Student Center
|
information center view
|
Home
Contexts for Criticism, 4/e
Student Center
General Essay Ques...
Gilman Bio
Keats Bio
Melville Bio
Shakespeare Bio
Choose a Chapter
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter Objectives
Multiple Choice Quiz
Essay Questions
Critic Bios
Sites of Interest
Feedback
Help Center
Formal Criticism: Poem as Context
Multiple Choice Quiz
1
What is the basis of the formalist distinction between the language of poetry and the language of science?
A)
the language of poetry is simple / the language of science is complex
B)
poetic statements express personal opinion / scientific statements express universal truths
C)
the language of poetry exploits instability of meaning / the language of science seeks fixed and stable meanings
D)
poetry expresses transcendent truth / science expresses immanent truth
2
Formalist critics are primarily interested in which sense of the word "form"?
A)
isomorphic properties among a class of similar texts (epic form, lyric form, etc.)
B)
the principles of coherence by which we might regard a text as a unique object
C)
congruence with the formal aspects of the subject represented
D)
conformity with established literary conventions
3
What is the "heresy of paraphrase"?
A)
the misuse of poetry for tasks that are best suited for prose
B)
the temptation to translate a poem into a proposition with which its author might not agree
C)
the mistake of confusing a poem's paraphrasable content with its meaning as a poem
D)
the once-unorthodox method devised by formalists to distill and "paraphrase" the intrinsic meaning of a poem
4
Which of the following would be considered a formalist "close reading" of the opening lines of Eliot's "The Waste Land"? ("April is the cruellest month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing / Memory and desire, stirring / Dull roots with spring rain.")
A)
an allusion to the opening lines of "The Canterbury Tales" -- "Whan that Aprille with his shoures soot / The droghte of March hath perced to the root..."; both exploit the poetic conventions of the traditional "reverdi" (a celebration of the return of Spring)
B)
the language is more likely that of Eliot's wife, Vivienne, and is an example of their early collaboration (Vivienne also served as the model for the wife in the "Game of Chess" section).
C)
the fragmented form of the poem invites readers to put the pieces together themselves and thereby create a meaning whose existence the poem does not acknowledge (on the surface)
D)
the opening juxtaposition of "memory" and "desire" anticipates both the reminiscence of "Marie" later in the opening section and (ironically) the typists's loveless liaison with "the young man carbuncular" whose caresses are "unreproved, if undesired."
2003 McGraw-Hill Higher Education
Any use is subject to the
Terms of Use
and
Privacy Policy
.
McGraw-Hill Higher Education
is one of the many fine businesses of
The McGraw-Hill Companies
.
2003 McGraw-Hill Higher Education