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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?
Assonance
Onomatopoeia
Alliteration
Internal rhyme
Feminine rhyme
Alliteration
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?
Wallace Stevens
William Wordsworth
T. S. Eliot
E. E. Cummings
Ezra Pound
William Wordsworth
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 Modernism rejected what the artists saw as outdated modes.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?"
William Carlos Williams
Wallace Stevens
T.S. Eliot
James Joyce
Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound
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 __________.
a limerick
an allegory
an epic
a haiku
an elegy
an elegy
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 __________.
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
the repetitive use of words with the same initial sound or syllable
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?
Haikus
Poems written in common meter
Aubades
Odes
Sonnets
Sonnets
"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?
Cretic Dimeter
Spondaic Pentameter
Iambic Pentameter
Trochaic Tetrameter
Dactylic Hexameter
Iambic Pentameter
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?
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
a b a b
c d c d
e f e f
g g
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.