Department of English

Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University


2202234  Introduction to the Study of English Literature

 

Test 1 Discussion


This discussion of test 1 should be useful in reviewing for test 2 as well as for reading responses and the final since many of the evaluative methods are the same and common student problems are addressed.

 

General Comments:

  • Follow instructions. If the test paper asks you to unpack one word in each of two chosen poems, do not write an essay on the poems without identifying what the focus words are. If you are asked to notice and compare the shift in one character's description in order to answer a question about irony, it does not help you to discuss that irony if you are looking at another character's description altogether.
  • Have a clear point to make in each of your paragraphs, and in the essay as a whole.
  • Support your ideas with textual evidence.
  • Avoid plot summary. Order your discussion around the main point you are making, not according to the the plot of the story. Mention and structure plot points in order illustrate and support your argument, not to retell what happens in the poem(s).
  • Proofread. Louise Fletcher is not the author of Sorry Wrong Number nor is Reinford a character in "The Most Dangerous Game."
  • Follow academic conventions in writing about literature such as using the literary present tense and referring to authors by their last names. Avoid non-close reading tendencies in your discussion.

           


Part I: Unseen Poem (5 points; 15 minutes)  Read the following poem carefully and answer the questions below.


The Sonnet-Ballad

Oh mother, mother, where is happiness?
They took my lover’s tallness off to war,
Left me lamenting. Now I cannot guess
What I can use an empty heart-cup for.
He won’t be coming back here any more.                5
Some day the war will end, but, oh, I knew
When he went walking grandly out that door
That my sweet love would have to be untrue.
Would have to be untrue. Would have to court
Coquettish death, whose impudent and strange       10
Possessive arms and beauty (of a sort)
Can make a hard man hesitate—and change.
And he will be the one to stammer, “Yes.”
Oh mother, mother, where is happiness?

—Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000)
  

  

Question 1: (1 point )  Scan the line below. (Indicate the stressed and unstressed syllables above the line, mark the foot divisions and name the prevailing foot and meter.)

And he will be the one to stammer, “Yes.”


High Marks

Student S:

 

And he | will be | the one | to stam | mer, "Yes."


Iambic pentameter

 		- Good: Correct foot divisions
- Good: Clear and correct indication of the stressed and unstressed syllables
- Good: Satisfactory understanding of poetic foot and meter: five feet in a line is called pentameter, and an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable in a foot is called an iambic foot; correct usage of literary terms
           

 

Question 2: (2 points)  What characteristics of the sonnet and of the ballad does Brooks use in her “Sonnet-Ballad”?


High Marks

Student L:

 

In this invented form, a mash-up of the sonnet and ballad, Gwendolyn Brooks uses the formal structures of the sonnet such as the fourteen lines, the iambic pentameter and the volta to frame the poem. She uses content stylistics of the folk ballad to provide the story such as direct speech, repetition or refrain ("Oh mother, mother" l. 1, "would have to be untrue" and "would have to" ll. 8–9), and simple diction rather than sophisticated vocabulary ("tallness" l. 2, "heart-cup" l. 4, "(of a sort)" l. 11). The subject matter of love belong to both poetic traditions, though death and killing as well as historical event inspiration is more of a ballad "murder/adultery plot" characteristic. Her clever wordplay, irony and metaphorical turns are sonnet-like, and the rhyme scheme: abab bcbc dede aa is a variation or combination between the Spenserian and Shakespearean sonnet types.

 		- Good: You notice that the sonnet characteristics used tend to be structural and the ballad features have to do with content and language.
- Good: Clear and correct identification of poem type characteristics with textual evidence to illustrate and support
- Good: You acknowledge the sonnet wit and the inspired new rhyme scheme.
           

 

Question 3: (2 points)  The speaker’s description of her lover in the first section contrasts with that in the second. What is ironic about this portrayal turn? Refer to specific words and lines in the poem to illustrate your points.


High Marks

Student U:

 

In the first section of the poem, the speaker's lover is portrayed using positive words like "tallness" (l. 2) and "walking grandly" (l. 7), but this takes a turn—earlier than the usual octave, with the speaker's foreboding—for the negative, with words like "He won't be coming back" (l. 5), "untrue" (l. 8), "hesitate" (l. 12), "change," and "stammer" (l. 13). This is ironic because the lover is untrue and does not return, not because he does not love the speaker any more, but because "Coquettish death, whose impudent and strange / Possessive arms and beauty (of a sort)" (ll. 10–11) has taken him away. Personified as a temptress, death becomes a woman that no woman can compete with, and no man can deny.

 		- Good:
 


Part II: Poems (15 points; 55 minutes)  Choose two quotes from one of the three sets of quotes below and discuss simple words for complex meanings in the quoted works. What word in each of the poems looks easy, plain or straightforward but is used to convey deep, complicated or controversial ideas? It can be the same word or two different words. Examine the complexities of the word’s senses and ideas.

Set 1
a.    What is violet? clouds are violet
        In the summer twilight.

b.    He had thought himself a hero, had acted heroically,
        And dreamt of his fall, the tragic fall of the hero;
        But now rides commuter trains,
        Serves on various committees,
        And wishes he had drowned.

c.    “Hope” is the thing with feathers –
        That perches in the soul –

d.    And when I came home from my Labour at night
        To my Wife and Children, in whom I delight,
        To hear the come round me with tattling noise
        Now these are the Riches that poor Men enjoy.


Set 2
a.    How still, how happy! These are words
    That once would scarce agree together;

b.    Let me not to the marriage of true minds
        Admit impediments.

c.        Only remember me; you understand
        It will be late to counsel then or pray.

d.    “For I have slaine the bravest sir knight
    That ever rode on steed;
        So have I done the fairest lady
    That ever did woman’s deed.


Set 3
a.    But I said, “I’ve a pretty rose tree,”
    And I passed the sweet flower o’er.

b.    My love is like a red red rose
    That’s newly sprung in June:

c.    Lay your sleeping head, my love,
    Human on my faithless arm;
        


Comments:

  • Good responses answer the prompt right away and demonstrate understanding of the works and critical and analytical thinking as well as effective writing. An essay with high marks
    • Within the first three sentences,
      • clearly identifies the simple word(s) from each of the two poems in the chosen set.
      • clearly and accurately indicates the poem titles and poets being discussed.
      • clearly indicates the complexity of meanings to be discussed further.
    • Is not wordy or rambling, but stays focused on illustrating and analyzing the complex meanings of the word(s) in question in relation to the poem and in comparison or contradistinction to the other poem.
    • Shows sensitivity to the works' diction, argument, logic flow, sentence structure, imagery, form, patterns, incongruities, and their effect on creating meaning.
    • Gives relevant and compelling evidence from the text of the poems to illustrate and support their discussion and incorporates it smoothly into the prose of the essay.
    • Does not lapse into retelling the poem, describing the poem, giving a plot summary, or paraphrase.
    • Follows academic conventions in writing and citation.
    • Has very few or no grammatical mistakes.





 

Reference


MLA Handbook. 8th ed. Modern Language Association of America, 2016.





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Last updated November 30, 2020