Master APEnglish Literature

Peterson’s®
Master the™
®
AP English
Literature and
Composition Exam
3rd Edition
®
®
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OTHER RECOMMENDED TITLES
Peterson’s Master AP English Language & Composition
Peterson’s Master AP U.S. History

Contents
Before You Begin.......................................................................................vii
How This Book is Organized................................................................................ vii
Special Study Features............................................................................................ vii
How to Plan For Your Test Using This Book....................................................... viii
You’re Well on Your Way to Success..................................................................... viii
Give Us Your Feedback......................................................................................... viii
Works Referenced.................................................................................................... ix
Top 10 Strategies to Raise Your Score.................................................................... xii
PART I: AP® ENGLISH LITERATURE AND

COMPOSITION EXAM BASICS
1 All About the AP® English Literature and Composition Exam................3
The AP ® English Literature and Composition Exam: An Overview..................... 4
Registration Essentials for the AP ® English Literature and
Composition Exam.............................................................................................. 9
Getting Ready for Exam Day................................................................................. 10
Building an Effective Study Plan........................................................................... 11
Summing It Up........................................................................................................17
PART II: AP® ENGLISH LITERATURE AND

COMPOSITION EXAM STRATEGIES
2 Poetry Questions on the AP® Literature and Composition Exam..........21
Format of the Multiple-Choice Section................................................................. 22
How to Read a Poem on the AP ® Exam................................................................ 23
Elements of Poems................................................................................................. 30
Classifying Poems Into Genres.............................................................................. 32
Sound and Rhyme.................................................................................................. 40
Language, Word Choice, and Diction................................................................... 43
Poetry by the Century............................................................................................ 47
Practice Sets............................................................................................................ 56
Sample Passage 1.................................................................................................... 57
Sample Passage 2.................................................................................................... 60
Answer Key and Explanations............................................................................... 63
Summing It Up....................................................................................................... 69
3 Prose Questions on the AP® Literature and Composition Exam...........71
Breadth and Depth of the Prose Section................................................................ 72
How to Read a Prose Passage on the AP ® Exam................................................... 72
Situating Yourself within a Passage: Elements of Prose........................................ 81
v
vi Contents
How to Read Nonfiction Prose.............................................................................. 94

How to Read Dramatic Prose................................................................................. 96
Practice Sets.......................................................................................................... 105
Sample Passage 1.................................................................................................. 106
Sample Passage 2.................................................................................................. 109
Answer Key and Explanations............................................................................. 113
Summing It Up......................................................................................................118
4 Free-Response Questions on the AP® Literature and
Composition Exam........................................................................... 119
Format of the Free-Response Section.................................................................. 120
Learning a New Language................................................................................... 120
Essay Section Scoring........................................................................................... 121
How to Spend Those 40 Minutes Per Essay........................................................ 123
Moving Beyond the Five-Paragraph Essay.......................................................... 125
Breaking Down the Composition Process........................................................... 128
Home Stretch: The Last 5 Minutes of Each Essay.............................................. 136
Common Reader Pet Peeves................................................................................. 137
The Smallest Details Count................................................................................. 138
Poetry and Prose Essay Walkthroughs................................................................. 138
How to Approach the Open Essay........................................................................170
Open Essay Walkthroughs....................................................................................177
Summing It Up..................................................................................................... 187
PART III: THREE PRACTICE TESTS

5 Practice Test 1.................................................................................. 191
Answer Sheet Practice Test 1................................................................................193
Practice Test 1...................................................................................................... 197
Essay Question 1.................................................................................................. 212
Essay Question 2...................................................................................................214
Essay Question 3...................................................................................................216
Answer Key and Explanations..............................................................................217
6 Practice Test 2.................................................................................. 243
Answer Sheet Practice Test 2............................................................................... 245
Practice Test 2...................................................................................................... 249
Essay Question 1.................................................................................................. 265
Essay Question 2.................................................................................................. 267
Essay Question 3.................................................................................................. 269
7 Practice Test 3.................................................................................. 297
Answer Sheet Practice Test 3............................................................................... 299
Practice Test 3 ..................................................................................................... 303
Essay Question 1...................................................................................................318
Essay Question 2.................................................................................................. 320
Essay Question 3.................................................................................................. 322
Master the™ AP® English Literature and Composition Exam

Before You Begin
HOW THIS BOOK IS ORGANIZED

Whether you have five months, nine weeks, or just two short weeks to prepare for the exam,
Peterson’s Master the ™ AP® English Literature and Composition Exam will help you develop
a study plan that caters to your individual needs and timetable. These step-by-step plans
are easy to follow and remarkably effective.
• Top 10 Strategies to Raise Your Score gives you tried and true test-taking strategies.
• Part I includes the basic information about the AP English Literature & Compo-
sition test that you need to know.
• Part II provides the review and strategies for answering the different kinds of
multiple-choice questions on prose and on poetry and numerous opportunities to
practice what you are learning. It is a good idea to read the answer explanations
to all of the questions because you may find ideas or tips that will help you better
analyze the answers to questions in the next Practice Test you take. You will also
find “quick” reviews of grammar and literary terms.
• Part III includes three additional practice tests. Remember to apply the test-taking
system carefully, work the system to get more correct responses, and be careful of
your time in order to answer more questions in the time period.
SPECIAL STUDY FEATURES

Peterson’s Master the ™ AP® English Literature and Composition Exam was designed to be as
user-friendly as it is complete. It includes several features to make your preparation easier.
Overview
Each chapter begins with a bulleted overview listing the topics that will be covered in the
chapter. You know immediately where to look for a topic that you need to work on.
Summing It Up
Each strategy chapter ends with a point-by-point summary that captures the most important
points. The summaries are a convenient way to review the content of these strategy chapters.
vii
viii Before You Begin
Bonus Information
You will find three types of notes in the margins of the Master the ™ AP® English Literature and
Composition Exam book to alert you to important information.
NOTE
Margin notes marked “Note” highlight information about the test structure itself.
TIP
Tips draw your attention to valuable concepts, advice, and shortcuts for tackling the exam. By reading
the tips, you will learn how to approach different question types, pace yourself, and remember what
was discussed previously in the book.
HOW TO PLAN FOR YOUR TEST USING THIS BOOK

This books consists of a section on the content, structure, scoring of as well as useful strategies for
success on the exam followed by three chapters of content review and three full-length practice
tests with full explanations. Each content chapter also provides review exercises and walkthroughs
designed to help you get up to speed.
You may already know what you know and don’t know. If not, and frankly even if you think you do,
we’d recommend taking any of the three full-length tests first, without studying, as a “diagnostic
test” (with the proper timing, using a bubble sheet, at 8AM, in a testlike environment, etc.) in order
to see where your weaknesses lie. Let your results guide your use of this book. After reviewing your
test results, note what content you need to work on and study for first.
For more specific test-prep timeline information, see our “Building an Effective Study Plan” section
on page 11.
YOU’RE WELL ON YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS

Remember that knowledge is power. You will be studying the most comprehensive guide available,
and you will become extremely knowledgeable about the exam. We look forward to helping you
raise your score.
GIVE US YOUR FEEDBACK

Peterson’s publishes a full line of books-test prep, education exploration, financial aid, and career
preparation. Peterson’s publications can be found in high school guidance counselor offices, college
libraries and career centers, and your local bookstore and library.
We welcome any comments or suggestions you may have about this publication. Please call our cus-
tomer service department at 800-338-3282 ext. 54229 or send an email to [email protected].

Before You Begin ix
WORKS REFERENCED
The following list represents all the works of literature discussed in this book, broken out by chapter.
Chapter 2
Excerpt from “Don Juan,” by Lord Byron (Canto 11)
Excerpt from “Ode to a Nightingale,” by John Keats
Excerpt from “Philomela,” by Matthew Arnold
Excerpt from Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare
Excerpt from “Amoretti LXXV,” by Edmund Spenser
Excerpt from “London, 1802,” by William Wordsworth
“Villanelle,” by Edmund Gosse
Excerpt from “The Bells,” by Edgar Allan Poe
“I Am!,” by John Clare
Excerpt from “My Last Duchess,” by Robert Browning
“Sonnet 116,” by William Shakespeare
“The Tree” by Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea
“Long-Legged Fly,” by William Butler Yeats
Chapter 3:
Excerpt from House of the Seven Gables, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Excerpt from Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, by James Weldon Johnson

Excerpt from The Mysteries of Udolpho, by Ann Radcliffe
Excerpt from Oroonoko, by Aphra Behn
Excerpt from Karain: A Memory, by Joseph Conrad
Excerpt from The Haunted Mind,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Excerpt from Persuasion, by Jane Austen
Excerpt from Middlemarch, by George Eliot
Excerpt from English Hours, by Henry James
Excerpt from King Lear, by William Shakespeare
Excerpt from The Rivals, by Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Excerpt from The Story of an African Farm, by Olive Schreiner
Excerpt from Gulliver’s Travels, by Jonathan Swift
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x Before You Begin
Chapter 4
Excerpt from Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe
Excerpt from Confession to a Friend in Trouble, by Thomas Hardy
Excerpt from Mardi, by Herman Melville
Excerpt from The Custom of the Country, by Edith Wharton
Excerpt from “The Wanderer,” by Richard Savage
“Sonnet LXX,” by Charlotte Smith
“Bluebeard,” by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Chapter 5
“Written with a Slate Pencil on a Stone, on the Side of the Mountain of Black Comb,” by
William Wordsworth
Excerpt from The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins
“Candle-Lightin’ Time” and “Confirmation” by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Excerpt from The Female Quixote, by Charlotte Lennox
“Volpone,” by Ben Jonson
Excerpt from The Song of the Lark, by Willa Cather
Chapter 6
“A Japanese Wood-Carving,” by Amy Lowell
Excerpt from New Grub Street, by George Gissing
Prologue of She Stoops to Conquer, by David Garrick on Oliver Goldsmith
Excerpt from My Brilliant Career, by Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin, known as Miles
Franklin
“Lines Composed in a Concert Hall,” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Excerpt from The Library Window, by Margaret Oliphant

Before You Begin xi
Chapter 7
“Delight in Disorder,” by Robert Herrick
Excerpt from Shadowings, by Lafcadio Hearn
“On Recollection,” by Phillis Wheatley
Excerpt from Villette, by Charlotte Brontë
“The Word of an Engineer,” by James Weldon Johnson
Excerpt from “Against Thinking,” by Vernon Lee
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xii Contents
TOP 10 STRATEGIES TO RAISE YOUR SCORE

When it comes to taking an AP, some test-taking skills will do you more good than others.
There are concepts you can learn and techniques you can follow that will help you do your
best. Here are our picks for the top 10 strategies to raise your score:
1. Create a study plan and follow it. The right study plan will help you get the most out
of this book in whatever time you have.
2. Choose a place and time to study every day, and stick to your routine and your plan.
3. Complete the diagnostic and practice tests in this book. They will give you just what
they promise: practice—practice in reading and following the directions, practice in
pacing yourself, practice in understanding and answering multiple-choice questions, and
practice in writing timed essays.
4. Complete all of your assignments for your regular AP English class. Ask questions
in class, talk about what you read and write, and enjoy what you are doing. The test is
supposed to measure your development as an educated and thinking reader.
5. If the question is a main idea or theme question, look for the answer that is the most
general and can be supported by evidence in the selection.
6. All elements in an answer must be correct for the answer to be correct.
7. Don’t rely on your memory; refer to the passage. For poetry, read a line or two above
and a line or two below the reference.
8. With not/except questions, ask yourself if an answer choice is true about the selection.
If it is, cross it out, and keep checking answers.
9. If you aren’t sure about an answer but know something about the question, eliminate
what you know is wrong and make an educated guess.
10. Finally, don’t cram. Relax. Go to a movie, visit a friend—but not one who is taking the
test with you. Get a good night’s sleep.

PART I AP ® ENGLISH LITERATURE
AND COMPOSITION
EXAM BASICS
CHAPTER 1 All About the AP® English Literature and
Composition Exam
All About the AP®
English Literature and
Chapter 1
Composition Exam
OVERVIEW
• The AP® English Literature and Composition Exam: An Overview
• Registration Essentials for the AP® English Literature and
Composition Exam
• Getting Ready for Exam Day
• Building an Effective Study Plan
• Summing It Up
We understand exactly why you’re here and why you’re reading this book—you’re a high-
achieving student with a goal to get your best possible score on the AP® English Literature
and Composition Exam. Your reasons for setting this goal are likely two-fold:
• Getting a good exam score (typically a score of 3 or higher out of a range from 1
to 5) will help you earn valuable college credit while still in high school, allowing
you to potentially place out of introductory-level undergraduate courses in that
subject area.
• A good exam score looks great on your college application and will allow you to
be more competitive and stand out among the qualified applicants to the schools
you’re applying to.
These are great reasons to take your AP® Exams seriously—which means making the most
of your preparation time between now and exam day to ensure that you do your best.
You’ve undoubtedly taken your academic career seriously thus far, which is why you decided
to take this AP®-level course in the first place. The last thing you want to have happen now
is to get this close to your goal of acing the AP® English Literature and Composition Exam
and to not do your absolute best because of a failure to plan appropriately!
We completely get it—and if this description sounds like you, then here’s some great news:
you have already made an excellent decision and have taken a wise step forward in your AP®
Exam preparation by deciding to purchase this book. We’re here to help make your goal of a
great score on the AP® English Literature and Composition Exam a reality. So keep reading!
3
4 Part I: AP® English Literature and Composition Exam Basics
Peterson’s Master the AP® English Literature and Composition Exam is your comprehensive study
resource, all-in-one test-prep coach, effective preparation guide, and indispensable companion on
your journey to getting a great AP® Exam score. Every facet of this book is designed by AP® Exam
experts with one singular purpose: to help you achieve your best possible score on test day.
This effective test-prep tool contains all of the following helpful resources—and more:
• Complete coverage of the AP® English Literature and Composition Exam: You’ll get a
thorough insight into every aspect of this important exam—from structure and scoring to
what to expect on exam day and how to effectively tackle every question type. After reading
this book, there will be no confusion or surprises about the exam, and you’ll have a great
head start on the test-taking competition!
• Comprehensive AP® Exam review: This study guide will take you step-by-step through
the entire AP® English Literature and Composition Exam, with a rigorous analysis of each
section of the exam, along with helpful sample passages and questions that mirror those
you’ll encounter on test day.
• Effective strategies, tips, and advice from AP® experts: You’ll be ready for anything on test
day once you’re equipped with the expert tools this book provides for crafting an unbeatable
study and attack plan and achieving test success. The creators of this book know exactly what
it takes to earn a top score on the AP® English Literature and Composition Exam—and
now that knowledge is in your hands!
• Proven AP® Exam practice to build your test-taking skills: This book provides sample
questions for every section and question type you’re likely to encounter on test day, along
with comprehensive answer explanations that will help you learn from your mistakes, build
your skills, and get you in elite test-taking shape.
• Practice tests that mirror the actual exam: Chapters 5, 6, and 7 of this book are full-length
practice exams with detailed answer explanations that look and feel just like the exam you’ll
take in May. In addition, this book gives you access to two online exams. You’ll be more
than ready to take the real thing after you’ve made your way through these practice tests
and read over the detailed explanations for every answer choice.
We know how important doing well on this high-stakes exam is to you—and we’re here to help.
Rest assured, you’ve come to the right place to prepare for this exam and we are right here with you
along this journey. The tools you need for test-day success are in the helpful pages that follow—so
let’s get started!
THE AP® ENGLISH LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION

EXAM: AN OVERVIEW
It’s perfectly natural if you’re eager to skip over this chapter and get straight to the test prep—we
completely understand! However, we suggest that you take some time to review the information
here. Gaining a clear understanding of test fundamentals and of the structure and format of the
AP® English Literature and Composition Exam is an important first step along your journey to
exam success.

Chapter 1: All About the AP® English Literature and Composition Exam 5
EXAM ESSENTIALS
Test Focus: This exam is designed to test your ability to effectively analyze prose and verse
literary texts; to read critically and thoughtfully engage with questions involving issues of
content, form, and style; and to compose written essay responses that analyze and interpret a
variety of literary texts.
Length: 3 hours (with a break between Sections I and II of the exam)
Format: 2 sections
Section I (1 hour; 45 percent of your exam score): 55 multiple-choice questions

• You’ll encounter a variety of published excerpts in prose fiction, poetry, and drama.
• Each excerpt will include a set of multiple-choice questions or prompts based on
what you’ve just read.
• You’ll be given an answer sheet to record your answers to the questions on this section
of the exam.
Section II (2 hours; 55 percent of your exam score): 3 free-response questions

• You’ll encounter 3 essay prompts and will be tasked with crafting written responses.
Expect to encounter prompts based on the following:
ºº A literary analysis of a prose fiction passage
ºº A literary analysis of a poem
ºº An analysis of a student-selected work of literature that examines a specific issue,
element, or concept
• In this section of the exam, you will write your essay responses in the exam booklet.
Now that you know that you’ll have 3 hours to complete the two sections that comprise the AP®
English Literature and Composition Exam, we recommend that you devote some time between now
and test day to get comfortable with the timing, in order to develop an effective test-taking pace.
A great way to do this is to take the practice tests in this book under simulated and timed test-like
conditions and to get comfortable with completing each exam section in the time provided. You
certainly don’t want to be caught by surprise and hear “Time’s up!” on test day before you’ve had
the chance to finish!
AP® Exam Question Types—A Closer Look

Now you know that on exam day you’ll be tasked with utilizing what you’ve learned throughout
your academic year—along with the breadth and scope of knowledge you’ve acquired throughout
your academic career—to demonstrate that you’ve successfully mastered the skills covered in your
AP® course.
As mentioned, the exam consists of two sections—a multiple-choice section and a free-response
section. Subsequent chapters will delve deeply into each section and will provide comprehensive
review, practice, strategies, and advice for earning your best possible score on exam day. Here, we’ll
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take a quick look at each question type, so you’ll have a better idea of what to expect when you face
the exam.
Section I—Multiple Choice

Section I of the exam will consist of 55 multiple-choice questions based on a variety of published
excerpts in prose fiction, poetry, and drama. You may or may not recognize the passages and authors
that you’ll encounter on exam day; you’ll have 60 minutes to complete this section and you’ll need
to use your critical reading and analytical abilities to full effect.
TIP Answer All Multiple-Choice Questions!
Your score on the multiple-choice section of the AP® Exam will be based on the number of
You will not
correct answers you provide.
lose points
for incorrect This means that you should make every effort to answer each question on exam day. If you’re
answers, and
stumped by a question, use effective strategies, including eliminating incorrect choices and
educated guessing, in order to increase your chances of answering it correctly—and to increase
you will not
your score!
earn points for
unanswered
questions!
Let’s take a look at a sample passage and question:
I’m Nobody! Who are you?
I’m Nobody! Who are you?

Are you—Nobody—too?
Then there’s a pair of us!
Don’t tell! They’d advertise—you know!
How dreary—to be—Somebody!

How public—like a Frog—
To tell one’s name—the livelong June—
To an admiring Bog!
—Emily Dickinson, 1830–1886
1. Which of the following lines from the poem is an effective example of the use of simile?
A. I’m Nobody! Who are you?
B. Then there’s a pair of us!
C. Don’t tell! They’d advertise—you know!
D. How public—like a Frog—
E. To tell one’s name—the livelong June—
This passage, a famous short lyric poem from Emily Dickinson that was published in 1891, highlights
the challenges and emotions humans often face when feeling like an outsider. Dickinson employs a
variety of literary techniques in this short piece of writing, including simile, which effectively compares

two things using a connecting word such as like, than, or as. Were you able to recognize the example
of simile among the answer choices? Choice D is the correct answer; it expresses Dickinson’s feeling
that being “Somebody,” a public figure, would be dreary, like being a frog.
Use What You Don’t Know!
Use the questions in this book—especially the ones you answer incorrectly—to help you focus
and refine your study plan as you prepare for test day. Incorrect answers will help you determine
the subject areas with which you need more practice. Make time in your study plan to address
those weaknesses and build your skills!
Section II—Free Response

Section II of the exam will consist of 3 free-response questions. You’ll have 2 hours to answer the
3 questions. You’ll be presented 3 essay prompts that will assess your ability to effectively analyze
various works of literature—either provided or student-selected.
Let’s take a look at a sample prompt:
Question
(Suggested time—40 minutes. This question counts

as one-third of the total essay section score.)
Select a novel, play, or poem that features a significant character who is facing the challenge of
achieving a clear sense of personal identity. Then construct an essay in which you analyze how the
events that occur in the writing help shape how this character ultimately shapes and defines his or
her sense of self. Do not merely summarize the plot.
You may choose a work from the list below or one of comparable literary merit.
1984 The Great Gatsby

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
The Bluest Eye Invisible Man
The Bell Jar Jane Austen
The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Metamorphosis
Catch-22 Middlesex
Crime and Punishment Moby Dick
Dracula The Namesake
For Whom the Bell Tolls The Stranger
Frankenstein White Teeth
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Your written responses on the AP® English Literature and Composition Exam will be evaluated by
expert exam readers for content, style, organization, and mechanics.
A high-scoring essay will offer an effective, well-constructed, and persuasive analysis of the literary
selection, with a convincing point of view that thoughtfully considers a variety of relevant perspec-
tives. Appropriate references and examples will be utilized to support the written piece. A mastery
of English language usage and mechanics will be evident, and, overall, the piece will be well edited
and largely free of errors.
Bottom line: Make sure your essay writing skills are razor sharp—which means practicing writing
well-crafted essays as much as possible between now and test day.
Scoring
Your AP® English Literature and Composition Exam score is designed to reflect the knowledge you’ve
acquired as a result of taking this college-level course and how well you can apply this knowledge to
the questions you encounter on the exam. Your score will be a weighted combination of the scores you
achieve on the two exam sections—the multiple-choice section and the free-response section—and
will be based on the following 5-point scale:
1 = no recommendation
2 = possibly qualified
3 = qualified
4 = well qualified
5 = extremely well qualified
The multiple-choice questions in Section I of the exam will be machine scored, and your free-response
essays in Section II will be scored by expert AP® Exam readers.
So, what exactly do these scores mean? The colleges you have decided to apply to, and to which you’ll
send your official AP® score, will use your score to determine whether or not you qualify for course
credit and have achieved advanced placement—allowing you to skip over the equivalent college course.
Typically, a score of 3 or higher indicates that you have achieved a sufficient level for advanced
placement and course credit consideration.
Earn an AP® Scholar Award!
The College Board and the AP® Program have created the AP® Scholar Awards in an effort to
recognize talented students who have demonstrated exemplary levels of achievement by doing
well in AP® courses and exams. For more information, visit the official AP® Exam website.
Register for a College Board account via the official website in order to access your score, which
will only be available online. You’ll also receive an email update regarding when you can access and
review your score, typically in July of the year you take the exam.

