English 12: Module 7 ye ye

The Rape of the Lock is based on a real event.

true

Wordsworth broke with poetic convention by writing in "common language" that anyone could understand, not just highly-educated readers.

true

What object does Belinda use to threaten the Baron in the final battle?

A bodkin (hairpin)

Which items stand in as Shadwell's "ball and scepter?"

A mug of ale and one of Fleckoe's bad plays

The poem's ______ rhyme scheme allows for more conversational, relaxed phrases.

ABAB

Gray tells _______ and _______ not to disdain the humble villagers.

Ambition; Grandeur

How does Byron view the ocean waves in Childe Harold?

As a guide

According to the poem, what is our best hope of living on after death?

Being remembered by loved ones

Who wins the card game? Read the end of the game again, carefully.

Belinda

Who is Ariel?

Belinda's guardian sylph

In The Prelude, how does Wordsworth receive poetic inspiration?

By feeling the breeze

Stanza 7 of Childe Harold identifies the speaker as a _______.

Byronic hero

What is the essence of Clarissa's speech at the beginning of Canto 5? In what way does this speech reflect Pope's real opinion on the situation?

Clarissa questions a society where women are adored for their beauty does not adore women with a good sense and good humor. She proceeds to say that women are often called angels but their moral qualities are often not taken into account. It shows Pope's real opinion on how beauty is fleeting and how people should not just look at the beauty but at the personality too, as personality lasts longer than beauty.

In "She Walks in Beauty," what does Byron find "gaudy" in comparison with a beautiful starry night?

Day

Which of the following is NOT an element of traditional epics that Pope mocks in The Rape of the Lock?

Descent into Hell

What is Belinda doing while the Baron swoops in with scissors?

Drinking Coffee

Remember, satire is the use of exaggeration and humor to reveal folly. How are these lines at the end of Canto 2 satirical? "With beating hearts the dire event they [the sylphs] await,Anxious, and trembling for the birth of Fate."

Fate is outside of a person's control and is regarded by a supernatural power, so it is foolish to be anxious and trembling for something outside of their control. No one knows fate, or the future, so despite Ariel having a premonition that something bad would happen, ultimately, fate is not decided until it actually happens.

Flecknoe looks for an heir to "wage immortal war with wit" (line 12). What is Dryden satirizing with this line?

Flecknoe and Shadwell's lack of wit.

What is "Nature's holy plan," according to "Lines Written in an Early Spring"?

For humans to find pleasure in nature

As a young man, Wordsworth moved to _______ out of curiosity for the revolution occurring there.

France

Lord Byron's other name is _______.

George Gordan

In Canto 1, as Belinda puts on her clothes and makeup, Pope writes that she "puts on all her arms." By this, he means that she puts on armor and weapons as if she is suiting up for war. Why would he compare Belinda to a soldier putting on arms? Who is she going into battle with? Do any of the other characters in Canto 2 behave like they are at war? Why? Give a thorough answer with support from the text.

He compared Belinda to a soldier putting on arms because, in a metaphorical way, she was going to be fighting someone, though not physically. She is going into battle with the person who had cut her hair. The sylphs are also characters in Canto 2 that behave like they are at war. Ariel had the premonition that something bad was going to happen, and so he instructed the other sylphs to stand guard at their stations to watch over Belinda.

Why is the speaker sorrowful in "Lines Written in an Early Spring"?

He is grieved by the ways people harm one another.

Which of the following is NOT a part of John Dryden's legacy?

He wrote the first epic in the English language.

For whom does Gray write the epitaph at the end of the poem?

Himself

Lord Byron originated the Byronic hero. Which of the following is NOT a typical quality of the Byronic hero?

Honest

Dryden says that Flecknoe, Shadwell, and other bad writers are rulers over the "realms of Non-sense." But, even though they are dull and witless, their subjects love them! Describe how Dryden points out the folly of the reading public. How is he criticizing and questioning their taste in literature?

In the lines 1-28, Dryden writes about how Flecknoe was like an Emperor, and then proceeds to write about how Flecknoe was stupid. He later writes about how Shadwell swears that he will remain his dullness, never make peace with wit and never sign a truce with sense, and yet at the end of the whole event, the admiring crowds cries out acclamation. Dryden makes Flecknoe and Shadwell look like fools who writes terrible literature, he criticizes the reading public for praising and still reading the works of Flecknoe and Shadwell despite how he feel that it is terrible.

At the end of the poem, what does the narrator say will be the fate of Belinda's lock?

It will live on in fame.

