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Batter my heart (Holy Sonnet 14)
1 Batter my heart, three-person'd God; for you
2 As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
3 That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
4 Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
5 I, like an usurp'd town, to another due,
6 Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.
7 Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
8 But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
9 Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
10 But am betroth'd unto your enemy;
11 Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
12 Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
13 Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
14 Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
How does the poet view "Reason' in line 7?
The poet views "Reason' in line 7 as a sovereign representative who has been weakend or unfaithful, as a viceroy who has proven "weak or untrue" (line 8).
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1 Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
2 Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
3 Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
4 And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
5 Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
6 And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
7 And every fair from fair sometime declines,
8 By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
9 But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
10 Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
11 Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
12 When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st;
13 So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
14 So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
"Eternal lines to time" (line 12) very probably refers to __________.
"Eternal lines to time" (line 12) refers to poetry, as poetry is lines of words often set to meter, (to the measure of time).
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1 Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
2 Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
3 Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
4 And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
5 Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
6 And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
7 And every fair from fair sometime declines,
8 By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
9 But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
10 Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
11 Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
12 When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st;
13 So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
14 So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
"Thy eternal summer" (line 9) probably refers to __________.
"Thy eternal summer" probably refers to the loveliness and temperance of the speaker's beloved, mentioned in line 2 ("Thou art more lovely and more temperate"). It is that loveliness the speaker's poetry will guard from fading: "thy eternal summer shall not fade" (line 9).
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1 Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;
2 My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy.
3 Seven years thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay,
4 Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.
5 Oh, could I lose all father now! For why
6 Will man lament the state he should envy?
7 To have so soon 'scaped world's and flesh's rage,
8 And if no other misery, yet age!
9 Rest in soft peace, and, asked, say, "Here doth lie
10 Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry,
11 For whose sake, henceforth, all his vows be such
12 As what he loves may never like too much."
In lines 11–12, "For whose sake, henceforth, all his vows be such / As what he loves may never like too much," what is the speaker saying about his future vows?
In lines 11–12, "For whose sake, henceforth, all his vows be such / As what he loves may never like too much," the speaker is saying that he will never love as much as he has loved his dead son.
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Adapted from "The Author to Her Book" by Anne Bradstreet (1678)
Thou ill-form’d offspring of my feeble brain,
Who after birth didst by my side remain,
Till snatched from thence by friends, less wise than true,
Who thee abroad, expos’d to public view,
Made thee in rags, halting to th’ press to trudge,
Where errors were not lessened (all may judge).
At thy return my blushing was not small,
My rambling brat (in print) should mother call,
I cast thee by as one unfit for light,
Thy visage was so irksome in my sight;
Yet being mine own, at length affection would
Thy blemishes amend, if so I could:
I wash’d thy face, but more defects I saw,
And rubbing off a spot, still made a flaw.
I stretched thy joints to make thee even feet,
Yet still thou run’st more hobling then is meet;
In better dress to trim thee was my mind,
But nought save home-spun cloth, i’ th’ house I find.
In this array ’mongst vulgars mayst thou roam.
In critics' hands, beware thou dost not come;
And take thy way where yet thou art not known,
If for thy father askt, say, thou hadst none:
And for thy mother, she alas is poor,
Which caus’d her thus to send thee out of door.
Which of the following is the most likely meaning of the underlined fifth and sixth lines of the poem?
Bradstreet's book was published using an uncorrected rough draft of her poems, since she herself did not know it was being published, and thus she feels its "errors were not lessened" by editing.
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Adapted from "The Author to Her Book" by Anne Bradstreet (1678)
Thou ill-form’d offspring of my feeble brain,
Who after birth didst by my side remain,
Till snatched from thence by friends, less wise than true,
Who thee abroad, expos’d to public view,
Made thee in rags, halting to th’ press to trudge,
Where errors were not lessened (all may judge).
At thy return my blushing was not small,
My rambling brat (in print) should mother call,
I cast thee by as one unfit for light,
Thy visage was so irksome in my sight;
Yet being mine own, at length affection would
Thy blemishes amend, if so I could:
I wash’d thy face, but more defects I saw,
And rubbing off a spot, still made a flaw.
I stretched thy joints to make thee even feet,
Yet still thou run’st more hobling then is meet;
In better dress to trim thee was my mind,
But nought save home-spun cloth, i’ th’ house I find.