Once you access your score report via your account, you’ll have the option to view and send your
score to the college indicated on your answer sheet. You can also select additional colleges to send
your score report to, for a fee.
TIP
AP® score reports
You will have several options for reporting your scores to the schools and scholarship programs
are cumulative,
you hope to pursue. In addition, each college has its own set of criteria for granting course credit
which means that
and advanced placement. For a complete set of guidelines, options, and fees for score reporting and
they will include
earning college credit, visit the official AP® website.
all scores from
every AP® Exam
REGISTRATION ESSENTIALS FOR THE AP® ENGLISH you’ve taken,
LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION EXAM unless you have
specifically
We know that you’re undoubtedly focused on making sure your English literature and test-taking
requested
skills are at peak form for test day. However, you also need to have a good handle on the test essen-
that one or
tials—from registering to fees to what you can and cannot bring on test day and everything in
between—in order to be fully prepared. more scores
be withheld or
This section provides a comprehensive rundown of exactly what you need to know, so keep reading.
canceled.
Registration
AP® Exams are typically administered in May each year. The 2018 exam date for the English Lit-
erature and Composition Exam is Wednesday, May 9.
TIP
Once you register for an AP® course at your school, it is the responsibility of your school’s AP® exam
coordinator to keep you informed regarding exam essentials and to notify you when and where to
report for the official exam. Your AP® Exam coordinator is also responsible for collecting all exam
Currently, there
fees and ordering the exams. He or she will also help with scheduling if you are planning to take
multiple AP® Exams that are scheduled for the same time period. is no limit to the
number of AP®
Speak to your AP® Exam coordinator or visit the official AP® website for additional information if
Exams you can
you have special circumstances that need to be addressed or accommodated, including a disability
take, and you
or if you are home schooled or are an international student.
are not required
to take an AP®
Fees
course prior to
The current basic fee for taking an AP® Exam in the United States is normally $94. There are options taking an AP®
available for fee reductions and wavers, typically based on financial need. Exam—although
To determine if you’re eligible for a fee adjustment, contact your school’s AP® coordinator. For a it is strongly
comprehensive list of fees, guidelines, and available options, please visit the official College Board encouraged for
website for AP® students. test-day success.
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GETTING READY FOR EXAM DAY

We know that after preparing diligently and making the most of this study guide you’ll be totally
ready to tackle every AP® test section and question. But this book doesn’t just take you halfway along
the journey to test-day success—we take you all the way. Knowing test-day fundamentals, including
what to expect when you arrive for the exam, what to bring, and what to leave home, will help you
avoid surprises, reduce anxiety, and stay ahead of the competition.
NOTE First Steps

On exam day, be
sure to complete Make sure you arrive for the test early, with plenty of time to spare in case there are any unforeseen
your registration delays. When you arrive on exam day, you’ll be asked to review the policies and procedures regarding
answer sheet test security and administration—which include everything from maintaining exam integrity and
good conduct to your right to have a fair and equal testing experience and more. You’ll be asked to
completely
complete and sign your registration answer sheet, indicating that you have reviewed and agree to all
and accurately
of the AP® Exam policies and procedures.
to avoid any
potential score
reporting delays!
Test-Day Checklist: What to Bring on Exam Day
If you’d like to Use this helpful checklist to know what you should bring with you on the day of your AP® English
get a jumpstart Literature and Composition Exam:
and read the • Your AP® Student Pack, which you should receive from your AP® Exam coordinator
exam procedures • A school-issue or government-issue photo ID (if you are taking the exam at a school you
before test day, do not currently attend)
visit the official
• Your Social Security card or Social Security number (used by some colleges as a primary
College Board student identification tool)
website for AP®
• A few sharpened No. 2 pencils, with erasers
Exams.
• A few pens with dark blue or black ink
• A watch (optional)—not a smartwatch or a watch that beeps, makes noise, or has an alarm
set to go off during the exam
• Your 6-digit school code
• If you’ve requested a specific testing accommodation, your SSD Student Accommodation
Letter
What Not to Bring on Exam Day

Just as important as what you should bring on test day, here’s a list of items that you should not bring
to the test room, in order to avoid any issues or delays that could negatively impact your testing
experience:
• A computer
• Books or reference materials of any kind
• Scratch paper or note paper

• Phones of any kind

• Portable listening devices or headphones
• Electronic equipment or recording devices of any kind
• Cameras or photographic equipment
• Any device that can access the Internet
• Food or drink of any kind
• Earplugs
• Smartwatches or watches that beep or have alarms
• Clothing with subject-related information
• Office supplies, including compasses, protractors, mechanical pencils, correction fluid,
highlighters, or colored pencils
BUILDING AN EFFECTIVE STUDY PLAN

We know you’re on the hunt for your best possible score on exam day, and we’re here to help you
develop an effective study plan for making that goal a reality.
Making sure that your writing skills are in peak form on exam day is essential—remember, the free-
response essay section of the exam will count for 55 percent of your total exam score. Here are a few
tips for making sure your writing skills are where they need to be:
• Practice: Make sure you practice writing persuasive essays on a wide variety of literary genres
and texts. For most things in life—including writing—the best way to build your skills is
through practice and repetition.
• Remember the fundamentals: Topics, focus, and points of view may vary, but some things
that don’t shift are the core tenets of essay writing—content, style, organization, and
mechanics—on which the exam readers will be grading you. Make sure that your essay
effectively delivers in all of these fundamental areas.
• Get feedback: It can be tough to judge the merits of your own writing. Your best approach
as you practice for exam day is to have someone whose writing abilities you respect review
and provide critical feedback on your work.
• Target your weak areas: As you practice for exam day, look critically at your writing and
identify the areas that you need to focus on in order to get your writing skills in peak con-
dition. Then, make sure your subsequent writing attempts address these weak areas—in
an effort to eradicate them!
As a high-achieving student, you’ve likely had your fair share of successes during your academic career.
You know which study habits work for you—and which don’t—and you know the value of careful
preparation for an important test. Make good use of this knowledge as you prepare for the exam.
Of course, your critical-reading and analysis skills also need to be strong for test day—these skills
are essential for success on both sections of the exam. Here are a few tips for making sure your
reading skills are where they need to be:
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• Practice: Be sure to make time between now and exam day to practice reading a variety of
literary texts thoughtfully and critically. As always, practice makes perfect.
• Pace yourself: Whether you’re reading for pleasure or for a high-stakes exam, rushing
through what you’re reading only increases your chances of missing critical information.
Between now and exam day, practice building an effective reading pace—one that lets you
thoroughly and critically read and analyze passages similar to the practice passages you’ll
encounter in this book and on exam day—so that you can complete the exam before time
runs out.
• Think it through: When you read a practice passage, always keep the “5 Ws and an H” in
mind: who, what, where, when, why, and how. Think carefully about the intent and purpose
of the piece and what the author is trying to convey. These critical questions will help you
discern the core elements of the writing and successfully tackle any question on exam day.
AP® English Literature and Composition Test: Not a Cram Exam!
Doing well on this AP® Exam is not a race to memorize as many facts as possible between
now and test day—especially since you won’t know what passages and pieces of writing will
appear until the day of the exam!
The exam is designed to test your ability to think critically, utilize your reading comprehension
skills, and construct effective, targeted written responses.
Your best tools on exam day will be the knowledge and skills you’ve acquired throughout your
academic career and during your AP® English Literature and Composition course.
You may have a fully fleshed out study plan already devised. However, if you’d like some guidance
or are open to advice for constructing an effective plan of attack, we suggest the following possible
strategies for using this book and making the most of the time you have between now and test day.
The Full-Review Strategy

This approach gives you an equal amount of time for each section of the exam, for comprehensive
review and skill building. It also factors in time for you to do some independent reading and writing;
keeping your brain and skills sharp by practicing reading and writing on a variety of subjects is
excellent preparation for this exam.
• Step 1: List the number of days you have until test day: ______ days
• Step 2: Read this chapter thoroughly and carefully to learn the AP® English Literature and
Composition Exam basics, including registration scoring, and to help you get comfortable
with the general format of each test section.
• Step 3: Build your study plan. Divide the number of days you have to prepare equally between
each of the two test sections, splitting that time (days or hours) between topic review and
question/essay practice, using the chapters and practice tests in this book.

Multiple-Choice Section
Topic review: __________
Question practice: __________
Free-Response Section
Essay practice: __________
• Step 4: Factor in some time each day to do some independent reading and/or writing. After
all, this is a test of your ability to read critically and write effectively, so getting as much
practice as possible can only prove helpful! Consider breaking up the days of the week so
that you’ll have a few days for independent reading practice and a few days for independent
writing practice. These independent review sessions can be as short as a few minutes or
as long as you like, depending on how much time you have available and how much skill-
building and practice you need.
We suggest you practice with a variety of literature genres, from prose fiction to poetry and
dramatic excerpts—and mix it up as much as possible to keep things interesting!
Independent Reading Practice Days/Hours: ___________
Independent Writing Practice Days/Hours: ___________

• Step 5: Structure your study calendar. Now that you know the number of days you have
to devote to topic review and question practice for each section of the exam, take some
time to fill in a study calendar so you’ll know exactly what prep you’ll be tackling each day
between now and test day. Structure your calendar to suit your study style—devote each day
to a single test section or divide your days so you can work on one section for a set number
of hours and switch things up with the other test section—whatever keeps you interested,
focused, and on track. Make sure to include independent reading and writing practice on
your study schedule.
• Step 6: Adjust your study plan as needed. Remember, this is your study plan and no one
knows what works best for you better than you do. As you work through your study calendar
and as your test strengths and weaknesses shift, adjust your study plan accordingly.
The Weakness-Targeting Strategy

This approach lets you allocate the time you have between now and test day to target your weak
areas and build your skills where you need to most.
• Step 1: List the number of days you have until test day: ______ days
• Step 2: Read this chapter thoroughly and carefully to learn the AP® English Literature and
Composition Exam basics, including registration scoring, and to help you get comfortable
with the general format of each test section.
• Step 3: Assess your strengths and weaknesses. Rank each test section based on your strengths
and weaknesses. We recommend you use your class grades as a guide. Are you great at
www.petersons.com
answering questions but struggle with essay writing? Is the reverse true? Rank the test
sections accordingly, giving a 1 to your strongest section and a 2 to your weakest section.
Multiple-Choice Section: __________
Free-Response Section: __________

• Step 4: Build your study plan: Divide the number of days/hours you have to prepare among
the test sections, splitting your time (days or hours) based on your rankings. You can divide
your time however you see fit, as long as you’re dedicating the majority of your time to
improving your weak spots. One example for allocating your time is as follows:
ºº 75 percent of your time for the section you ranked 2
ºº 25 percent of your time for the section you ranked 1
ºº Once you’re comfortable with your initial study plan percentage allocations, fill in your
initial number of study days for each test section.
Multiple-Choice Section: __________
Free-Response Section: __________

ºº Now, decide how you want to divide your time for each section between topic review
and question/essay practice. This should be based on your current skill set and needs.
Multiple-Choice Section
Question practice: __________
Free-Response Section
Essay practice: __________
• Step 5: Factor in some time each day to do some independent reading and/or writing. After
all, this is a test of your ability to read critically and write effectively, so getting as much
practice as possible can only prove helpful! We recommend that you devote your available
time for independent reading and writing based on your current strengths and weaknesses.
Of your available skill-building time, 75 percent should be used for your weaker of the two
areas and 25 percent should be used for your stronger of the two areas.
These independent review sessions can be as short as a few minutes or as long as you like,
depending on how much time you have available and how much skill building and practice
you need. We suggest you practice with a variety of literature genres, from prose fiction to
poetry and dramatic excerpts—and mix it up as much as possible to keep things interesting!
Independent Reading Practice Days/Hours: ___________
Independent Writing Practice Days/Hours: ___________

• Step 6: Structure your study calendar. Now that you know the amount of time you have to
devote to topic review and question practice for each section of the exam, take some time to
fill in a study calendar so you’ll know exactly what prep you’ll be tackling each day between
now and test day. Feel free to structure your calendar to suit your study style—devote each

day to a single test section or divide your days so you can work on a section for a set number
of hours and switch—whatever will keep you interested, focused, and on track!
• Step 7: Adjust your study plan as needed. Remember, this is your study plan and no one
knows what works best for you better than you do. As you work through your study calendar
and as your test strengths and weaknesses shift, adjust your study plan accordingly.
The Quick-Review Strategy

Perhaps you’re short on time between now and test day—maybe you have just a few days—and need
to make the most of them. This quick and efficient approach helps you make the most of the small
amount of time you have left to earn your best possible exam score!
• Step 1: Quickly read this chapter to learn the AP® English Literature and Composition Exam
basics. Don’t spend too much time on it—you have some serious test preparation to get to!
• Step 2: Take and score the first practice test in this book. Carefully review the answer
explanations for the questions you got wrong, making sure that you understand why you
answered them incorrectly. Use your results to help gauge your strengths and weaknesses.
• Step 3. Review the book chapter material that focuses on the areas in which you are weakest,
based on the results of your first practice test. Make careful use of the time that you have,
spending time on the areas in which you most urgently need to build your skills.
• Step 4: Take and score the second practice test in this book. Carefully review the answer
answered them incorrectly. Once again, use your results to help gauge your strengths and
weaknesses. Hopefully, your list of weak areas is shorter this time!
• Step 5. Review the book chapter material that focuses on the areas in which you are weakest,
based on the results you obtained on the second practice test. Make careful use of the time
that you have, spending time on the areas in which you most urgently need to build your skills.
• Step 6: Take and score the third practice test in this book. Carefully review the answer
answered them incorrectly. Once again, use your results to help gauge your strengths and
weaknesses. Hopefully, your list of weak areas is now even shorter!
• Step 7. If time permits, review the book chapter material that focuses on the areas in which
you are still showing weakness, based on the results of your third practice test. Make careful
use of the time that you have left, spending time on the areas in which you most urgently
need to build your skills.
• Step 8. Once again, if time permits, factor in some time each day to do some independent
reading and/or writing. It’s a great way to build your skills and get your mind sharp for
exam day!
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A Note for Parents and Guardians
If you’re the parent or guardian of a student who is planning to take the AP® English Lit-
erature and Composition Exam, your support and encouragement can go a long way toward
test-day success!
Help your student stay on track and focused with his or her study plan between now and test
day, and make sure that his or her needs for effective test preparation are well met!
The path to a great score on the AP® English Literature and Composition Exam is not an easy one.
The knowledge and skills you’ve obtained in your AP® course will be fully put to the test and will
need to be razor sharp on exam day. That’s where this book comes in!
Consider this your indispensable guide along your test-preparation journey. It includes a compre-
hensive review of the most frequently tested concepts on the exam and helpful practice for all of the
question types you can expect to encounter. Make the most of the resources in the following pages
as you craft your study plan and move closer toward achieving an excellent score.
Best of luck!

SUMMING IT UP
• The AP® English Literature and Composition Exam tests your ability to analyze literary
texts; read critically and answer questions on content, form, and style; and compose essay
responses that analyze and interpret literary texts.
• Section I of the exam is comprised of 55 multiple-choice questions about published excerpts
in prose fiction, poetry, and drama. This section lasts 1 hour and makes up 45 percent of
your exam score.
• Section II is comprised of 3 free-response questions. Expect to face prompts that require
you to analyze a prose fiction passage, a poem, and a work of literature of your choice. This
section lasts 2 hours and makes up 55 percent of your exam score.
• The complete AP® English Literature and Composition Exam is 3 hours long, with a
break between Sections I and II.
• Take the practice tests in this book and online under simulated and timed test-like condi-
tions to become comfortable with the pacing of the exam.
• Your score on Section I of the exam is only based on the number of correct answers you
earn. Answer every question on exam day—you will not lose points for incorrect answers.
• Your written responses in Section II will be evaluated by expert AP® Exam readers for
content, style, organization, and mechanics. The highest-scoring essays present a well-
constructed, persuasive analysis of the given prompt, with a clear point of view that offers
a variety of perspectives.
• Your final score will be a weighted combination of your scores on Section I and Section II
and will be based on a 5-point scale:
ºº 1 = no recommendation
ºº 2 = possibly qualified
ºº 3 = qualified
ºº 4 = well qualified
ºº 5 = extremely well qualified
• Each college has its own set of criteria for granting course credit. For a complete set of
guidelines, options, and fees for score reporting and earning college credit, visit the official
AP® website.
• The 2018 exam date for the English Literature and Composition Exam is Wednesday, May 9.
• Your AP® Exam coordinator will collect all exam fees and order your exams. He or she
will also help with scheduling if you are planning to take multiple AP® Exams that are
scheduled for the same time period.
• Arrive early on test day. Make sure to complete your registration answer sheet completely
and accurately to avoid any potential score reporting delays.
• Make sure your writing, reading, and critical analysis skills are in peak form on exam day.
Practice writing persuasive essays on a wide variety of literary genres and texts, and make
time to practice reading a variety of literary texts. Target your weak areas as the main focus
of your study plan.
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PART IIAP ® ENGLISH LITERATURE
AND COMPOSITION
EXAM STRATEGIES
CHAPTER 2 Poetry Questions on the AP® Literature
and Composition Exam
CHAPTER 3 Prose Questions on the AP® Literature

and Composition Exam
CHAPTER 4 Free-Response Questions on the AP®

Literature and Composition Exam
Poetry Questions on
the AP® Literature and
Chapter 2
Composition Exam
OVERVIEW
• Format of the Multiple-Choice Section
• How to Read a Poem on the AP® Exam
• Elements of Poems
• Classifying Poems into Genres
• Sound and Rhyme
• Language, Word Choice, and Diction
• Poetry by the Century
• Practice Sets
• Sample Passage 1
• Answer Key and Explanations
• Summing It Up
“What is poetry?” is a gigantic question, one that has been puzzled over by countless poets
(and their readers, sometimes with much befuddlement) over the centuries. It is not a
question that the College Board is asking you to answer in a 1-hour multiple-choice exam.
You have a much more defined task: demonstrate that you can read and analyze poems
and answer multiple-choice questions about how their language, formal features, and other
literary qualities help you understand their meaning. This chapter cannot answer the grand
question, but it can give you some tools for reading and analyzing the kinds of poems you’ll
find on the exam and answering the kinds of questions you’ll encounter.
Because the exam has a limited purview, its definition of poetry is restricted to something
more manageable: poems in English, written during or after the seventeenth century, which
are short enough and self-contained enough to fit on an exam without the need for historical
context, elaborate footnotes, or other kinds of explanatory information. They do not count
lyrics from popular songs from the twentieth century as poetry, even if you could make the
case for the high quality of wordplay, witty rhymes, or important themes. They do not use
poems that break the bounds of formatting on the printed page or contain other kinds of
21
22 Part II: AP® English Literature and Composition Exam Strategies
media. They are not trying to trick you by hiding secret meanings in the poems—if there’s a deeper
meaning to the poem, the questions will proceed in such a way that you have the information to analyze it.
FORMAT OF THE MULTIPLE-CHOICE SECTION

In Section I of the AP® English Literature and Composition Exam, you will answer 55 multiple-
choice questions in 1 hour. This section is worth 45 percent of your total score.
Here is the key information to keep in mind.
SECTION I ESSENTIALS
You have 1 hour to complete this section.

• You will answer sets of multiple-choice questions.
• Each set is based on a published work of drama, poetry, or prose fiction.
This chapter will give you tips about how read a poem on the exam and understand the kinds of
questions the exam asks about a poem’s structure, style, tone, diction, and themes. Even when those
questions ask you to make inferences, the format of the question will be familiar to you so that
you can feel confident in your interpretations. We will explain some of the basic building blocks
of poetry and how to analyze these features, and then we will walk you through some important
movements in Anglophone (English-speaking, mostly British and American) poetry over the past
four centuries. In these overviews, we will explain some important literary concepts, identify a few
important poets, and recommend some of their poems that best illustrate those formal features and
concepts associated with the movements.
TIP Continuing Your Studies Beyond This Chapter

You can’t
It’s important to remember that these are overviews; they are not a substitute for reading the poems
study every
themselves or for taking the initiative to read related poems you find by studying these concepts on
poem by the
your own. The College Board website provides a list of most frequently included poetry and prose
recommended
authors that it recommends AP® English Literature and Composition teachers consult in making a
authors in hopes
syllabus, and you are welcome to consult it, too. That list of about fifty names is not a guarantee or
that one will show a prediction that those poets will be on the exam, nor does it mean that other poets won’t be on the
up on the exam. exam. Likewise, the recommended poems in this book are good illustrations of important concepts,
Instead, study but they’re intended for you to study so you can recognize the concepts. The concepts may take
concepts and different shapes in different poems, across different periods.
formal features,
When you take the exam, it may be the case that one of these recommended poems shows up and
so that you can
you’ve devised some sample questions about it over the course of your studying. That would be
recognize them serendipitous!
even when you
If that doesn’t happen, but you still recognize a concept like “the sublime” or a feature like “the heroic
aren’t familiar
couplet,” you’ll still have a good start because you’ve read similar poems and practiced analyzing
with the poem
them. Indeed, the practice tests contain examples of poets who are similar to those mentioned in
or poet.

Chapter 2: Poetry Questions on the AP® Literature and Composition Exam 23
the book, but they may be slightly less familiar to you. This chapter gives you strategies for reading
the poem if you recognize the author, genre, or historical period. There are also ways to answer the
exam’s questions about the smaller building blocks, such as rhyme or diction, so that you can gain
confidence in interpreting the poem by letting the exam guide you through its questions and answer
choices that will give you some analytical language that may start to look familiar. As you practice
NOTE
with poems from our recommendations, you’ll develop familiarity with the terminology and also
interpretation strategies that work best for you.
A note on our
HOW TO READ A POEM ON THE AP® EXAM terminology: We

will be referring
First, read the poem all the way through. Underline any words or phrases that seem unfamiliar to
to “features”
you, but don’t panic about them. You may be able to come back to them and figure out some clues
and “elements”
from context, or you may realize that one unknown word isn’t a big deal because you’ve found the
of poems as the
more important elements. On this first read, just try to understand the basic idea of the poem.
building blocks
Then, read the poem again, noting the places where that basic idea appears in the language and for interpreting
structure of the poem.
poems. A
On this second read-through: feature is a word
choice, a rhyme,
Pay more attention to... Don’t get hung up on... a metaphor,
Genre of poem (sonnet, ode, free verse; if or some other
you don’t know the exact name, identify how The poet’s intention in writing the poem element of
many stanzas it has, its basic rhyme scheme) the poem that
Who is the speaker and is that speaker helps convey its
addressing anyone in particular? (This meaning. Feature
Any possible hidden meanings
question may help you figure out the type of and element
poem.) are mostly
Diction (Does the speaker use simple or interchangeable

One word you don’t understand here; we’ll move
complex, multi-syllabic words?)
on to identifying
A single obscure symbol that you don’t
Repeated words, metaphors, images—any- specific devices
understand—the questions in the exam will
thing that seems to form a pattern in subsequent
likely give you some help in figuring it out
pages.
Punctuation in the sentences of the poem,
The meaning of a single line
not the line breaks
Tensions that recur throughout the poem The poet’s intention
Intention vs. Meaning

Note that we’ve repeated the warning to set aside the poet’s intentions on these initial readings. You
may ask: aren’t you asking for the meaning of the poem? Who else but the poet is the expert on what
they meant to say? Here, there’s a distinction to be made between intention and meaning. Intention
seeks to discover what was going on in the poet’s head during composition, but those thoughts may
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be different from the actual language that appears on the page. On the other hand, you can interpret
the meaning of language and other poetic features on your own, without asking the poet. When you
ask about intention, you’re asking the poet “why did you do that?” and he may not be able to answer
because he was born four centuries ago, doesn’t remember, or doesn’t have a direct answer. When
you look for meaning, you’re asking the poem, “How does this element work in the poem?” For instance,
you may be seeking to discover the following:
How does this rhyme scheme work? The poet has a regular couplet rhyme scheme in
this sonnet, but the last two lines have a half-rhyme that doesn’t fit as it conven-
tionally would. The final couplet of a sonnet is usually a formal element that empha-
sizes resolution and unity, but here it’s not doing that. I can’t ask the poet why (or if
it’s just poetic license), but I can infer that this change from the sonnet’s usual conven-
tions is important. How does this irregularity let me see other signals that something
is amiss in the poem? What other fractures in the poem do I see when I start looking
for a pattern of slightly altered conventions?
How does this word choice work in this line? It seems too lofty and elevated for the
simpler language that the speaker is using—what does it reveal about the speaker’s
aspirations or inner conflicts about how to behave in a society that shuns him? Does
it show some ambiguity in how the speaker wants to belong and use that fancy lan-
TIP
guage, while staying true to the speaker’s humbler background? In the next line, the
speaker returns to simpler language, so he hasn’t made a definite choice, and I should
keep looking for patterns of this inner conflict...
Don’t try to come
up with elaborate Your interpretation will be a good one if it helps you make sense of other elements in the poem to
secret intentions find patterns or larger themes. The exam questions will keep you focused on justifying your inter-
for the poet or pretations by looking at how small elements of the poem fit together; the exam builders want you
get bogged to focus on the poem itself, what you can see on the page, rather than on the poet’s intentions that you
down in endless can’t see on the page.
ambiguities. (This In the multiple-choice questions, you may be asked to make inferences, but that’s not the same as
is especially intuiting the poet’s beliefs, finding secret meanings, or guessing. Inferences will always be backed
tempting in up by elements of the poem: with inference questions, the exam is testing how well you can test
Romantic poetry, and assess the value of interpretations. There will often be an answer choice or two that pushes way
for some reason.) beyond what’s on the page: you can be conservative and stick with answers that you can back up
The goal is to with features you’ve identified in the poem itself.
answer the exam
questions, not Questions Will Help You Read the Poem
to discover a The questions on the exam will tell you what to look for, so you should use them: being pointed to a
totally original, metaphor or being asked the meaning of a specific word will often help you orient yourself, enabling
mind-blowing you to find other related elements to guide your reading. Likewise, the answer choices will often
interpretation. give you some of the analytical language that’s right on the tip of your tongue. There are often red
herrings, or choices that are too good to be true, but you can often find patterns of interpretation
among multiple questions and answer choices, which may help you get some idea of what you’re
supposed to be looking for.

