AP English Literature and Composition › Other Content Analysis Questions: Poetry
Adapted from "The Mouse’s Petition" in Poems by Anna Letitia Barbauld (1773)
Found in the trap where he had been confined all night by Dr. Priestley, for the sake of making experiments with different kinds of air
“To spare the humbled, and to tame in war the proud.” - Virgil
OH! hear a pensive captive's prayer,
For liberty that sighs;
And never let thine heart be shut
Against the prisoner's cries.
For here forlorn and sad I sit,
Within the wiry grate;
And tremble at th' approaching morn,
Which brings impending fate.
If e'er thy breast with freedom glow'd,
And spurn'd a tyrant's chain,
Let not thy strong oppressive force
A free-born mouse detain.
Oh! do not stain with guiltless blood
Thy hospitable hearth;
Nor triumph that thy wiles betray'd
A prize so little worth.
The scatter'd gleanings of a feast
My scanty meals supply;
But if thine unrelenting heart
That slender boon deny,
The cheerful light, the vital air,
Are blessings widely given;
Let nature's commoners enjoy
The common gifts of heaven.
The well-taught philosophic mind
To all compassion gives;
Casts round the world an equal eye,
And feels for all that lives.
If mind, as ancient sages taught,
A never dying flame,
Still shifts thro' matter's varying forms,
In every form the same,
Beware, lest in the worm you crush
A brother's soul you find;
And tremble lest thy luckless hand
Dislodge a kindred mind.
Or, if this transient gleam of day
Be all of life we share,
Let pity plead within thy breast,
That little all to spare.
So may thy hospitable board
With health and peace be crown'd;
And every charm of heartfelt ease
Beneath thy roof be found.
So when unseen destruction lurks,
Which men like mice may share,
May some kind angel clear thy path,
And break the hidden snare.
Which of the following is a reasonable paraphrase of the underlined stanza?
Do not tarnish your home by killing an innocent being in it, and do not take pride in your power over a lowly, powerless creature.
Do not waste your time, and risk ruining your home, by experimenting on such lowly creatures in it.
Do not risk the integrity of your home, and do not take pride in an endeavor as lowly and unspiritual as scientific experimentation.
Do not tarnish the moral stature of science by shedding the blood of innocent, powerless creatures.
Do not tarnish your home by killing an innocent being in it; to do so would be to betray a creature who has shared your home for a long time.
The most accurate paraphrase of the highlighted expert is "Do not tarnish your home by killing an innocent being in it, and do not take pride in your power over a lowly, powerless creature." In this context, the "hospitable hearth" is the addressee's home, the "stain\[ing\]" of this home is most likely to be a metaphorical tarnishing. In this context "triumph" most closely means "take pride."
The stanza focuses on the lowly, powerless innocence of the mouse, not the fact that he has shared the home (unwillingly as a prisoner). There is no real concern for the moral standing of science in general, only for the addressee's morality.
Passage adapted from Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Spring" (1921).
To what purpose, April, do you return again?
Beauty is not enough.
You can no longer quiet me with the redness
Of leaves opening stickily.
I know what I know. 5
The sun is hot on my neck as I observe
The spikes of the crocus.
The smell of the earth is good.
It is apparent that there is no death.
But what does that signify? 10
Not only under the ground are the brains of men
Eaten by maggots.
Life in itself
Is nothing,
An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs. 15
It is not enough that yearly, down this hill,
April
Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.
This poem emphasizes the antithesis between __________.
growth and decay
good and evil
faith and reason
strength and weakness
the physical and the spiritual
This poem emphasizes the contrast, between growth and decay. The first eight lines feature imagery of plant growth, in contrast to the image of decay (in lines 11-12) is that is the focus of the latter part of the poem. Throughout the poem, growth is associated with springtime and new life, whereas decay is related to death.
There are no direct references morality (good and evil), religion (faith and reason), or physical strength (strength and weakness). There is also no suggestion in the text of any kind of spiritual existence, and so it cannot be said that there is antithesis between the physical and the spiritual.
Passage adapted from Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Spring" (1921).
