1 The speaker in "After great pain..." is best described as A stand-in for the poet herself A poet-philosopher engaged in the search for truth An anonymous third-person lyric voice A mythological character 2 References to the human body in the poem are meant to Encourage the reader to identify with the speaker Emphasize the physicality of the "formal feeling" described in the poem Convey the fundamental disruption in the speaker's sense of self Lend a concrete element in an otherwise abstract poem 3 The "great pain" referenced by Dickinson refers to The speaker's imagination of what death is like Dickinson's reaction to the death of a close friend A fundamentally ambiguous but profoundly disorienting experience A intense period of mental distress suffered by the poet during that time 4 The critical controversy surrounding "After great pain..." mainly revolves around Which version of the poem as subsequently published is accurate The extent to which it can be read as a psychological examination of the poet's own experience How old Emily Dickinson was when she wrote it Whether or not it fits into the Lyric or Post-Lyric tradition of poetry in English 5 Which of the following is NOT true about the "formal feeling" described in the poem Dickinson presents it as an unequivocally horrible feeling It suggests a reading of the poem as an 'ars poetica' It's part of the speaker's reaction to a life-changing and/or traumatic event It connotes a sense of stasis and rigidity 6 The line "A Quartz contentment, like a stone -" is an example of Simile Irony Personification Hyperbole 7 Which of the following is a true statement about the poem's formal features? It draws heavily on the Shakespearean sonnet It's designed as a revolt against the Romantic tradition It is loosely based on the structure of Christian hymns It's written in strict iambic pentameter 8 Which of the following is an example of personification in the poem? "The stiff Heart questions" "Of Ground, or Air, or Ought" "First - Chill - then Stupor - then the letting go -" "This is the Hour of Lead" 9 The opening line of the poem is best characterized as An oblique allusion to a traumatic event in Dickinson's life Establishing a clear scene and strong voice for the speaker An ironic commentary on the genre of confessional poetry Setting up a complex set of questions to be explored in the rest of the poem 10 Which of the following did NOT contribute to the lack of acknowledgement of Dickinson's poetry during her lifetime? Her radical experimentation with poetic form Her poetry was seen as simplistic and derivative The difficulty and complexity of her work Her status as a woman working outside of formal instutitions 11 The phrase "a formal feeling comes" falls most closely into what kind of meter? Anapestic Spondaic Trochaic Iambic 12 Dickinson's dashes are Stand-ins that indicate a long pause An idiosyncratic habit without poetic significance Notes she made to herself about future revisions A consistent feature of her poetry subject to multiple interpretations 13 Which of the following literary elements is NOT present in the line "The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs —"? Alliteration Metaphor Hyperbole Personification 14 "After great pain..." is best described as A meditation on the nature of religious feeling A short, confessional lyric A philosophical exploration of the form of a peculiar kind of experience The poet's reflection on her life's work in the face of her approaching death 15 Dickinson's idiosyncratic use of capitalization ____ Indicates an allusion to the work of another poet Is meant to signal that she's using that word ironically Is a result of her lack of a formal education Lends emphasis and a sense of generality or abstraction to particular words 16 Of the following, Emily Dickinson's poetry is best known for Its heavily religious content Its reflection of the poet's anger at the lack of recognition of her work Its obscure, complex, striking imagery and diction Its implicit critique of the individualistic ideology of Romanticism 17 Which of the following is true about Emily Dickinson Her lack of familiarity with traditional poetry enabled her radical experimentation Though without much formal education, she had a deep knowledge of both poetry and philosophy She claimed that her poems came to her as a form of quasi-mystic visions or inspiration She was familiar with the classics, but rejected them as dated and uninteresting 18 The last line of "After great pain..." Is an ironic commentary on the self-seriousness of the first line Describes the tragic death of the speaker Has conflicting connotations both of death and a radical openness to the future Indicates a Christian acceptance of death as salvation 19 Which of the following is a true statement? Dickinson's decision not to employ a traditional rhythmic or metrical structure indicates her lack of interest in these features of poetry "After great pain" is a rough draft that Dickinson never intended to publish The poem is meant as an exposition of the basic tenets of the nihilist philosophy of Nietzsche The sonic and metrical qualities of "After great pain" are crucial for analyzing the poem 20 The phrase "Wooden way" is an example of Alliteration Allusion Understatement Foreshadowing 21 "Snow"/"letting go" and "Lead"/"outlived" are both examples of Half-rhyme Assonance Eye-rhyme Perfect rhyme 22 One purpose for which Dickinson uses rhyme in "After great pain..." is To make her poem more acceptable to traditional tastes To help the reader remember the poem later To make the poem's speaker seem more educated To draw attention to the sounds and significance of particular words 23 Which of the following is true about the editorial history of "After great pain..."? Multiple conflicting versions, based on Dickinson's manuscripts, continue to exist to this day This history is irrelevant to the meaning of the poem The version of the poem widely read until the 1960s was discovered to be inaccurate The poem continues to circulate in a version that runs contrary to Dickinson's explicit instructions 24 What is most striking about the phrase "A Quartz contentment, like a stone —" The unusual knowledge of geology it demonstrates Its compounding of a simile with already metaphorical language Dickinson's choice of "quartz," a mineral heavily associated with damnation at the time The irony of describing a "stone" as "content" 25 In terms of literary history, Dickinson's poetry represents A radical experiment that inspired later modernist experimentation The first poetry written by a woman in English to gain widespread recognition A highly skilled recapitulation of the Romantic tradition A fundamental break with all previous English-language poetry
