ENGL408 Final Exam - Modern Poetry and Poetics | Practice Test / Quiz / MCQs

2. Professor Hammer points out that T.S. Eliot used quotation as an important literary technique. The use of quotations, according to Professor Hammer, suggests which of the following attitudes to the past?

Violation of the pastCuriosity about the pastDeference to the past / Violation of the pastDeference to the past

3. Which of the following statements best characterizes the formal qualities of Langston Hughes's poem 'Life is Fine'?

The diction is much more polysyllabic than monosyllabic.The use of alternating end rhymes and word repetitions enhance the music of the poem and along with its occasional dissonance give it an improvisational jazz-like quality.This poem is structured like a villanelle.It is written in Standard American English for middle-class readers.

4. What is the most notable characteristic of Ezra Pound's 'In a Station at the Metro'?

The use of synesthesiaThe use of metaphorThe use of simileThe form of a villanelle

5. Which of the following best describes the types of imagery used in Louis Zukofsky's poem, 'A: Seventh Movement: There Are Different Techniques'?

Historic and contemporary imageryKabalistic imageryEveryday imageryNationalist imagery

6. In analyzing T.S. Eliot's 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,' Professor Hammer argues that Eliot creates something that might be called which of the following?

'Implicit dialogue with the future''A meditation on contradictions''Overheard inner speech''Objective correlative'

8. According to W.E.B. Dubois in his Atlantic Monthly essay, 'The Strivings of the Negro People,' what are some of the personal consequences for an African-American living in a racist society at the beginning of the 20th century?

All of theseBecoming a stuttering sycophant just to surviveFeeling like an outcast in your own houseWrapping yourself in the armor of anger and resentment

9. Rupert Brooke's 'The Soldier' opens with the following lines: 'If I should die, think only this of me:/That there's some corner of a foreign field/That is for ever England.' Which of the following statements best describes these lines and Brooke's poem as a whole?

These lines and the poem as a whole use both the political concept of a nation and the spiritual concept of eternity to give meaning to soldiers' deaths on the battlefield.These lines and the poem as a whole are primarily concerned with the extension of Britain's imperial power.These lines and the poem as a whole rely on assonance to magnify the critique of war expressed in the poem.These lines and the poem as a whole seek to directly express the horrors of war.

10. Which of the following features of Robert Browning's 'My Last Duchess' make it classifiable as a Victorian poem?

All of these answersIt is primarily a narrative poem.It has a regular rhyme scheme (aa/bb/cc/dd…), which is sustained throughout the poem.It is concerned with conventional 19th-century relations between a man and a woman.

11. According to Professor Hammer, Wallace Stevens's understanding of the imagination has most in common with which of the following literary traditions?

ImagismBritish RomanticismVorticismClassicism

12. Complete the following sentence. Poetic images which idealize war and ascribe spiritual qualities to battle can be found primarily in English poems written:

in the 1920s.in the early stages of World War I.in the late stages of World War I.around 1900.

13. What is the 'double-bind' that African-American women poets encountered in the thirties and forties, according to Anthony Walton's essay?

Being overworked in menial jobs having to raise large familiesHaving little formal education with little access to publishersBeing a subordinated woman in a male dominated culture and a member of a suppressed minority race in the middle of a dominant white cultureBeing ignored by a traditional poetry reading public because what they wrote about was the travails of subsistence living

14. Which of the following descriptors does NOT apply to the features of French Symbolist poetry that influenced other modernist poetry?

French Symbolist poetry is shocking.French Symbolist poetry is formally experimental.French Symbolist poetry has narrative clarity.French Symbolist poetry is full of exaggerated metaphors.

15. Yeats's 'Song of Wandering Aengus' ends with the lines: 'And pluck till time and times are done/The silver apples of the moon/The golden apples of the sun.'Which of the following is NOT a symbolic meaning of the apples?

They point to alchemical elements, which in turn symbolize the body and the soul.They symbolize the return to a lost paradise.They symbolize a fulfilled longing.They symbolize the coming apocalypse.

16. In the first lecture of his Modern Poetry course, what argument does Professor Langdon Hammer make about the relationship between the modern city and poetic modernism?