To what purpose, April, do you return again?
Beauty is not enough.
You can no longer quiet me with the redness
Of leaves opening stickily.
I know what I know. 5
The sun is hot on my neck as I observe
The spikes of the crocus.
The smell of the earth is good.
It is apparent that there is no death.
But what does that signify? 10
Not only under the ground are the brains of men
Eaten by maggots.
Life in itself
Is nothing,
An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs. 15
It is not enough that yearly, down this hill,
April
Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.
In line 9, "it is apparent that" most closely means __________.
it seems that
it is obvious that
it is possible that
it is visible that
it is manifest that
In this context, the phrase "It is apparent that" most closely means "it seems that." The author is contrasting the seeming rebirth of nature during the spring with the reality of death.
While sometimes the phrase "it is apparent that" can mean "it is obvious that" or it is manifest that," it does not mean either of those things in this context. If it were truly obvious (or even possible) that there were no death, then the speaker would not go on to describe concrete images that confirm the existence of death in lines 11-12.
Adapted from "Old Man Traveling" by William Wordsworth in Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1798 ed.)
The little hedge-row birds,
That peck along the road, regard him not.
He travels on, and in his face, his step,
His gait, is one expression; every limb,
His look and bending figure, all bespeak
A man who does not move with pain, but moves
With thought—He is insensibly subdued
To settled quiet: he is one by whom
All effort seems forgotten, one to whom
Long patience has such mild composure given,
That patience now doth seem a thing, of which
He hath no need. He is by nature led
To peace so perfect, that the young behold
With envy, what the old man hardly feels.
—I asked him whither he was bound, and what
The object of his journey; he replied
"Sir! I am going many miles to take
"A last leave of my son, a mariner,
"Who from a sea-fight has been brought to Falmouth,
And there is dying in an hospital."
Which of these best describes the birds' reaction to the man?
They don't notice him
They watch him intently
They show no love for the man but do not hate him
They are wary of him
They avoid him
The author says, quite specifically that the hedgerow birds “regard him not.” In this case, the man does not impact their lives in any way as he goes unnoticed. We can also say that they “don't notice” him. We know they don't have any feelings towards him as there is no evidence in the poem to support this. We also know that they don't watch him as they “regard him not.” Furthermore, the birds are not making an effort to avoid the man and the man likewise is not avoiding the birds; they are peacefully coexistent.
Passage adapted from Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Spring" (1921).
To what purpose, April, do you return again?
Beauty is not enough.
You can no longer quiet me with the redness
Of leaves opening stickily.
I know what I know. 5
The sun is hot on my neck as I observe
The spikes of the crocus.
The smell of the earth is good.
It is apparent that there is no death.
But what does that signify? 10
Not only under the ground are the brains of men
Eaten by maggots.
Life in itself
Is nothing,
An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs. 15
It is not enough that yearly, down this hill,
April
Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.
The phrases "the spikes of the crocus" and "the redness of the leaves opening stickily" serve the purpose of __________.
All of these answers are accurate.
None of these
describing flowers and plants in the springtime
subverting the traditional association between springtime and new life by using words that have threatening or violent connotations
foreshadowing the gory imagery of death that occurs later in the poem
The phrases "spikes of the crocus" and "the redness of the leaves opening stickily" serve all of the purposes listed. On the surface level, these phrases describe botanical imagery. However, the word "spike," while describing the shape of the crocus flower, also suggests a literal spike, something that is dangerous or could be used as a weapon. The words "redness" and "stickily" can have connotations of blood or wounds. These gruesome images foreshadow the macabre imagery that occurs in lines 11-12.
Adapted from “Solitary Death, make me thine own” in Underneath the Bough: A Book of Verses by Michael Field (pseudonym of Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper) (1893)
Solitary Death, make me thine own,
And let us wander the bare fields together;
Yea, thou and I alone
Roving in unembittered unison forever.
I will not harry thy treasure-graves,
I do not ask thy still hands a lover;
My heart within me craves
To travel till we twain Time’s wilderness discover.
To sojourn with thee my soul was bred,
And I, the courtly sights of life refusing,
To the wide shadows fled,
And mused upon thee often as I fell a-musing.
