Poetry practice test

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 4-6

Poetry Practice Test

Questions are similar to what you can expect on the test

Poetry test: 

Part 1 - knowledge of terms

• Definitions
  
• PIF-style assignment
  
• Recognition / identification
  

Part 2 - analysis of unseen poem

• Interpretation of poem using all the tools discussed in class
  
• Links between different elements in the poem
  

Run-on lines; lines that do not end with natural pauzes

A mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered unpleasant or embarrassing.

when successive lines begin with the same wordsText

Euphemism

Anaphora

Enjambment

Pentameter

Name the feature:
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,

Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

Analysis of a poem:

Have a look at 'Futility' by Wilfred Owen

Does the poem have a rhyme scheme?

1. Yes
2. No
3. I don't know
4. No rhyme or reason

Rhyme (or not)

The poem almost rhymes, but no distinct rhyme scheme

Lines almost rhyme: 

'sun' - 'sown', 'once' - 'France', etc.

This can be linked to the Message and Theme of the poem

Does the poem have a regular meter?

1. Yes
2. No
3. I don't know
4. A regular meter is 100cm

Look at the syllables:

The number of syllables in each line increases and decreases.

This gives the poem a distinct rhythm.

What does this rhythm remind you of?

Give me an example of Personification from the poem:

Which of the lines are enjambed?

Imagery?

First stanza?

Second stanza?

First stanza:

Set on the battlefield during winter, a soldier is dying (or dead already) as the sun rises over the battlefield. 

There is some hope that the soldier might respond to the warmth of the ‘encouraging’ Sun (personification).

Second stanza?

Allusion to creation myths (idea that humans were created from God molding clay and the Sun giving the life). 

Creates doubt / questioning tone about the reasons for life: ‘was it for this the clay grew tall?’ (rhetorical question). 

The last two lines seem to suggest that all the work the Sun has done is pointless (futile, fatuous - connotation). 

Structure & Imagery?

Structure adds to imagery: 

The ‘shorter’ lines and half-rhyme work with the image of the died soldier, dead before his time

The suggestion that war isn’t natural for humans (half-rhyme).

Theme & Message?

What do you think the poem is about?

Theme & Message?

The pointlessness of war

Idea that war is not what man was made for

Tone, mood, atmosphere

What sort of emotional response is the poem trying to create in the reader?

Use adjectives to describe the emotion!

Tone, mood, and atmosphere?

Tone, mood, atmosphere

Bleak, questioning, doubtful

Maybe even frustration depending how you interpret the final two lines