fantails once

And spread it so as to cover her face.

If her horny feet protrude, they come

To show how cold she is, and dumb.

Let the lamp affix its beam.

The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

 

(1922)

In the third line of the above poem, what poetic device is used?

Possible Answers:

Assonance

Onomatopoeia

Alliteration

Internal rhyme

Feminine rhyme

Correct answer:

Alliteration

Explanation:

The third line reads "In kitchen cups concupiscent curds," featuring the hard "c" sound at the beginning of four words. Such repetition of one sound at the beginning of words in one sentence or phrase is known as "alliteration."

(Passage adapted from "The Emperor of Ice-Cream" by Wallace Stevens.)

Example Question #2 : Understanding Terminology That Describes Twentieth Century Poetry

Which of the following writers is NOT a modernist poet?

Possible Answers:

Wallace Stevens

William Wordsworth

T. S. Eliot

E. E. Cummings

Ezra Pound

Correct answer:

William Wordsworth

Explanation:

Modernism was a movement that spread through many different forms of art in the last decade of the nineteenth century. Modernism rejected what the artists saw as outdated modes. In poetry, the movement was summed up by Ezra Pound's advice to "Make it new!" and Wallace Stevens' use of blank verse, along with T. S. Eliot's writing lengthy epics of mundane life, and E.E. Cummings' reshaping the physical look of poetry. Many modernists were intentionally rejecting the romantic poets like William Wordsworth.

Example Question #3 : Understanding Terminology That Describes Twentieth Century Poetry

Which modernist poet is famous for his admonition to "Make it new?"

Possible Answers:

William Carlos Williams

Wallace Stevens

T.S. Eliot

James Joyce

Ezra Pound

Correct answer:

Ezra Pound

Explanation:

Ezra Pound was an American who made his career in literature in England in the years before World War I, both in his own work and by helping edit and encourage many other poets. His motto was "Make it new," encouraging his fellow poets to create new forms, new modes of descriptions, and new concepts. Pound was a controversial figure, alienating those close to him in his personal life and finding an enthusiasm for Fascism in the 1930s.

Example Question #1 : Understanding Terminology That Describes Classical Poetry

A poem that is a lamentation for the dead is called __________.

Possible Answers:

a limerick

an allegory

an epic

a haiku

an elegy

Correct answer:

an elegy

Explanation:

One of the oldest and most consistently written kinds of poem is an elegy, a work that is dedicated to the memory of a recently deceased person. An elegy can take on almost any poetic form, such as a sonnet, a cinquain, or any other specific kind of poem. Elegies were written by the ancient Greeks and Romans and continue to be written by modern poets.

Example Question #1 : Understanding Terminology That Describes Poetry

The poetic technique known as alliteration refers to __________.

Possible Answers:

an internal rhyme inside of a sentence

the use of homonyms to create wordplay

the sequential use of each letter of the alphabet as the first letter of a word

an poetic structure in which the number of syllables in each line of a poem gradually increase

the repetitive use of words with the same initial sound or syllable

Correct answer:

the repetitive use of words with the same initial sound or syllable

Explanation:

Alliteration is a poetic strategy that intentionally repeats the same initial sound or syllable in multiple words in a line or lines of poetry. Alliteration can help create a unique rhythm or special structure. While developed in poetry, alliteration is also widely used in prose writing.

Example Question #1 : Understanding Terminology That Describes Medieval And Renaissance Poetry

What kinds of poems are made up of fourteen lines, iambic pentameter, and end in a rhyming couplet?

Possible Answers:

Haikus

Poems written in common meter

Aubades

Odes

Sonnets

Correct answer:

Sonnets

Explanation:

"Sonnet" is the correct answer, as sonnets utilize iambic pentameter and a concluding couplet and are usually made up of fourteen lines. The most famous writer of English sonnets is William Shakespeare, who wrote one hundred and fifty-four sonnets during his lifetime.

Example Question #2 : Understanding Terminology That Describes Medieval And Renaissance Poetry

Which of the following metrical schemes was used by William Shakespeare in his poetry?

Possible Answers:

Cretic Dimeter

Spondaic Pentameter

Iambic Pentameter

Trochaic Tetrameter

Dactylic Hexameter

Correct answer:

Iambic Pentameter

Explanation:

The poetry of William Shakespeare fit most of the conventions of sixteenth century English poetry, and as such he used the meter of iambic pentameter almost exclusively. Iambs refer to the "feet," or stress breaks, in poetry that are a short syllable followed by a long syllable, while "pentamater" refers to there being five, from the Greek "penta," feet. Thus, an iambic pentameter line is meant to be said with a rhythm of "da-DUH, da-DUH, da-DUH, da-DUH, da-DUH."

Example Question #3 : Understanding Terminology That Describes Medieval And Renaissance Poetry

When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes,

I all alone beweep my outcast state,

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,

And look upon myself and curse my fate,

Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,

Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,

Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,

With what I most enjoy contented least,

Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,

Haply I think on thee, and then my state,

(Like to the lark at break of day arising

From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate,

For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings,

That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

What is the rhyme scheme of the given passage?

Possible Answers:

a b a b
c d c d
e f e f
c d 

a b a b
c d c d
e f e f
g g 

a b a b
c d c d
e f e f
e f

a b a b
c d c d
e f e f
b b

a b a b
c d c d
e f e f
a b

Correct answer:

a b a b
c d c d
e f e f
g g 

Explanation:

The poem is Sonnet 29 by William Shakespeare. The rhyme scheme is four quatrains and an ending couplet. The couplet, or last two lines, rhyme with each other, but not with other lines earlier in the poem.

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