Many languages and many forms of language were used in large cities; modernist poets often treated language not as something given and natural but as a construct which they could manipulate.All of these answersIndividuals often felt lost and alienated in large cities, and among poets this resulted in turning inward and focusing only on the world of one's own imagination.Most modernist poets lived in large cities; therefore, they often used urban imagery in their poetry.

17. Professor Hammer argues that in a certain sense Wallace Stevens's poetry is always meta-poetry. What does this mean?

Stevens's poetry highlights an objective voice.Stevens's poetry investigates its own rules.Stevens's poetry is primarily, though not explicitly, concerned with metaphysics.Stevens's poetry always addresses several different audiences.

18. Which of the following was an important influence on Charles Reznikoff's shift away from romantic rhetoric?

His study of ancient historyHis study of medicineHis study of SanskritHis study of law

19. In his essay 'The Symbolism of Poetry,' William Butler Yeats argues that which of the following is the purpose of rhythm?

To 'make poetry new'To 'counteract the forces of dispersal inherent in metaphorical language'To 'amplify and clarify the indistinct emotions created by metaphorical symbols'To 'prolong the moment of contemplation'

20. Which of the following statements best characterizes the last two stanzas of Charles Baudelaire's symbolist poem 'Correspondences'?

They use metaphors with subtle political connotations.They describe a scene in the countryside, which symbolizes the state of the author's soul.They ascribe colors and sounds to scents, relying on a device known as synesthesia.They describe the author's experiences as a young child.

21. Which of the following statements best characterizes the contrast between T.S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land' and the futurist aesthetic project?

'The Waste Land' is an ironic exploration of Romantic themes, whereas the futurists incorporate ironic evocations of the classical tradition in their poetry.'The Waste Land' is primarily concerned with nature, whereas the futurists aremost interested in industrial and urban landscapes.'The Waste Land' confronts the fragmentation of modernity by exploring a variety of modes and voices, whereas the futurists donot focus on the fragmentation of modern experience, praising speed and industrial progress instead.'The Waste Land' focuses on the personal connection between poet and speaker, whereas the futurists focus on an impersonal connection between humans and industry.

22. Which of the following statements best characterizes Georgia Douglass Johnson's poem 'Black Woman'?

This poem focuses primarily on the different experiences of black and white women.This poem is a conversation between a black woman and a child who is not yet born.The poem is a conversation between a black woman and her ancestors.This poem describes the relationship between a black woman and her child.

23. Wilfred Owen's 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' begins with the following lines: '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.' Which of the following statements best describes these lines?

These lines suggest that the Great War lasted much longer than it should have.These lines equate humans with animals, and they anthropomorphize weapons to show a world where there is no place for human values.These lines suggest that it was difficult to define patriotism during the Great War, but soldiers who died in battle provided the best example of patriotism.These lines represent a modern funeral dirge that mimics the rhythm of ancient Greek funeral dirges.

24. Which of the following best describes the reasons why World War I had a profound impact on modern poetry?

World War I was the first global conflict where the distinction between combatants and civilians was erased, and this had a devastating effect on the European psyche.The mechanized killing, which took place on a massive scale during World War I, made it necessary to reflect about the effects of technological progress.The devastation wrought by World War I was so enormous that it put Europe's cultural and political norms and values into question.The devastation wrought by World War I was so enormous that it put Europe's cultural and political norms and values into question / The mechanized killing, which took place on a massive scale during World War I, made it necessary to reflect about the effects of technological progress

25. Professor Hammer argues that Marianne Moore's poem 'England' suggests which of the following?

Moore's emotional and aesthetic attachment to EnglandMoore's harsh critique of the carnage of World War IMoore's particular kind of combative American cultural nationalismMoore's interest in England's civilizing mission in the world

25 Questions

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25 Questions

❤ If you liked Fatskills, consider supporting us by checking out The Life Manuals You Never Got.

About | Explore | User Guide | Topics | Subjects | Doubt Solver | Career Aptitude Test | Answers | Free Tools | What Should We Know? Privacy | Terms |

Without work one finishes nothing. - Ralph Waldo Emerson© 2026 Fatskills.com

All trademarks, logos and brand names are the property of their respective owners. All company, product and service names used in this website are for identification purposes only. Use of these names, trademarks and brands does not imply endorsement.

About | Explore | User Guide | Topics | Subjects | Doubt Solver | Career Aptitude Test | Answers | Free Tools | What Should We Know?
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Without work one finishes nothing. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
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