In this array ’mongst vulgars mayst thou roam.
In critics' hands, beware thou dost not come;
And take thy way where yet thou art not known,
If for thy father askt, say, thou hadst none:
And for thy mother, she alas is poor,
Which caus’d her thus to send thee out of door.
The underlined lines "And for thy mother, she alas is poor, / Which caused her thus to send thee out of door" could be interpreted in but which of the following ways?
Nothing in the lines indicates anything about Bradstreet's disappointment at the book's appearance, though some might believe her to be pitiable and in need of money to have allowed such a flawed book (in her eyes) to be published.
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Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear
1 Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear,
2 Thy dial how thy precious minutes waste;
3 The vacant leaves thy mind’s impr'nt will bear,
4 And of this book this learning mayst thou taste:
5 The wrinkles which thy glass will truly show
6 Of mouthèd graves will give thee memory;
7 Thou by thy dial’s shady stealth mayst know
8 Time’s thievish progress to eternity.
9 Look what thy memory cannot contain,
10 Commit to these waste blanks, and thou shalt find
11 Those children nursed, delivered from thy brain,
12 To take a new acquaintance of thy mind.
13 These offices, so oft as thou wilt look,
14 Shall profit thee and much enrich thy book.
(1609)
To what does “mouthèd graves” (line 6) refer?
“Mouthèd graves” (line 6) refers to the wrinkles mentioned in line 5. The glass (line 5) shows the wrinkles, which look like open graves because wrinkles look like deep cuts into our skin and graves are deep “cuts” into the earth. “Time’s thievish progress to eternity” (line 8) suggests that time goes by and then you die; wrinkles, being a sign of old age, bring you closer to death, so also remind you of death as “mouthèd graves.”
(Passage adapted from "Sonnet 77" by William Shakespeare)
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1 Whoever comes to shroud me, do not harm
2 Nor question much
3 That subtle wreath of hair, which crowns my arm;
4 The mystery, the sign, you must not touch,
5 For 'tis my outward soul,
6 Viceroy to that, which then to heaven being gone,
7 Will leave this to control
8 And keep these limbs, her provinces, from dissolution.
9 For if the sinewy thread my brain lets fall
10 Through every part
11 Can tie those parts, and make me one of all,
12 Those hairs which upward grew, and strength and art
13 Have from a better brain,
14 Can better do'it; except she meant that I
15 By this should know my pain,
16 As prisoners then are manacled, when they'are condemn'd to die.
17 Whate'er she meant by'it, bury it with me,
18 For since I am
19 Love's martyr, it might breed idolatry,
20 If into other hands these relics came;
21 As 'twas humility
22 To afford to it all that a soul can do,
23 So, 'tis some bravery,
24 That since you would have none of me, I bury some of you.
(1633)
The "Viceroy" (line 6) is the ____________.
"Viceroy" means person governing a colony and representing the monarch of the nation to which the colony belongs. In the poem, the "viceroy" (line 6) is the wreath of hair from line 3. Line 1 says to not harm that wreath of hair. Line 4 goes on to further say "you must not touch". Lines 5-6 explain why: the wreath is the poet's "outward soul" (line 5) and his viceroy (line 6).
(Passage adapted from "The Funeral" by John Donne)
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Adapted from Life and Remains of John Clare "The Northamptonshire Peasant Poet" by John Clare (1872, ed. J. L. Cherry)
I am! Yet what I am who cares, or knows?
My friends forsake me, like a memory lost.
I am the self-consumer of my woes,
They rise and vanish, an oblivious host,
Shadows of life, whose very soul is lost.
And yet I am—I live—though I am toss'd
Into the nothingness of scorn and noise.
Into the living sea of waking dream,
Where there is neither sense of life, nor joys,
But the huge shipwreck of my own esteem
And all that's dear. Even those I loved the best
Are strange—nay, they are stranger than the rest.
I long for scenes where man has never trod—
For scenes where woman never smiled or wept—
There to abide with my Creator, God,
And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept,
Full of high thoughts, unborn. So let me lie,
The grass below; above, the vaulted sky.
What is the meaning of the underlined line “I am the self-consumer of my woes”?