Throughout this chapter, we’ve identified and tagged the following categories of questions you will
see on test day:
• MAIN IDEA questions: test your knowledge of the central meaning of the poem
• THEME questions: test your knowledge of the larger meaning and significance of the poem
• STRUCTURE questions: test your knowledge of how a poem is organized as a genre,
including but not limited to its use of stanzas, meter, and rhyme scheme. Not all poems
contain all of these elements, and there are still elements of structure in blank verse (without
rhymes) or free verse (without a regular meter)
• STYLE questions: test your knowledge of the language the poet uses to convey meaning
in the poem, including the use of poetic devices
• TONE questions: test your knowledge of the speaker’s attitude toward the poem or char-
acters in the poem (we will discuss some possible ways to distinguish style and tone later
in the chapter)
• DETAIL questions: ask you to find nuances in the poem or check to make sure you under-
stand less obvious ideas
• VOCABULARY-IN-CONTEXT questions: test your ability to define unfamiliar words
(or to use information from the poem to help you define them)
• INFERENCE questions: ask you to interpret nuances, complexities, or other information
that is not directly given to you on the page but which you can answer using ideas from
prior questions
Some questions may be direct; for instance, they may use the word “infer” or “tone,” while others will
get at the main ideas or themes indirectly. Some questions may contain elements of structural devices
and stylistic devices—it’s common, for example, for questions about rhyme to call your attention to
the structure of a line but also the word choice that makes the rhyme. These tagged questions are
for your benefit in studying: if you know you struggle with making inferences, pay attention to how
those questions are phrased in the chapter and on the practice exams, and then work on devising
your own versions of inference questions. They become easier when you practice answering them,
to be sure, but formulating your own questions helps you internalize how and why these questions
are framed the way they are, and they make you more flexible in dealing with them.
Minding Your Time

You have to answer 55 questions in 1 hour, which already makes the test a bit of a race, and you also
have to read unfamiliar language. From your own practice, you know whether it takes you more time
to read a long passage of prose or a shorter passage of less familiar language in the poetry sections.
In either case, you’ll want to spend most of your time working through the questions, because they
can help you read the passage strategically so that you make the most of your time.
Here’s an example poetry passage, with some tips on how to manage your time as you’re reading an
unfamiliar poem and preparing to answer multiple-choice questions. We recommend you do two
initial quick read-throughs that may take about 4 minutes tops—you don’t need to annotate these
multiple-choice passages like you would if you were writing an essay, but you should make a few notes
about unfamiliar words or phrases or moments that jump out at you as seeming especially important
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for understanding the main idea of the poem. In these initial minutes when you’re making sense of it,
we recommend reading the poem in sentence form, so that you’re pretending there are no line breaks
and you’re taking your cues from the punctuation, the way you would in reading a prose sentence.
If you can’t find that main idea on these quick reads, don’t worry. You can look down at the first two
or three questions to see what they’re asking, and they may help you find some keywords repeated
NOTE
that might help you get your bearings.
Okay, set your timer and spend no more than 4 minutes reading this passage twice.
Fun fact: the
From Canto 11 of Don Juan, by George Gordon, Lord Byron
name of the
poem and the VIII
title character are Don Juan had got out on Shooter’s Hill;
pronounced Don Sunset the time, the place the same declivity
Joo-an, so the Which looks along that vale of good and ill
rhyme will work. Line Where London streets ferment in full activity,
5 While everything around was calm and still,
Except the creak of wheels, which on their pivot he
Heard, and that bee-like, bubbling, busy hum
Of cities, that boil over with their scum—
IX
I say, Don Juan, wrapp’d in contemplation,
10 Walk’d on behind his carriage, o’er the summit,
And lost in wonder of so great a nation,
Gave way to’t, since he could not overcome it.
“And here,” he cried, “is Freedom’s chosen station;
Here peals the People’s voice nor can entomb it
15 Racks, prisons, inquisitions; resurrection
Awaits it, each new meeting or election.
X
“Here are chaste wives, pure lives; here people pay
But what they please; and if that things be dear,
‘Tis only that they love to throw away
20 Their cash, to show how much they have a-year.
Here laws are all inviolate; none lay
Traps for the traveller; every highway’s clear;
Here—he was interrupted by a knife,
With—“Damn your eyes! your money or your life!”
First, let’s underline the unknowns or confusing parts: There are a few confusing words just in the
first stanza here, like declivity and vale. You may find some others that trouble you as well.
As you’re reading in sentence form, you’ll see that the first sentence doesn’t end until the middle of
stanza IX and has a lot of semicolons and commas. It frequently runs over the line breaks, and you

may have gotten annoyed at how long it takes Byron to finish his sentences. This annoyance is a
great pattern to pick out! It’s getting you immersed in the poet’s stylistic elements, as you’re paying
attention to the long rhythms of the sentence, the lofty word choice, and the exalted tone to describe
Don Juan’s perspective on London as he arrives.
Here are some sample questions that pick up on those observations from the initial read-throughs.
Because they deal with the first stanza of the poem, they appear first on the exam, right next to or
under the poem. If you’re stumped about the poem, look at what the questions are asking you.
1. When Don Juan is at the “declivity” in line 2. Byron uses all of the following devices to
2, what is he doing? set the London scene EXCEPT
A. Looking up at the hilltop A. alliteration to give a sense of the
B. Looking down at the city bustle.
C. Buying supplies at the store outside B. metaphor of a simmering tureen full

of the city of activity that’s about to spill over.
D. Cursing his bad fortune at getting C. apostrophe to address the king as

lost though he were standing with him.
E. Asking directions from the local D. enjambed lines and over-full sen-
constable tences to give a sense of the overfull
city.
E. consonance in the v-sounds of line
21-23 to show his desire to orate for
an imagined audience.
Answers and Explanations present, and the description of each one

gives you a sense that these questions are
1. So, yes, you were asked about the word you
pointing you to the main idea of the poem:
didn’t know: this is obviously a vocabulary
this is a satire of London, and it’s not
question. Even if you were stumped by the
clear whether the hero Don Juan is in on
choices, you could see that the next question
the satire yet. Noticing the long, winding
asks you about London and the stylistic
sentence structures in the first and second
devices that make up Don Juan’s perspective
stanzas paid off, even if you weren’t sure
on the city. With these two pieces of infor-
what enjambment means. Enjambed lines
mation, you could probably discern that he’s
are phrases that spill over a line into the next
near a city, and he has a perspective on it
one without punctuation or an appropriate
that allows him to see a lot. He’s also looking
pause, as happens in line 6 with “pivot he”
at the sunset, so you could probably infer
here. They aren’t mistakes: they convey the
that he’s looking down at London, even if
sense that the idea can’t be contained in the
you still weren’t sure what that word meant.
metrical structure or the rhyme of the poem.
“Declivity” means slope or decline, so Don
Apostrophe (an address to an absent person
Juan is looking down at the setting sun over
or a personified object) is the only choice
the city. Choice B is correct.
among the answers that doesn’t appear in
2. This question about poetic devices—the the stanzas, although Don Juan does make
style of the poem—is asking you to find a gesture toward government. Choice C is
the exception among several good options. correct.
Four of the poetic devices in the poem are
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How much time did you spend on those first two questions? Track the time that you spend on each
TIP passage of prose or poetry, aiming to spend about 13 minutes on each one. That means you have
less than a minute per question. If you’re really not sure about a question, move on and read the next
Underlining one; it can often give you some clues and aid in finding the main ideas. That information in the
unknowns and phrasing of the questions goes into your “known information” bank that you can use to give yourself
even frustrating context for understanding what you don’t know. Don’t rest on that bank, though, because you have
elements can a long race ahead of you.
often help you
Let’s look back at some of your known elements and see how they help you with the rest of the
find patterns and questions. You know the title, and you know some basic information about the poem. The title tells
context that you you that there are numerous cantos and stanzas within the poem, which is often an indicator of a
can either use to narrative poem because they tend to be long and organized into these formulaic structures. Oh, look,
help you figure question 5 even gives you the name for it—that’s nice, except it probably means they want you to
out the meaning do something with that info, like interpret how that stylistic, structural element relates to the larger
of the word, or theme of the poem. Question 5 also identifies that the poem is satirical, which might help you answer
find repeated some questions about Don Juan’s role in Question 3 (or it might mislead you into picking choice B
elements that for question 4, and confusing speaker and main character).
you may find 3. Don Juan plays what role in the poem? D. The Italian structure exposes all of
words for in the A. Narrator the faults of English perspective on
questions and their capital city.
B. Main character
answer choices. E. The half-rhymes show that Don Juan
C. Speaker
is not the skilled orator that he thinks
D. Anti-hero he is.
E. Authorial stand-in
6. What do you infer is the speaker’s attitude
4. How would you describe Don Juan’s tone toward slant rhymes like “pivot he” (line 6)
in stanzas IX-X? “entomb it” (line 14)?
A. Grandiose and idealistic
I. Satirical glee at getting to make such
B. Witty and satirical ridiculous rhymes in the narration of
C. Sneering and contemptuous Don Juan’s adventures
D. Naïve and fearful
II.
Eye-rolling at Don Juan’s own
E. Oblivious and mean-spirited pompous language to narrate his own
5. What is the best explanation for how the adventures
complex structure of the ottava rima stanza III. Rivalry with Don Juan in a race to
structure (abababcc) assists in conveying the make the most belabored rhymes
satirical qualities of the poem?
A. The rhymes distort Don Juan’s A. I only
perspective so that he doesn’t see the B. III only
world around him.
C. I and II
B. The meter allows Don Juan to be
D. II and III
verbose and imagine things that
aren’t there. E. I, II, and III
C. Narrating his vision for London
in the elaborate rhyme and meter
distracts him from the world around
him.

Answers and Explanations

3. Don Juan is not the narrator (which is more E have elements of correct assessments of
commonly used for prose) or the speaker Don Juan’s perspective, but the best answer
(the name for the narrator of a poem) but is the most specific one that has the clearest
the main character of this narrative poem. tie between that structural element and the
Choice B is correct. This question is just way it conveys its thematic meaning. Choice
to make sure that you have the terminology C is correct.
and the details of his role correct.
6. This question asks you to make an inference
4. The previous question asked you about Don about the speaker’s attitude, which we can
Juan’s role, as a kind of implicit warning not infer by considering the speaker’s tone and
to mix up Don Juan and the author nor Don by looking at the use of a structural element
Juan and the speaker. The speaker has a in the speaker’s narration in those slant
scathing, satirical view of London’s filth and rhymes. This question is asking you to pull
grime, as we saw in question 2. Don Juan, on together a lot of different evidence to make
the other hand, is described by the speaker as the inference: draw a connection between
“lost in wonder of so great a nation,” where the speaker’s tone and Byron’s own probable
he sees an idealistic vision of cooperation delight in constructing such weird rhymes as
and egalitarianism. Don’t mix up Byron’s structural elements of the ottava rima. This
and the speaker’s satirical perspectives with inference question gives you three options
Don Juan’s obliviousness. This question is and asks you to pick the most appropriate
asking you about Don Juan’s tone—not the combination of options. These options have
speaker’s tone or Byron’s style in conveying to agree with, not contradict, each other.
Don Juan’s limited perspective. Choice A is Options I and II fit with what we’ve been
correct. Byron will keep both you and Don seeing in other questions, so the puzzle
Juan on your toes, for in his idealism, he gets remains: should we infer that there’s jealousy
interrupted by a knife-wielding robber—the at who gets to be the more ridiculous rhymer?
very bad behavior that he believed was absent We don’t have any evidence of Don Juan’s
from the city. bad rhymes from his quoted material—there
may be some doozies in the very next canto,
5. This question doesn’t ask you to identify a
but in this passage Don Juan has a regular
special structural element—it does that for
rhyme and meter. Even though he’s wrong,
you, meaning that it’s up to you to interpret
pompous, and threatened with a knife,
how that structural element helps convey the
he’s not a bad rhymer here. Likewise, we
theme of the Don Juan’s constant blundering
don’t get a sense of jealousy—just satirical
in his pomposity and blinkered perspective.
glee—from the speaker in these three cantos.
We don’t know him that well yet, but we can
Option III makes too big of a leap, so it can
guess that this is not an isolated incident: the
be discarded. That leaves us Options I and
satirical distortion of his belief in himself
II, so the correct answer is C.
as an idealistic hero seems like it affects
every stanza it touches. Choices A, B, and
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We’ve asked only six sample questions about structure, themes, style, tone, main idea, vocabulary in
context, details, and inference so far, but don’t worry. There are many more sample questions embedded
in the overview of the elements of poetry, linked to poems that you can read as examples—but for
which you can also generate your own sample questions. Generating these sample questions gets
you thinking about analyzing the poetry, but it also gets you thinking about the genres of questions
and the conventions they might have. In just a few pages, you’ll be reading about genres of poems
and how you can identify their poetic conventions in structure or style, but it’s appropriate here to
think about the questions themselves as having genres and conventions that you can identify through
practice and generating your own.
ELEMENTS OF POEMS
Let’s start with the foundational elements of the poem: syllables, lines, stanzas. The syllable word
is the smallest element of the poem: it seems obvious to say that it combines with other syllables
to form words, those words join other words in lines and sentences, and those lines form stanzas.
Those repetitions of small syllables give a poem a sense of sound and structure, in rhyme (if it has
one) and meter (if it has a regular meter). A poetic foot is a basic unit of meter in poetry that is
composed of two or more stressed and unstressed syllables. When applied correctly, poetic feet create
rhythm and meter in a poem.
Types of Poetic Feet

Iamb be-FORE
unstressed-stressed syllables to-NIGHT
da-DA
trochee NEV-er
stressed-unstressed syllables SAD-ly
DA-da
anapest un-der-STAND
unstressed-unstressed-stressed syllables in-com-PLETE
da-da-DA
dactyl FLA-vor-ful
stressed-unstressed-unstressed syllables HAPP-i-ness
DA-da-da
spondee down-town
unstressed-unstressed syllables faith-ful
da-da

These feet can be repeated to form “perfect” patterns, but they can also be used to change up a
line’s rhythm: a trochee might show someone being wrong-footed or emphasizing a word for extra
emphasis. These feet can also be repeated in lines to form metrical patterns.
The lines are identified by how many feet are present. Iambic pentameter contains five iambs
(pent- means five, like pentagon); iambic tetrameter contains only four iambs (tetra- means four,
like tetrahedron). You can have monometer, dimeter, trimeter… up through hexameter, heptameter,
octameter, nonometer, and decameter.
The most common types of meter are used in poems to signal different moods and tones:
Iambic pentameter is used in many regular “If music be the food of love, play on;
poetic forms like sonnets and Shakespearean Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,”
monologues. It emphasizes order and reso- (Shakespeare, Prologue to Twelfth Night)
lution to each idea, as the line proceeds in
an orderly fashion, with no extra words or
syllables.
Iambic tetrameter and trimeter are used in “Because I could not stop for Death,
ballad forms: when these lines of four and He kindly stopped for me;
three iambs are alternated, they’re called The Carriage held but just Ourselves
ballad meter or common meter. And Immortality.”
(Emily Dickinson, “Because I Could Not
Stop for Death”)
Dactylic dimeter can be propulsive: in the “Half a league, half a league,
opening lines like “HALF a league, HALF a Half a league onward,
league…” but it can’t be sustained or it starts All in the valley of Death
to sound distorted. Rode the six hundred.”
(Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “The Charge of the
Eventually, they need to be balanced by extra Light Brigade”)
syllables: “ALL in the VALLey of DEATH.”
Anapestic tetrameter can sound like gal- “The Assyrian came down like the wolf on
loping horses: ba da DA ba da DA. They can the fold,
impart a sense of urgency or dread. Like their And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and
reverse feet, the dactyls, they can be hard to gold;
sustain or they start to sound too sing-songy. And the sheen of their spears was like stars
Lord Byron used the meter in his poem about on the sea,
the invasion of Jerusalem, “The Destruction When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep
of Sennacherib”: Galilee.”
“The asSYRian CAME down like the (“The Destruction of Sennacherib,” by
WOLF on the FOLD, George Gordon, Lord Byron)
And his COhorts were GLEAMing in
PURple and GOLD…”
(This is the most famous example of sus-
tained anapestic tetrameter in English—only
Byron wanted to take the repetitive sound
and turn it into an ominous feature.)
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There are many other combinations of feet and meter, but it’s most likely that you’ll see iambs in
regular meter, with a few anapests and dactyls that might be used to unsettle the sense of regularity.
The study of the rhythm and meter is called scansion, so you might see a question that asks you to
consider the scansion of a poem and you’ll know you’re looking for these rhythmic elements. You’ll
rarely be asked to identify anything really strange, and what’s most important is how you interpret
these meters—more than how you might identify them. The correct answer will always be present,
so you won’t be making up any innovative poetic feet or meters for the exam.
Lines are then organized into stanzas:

• Two lines: a couplet, often used at the ends of poems to signal closure
• Three lines: a tercet, often found in villanelles
• Four lines: a quatrain, a common building block of many types of poems
• Five lines: a cinquain
• Six lines: a sestet, the crucial ending stanza to an Italian or Petrarchan sonnet
• Seven lines: a septet
• Eight lines: an octet, the crucial opening stanza to an Italian or Petrarchan sonnet
CLASSIFYING POEMS INTO GENRES

A genre is a classification of poem. Genres are defined by conventions, or poetic elements that you
expect to see. These expectations help readers find meanings in poems when there are conventions
that are missing or askew, they help the reader ask pointed questions about the purpose of those dif-
ferences: How does this poem differ from the others in the genre? How does this difference let me understand
the meaning of this particular poem?
Here are some of the main genres of poems on the exam, with their conventions and some illustrative
examples.
Lyric Poetry
Lyric poetry is the general name for poetry used to express a speaker’s emotions or inner thoughts;
many specific genres (such as sonnets, elegies, odes, villanelles) are subsets of lyric poetry.
Because lyric poems are about an individual speaker’s emotions and personal outlook, you’ll want to
pay attention to how that emotional outlook is expressed in word choice, style, and use of figurative
language. You’ll also want to look closely at the rhyme and meter and any irregularities that seem
to be relevant to the content of the poem. Sometimes those irregularities might be just part of the
poet’s style, but it may be something to watch out for in the questions.
Because lyric poetry is such a broad category, it can often be a place to compare poets who work in
the lyric tradition but who have very different styles. So, you might see a comparative question about
how two different poets wrote lyrics about the nightingale. (These are just the opening stanzas to
serve as examples; you would receive the full poems on the exam because these are not that long):

“Ode to a Nightingale,” by John Keats
My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains

My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
Line One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
5 ‘Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
But being too happy in thine happiness,—
That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees
In some melodious plot
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
10 Singest of summer in full-throated ease.
O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been

Cool’d a long age in the deep-delved earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country green,
Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!
15 O for a beaker full of the warm South,
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
And purple-stained mouth;
That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
20 And with thee fade away into the forest dim:
“Philomela,” by Matthew Arnold
Hark! ah, the nightingale—

The tawny-throated!
Hark, from that moonlit cedar what a burst!
Line What triumph! hark!—what pain!
5 O wanderer from a Grecian shore,

Still, after many years, in distant lands,
Still nourishing in thy bewilder’d brain
That wild, unquench’d, deep-sunken, old-world pain—
Say, will it never heal?

10 And can this fragrant lawn
With its cool trees, and night,
And the sweet, tranquil Thames,
And moonshine, and the dew,
To thy rack’d heart and brain
15 Afford no balm?
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We won’t go through an in-depth analysis of the two poems, but here are some sample questions
that make you consider the differing structural elements of the two poems.
First, a sample question about theme and tone:
Keats’s speaker mentions disorientation multiple times in the first four lines of the poem, yet
the rhyme structure and meter are perfectly regular. Where do you see elements of diction that
may signal disorientation?
A. The repetition of happy and happiness in lines 5-6 that shows him protesting too much
that he is not envious of the nightingale’s song.
B. There are missing poetic feet in line 8, which is only three iambs long (instead of five).
C. His inability to count the shadows in line 10 shows that he is not observant.
D. He says he is unhappy and wants to die in line 19, signaling the poet’s extreme
depression.
E. The word “plot” in line 8 shows that he is paranoid about the bird stealing his glory.
The repetition of happy and happiness in lines 5-6 shows him protesting too much that he is not
envious of the bird, so the correct answer to the question is A. This exaggerated denial sets up a
productive tension between the poet and his subject: who will have the better song? Which forms a
better song: a poet’s highly crafted language, with extended metaphors of intoxication and detailed
allusions to Greek mythology, or a bird’s mysterious call? The question asks you to pay attention to
one example of diction, so that you might see the ways that Keats is locked into using every single
one of his poetic devices to pay tribute to (or compete with) the nightingale.
It’s worth looking at the wrong answers, too. Choice B calls your attention to meter, not the diction
asked for in the question, so it’s leading you astray. You can also test whether that line has the
“wrong” meter by looking at whether there’s a pattern in the rest of the poem: the eighth line of
each stanza contains only six syllables, or three iambs, while the other lines are in iambic pentameter.
So it’s not a mistake—it’s part of Keats’ regular conventions for writing odes. Choices C, D, and E
all make inferences that are not supported by the poem: they read too much of a hidden meaning
to say that he’s paranoid, incorrect, or depressed, and those readings are not supported by the rest
of the poem—which is an ode praising the bird and shows him indulging deeply in its song, not
becoming despondent. These answers may be tempting interpretations, but A is the best choice
because it creates a pattern that you can find in the rest of the poem: that he is constantly comparing
the songs in positive ways and trying his best to show the human gifts of poetry that might praise
(and compete with) the nightingale’s lyrics.
Next, a sample question about style:
Matthew Arnold uses what poetic device to address the nightingale directly in “Philomela”: “O
wanderer from a Grecian shore…”?
A. Archetype
B. Apostrophe
C. Ellipsis
D. Rhetorical question
E. Hyperbole

It’s relatively common to see an address to O [person] or [object] in a lyric poem as a means of
showing the speaker’s desire for an immediate connection with the object of his attention. Whether
that immediacy is possible is a source of much tension in this poem, because he has already shown
that the connection is ruptured somehow and full of pain. The exam is asking you this basic structural
question about an obvious device so that you can start to see the ways that there are irregularities in
who gets to ask and answer all of the rhetorical questions being addressed in the poem. Choice D
is tempting because of all of the rhetorical questions in subsequent lines, but this question is asking
you about the use of “O” in line 5. This sample question has a factual answer: if you know that O is
a signal of apostrophe, you’ve got it. The correct answer is B.
Let’s frame a question that asks you to make an inference about the use of the rhetorical questions,
which might help you start building connections between different poetic devices in the poem:
What do you infer is the effect of the rhetorical questions in lines 9 and 15?
A. The speaker wants to silence the nightingale with all of his talking.
B. The speaker is insensitive to the nightingale’s pain at not being able to answer.
C. The speaker and the nightingale can communicate without language.
D. The nightingale will reveal all in a response poem.
E. The speaker is exposing broken channels of communication that cannot be bridged.
This is a poem about power dynamics that are constantly seesawing, as you may see from the different
forms that the stanzas of blank verse take. The rhetorical questions lend it a one-sided quality: there
are many questions, but no answers, and yet the nightingale’s inability to answer the questions shows
the depth of the pain. Choices, A, B, and D are not supported by the excerpt of the poem in front
of you: the question would never ask you to imagine another poem (or the rest of this one), and we
don’t have any indications of the speaker’s intentions as being negative. Choice C is also not a good
choice, because the poem is given to us in language, so that’s all we have to analyze. The correct
answer is the only one left; choice E is the best answer.
This question is harder than the previous one because it asks you to interpret the meaning of a device,
rather than just naming it. However, the two questions reinforce each other. The apostrophe becomes
unusual because the speaker is addressing the nightingale with so many rhetorical questions, so both
answers need to call attention to the way the formal elements become strange. The other answer
choices make wild inferences that don’t match up with specific formal elements under consideration
in these questions. There are some subtle hints that it’s the right answer from its more sophisticated,
nuanced phrasing compared to the other answers—when you’re given an answer with a more complex
verb and a compelling phrase like “broken channels of communication,” you’re getting a clue that
can guide you toward the most intellectual answer.
You may have circled the title “Philomela” as an unknown: you don’t know the Greek myth of the
woman who’s transformed into a nightingale by a cruel tyrant, but this ruptured apostrophe and
rhetorical questions without answers may make you think about who has control over speaking and
answering in the poem. (And you should go and look up the story of Philomela, a common story
that is often retold in poetry, not just in Keats and Arnold, as it’s a story about the poet’s power over
who gets to speak and sing lyrics…)
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Elegy
Elegies are poems that commemorate someone who has died. They may have a subtitle or repeated
phrasing about memorials, lamentation, meditation on death, or mourning. With these themes, it is
relatively easy to identify whether a poem is elegiac—the adjective form of elegy—so the questions
will likely ask you more specifically about how the poem achieves the memorial or sense of mourning.
For example, in Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Courtyard,” the speaker’s meditation
on one man’s death occasions a larger sense of loss of an entire way of rural life. So, one life stands
for many (a synecdoche), for a greater sense of cultural time as time passes.
Pay attention to any complexities in the speaker’s attitude toward the person being mourned, which
may be quite subtle. In A.E. Housman’s “To an Athlete Dying Young,” the speaker is addressing a
young man who dies before he achieves greatness—but also before he faces the inevitable decline
of his athleticism. There’s a tension between the speaker’s grief for the athlete’s early death and his
anxiety about what it means to keep living.
Ode
Elegies, odes, sonnets, and villanelles are all forms of lyric poetry—they’re just more specific forms
with their own conventions. An ode pays tribute to a person, animal, or object and is often a way
for the poet to deploy many devices as a signal of the breadth and quality of the praise. As you saw
in Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale,” there’s a tension between the speaker and the nightingale as com-
peting “lyricists.” That tension generates more poetry as the poet trots out all of his tricks to show
the human praise for a bird’s natural poetry.
Sonnet
Sonnets are easy to identify: they are fourteen lines long and have a regular metrical scheme of iambic
pentameter. An English or Shakespearean sonnet has a rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg. There
may be a “volta” or a “turn” right before the final couplet, gg, to show a revelation or a resolution
that solidifies the meaning.
Consider the prologue to Romeo and Juliet, a perfect example of unity in the theme and structure
of the sonnet:
Prologue to Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare
Two households, both alike in dignity,

