English 222 Exam
Fall 2012
40 pts. possible (40% of semester grade)
Type in answers, then print out and staple all pages. be sure your name is on every page.
Due Date: Thurs., Nov. 15th , 11 A.M
Your name: ______
The purpose of this exam is to help me assess how much you’ve been learning, and—probably more than anything—to give you further practice thinking about and applying the material we’ve covered. I.e., this is a learning experience.
Instructions
· Please type your responses below in Bold and/or a distinct font; it’s easier to read that way (helps me distinguish your answers from the questions).
· You may keep all of the instructions intact, or, if you wish, you can delete them. (Keep the numbers intact.)
· Save your work frequently.
· Draw on course materials, Power Points, lectures, and discussions for your responses, but feel free as well to do a little research on your own.
· I don’t mind if you discuss the questions with your classmates, but you cannot have identical answers where more than a word or two are required. And don’t be a dope and just take answers from your classmates. Learn something.
When completed, do the following:
1. Be sure your name is on every page.
2. Print out a hardcopy.
3. Staple all sheets together.
4. Hand in your stapled hardcopy at 11:00 on Nov. 6th. I won’t accept any work which is not stapled and handed in at 11:00.
All writing must be edited for concision and clarity, and proofread for mechanical errors.
Caution: If you use someone else’s idea, someone else’s exact sentences or phrasing, or just little-known/debatable information, you must follow traditional guidelines for doing so honestly.
You have these options:
1) If you wish to use someone else’s sentences, phrasing, or ideas, you must paraphrase them thoroughly in your own words. Do not just lift portions of our Power Point presentations or Wikipedia (or whatever), and insert them into your exam; you need to restate them in your words to show you actually understand them and to be fair to the original source. Use a rough (informal) version of MLA-style documentation to cite the sources of your paraphrases and outside ideas, and be sure they are thorough. (Three words or more in a row from someone else’s text must either be enclosed in quotation marks or paraphrased. This includes anything in our Power Point presentations.)
2) Alternately, if you want to use someone else’s sentences, phrasing, or ideas, you may quote them. Keep quotations to a minimum, however; I’d rather see most answers in your own voice and words. As with paraphrases, use MLA-style documentation to cite the sources of your quotes, and be accurate. (Don’t misquote.)
Note: commonly known facts or ideas don’t need to be cited. Little-known, obscure, or challengable material does need to be cited.
Failure to do any of the above is plagiarism and may result in an F for the term.
I. Understanding Mode 21 pts. possible
Poetry is a type of writing both utterly ancient and completely new. Some of the earliest human utterances going back to antiquity were poetry, and yet some of the freshest, most vital and interesting uses of language this very day are poetry. It is a vast ecology of evolving species, a living category of language that cannot be pinned down or perfectly defined—though we can certainly look around at the very least and observe “the lay of the land.” That is, we can survey some of its many distinct types.
Some traditional textbooks, for instance, will label the types “narrative,” “lyric,” and “dramatic.” This taxonomy goes back to Aristotle. Other texts may label them according to subject matter (what the poems are about—nature, death, love). And still others may divide them according to historical periods in literature: Old English, Medieval, Renaissance, Metaphysical, Romantic, Modernist, Postmodernist, and so on.
1. 1 pt. What “taxonomy” have we used in this class? In other words, what four modes have we studied?
a. ______
b. ______
c. ______
d. ______
2. 20 pts. Select two of those modes (your choice), and, for each one, write a brief informative essay about it. Consider the following questions as you focus, shape, and develop your essays:
a. From what impulses, needs, or feelings does poetry in that mode tend to arise?
b. What subject matter or topics, if any, lend themselves especially well to that mode?
c. What are the values, attitudes, and chief concerns of that mode?
d. What challenges does a poet face in writing within that mode? What can go wrong with that sort of poetry? What can go well?
e. What was it like writing your own poem in that mode?
1. What are some outstanding examples of poems written in the mode?
Ø Be sure to support your assertions with specific examples and details.
Ø Revise your sentences for clarity and concision.
Ø Length: approximately 200 words per essay.
Mode 1: ______
Essay:
Mode 2: ______
Essay:
II. Understanding Prosody 7 pts possible
1. 1 pt. What is the verse form of the two poems below, and how do you know? _____
______.
Saint Judas —James WrightWhen I went out to kill myself, I caught
A pack of hoodlums beating up a man.
Running to spare his suffering, I forgot
My name, my number, how my day began,
How soldiers milled around the garden stone
And sang amusing songs; how all that day
Their javelins measured crowds; how I alone
Bargained the proper coins, and slipped away.
