SAT II Literature : Other Content Analysis Questions: Poetry
Study concepts, example questions & explanations for SAT II Literature
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Example Questions
Example Question #1 :Other Content Analysis Questions: Poetry
1 Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
2你更可爱、更温和的:
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.
Within his or her poetry, the speaker claims that his or her beloved will remain __________.
alive and fair
enlivened by the returning summer
alive, yet faded
alive
fair
alive and fair
Within his or her poetry, the speaker claims that his or her beloved will remain alive and fair.
"But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,"
Example Question #1 :Other Content Analysis Questions
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
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.
What does the speaker indicate is more powerful than his or her love?
old griefs
lost saints
childhood's faith
God
tears
God
According to lines 13 and 14, "and, if God choose, / I shall but love thee better after death," only God is more powerful than the speaker's love.
Example Question #1 :Other Content Analysis Questions
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
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 speaker compares loving "purely" (line 8) to.
self-aggrandizement
chastity
humility
arrogance
innocence
humility
The speaker compares loving "purely" to humility, as the speaker loves like men who "turn from Praise" (line 8).
Example Question #1 :Other Content Analysis Questions: Poetry
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
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.
Were this poem to have a topic sentence, it would very probably be which line?
"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." (line 1)
"I shall but love thee better after death." (line 14)
“我爱你与呼吸有关,/微笑,流泪,值得的l my life!" (lines 12-13)
"I love thee with a love I seemed to lose" (line 11)
"I love thee with the passion put to use/In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith." (lines 9-10)
"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." (line 1)
Were this poem to have a topic sentence, it would be "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." (line 1). Line 1 clearly states the speaker's intent to count the ways that he or she loves.
Example Question #1 :Other Content Analysis Questions
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 metaphysical conceit of the "usurp'd town" (line 5) turns at line 9 to.
the metaphor of an imprisoned criminal
the metaphor of the knot
the metaphor of an already engaged lover
the metaphor of the chaste lover
the metaphor of the "three-person'd God" (line 1)
the metaphor of an already engaged lover
The metaphysical conceit of the "usurp'd town" (line 5) turns at line 9 to the metaphor of an already engaged lover "betroth'd unto your enemy" (line 10). A metaphysical conceit is simply an extended metaphor with rather complex logic.
Example Question #1 :Literary Analysis Of American Poetry
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.
What does the speaker believe caused the "leaf that lingered brown" (line 10) to come "softly rattling down" (line 12)?
The shivering tree
A squirrel
叶的愿望
His thoughts
The wind
His thoughts
In line 11, the speaker expresses the belief that it fell as a result of his thoughts: "Disturbed, I doubt not, by my thought."
Example Question #6 :Other Content Analysis Questions: Poetry
1Go, wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense
2Weigh thy Opinion against Providence;
3Call Imperfection what thou fancy'st such,
4Say, here he gives too little, there too much;
5摧毁你的sp的所有生物ort or gust,
6Yet cry, If Man's unhappy, God's unjust;
7If Man alone engross not Heav'n's high care,
8Alone made perfect here, immortal there:
9Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod,
10Re-judge his justice, be the GOD of GOD!
11In Pride, in reasoning Pride, our error lies;
12All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies.
13Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes,
14Men would be Angels, Angels would be Gods.
15Aspiring to be Gods, if Angels fell,
16Aspiring to be Angels, Men rebel;
17And who but wishes to invert the laws
18Of ORDER, sins against th' Eternal Cause.
(1734)
According to the speaker, what is man’s greatest sin?
德struction of God's creatures
Attempting to be immortal
Pride
Rebellion
Attempting to be perfect
Pride
Pride is man’s greatest sin because “In Pride, in reasoning Pride, our error lies” (line 11). Lines 1-8 show man judging and questioning the opinion of “Providence” (line 2). Lines 9-10 show that man tries to "Snatch from His hand the balance and the rod” (line 9) as well as “re-judge His justice, be the God of God.” Line 11 suggests that it is "pride, . . . reasoning pride," that causes man to try and take God’s place, and lines 17-18 claim that whoever tries to do so, “sins against the Eternal Cause.”
(通道;e adapted from "An Essay on Man" by Alexander Pope, I.IV.1-18)
Example Question #1 :Other Content Analysis Questions
1'So careful of the type?' but no.
2From scarped cliff and quarried stone
3She cries, `A thousand types are gone:
4I care for nothing, all shall go.
5'Thou makest thine appeal to me:
6I bring to life, I bring to death:
7The spirit does but mean the breath:
8I know no more.' And he, shall he,
9Man, her last work, who seem'd so fair,
10Such splendid purpose in his eyes,
11Who roll'd the psalm to wintry skies,
12Who built him fanes of fruitless prayer,
13Who trusted God was love indeed
14And love Creation's final law—
15Tho' Nature, red in tooth and claw
16With ravine, shriek'd against his creed—
17Who loved, who suffer'd countless ills,
18Who battled for the True, the Just,
19Be blown about the desert dust,
20Or seal'd within the iron hills?
21No more? A monster then, a dream,
22A discord. Dragons of the prime,
23That tare each other in their slime,
24Were mellow music match'd with him.
25O life as futile, then, as frail!
26O for thy voice to soothe and bless!
27What hope of answer, or redress?
28Behind the veil, behind the veil.
(1849)
The speaker questions if__________will “be blown about the desert dust/ Or seal’d within the iron hills?” (lines 19-20).
his friend
himself
"she" (line 3)
Man
dinosaurs
Man
The speaker questions if Man will “be blown about the desert dust / Or seal’d within the iron hills?” (lines 19-20). Lines 19-20 are the end of a complete thought that began with line 9, "Man, her last work, who seem'd so fair,". The poet questions whether Man, who does all the actions listed in lines 11-14 and lines 17-18, will be “be blown about the desert dust / Or seal’d within the iron hills?” (lines 19-20) because Nature "red in tooth and claw / With ravine, shriek'd against his creed" (lines 15-16).
(通道;e adapted from "In Memorium A. H. H." by Alfred Lord Tennyson, LVI.1-28)
Example Question #1 :Content
What does God "father" in line 10?
Dappled things
所有交易
Nature
Change
None of the other answers
Change
God fathers change. In lines 7-5, the speaker is saying that "whatever is fickle" (line 8) "He fathers" (line 10). If something is "fickle," it ischanging constantly. "All things counter, original, spare, strange" also supports the fact that the speaker believes God fathers change. In line 10, the speaker further states that God fathers change because God's "beauty is past change."
(通道;e adapted from "Pied Beauty" by Gerard Manley Hopkins)
Example Question #9 :Other Content Analysis Questions: Poetry
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.
What is Belinda doing at the end of the second stanza?
Acting as the object of someone else’s love
Just waking up
Ringing someone’s doorbell
Pining over an unrequited love
Still sleeping
Still sleeping
The last two lines clarify that, while everyone else is finally awaking, Belinda is still asleep: “Belinda still her downy pillow prest, / Her guardian Sylph prolong’d the balmy rest.” A sylph is a sprite and, in this case, a being who guards Belinda’s sleep.
Passage adapted fromThe Rape of the Lockby Alexander Pope (1712)
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