Escaped from chaos, thy mother Night,
In her maiden breast a burthen that awed her,
By cavern waters white
Drew thee her first-born, her unfathered off-spring toward her.
On dewey plats, near twilight dingle,
She oft, to still thee from men’s sobs and curses
In thine ears a-tingle,
Pours her cool charms, her weird, reviving chaunt rehearses.
Though mortals menace thee or elude,
And from thy confines break in swift transgression.
Thou for thyself art sued
Of me, I claim thy cloudy purlieus my possession.
To a long freshwater, where the sea
Stirs the silver flux of the reeds and willows,
Come thou, and beckon me
To lie in the lull of the sand-sequestered billows:
Then take the life I have called my own
And to the liquid universe deliver;
Loosening my spirit’s zone,
Wrap round me as thy limbs the wind, the light, the river.
The use of the underlined and bolded term “Solitary” at the opening of the poem serves which of the following purposes?
Figuring personified “Death” as solitary at the opening of the poem adds emotional resonance to the speaker's address to Death advocating for them to be companions.
Figuring personified “Death” as solitary at the opening of the poem situates death as a negative and limiting force.
Characterizing Death as “solitary” at the opening of the poem suggests the fundamental, unbridgeable gap between abstract concepts and mortal beings.
The use of “solitary” at the opening of the poem sets the tone for the rest of the poem, which is concerned with the grief and loneliness that often follows a death.
The use of “solitary” at the opening of the poem situates the narrator as a lonely person so in need of companionship that she is willing to court even death.
Opening the poem with personified “Death” as a solitary figure adds emotional resonance and purchase to the speaker’s subsequent plea to Death for them to be companions. This way, the closing image of Death embracing the speaker completes an emotional journey; Death started the poem alone and ends in an embrace. This change can be seem as mutually beneficial and supportive, rather than the speaker simply using Death or vice-versa.
Adapted from “Solitary Death, make me thine own” in Underneath the Bough: A Book of Verses by Michael Field (pseudonym of Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper) (1893)
Solitary Death, make me thine own,
And let us wander the bare fields together;
Yea, thou and I alone
Roving in unembittered unison forever.
I will not harry thy treasure-graves,
I do not ask thy still hands a lover;
My heart within me craves
To travel till we twain Time’s wilderness discover.
To sojourn with thee my soul was bred,
And I, the courtly sights of life refusing,
To the wide shadows fled,
And mused upon thee often as I fell a-musing.
Escaped from chaos, thy mother Night,
In her maiden breast a burthen that awed her,
By cavern waters white
Drew thee her first-born, her unfathered off-spring toward her.
On dewey plats, near twilight dingle,
She oft, to still thee from men’s sobs and curses
In thine ears a-tingle,
Pours her cool charms, her weird, reviving chaunt rehearses.
Though mortals menace thee or elude,
And from thy confines break in swift transgression.
Thou for thyself art sued
Of me, I claim thy cloudy purlieus my possession.
To a long freshwater, where the sea
Stirs the silver flux of the reeds and willows,
Come thou, and beckon me
To lie in the lull of the sand-sequestered billows:
Then take the life I have called my own
And to the liquid universe deliver;
Loosening my spirit’s zone,
Wrap round me as thy limbs the wind, the light, the river.
The underlined and bolded excerpt is most accurately paraphrased by which of the following?
The speaker is explaining the parameters of the relationship he or she would ask of “Death,” and in so, doing is expressing his or her belief that true friendship is a companionship, rather than a relationship based on exchange or romantic desire.
The speaker is making promises and assurances about his or her own demands of Death, in hopes that Death will visit him or her and bestow its wisdom and power upon him or her.
The speaker is explaining why he or she wishes to travel with Death, and is making Death assurances that he or she will not steal from him or her or demand romantic love.
The speaker is defiantly rejecting Death’s advances, proclaiming him- or herself neither a lover of Death, nor a beneficiary of Death’s gifts.
The speaker is explaining the parameters of the relationship he or she would ask of Death, and in so doing is demonstrating his or her fear and ambivalence about Death’s embrace.