The indicated line is emphasizing that the narrator feels abandoned by those who would give him or her comfort and so is left to “consume” his or her “woes” alone. This does not mean the narrator must “eat alone,” and it also does not mean the speaker is “unsympathetic to the troubles of others,” as we are not told how the narrator would react to another person's sadness. We might say the narrator “feel\[s\] trapped with the pain of his or her own injuries,” but this phrasing suggests physical pain, whereas that which is presented in the line seems to be more of a mental pain or sorrow.
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Adapted from Life and Remains of John Clare "The Northamptonshire Peasant Poet" by John Clare (1872, ed. J. L. Cherry)
I am! Yet what I am who cares, or knows?
My friends forsake me, like a memory lost.
I am the self-consumer of my woes,
They rise and vanish, an oblivious host,
Shadows of life, whose very soul is lost.
And yet I am—I live—though I am toss'd
Into the nothingness of scorn and noise.
Into the living sea of waking dream,
Where there is neither sense of life, nor joys,
But the huge shipwreck of my own esteem
And all that's dear. Even those I loved the best
Are strange—nay, they are stranger than the rest.
I long for scenes where man has never trod—
For scenes where woman never smiled or wept—
There to abide with my Creator, God,
And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept,
Full of high thoughts, unborn. So let me lie,
The grass below; above, the vaulted sky.
What does the author mean by the line “Full of high thoughts, unborn”?
The punctuation confuses the meaning but in the context of the three lines: “There to abide with my Creator, God, / And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept, / Full of high thoughts, unborn.” We can see that the thoughts are "unborn" rather than being linked to any other parts of the sentence. In his or her sleep, the narrator is filled with thoughts that are not realized, as the narrator is not conscious. On waking, the thoughts may or may not be realized.
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Passage adapted from "To Some Ladies" (1817) by John Keats
What though while the wonders of nature exploring,
I cannot your light, mazy footsteps attend;
Nor listen to accents, that almost adoring,
Bless Cynthia's face, the enthusiast's friend:
(5) Yet over the steep, whence the mountain stream rushes,
With you, kindest friends, in idea I rove;
Mark the clear tumbling crystal, its passionate gushes,
Its spray that the wild flower kindly bedews.
Why linger you so, the wild labyrinth strolling?
(10) Why breathless, unable your bliss to declare?
Ah! you list to the nightingale's tender condoling,
Responsive to sylphs, in the moon beamy air.
'Tis morn, and the flowers with dew are yet drooping,
I see you are treading the verge of the sea:
(15) And now! ah, I see it—you just now are stooping
To pick up the keep-sake intended for me.
If a cherub, on pinions of silver descending,
Had brought me a gem from the fret-work of heaven;
And smiles, with his star-cheering voice sweetly blending,
(20) The blessings of Tighe had melodiously given;
It had not created a warmer emotion
Than the present, fair nymphs, I was blest with from you,
Than the shell, from the bright golden sands of the ocean
Which the emerald waves at your feet gladly threw.
(25) For, indeed, 'tis a sweet and peculiar pleasure,
(And blissful is he who such happiness finds,)
To possess but a span of the hour of leisure,
In elegant, pure, and aerial minds.
Which of the following could be substituted for "'tis morn" (line 13) without changing the meaning?
In classical literature "tis" is a substitute for "it is" while "morn" is a substitute for "morning." "Mourning" or to "mourn" will always include a "u" in their spelling, and should not be confused with the time of day.
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Passage adapted from "To Some Ladies" (1817) by John Keats
What though while the wonders of nature exploring,
I cannot your light, mazy footsteps attend;
Nor listen to accents, that almost adoring,
Bless Cynthia's face, the enthusiast's friend:
(5) Yet over the steep, whence the mountain stream rushes,
With you, kindest friends, in idea I rove;
Mark the clear tumbling crystal, its passionate gushes,
Its spray that the wild flower kindly bedews.
Why linger you so, the wild labyrinth strolling?
(10) Why breathless, unable your bliss to declare?
Ah! you list to the nightingale's tender condoling,
Responsive to sylphs, in the moon beamy air.
'Tis morn, and the flowers with dew are yet drooping,
I see you are treading the verge of the sea:
(15) And now! ah, I see it—you just now are stooping
To pick up the keep-sake intended for me.
