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Yet I would have thee know that o'er-stubborn spirits are most often humbled; 'tis the stiffest iron, baked to hardness in the fire, that thou shalt oftenest see snapped and shivered; and I have known horses that show temper brought to order by a little curb.
(Fifth century BCE)
The excerpt uses a metaphor in order to express what main idea?
The "stubborn spirit" is the one that is hardest to humble—this means that people who refuse to adopt new ideas are doomed to destruction, while those who are open to learning and adjusting to situations are flexible and at less risk.
(Adapted from the R. C. Jebb translation of Antigone by Sophocles 520-525, Fifth century BCE)
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MEPHISTOPHELES: Tut, Faustus,
Marriage is but a ceremonial toy;
And if thou lovest me, think no more of it.
I’ll cull thee out the fairest courtesans,
And bring them every morning to thy bed;(5)
She whom thine eye shall like, thy heart shall have,
Be she as chaste as was Penelope,
As wise as Saba, or as beautiful
As was bright Lucifer before his fall.
Here, take this book peruse it thoroughly: \[Gives a book.\] (10)
The iterating of these lines brings gold;
The framing of this circle on the ground
Brings whirlwinds, tempests, thunder and lightning;
Pronounce this thrice devoutly to thyself…
(1592)
Based on context, what does “cull thee out” (line 4) mean?
When the entire line and subsequent line are read, the answer becomes clearer. “I’ll cull thee out the fairest courtesans, / And bring them every morning to thy bed” leads us to imagine that the speaker is selecting these courtesans for the addressee. The other choices don’t make sense in the context of the second line.
Passage adapted from Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus (1592)
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1 Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
5 From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
9 The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
13 The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
(1595)
This passage makes use of the literary devices __________________.
This passage consistently uses rhyme at the end of the line. For instance: dignity/mutiny, scene/unclean, attend, mend, etc. The passage also uses meter--specifically, it is written in iambic pentameter (lines of five metrical feet that each consist of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable).
The passage does not use apostrophe (speaking to an inanimate or not-present addressee), onomatopoeia (words that represent sounds), or irony (a contradiction between literal meaning and intended meaning). It does, however, include some alliteration; see, for instance, the repetition of the "f" sound in line 5.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (1595).
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HENRY V: And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me (5)
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks (10)
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
(1600)
According to the passage, why shall the gentlemen in England “think themselves accursed” (line 9)?
The speaker notes that the gentlemen in England will “hold their manhoods cheap” when people mention the St. Crispin’s Day battle. In other words, they will not be considered as manly as the men the speaker is addressing, the men who will actually take part in the battle. This speech glorifies battle and shames those who do not participate in it.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare’s Henry V (1600)
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HENRY V: And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me (5)
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks (10)
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
(1600)
What is the meaning of “be he ne'er so vile” (line 6)?
Reading this line in contemporary English could be misleading, so be careful to consider the context. The speaker promises that the upcoming battle will turn men – all men – gentle. The only construction that fits with this idea of taming all the soldiers is “Even if he is vile.”
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare’s Henry V (1600)
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TROILUS: Peace, you ungracious clamours! peace, rude sounds!
Fools on both sides! Helen must needs be fair,
When with your blood you daily paint her thus.
I cannot fight upon this argument;
It is too starved a subject for my sword. (5)
How can line 5 be interpreted?
Line 5, “It is too starved a subject for my sword,” is tricky to parse. However, we can use process of elimination to rule out the too-literal (“I am too hungry to argue”) and the too-liberal (The argument fails to motivate the troops). By deducing that “this argument” (line 4) refers to Helen’s beauty and not the bickering of the men, we are led to the best answer: the speaker believes that the cause of the war is unworthy of his fighting.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida (1602).
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A Late Walk
1 When I go up through the mowing field,
2 The headless aftermath,
3 Smooth-laid like thatch with the heavy dew,
4 Half closes the garden path.
5 And when I come to the garden ground,
6 The whir of sober birds
7 Up from the tangle of withered weeds
8 Is sadder than any words
9 A tree beside the wall stands bare,
10 But a leaf that lingered brown,
11 Disturbed, I doubt not, by my thought,
12 Comes softly rattling down.
13 I end not far from my going forth
14 By picking the faded blue
15 Of the last remaining aster flower
16 To carry again to you.
Which of the following is a simile?
"Smooth-laid like thatch" (line 3) is the simile; a simile is a figure pf speech in which two seemingly unlike things are compared using "like" or "as." Usually the words indicate two things that have some similar quality, however, although this may not be immediately evident. In this instance, the "mowing field" (line 1) is like "thatch" (line 3).
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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.
The only simile throughout this sonnet is .
"like an usurp'd town" (line 5) is the only simile throughout this sonnet, as it makes a direct comparison between two apparently unlike things—the poet and an usurp'd town—with the word "like." When constructing similes, the word "as" is also used.
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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.
The major extended metaphor of the sonnet is the poet representing himself as .
The major extended metaphor of the sonnet is the poet representing himself as a captured city, as he is "like an usurp'd town" (line 5), until the typical sonnet turn in line 9.
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1 How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
2 I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
3 My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
4 For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
5 I love thee to the level of everyday's
6 Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
7 I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
8 I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
9 I love thee with the passion put to use
10 In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
11 I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
12 With my lost saints – I love thee with the breath,
13 Smiles, tears, of all my life! – and, if God choose,
14 I shall but love thee better after death.
The following can be described as a spatial metaphor:
"I love thee to the depth and breadth and height / My soul can reach," (lines 2–3) can be described as a spatial metaphor, as the speaker depicts his or her love occupying the same 3-dimensional space as his or her soul's reach.
