Modern Poetry & Poetics Mcqs - Set 8

1)   Which of the following statements best characterizes the formal qualities of Langston Hughes’s poem “Life is Fine” ?

a. The diction is much more polysyllabic than monosyllabic.
b. The use of alternating end rhymes and word repetitions enhance the music of the poem and along with its occasional dissonance give it an improvisation
c. It is written in Standard American English for middle-class readers.
d. This poem is structured like a villanelle.
Answer  Explanation 

ANSWER: The use of alternating end rhymes and word repetitions enhance the music of the poem and along with its occasional dissonance give it an improvisation

Explanation:
No explanation is available for this question!


2)   Generally speaking, African-American themes were very rare in white modernist poetry. Which of the following white poets attempted to evoke elements of black experience in his or her poems ?

a. H.D.
b. Hart Crane
c. William Carlos Williams
d. T.S. Eliot
Answer  Explanation 

ANSWER: Hart Crane

Explanation:
No explanation is available for this question!


3)   Complete the following sentence. Poetic images which idealize war and ascribe spiritual qualities to battle can be found primarily in English poems written_______________?

a. around 1900.
b. in the early stages of World War I.
c. in the late stages of World War I.
d. in the 1920s.
Answer  Explanation 

ANSWER: in the late stages of World War I.

Explanation:
No explanation is available for this question!


4)   Which of the following images in Arthur Rimbaud’s poem “Eternity” undermines the idea that eternity is something fixed and permanent ?

a. The image of a sentinel
b. The image of the sun reflected on the sea
c. The image of a quest for knowledge
d. The image of satiny embers
Answer  Explanation 

ANSWER: The image of the sun reflected on the sea

Explanation:
No explanation is available for this question!


5)   Professor Hammer argues that in a certain sense Wallace Stevens’s poetry is always meta-poetry. What does this mean ?

a. Stevens’s poetry is primarily, though not explicitly, concerned with metaphysics.
b. Stevens’s poetry investigates its own rules.
c. Stevens’s poetry always addresses several different audiences.
d. Stevens’s poetry highlights an objective voice.
Answer  Explanation 

ANSWER: Stevens’s poetry investigates its own rules.

Explanation:
No explanation is available for this question!


6)   Which of the following writers wrote about trench warfare during the Great War ?

a. Siegfried Sassoon
b. Isaac Rosenberg
c. Wilfred Owen
d. All of these answers
Answer  Explanation 

ANSWER: All of these answers

Explanation:
No explanation is available for this question!


7)   In the first lecture of his Modern Poetry course, what argument does Professor Langdon Hammer make about the relationship between the modern city and poetic modernism ?

a. Most modernist poets lived in large cities; therefore, they often used urban imagery in their poetry.
b. Many languages and many forms of language were used in large cities; modernist poets often treated language not as something given and natural but as
c. Individuals often felt lost and alienated in large cities, and among poets this resulted in turning inward and focusing only on the world of one’s o
d. All of these answers
Answer  Explanation 

ANSWER: Many languages and many forms of language were used in large cities; modernist poets often treated language not as something given and natural but as

Explanation:
No explanation is available for this question!


8)   Which of the following statements best characterizes Ezra Pound’s poem “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley” ?

a. It is primarily a narrative poem.
b. It uses iambic pentameter to achieve tonal fluidity.
c. It undermines the idea of a single lyrical voice by using diverse cultural symbols and numerous phrases in various languages.
d. Its intensity derives from the combination of modern subject matter and alexandrine couplets.
Answer  Explanation 

ANSWER: It undermines the idea of a single lyrical voice by using diverse cultural symbols and numerous phrases in various languages.

Explanation:
No explanation is available for this question!


9)   According to Langston Hughes’s essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” (his answer to George Schuyler’s essay “Negro Art Hokum”), what is the “mountain” that stands in the way of “any true Negro art in America” ?

a. It is the racial discrimination endemic in the white community.
b. It is the racial segregation in the South.
c. It is a widespread “urge toward whiteness” among African Americans.
d. It is a widespread “urge to incorporate and neutralize other cultures” among white Americans.
Answer  Explanation 

ANSWER: It is a widespread “urge toward whiteness” among African Americans.

Explanation:
No explanation is available for this question!


10)   Which of the following statements best characterizes the form of Claude McKay’s poem “The Harlem Dancer” ?

a. It is an English sonnet.
b. It is an Italian sonnet.
c. It is a Spenserian sonnet.
d. It is a free verse poem.
Answer  Explanation 

ANSWER: It is an English sonnet.

Explanation:
No explanation is available for this question!