T. S. Eliot picture quiz – Prufrock and other observations
The rules!
•
Pupils split into teams. The size of teams depends on the size of the class.
Allocating one spokesperson per team is advised.
•
Taking it in turns, a pupil from a team selects a number 1–22. The teacher gives
them the corresponding word card. The pupil has just 30 seconds to draw this
object on the board.
•
The artist’s team can shout out answers in this time and if they guess the exact
word on the card, gain one point.
•
If after the 30 seconds is complete, the word is not guessed, the next team can
have just one guess and it becomes worth two points. If it’s passed to a third
team they get one guess and it becomes worth three points … and so on!
•
The artist’s team then have the opportunity to answer a question relating to the
drawing. They get one guess and it is worth one point. If they answer incorrectly
it becomes worth two point to the next team and so on.
Word cards
1. Oyster shells
2. Michelangelo
3. Shirt sleeves
4. Ragged claws
5. Juliet’s tomb
6. Muddy feet
7. Cab-horse
8. Dancing bear
9. The eternal
footman
10. Mermaids
11. Peach
12. Candles
13. Pole
14. Cracked cornets
15. Sparrows in the
gutters
16. Ancient women
17. Lilacs
18. Sporting page
19. Street-lamp
20. Skeleton
21. Madman
22. Toothbrush
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T. S. Eliot picture quiz – Prufrock and other observations
Questions and answers
1. Prufrock comments on the ‘sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells’. Give two
reasons why he might mention this sea creature?
Oysters were cheap – food for the lower classes – and they’re also often
considered to be an aphrodisiac
2. How many times is Michelangelo mentioned in a repeated refrain in ‘Prufrock’?
Twice
3. Whose shirt-sleeves lean out of windows in ‘Prufrock’?
Lonely men’s
4. There is a crab in ‘Rhapsody’ too. Describe it.
It has barnacles on its back and gripped the end of a stick held by the man
5. Why is the woman’s room linked, by atmosphere, to Juliet’s tomb?
She is an ill-fated heroine
6. Where do the ‘muddy feet’ press to in ‘Preludes’?
Early coffee-stands
7. What adjective describes the animal in ‘Preludes’?
Lonely
8. Two other animals are mentioned, in similes, by the artist in ‘Portrait’. Which are
they?
Parrot and ape
9. Prufrock has seen him and says: ‘And in short, …’ Complete the quote.
‘I was afraid’
10. What doesn’t Prufrock think the mermaids will do?
Sing to him
11. Give me the short quotation featuring the peach!
‘Do I dare to eat a peach?’
12. How many candles are in the lady’s darkened room in ‘Portrait’?
Four
13. Explain the pun in the quotation: ‘… the latest Pole/Transmits the Preludes,
through his hair and fingertips.’
Electrical pun – transmitting pole!
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T. S. Eliot picture quiz – Prufrock and other observations
14. In ‘Portrait’ her voice is like ‘cracked cornets’. These set off what in the artist’s
brain?
A dull tom-tom
15. What does the cat in the gutter eat in ‘Rhapsody’?
Rancid butter
16. What do the women do in ‘Preludes’?
Gather fuel in vacant lots
17. Lilacs are twisted in the lady’s fingers in ‘Portrait’. Which flower is twisted in
‘Rhapsody’?
A paper rose
18. When and where does the artist read the sporting page and the comics?
Any morning in the park
19. List three of the lamp’s actions or sounds in ‘Rhapsody’.
Sputtered, muttered, hummed, said …
20. This describes the memory of the twisted branch on a beach in ‘Rhapsody’. What
does he recall seeing in a factory yard?
A broken spring
21. What flower is shaken by a madman in ‘Rhapsody’?
A dead geranium
22. Give me the final line of ‘Rhapsody’.
‘The last twist of the knife’.
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6111.doc
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