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Line 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.
The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love,
10 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;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
We can bring some of our outside knowledge to help us understand the underlying tensions between
form and content in this sonnet. The two families are compared in line 1—“both alike in dignity”—
but this comparison is undone by the repeated warnings about their warring grudges. The English
sonnet’s abab cdcd format is rendered in perfect rhyme and rhythm here, but those disconnects in
the quatrains seem especially foreboding here, as though we know that there’s no pairing possible.
We can test this pattern by looking at the ending words in the rhymes, which switch back and forth
from “dignity” to “mutiny” (1, 3), pair “foes” with “overthrows” (5, 7), and mix love with rage in lines
9 and 10. The prologue’s speaker is anxiously aware of so much disconnection and strife that is
insufficiently mended with the “toil [the poet may] strive to mend,” an attempt that ultimately will
be unsuccessful. The poem is at once a love poem and a poem that shows strife at every opportunity
for pairing—a perfect way to introduce the play.
On the other hand, a Spenserian sonnet is a variation on the English sonnet form that emphasizes
connections among the quatrains, so that pairings are emphasized at every structural level. It takes
the form abab bcbc cdcd ee:
“Amoretti LXXV,” by Edmund Spenser
One day I wrote her name upon the strand,

But came the waves and washed it away:
Again I wrote it with a second hand,
Line But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.
5 “Vain man,” said she, “that dost in vain assay,
A mortal thing so to immortalize;
For I myself shall like to this decay,
And eke my name be wiped out likewise.”
“Not so,” (quod I) “let baser things devise
10 To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:
My verse your vertues rare shall eternize,
And in the heavens write your glorious name:
Where whenas death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live, and later life renew.”
If the speaker in Romeo and Juliet was anxious about writing as “toil” that could insufficiently mend
family feuds, the speaker here finds felicity in every rhyme, as though the composition of the poem
signaled the perfection of the pairing, “eternize[d] in verse.” Even the erasure of the lines by the
ocean waves does not disturb the pairing, for the rhyme braids through when it’s rewritten in the
next quatrain. There is a constant sense of “renew[al]” in the poem’s waves of rhyme.
As always, any changes in the conventions of rhyme and meter are important to consider in your analysis.
Such variations really stand out in sonnets, because they have such a strong sense of conventionality.
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An Italian or Petrarchan sonnet splits those fourteen lines into an octave (eight lines) and a sestet
(six lines); the octave’s rhyme scheme goes abbaabba, and the sestet can go cdcdcd or cdecde. There is
usually a “volta” or a “turn” at the break between octave and sestet, where the shift in rhyme scheme
signals a shift in tone or meaning.
“London, 1802,” by William Wordsworth
Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour:

England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,
Line Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
5 Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;
Oh! raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.
Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart:
10 Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
So didst thou travel on life’s common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.
But this poem is critical and negative, you say, and a sonnet is supposed to be a love poem! Sonnets
are more flexible than they seem: perhaps it is worth framing a question of the sort that might be on
the exam to address this challenge to your expectations about the conventions of the poem.
Here is a sample question about structure and theme:

William Wordsworth combines elegy and sonnet in his poem “London, 1802,” which addresses
John Milton as a poet for the ages. What is the most important poetic element in unifying the
two types of lyric poem?
A. The direct address to Milton in line 1, which shows him as the subject of admiration
B. The naming of lost culture in the “ancient English dower” in line 5
C. The apostrophe “Oh” in line 7 that asks for Milton’s help in saving London
D. The volta at line 9, which bridges the degraded present with the admirable poet from the
past
E. The final couplet (lines 13-14) that poses a solution to the city’s moral degradation
The question is asking you for a poetic or structural element that builds a bridge between the struc-
tural and thematic elements at the same time. Thematically, we can see how Wordsworth bridges
admiration (a form of love) and a look backward at the past with this line, so this line is the most
important signal of how he’s mixing two kinds of poetry here. Structurally, there’s one obvious device
that acts as a bridge in a sonnet. The correct answer is D, the volta.

Villanelle and Roundel

If you’ve ever tried to compose a villanelle, you know how hard they can be to get right. A villanelle
is a nineteen-line poem containing five tercets that repeat and slightly adapt refrains in an intricate
pattern of repetition and reformulation.
That particularity of their structure makes them easier to analyze, because their repetitive qualities
tend to illustrate vivid themes like the cycles of seasons, the nature of lessons that need to be learned
over and over again, or the recurring spikes of obsessive love affairs.
In Edmund Gosse’s “Villanelle,” the cycles of the seasons become linked to the ebb and flow of human
hopes and desires: fall and winter appear and reappear in the poem, each time bringing reminders
of death, waste, and the rapidly shrinking number of shrinking cycles in a human lifespan. It’s a sad
poem that continues posing that recurring worry about mortality.
“Villanelle,” by Edmund Gosse
Wouldst thou not be content to die

When low-hung fruit is hardly clinging,
And golden Autumn passes by?
Line Beneath this delicate rose-gray sky,

5 While sunset bells are faintly ringing,
Wouldst thou not be content to die?
For wintry webs of mist on high

Out of the muffled earth are springing,
And golden Autumn passes by.
10 O now when pleasures fade and fly,

And Hope her southward flight is winging,
Wouldst thou not be content to die?
Lest Winter come, with wailing cry

His cruel icy bondage bringing,
15 When golden Autumn hath passed by.
And thou, with many a tear and sigh,

While life her wasted hands is wringing,
Shalt pray in vain for leave to die
When golden Autumn hath passed by.
You’ll know it’s a villanelle when you see the tercets and refrains—just don’t bother trying to compose
one yourself, because it’s deceptively difficult to manage all of those slight reformulations for nuanced
meanings in each tercet. The most famous is known for its refrain: Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go
Gentle Into That Good Night.”
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Narrative Poetry
Narrative poems tell a story. They may be quite long, so you’ll receive an excerpt from a canto or
book (what poets call the sections or chapters of longer works). They are stories about characters
with extensive backstories, and the events of the poem take place in elaborately described settings.
Epic poems are narratives, like Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene or John Milton’s Paradise Lost,
both difficult seventeenth-century poems that require a lot of context and footnoting to understand
their many obscure references and allegorical elements. You’re not going to have to answer trivia
about historical details in the narratives, however; any information that you need to understand the
historical context will be given to you, and the authors of the exam don’t want to bog you down with
those kinds of footnotes.
It’s more likely that they could be selections from less difficult poetic language that have self-contained
cantos from which it would be easier to excerpt about thirty lines, such as Alfred Lord Tennyson’s
The Charge of the Light Brigade or John Keats’ The Eve of St. Agnes. If you’re looking to prepare these
poems for the exam, you probably don’t need to study every line of the poem. They repeat structural
elements like rhyme and meter within stanzas, and the repeated structural elements help give a sense
that you’re listening to a story. To prepare them, get a sense of what happens in the poem in summary
form, and then key into stanzas and cantos where the repeated formal elements shift a little bit to
call your attention to crucial moments in the story.
A ballad is a narrative that was meant to be sung—you can imagine them being passed down in
families or being retold over the years with slight variations. Poets may use them to evoke the sense
of heroism of a long-ago time or to tell a doomed love story that still resonates, like Edgar Allan
Poe’s “Annabel Lee.” Because a ballad is a subset of a narrative, you won’t be asked to distinguish
between them; it’s more likely that you’ll receive questions about the musical or dialect qualities, as
seen in many Scottish ballads like Robert Burns’s “John Barleycorn,” which show pride in Scottish
voices, language, and history.
Because the poet uses repetition in rhyme and meter to sustain the progression of the narrative, it can
be tempting to get lulled into the repetition. There may be moments with broken rhymes or meter
that show a rupture, or the repetitiveness may be a feature worth analyzing itself. The repetition in
Poe’s narrative “The Raven” (which is significantly shorter than those other narratives) is rhythmic
to the point of being sing-songy, and it lends the poem a kind of taunting quality as it goes along,
before finally signaling the speaker’s madness.
SOUND AND RHYME

Now that we know the forms that the poems may take, we can pay attention to the sounds they
make. We’ve been paying attention to rhyme mostly as a structural element, but now we can pay close
attention to how poetic sounds work inside the lines to convey nuances of meaning. Alliteration,
assonance, and consonance refer to the repetitions of sounds in proximity to each other.
Alliteration is the easiest to spot: it’s the repeated first sound or syllable of a word, whether vowel
or consonant. For example, Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” has qualities
of a narrative tale that is being told propulsively on its own accord: “The furrow followed free; / We

were the first that ever burst / Into that silent sea.” There is a kind of cascade of alliteration here,
with many more repetitions of the device to come, which signal the mariner’s need to keep telling
his terrible tale.
Assonance refers to repeated vowel sounds like the ur sound in the Ancient Mariner example above
(“the first that ever burst”), or the repetition of o and ee sounds in William Wordsworth’s “The Daf-
fodils” (also known as “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”): “A host, of golden daffodils; / Beside the
lake, beneath the trees, / Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.” The clusters of vowel sounds are
like the clusters of flowers he encounters.
Consonance, on the other hand, refers to repeated consonant sounds inside of words, like the lilting
line of l-sounds in the the title of Shakespeare’s play All’s Well That Ends Well.
Alliteration, assonance, and consonance may be combined together to form a wall of repetitive
sounds and internal rhymes, as in “Ancient Mariner” or Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”: “silken sad
uncertain rustling of each purple curtain,” with the repetition of the s sounds in silken, sad, uncertain,
rustling for both alliteration and consonance, then followed by the ur sound in purple curtain. The
repetition of s sounds is sometimes called sibilance, like whispers, but you would never be asked to
choose among consonance, alliteration, internal rhyme, and sibilance: you’d get one of those options
and it would be clear which was the right choice.
Onomatopoeia is a word that represents a sound: babble, buzz, meow, sizzle. These words sound
like their action; many animal sounds are onomatopoeic (bark, ribbit, neigh), but we also use them to
talk about the sounds of everyday life (honk, screech, slam). From the rhyming mind of Edgar Allan
Poe, is it any wonder that we get one of the weirdest, most flamboyant examples of onomatopoeia
in American poetry?
Here is an excerpt from “The Bells,” where the word bells gets repeated like a carillon or the repeated
tolling of bells in a church:
From “The Bells,” by Edgar Allan Poe
Keeping time, time, time,

In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the throbbing of the bells—
Line Of the bells, bells, bells—
5 To the sobbing of the bells ;
Keeping time, time, time,
As he knells, knells, knells,
In a happy Runic rhyme,
To the rolling of the bells—
10 Of the bells, bells, bells—
To the tolling of the bells,
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells—
Bells, bells, bells—
To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.
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Poe’s poem illustrates in a creepy, sort of ridiculous way, that those sounds we hear in everyday life
can become strange and unfamiliar when they’re repeated—and that makes us pay attention to them
in new ways.
Slant rhymes, eye rhymes, near rhymes, half rhymes, and oblique rhymes are rhymes that aren’t
perfect. They might just be a poet’s license to stretch the sound of a word into something useful for
their rhyme scheme, but they may also signal something intriguing about that stretch.
Someone like Emily Dickinson uses slant rhymes all the time in stanzas like:
“Hope” is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all...
Her slant rhyme in the not-quite rhyme of “soul” and “all” shows her acting like the bird in the poem:
it sings a tune without stopping, even to correct itself. These imperfections aren’t flaws, but rather
indications of personal style and aural perspective.
Like Dickinson, the Romantic poet John Clare uses half rhymes to express his own idiosyncratic
rhyming sensibility in his poem “I Am!”:
“I Am!” by John Clare
I am—yet what I am none cares or knows;

My friends forsake me like a memory lost:
I am the self-consumer of my woes—
Line They rise and vanish in oblivious host,
5 Like shadows in love’s frenzied stifled throes
And yet I am, and live—like vapours tossed
Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,

Into the living sea of waking dreams,
Where there is neither sense of life or joys,
10 But the vast shipwreck of my life’s esteems;
Even the dearest that I loved the best
Are strange—nay, rather, stranger than the rest.
I long for scenes where man hath never trod

A place where woman never smiled or wept
15 There to abide with my Creator, God,
And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept,
Untroubling and untroubled where I lie
The grass below—above the vaulted sky.

Try this sample question about style and theme:

In “I Am!” John Clare describes the tension he feels in his desire for isolation in the bustle of
public life. How do his rhyme choices show that he has unsettled feelings about his private and
public selves?
I. The slant rhymes of “lost,” “host,” and “tossed” in the first stanza show his uncertainty
about how to resolve these endings in rhyme and personal interaction alike.
II. The regularity of the rhymes in his communion with God in the final stanza show his
sense of peace in that relationship where he can “abide” companionship.
III. The use of consonance in the v-sounds in lines 4-6 show the evanescent patterns of his
interactions; each v-sound is attached to something that evaporates.
A. I only
B. II only
C. I, II, and III
D. I and II
E. II and III
This sample question is asking you to examine multiple possibilities and assess whether they fit into
a larger pattern of interpreting Clare’s use of sounds and rhyme in the poem. Each possibility in this
sample question is a reasonable one, backed up with specific evidence cited in the lines of the poem.
In other questions where you’re asked to choose among three options, there might be options that
contradict each other, but this one shows three possibilities that back each other up! The correct
answer is choice C.
LANGUAGE, WORD CHOICE, AND DICTION

Just what is “diction” anyway? We use the term to mean a lot of different things—including the size,
creativity, or aptness of one’s word choices—which means you’ll have to be more specific when you
use it in your own essay-writing for the exam (more on that in chapter 4). When you’re thinking
about word choice and diction, you’ll be answering questions about how those specific choices let
you understand the poet’s style, tone, and vocabulary. That doesn’t mean you’ll never see the word
“diction” again or that it might not pop up inside a question. But with specific terms like “tone,”
“style,” and “vocabulary” we can be more precise about what qualities of the word choice we’re
considering and why.
Style vs. Tone

If the word “diction” seems like it could mean anything, the terms “style” and “tone” also seem like
they mean different things to different people. They could indicate the feeling you get from reading a
poem—but how would you translate that feeling into a question and answer that could be accessible
for thousands of test-takers who might all have different reactions and feelings?
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We need to limit and clarify the two words and draw some distinctions to help us see when you
might use them to answer different kinds of questions:
• Style is the poet’s word choice (also known as diction), sentence structure, use of poetic
devices, and other elements that make up the poem’s language.
• Tone is the speaker’s attitude toward the events inside the poem. A poet’s tone might be
loving, uncertain, excited, ironic, careless, crazed, or sociopathic, while style is the poet’s use
of particular words, poetic devices, and figurative language that conveys the speaker’s tone.
If the tone is anxious . . . the style might be frenetic, haphazard, flitting all over the place.
If the tone is friendly . . . the style might be intimate, informal, closely observed.
If the tone is ironic . . . the style might be sharp, witty, playful in use of language, distancing oneself
from the situation.
You can see that there are overlaps between tone and style, as there may be overlaps in how we think
of the relationship between a poet and speaker. For Romantic poets or heavily personal poets like
Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and Robert Lowell, there may be a very little distinction between
poet and speaker. For other poets and poems, the distinction is more necessary (and obvious)—in
Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess,” for example. These distinctions are not hard and fast,
nor are they supposed to give you a single correct answer. Rather, they show us the importance of
looking at poems closely, of not assuming that the style and tone might be the same thing, or that
the speaker and poet are the same: they make us slow down and ask how do these distinctions work
in this particular poem?
Let’s look at how the exam might ask you to examine style and tone differently in considering
Browning’s “My Last Duchess.” Here is a selection from the poem:
. . . Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt,

Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without
45 Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive. Will’t please you rise? We’ll meet
The company below, then….
And here is a sample test-like question about tone:

How would you describe the Duke’s tone in these lines?
A. Smoothly sociopathic
B. Anxiously avoidant
C. Deeply grief-stricken
D. Loving and dutiful
E. Calm and open
Browning’s style of omitting the interlocutor’s responses heightens the effect of the speaker’s blank
tone—it exposes the gap between his empty fantasy of control and the reality of the violence he
has committed. The horror at the Duke’s behavior mounts as the poem goes on. The revelation
“then all smiles stopped together” shows us that he and the Duchess did not have a loving, mutual

relationship, but that he controlled every aspect of her life—and death, as her painting “stands/ as
if alive” behind the curtain. That line break on “as if ” gives a sense of his break with reality: he sees
no difference between the painting and the person, because they are both objects to control. The
correct answer is A. We get a sense of the sociopathic tone from the spare, bland style of his language
in the explanation that matches with Browning’s style of rendering the dramatic monologue where
the speaker seems not to even register his interlocutor’s realization or horror.
The tone in the poem is about the speaker’s affectless emotions in his empty performance; that tone
is conveyed by Browning’s style in eliminating the interlocutor’s responses, his elimination of adjec-
tives and any vivid nouns, so as to heighten the sense of the emptiness of the scene.
Here’s another “My Last Duchess” question that might help you see how you have to pay attention
to where the exam is directing your focus. This question is more about style.
What is the effect of Browning’s use of the unclear antecedent “this grew” in line 45?
A. It shows his inability to put into language his grief.
B. It shows his strategic vagueness that he uses to distract the guest from the reality of the
situation.
C. It obscures the horror with a bland article, similar to how the curtain obscures the
painting.
D. “This” is not an unclear antecedent--the pronoun refers to their careful, distant smiling
interactions.
E. It reveals his losing touch with reality.
Because of how the question was framed around the poet’s choices, we want to focus our attention
on how the poet chose an element of grammar to create a literary pattern with other obscurantist
themes in the poem. The focus isn’t on why the speaker chose the word, but on how these devices
convey the themes of the poem. The correct answer is C. Choice C is an answer about the meaning
of Browning’s language and grammatical choices—not the speaker’s tone, which was already addressed
in the previous question.
Again, you’re never going to encounter an exam question that asks you to make a black-and-white
demarcation about what counts as style and what counts as tone. Nevertheless, the exam may ask
you to distinguish speaker and the poet in a question, or it may ask you about the speaker’s attitudes
and tone as distinct from an author’s choices in how to convey those attitudes in word choice and
other stylistic elements. We’re just working on refining those tools for understanding the differences
among those kinds of questions.
Figurative Language
Another way that poets convey themes in their poetic style is to use figurative language. Figurative
language can be any kind of poetic device that encourages the reader to find a deeper meaning than
the literal meaning of the words on the page.
A poet uses metaphors and similes to suggest comparisons between unrelated objects, by substituting
one for the other and revealing the previously unrealized connections or resemblances. A simile
sets the two compared objects next to each other and says they are like each other; a metaphor says
that one is the other.
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The Scottish poet Robert Burns uses two similes when he writes:
O my Luve’s like a red, red rose

That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve’s like the melodie
That’s sweetly play’d in tune…
On the other hand, Burns uses a metaphor calling the years of one’s age grains of sand in an hour-
glass when he promises, later on in the poem, “I will luve thee still, my dear, / While the sands o’ life
shall run.” He’s not saying that years are like grains of sand, he’s saying they’re the same—and they
are commensurate with the amount of time he will love her.
As you may be anxious about hearing so often, these distinctions are not as clear-cut as some might
say they are. Many would say that a simile is a type of metaphor, a subset, and so you would never
be asked an exam question that asked you to distinguish them, unless there was a very clear reason
for making such a distinction.
Metonymy, synecdoche, synesthesia, personification, and objectification are also forms of substitution
that heighten the figurative, nonliteral meaning of a poem.
In general terms, metonymy is a device in which a writer substitutes a word with a closely associated
word, like we sometimes call all of movie culture “Hollywood,” even though only some movies are
filmed there, and movie culture exists worldwide. We associate movies and Hollywood with one
another, so the latter gets substituted for the former.
Synecdoche is a device in which a writer substitutes a word for a whole with a word for a part of it.
For instance, you might call your car “your wheels,” because wheels are part of a car. As with similes
and metaphors, the distinctions between these devices are also somewhat subjective. Some writers
don’t make a strong distinction between metonymy and synecdoche or say that synecdoche is a
special case of metonymy, so, again, you wouldn’t be asked to distinguish between the two unless it
were absolutely clear. You probably would not get both answer choices on a question: you’d get one
or the other, and your choice would be much easier to pencil in!
Synesthesia is the substitution of one sensory experience for another, creating a sensory confusion.
A poet might describe a “yellow smell” or “tasting the cacophony of the city.” These elements can
add charming idiosyncrasies to show an artist’s take on the world, or they can emphasize uncertainty
and a speaker’s inability to trust her own senses.
Sometimes, poets substitute people for objects or concepts (personification), or objects for people
(objectification). We tend to see the poetic tradition of personification more positively; after all,
it’s comforting to think of Mother Nature or Father Time—personifications of the natural and
temporal world. We’re somewhat less comfortable objectifying people: after all, that’s a slippery
slope toward thinking of them as, say, paintings to be moved around, like Robert Browning’s Duke
in “My Last Duchess.”
Shakespeare uses a number of poetic devices in “Sonnet 116,” tracing the theme of constancy with an
extended metaphor about a compass point that stays fixed and steady. Shakespeare personifies Love
and Time in line 9, and then extends the personification to turn them into full-fledged characters
in the compass’s circle.

