CLEP Humanities : Understanding Terminology That Describes Twentieth-Century Poetry
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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 Modernism rejected what the artists saw as outdated modes.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.
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