Yeats’s “Song of Wandering Aengus” ends with the lines: “And pluck till time and times are done/The silver apples of the moon/The golden apples of the sun.” Which of the following is NOT a symbolic meaning of the apples ?

Related Mcqs:

1. In his first lecture onWilliam Butler Yeats, Professor Hammer says that the young Yeats identified with King Goll. What does he mean by this ?

   A. Yeats’s poetry was autobiographical, but he understood his life through the prism of myths and symbols; symbolism was therefore present in both Yeats’s life and in his poetry.
   B. Yeats believed that each person was an instance of a general cultural type or symbol.
   C. The young Yeats wished to emphasize his identity as an English poet and draw attention away from his Irish heritage.
   D. Both A and B

2. The poem “Dulce et Decorum Est” ends with the following lines: “My friend, you would not tell with such high zest/To children ardent for some desperate glory,/The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est/ Pro patria mori.” Which of the following statements best describes these lines ?

   A. Brooke’s inclusion of a quotation from Horace in these lines serves to emphasize
   the distance between the ideals ofWestern civilization and its realities.
   B. These lines suggest the author’s anger and disillusionment with cultural norms which glorify war.
   C. In these lines, Brooke seeks to bridge the gap between individual experience and cultural norms and beliefs.
   D. All of the above

3. Which of the following famous literary lines is contained in William Butler Yeats’ poem “The Second Coming” ?

   A. “Hearing of harvests rotting in the valleys”
   B. “And we rebuild our cities, not dream of islands”
   C. “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold”
   D. “Mother died today”

4. Which word comes from a Greek expression meaning ‘goat-song’?

   A. Harmony
   B. Poetry
   C. Tragedy
   D. None of these

   Submitted by: Ihsan Ali

5. What is the significance of the “wandering Jew” motif ?

   A. Religious upheaval
   B. The presence of omens
   C. The curse of immorality
   D. Insanity

6. How does the motif of the wandering Jew figure in “The Monk” ?

   A. It introduces one of several supernatural elements into the plot.
   B. It dispels the anti-Semitism associated with the Gothic novel.
   C. It offers a positive alternative to the excesses of the Catholic Church.
   D. It suggests that redemption is possible through penitence.

7. Ezra Pound’s “Canto I” opens with the following lines: “And then went down to the ship,/Set keel to breakers, forth on the godly sea, and(…).” Which of the following statements best characterizes these lines and the poem as a whole ?

   A. These lines set an impersonal tone which dominates the entire poem.
   B. These lines establish a rhythmical pattern, which is followed strictly throughout the poem.
   C. These lines are the only impersonal lines in the poem, the rest of which is primarily focused on the complexity of human emotions.
   D. These lines establish a personal tone, focusing on a lyrical perspective similar to late-Victorian era poetry.

8. Siegfried Sassoon’s “The Dragon and the Undying” includes the following lines: “Yet, though the slain are homeless as the breeze,/Vocal are they, like stormbewilder’d seas.” Which of the following literary devices does Sassoon use in these lines and to what effect ?

   A. Metaphor to suggest a connection between soldiers and nature
   B. Simile to suggest a connection between soldiers and nature
   C. Metonymy to describe the brutality of modern warfare
   D. Onomatopoeia to describe the brutality of modern warfare

9. Wilfred Owen’s “Anthem for Doomed Youth” begins with the following lines: “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?/ Only the monstrous anger of the guns./ Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle/Can patter out their hasty orisons.” Which of the following statements best describes these lines ?

   A. These lines suggest that it was difficult to define patriotism during the Great War, but soldiers who died in battle provided the best example of patriotism.
   B. These lines suggest that the Great War lasted much longer than it should have.
   C. These lines equate humans with animals, and they anthropomorphize weapons to show a world where there is no place for human values.
   D. These lines represent a modern funeral dirge that mimics the rhythm of ancient Greek funeral dirges.

10. Rupert Brooke’s “The Soldier” opens with the following lines: “If I should die, think only this of me:/That there’s some corner of a foreign field/That is for ever England.” Which of the following statements best describes these lines and Brooke’s poem as a whole ?

    A. These lines and the poem as a whole use both the political concept of a nation and the spiritual concept of eternity to give meaning to soldiers’ deaths on the battlefield.
    B. These lines and the poem as a whole are primarily concerned with the extension of Britain’s imperial power.
    C. These lines and the poem as a whole seek to directly express the horrors of war.
    D. These lines and the poem as a whole rely on assonance to magnify the critique of war expressed in the poem.