If a cherub, on pinions of silver descending,
Had brought me a gem from the fret-work of heaven;
And smiles, with his star-cheering voice sweetly blending,
(20) The blessings of Tighe had melodiously given;
It had not created a warmer emotion
Than the present, fair nymphs, I was blest with from you,
Than the shell, from the bright golden sands of the ocean
Which the emerald waves at your feet gladly threw.
(25) For, indeed, 'tis a sweet and peculiar pleasure,
(And blissful is he who such happiness finds,)
To possess but a span of the hour of leisure,
In elegant, pure, and aerial minds.
What is the author attempting to convey in stanzas 5 and 6?
The author talks about his love getting him a keep sake from the sea in stanza 4, and then goes on to explain that even if he was given a gift from a heavenly being, it would not be as treasured by him as this simple seashell.
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What dire offence from amorous causes springs,
What mighty contests rise from trivial things,
I sing — This verse to Caryl, Muse! is due:
This, even Belinda may vouchsafe to view:
Slight is the subject, but not so the praise,
If She inspire, and He approve my lays.
… Sol thro’ white curtains shot a tim’rous ray,
And oped those eyes that must eclipse the day.
Now lapdogs give themselves the rousing shake,
And sleepless lovers just at twelve awake:
Thrice rung the bell, the slipper knock’d the ground,
And the press’d watch return’d a silver sound.
Belinda still her downy pillow prest,
Her guardian Sylph prolong’d the balmy rest.
In context, what does the first line of the poem (“What dire offence from amorous causes springs”) likely mean?
Based on the use of “dire,” we can hypothesize that “offense” means serious transgression and not simply hurt feelings here. Nothing in the first or subsequent lines indicates that the author is discussing the resilience or transformative powers of love. On the other hand, love conquers all is too broad a sentiment for the specificity of this poem.
Passage adapted from The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope (1712)
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1 They are not long, the weeping and the laughter,
2 Love and desire and hate:
3 I think they have no portion in us after
4 We pass the gate.
5 They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
6 Out of a misty dream
7 Our path emerges for a while, then closes
8 Within a dream.
(1896)
In the context of the poem, the phrase "We pass the gate" (line 4) refers to _________________.
This poem is a meditation on the brevity of human life. In lines 1 and 2, "weeping...laughter...love and desire and hate" stand for all of human life and human existence. When the speaker says that these things "have no portion in us after / we pass the gate" (lines 3, 4), then he is saying that we no longer partake in these experiences after we are dead. Passing through "the gate" (line 4) is a metaphor for passing from life into death.
Passage adapted from "They are not long" by Ernest Dowson (1896)
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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)
Which of the following best describes what's happening in the underlined passage?
The line "My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears" is as simple as it seems: the speaker is describing gazing into his lover's eyes. The parallelism of the syntax mimics this symmetry. In the next line, the speaker notes how their feelings ("true plain hearts") are expressed in their faces.
Passage adapted from John Donne's "The Good Morrow" (1633).
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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)
In the context, what does “God’s most deep decree” (line 9) refer to?
The line "God's most deep decree" hints at a reference to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve from the book of Genesis. This allusion is confirmed by the use of the word "curse," which is a word commonly associated with this story ("cursed is the ground for thy sake," Genesis 3:17).
Even if you haven't brushed up on your Biblical allusions lately, you should still be able to reach this answer by process of elimination.
Passage adapted from "\[I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day\]" (1918) by Gerald Manley Hopkins.
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The meaning of lines 13-14 is ______________.
Lines 13-14 comprise a sentence containing three clauses. The main verb of the first clause is “subdue”, and the subject (i.e., the doer of the action) is Death. The direct object of “subdue” is “all the world”. So the whole clause means something like, “Even when some time in the future Death subdues \[i.e. kills\] every living thing on earth . . .”
The verb in the second clause is “shall live”. The subject is “our love.” (There’s no object here.)
The final verb is “renew”. The subject is still “our love”, and the direct object is “life”.
Putting that all together, we get: “Even when the time comes when Death destroys every living thing on earth, our love will still live, and it will create new life.”
(As powerful as death is, the poet believes his verse is stronger.)
Passage adapted from Edmund Spenser's "Sonnet 75" (1594)
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