The speaker is here explaining the parameters of the relationship he or she would like with death, and through this is demonstrating his or her beliefs about true, platonic friendship. His or her statement that he or she “will not harry \[Death’s\] treasure-graves” suggests that the speaker is not looking for death’s rewards, power, or wisdom. He or she is not explaining why he or she wishes to travel, merely asserting that he or she “craves” to do so" and making assurances about the parameter of the companion relationship. The speaker does not demonstrate either fear or ambivalence, and is actively asking for Death’s companionship, not rejecting Death’s advances.
Adapted from "The Mouse’s Petition" in Poems by Anna Letitia Barbauld (1773)
Found in the trap where he had been confined all night by Dr. Priestley, for the sake of making experiments with different kinds of air
“To spare the humbled, and to tame in war the proud.” - Virgil
OH! hear a pensive captive's prayer,
For liberty that sighs;
And never let thine heart be shut
Against the prisoner's cries.
For here forlorn and sad I sit,
Within the wiry grate;
And tremble at th' approaching morn,
Which brings impending fate.
If e'er thy breast with freedom glow'd,
And spurn'd a tyrant's chain,
Let not thy strong oppressive force
A free-born mouse detain.
Oh! do not stain with guiltless blood
Thy hospitable hearth;
Nor triumph that thy wiles betray'd
A prize so little worth.
The scatter'd gleanings of a feast
My scanty meals supply;
But if thine unrelenting heart
That slender boon deny,
The cheerful light, the vital air,
Are blessings widely given;
Let nature's commoners enjoy
The common gifts of heaven.
The well-taught philosophic mind
To all compassion gives;
Casts round the world an equal eye,
And feels for all that lives.
If mind, as ancient sages taught,
A never dying flame,
Still shifts thro' matter's varying forms,
In every form the same,
Beware, lest in the worm you crush
A brother's soul you find;
And tremble lest thy luckless hand
Dislodge a kindred mind.
Or, if this transient gleam of day
Be all of life we share,
Let pity plead within thy breast,
That little all to spare.
So may thy hospitable board
With health and peace be crown'd;
And every charm of heartfelt ease
Beneath thy roof be found.
So when unseen destruction lurks,
Which men like mice may share,
May some kind angel clear thy path,
And break the hidden snare.
The underlined lines in the last stanza can most accurately be characterized as which of the following?
An attempt to illustrate the shared elements of existence between humans and animals
A threat from the speaker to the addressee
A warning against an imminent danger
An attempt to illustrate the obliviousness of humans to their potential destruction of the animal kingdom, of which they are a part
A reminder of the power of a vengeful deity
The highlighted excerpt is most accurately characterized as an attempt to illustrate the shared elements of existence between humans and animals. The reference to "destruction lurk\[ing\] unseen" is intended to draw a parallel between humans and mice (or any mortal creature); it is not a threat (since there is no demand made in exchange for the aversion of the "destruction"), and it is not a warning of a specific impending catastrophe. While such a reference certainly has resonances with the wrath of a vengeful deity, in the context of the reference of the poem, this reference is clearly intended to draw on similarities between humans and other mortal creatures. The potential destruction is "unseen" and therefore difficult to attribute to humans directly in this context.
Adapted from "The Mouse’s Petition" in Poems by Anna Letitia Barbauld (1773)
Found in the trap where he had been confined all night by Dr. Priestley, for the sake of making experiments with different kinds of air
“To spare the humbled, and to tame in war the proud.” - Virgil
OH! hear a pensive captive's prayer,
For liberty that sighs;
And never let thine heart be shut
Against the prisoner's cries.
For here forlorn and sad I sit,
Within the wiry grate;
And tremble at th' approaching morn,
Which brings impending fate.
If e'er thy breast with freedom glow'd,
And spurn'd a tyrant's chain,
Let not thy strong oppressive force
A free-born mouse detain.
Oh! do not stain with guiltless blood
Thy hospitable hearth;
Nor triumph that thy wiles betray'd
A prize so little worth.