“Sonnet 116,” by William Shakespeare
Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Line Or bends with the remover to remove.
5 O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand’ring bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
10 Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me prov’d,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d.
Love and Time get personal pronouns here to show the full scope of the personification and extension
of the metaphor. There’s an interesting shift in the volta at the end of the poem: what happens to
those personifications when I/me steps in to take their place?
Apostrophe is a direct address to a person or thing in a poem, as if it were a character in the poem,
present and listening to your praise or lament. It is often signaled with an O or an Oh!, as we saw
with Matthew Arnold’s address: “O, wanderer from a distant Grecian shore . . . .”
On that note, when a poet makes an allusion, she is referring to something outside of the text without
mentioning it directly—another work of literature, a historical event, some other idea—and this
reference helps convey additional meanings in the poem. The indirect reference heightens the sense
of figurative, nonliteral layers to the poem’s themes and main ideas. In Arnold’s “Philomela,” the
apostrophic allusion to a character, “O, wanderer from a distant Grecian shore,” calls up the story
of Philomela, who was turned into a nightingale (objectified, we might say) as punishment by her
sister’s angry husband (the many retellings of the story have slightly different details).
The allusion exposes the speaker’s disingenuousness in asking rhetorical questions to the nightingale
he admires: he’s making the allusion, so he knows the myth, and he knows the source of her pain
and transformation. He doesn’t need to ask her the questions, yet he wants to hear her song. The
allusion solidifies the significant power dynamic between the two: one can communicate not only in
language but also in poetic allusion. The allusion, objectification, and apostrophe each contribute to
the poem’s exploration of broken communication channels between the speaker and the nightingale.
As we have seen in the examples from Shakespeare and Matthew Arnold in this section, elements
of figurative language often work together to build layers of nonliteral, thematic meaning in a poem.
POETRY BY THE CENTURY

This very abbreviated overview of historical periods and “schools” is not a replacement for studying these
poems or similar ones by these authors. They will be less helpful if you study just these descriptions,
for the exam isn’t going to ask you to identify authors, titles, or periods separate from the language
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of the poem itself. Every poem in this book is in the public domain, so you have many resources for
reading these poets through the beginning of the twentieth century. For more contemporary poetry,
you can find examples online or anthologies in your library.
The Seventeenth Century
Poets to know:
• John Milton
• George Herbert
• John Donne
• Andrew Marvell
• Aphra Behn
Familiarize yourself with:

• Their use of wit and irony
• Their many-layered spiritual meditations that may use extended metaphors and obscure
language (especially Donne)
Poetry doesn’t begin in the seventeenth century, but the College Board recognizes that there’s only
so much you can study, and many medieval poems require more translation of archaic language and
explanation of context than can fit on a timed exam. John Milton’s Paradise Lost may be too long and
difficult to study, but many of his shorter lyric poems and sonnets are easier to read and can give a
sense of how English poets were attempting to tie together many different older poetic traditions into
a polished form. Take a look at Milton’s “On Shakespeare,” “On His Blindness,” and the longer poem
Lycidas, a pastoral elegy for his friend that becomes a meditation on the loss of the ideals of rural life.
It’s also important to study some examples of the Metaphysical Poets like John Donne and George
Herbert, since their shorter works are good choices for the exam and their language and context
may be the most unfamiliar to you from a distant century. Herbert is known for his shape poems
“Easter Wings,” “The Collar,” and “The Altar,” where the line breaks give the poems the title shapes.
Donne’s poetry is dense but rewarding, and it’s worth reading through some kind of annotated
analysis of poems like “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning,” “Holy Sonnet X (Death Be Not
Proud),” and “Love’s Alchemy” to see the many layers of spirituality and irony in the poems. Once
you start reading these poems, you’ll start to recognize lines and phrases that have become part of
our everyday language: “for whom the bell tolls” and “no man is an island” are but two examples. An
annotated edition of these poems will help you not just for understanding those particular poems,
but it will let you see his strategies for creating extended metaphors that pop up in multiple poems.
These seventeenth-century poets were not only concerned with spiritual crisis and deep soul-searching;
they could also be quite bawdy and satirical. Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” and “Upon
Appleton House” are compelling uses of Metaphysical elements to frame social satire of relations
between the sexes: who knew that metaphysics could be so physically attuned? (Actually, many of
the Metaphysical poets knew it—we just need annotated editions to help us trace the ways they hid
their sexual frankness.) The novelist, dramatist, and poet Aphra Behn cared little for covering up

her bawdiness; in poems like “The Disappointment,” “Love Arm’d,” and “The Dream,” she lays all
kinds of sexual dissatisfaction, insults, and sarcasm out there.
The Augustan Age
Poets to know:
• John Dryden
• Alexander Pope
• John Gay
• Samuel Johnson
• Phillis Wheatley

• The use of satire and wit
• Play with scale as a means to expose moral faults and comment on society
• Appeals to the classical tradition to claim authority as a poet
These poets may sound stuffy at first, with their strict rhymes and meter, but many of them are
deploying that talent for clever rhymes into some wicked satires. Dryden, Pope, and Gay were all
champions of the “heroic couplet,” two lines rhymed in iambic pentameter and called back to classical
forms of poetry from the Greeks (indeed, Dryden and Pope both translated—and improved, they
believed—classical poetry). They used that form to create “mock-heroic” poems that played with
scale: a grandiose form of poetry to “celebrate” silly achievements—that is, to mock them. They loved
to play with these paradoxes and subversions of expectation: to make what was small into something
so grandiose that it became ridiculous.
Using the same format and style as classical poems like Virgil’s Aeneid, Pope created an elaborate tale
about the heroism of stealing a lock of hair in “The Rape of the Lock.” (“Rape” means stealing, in
this context.) Dryden satirized the dubious achievements of a lesser poet in “Mac Flecknoe.” They
are very funny poems, once you start to understand the references (so use an annotated edition) and
the way that they use couplets to settle you to a rhythm of reading so they can sneak in a joke. John
Gay’s “Trivia” is a basically a stand-up comedy routine of observational comedy, rendered in rhyme.
They could also use satire in more serious ways, to comment on politics, the function of poetry,
and the qualities of great art. Dryden’s “Absalom and Achitophel” is a satire of then-contemporary
political intrigue in the court. Pope wrote “An Essay on Criticism” and “Windsor Forest” to scold
lesser poets but also to explain what poets should and could do with the form.
Samuel Johnson’s poetry does less lampooning and mocking of people; in poems like “London”
and “The Vanity of Human Wishes,” his satire is more subtle in commenting on moral failings in
society, so that readers might correct their vanities or snobberies without humiliation. All of these
poets were interested in using these classical forms to claim authority for poetry as a force that could
correct failings—-whether in jest or in seriousness. Phillis Wheatley was no satirist, but she used her
position as the first published author of African descent in the Americas to both claim extraordinary
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authority for a freed slave and to comment on the continued inhumanity of the slave trade, as in “To
S.M. A Young African Painter, Upon Seeing His Works” and “Imagination.”
There are many more poets and styles of the eighteenth century—as you’ll see in the next section—
but these authors may give you a sense of how language that seems old-fashioned or formulaic in
repetitive rhymes might be using those features in clever, not just stilted, ways. They can help us
understand how poets might look backward to traditional forms but also use them as vehicles for
irony—and even subversiveness.
The Romantic Poets
Poets to know:
• William Blake
• William Wordsworth
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• John Keats
• George Gordon, Lord Byron
• Percy Shelley

• A poet’s claiming a position as an isolated Genius
• The concept of “the sublime,” in which one finds both wonder and terror in the natural world
• Meditations on the insufficiency of poetic language to express deep feelings about nature
and mortality (which means they were often writing poems about the difficulty of writing)
For many people, the word “poet” conjures up an image of a solitary artist struggling over just the
right words to describe an extraordinary thunderstorm crackling over a mountain. Sure, other poets
had feelings before them, but William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Shelley, and
John Keats were sure that they were remaking poetry into a vehicle for the deepest kind of emotional
communication.
These poets often referred to a concept of “the sublime,” or the feeling of being so awed by a natural
scene that one trembled with a sense of the smallness of humanity in the magnitude of the universe. If
you look back at the Metaphysical Poets and the Augustans, you see that poets are often using poetry
as a form to experiment with scale: the confines of a metrical line or the structure of a fourteen-line
sonnet give them a confined space, a poetic container, to express spiritual awe, doubt, fear, love, and
other too-large ineffable feelings. They may treat that play with scale ironically or satirically, or they
may create an identity of the Genius Poet who can help society contend with these large feelings
through reading and writing poetry. The Romantic Poets “invent” the sense of artistic genius—the
gifts they give are both small and contained (a few lines of poetry) and large and expansive (in the
sense of explaining nature, spiritual, and wonder in portable, quotable forms).
In “Ode: Intimations of Immortality” and “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey,”
Wordsworth wrote poems about writing poems, about being so transported by the natural world that

he simply had to express his deep feelings about nature and art in poems. Coleridge’s poems took
on similar themes, although sometimes they took those anxieties about man’s position in the natural
world to strange and surreal places, as in the narrative poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,”
“Kubla Khan,” and “This Lime Tree Bower My Prison.”
Poets like John Keats often indulge in paradoxes: in poems like “To Autumn,” “On First Looking
into Chapman’s Homer,” and “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” the poet struggles with finding exactly the
right language, worries that language is insufficient, yet finds he must write the poem about this
insufficiency. Percy Shelley builds on Keats’s paradoxes of writing about insufficient language in
“Adonais—An Elegy on the Death of John Keats,” sharing his own feelings of inadequacy to write
poetry after Keats had died tragically early.
Lord Byron had no such anxieties about his own talent; his reputation preceded him in his adventures
on the Grand Tour in Europe, and his characters became a type—a brooding, sexy, trouble-making
Byronic hero. The Byronic hero shows up in the narrative poems Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage and Don
Juan, as well as the poem-play Manfred. Byronic heroes lived out that poetic fascination with scale:
how bad could they be? How tempestuous? How could a small rumor fill up many, many cantos as
it took on a life of its own in narrative form. For shorter works, you may try “She Walks in Beauty
Like the Night.”
19th-century American Poets
Poets to know:
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• Walt Whitman
• Emily Dickinson
• Stephen Crane
• Edgar Allan Poe

• Conflicts between public and private life
• Poetic perspectives on the Civil War
• The poet’s sense of responsibility for chronicling the changing American landscape in the
face of expansion west onto Native American lands and industrialization
• Responses to new technology and media
To continue our examination of how poets played with scale across national boundaries, we look
now to nineteenth-century America, which looked unfathomably large and expansive to poets like
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Walt Whitman, who proclaimed that “America is the greatest
poem,” and wrote in “Song of Myself ”: “Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)” We can think of Longfellow, Whitman, and Stephen Crane as
poets who were assessing the ways that America contained multitudes as a nation accounting for its
legacies of slavery and displacement of Native Americans due to westward expansion, in the midst
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of the Civil War. Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha and Evangeline give a sense of how nineteenth-
century Americans understood their own place in history—and how quickly that sense of place was
changing. Crane’s novel The Red Badge of Courage is a classic Civil War novel, but he also wrote short,
half-funny, half-philosophical poems like “In the Desert” and “A Man Said to the Universe,” which
almost seems like an answer to Whitman:
A man said to the universe:

“Sir I exist!”
“However,” replied the universe,
“The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation.”
The Amherst poet Emily Dickinson appears to be the opposite of Whitman’s immensity, but it’s better
to say that her sense of perspective could be unusual, too, in poems like “The Angle of a Landscape”
or “I Saw No Way—The Heavens Were Stitched,” we see a different kind of perspective on the world.
You may also look at other Dickinson poems mentioned in this chapter for more illustrative works.
As you see in any of her poems, her sense of perspective was singular and private, where Whitman
was public and infinite—but the two most original American poets of the nineteenth century have
much to say when you examine them together.
We tend to think of Edgar Allan Poe as isolated in a space of horror or weirdness, but his poems give
us a sense of American dislocation and anxiety in their own way. You might challenge yourself to
think about familiar poems like “The Raven” in contrast with Whitman’s use of poetic repetition in
“Song of Myself,” where his repetitions may start to sound as strange as the speaker’s tap-tap-tapping
in Poe’s poem. Or you may find something interesting when you pair “The Raven” with Dickinson’s
“Because I Could Not Stop for Death…” What do we learn about the speakers when we try that
provocative pairing? The AP® Exam may not ask you to make these kinds of pairings of poets in the
essay section, and it’s unlikely that they’d pick exactly such a pairing for the poetry multiple choice
options. Yet it’s still an interesting way to study poetry by making unusual juxtapositions that take
you out of your familiar readings of a poem. Many of us remember “The Raven” so clearly from
memorizing the rhyme and annoying meter, so we cease seeing its poetic potential. But there may
be ways for that poem to teach us something all over again!
Pre-Raphaelites and Other Victorian poets
Poets to know:
• Dante Gabriel Rossetti
• Christina Rossetti
• Alfred Lord Tennyson
• Robert Browning
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning


• Mutually generative relationships between poets and painters in the period
• Poetic responses to colonialism and political upheavals
• Poetic responses to changing ideas about women’s roles in the family and in public life
• The tensions between private and public in Victorian society
• The role of publicity and fame in a poet’s life
• Poetic responses to industrialization and new technologies
We have already discussed Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” as an example of how a poem
conveys meaning through a speaker’s (creepy) tone and the style of language used. In that poem, as
well as in “Fra Lippo Lippi,” Browning joins a number of Victorian poets who either wrote exten-
sively about painting and art or who were artists themselves. The poetic work of describing a work
of art is called ekphrasis, and Victorian poets especially were interested in the limitations of—but
also the extraordinary possibilities in—describing visual images. They do so because they’re in an
extraordinary moment of technological change, as they see the invention and popularization of
photography, telegraphy, sound recording, and other forms of transmitting information and ideas.
That spread of information matched the spread of colonialism and nationalism in the period, too,
and poets could be seen celebrating the imagery, languages, and spiritual ideas that seemed new and
“exotic” to them. In both ekphrasis and the vogue for translating poetry in other languages, we see
the ever-present poetic question of what language can and can’t do to communicate deep emotions
and vivid images.
Some were anxious about these innovations and looked backward to earlier times to romanticize
those moments. The Pre-Raphaelite poets looked backward to the medieval period as a time of lore
and legend. In poems like “Ave” and “The Blessed Damozel,” Dante Gabriel Rossetti translated and
imitated medieval Italian poets like Dante—so taken with his namesake, he even painted portraits
inspired by Dante’s life and poetry. Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “Lady of Shallott” and “Morte d’Arthur”
retell medieval tales of knights and conquests and were enormously popular. The medieval characters
of Lancelot and Guinevere appeared both mythic and modern, for they adhered to Victorian ideals
of powerful, conquering men and chaste women.
Modernist Poetry
These twentieth-century movements don’t need the same historical background as, say, the Meta-
physical poets do. For these schools of poetry, we will give some names and suggestions of illustrative
poetry, but you have probably studied more of these figures in your classes, and the language and
references may be closer to you. (Their poems are often not in the public domain, either, which
makes reproducing their work inside this book impossible, hence the emphasis on Romantic poets.)
Poets to know:
• William Butler Yeats
• T.S. Eliot
• Wallace Stevens
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• William Carlos Williams

• W.H. Auden
• Marianne Moore

• How these poets rendered their growing sense that modern life is fragmented and hyper-
mediated and that communication has become impossible (sound familiar?)
• Calls to break with the past and invent new forms of communication and art
• Existential crises about the decline of civilization in the face of World War I
• Responses to technological change
Harlem Renaissance
Names and texts to look for:

• Langston Hughes’s “Theme for English B,” “Montage of a Dream Deferred,” “I, Too, Sing
America”
• Claude McKay’s “The Tropics in New York” and “If We Must Die”
• Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “Majors and Minors,” “Frederick Douglass,” and “We Wear the Mask”

• Collaboration across the arts, notably in painting, jazz, blues, theater
• Deep, conflicted consideration of how to construct African-American cultural identity as
part of, or distinct from, larger American cultural identity
• Meditation on family and individual African-American identity in the longer histories of
the Great Migration and the legacy of the slave trade
• Community identity formation in a neighborhood, city, nation
Beat poetry

• Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s “A Coney Island of the Mind”
• Allen Ginsberg’s book-length poem, Howl
• Gregory Corso’s “Marriage”
• Gary Snyder’s Turtle Island and Sustainable Poetry for his interest in environmentalism
that led to his founding of eco-poetry as a new school of thought


• The role of travel and migration in constructing a poet’s identity
• The role of jazz, mass media, drugs, and sexuality in facilitating metaphysical experiences
that one could then record and publicize through one’s poetry
• The self-mythologizing poet, who bore some resemblance to Romantic poets who claimed
the role of Wanderer
New York School of Poets

• Frank O’Hara’s “Having a Coke with You,” “Poem (Lana Turner Has Collapsed),” “Why
I Am Not a Painter”
• John Ashbery’s “Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror,” “And Ut Pictura Poesis Is Her Name,”
“Some Trees”; he also writes Confessional poetry in his 365 short poems, The Dream Songs
• Kenneth Koch’s “The Circus,” “You Were Wearing”

• Cross-fertilization between poetry, art, popular culture, music, theater, and other forms of
artistic expression
• Imitation of and responses to the modernist poets and artists they admired
• Imitation of Surrealist art and poetry
• City life as an inspiration for poetry
• Poetry about poetry, or poetry about the difficulty of defining poetry and art
Confessional Poetry

• Robert Lowell’s “For the Union Dead,” “The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket,” “Sailing
Home from Rapallo”
• Anne Sexton’s “The Double Image” and “The Black Art”
• Sylvia Plath’s “Lady Lazarus,” “Blackberrying,” “Ariel,” and “Daddy”
• Elizabeth Bishop is not exactly a Confessional poet, although she was friendly with Lowell
(and she is frequently included on the AP® English Literature curriculum). Look for her
famous villanelles, “One Art,” “The Fish,” and “Sestina”

• Unsettling emotional frankness
• Poetic explorations of trauma, psychological distress, abuse, grief
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• Confessions that make a poet “unlikable” or “unrelatable” for their ugly feelings—and how
readers then recognized elements of their own lives and found them both very relatable
and also scary to see things they wished to keep hidden
• Mythologizing the poet’s biography after his or her death
Black Arts Movement

• Gwendolyn Brooks’s “The Bean Eaters,” “Still Do I Keep My Look, My Identity,” and
“We Real Cool”
• Amiri Baraka’s “Legacy” and “Incident”

• Poetry as social and political commentary during the Civil Rights movement
• Separation of Black identity as a political statement
• Collaborations with artists, musicians, political organizers, journalists, activists
As we’ve noted before, these lists are useful as a starting place in your study. You can’t predict that any
one poet will appear on the exam, not even if you count frequencies from previous years. The exam
questions won’t ask you trivia about a poet’s biography or historical facts. Everything you’ll need
to know about the poems will be there on the page. This background knowledge is helpful for you
to build your own sense of context that will make poetic language seem more manageable, because
you see the poets as people who are responding to their time and culture—just as we try to do today.
All of these poets are commenting on the world around them; they just happen to be using styles,
tones, structures, and detailed allusions that can look weird if you don’t have that sense of context.
When looking at the structure used by a poet, you are looking at the way they build on a previous
genre tradition and how they are making it their own. When you look at the style used by a poet, you
are observing how the poet is responding to historical events or popular culture of that time period.
PRACTICE SETS
Now you can practice answering these sample questions. You may not be familiar with the first poet,
Anne Finch, who wrote during the seventeenth century—she’s not listed in the overview, but she is
still representative of some of the same Metaphysical themes we were tracking. William Butler Yeats
is listed among the Modernist poets, and you may be able to see some of the familiar themes and
concepts from that listing in his poem here. As you’re answering the questions, think about how the
questions give you some necessary context, but they also remind you that you have everything you need
inside the poem and questions. The best preparation allows you to have confidence in that reminder.

practice sets
SAMPLE PASSAGE 1
“The Tree,” by Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea
Fair tree! for thy delightful shade

‘Tis just that some return be made;
Sure some return is due from me
Line To thy cool shadows, and to thee.
5 When thou to birds dost shelter give,
Thou music dost from them receive;
If travellers beneath thee stay
Till storms have worn themselves away,
That time in praising thee they spend
10 And thy protecting pow’r commend.
The shepherd here, from scorching freed,
Tunes to thy dancing leaves his reed;
Whilst his lov’d nymph, in thanks, bestows
Her flow’ry chaplets on thy boughs.
15 Shall I then only silent be,
And no return be made by me?
No; let this wish upon thee wait,
And still to flourish be thy fate.
To future ages may’st thou stand
20 Untouch’d by the rash workman’s hand,
Till that large stock of sap is spent,
Which gives thy summer’s ornament;
Till the fierce winds, that vainly strive
To shock thy greatness whilst alive,
25 Shall on thy lifeless hour attend,
Prevent the axe, and grace thy end;
Their scatter’d strength together call
And to the clouds proclaim thy fall;
Who then their ev’ning dews may spare
30 When thou no longer art their care,
But shalt, like ancient heroes, burn,
And some bright hearth be made thy urn.
1. To what genre does this poem belong?
A. Pastoral ode
B. Ballad
C. Satire
D. Monologue
E. Free verse
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2. What is the effect of repeating the word 5. What is the best way of characterizing the
“return” in lines 2 and 3? speaker’s reflections on the notion of “return”
A. Wondering how to write a nature when she repeats the word yet again in line
poem that’s unique 16?
B. Shifting emphasis from the general A. She is aware of a tension between
to the personal constancy and ephemerality, and
C. Indicating her guilt at not being able wonders how her gift, her poem, fits
to offer anything back to the tree along that continuum.
D. Showing the cycle of life B. She has been heartbroken and now
only thinks of the tree as a site of
E. Indicating that time has passed painful memories.
3. From context, what are “chaplets” (line 14)? C. She feels sad that humans can never
A. Garlands repay fully what the earth has given
them.
B. Books
D. She is planning her wedding under-
C. Birds neath the tree.
D. Kisses E. Her nostalgia for the past makes her
E. Hands return to the tree both sweet and
painful at the same time.
4. How does the speaker feel about what the
other visitors have offered the tree? 6. What is the shift in tone at line 19?
A. From loyal to bitter
I. The tree is a constant presence, so she
wonders if the ephemeral gifts left by B. From simple to prognostic
humans are enough. C. From romantic to rejected
II. The offerings they provide are D. From happy to grief-stricken
worthless compared to what the tree E. From young to old
provides.
III. Others have left symbols of their own 7. That tonal change allows the poet to explore
use, so she will leave a poem. what kinds of themes in lines 23-32?
A. A call for rebellion against land-
A. I only owners who encroach upon the
B. II only shepherds
C. III only B. A deeper sense of the connection
D. I and II between women’s bodies and the
earth
E. I and III
C. An impending sense of loss and
cultural change
D. A rejection of the material world for
a spiritual calling
E. A Gothic interest in death and decay

practice sets
8. The elements of what other poetic genre 9. The regular meter in the couplet form em-
have risen to prominence in the second half phasizes which of the following?
of the poem? I. The intertwined relationship between
A. Satire the tree and those who receive its shade
B. Ballad II. The tree’s sturdiness and steadfastness
C. Fable III. The tension between the speaker’s sense
D. Epic of poetic duty and her disillusionment
E. Elegy with poetry
A. I only
B. III only
C. I and II
D. II and III
E. I and III
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SAMPLE PASSAGE 2
“Long-Legged Fly,” by William Butler Yeats
That civilization may not sink,

Its great battle lost,
Quiet the dog, tether the pony
Line To a distant post;
5 Our master Caesar is in the tent
Where the maps are spread,
His eyes fixed upon nothing,
A hand under his head.
Like a long-legged fly upon the stream

10 His mind moves upon silence.
That the topless towers be burnt

And men recall that face,
Move most gently if move you must
In this lonely place.
15 She thinks, part woman, three parts a child,
That nobody looks; her feet
Practice a tinker shuffle
Picked up on a street.

20 Her mind moves upon silence.
That girls at puberty may find

The first Adam in their thought,
Shut the door of the Pope’s chapel,
Keep those children out.
25 There on that scaffolding reclines
Michael Angelo.
With no more sound than the mice make
His hand moves to and fro.

30 His mind moves upon silence.

practice sets
10. What natural phenomenon is Yeats referring 12. The three-part poem focuses on stories of
to in the refrain of this poem? genius and extraordinary achievement. Why
A. Spontaneous generation, the belief do the opening two lines sound so uncertain,
that insects could generate from non- and why are the first figures we meet dogs
living material and ponies?
B. Sublimation, passing from the A. The delay in revealing Caesar builds
gaseous stage directly into physical tension.
matter B. The delay in revealing Caesar shows
C. Diffusion, the spreading of particles his diminished authority because of
(and ideas) widely his eccentric behavior.
D. Surface tension, or the cohesion C. The dogs and ponies show the
of water molecules that minimizes importance of these heroes inter-
surface area so that it may resist acting with everyday people.
external forces D. Upon realizing it’s Caesar, the reader
E. Crystallization, as when dew forms begins to question first impressions
on a spider web and then freezes and what’s happening on the surface
overnight of a scene.
E. It shows Caesar contending with his
11. What is Julius Caesar doing in lines 1-10,
own doubts, to humanize a genius
as he appears to be staring off into space?
and show his emotions beneath the
A. Contending with a humiliating steely surface.
battlefield loss in private
B. Building a brilliant new military 13. Although she is not named directly, the
strategy in his head subject of the second stanza is Helen of
Troy. We know this because Yeats uses the
C. Meditating before a strenuous
military campaign phrase “the topless towers be burnt” from
the Renaissance dramatist Christopher
D. Punishing his subordinates with the Marlowe, who wrote in the play Doctor
silent treatment
Faustus: “Was this the face that launched a
E. Trying to block out all the noise thousand ships/And burnt the topless towers
inside and outside his head of Ilium?” This reference to another piece
of writing is an example of what rhetorical
device?
A. Allusion
B. Ellipsis
C. Paraphrase
D. Synesthesia
E. Synecdoche
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14. What is the relationship between the rhe- 16. The third stanza opens with the pubescent
torical device in the second stanza and the girls giggling at the Sistine Chapel. All of
mention of the “tinker shuffle” in line 17? the following interpretations of their pres-
ence are plausible EXCEPT
I. It shows the poet’s disdain for the
A. they’re distracting Michelangelo from
common people who dance in the
his art with their chattering.
streets and who could not understand
B. they thought they were alone in the
Doctor Faustus.
silent room and were startled by
II. Both the rhetorical device and Helen’s noticing him.
adoption of the tinker shuffle are
C. they are rebelling against dictates for
examples of crafting something out silent reverence and rules for who can
of the tools at hand. be present in the Sistine Chapel.
III. It shows the genius’s ability to move D. they are paying attention only to the
between highbrow and lowbrow obviousness of Adam’s nakedness and
culture strategically. don’t see the genius in his art.
A. I only E. they echo Helen’s nonchalance in

walking down the street, drawing a
B. II only connection between the two stanzas.
C. III only
17. Yeats is not claiming to be a genius in the
D. I and III
same category as Caesar, Helen of Troy, and
E. II and III Michelangelo, but how is the poet’s work
similar to the talents of the figures described
15. Helen of Troy is more often objectified as
in the poem?
“the face that launched a thousand ships,”
not a mastermind. What is the most striking I. The poet works on the surface of the
source of Helen of Troy’s genius, as Yeats page.
has rendered her here? II. The poet must work in silence in order
A. She can manipulate people into to be productive.
doing what she wants, like Caesar.
III. The poet uses language to craft illu-
B. She manifests extraordinary beauty, sions, like these geniuses who make
like Michelangelo can do as an artist.
something out of nothing.
C. She can manipulate surfaces to
conjure her own power. A. I only
D. She disguises herself as an everyday B. II only
person, like a spy would. C. III only
E. She has transcended her objectifi- D. I and III
cation and become a feminist hero. E. I, II, and III