Wordsworth consistently personifies elements of nature in his poems. This means he describes them with human attributes. What does this tell us about Wordsworth's attitude toward nature? How does this personification fit into the Romantic viewpoint?

Just as people are able to give Wordsworth a sense of peace and calm, nature is able to do that for him. Nature "gives" him a feeling of being content, peaceful and restful. Wordsworth's attitude towards nature is one that is positive. His love for nature can be seen in the different poems that he had written. Part of Romanticism is the love and emphasize of nature, so this personification fits into the Romantic viewpoint because it shows Wordsworth love for nature.

Which of the following is an extended metaphor in Canto 1?

MAYBE Belinda's dressing table is an altar, and she and her maid are priestesses.

Which of the following questions does Pope NOT ask in the first 12 lines of Canto 1?

MAYBE Why would a lord assault a lady?

What does the narrator say to the Baron?

NOT He encourages him to be courageous and to be keep going. MAYBE He tells him to cease and to think of the consequences.

In Canto 4, the gnome Umbriel travels to the Cave of Spleen (where Belinda's bad humor lives). This is a parody of which epic convention?

NOT The tragic death of the hero

"Hither the heroes and the nymphs resort, To taste awhile the pleasures of a court" (Canto 3) Who are the "heroes" that Pope refers to?

NOT sylphs MAYBE The Greek heroes of the epics

In "The Lamb," who does the speaker refer to in the lines, "For he calls himself a lamb, / he is meek, and he is mild" (lines 14-15)?

NOT the lamb

According to the final stanza of "Daffodils," what extra "wealth" did the dancing daffodils give to the speaker?

Pleasant memories

Which of the following is NOT a Romantic element in the selection from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage?

Presence of the supernatural

Wordsworth collaborated closely with fellow Lake District poet, ___________.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

What is the essence of Belinda's speech at the end of Canto 4?

She laments her lost curl and wishes she had listened to the sylph's warning.

Blake included "The Lamb" and "The Tiger" in his collection, _____________.

Songs of Innocence and Experience

In lines 114-115, what does Shadwell swear to do as a ruler?

Stay dull

Midway through the poem, what does Gray imagine about a humble villager in the grave?

The villager had ambition that was never fulfilled.

In what way are the lords and ladies of the poem actually like ancient Greek gods?

They are petty and vain.

How do the lords and ladies respond to Clarissa's speech in Canto 5?

They call her a prude

According to Canto 1, what do sylphs do?

They keep young women pure and safe.

In "Lines Written in an Early Spring," the speaker refers to "that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts / Bring sad thoughts to the mind" (lines 3-4). Essentially, he says that it is "sweet" when one meditates on both good and bad things. How does this statement fit into the Romantic viewpoint?

This statement fits into the Romantic viewpoint because some of the themes of Romanticism focuses on the primacy of an individual, the focuses on nature, imagination, and beliefs. When the speaker wrote the lines "that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts/Bring sad thoughts to the mind", it seems like a reflection of the speaker's thoughts and beliefs.

In canto 4, what does Umbriel ask of the Goddess of the Cave of Spleen?

To touch Belinda with ill humor

According to Canto 2, Belinda intentionally crafted her locks of hair to get other people's attention.

True

According to Canto 1, what are sylphs before they become spirits?

Women

Umbriel observes Belinda in her bedchamber after the assault, "Wrapp'd in a gown, for sickness, and for show. / The fair ones feel such maladies as these, / When each new night-dress gives a new disease." Which of the following is the best summary of these lines?

Women pretend to be ill so that they can show off their new clothes.

Who is the speaker in "The Lamb"?

a child

Using the literary device of simile, the speaker in "Daffodils" compares himself to a _______.

cloud

As a Neoclassical poet, Pope emphasizes a rational mindset. In the poem, he mocks those with an overly _______ mindset.

emotional

Blake's commercial profession was his ________, which he often included alongside his poems.

engravings

Blake achieves _______ in this poem by using long vowels and soft consonants, which create a harmonious sound.

euphony

According to Canto 2, Belinda's lock is the first and only "trophy of love" the Baron has ever taken from a woman.

false

Belinda's sylphs don't even try to stop the Baron from snipping off her lock of hair.

false

Gray uses contrasting imagery to show that the life of a powerful person looks much better than the life of a poor person.

false

Thomas Gray was a prolific writer, publishing over 100 poems in his lifetime.

false

William Blake was born into a wealthy and privileged life.

false

In lines 94-5, the Empress ______ spreads the word about Shadwell's coronation.

fame

In stanza 6 of Childe Harold, Byron says that by creating a character, _______.

he receives some of the character's life and feelings

The form of The Rape of the Lock is __________.