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1 How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
2 I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
3 My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
4 For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
5 I love thee to the level of everyday's
6 Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
7 I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
8 I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
9 I love thee with the passion put to use
10 In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
11 I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
12 With my lost saints – I love thee with the breath,
13 Smiles, tears, of all my life! – and, if God choose,
14 I shall but love thee better after death.
The concrete metaphor "by sun and candle-light" (line 6) very likely represents .
The concrete metaphor "by sun and candle-light" (line 6) very likely represents day and night, as the speaker loves ceaselessly throughout the day and night.
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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.
The "eye of heaven" in line 5 very likely represents __________.
The "eye of heaven" in line 5 very likely represents the sun, as it "shines" (line 5) with a "gold complexion" (line 6).
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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 which line is there a strong lending metaphor?
"Seven years thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay," (Line 3), is a strong metaphor in which the speaker seems to believe he has entered into a contract with God, and God has come to collect his payment. The metaphor is the son being compared to a loan.
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O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem
1 O, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem,
2 By that sweet ornament which truth doth give.
3 The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem
4 For that sweet odour which doth in it live.
5 The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye
6 As the perfumed tincture of the roses,
7 Hang on such thorns and play as wantonly,
8 When summer's breath their masked buds discloses;
9 But, for their virtue only is their show,
10 They live unwoo'd and unrespected fade,
11 Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so;
12 Of their sweet deaths are sweetest odours made.
13 And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth,
14 When that shall fade, my verse distills your truth.
(1609)
“When summer’s breath their masked buds discloses” (line 8) is an example of ___________.
“When summer’s breath their masked buds discloses;” (line 8) is an example of personification, as personification is a figure of speech where an inanimate object or idea possesses human attributes or abilities. Here, "summer" (an inanimate idea) has a "breath" (humans breathe).
(Passage adapted from "Sonnet 54" by William Shakespeare)
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Passage adapted from "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound (1919)
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
What is the effect of placing the two images, "faces" and "petals," side by side in the poem?
Ezra Pound places the two images side by side in order to compare their relative emotional impact on him. He has created a metaphor without using any connective words: he doesn't say the faces _are p_etals, nor does he say the faces are like petals, because the comparison between the two images is based completely on his impression rather than a literal or objective interpretation of the objects.
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1 Those lines that I before have writ do lie,
Even those that said I could not love you dearer;
Yet then my judgment knew no reason why
My most full flame should afterwards burn clearer.
5 But reckoning Time, whose million'd accidents
Creep in 'twixt vows and change decrees of kings,
Tan sacred beauty, blunt the sharp'st intents,
Divert strong minds to the course of altering things;
9 Alas, why, fearing of Time's tyranny,
Might I not then say 'Now I love you best,'
When I was certain o'er incertainty,
Crowning the present, doubting of the rest?
13 Love is a babe; then might I not say so,
To give full growth to that which still doth grow?
(1609)
Which of the following phrases from the poem is the best example of a metaphor?
A metaphor is a direct comparison or identification of two things that are not literally the same. It is similar to another literary device, the simile, but unlike the simile does not use the comparing words "like" or "as."
"Love is a babe" is the only answer that directly compares two things. "Love" is compared to "a babe."
"Time's tyranny" (line 9) is an example of personification.
"My most full flame" (line 4) is a figurative way of describing love, but does not contain a direct comparison of two things and so is not the best example of a metaphor. ("My love is a flame" would be a good example of a metaphor. "My love is like a flame" would be a good example of a simile.)
Passage adapted from Shakespeare's "Sonnet 115" (1609)
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This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.
Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.
(1847)
What type of imagery is most pervasive in this passage?
The poem includes many descriptions of sounds in its opening lines: “murmuring,” “voices sad and prophetic,” “loud,” “deep-voiced,” “accents disconsolate,” and “wail.” Although there are also examples of visual imagery here, auditory descriptions comprise the majority of the imagery in this passage.
Passage adapted from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Evangeline.”(1847)
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Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
What was this forest savage, rough, and stern, (5)
Which in the very thought renews the fear.
So bitter is it, death is little more;
But of the good to treat, which there I found,
Speak will I of the other things I saw there.
According to the text, what does the “forest” (line 2) represent?
We can see in lines 4-5 the speaker’s difficulty in naming what the forest represents: “how hard a thing it is to say / What was this forest savage, rough, and stern.” We can also see that this forest is barely less bitter than death. This implies that the forest, while frightening, is not itself death. There is less textual support for midlife crisis, exodus, or negative thinking.
Passage adapted from Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, trans. Charles Eliot Norton (1920)
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I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots.
Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold.
We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver.
While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.
A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts. (5)
My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi.
Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes.
Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green.
The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of fir.
The speaker uses figurative language of all but which of the following types?
The speaker uses agrarian terms with the mention of “vineyards” (line 6). We see an avian reference with the comparison of the lover’s eyes to “doves’” (line 7). We have medicinal references with the herbs “spikenard,” “myrrh,” and “camphire” (lines 4, 5, 6). Lastly, we have domestic language with the description of the bed, house beams, and rafters (lines 8-9).
Passage adapted from the “Song of Solomon,” King James Bible.
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I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,(5)
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings;(10)
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Based on context, what is the meaning of “antique land” (line 1)?
We know from later lines in the poem that this antique land’s monuments are now in ruin and that its rulers are long dead, which helps us rule out some of the choices. We are looking for the answer that best describes a once-great empire, and “kingdom from antiquity” is the best fit.
Passage adapted from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Ozymandias” (1818)
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