SAT II Literature : Theme: Poetry
Study concepts, example questions & explanations for SAT II Literature
All SAT II Literature Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #31 : Summarizing Or Describing The Passage
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.
A prominent theme in the poem is that __________.
immortality is found through union with nature
the rebirth of nature during springtime proves that life ultimately overcomes death
life is short, and so it is important to live fully and seize the day
beauty and the apparent rebirth of nature in springtime do not make up for the ultimate reality of death
the reality of death makes life itself that much more meaningful and precious in comparison
beauty and the apparent rebirth of nature in springtime do not make up for the ultimate reality of death
The central message of the poem is that the sense of new life that is associated with springtime is ultimately an illusion, and that death is certain. As the poem states, the coming of springtime "is not enough" to compensate for impending death.
The message of the poem is not that one should "seize the day" or that life is meaningful and precious, because life is ultimately considered to be nothing (see 13-15), regardless of how it is lived. It cannot be said that the rebirth of spring proves that life overcomes death, because the writer gives concrete evidence of the finality of death in lines 11-12. For the same reason, there is little support for the idea of immortality in the poem.
Example Question #12 : Motives, Goals, And Actions Of Characters
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."
According to the poem, who covets the accomplishments of the man?
The narrator
Everyone
The birds
The young
His son
The young
The speaker clearly states that “the young behold / With envy, what the old man hardly feels” in reference to the state of peace the man has reached. So, we know it is the young who are envious and covet the accomplishments of the old man in that they wish to attain such a mindset. We can reach this answer by eliminating "the birds," "the man's son," and "everyone," as the birds pay no attention to the man, the son is dying and not said to envy his father's accomplishments, and “everyone” is similarly not mentioned in the poem. We then can rule out the narrator as although he or she is probably envious, the narrator does not directly state that they covet what the old man has, making "the young" the best answer.
Example Question #34 : Extrapolating From The Passage
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 the following sentences best captures the theme of the passage?
We must find solace in walking when we are most sad
We can be tranquil in nature regardless of external worries
Life is a journey to visit the sick and ailing
We should respect our elders
We can attain enlightenment at any age
We can be tranquil in nature regardless of external worries
The poem deals with tranquility in nature regardless of decay; indeed, the full title of the poem is "Old Man Traveling; Animal Tranquility and Decay; A Sketch." The man is traveling through nature, which is tranquil despite the fact that around it people live their lives and die in violent circumstances like battles. We can therefore say that the them the poet wants to convey overall is tranquility regardless of external worries. There is some suggestion that the man has gained a sort of peace or enlightenment due to his years, but the poet does not suggest one can only achieve this state through age. We could argue that “we must find solace in walking when we are most sad,” but this doesn't exactly fit the message that is being conveyed as there is no imperative given to walk by the poet. The other possible answers are both similarly trite and fail to grasp the theme as they focus on small parts of the poem rather than its entirety.
Example Question #11 : Theme: Poetry
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright,
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?
And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
(1794)
Which of the following most accurately reflects the poem's central question?
How can a tiger be so terrible?
How can a tiger survive among hateful humans?
How can humans remain optimistic in a negative world?
Why is the world so tragic?
How can a God who made gentle creatures also make a terrible tiger?
How can a God who made gentle creatures also make a terrible tiger?
The questions at the end of each stanza wonder about a Creator and his ability to form a tiger. The line in stanza 5 (Did he who make the Lamb make thee?) wonders at how God could create such opposite animals.
Passage adapted from William Blake's "The Tyger" (1794)
Example Question #201 : Content
Where things that own not man's dominion dwell,
And mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been;
To climb the trackless mountain all unseen,
With the wild flock that never needs a fold;
Alone o'er steeps and foaming falls to lean;
This is not solitude, 'tis but to hold
Converse with Nature's charms, and view her stores unrolled.
But midst the crowd, the hurry, the shock of men,
To hear, to see, to feel and to possess,
And roam alone, the world's tired denizen,
With none who bless us, none whom we can bless;
Minions of splendour shrinking from distress!
None that, with kindred consciousness endued,
If we were not, would seem to smile the less
Of all the flattered, followed, sought and sued;
This is to be alone; this, this is solitude!
What sense of isolation does Byron not identify in this poem?
physical
emotional
familial
intellectual
spiritual
familial
The first stanza emphasizes a feeling of physical separation from other people. In the second stanza, Bryon mentions feeling no sense of emotional, intellectual, or spiritual connection with those in the crowd. No mention is made of any type of family relationship.
Passage adapted from George Gordon (Lord Byron)'s "Solitude" (1813)
Example Question #11 : Theme
I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned till then?
But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers’ den?
’Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be.
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee.
And now good-morrow to our waking souls,
Which watch not one another out of fear;
For love, all love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room an everywhere.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown,
Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one.
My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;
Where can we find two better hemispheres,
Without sharp north, without declining west?
Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;
If our two loves be one, or, thou and I
Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.
(1633)
Throughout the poem, the speaker explores the relationship between ______________.
Story-telling and romantic love
None of these
Religious devotion and romantic love
Physical love and romantic love
Global exploration and romantic love
Physical love and romantic love
In the first stanza, Donne's speaker mediates on physical pleasure, recalling past lovers he "desired and got" as a mere "dream" of his current beloved. Now in the "good-morrow," it is not only that Donne and his lover are literally waking up, but that their "souls" are. Donne spends the remainder of the poem preoccupied with the physical and romantic coming together of lovers, working through how it is that they both are one but are also separate and matched.
While Donne does use global exploration as a metaphor in trying to work out this relationship, the poem itself is not about exploration.
Passage adapted from John Donne's "The Good Morrow" (1633).
Example Question #11 : Theme: Poetry
I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day.
What hours, O what black hours we have spent
This night! what sights you, heart, saw; ways you went!
And more must, in yet longer light's delay.
With witness I speak this. But where I say
Hours I mean years, mean life. And my lament
Is cries countless, cries like dead letters sent
To dearest him that lives alas! away.
I am gall, I am heartburn. God's most deep decree
Bitter would have me taste: my taste was me;
Bones built in me, flesh filled, blood brimmed the curse.
Selfyeast of spirit a dull dough sours. I see
The lost are like this, and their scourge to be
As I am mine, their sweating selves; but worse.
(1918)
Which of the following is NOT one of the poem’s concerns?
Optics
Ontology
Interiority
Faith
None of these
Optics
Though the poem uses a lot of metaphors related to light and dark, it is not concerned with the physical properties of light or the science of visual phenomena. The visual imagery in this poem is merely a vehicle for the poem's more pressing concerns, like ontology, faith, and interiority.
Passage adapted from "[I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day]" (1918) by Gerald Manley Hopkins.
All SAT II Literature Resources
