Unit 2: Donne and Dryden Poetry - Practice Quiz

1 Who wrote the poem "The Good-Morrow"?

2 What is the main subject of "The Good-Morrow"?

3 In "The Good-Morrow," the lovers feel that their love has awakened them from what?

4 What is a major feature of the meditative voice in Donne's poetry?

5 Donne's meditative speakers commonly address which subject directly?

6 What is a metaphysical conceit?

7 Which image is used as a famous conceit in Donne's poetry?

8 Metaphysical conceits usually join which two qualities?

9 What does the word "cosmographical" mainly relate to?

10 In "The Good-Morrow," what does the image of the two hemispheres suggest?

11 Donne's use of cosmographical images makes personal love appear what?

12 Which theme is central to "The Good-Morrow"?

13 How does Donne connect love with knowledge in "The Good-Morrow"?

14 Who wrote "Happy the Man"?

15 According to "Happy the Man," who is truly happy?

16 What does brevity mean in defining happiness?

17 In Dryden's poem, happiness is mainly connected with what?

18 What attitude toward failure is encouraged in the unit's discussion of Dryden?

19 Which idea is presented as an enduring truth about personal happiness?

20 An opportunist is a person who mainly seeks to do what?

21 In "The Good-Morrow," the lovers' discovery of one another mainly transforms their earlier lives into what?

22 What is suggested by the image of the lovers' faces reflected in each other's eyes?

23 Which feature best identifies the meditative voice in Donne's poetry?

24 If a speaker shifts rapidly from a personal emotion to a logical argument, what does this reveal about Donne's meditative method?

25 Why is the compass conceit in Donne's poetry considered metaphysical?

26 A metaphysical conceit is most effective when it does which of the following?

27 When Donne uses images of spheres, maps, or the cosmos to describe love, he generally makes the relationship appear what?

28 How does Donne's reinterpretation of scientific or geographical ideas typically function in a poem?

29 Which theme is most clearly developed when Donne presents lovers as equal points in a balanced world?

30 If a Donne poem joins bodily imagery with spiritual language, what interpretation is most appropriate?

31 In "Happy the Man," what kind of person is presented as most capable of happiness?

32 A reader applying the poem's idea of happiness to modern life would most likely value which choice?

33 What is the effect of Dryden's brief definition of happiness?

34 Why does brevity strengthen Dryden's treatment of happiness?

35 What attitude toward failure is most consistent with the poem's ideal of a happy person?

36 A person who accepts both success and disappointment without becoming arrogant or despairing best represents which principle?

37 How do eternal truths contribute to personal happiness in Dryden's poem?

38 Which situation best illustrates the poem's use of eternal truth as a source of happiness?

39 If the speaker praises simplicity but repeatedly admires wealth and status, what critical judgment is most justified?

40 What evidence would most strongly support reading Dryden's speaker as a muddled thinker rather than an opportunist?

41 In "The Good-Morrow," the opening question about what the lovers did "till we loved" primarily functions to

42 The sequence from "sea-discoverers to new worlds" to "maps to others, worlds on worlds have shown" most significantly converts geographical discovery into

43 The claim that each lover possesses "one little room" and that their faces are reflected in each other's eyes suggests that love is represented as

44 What best distinguishes the meditative voice in Donne's poetry from a merely descriptive lyric voice?

45 In "The Good-Morrow," the speaker's movement from questioning the past to asserting the lovers' shared world exemplifies meditation as

46 A metaphysical conceit is most accurately understood as

47 The "two better hemispheres" conceit in "The Good-Morrow" is powerful chiefly because it

48 When Donne adapts maps, hemispheres, and discoveries in "The Good-Morrow," he most clearly performs which interpretive operation?

49 The poem's assertion that "whatever dies was not mixed equally" gives the cosmographical imagery a further implication: permanence depends on

50 Which tension most productively organizes "The Good-Morrow"?

51 The poem's treatment of childhood imagery is best interpreted as

52 In Dryden's "Happy the man," the ideal of happiness is primarily defined through

53 The poem's compressed opening definition of happiness is rhetorically effective because it

54 The compactness of Dryden's definition creates which important interpretive effect?

55 The speaker's willingness to acknowledge both gains and losses most strongly challenges which simplistic idea of happiness?

56 If the poem's speaker is read as accepting disappointment rather than denying it, his contentment becomes best understood as

57 The poem's appeal to enduring principles rather than temporary pleasures suggests that personal happiness depends on

58 Which statement best captures the poem's ethical relationship between external possessions and inner happiness?

59 A reading of Dryden's speaker as an opportunist would focus most critically on the possibility that he

60 Reading the speaker as an impressionistic critic rather than a systematic philosopher emphasizes his tendency to