answers practice sets

ANSWER KEY AND EXPLANATIONS
1. A 5. A 9. C 12. D 15. C
2. B 6. B 10. D 13. A 16. C
3. A 7. C 11. B 14. B 17. D
4. E 8. E
1. The correct answer is A. Even if you some return is due from me.” Moving from
don’t know what “pastoral” means, you can the general to the personal lets her reflect
probably tell that this poem is some kind of on the nuances of this conventional act of
poetic tribute to the tree, so it’s some kind offering something in return. Choices D
of ode. “Pastoral” means that it takes place and E are too vague to be helpful; she may
in nature; the appearance of the shepherds be seeing the cycles of life as time passes,
and nymphs are conventional in the pas- but those answers don’t help us understand
toral tradition. If you didn’t see nature or the repetition.
tribute in the poem, then you could also Choice A is pointing in the right direction,
eliminate many of the other choices: there’s but her reflection on the conventions of
no sharp edge of criticism that you’d find nature poetry are larger than worrying about
in a satire, so choice C is unlikely, nor are her own uniqueness. Reflecting on the con-
there repeated refrains that you might find ventionality of returning tributes to the tree’s
in a ballad (choice B). The poem follows steadfastness gives the speaker the idea that
a regular meter and rhyme, so it’s not free she may use the conventions she knows—the
verse (choice E). Finally, one gets the sense conventions of the ode—to give her own
of a private communion with the tree in special return. But this act of reflection
paying tribute, so there’s no sense of self- actually makes her think critically about
conscious performance that one might find the limitations of those conventions, both
in a dramatic monologue, so choice D is also in poetry and in life. She writes a pastoral
out. This question about genre appears first ode, but the second half of the poem pushes
among the test questions, so it must help beyond those conventions of shepherds and
us see something about the main idea and love for nature, to meditate more deeply on
larger themes of the poem: we will have what constancy actually means in a time of
to pay attention to the concepts of poetic change. The poet Anne Finch was exiled
tribute and nature in this pastoral ode. from her home during the English Civil
2. The correct answer is B. This is a tough War in the seventeenth century, giving her a
poem to analyze because it seems so simple. crucial perspective on the value of returning
Are there even any ambiguities or tensions to assess change.
to analyze here? In the early lines of the 3. The correct answer is A. “Chaplets” are
poem, she sees the return gift to the tree as garlands that hang on the boughs of the
conventional: she and others owe the tree tree. Even if you’ve never heard of a chaplet
something small for all it has given them before, you can get the sense of something
over the years. She establishes the convention flowery hanging from lines 13-14: “bestows/
first for them, then for herself: “‘Tis just that Her flow’ry chaplets on thy boughs.” If you
some return be made; [by others] / Sure noticed the boughs in the poem, then you
www.petersons.com
might have guessed that they were birds sets up a great essay topic for writing about
perched among flowers (choice C), but this poem. Choices C and E might be okay
you would be wrong. They may sound like answers in another set of answer choices,
“chapters,” but they are not hanging books but they’re not the best, most sophisticated
on the tree (choice B). It’s not kisses or hands answers for this particular question.
(choices D and E), although of course one
6. The correct answer is B. For a poem about
would use one’s hands to hang the garlands.
change, there was bound to be a question
The shepherd’s chaplets are a conventional
about how to interpret how those changes
feature of pastoral poetry.
are reflected in tone and mood. The best
4. The correct answer is E. Among the three way to approach this question is to strike
options, you have to decide which ones out the wrong answers first. Let’s look at
agree with each other and which ones may how the choices describe where the poem
be contradictory. Option II is too negative ends up tonally, since the descriptions of
and judgmental for this poem: she is not the opening tones are all fairly bland and
saying that these small gifts are worthless, similar. We don’t see a sense of bitterness,
but rather noting that their ephemerality rejection, or grief, so choices A, C, and D are
makes her consider the ephemerality of not good options. Choice E is too general to
any gift, including the gift of her poetry. be helpful, and we don’t really have a way to
Striking Option II means that you can assess what a young or old tone might sound
eliminate choices B and D. Both options like. Choice B is the only one left, and the
I and III leave room for the ambiguities word “prognostic” may be a bit surprising at
of that consideration, so they are the best first read. Where do we see elements of her
pair of answers. That pairing in choice E prognostication? Well, we see her looking
is a good way to phrase the tension at the forward into the future and imagining more
heart of the poem: she has written a poem change, even death and a final act of com-
as a tribute because that is the best kind of memoration. Choice B gives a good way of
“return” she can give, but she has inscribed understanding where the poem is heading,
in it a worry about the ephemerality of any and it will help answer some later questions
kind of tribute. about how the poem changes genre.
5. The correct answer is A. Question 2’s 7. The correct answer is C. By the end of
sensitivity to the repetition of the word the poem, Finch has taken up some heady
“return” has, well, returned again, and like themes of cultural loss and decay. Actually,
the speaker, we’re asking: what’s different? the poem has been pointing toward this com-
We can eliminate choices B and D—the mentary on cultural change from the very
speaker hasn’t mentioned them in the poem, beginning, for many poems about shepherds
so they’re not good choices. Choices C and and the pastoral life have a built-in sense that
E are very tempting because they’re partly such a happy rural life cannot be sustained.
right in identifying thematic elements of the Those chaplets we looked at earlier in the
poem: insufficiency and nostalgia, respec- poem were symbols of ephemerality not just
tively. The question asks you to find the best of a flower, but of an entire lifestyle. Finch
answer, however, and choice A gives you is writing at a moment after a Civil War,
the analytical language of finding a tension when England was pervaded with senses
between those thematic elements; it basically of death, loss, and cultural change. Choice
C is the correct answer, but you may have


been tempted also to consider choice A if deeply relevant to the ways that Finch
you were really feeling the call not just to uses, and then transforms, the pastoral ode
write poetry, but to effect change. Finch into a reflection on cultural change. We
is OK with writing poetry that hints at its have already answered several questions
ephemerality: no revolutionary is she. There that identify Option I as a basic theme of
are elements of spirituality (choice D) and the poem that matches the structure: the
death imagery (choice E) in these lines, but couplets show an interrelationship. We can
they are not the best answers here—we don’t eliminate any choices that don’t contain
have a sense of decay, really, and we don’t Option I (choices B and D). The real
see any plans for Finch herself to renounce question, though, is how these structural
the material world. That final scene of elements reflect the shift in theme later in
destruction will be the ultimate tribute to the the poem. Finch continues to use the couplet
tree. The concept of a tribute has changed to express her sense of loss, never wavering
significantly over the course of the poem, from these formal elements. Is it a sense of
from a poem to an urn—a symbol of loss dutifulness, as Option III suggests, or does
embedded in that sense of tribute. the couplet work just as well for her elegiac
reflections on cultural change? Your thoughts
8. The correct answer is E. The previous
on Option III largely depend on whether you
question asked you to identify the themes
see poetic disillusionment in Finch’s poem.
that Finch addresses at the end of the poem,
We say no: there may be cultural disillu-
which sets up this question about what genre
sionment, but she uses her poetic talents to
typically picks up those themes. The elegy is
adapt her genre, which hardly suggests that
defined by its sense of loss, and it often reg-
she’s lost confidence in her poetic identity.
isters cultural change—as in Thomas Gray’s
Option III is too big a leap, while Option II
“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,”
is a more nuanced take on how Finch uses
written about a hundred years later than
her talents to meditate on change. You can
this poem, but which takes up many of
mark the answer choice that contains both
the same themes about the loss of a rural
Option I and II: choice C.
lifestyle. The elegy also serves as a form of
commemoration, so it pairs well with the ode 10. The correct answer is D. This is not a
form in paying tribute. It might be possible science exam, so brief definitions of those
to see her attention to cultural change as a natural phenomena are included among the
call for satire (choice A), but the sense of answer choices. The long-legged fly appears
loss is stronger than a sense of critique or to walk on water because of surface tension
mockery. We don’t see any characters who (and some other physiological factors that
might populate a ballad or an epic (choices aren’t relevant to poetry). Although the
B and D). Those elements are not present title gives us an insect, we’re not discussing
in the more mournful elements of axes and spontaneous generation of insects (choice A)
urns showing the destruction of a cultural or the way that a spider-web collects dew in
ideal. beautiful radiating shapes (choice E, and we
know that spiders aren’t insects too). It might
9. The correct answer is C. This question
be tempting to read any of these natural
asks you to interpret the ways that the
phenomena as metaphors for the creative
structural elements underscore the themes
process: of how ideas seem to spontaneously
of the poem. There are many themes listed
generate, diffuse into the wider culture, or
among the options, and most of them are
www.petersons.com
leap from idea into realization, as we might other geniuses in the poem. He seems to be
describe creative sublimation (choice C), pointing you toward considering the role
skipping the stage of painstaking craft and of surfaces in the poem, and how geniuses
revision. All of these would make excellent appear to people, but it’s not totally clear
poems, but Yeats has chosen the metaphor yet. This question asks you to interpret that
of surface tension, and that attention to sense of uncertainty that’s rippling from
surfaces is crucial to pay attention to in the the very first lines of the poem. Choice
rest of the questions. A is very tempting because you’ve just
answered a question about surface tension
11. The correct answer is B. Julius Caesar is
and you’re attracted to analytical language
a military dictator who is being celebrated
about tension. It’s too superficial and vague
for his genius in this poem, so he must be
a statement, however, because we don’t
shown doing what geniuses (and dictators)
know what the tension is, what it’s between.
do: strategizing. In its refrain, the poem
Choices B and C don’t have enough evidence
draws connections between these geniuses
to support them, as we don’t see the men or
and the long-legged fly, who appears to be
any interactions with other people. Choices
walking on nothing that can support him,
D and E also use the language of surfaces
but is mastering the forces of surface tension.
that we’ve seen in question 10, so they seem
When Caesar is staring at nothing, he is
like they could be good choices. Yet we
manipulating an idea, a strategy, in that
don’t really see any emotions from Caesar,
apparent absence—he appears to be making
so choice E doesn’t seem as likely. Choice
something out of nothing. He doesn’t even
D is the right answer, and it will point you
need maps to make his plans. The other
to answering other questions about this
tempting choice is choice E, because the
thematic motif of surfaces in the poem.
refrain also mentions the importance of
silence for the genius. Yet choice E locates the 13. The correct answer is A. The question
noise “inside and outside his head,” and we defines the rhetorical device for you: “this
don’t really have that Caesar is blocking out reference to another piece of writing,” so if
his own doubts or negative self-talk. There’s you’ve studied your lists of devices, you’ll
no noise in his head that we can determine, know it right away. It might be possible
only pure military strategy genius. So, choice to think of this reference as a paraphrase
E knocks itself out by making too deep an of Christopher Marlowe, as choice C sug-
inference—and this is a set of questions all gests, but the better answer is that it’s an
about surfaces. You may also eliminate the allusion because it doesn’t mention the
other choices here: we don’t see any emo- source directly. If you blank on the name
tional markers of humiliation (choice A) of the device, yet you remember some other
or shame (choice D). Because the poem is rhetorical devices, you can eliminate the
celebrating his genius, it will call attention obviously wrong answers. The reference to
to what he makes and crafts, not his sense Helen’s beauty is not an example of sensory
of inner peace and calm, so choice C is a confusion in synesthesia (choice D), nor is
better bet for a different kind of man. the allusion a form of synecdoche, which
might substitute Helen for the entire Trojan
12. The correct answer is D. This is a tough
War or something like that (choice E). The
question that you may want to come back
best advice for this question is to take the
to after you’ve seen how the exam is asking
gift of the definition and don’t think too
you to interpret Yeats’s presentation of the
hard about it.


14. The correct answer is B. While the previous aren’t supported by the details of the poem.
question gave you a lot of extra information, Better to stick with the analytical language
this question asks you to make some infer- about surfaces in choice C, because you
ences. The three options suggest a number know that the exam has been guiding you
of unusual inferences and interpretations toward this kind of thematic interpretation
that may either rouse your skepticism or over the course of the questions.
lead you astray. It’s tempting to interpret
16. The correct answer is C. You are looking
that allusion in all sorts of ways, but we
for the outlier here, the one wrong answer
don’t really have enough information to
among several correct ones. As stanzas
assess the possibility of Options I or III.
1 and 2 were linked with references to
There is some confusion in those Options
military strategy, this poem gets its link in
about who has access to the allusion: Yeats,
the reference to beauty. As choice E sug-
the speaker, or Helen herself. We don’t have
gests, we see echoes of Helen’s eternal youth
a sense of who the speaker is, which makes
in the teenage girls, but it is distraction in
it hard to assess his attitudes in Option I.
stanza 3—just as Helen’s youthful beauty
Yeats has called Helen a genius, but it’s not
was a strategic distraction in the Trojan
because she knows Renaissance drama and
War. Choice A recalls Caesar’s need to
can make allusions—that rhetorical device
work in the silence away from his men, and
exists separately from her. Thus Option
we see that Michelangelo was being quiet
III is out because she’s not engaging with
as a mouse in line 27, so choice B is also a
highbrow literary culture—she’s just doing
plausible interpretation. Choice D is the
a dance in the street. Rather, Yeats suggests
most sophisticated thematic explanation
that Helen’s genius comes from her ability to
of their presence—although choices A, B,
craft something out of thin air—just like a
and E are also fine—in how they highlight
poet might pick out a literary allusion from
the poems’ interest in surfaces and illu-
his mind. The allusion appears in the poem,
sions. Adam is merely a titillating illusion
floating on no reference point but its own
to them, not an extraordinary example of
language, like the long-legged fly on water.
genius. Choice C may look like it’s of a piece
15. The correct answer is C. This question with choices A, B, and D in its references
dials back the far-fetched inferences of the to noise and silence, but we don’t have any
previous question and points you toward sense of rebellion or purposeful irreverence
analyzing the most important theme of from the poem—they are just being teenage
the poem: the manipulation of surfaces. girls, Yeats is saying. Their presence isn’t
Choices A and B are technically correct, provocative; it’s annoying for the genius
but they’re superficial connections—as you artist. Because you’ve been able to confirm
might expect, superficial connections lead that A, B, D, and E are all good choices, you
you astray in this question, too. You can’t must choose the misleading interpretation
really choose between the two, as they’re in choice C as the outlier answer.
both basically true, so that probably means
17. Choice D is correct. Think about Yeats’
that neither one is the best answer. It might
many poetic devices deployed in this poem:
be tempting to choose choice D or E,
to name just two we’ve discussed in the
because they could be examples of Helen’s
questions so far, we’ve seen an extended
manipulation of superficial judgments about
comparison to surface tension and a stra-
her; nevertheless, they are too specific and
tegic allusion to classical literature. This is
www.petersons.com
a show-offy poem about geniuses who craft

illusions and strategies of their own. Options
I and III echo the language used to describe
Caesar’s, Helen’s, and Michelangelo’s own
interests in surfaces, so it’s not a leap to say
that the poet works on the surface of a page
and uses illusory words to make his craft.
Option II is a possibility, but it seems like
a leap. The word “must” seems like a tip-off
that it’s asking too much of the inference.
Do we know that all poets work in silence?
We could probably debate this question
with some biographical information about
Yeats’s working and socializing habits, but
we don’t have those in front of us. Let’s go
with Options I and III only, and choose D.

SUMMING IT UP
• Section I of the AP® English Literature and Composition Exam features fifty-five multiple-
choice questions based on published works of drama, poetry, or prose fiction. You will have
one hour to answer all questions, and the section is worth 45 percent of your total score.
• Your first step should always be to read a poem the whole way through to understand its
basic idea. Then read it again to get a sense of its genre, diction, and style—do not get
caught up in the author’s intention in writing the poem. You want to know why an author
uses certain devices. Ask yourself how styles, word choices, and tone serve to convey a
feeling or a meaning.
• AP® English Literature questions will test you in many of the following categories: main
idea, theme, structure, style, tone, details, vocabulary-in-context, and inference.
• Time matters more than you might think, so practice timing yourself to see what your
habits are and how you can read passages and questions most efficiently. Our tips are only
as good as how you use them to get to know your own test-taking habits and adapt them
to your needs.
• We recommend looking for patterns when you read passages so that you can identify the
conventions. Exams have conventions for asking questions and framing answers, too, so if
you practice taking them, you will become an expert at identifying patterns and conven-
tions, which will allow you to work more quickly at eliminating wrong answers because
you know their tricks.
• You don’t need to know the name every device or structural element in the poem, but you
do need to be able to identify how these elements affect the meaning of the poem.
• Style, or diction, is the author’s word choice, while tone is the speaker’s attitude toward the
events that occur within a poem.
• Use the structure of the questions to help guide your reading of the poem strategically.
The questions will give you analytical language and repeat thematic elements that appear
in many answers, so you can use them to help you if you’re really not sure what’s going on.
• Use the overviews of each era in this chapter to make a reading list for the time leading
up to your exam, and then practice generating possible multiple-choice questions about
tone, theme, etc. Thinking about the questions you will see on test day as you read poems
in preparation is a great way to close-read poetry. By the time you face the poems on your
exam, you will know precisely what to expect.
www.petersons.com
Prose Questions on
the AP® Literature and
Chapter 3
Composition Exam
OVERVIEW:
• Breadth and Depth of the Prose Section
• How to Read a Prose Passage on the AP® Exam
• Situating Yourself Within a Passage: Elements of Prose
• How to Read Nonfiction Prose
• How to Read Dramatic Prose
• Practice Sets
• Answer Key and Explanations
• Summing It Up
Students tend to think that poetry is harder than prose because of the formatting: the line
breaks, rhymes, and meter all make it look unfamiliar. One of our recommendations in the
poetry chapter has you reading those poetry passages as prose: as you’re reading, pretend
you’re reading sentences so that you can get a sense of what’s going on before you attend to
the qualities of that rhyme or meter. We figure that reading prose is more natural, because
you read lots of prose every day, whether it’s prose in an email, a novel, a textbook, or even
a test-prep book.
Yet, literary prose is not without difficulties of its own: it is not the same as reading an article,
an email, or a textbook. The beauty of literature is in how it shows us different points of
view, places we had never imagined, places we thought we knew well but which are trans-
formed by an author’s unusual perspective—ideas that can’t be expressed in just an email or
a summary in a test-prep book. You won’t have time to appreciate the strangeness or beauty
of that prose while you’re taking the exam, but, whether you like it or not, the questions
will cue your attention to those beauties and ask you to take a closer look at them. So, as
you’re strategizing, keep in the back of your mind that what’s challenging here is also what’s
rewarding about these books.
71
This chapter will give you tips on how read a prose passage on the exam and understand the kinds
of questions the exam asks about the style, structure, and themes of that passage. We will explain
some of the basic building blocks of prose narration, such as setting, characterization, and dialogue,
and how to analyze these narrative features, and then we will walk you through some important
thematic groupings of the Anglophone (English-speaking) literary world, including some thoughts
on how the novel has become an important form of literature in world literature.
It’s important to remember that these are overviews and summaries, not substitutes for studying the
novels themselves. The College Board website provides a list of most frequently included poetry and
prose authors that it recommends AP® English Literature teachers consult in making a syllabus,
and you are welcome to consult it, too.
Likewise, the recommended novels, prose nonfiction, and drama in this book are good illustrations
of important concepts, such as composing the American landscape, novels of manners and morals,
satirical fiction, unreliable narrators, and communicating the immigrant experience, but the beauty
and power of these novels is how they tell these stories. Each one is different.
TIP BREADTH AND DEPTH OF THE PROSE SECTION

A specific novel The scope of possibility in the AP® English Literature and Composition Exam’s prose section is
recommendation somewhat different from the poetry section. It would be impossible to read all of the novels, plays,
on these lists and essays by all of the authors who have written in English. It would be even more impossible to
will give you a remember all of the details from those texts. The exam gives you a much more manageable task: read
representative a passage of about 600-800 words and analyze its formal and thematic qualities. It’s asking you to
sense of the
read one short passage deeply, rather than to test your knowledge of a huge, unmanageable breadth
of literature. At the same time, being familiar with a wide variety of types of literary fiction will
author’s work,
help you dig deeper, faster, because you’ll have some awareness of those forms and themes already.
so that when a
less well-known Your AP® English class will prepare you for a wide variety of texts by giving you a syllabus of rep-
work pops up on resentative works. Even if you had years to study, it’s unlikely that you’ll be familiar with the exact
the exam, you’ll passages given to you on the exam. They may be less well-known works by an author or works by
already have
an author who writes in the same tradition or style.
some context for Therefore, your study can be tactical so that you learn how to read the literature, of course, but also
understanding how to read the exam quickly and strategically. There are genres and styles of questions, as well as
that author’s main familiar patterns that red herrings use to distract you. When you learn how to read these, you’ll gain
preoccupations an advantage that enables you to get through the race with fewer distractions.
and styles.
HOW TO READ A PROSE PASSAGE ON THE AP® EXAM

You’ll always feel short on time in such a condensed timeframe on the test. You have to answer fifty-
five questions in 1 hour and read at least four passages that may be as much as 800 words in length.
You have to read these prose passages strategically, because you don’t have time to annotate them
as you would in reading them for a class. We recommend you do an initial quick read-through that
may take about 6 minutes tops. Circle any unfamiliar words or phrases, and underline words, phrases,
or events that jump out at you as seeming especially important for understanding the main idea.

Chapter 3: Prose Questions on the AP® Literature and Composition Exam 73
Pay more attention to... Don’t get hung up on...

What’s going on in the passage, the main
Is this relatable?
idea?
Who is the narrator? The author’s intention
What is the setting and how is it described so
Judging the quality of the descriptive
that you get a sense of how the narrator feels
language
about it?
How does the author use language? (Does
the speaker use simple or complex, multi- One word you don’t understand
syllabic words?)
Repeated words, metaphors, images—any-
thing that seems to form a pattern. These
repetitions may be called motifs and they Any possible hidden meanings
often show you the way a small detail,
repeated, illustrates a theme in the passage
Tensions that recur throughout the passage
The author’s intention
that might give you a sense of the themes
If you can’t find that main idea on these quick reads, don’t worry. You can look down at the first two
or three questions to see what they’re asking, and they may help you find some repeated keywords
that can help you get your bearings.
Questions Will Help You Read the Passage

As we discussed in the poetry chapter, the questions on the exam will tell you what to look for as you
read the passage. The questions about details and vocabulary are not random trivia questions; most
likely, they’re there to give you a clue about what to pay attention to, or even to help students who
may not know a word and need some suggestions about what it could mean in context. The ques-
tions about the structure, style, and tone will give you a sense of how those elements illuminate the
themes and main ideas of the passage. You might get asked about a shift in style or tone that indicates
a few lines to pay particular attention to, as you’re being clued in that the shift is significant. Think
of the questions as a guide to your reading—not just as multiple-choice enemies to be vanquished.
Once again, here are the question types you will face on the text. For a more thorough review of
these types, refer back to Chapter 2. Once again, throughout this chapter, we’ve identified and tagged
these categories of questions you will see on test day:
• Main idea questions
• Theme questions
• Structure questions
• Style questions
• Tone questions
www.petersons.com
• Detail questions
• Vocabulary-in-context questions
• Inference questions
Some questions may use this language directly (“What can you infer about the author’s feeling
toward the narrator?”), while others will get at the main ideas or themes indirectly, without those
specific words. You may be asked about a narrator’s attitude toward the scene, which you’ll know is
a question about tone, and you’ll be looking for adjectives and perhaps figurative language they use
to show their perspective on the events they’re describing. You may be asked about the genre, so
that you can better understand how the author deploys conventional elements—symbols, character
types, structural elements—in a surprising way.
These tagged questions are for your benefit in studying: if you know you struggle with distinguishing
between the author and the narrator, pay attention to how those questions are phrased in the chapter
and on the practice exams, and then work on devising your own versions of style and tone questions.
Eliminating the Wrong Answers

So, the questions are helpful for guiding you—but that doesn’t mean they’re entirely benevolent, as
often they want to teach you a lesson on your racing journey through the exam.
Beware of... Watch for...

Answer choices framed as overstatements, Phrases like “tensions between x and y,” “both
with words like “always,” “never,” “com- idea x and idea y” (to show the possibility of
pletely,” and other phrases that don’t leave holding two opinions at the same time)
room for the nuances that the exam is often
asking you to discern.
The exam might try to trick you into judging

or exaggerating, instead of analyzing.
Answer choices framed as generalizations Answer choices that are keyed to the par-
that are usually true and aren’t specific to the ticular style and themes of the passage and
passage don’t seem like they’d be applicable to any
passage
For example, “the use of imagination” is rarely
a good answer to describe a piece of fiction-
writing because it’s usually a given that fiction
is imaginative.

Beware of... Watch for...

