20th Century Poetry Test: (answer the questions or choose the correct answer. Sometimes more than one answer is possible.)

1. In 1919 T.S. Eliot wrote an essay in which he presented his original concept of literary tradition. Which of these are the key terms used by him:

a/ a simultaneous order;

b/ the historical sense;

c/ Ideogrammic method;

d/ depersonalization;

e/ the mind of Europe;

2. The best example of a poem by T.S. Eliot that illustrates how his concept of tradition works in practice is: The Waste Land (1922)

3. One of the most famous 20th century poems “depicts a portion of an old man’s journey to Constantinopole. Through this journey, the author explores the old man’s thoughts and musings on how immortality, art, and the human spirit may converge”.

Give the name of the author and the title of the poem:

William Butler Yeats: ‘Sailing to Byzantium’

4. Give the names of the authors of the following volumes (there is one name too many):

Ezra Pound; Wallace Stevens; William Carlos Williams; William Butler Yeats; Robert Frost

a/ New Hampshire: Robert Frost

b/ The Tower: William Butler Yeats

c/ Spring and All: William Carlos Williams

d/ Cantos: Ezra Pound

5. Which of these is NOT one of the principles of Imagism:

a/ Direct treatment of the “thing”, whether objective or subjective.

b/ To release a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.

c/ To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation.

d/ To compose in the sequence of the musical phrase not in the sequence of the metronome.

6. Which of the poets do you associate with the following ideas:

a/ “Make it new”: Ezra Pound

b/ “No ideas but in things”: William Carlos Williams

c/ “Not Ideas About the Thing But the Thing Itself”: Wallace Stevens

d/ “it is a privilege to see so much confusion”: Marianne Moore

choose from this list: Marianne Moore; William Carlos Williams; Ezra Pound; Wallace Stevens

7. Which of these authors is NOT a Harlem Renaissance poet:

a/ Langston Hughes; b/ Countee Cullen; c/ Sterling Brown; d/ Carl Sandburg

8. Which famous poet said that “poetry makes nothing happen”? Wystan Hugh Auden

9. Place the following poets in the categories provided below:

Anne Sexton; Adrianne Rich; Sonia Sanchez; Robert Lowell

a/ Feminist poetry: Adrianne Rich

b/ Black Arts Movement poetry: Sonia Sanchez

c/ Confessional poetry: Anne Sexton

10. Dylan Thomas can be classified as a:

a/ Neoclassical poet; b/ Neogothic poet; c/ Neoromantic poet; d/ Postmodern poet;

11. Who is the author of the poem “Somebody Blew Up America”, a poetic critique of white American supremacy after September 11 terrorist attack? Amiri Baraka

12. Which Irish poet received the Nobel Prize in literature in 1995?

a/ Philip Larkin; b/ Seamus Heaney; c/ Ted Hughes; d/ William Butler Yeats;

13. Give the names of the authors of the following volumes (there is one name too many):

Ted Hughes; Seamus Heaney; Philip Larkin; Robert Lowell; Allen Ginsberg

a/ The Less Deceived: Philip Larkin

b/ Howl and Other Poems: Allen Ginsberg

c/ Crow: From the Life and the Songs of the Crow: Ted Hughes

d/ Life Studies: Robert Lowell

14. Read the following passage by the critic from Oxford University Terry Eagleton, and give the name of the poet he writes about (X), the title of the poem referred to (Y), and the date of its publication (Z):

“perhaps there are certain deep symbols and rhythms in the psyche, archetypes immutable throughout history, which poetry might touch and revive. The crisis of European society – global war, severe class conflict, failing capitalist economies – might be resolved by turning one’s back on history altogether and putting mythology in its place. Deep below finance capitalism lay Fisher King, potent images of birth, death and resurrection in which human beings might discover a common identity. X accordingly published Y in Z, a poem which intimates that fertility cults hold the clue to the salvation of the West. His scandalous avant-garde techniques were deployed for the most arriere-garde ends: they wrenched apart routine consciousness so as to revive in the reader a sense of common identity in the blood and guts”.

X: T.S. Eliot

Y: The Waste Land

Z: 1922

15. Read the extracts of the poems and give the names of their authors. Add a category in which the author of each poem can be placed – e.g. Diane Wakosky (Feminism)

1. Sylvia Plath - Confessional Poetry

2. Amiri Baraka - Black Arts Movement Poetry

3. William Butler Yeats - Neoromantic Poetry

4. Adrienne Rich - Feminism poetry

5. Dylan Thomas - Neoromantic Poetry

6.Allen Giasberg - Confessional Poetry

7.Langston Hughes - Harlem Renaissance Poetry

8. Marianne Moore - Feminism Poetry

9. W.H. Auden - ?? noeromantic ? ? beat generation?? classic ??

10. Philip Larkin - ?? movement poet??