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Question of the Day: AP English Language
Adapted from "The Poet" in Essays: Second Series by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1844)
Those who are esteemed umpires of taste, are often persons knowledge of admired pictures or sculptures, and have an inclination for whatever is elegant; but if you inquire whether they are beautiful souls, and whether their own acts are like fair pictures, you learn that they are selfish and sensual. Their cultivation is local, as if you should rub a log of dry wood in one spot to produce fire, all the rest remaining cold. Their knowledge of the fine arts is some study of rules and particulars, or some limited judgment of color or form, which is exercised for amusement or for show. It is a proof of the shallowness of the doctrine of beauty, as it lies in the minds of our amateurs, that men seem to have lost the perception of the instant dependence of form upon soul. There is no doctrine of forms in our philosophy. We were put into our bodies, as fire is put into a pan, to be carried about; but there is no accurate adjustment between the spirit and the organ, much less is the latter the germination of the former. So in regard to other forms, the intellectual men do not believe in any essential dependence of the material world on thought and volition. Theologians think it a pretty air-castle to talk of the spiritual meaning of a ship or a cloud, of a city or a contract, but they prefer to come again to the solid ground of historical evidence; and even the poets are contented with a civil and conformed manner of living, and to write poems from the fancy, at a safe distance from their own experience. But the highest minds of the world have never ceased to explore the double meaning, or, shall I say, the quadruple, or the centuple, or much more manifold meaning, of every sensuous fact: Orpheus, Empedocles, Heraclitus, Plato, Plutarch, Dante, Swedenborg, and the masters of sculpture, picture, and poetry. For we are not pans and barrows, nor even porters of the fire and torch-bearers, but children of the fire, made of it, and only the same divinity transmuted, and at two or three removes, when we know least about it. And this hidden truth, that the fountains whence all this river of Time, and its creatures, floweth, are intrinsically ideal and beautiful, draws us to the consideration of the nature and functions of the Poet, or the man of Beauty, to the means and materials he uses, and to the general aspect of the art in the present time.
The breadth of the problem is great, for the poet is representative. He stands among partial men for the complete man, and apprises us not of his wealth, but of the common-wealth. The young man reveres men of genius, because, to speak truly, they are more himself than he is. They receive of the soul as he also receives, but they more. Nature enhances her beauty, to the eye of loving men, from their belief that the poet is beholding her shows at the same time. He is isolated among his contemporaries, by truth and by his art, but with this consolation in his pursuits, that they will draw all men sooner or later. For all men live by truth, and stand in need of expression. In love, in art, in avarice, in politics, in labor, in games, we study to utter our painful secret. The man is only half himself, the other half is his expression.
The author lists several famous poets by name in the first paragraph in order to __________.
reference poets who have created the foundations of poetic craft and have reached full expression in their poetry
list artists and poets who have devoted themselves to only drawing inspiration from experience instead of fancy
enumerate poets who possess a mastery of poetic expression
provide examples of artists and poets who incorporate experience into their work in contrast to other individuals who do not employ experience
demonstrate the myriad of meanings possible from the same set of facts or life experiences
The English language is an intricate study of many different rules regarding grammar, punctuation, tense, and other parts of speech. As you prepare for your AP English Language test, you will want to find ways to study that will prepare you for questions that you might see on your test. While there are many different options for you to use as you prepare for the test, one way is to use the AP English Language Question of the Day from Varsity Tutors’ Learning Tools. By using the Question of the Day, you will receive a unique AP English Language sample question each day that will help you review the information that may be on the test and get you in the habit of studying for your test on a daily basis. Whether you need English tutoring in Providence, English tutoring in Nashville, or English tutoring in San Antonio, working one-on-one with an expert may be just the boost your studies need.
Using the Question of the Day each day as you prepare for the exam can help get you into a daily AP English Language review routine. Taking just a few minutes out of each day to focus on your review will keep your mind fresh when it comes to the topic. Each day, you will get a multiple-choice question that pertains to an AP English Language topic. In many questions, you will receive a passage to read. This will require you to think critically about the whole passage, as well as the specific concept that the sample question pertains to. Varsity Tutors offers resources like free AP English Language Practice Tests to help with your self-paced study, or you may want to consider an AP English Language tutor.
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The AP English Language Question of the Day gives you the opportunity to receive a question each day that’s similar in format to your upcoming AP English Language test. It’s just one of many review resources available from Varsity Tutors’ Learning Tools, all of which can help you as you move forward toward the test.
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