Answer choices that are judgmental, unless Answer choices that explain a reasonable,
you’re being asked to analyze a narrator’s open-ended theory to understand why a
tone and that narrator has a very clear disap- narrator uses a particular tone or stylistic
proving perspective device—not just whether it’s good or bad
For example, “the narrator should do x” is

rarely a good answer because it’s imposing
your own outside judgment on the passage,
rather than reading the narrator’s own
perspective.
Answer choices that are speculative about What’s actually in the passage; the answer
what happens in the rest of the book or what will be among the choices, and even if it’s
could happen if characters acted differently asking you to infer an interpretation, it won’t
be outlandish or deeply psychological about
inner motives you don’t know about
Answer choices that speculate about the Answer choices that allow you to understand
author’s opinion, unless you’re asked directly the narrator’s idiosyncratic choices better
about it and given a reasonable amount of
information for choosing a good answer These choices will help you turn “this is
a weird word choice” into “I see why this
Don’t speculate about the relationship word choice illuminates the narrator’s
between author and narrator unless you have perspective…”
enough information to do so.
These patterns of help and occasional misdirections become most apparent when you practice working
through a lot of multiple-choice questions. That’s why we give you so many sample questions and
practice exams in this book: you start to internalize the logic of the test’s questions. The goal isn’t to
read every book and know it backward and forward but to know the test’s quirks backward and forward.
So, set your timer and let’s try out a passage. Remember to read through it quickly and make notes
about any unfamiliar words or what seems to be the main idea of the passage. This example is long
and may have some frustratingly long sentences in it… so beware of The House of Seven the Gables!
From The House of the Seven Gables, by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1851)
In almost every generation, nevertheless, there happened to be some one

descendant of the family gifted with a portion of the hard, keen sense, and
practical energy, that had so remarkably distinguished the original founder.
His character, indeed, might be traced all the way down, as distinctly as if the
Colonel himself, a little diluted, had been gifted with a sort of intermittent
immortality on earth. At two or three epochs, when the fortunes of the family
were low, this representative of hereditary qualities had made his appearance,
and caused the traditionary gossips of the town to whisper among themselves,
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“Here is the old Pyncheon come again! Now the Seven Gables will be new-
shingled!” From father to son, they clung to the ancestral house with singular
tenacity of home attachment. For various reasons, however, and from impres-
sions often too vaguely founded to be put on paper, the writer cherishes the
belief that many, if not most, of the successive proprietors of this estate were
troubled with doubts as to their moral right to hold it. Of their legal tenure
there could be no question; but old Matthew Maule, it is to be feared, trode
downward from his own age to a far later one, planting a heavy footstep, all the
way, on the conscience of a Pyncheon. If so, we are left to dispose of the awful
query, whether each inheritor of the property—conscious of wrong, and failing
to rectify it—did not commit anew the great guilt of his ancestor, and incur all
its original responsibilities. And supposing such to be the case, would it not be a
far truer mode of expression to say of the Pyncheon family, that they inherited a
great misfortune, than the reverse?
We have already hinted that it is not our purpose to trace down the history of
the Pyncheon family, in its unbroken connection with the House of the Seven
Gables; nor to show, as in a magic picture, how the rustiness and infirmity
of age gathered over the venerable house itself. As regards its interior life, a
large, dim looking-glass used to hang in one of the rooms, and was fabled to
contain within its depths all the shapes that had ever been reflected there,—the
old Colonel himself, and his many descendants, some in the garb of antique
babyhood, and others in the bloom of feminine beauty or manly prime, or
saddened with the wrinkles of frosty age. Had we the secret of that mirror,
we would gladly sit down before it, and transfer its revelations to our page.
But there was a story, for which it is difficult to conceive any foundation, that
the posterity of Matthew Maule had some connection with the mystery of
the looking-glass, and that, by what appears to have been a sort of mesmeric
process, they could make its inner region all alive with the departed Pyncheons;
not as they had shown themselves to the world, nor in their better and happier
hours, but as doing over again some deed of sin, or in the crisis of life’s bitterest
sorrow.
The popular imagination, indeed, long kept itself busy with the affair of the
old Puritan Pyncheon and the wizard Maule; the curse which the latter flung
from his scaffold was remembered, with the very important addition, that it
had become a part of the Pyncheon inheritance. If one of the family did but
gurgle in his throat, a bystander would be likely enough to whisper, between
jest and earnest, “He has Maule’s blood to drink!” The sudden death of a Pyn-
cheon, about a hundred years ago, with circumstances very similar to what have
been related of the Colonel’s exit, was held as giving additional probability to
the received opinion on this topic. It was considered, moreover, an ugly and
ominous circumstance, that Colonel Pyncheon’s picture—in obedience, it was
said, to a provision of his will—remained affixed to the wall of the room in
which he died. Those stern, immitigable features seemed to symbolize an evil

influence, and so darkly to mingle the shadow of their presence with the sun-
shine of the passing hour, that no good thoughts or purposes could ever spring
up and blossom there. To the thoughtful mind there will be no tinge of super-
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stition in what we figuratively express, by affirming that the ghost of a dead When you’re
progenitor—perhaps as a portion of his own punishment—is often doomed to struck by
become the Evil Genius of his family. something weird
or disorienting,
First, let’s underline the unknowns or confusing parts: What could “intermittent immortality” mean? underline it for
There are a few confusing words, such as “tenure,” “mesmeric,” and “immitigable.” The narrator men- later. These
tions a “vague impression”—why are things so deliberately unclear in this passage? Are we supposed
moments may be
to know what’s going on with several generations of a family, when we don’t even meet anyone who’s
places where the
still alive? There’s a wizard?!
author is using
You are likely either befuddled or annoyed at Hawthorne and his unnamed narrator—or both. Strange style to show
as it may seem, this annoyance is a great pattern to pick out! You are entering the House of Seven you a theme.
Gables, where every sentence twists and turns like the corridors of a haunted house, deliberately The words on the
disorienting you. Pay attention to this sense of disorientation. It’s not just you; it’s not that you’re
page reflect the
a bad reader or that Hawthorne was a bad writer. No, this effect is very deliberately mirroring the
abstract idea
sense of strangeness in the house. Importantly, the strange style reveals the theme of the passage: that
behind them.
every event that transpires in the house has generations of complicated history behind it. No wonder
The exam will
the sentences are so long—there are much gossip, doubt, myth, and bad feelings underneath every
highlight these
idea. You will undoubtedly be asked about this style and these themes in the questions, so get ready
to turn the frustration into careful attention. features that
call attention to
Here are some sample questions that pick up on those observations from the initial read-throughs.
themselves, and
If you’re stumped by Hawthorne’s thorny prose, check out the contextual information provided to
it will help you
you in the very first question.
work through
1. The story of the House dates back to the seventeenth century, when Colonel Pyncheon wanted it with possible
to build a house on land that belonged to Matthew Maule. Pyncheon accused Maule of witch- interpretations
craft and had him hanged, and Maule was said to put a curse on the house that has stayed with
in the answer
it for generations. The passage exhibits all of the characteristics of the Gothic genre EXCEPT
choices.
A. a sense of history that repeats itself in twisted ways.
B. a house that is disputed among family members, revealing past indiscretions and
betrayals.
C. an open question as to whether there’s a supernatural element present.
D. the sense that characters are doubles of one another, even if they don’t know it.
E. heavy-handed symbolism and figurative language about shadows and darkness.
You may still be annoyed at Hawthorne, but you should be thanking your test writer. This question is
a great example of how the questions help you read the passage. The relationship between Matthew
Maule and the Colonel is not fully explained in the excerpted passage, and it’s shrouded in so much
myth, uncertainty, and difficult language that it’s hard to tell what’s going on. The question gives
you a clearer sense of their identities.
This question gives you contextual information for understanding the main source of conflict
between Pyncheon and Maule. It also gives you the genre of the Gothic novel, so you can apply
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your knowledge of its conventions to help you orient yourself in the haunted house. In the structure
of the question, it spells out many of the structural and stylistic elements in the passage, clarifying
some of the features that might have seemed confusing underneath all of that verbiage. It’s testing
you, but in its answer choices, it’s giving you the language you can use to find something to grasp
onto in the passage.
Which convention from that list is missing from the passage? You might take a look at the choices
and think, well, all of them are there. There’s definitely a haunted house, a twisted sense of history,
and the possibility of a curse and charges of witchcraft. You might look at two bitter old men fighting
and figure that they must be doubles of each other, both fixated on cursing each other in life and
death—but that’s actually an overgeneralization that would mislead you into misunderstanding the
important distinctions between the two men. As we warned you in the first pages of the chapter,
beware of overgeneralizations about characters. Even if you feel like this answer is not obvious from
the other choices, you do have to pick one exception here, and remember how much you were com-
plaining about the heavy-handed language and crazy twists and turns of the sentences? The only
exception that makes sense is choice D, so it is the correct answer.
The next questions are also helpful in orienting you to the difficult language and style of the passage,
in the effort to link style and the theme.
2. What does the Pyncheon family’s “tenure” refer to?

A. Their denial of responsibility for the Colonel’s misdeeds
B. Their rights to own the house
C. Their great sense of responsibility for their ancestor’s unconscionable behavior
D. Their quarrels over family ownership that have left the house unoccupied
E. Their research into ancestry and genealogy
This is a question that asks you a somewhat difficult vocabulary word that comes from specialized
legal vocabulary about Pyncheon’s will and how property is passed down through generations. If
you know French, Spanish, or another Romance language, you’ll be familiar with tenir or tener: to
have, to own. The correct answer is choice B.
The question isn’t only useful for checking off a vocabulary word, however. It sets up the information
that may be helpful—and possibly misleading—for the next two questions. Keep noticing how the
answer choices repeat ideas; some of them (like C and E) are incorrect, but at the very least they
give you a sense of the main concerns of the passage: family, responsibility that travels through
generations, curses…
3. What is the rhetorical question at the end of the last paragraph asking?
A. Do ancestors bear responsibility to make reparations for their ancestors’ ill-gotten gains?
B. Does evil travel along family lines to successive generations?
C. Can a house be truly evil because of the sins that were committed on the property in
earlier times?
D. Who is the architect of a house that has been added on to with so many additions?
E. How do you apologize for a grievous sin you committed years earlier, without
realizing it?

This question is asking you to articulate the main idea of the passage: the sins of forefathers bring
suffering and punishment on their descendants. It’s a rhetorical question, so it will be asked repeatedly,
and without resolution, throughout the novel. In thematic terms, this is original sin, or the Christian
idea that Adam’s fall in the Garden of Eden affects all of mankind, who must suffer for his sins.
Hawthorne applies this idea of original sin to key events in American history, as Colonel Pyncheon’s
sin dates from the colonial America’s witch trials, when he used that political and religious controversy
to advance his own material needs by illegitimately taking property from a poor man. The titular
House of Seven Gables holds the legal, spiritual, familial, and even supernatural legacy of this sin.
As in The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne is asking about the legacy of colonial policies, spiritual troubles,
social stratifications, and political maneuverings. That’s a lot to assess in this question, but it’s useful
for understanding why the question is so important.
Choices B and C might be tempting if you are following along the Gothic theme, but the best answer
uses the language of reparations and responsibility—recall the focus on legal words from question 2.
“Evil” is too general to be helpful in untangling those strands of family and ownership, for it flattens
all complicated questions under a black stamp of EVIL. The correct answer is choice A.
4. What is the literary device used in the phrase “they clung to the ancestral house with singular
tenacity of home attachment” and what theme does it reveal?
A. The metaphor of clinging creatures shows the house’s connection to the natural world
B. The redundancy of words about attachment reveals how enmeshed the generations are
with their history
C. The dissonance of the sounds exposes how ugly the house is because of its sordid history
D. The personification of the house shows how it has become a member of the disgraced
family
E. The sibilance of the words about its inhabitants shows its haunted qualities
Question 2’s vocabulary builder about tenure and holding rights becomes relevant here, for the sense
of holding is amplified to mean clinging tenaciously—that is, with great attachment. Basically, there
are so many references to holding in that sentence that the word becomes over-determined: it seems
overstated and too obvious. They hold, they cling, they attach, yet they can’t detach themselves from
history. The correct answer is B.
But again, this style doesn’t mean that Hawthorne is a bad writer who needs an editor to cut two
or three of these references to holding; rather, this redundant sentence is like the Seven Gables on
the house: an odd, lopsided number of architectural features. These features—in architecture and in
writing style—are too numerous, overelaborate, and rooted in some obscure past that keeps getting
in the way.
5. What is the tone of the word “venerable”?

A. Ironic, as the house is disgraced
B. Admiring, for the house is a landmark in the town
C. Sad, for the house is now in disrepair
D. Incantatory, to ward off the curse of the house
E. Scathing, for the narrator despises the house
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Here is another vocabulary question that is also asking you about the narrator’s tone. We’ve already
seen that the narrator has an overelaborate style, but can we figure out anything about his attitudes
toward the house or the family in the passage? We’ve already noticed the narrator’s use of a rhetorical
question about whether the family bears responsibility for Colonel Pyncheon’s sins, as they benefit by
getting to live in the house he built on the land he took from Maule. We also noticed in the previous
question that there are certain redundant features on the house. With that context in mind, why does
the narrator call the house venerable, if it’s cursed and ugly? Venerable usually means grand, but this
house is anything but that—it may be large, but it’s ostentatious and the subject of town gossip. We
can see the irony in a respectful adjective being applied to a cursed house, so the answer is choice A.
6. The word immitigable gives the sense that the portrait of Colonel Pyncheon is
A. a forgery.
B. decaying.
C. horrifying.
D. forbidding.
E. haunted.
This question focuses your attention on the mysterious portrait that is conventional in Gothic novels.
(Think of Oscar Wilde’s The Portrait of Dorian Gray, for one.) This detail is a kind of microcosm of
TIP the character himself, so you need to pick the best definition of “immitigable.” Many of the answer
choices are similar enough in meaning that it seems like you’re out of luck if you don’t know what
Vocabulary that word means. But if the portrait and the Colonel’s character are supposed to be mirrors of each
questions are other, we should pick an adjective that clearly applies to humans and objects alike, not just objects.
not just about “Forbidding,” choice D, is the best adjective choice to describe a face in portrait and in human per-
dictionary sonality. (Arguably, one could have a haunted personality, but we know that the Colonel is more of
definitions. a jerk than a tortured soul.)
You will almost 7. The narrator mentions “a large, dim looking glass” that used to hang in one of the rooms. How
always be is the “dimness” of the mirror reflected in the novel’s language?
asked to define
I. The narrator keeps mentioning the obscurities of the house’s secrets that can never be fully
vocabulary
revealed.
in context or
II. The narrator’s style backtracks on itself so often that it’s hard to understand the story
explain why the
clearly.
word choice is III. The narrator is affected by the curse on the house and cannot fully explain its secrets.
important to the
A. I only
passage.
B. III only
C. I and II
D. I and III
E. I, II, and III
This question asks you to link the style and the theme in the passage, as you’ve done in other questions,
but it’s notable for how it delineates those themes and asks how they complement (or contradict)
each other. You have to pick the best combination of options here: what are the most believable
interpretations of the “dim” or unclear style? We definitely noticed Option II on the initial read,

so let’s circle that one. We’ve been clued in to those obscurities in previous questions about the use
of ironies, rhetorical questions that don’t have answers, and redundancies that have no use beyond
overdetermination. Therefore, Option I looks like a good bet, too. Option III is the puzzler: do we
have enough information to assess anything about the narrator, beyond our annoyance? No. As it
turns out, the narrator’s presence remains indeterminate throughout the novel, but there’s no expla-
nation for it. Option III jumps to conclusions. Therefore, the answer is Options I and II, or choice C.
8. There are parallels between the mirror and the novel itself because
A. the novel has been recovered as a lost object from the House, to be puzzled over by those
who encounter it.
B. both have been partially distorted by the ravages of age.
C. both have frames: the literal frame of the mirror and the “found object” motif of this
narration.
D. both reflect negatively on their creators.
E. the generations of Pyncheons appear in a hazy picture that’s difficult to determine
clearly.
You may be tempted to say that his novel is unreadable in the twenty-first century because it’s no
longer relevant or even readable in our contemporary time of simpler language. The other answers
make interpretations that aren’t supported by the language in the passage. The better answer here is
the one that echoes the descriptive language about the mirror, which includes words like “hazy” and
“vague.” The narrator tells you he can’t offer a “magic picture” that accounts for these generations,
but he’s telling a story about them, so his narration serves as just that magic picture. (Interestingly
enough, photographs and engraved images become very important in the novel, so the mirror is a
hint at that thematic element.) The correct answer is choice E
Track the time that you spend on each passage of prose or poetry, aiming to spend about 13 minutes
on each one. That means you have less than a minute per question. If you’re really not sure about
a question, move on and read the next one; that can often give you some clues about finding the
main ideas. In this example from Hawthorne, you see how the passage became significantly more
understandable with each question because those questions gave you ways to focus in the midst of so
many shadowy words and Evil Genius sentences. Maybe we did this on purpose, to get you on our
side as we continue to many, many more literary concepts to study about prose: next to Hawthorne,
anyone looks familiar and comforting.
SITUATING YOURSELF WITHIN A PASSAGE: ELEMENTS

OF PROSE
When you read a passage, make a quick inference about where you might be in the story. Are you
at the beginning, as characters are being introduced (as in the prior passage from The House of the
Seven Gables)? Are you in the middle of the action? Are you near the end of the story, as characters
are reflecting on what’s happening?
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The elements of the plot can be broken down into stages. You can almost think of these as you would
a piece of drama; there may be dramatic passages on the exam, and these same structural elements
hold for those staged stories, as well (we’ll talk more about drama later). Those stages are:
Exposition
Exposition is the introduction of the characters and the situation (Act I). Pay attention to the following:
• How the narrator’s point of view is established
• How the setting in time and place is described
• How characters are introduced
Conflict
Conflict is the situation that the narrator must deal with, the obstacle that causes characters to engage
with one another, often in disagreement (Act II or the early middle of the drama). Pay attention to
the following:
• How the narrator expresses desires and the obstacles that may be in the way of attaining
the objects of those desires
• How characters’ conflicting motives are described
• How characters’ conflicts are expressed in dialogue
Rising Action or the Complications

This is how the conflict plays out among multiple characters (Acts III and IV). Pay attention to
the following:
• Competing desires that seem to cause more conflict than pleasure
• Disputes between characters that reveal tensions that can’t be fully resolved
• Larger social and cultural themes that resonate with these ongoing conflicts
• What causes the climax or major confrontation?
Resolution (Act V)
Resolution is the outcome of the conflict, whether desires have been attained and conflicts have
been resolved, and where changes have occurred in the relationships among the characters and/or
in their perceptions of themselves.
Pay attention to the following:

• How does the author register how a character has changed? Do they reflect directly by
saying something like: “Now that I look back on it…” Or are these changes only noticed
by the narrator?
• How does the narrator try to sum things up? What’s been clarified? What’s more complicated?
• How have the themes taken on a deeper, more complex meaning?
One passage isn’t going to be able to answer all of those questions, and you may not be able to tell
where you are, exactly. It would be a challenge to get thrown into a passage at the very end of a novel,

when you didn’t even have a way of assessing how things had changed or what the initial obstacle
was. It’s more often the case—but not always so—that you’re introduced to characters from an earlier
part of a story because that’s where the author is building context, creating the thematic elements
in the creating and personal introduction of the narration.
Now that we’re situated in the general structure of prose fiction, let’s immerse ourselves in the key
aspects of the narrative: the setting and the point of view.
Setting
The setting is the time and place of a novel. The location may be a landscape, a city, a home; it may
be familiar or strange. Indeed, it’s often the case that authors create tension in a setting by making
the familiar become strange. The home becomes abnormal in The House of the Seven Gables, and
its timeframe seems to become unstable as it stretches back to the colonial past and the character
of Colonel Pyncheon achieves “intermittent immortality” in haunting the house or at least making
the characters uneasy.
When you’re looking at the setting of a passage on the exam, pay attention to the narrator’s descriptive
language, which will give you a sense of the narrator’s attitude, how he or she perceives it in an
idiosyncratic way. To use the language of film: the narrator is directing the scene and telling you
where to look.
Let’s see how the narrator of James Weldon Johnson’s Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man directs
our attention to details in the unfamiliar setting he’s encountered. He’s trying to find a place to stay
in Atlanta, where he’s new in town:
From Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, by James Weldon Johnson
I glanced around the apartment and saw that it contained a double bed and two
cots, two wash-stands, three chairs, and a time-worn bureau, with a looking-
glass that would have made Adonis appear hideous. I looked at the cot in which
I was to sleep and suspected, not without good reasons, that I should not be the
first to use the sheets and pillow-case since they had last come from the wash.
When I thought of the clean, tidy, comfortable surroundings in which I had
been reared, a wave of homesickness swept over me that made me feel faint.
Had it not been for the presence of my companion, and that I knew this much
of his history—that he was not yet quite twenty, just three years older than
myself, and that he had been fighting his own way in the world, earning his
own living and providing for his own education since he was fourteen—I should
not have been able to stop the tears that were welling up in my eyes.
I asked him why it was that the proprietor of the house seemed unwilling to
accommodate me for more than a couple of days. He informed me that the man
ran a lodging house especially for Pullman porters, and, as their stays in town
were not longer than one or two nights, it would interfere with his arrange-
ments to have anyone stay longer. He went on to say: “You see this room is fixed
up to accommodate four men at a time. Well, by keeping a sort of table of trips,
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in and out, of the men, and working them like checkers, he can accommodate
fifteen or sixteen in each week and generally avoid having an empty bed. You
happen to catch a bed that would have been empty for a couple of nights.” I
asked him where he was going to sleep. He answered: “I sleep in that other cot
tonight; tomorrow night I go out.” He went on to tell me that the man who
kept the house did not serve meals, and that if I was hungry, we would go out
and get something to eat.
Here’s a sample question about detail:
What is the significance of the description of the mirror in the room?

A. It exposes the faults of the room with embarrassing clarity.
B. The narrator is having a hard time seeing himself inside the unfamiliar room, literally
and figuratively.
C. It shows him an ugly side of himself that he didn’t realize until he met the proprietor.
D. It shows him the reflection of all of the other guests who have passed through the room.
E. Although he mentions the myth of Adonis, it’s also alluding to the myth of Narcissus,
who admired his own reflection too much.
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It would be fascinating to trace these questions about self-perception in Weldon’s novel, as the
title suggests. For this question, though, we don’t have enough information to make large thematic
statements or social commentary; it’s not the same kind of portentous, symbol-laden narration as in
It sounds strange,
The House of the Seven Gables. Weldon is working directly in the tradition of realism or the detailed
but always pay
description of everyday life without lots of figurative or abstract language. What you see in the
attention to setting is what his narrator sees, with no mystification. Even though it’s realism, it’s still a subjective
mirrors, as they perspective, and he shows the reader his disdain, even revulsion, for the dirty, cramped room. He
tend to show you doesn’t want to be there. The correct answer is choice B.
how a character
Let’s now look at a question about structure:
perceives
himself and the What happens to the narrator’s perspective after he describes the mirror?
world around A. It shrinks because he becomes so fixated on all of the disarray in the room that he can’t
focus.
him through
B. It shrinks because he becomes self-conscious.
a personal,
C. It expands to consider his position among other men who have passed through the room.
subjective
lens. They call D. It becomes distorted like the dirty mirror’s reflection.
attention to E. It shifts to other characters.
the ways that Even as he’s trying not to cry from homesickness, he compares his own lonely, precarious situation
no description with his companion, who’s also young and without a place to call home. He learns about how the
can fully reflect lodging-house works and how African-American porters live a transient life in these kinds of estab-
reality without lishments, where they all feel dislocated. Thus the perspective on the setting shifts somewhat in these
some distortion two paragraphs, as he moves from his personal discomfort to consider the social implications of so
of personal many men’s dislocation. The familiar becomes strange not just as a psychological state of mind, but as
perspective. a way of using realistic description to make social commentary on everyday life. Choice C is correct.

