GOLDSMITHS
University of London
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH & COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
2010 BA EXAMINATION
ENGAGING POETRY (EN51007B)
THREE HOURS
DATE:
Answer THREE questions: Question 1 (Section A) and TWO questions from Section
B. Do NOT present substantially the same material in any two answers, whether on
this paper or in any other part of your examination.
SECTION A
1.
Choose ONE of the following poems and write a detailed analysis of it, giving
particular attention to its style as well as its subject matter.
a)
Holy Sonnet
THOU hast made me, and shall Thy work decay? Repair me now, for now
mine end doth haste; I run to death, and Death meets me as fast, And all my
pleasures are like yesterday. I dare not move my dim eyes any way; Despair
behind, and Death before doth cast Such terror, and my feeble flesh doth
waste By sin in it, which it towards hell doth weigh. Only Thou art above,
and when towards Thee By Thy leave I can look, I rise again; But our old
subtle foe1 so tempteth me, That not one hour myself I can sustain. Thy grace
may wing me2 to prevent his art And thou like adamant 3 draw mine iron heart.
(JOHN DONNE, 1635)
1
old subtle foe: Satan.
wing me: give me wings.
3
adamant: a magnetic stone.
2
1/5
TURN OVER
b)
The Snow-Storm
Announced by all the trumpets of the sky,
Arrives the snow, and, driving o’er the fields,
Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air
Hides hill and woods, the river, and the heaven,
And veils the farmhouse at the garden’s end.
The sled and traveler stopped, the courier’s feet
Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit
Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed
In a tumultuous privacy of storm.
Come see the north wind’s masonry.
Out of an unseen quarry evermore
Furnished with tile, the fierce artificer
Curves his white bastions with projected roof
Round every windward stake, or tree, or door.
Speeding, the myriad-handed, his wild work
So fanciful, so savage, nought cares he
For number or proportion. Mockingly, On coop or kennel he hangs Parian4
wreaths;
A swan-like form invests the hidden thorn;
Fills up the farmer’s lane from wall to wall,
Maugre5 the farmer’s sighs; and at the gate
A tapering turret overtops the work.
And when his hours are numbered, and the world
Is all his own, retiring, as he were not,
Leaves, when the sun appears, astonished Art
To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone,
Built in an age, the mad wind’s night-work,
The frolic architecture of the snow.
(RALPH WALDO EMERSON, 1847)
4
5
Parian: like white marble from the Greek island of Paros.
Maugre: despite.
2/5
c)
Anthem For Doomed Youth
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons. 6
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
(WILFRED OWEN, 1920)
d)
the rites for Cousin Vit
Carried her unprotesting out the door.
Kicked back the casket-stand. But it can’t hold her,
That stuff and satin aiming to enfold her,
The lid’s contrition nor the bolts before.
Oh oh. Too much. Too much. Even now, surmise,
She rises in sunshine. There she goes,
Back to the bars she knew and the repose
In love-rooms and the things in people’s eyes.
Too vital and too squeaking. Must emerge.
Even now she does the snake-hips with a hiss,
Slops the bad wine across her shantung,7 talks
6
7
orisons: prayers.
shantung: a garment of uneven texture.
3/5
TURN OVER
Of pregnancy, guitars and bridgework, walks
In parks or alleys, comes haply 8 on the verge
Of happiness, haply hysterics. Is.
(GWENDOLYN BROOKS, 1949)
SECTION B
Answer TWO questions from the following. AT LEAST ONE answer should focus on
poetry pre-1900.
8
2.
Show how characteristics such as balance, symmetry, or contrast in the rhyming
couplet form are produced in at least two poems.
3.
Discuss and illustrate the variety of effects of which the English pentameter line is
capable, referring to works by at least two poets.
4.
Examine the relationship between one literary ballad and the popular ballad traditions
upon which it draws.
5.
Analyse the major themes and poetic style (or styles) of one of the following
American poets: Robert Frost, Robert Lowell, Adrienne Rich, Elizabeth Bishop.
6.
Give a critical account of two dramatic monologues, showing how this kind of poem
uses double perspectives.
7.
‘With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino’ (SHAKESPEARE). Does poetry have to
mean something, or can it succeed with pure sound-patterns? Answer with reference
to works by at least two poets.
8.
Choose two ‘urban poets’ and examine the presentation of the city in their work.
9.
Give a critical account of two Romantic lyrics, showing how they resolve or fail to
resolve a crisis in the speaker’s encounter with the world.
10.
Intertextuality can be a powerful device in the creation of meaning. Analyse the
intertextual relations of any two poems or any two poets.
haply: maybe.
4/5
11.
Illustrate the differences between the effects of ‘poetical’ language and deliberately
colloquial style by comparing two poems that adopt these opposite conventions.
12.
Choosing from poems by at least two different poets, consider the subject of
religious faith or spiritual crisis and pay particular attention to the different poetic
treatments of that subject.
13.
Discuss the use of figurative language in the work of at least two poets.
14.
Select a poet with a strong satiric voice and examine as specifically as possible that
poet’s targets and poetic methods.
15.
Compare and contrast the poetry of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, attending to
the characteristic subjects and forms of each.
16.
With close reference to the work of at least two poets, consider the political
engagement of twentieth-century or contemporary British and/or Irish poetry.
17.
Either a)
Construct a comparison and contrast of the main themes and forms of
eighteenth- and nineteenth-century poetry, choosing one poet from
each century to illustrate your claims.
Or b)
Construct a comparison and contrast of the main themes and forms of
nineteenth- and twentieth-century poetry, choosing one poet from
each century to illustrate your claims.
18.
Show how at least two poets have adapted the traditions of the elegy.
5/5