heroic couplets

Pope had a difficult youth, due to ________.

his Roman Catholic faith his rocky education his crippling disease

The speakers in the poems assume that the nature of the animal directly reflects the character of _________.

its maker

Dryden uses the classical imagery of ____________.

kings and prophets

The tone of "The Lamb" could best be described as _______.

loving, pure and grateful

In line 4 of Elegy, Gray says the plowman "leaves the world to darkness and to ______."

me

The _________ genre "treats the low, mean, or absurd in the grand language, lofty style, and solemn tone of epic poetry."

mock-epic

In "She Walks in Beauty," the woman contains the best of darkness and light. This is a ________.

paradox

Gray is considered to be the central figure of the ____________ era in British literature.

pre-Romantic

Blake's diction (word choices) in "The Tiger" reveals that the speaker _____________.

sees the tiger and God as frightening and distant

Name the literary device in this line: "She walks in beauty, like the night" (line 1).

simile

In The Prelude, Wordsworth describes the creative process as _________.

spontaneous

According to the poem, "all paths of glory lead but to ________."

the grave

The two interlocking rhymes in each stanza of "She Walks in Beauty" might represent __________.

the harmony between light and dark

Byron's _______ heavily inspired his writing.

travels

"The Tiger" and "The Lamb" share the same simplistic meter and rhyme scheme.

true

Based on his writing, John Dryden seemed to switch back and forth between political alignments over the course of his life.

true

John Dryden was named the first Poet Laureate of England.

true

Lord Byron descended from aristocrats on both sides.

true

Lord Byron is perhaps remembered as much for his erratic personality as he is for his writing.

true

"She Walks in Beauty" has a tone of ______, one of the extreme emotions that Romantics prized.

wonder

What is the battle cry of Belinda and her army in Canto 5?

"Restore the Lock!"

From what we have read so far, does Belinda deserve Pope's vicious mockery? Is she as vain as he thinks she is? Explain your answer.

I don't think that Belinda deserves Pope's vicious mockery. Being vain often requires a high opinion about one's own looks, and I don't think that Belinda had a high opinion on her looks. If someone were to cut off my hair without my permission, I would be upset too. To a certain extent, Belinda might have felt as if someone stole something of hers. The man did not have any right to cut off her hair, as it belongs to her. So in this case, I feel like Belinda was not being vain, she has every right to be upset.

What would you say is the overall message of the poem? Use evidence from the text in your answer.

I would say that the overall message is that people are vain, and can be petty and emotional at times, often focusing on outward beauty instead of inner beauty. Even when Clarrissa had given her moral, and good speech which brought up several issues that society had, she was still called a prude. Alexander writes about how beauty is fleeting and how inner beauty lasts longer than outward beauty through Clarrissa's speech. Alexander shows how people can be petty because even though the Baron did do wrong in cutting Belinda's hair, she overreacted and caused a final battle. She even threatened the Baron with a hairpin, which was a little extreme in this case.

In your own words, explain the poem's message about death. You may use examples from the text to support your position.

It shows the natural cause of life. People work to attain beauty, wealth, power, materialistic objects, and they all work hard to gain these things, but as life progresses, it eventually leads to death. Through this poem, the author shows that in death, it does not matter how much one gains as they are dead. When one dies, they are either buried, cremated or some other form of final disposition, it does not matter because they are dead. In some sense, the author is trying to say that to a certain extent, death makes everyone equal, no matter the class or accomplishments.

Pope is known as the quintessential ________ poet.

Neoclassical

What does Ariel do in Canto 2 when he senses that a threat is near?

Orders all the guardian spirits to their battle stations

Heroic couplets: _____________.

Pairs of rhyming lines in iambic pentameter

Share your reaction to this 17-century roast. Do you think it is too harsh? Should writers speak about other writers in this way? Why or why not?

Personally, I feel that people should not be mean or unkind, whether the roast is considered harsh or not. I do feel that it was a little harsh and that despite the dispute that writers may have with each other, they should not speak about other writers in that way. But this is easy for me to write, as I do not fully understand or feel the emotions that the writer feels, I do not know the cause of their dispute. The writer may have his reasons for writing such harsh words, but I feel that if the writer can resolve their animosity, they should do it, instead of writing words.

Who/what is the speaker's "company" in "Daffodils"?

The flowers

According to the Norton Anthology of English Literature, Blake often paired his poems with "enlightening" engravings. Describe two things that the engraving of "The Lamb" reveals about the poem's tone, message, meaning, speaker, imagery, etc.