Banished from heaven, I found this victim beaten,
Stripped, kneed, and left to cry. Dropping my rope
Aside, I ran, ignored the uniforms:
Then I remembered bread my flesh had eaten,
The kiss that ate my flesh. Flayed without hope,
I held the man for nothing in my arms. / The Poet at Seven —Donald Justice
And on the porch, across the upturned chair,
The boy would spread a dingy counterpane
Against the length and majesty of the rain,
And on all fours crawl under it like a bear
To lick his wounds in secret, in his lair;
And afterwards, in the windy yard again,
One hand cocked back, release his paper plane
Frail as a May fly to the faithless air.
And summer evenings he would whirl around
Faster and faster till the drunken ground
rose up to meet him; sometimes he would squat
Among the bent weeds of the vacant lot,
Waiting for the dusk and someone dear to come
And whip him down the street, but gently, home.
2. 3 pts.
Read either “On the Skeleton of a Hound” or “A Poem about George Doty in the Death House” by James Wright (in our packet of exam poems). Read the poem carefully and several times. Then, in a brief essay, about 200 words, describe the poem’s prosody. That is, explain its form and formal features, responding to these questions:
· In what mode does the poem seem to be written, and why do you think so?
· Explicate the poem, being sure to explain the primary situation. (Who is speaking, where are they, and what’s happening?)
· What is the poem’s verse form?
· How would you describe the poem’s lineation?
· How would you describe its “music” (its sounds and rhymes)?
· How do form and meaning seem to be working together—mirroring or reinforcing each other?
3. 3 pts.
Select another poem from our exam packet and read it. Follow the instructions for #2 above, responding to the same questions.
III. True-False ½ pt. each, 10 pts. total
For a statement to be true, all parts of it must be true. There are no trick statements. If you feel that the statement and/or your answer is problematic, feel free to explain in a couple sentences.
1. ______The sonnet evolved from a natural peasant form. It was originally any short lyric of around 14 lines which tended to follow somewhat typical turns of thought.
2. ______The “confessional poem” may be understood as a sub-set of the personal or “I”-centered mode of poetry.
3. ______The “surrealist poem” may be understood as a sub-set of the visionary mode of poetry.
4. ______The purpose of studying poetry is to memorize arcane terms such as “dactylic hexameter” and “rime couée,” which you can then sling around to astonish your relatives at Thanksgiving or to impress your friends at parties or to scare wee little children on Halloween.
5. ______When a poet writes in a traditional form such as blank verse or the sonnet, it’s imperative that she/he adhere strictly and with no variation to the rules of the form, otherwise they are cheating themselves and their readers.
6. ______Rhyme only occurs at the ends of lines.
7. ______Free verse is poetry without rhyme, rhythm, or structure.
8. ______Most of Walt Whitman’s poems are in long, cadenced lines which have an expansive feel.
9. ______da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM. This is what a line of poetry in unvarying iambic pentameter sounds like.
10. ______A “foot” in poetic meter is a unit of measure made up of a stressed syllable and it accompanying unstressed syllables.
11. ______Rhymed couplets often lend themselves to pithy statements or witty truisms, since they can have a clipped, closed feel.
12. ______A long series of enjambed lines can have a bumpy, stuttery feel which calls attention to the form (or makes it “opaque”).
13. ______A long series of end-stopped lines can have a fluid, natural feel which makes the form relatively unnoticed (or “transparent”).
14. ______Blank verse often lends itself to long meditative or story-telling poems.
15. ______The oral tradition in poetry is actually alive and quite well these days in the form of poetry slams and coffeehouse readings.
16. ______A visionary poem may include strange, uncanny, even paradoxical statements and images.
17. ______In a confessional poem, the writer basically spills their guts without worrying about craft, audience, or the risks of narcissism.
18. ______When transcribing someone’s poem (re-typing it, copying and pasting it, etc.), you may let the line breaks fall anywhere you like.
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19. ______The following lines are in iambic pentameter:
When I went out to kill myself, I caught
A pack of hoodlums beating up a man.
20. ______According to your instructor, poetry is a lot like music: before jumping to analyze it, it’s best to first just enjoy it. Let your body and intuition respond naturally to its rhythms, textures, and sensations; its emotional and intellectual resonances.
IV. You Tell Me 1 pt. possible
Formulate a real question about poetry—something meaningful which you would genuinely like an answer to.
Your question: ______.
Now do a little research, and, in a brief paragraph, answer your question. Cite any sources you may use and provide quotations around words which are not your own.
V. Something You Like 1 pt. possible
Pick a poem you are fond of—any poem, from anywhere—and write a short, clear essay (100-200 words) about why you like it. Be sure to support your explanations with specific details and examples, and don’t forget identify its title and author.
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