The scatter'd gleanings of a feast
My scanty meals supply;
But if thine unrelenting heart
That slender boon deny,
The cheerful light, the vital air,
Are blessings widely given;
Let nature's commoners enjoy
The common gifts of heaven.
The well-taught philosophic mind
To all compassion gives;
Casts round the world an equal eye,
And feels for all that lives.
If mind, as ancient sages taught,
A never dying flame,
Still shifts thro' matter's varying forms,
In every form the same,
Beware, lest in the worm you crush
A brother's soul you find;
And tremble lest thy luckless hand
Dislodge a kindred mind.
Or, if this transient gleam of day
Be all of life we share,
Let pity plead within thy breast,
That little all to spare.
So may thy hospitable board
With health and peace be crown'd;
And every charm of heartfelt ease
Beneath thy roof be found.
So when unseen destruction lurks,
Which men like mice may share,
May some kind angel clear thy path,
And break the hidden snare.
In the underlined lines, "to all compassion gives" most closely means which of the following?
The "well-taught philosophic mind" is compassionate towards everyone.
The "well-taught philosophic mind" gives all of its consideration to compassion.
The "well-taught philosophic mind" gives in to every compassionate impulse.
All philosophers are, by their very nature, compassionate.
"The well-taught mind" is consumed by passion.
In this context, "The well-taught philosophic mind / to all compassion gives" most closely means that such a mind is compassionate towards everyone. "All" in this context refers to all sentient beings, not the compassion. While it stands to reason that the speaker would think that all good philosophers would be, by nature, compassionate, not all philosophers are held to be good, and not all "well-taught philosophic mind\[s\]" are philosophers by trade.
Adapted from “Solitary Death, make me thine own” in Underneath the Bough: A Book of Verses by Michael Field (pseudonym of Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper) (1893)
Solitary Death, make me thine own,
And let us wander the bare fields together;
Yea, thou and I alone
Roving in unembittered unison forever.
I will not harry thy treasure-graves,
I do not ask thy still hands a lover;
My heart within me craves
To travel till we twain Time’s wilderness discover.
To sojourn with thee my soul was bred,
And I, the courtly sights of life refusing,
To the wide shadows fled,
And mused upon thee often as I fell a-musing.
Escaped from chaos, thy mother Night,
In her maiden breast a burthen that awed her,
By cavern waters white
Drew thee her first-born, her unfathered off-spring toward her.
On dewey plats, near twilight dingle,
She oft, to still thee from men’s sobs and curses
In thine ears a-tingle,
Pours her cool charms, her weird, reviving chaunt rehearses.
Though mortals menace thee or elude,
And from thy confines break in swift transgression.
Thou for thyself art sued
Of me, I claim thy cloudy purlieus my possession.
To a long freshwater, where the sea
Stirs the silver flux of the reeds and willows,
Come thou, and beckon me
To lie in the lull of the sand-sequestered billows:
Then take the life I have called my own
And to the liquid universe deliver;
Loosening my spirit’s zone,
Wrap round me as thy limbs the wind, the light, the river.
In context, the use of the underlined and bolded word “unembittered” serves which purpose?
It helps alert the reader to the unconventionally positive characterization of “solitary death” in the rest of the poem.
By being addressed to “solitary death,” “unembittered” creates irony and sets the reader up to view the personified “solitary death” negatively throughout the rest of the poem.
By being used in the phrase “roving in unembittered unison,” it hints at the romantic relationship between the speaker and the personified “solitary death” discussed throughout the rest of the poem.
It helps alert the reader to a pre-existing negative relationship between the speaker and the personified “solitary death” that will be explored later in the poem.
It helps alert the reader to the speaker’s status as an immortal observer of “solitary death” rather than a being who is subject to it.
In this context, “unembittered” serves as a signpost alerting the reader to how the poem characterizes death as a companion instead using a more conventional negative characterization. As such, “unembittered” is intended to be read sincerely, rather than ironically. The relationship between death and the speaker is specifically not characterized as romantic. The speaker is not presented as an immortal observer of death, but an invested and curious potential participant.