FINAL EXAM STUDY GUIDE
FIRTH
SPRING 2017
Shakespearean Sonnets
WORDS TO KNOW: Quatrain, Couplet, Trochee, Sonnet, Anapest, Scansion, Foot, Iamb, Pentameter, Prosody, Blank Verse,
Substitution
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How do you mark the scansion of a poem?
Where is the problem/question/situation of a sonnet?
Where is the turn in a sonnet?
Where is the solution in a sonnet?
What is the “literal sense” of all the sonnets we read?
What is the rhyme scheme of a sonnet?
Be intimately familiar with these sonnets: (57) “Being your slave, what should I do”, (27) “Weary with toil, I haste me to my
bed”, (29) “When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes”, (130) “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”, and (126)
“Let me not to the marriage of true minds”.
Restoration Period
1. What is Pepys's method for describing events in The Diary?
2. What is the main idea of the first part of Pepys's diary, titled “The Plague”?
3. Which line from The Diary shows that Pepys was a man of importance in London?
4. What is Pepys's attitude as he describes the plague in The Diary?
5. According to The Diary, what does Pepys do as a result of the great fire?
6. In the selections from The Diary, which emotions predominate in Pepys's descriptions of the people of London whom hears about
or passes on his walks through the city?
7. According to Daniel Defoe in A Journal of the Plague Year, the magistrates declared that all bodies had to be covered with at least
six feet of earth. Why do you think they made this order?
8. The narrator of Journal of the Plague Year says the huge pit was expected to last a month, but it lasted two weeks. What
conclusion can you draw from this information?
9. According to the narrator in The Journal of the Plague Year, why was it necessary to keep the public from visiting the burial pit?
10. How does Defoe make his account, Journal of the Plague Year, seem realistic?
11. A central idea of the excerpt from A Journal of the Plague Year is…
12. In “A Modest Proposal,” what does Swift propose doing to solve the problem of poverty in Ireland?
13. What is a statement from “A Modest Proposal” that is an example of sarcasm?
14. According to “A Modest Proposal,” how long does Swift propose that mothers keep their children?
15. Which term best describes the italicized portion of this statement from “A Modest Proposal”?
I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most
of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.
16. Swift titled his essay, “A Modest Proposal.” Which term best describes his use of the word modest?
17. Swift includes many facts and statistics in “A Modest Proposal.” What seems to be his purpose in including this information?
18. Who is Swift's main audience for “A Modest Proposal”?
19. In “A Modest Proposal,” why does Swift seem unconcerned about poor people who are old and sick?
20. What is the author's purpose in writing “A Modest Proposal”?
21. Why does Swift use terms, such as breeders, males, and females, when referring to the poor of Ireland in “A Modest Proposal”?
22. Why does Swift say in “A Modest Proposal” that more infants will be available in March of each year?
23. In “A Modest Proposal,” Swift explains that an associate recommended eating teenage boys, but he rejected the idea. What was
Swift's objection?
24. “A Modest Proposal” satirizes what?
25. The narrator of “A Modest Proposal” assumes the character of a(n)…?
26. The narrator claims that landlords will benefit from the proposal because they will be able to…
27. The narrator of “A Modest Proposal” claims to have no personal motive behind his proposal because he…
28. In “A Modest Proposal,” What does Swift offer as a serious solution to Ireland’s problems?
29. What is the difference between a parody and a satire?
30. In Gulliver's Travels, what are the Lilliputians quarreling about that leads to war?
31. What is Swift satirizing in the story of the dispute between the Big-Endians and the Little-Endians in Gulliver's Travels?
32. In Gulliver's Travels, what is Swift satirizing when he writes about the Lilliputian wars?
33. What does Gulliver do to help prevent a war between the Lilliputians and the Blefuscudians in Gulliver's Travels?
34. In Gulliver's Travels, why does the Lilliputian king become angry with Gulliver?
39. In the story of how the dispute arose between the Big-Endians and the Little-Endians, the chief objects of Swift's satire are what?
41. In “A Voyage to Lilliput,” what is Swift implying about Britain and France when he quotes the Lilliputian official's description of
Blefuscu as “the other great empire of the universe”?
43. Think about why people might read Gulliver's Travels. How was Swift's use of satire an effective means of getting people to look
at their beliefs about government and religion? How does satire challenge people to evaluate what they think? What are two
examples to support the effectiveness/ineffectiveness of Gulliver's Travels as a way to awaken the awareness of readers.
45. What is the main idea of John Donne’s “Song”?
46. How do you know “The Flea” contains a metaphysical conceit?
47. What is the conceit in John Donne’s “The Flea”?
48. What are the main ideas of “Holy Sonnet X”?
49. What does carpe diem mean?
50. Carpe diem is a main theme of “To His Coy Mistress.” Which of these lines best expresses this theme?
50. What attitude is expressed in this line from “To His Coy Mistress”?
The grave's a fine and private place, / But none I think do there embrace.
51. What is the speaker's message to his mistress in “To His Coy Mistress”?
52. At times, the speaker in “To His Coy Mistress” displays tongue-in-cheek humor. Which lines best show that humor?
53. Carpe diem is the theme of “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time.” Which of these lines best expresses that theme?
54. What is the meaning of the flower in these lines from “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time”?
And this same flower that smiles today / Tomorrow will be dying.
55. During the 18th century, natural phenomenon were increasingly explained by…
Romantic Period
1. What was the effect of the French Revolution on the British Romantic period?
2. What was the effect of the Industrial Revolution on the British Romantic period?
3. What is the difference between “Romantic” and “romantic”?
4. What are the major characteristics of Romantic writers/poets?
5. Why is “The World Is too Much with Us” a Romantic sonnet?
6. What is the significance of the albatross in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”?
7. How, why, and to whom does the Mariner tell his story? (Review all ROAM notes/study guide)
8. What is a Byronic Hero and how is it reflected in Lord Byron’s life?
9. What does “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” and “Don Juan” reflect about a Byronic Hero?
10. What is “She Walks in Beauty” about and what is its central metaphor?
11. What is the point of “Ozymandias”? What/who is Ozymandias?
12. What is ironic about “Ozymandias”?
13. How does Frankenstein reflect the concerns of Romantic writers? Why is it an important novel?
Victorian Period
1. What are the major characteristics of the Victorian Period and Victorian Literature?
2. What is Lowood, what is it like, what does Jane learn there, and what’s Helen Burns’ story?
3. What horrible things happen to Mr. Rochester and how does Jane react? What is their relationship like?
4. How is Mr. Rochester a Byronic Hero?
5. How does Bertha Mason come to live in Mr. Rochester’s attic?
6. Which elements of Gothic literature appear in Jane Eyre?
7. Which elements of Victorian literature appear in Jane Eyre?
8. What social commentary is Charlotte Brontë making in Jane Eyre?
9. What’s going on in Robert Browning’s “Porphyria’s Lover”?
10. Why was “Porphyria’s Lover” popular with a Victorian audience?
11. How do you know that “Porphyria’s Lover” is a dramatic monologue?
12. Which elements of Gothic literature appear in “Porphyria’s Lover” and Jane Eyre?
13. Who’s talking in “Porphyria’s Lover,” and about whom is he talking?
14. Review carefully *all study guides* related to Great Expectations.
15. Make sure you have read/seen Great Expectations in its entirety and understand its themes, plot, and how it conforms to
the conventions of the Victorian novel.
Modern Period
What is Yeats going on about in “The Second Coming”? What are his personal beliefs that we see in the poem’s imagery?