The green and blue colors reveal the overall tone of the poem of innocence and peace. The child in the engraving reveals that the child is the speaker of the poem, it shows the point of view which William Blake was writing from.

The Prelude is written in blank verse, which means it does not have a rhyme scheme. Explain why Wordsworth might have intentionally chosen not to rhyme in this particular poem.

The creative process of writing "The Prelude" was described by Wordsworth as spontaneous. Since it is spontaneous, it would have been difficult for Wordsworth to have a rhyme scheme. He would have had to think carefully about his words in order to have a rhyme scheme, thus making it intentional rather than spontaneous. He may have intentionally chosen not to rhyme because he wanted it to have a natural feel in his poem so that he would not have to spend too much effort crafting or manipulating in writing his poem. I believe he wanted to enjoy the time and peace he had when writing "The Prelude".

In literature, the mood is the emotional atmosphere within the work. Describe the emotions you felt as you read Elegy. Did your emotions change as the poem went on? Why? Use a few examples from the text in your answer.

The mood of this poem seems to be both solemn and sad. As I read the elegy, I felt sad when the author wrote about how people chase after wealth, power and beauty and yet how, in the end, it did not matter how much power, or wealth or good the person was, the end always led to death. I felt sad when he wrote about how people chased all these things which lead to destruction, and it felt as if the author was just saying how accomplishments did not mean anything, making it seem like life was purposeless.

Does the narrator criticize the Baron for snipping the lock as much as he criticizes Belinda for her reaction? Use examples from the text in your response.

The narrator does not criticize the Baron for snipping the lock as much as he criticizes Belinda for her reaction. In these lines, "Then flash'd the living lightning from her eyes, And screams of horror rend th' affrighted skies. Not louder shrieks to pitying Heav'n are cast, When husbands or when lap-dogs breathe their last, Or when rich China vessels, fall'n from high, In glitt'ring dust and painted fragments lie!", Pope describes Belinda's actions in a very dramatic and over-exaggerated manner while he barely describes the Baron's actions in the same manner.

By the end of "The Lamb," the speaker gives a clear answer to the question, "who made thee?" By contrast, "The Tiger" contains 15 questions, and none of them are answered in the poem. Why is this significant? Could it be related to the idea of "innocence and experience?"

This is significant because it shows the contrast between the two poems and it could be related to the idea of "innocence and experience". In the poem "The Lamb" things are being told from a child's point of view. It shows the idea of a child asking questions, and answers are often given. The questions that the child asks are full of innocence, it is of someone who had not experienced any difficulties, while the questions that are asked in "The Tiger" are from someone who had already experienced the hardships. The questions that are asked in the "The Tiger" are similar to questions that an adult would ask, and oftentimes, these questions are not answered. The questions in "the Lamb" is easy to answer, and simple, and someone of innocence would easily accept it, while the questions in "the Tiger" are not easy to be answered, especially when the person asking these questions had had some experience.

In lines 41-44, Gray asks two rhetorical questions: "Can storied urn or animated bust Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath? Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust, Or Flatt'ry soothe the dull cold ear of Death?" Explain the meaning of these questions. Then, answer them in your own words.

Through the rhetorical questions, the author is saying that material possessions, stories, honor, and flattery, does not matter if one is dead. It is not like all these things are able to bring someone back to life. The words 'fleeting breath', 'silent dust', 'dull cold ear of death' are all words to describe death. The words 'provoke', 'call', 'soothe' is usually said or done to things that are alive, in this case, in the author asking the question, it shows these questions are rhetorical. It proves the author's point in stating that none of these can mean much if a person is dead.

Do you agree that the nature of an animal reflects the character of God, its creator? Why or why not?

To a certain extent it does, in the Bible, God is compared to several animals, such as the lion and the lamb, the bull, and the dove. The lamb does have gentle and peaceful qualities that God has. The lion has fierce, powerful and strong qualities, all of which God has too. So the nature of an animal reflects the character of God, but it feels odd because, often when someone is compared to an animal, it is not often in a positive light, while God should be seen in a positive light.

Is Belinda justified in her rage over the stolen lock? Why or why not? Use examples from the text in your answer.

To a certain extent, she does. In canto 2, the sexual allegory of the poem starts to show. Even in the title of the poem, it associates the Baron cutting Belinda's hair with something that is of a more explicit sexual activity. In the poem, Alexander shows that through his choice of words, like "rape"(in the title), "betray" and "ravish" amongst other words. Though I do not want to make it so complicated, as, after all, the Baron only cut a lock of her hair. Belinda had every right to be upset because, in a way, her lock of hair was "stolen" from her, but I felt that the rage that she had shown after may have been a little too much.