Here’s another example of how setting might reveal a character’s inner state, in Ann Radcliffe’s
Gothic novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho. We discuss the sublime more in depth in the poetry chapter,
when we talk about the Romantic poets, but the basic idea is that it’s a feeling of intense awe of
the natural world. It’s often contrasted with the beautiful: you can admire a stream or meadow as a
beautiful scene, but you feel so overwhelmed in front of a mountain or waterfall that you’re nearly
trembling with a mix of emotions. It’s a very literary sensibility, one which poets deliberately sought.
When authors use it as a setting in a novel, it shows the characters contending with nature in an epic
way or confronting the small scale of humanity in the grandeur of nature. Settings in the sublime
evoke powerful feelings and allow authors to discuss grandiose themes like spirituality, mortality, and
man’s relationship with nature. In this passage, we see a character’s inner thoughts, as St. Aubert is
narrating his reflections to himself.
From The Mysteries of Udolpho, by Ann Radcliffe
The rich plains of Languedoc, which exhibited all the glories of the vintage,
with the gaieties of a French festival, no longer awakened St. Aubert to pleasure,
whose condition formed a mournful contrast to the hilarity and youthful beauty
which surrounded him. As his languid eyes moved over the scene, he con-
sidered, that they would soon, perhaps, be closed for ever on this world. ‘Those
distant and sublime mountains,’ said he secretly, as he gazed on a chain of the
Pyrenees that stretched towards the west, ‘these luxuriant plains, this blue vault,
the cheerful light of day, will be shut from my eyes! The song of the peasant, the
cheering voice of man—will no longer sound for me!’
Here’s a sample question about tone and main idea:
St. Aubert calls the mountains he sees in the distance “sublime,” for they are vast and magnificent.
Why does he repeat the word “cheer” in his sad musings?
I. He is highlighting the contrast between his larger-than-life awed feelings about nature
with the small wonders of human joy in the festivals
II. Because he does not want to speak his feelings aloud, he is committing the pathetic fallacy
of ascribing human emotions to nature
III. He is challenging readers to find more positive feelings in the sublime, to get a perspective
on the value of our short lives
A. I only
B. II only
C. III only
D. I and II
E. I, II, and III
This kind of setting is conventional for a Romantic novel like Radcliffe’s, as she finds Gothic qualities
in nature and in castles (there is a mysterious castle not two paragraphs away from St. Aubert’s reflec-
tions). The question asks you to interpret a repeated word, to see what the pattern might mean. The
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three options throw a lot of critical vocabulary at you, from sublime to pathetic fallacy. Don’t tremble
TIP in terror at that language. Fortunately, Option II defines the literary device for you: the projection
of human emotions onto an object or natural world. St. Aubert seems to be doing just that, and
Pay special Option II gives you a reasonable interpretation of the pathetic fallacy as a strategy of projecting,
attention to but not voicing, his feelings “secretly.” Option I also looks like a reasonable interpretation for the
any extra contrast between joy and sadness, as the repetition shows the gap between what Aubert is seeing
information the and feeling. It’s Option III that’s a step too far: that question is trying too hard to create a lesson in
exam gives you this scene. Aubert is already reading it as a representation of his feelings, so we shouldn’t project any
as a headnote more onto it. Go with Options I and II, and pick choice D as the correct answer.
at the top of
the passage, Point of View
a footnote, or
It’s crucial to understand what kind of narrative point of view you’re reading. As you’ve already
context in a seen from Weldon and Radcliffe, the characters’ perspectives on a setting affect not only how they
question. That see themselves, but also how the reader understands what’s going on in the story. A narrator gives
information is you the tone of the passage by which you can understand his or her attitude toward the situation.
likely helpful in Consider this book’s tagging system for multiple choice questions: A narrative is set up as a structure
understanding for you to get situated and immersed in a story, so that you understand the main idea. You trust (or
the passage distrust) the narrator based on linguistic style of introduction, description, and characterization of
and answering other figures in the story. The narrator’s vocabulary gives you a sense of background, education, and
questions. attitudes, and more details are revealed gradually over the course of the narrative. The narrator causes
you to make inferences, and their narration may clue you into themes of the story.
Let’s take a look at some of the different types of narration so that you can get a sense of how many
different ways there are to tell a story:
First-person narration: Uses “I” to tell the story

Examples of protagonist first-person narrators: Robinson Crusoe in Daniel Defoe’s novel, Offred
in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale
Examples of side characters who are observers: Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby, Nelly Dean
in Wuthering Heights
Pay attention to these stylistic and structural features:

• The narrator may be the protagonist or main character: what are the limitations of his/
her perspective? What isn’t being shown, either through lack of knowledge or deliberate
obscuring from the reader by the narrator?
• How does the narrator reflect on the action of the novel: is it straightforward, or does the
narrator express doubts, uncertainties, or fantasies that cut into the narration?
• The narrator may be a side character who is observing the action. You can ask the same
questions here—why is the action being related to the reader at a remove?
• Are there moments where you question how the narrator knows something that he didn’t
witness or couldn’t have experienced?

When you’re reading passages on the exam, you’ll want to pay attention to shifts in narrative voice.
A narrator might switch to the first-person plural “we” to broaden the perspective to other char-
acters, or the narrator might switch to “you” in order to gain some distance from the story or flatter
the reader into sharing the perspective. Here’s one such example of first-person narration where
something more unusual is happening.
Aphra Behn’s 1688 novel Oroonoko is the tragic story of an African prince and his lover, Imoinda.
It’s narrated by a white woman in Surinam—sometimes thought to be a stand-in for the author
herself, although that historical fact is hard to pin down.
From Oroonoko, by Aphra Behn
The Prince [Oroonoko] return’d to Court with quite another Humour than
before; and tho’ he did not speak much of the fair Imoinda, he had the Pleasure
to hear all his Followers speak of nothing but the Charms of that Maid,
insomuch, that, even in the Presence of the old King, they were extolling her,
and heightening, if possible, the Beauties they had found in her: so that nothing
else was talk’d of, no other Sound was heard in every Corner where there were
Whisperers, but Imoinda! Imoinda!
’Twill be imagin’d Oroonoko stay’d not long before he made his second Visit;
nor, considering his Quality, not much longer before he told her, he ador’d her.
I have often heard him say, that he admir’d by what strange Inspiration he came
to talk Things so soft, and so passionate, who never knew Love, nor was us’d to
the Conversation of Women; but (to use his own Words) he said, ‘Most happily,
some new, and, till then, unknown Power instructed his Heart and Tongue in
the Language of Love; and at the same Time, in Favour of him, inspir’d Imoinda
with a Sense of his Passion.’ She was touch’d with what he said, and return’d it
all in such Answers as went to his very Heart, with a Pleasure unknown before.
What role does the narrator play in this passage?

A. Direct witness
B. Storyteller after the fact
C. Concealed spy
D. Whispering observer
E. Reader of his testimony
The narrator’s role in the story as a mediator is complicated to untangle, as she frequently uses phrases
like “‘twill be imagin’d” as though she’s imagining these details herself. It’s not clear whether she’s
embellishing Oroonoko’s quotation or paraphrasing him. In fact, these limitations on her perspective
become more shocking as she has to relate (or skim over) violence and death; her limitations as a
narrator become untenable, even if she desires to serve as a witness for this account. In turning to
imagination and negotiating multiple perspectives of the king, his court, Oroonoko, and Imoinda,
she’s a storyteller with limited narrative perspective. The best answer is choice B. With Behn in
mind, we will go on to discuss the kinds of limitations of other narrative perspectives.
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First person narrators: Unreliable narrators whose perspective seems misleading or

distorted
Literary examples: Tristram Shandy in Laurence Sterne’s novel of the same name, the unnamed
narrator of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Humbert Humbert in Vladimir
Nabokov’s Lolita, “Chief ” Bromden in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Pi Patel in Yann
Martel’s The Life of Pi
Pay attention to these features:

• Subtle shifts in tone and use of intentionally distracting or misleading qualifiers, such as “I
can’t tell you, but…” or “I didn’t hear this from the source, but…”
TIP • Attempts to persuade and seduce readers to believe their side of the situation—these per-
suasions can be stylistically inventive and charming to read! How does the narrator create
In a short tensions for the narrative between belief and doubt, or trust and distrust?
passage, you • Unreliable narrators aren’t necessarily liars—they could be unreliable because they’re naive,
may not be mentally unsound, gossipy, playful, under the influence of some illness, poison, or drug . . . .
able to assess • How do they serve a role like that of the clown or fool in a Shakespeare play? They may be
the reliability poking holes in the idea that one could ever tell the full truth of a situation in a narrative.
of a narrator
unless there’s Frame narratives: Narratives that have stories within stories
an obvious
Frame narratives are often relayed by first-person narrators who might have contradictory accounts
stylistic marker—
of a situation or who might themselves be unreliable.
unreliable
narrators can be Literary examples: John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Emily Brontë’s
quite sly. Watch Wuthering Heights, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, the narrator
and the governess in Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw
out for misleading
answer choices Pay attention to the following:
that make • Who is the narrator of the particular passage you are reading, and what kind of relationship
you jump to does he or she have with the rest of the novel?
conclusions: they • What structural devices in a short passage can show the narrator’s peripheral perspective?
are the unreliable
• Why is there the need for distance from the events of the novel?
paths of the
exam!
• When do frame narratives introduce doubt and disbelief in the narrative, by showing con-
flicting accounts of the same situation?
Frame narratives are not as common on the exam because they require extensive setup, but you may
get an essay question that asks you to analyze the function of such a narrative structure, or you may
see a brief story within a story in someone’s dialogue inside a passage—a mini frame narrative or a
flashback.
First-person plural narration: Narrators who use “we” to speak for a group of people
Literary examples: William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides,
Chang-rae Lee’s On Such a Full Sea, Julie Otsuka’s The Buddha in the Attic

Pay attention to these stylistic and structural features:

• The first-person plural may be a way of serving a form of community testimony about
something that affected an entire group, the members of which come together to tell the
story as a source of collective authority
• At other times, they may serve a similar purpose as the chorus in Ancient Greek plays. They
may be the conscience of the story, commenting on the characters’ behavior, or the horrified
onlookers who can’t affect the action of those characters. In those cases, the choice of “we”
will show the limitations of knowledge leading to action: it’s like “we” are trapped behind
glass, observing but not actually of the story.
The novels mentioned among those examples are newer and more attuned to stylistic inventiveness,
but let’s look at an example from Joseph Conrad in 1898, to see some of the historical uses of the
“we” voice. The story takes place in the Dutch colonies of Malaysia.
From “Karain: A Memory,” by Joseph Conrad
It was only on board the schooner, when surrounded by white faces, by unfa-
miliar sights and sounds, that Karain seemed to forget the strange obsession
that wound like a black thread through the gorgeous pomp of his public life.
At night we treated him in a free and easy manner, which just stopped short of
slapping him on the back, for there are liberties one must not take with a Malay.
He said himself that on such occasions he was only a private gentleman coming
to see other gentlemen whom he supposed as well born as himself. I fancy that
to the last he believed us to be emissaries of Government, darkly official persons
furthering by our illegal traffic some dark scheme of high statecraft. Our denials
and protestations were unavailing. He only smiled with discreet politeness
and inquired about the Queen. Every visit began with that inquiry; he was
insatiable of details; he was fascinated by the holder of a sceptre the shadow of
which, stretching from the westward over the earth and over the seas, passed
far beyond his own hand’s-breadth of conquered land. He multiplied questions;
he could never know enough of the Monarch of whom he spoke with wonder
and chivalrous respect— with a kind of affectionate awe! Afterwards, when we
had learned that he was the son of a woman who had many years ago ruled a
small Bugis state, we came to suspect that the memory of his mother (of whom
he spoke with enthusiasm) mingled somehow in his mind with the image he
tried to form for himself of the far-off Queen whom he called Great, Invin-
cible, Pious, and Fortunate. We had to invent details at last to satisfy his craving
curiosity; and our loyalty must be pardoned, for we tried to make them fit for
his august and resplendent ideal. We talked. The night slipped over us, over the
still schooner, over the sleeping land, and over the sleepless sea that thundered
amongst the reefs outside the bay.
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What position does the group of narrators serve in the story?

A. Jury
B. Customers
C. Skeptics
D. Audience
E. Dupes in a confidence scheme
Even Karain is uncertain about who or what the narrators are, as they constantly assure him that
they are not representatives of the government—so then who are the white men who are attending
his ship so attentively. Sailors? Merchants? Something slightly less legal? The ambiguity of their
presence troubles Karain, but not too much—its lack of resolution should trouble us, however, in
creating uncertainty about their motives. The passage—indeed, the entire story—is shot through
with obscurity about what happened, as though in collectively narrating, they could not get a clear
perspective. The best answer among these choices is D, the audience, for they return to listen to
Karain every night, and are deeply attuned to every facet of his presentation. What’s complicated
about thinking about Karain as a performer?
Second-person narration: “ You” are the narrator of the novel

Literary examples: If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler, by Italo Calvino; Leo Tolstoy’s “(December),”
from the Sevastopol Sketches; parts of William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom
Pay attention to these literary features:

• How does the direct address to you, the reader, immerse you in a scene? Where are the
moments where you’re taken out of it abruptly because the “you” conceit doesn’t work?
• Are all readers the same kind of “you”? Who isn’t included among the readers implied by
the second-person voice? Who can or can’t participate in the events of the novel?
• How is the direct address to the reader immersive but also disorienting, misleading, or
otherwise tricky?
• Why are you being asked to stand in for a more specific character? What is the point of
generalizing a character like “you”?
From “The Haunted Mind,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
What a singular moment is the first one, when you have hardly begun to rec-
ollect yourself, after starting from midnight slumber! By unclosing your eyes
so suddenly, you seem to have surprised the personages of your dream in full
convocation round your bed, and catch one broad glance at them before they
can flit into obscurity. Or, to vary the metaphor, you find yourself, for a single
instant, wide awake in that realm of illusions, whither sleep has been the
passport, and behold its ghostly inhabitants and wondrous scenery, with a per-
ception of their strangeness, such as you never attain while the dream is undis-
turbed. The distant sound of a church clock is borne faintly on the wind. You
question with yourself, half seriously, whether it has stolen to your waking ear
from some gray tower, that stood within the precincts of your dream. While yet

in suspense, another clock flings its heavy clang over the slumbering town, with
so full and distinct a sound, and such a long murmur in the neighboring air, that
you are certain it must proceed from the steeple at the nearest corner. You count
the strokes--one--two--and there they cease, with a booming sound, like the
gathering of a third stroke within the bell.
Why does Hawthorne use the phrase “unclosing your eyes so suddenly” when he could use the
more obvious phrase “opening your eyes”?
A. To show the creative impulses that arise at odd hours of the night
B. To expose the narrator’s madness
C. To create assonance between the “unopening” vowels and the toll and stroke of the
church bells
D. To amplify the sense of disorientation in the passage
E. To create a form of synesthesia
This passage is full of clichés about insomnia! There’s hardly a sentence that doesn’t have a well-worn
phrase that’s no longer shocking to describe an unsettling situation. But that’s how insomnia feels,
TIP
in some ways, because you don’t feel quite conscious or active enough to get out of that in-between
state. You’re stuck in limbo. The word “unclosing” is a kind of liminal word—a word that’s partway
between open and closed. The word is strange enough that it enhances the sense of disorientation,
Pay attention to
halfway between morning and night, somewhere between sleep and wakefulness.
words that the
narrator appears
Third-person close (or limited) narration: The narrator tells a story about a character
to have made up,
with access to only that character’s thoughts
for those small
Literary examples: Newland Archer in Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence (for most of the novel), details can reflect
George Orwell’s 1984, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 his attitudes,
Pay attention to the following: preoccupations,
and judgments.
• The use of “free indirect discourse,” or the ways that a narrator slips in and out of a char-
acter’s thoughts in a third-person narration (see below)
• The third-person limited narration is often used to show how the character is different from
those who surround him or her. What does the limited perspective allow you to see about
the character’s interactions with others, as well as the character’s unshared inner thoughts?
Let’s take a look at that “free indirect discourse” concept, which sounds more difficult than it actually
is. Jane Austen is one of the great novelists who create omniscient narrators and unforgettable indi-
vidual characters who seem to speak to us through those narrators. Austen is credited with being
one of the first writers to use “free indirect discourse,” or the slipping in and out of a character’s
head to show the character’s thoughts and feelings, while keeping a level of remove in the narration.
From Persuasion, by Jane Austen
Just as they were setting off, the gentlemen returned. They had taken out a
young dog, who had spoilt their sport, and sent them back early. Their time
and strength, and spirits, were, therefore, exactly ready for this walk, and they
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entered into it with pleasure. Could Anne have foreseen such a junction, she
would have stayed at home; but, from some feelings of interest and curiosity,
she fancied now that it was too late to retract, and the whole six set forward
together in the direction chosen by the Miss Musgroves, who evidently con-
sidered the walk as under their guidance.
Anne’s object was, not to be in the way of anybody; and where the narrow
paths across the fields made many separations necessary, to keep with her
brother and sister. Her pleasure in the walk must arise from the exercise and
the day, from the view of the last smiles of the year upon the tawny leaves,
and withered hedges, and from repeating to herself some few of the thousand
poetical descriptions extant of autumn, that season of peculiar and inexhaustible
influence on the mind of taste and tenderness, that season which had drawn
from every poet, worthy of being read, some attempt at description, or some
lines of feeling. She occupied her mind as much as possible in such like musings
and quotations; but it was not possible, that when within reach of Captain
Wentworth’s conversation with either of the Miss Musgroves, she should not
try to hear it; yet she caught little very remarkable. It was mere lively chat, such
as any young persons, on an intimate footing, might fall into. He was more
engaged with Louisa than with Henrietta. Louisa certainly put more forward
for his notice than her sister.
What is the best characterization of the narrator’s perceptions about Anne’s behavior?
A. Anne notices more about others’ social behavior than she wants to let on.
B. Anne is lost in her own world of poetical musings inside her head while others socialize.
C. Anne must be more active if she is to attract the attention of any of the gentlemen in the
party.
D. Anne dislikes Captain Wentworth for his forwardness with Louisa and Henrietta.
E. Anne wants to spend time with the Miss Musgroves in private so she can talk about her
secret feelings for Captain Wentworth.
This question asks you to get inside Anne’s head, as the narrator is giving you access to her thoughts.
We see both Anne’s desires to avoid socializing with the others, as well as her keen attention to
Louisa and Henrietta’s conversation with Captain Wentworth. The narrator can see that she’s torn
between wanting to participate and wanting to flee. The correct answer is choice A. Anne spends
much of the novel like this, caught between desire and action; free indirect discourse is Austen’s tool
to show the exquisite torture of this state of being in-between.
Third-person omniscient narration: The narrator gives you perspective on all

characters and what they are thinking and seeing
Literary examples: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Charles Dickens’ Bleak House
Pay attention to:

• Omniscient means all-seeing, so what does “all” mean in the novel? What is the scope that
the narrator can account for that a limited third-person narrator might not be able to see?

These novels often have a big sprawl, as in Bleak House or Middlemarch, so what can they
do with that expanded sense of scale?
• Does the narrator favor one character? Why?
• How does the narrator describe characters’ perspectives during conflicts?
• What kind of character would you imagine the narrator to be if the narrator were inside
the story? Is it possible to imagine the narrator inside the story?
George Eliot’s Middlemarch is mostly narrated by an omniscient narrator, and there are even occa-
sionally shifts into the first-person “I.” Many readers see the beginnings of a modernist fragmentation
and stream of consciousness in sections of the novel. As you’re reading this short passage, try to
imagine what’s just slightly different about this characterization of Dorothea Brooke, as opposed to
Anne Elliot in Persuasion:
From Middlemarch, by George Eliot
The rural opinion about the new young ladies, even among the cottagers, was
generally in favor of Celia, as being so amiable and innocent-looking, while
Miss Brooke’s large eyes seemed, like her religion, too unusual and striking.
Poor Dorothea! compared with her, the innocent-looking Celia was knowing
and worldly-wise; so much subtler is a human mind than the outside tissues
which make a sort of blazonry or clock-face for it.
Yet those who approached Dorothea, though prejudiced against her by this
alarming hearsay, found that she had a charm unaccountably reconcilable
with it. Most men thought her bewitching when she was on horseback. She
loved the fresh air and the various aspects of the country, and when her eyes
and cheeks glowed with mingled pleasure she looked very little like a devotee.
Riding was an indulgence which she allowed herself in spite of conscientious
qualms; she felt that she enjoyed it in a pagan sensuous way, and always looked
forward to renouncing it.
How would you characterize the narrator’s tone in the last sentence?
A. Wryly discerning
B. Sanctimonious and superior
C. Flirty and suggestive
D. Admiring of her morals
E. Nit-picky and petty
The narrator clearly has thoughts about Dorothea’s religiosity and how it affects her interactions
with other characters. The narrator is a bit hard on Dorothea for her piety, but the answer choices
here all overstate that judgment. The narrator is more perceptive than mean, and the tone is more
ironic and wry than cruel. The correct answer is choice A.
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Novels that switch narrative techniques from chapter to chapter

Literary examples: Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone, William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying and The Sound
and the Fury, James Joyce’s Ulysses, Toni Morrison’s Beloved
• Where are the conflicts between the different narrators?
• How do different narrators have different kinds of access to situations? How are those dif-
fering forms of access reflected in descriptions of setting and characterization?
• Is the narrative experimenting with different kinds of narration, like legal testimonies,
letters, diaries, in setting up these chapters?
It’s unlikely that you’d see a passage on the multiple-choice part of the exam that asks you about
substantial point-of-view switching in a novel like Ulysses. You will probably not see such a difficult
book on the exam. (Indeed, if you read The Sound and the Fury for school, you might have used one
TIP of the editions that prints the different points of view in different colors of ink!) It may happen that
you get a passage where there’s an obvious shift in point of view—keep your eye out for such an
These are not example in the sample questions—but you won’t be asked a question about the large-scale disorienting
exhaustive point-of-view switches from those legendarily difficult novels.
lists, not by any
account. What Epistolary novel: A novel made up of letters
books and
Literary examples: Henry Fielding’s Pamela, Jane Austen’s Lady Susan, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Alice
authors would
Walker’s The Color Purple
you add or
Pay attention to the following:
change on these
lists? Great, now • From reading the correspondence in full, what do you know about the story that the cor-
start generating respondents don’t know separately? How do the gaps in the characters’ knowledge of the
full situation create conflicts, suspense, or tension?
multiple choice
questions and/or • How does the author manipulate the delay in writing and receiving letters? How does that
essay questions delay create tension or further plot points?
about these • How does the form of correspondence change with new communications technologies?
narrative features It’s possible that there could be a series of letters from an epistolary novel among the multiple-choice
that you’re passages, but such a selection would likely be either very short letters, or one letter from a character
thinking about! to another, which you could treat more like a first-person narrative.
HOW TO READ NONFICTION PROSE

There may be a piece of nonfiction prose on the exam, taken from a literary essay or work of history,
ethnography, political commentary, art criticism, or popular science. Prose nonfiction is not so dif-
ferent from fiction at all; it uses similar descriptive techniques and figurative language to give a sense
of an author’s perspective on a setting, event, or conflict. Many paragraphs of landscape description
you might find in a novel like Wallace Stegner’s Angle of Repose or Willa Cather’s My Antonia would
be just as at home in an essay about the making of the modern American landscape. Characters in
contemporary novels might digress briefly to discuss their take on a popular film, just as you’d find
in a piece of cultural criticism by Susan Sontag or bell hooks.

You can use the same strategies that you would in reading prose fiction, with more focus on setting
and description than on dialogue and characterization. Here, you can also collapse the distinction
between author and narrator, as the author is narrating their own perspective in an essay. You may
also want to think about how the author is communicating to an audience of readers, the way you
would analyze a rhetorical essay on the AP® English Language Exam. Let’s take a look at a sample
passage from Henry James, who wrote prose fiction and nonfiction, to see how he sets his scene:
From English Hours (1888), by Henry James
The London year is studded with holidays, blessed little islands of comparative
leisure—intervals of absence for good society. Then the wonderful English
faculty for “going out of town for a little change” comes into illimitable play,
and families transport their nurseries and their bath-tubs to those rural scenes
which form the real substratum of the national life. Such moments as these are
the paradise of the genuine London-lover, for he then finds himself face to face
with the object of his passion; he can give himself up to an intercourse which at
other times is obstructed by his rivals. Then every one he knows is out of town,
and the exhilarating sense of the presence of every one he doesn’t know becomes
by so much the deeper.
This is why I pronounce this satisfaction not an unsociable, but a positively

affectionate emotion. It is the mood in which he most measures the immense
humanity of the place and in which its limits recede farthest into a dimness
peopled with possible illustrations. For his acquaintance, however numerous it
may be, is finite; whereas the other, the unvisited London is infinite. It is one of
his pleasures to think of the experiments and excursions he may make in it, even
when these adventures don’t particularly come off. The friendly fog seems to
protect and enrich them—to add both to the mystery and security, so that it is
most in the winter months that the imagination weaves such delights.
Here’s a sample question about main idea:
What does Henry James’s use of the pathetic fallacy in the term “friendly fog” tell you about
the main idea of the passage?
A. There are times when he enjoys the company of abstractions more than people.
B. He finds more comfort in nature than he does in the bustling city.
C. He is lonely during the Christmas holidays, so he searches for fellow Londoners in the
misty city.
D. In the enigmatic weather, he devises mysterious stories about the strangers he doesn’t
know on the streets.
E. He sees the city as a landscape of social interactions.
This question asks you to identify the main idea of the passage, by locating it in a microcosm of
figurative language: the two words “friendly fog” reflect the larger concerns of the passage. You don’t
even need to know exactly what “pathetic fallacy” means here, although you may remember from
earlier in the chapter that it’s the projection of human emotions onto an object or natural world. It’s
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easy to project your feelings onto fog because it seems to envelop you, making it hard to tell where
it begins and you end. You might think it’s choice E, then, but that statement is too general and
could apply to any description of the city. You need something more compelling as an interpretation:
choices B, C, and D aren’t supported by the passage and are describing the opposite of the author’s
ideas. Choice A is the better choice, for it describes why James prefers the abstractness of fog—it’s
easier to project his feelings onto it than to go through the motions of interactions with people he
sees every day. The correct answer is choice A.
HOW TO READ DRAMATIC PROSE

You may encounter a dramatic passage on the exam, but you can tackle those passages by reading
them as you would a page of dialogue in a novel or as you would interpret a paragraph of a narrator’s
inner thoughts in a first-person narration. There’s an extra layer of awareness required, however, in
that these monologues and dialogues were written to be performed, so the characters are often written
as exaggerated, dramatic, or contrived. Even when they’re not breaking the fourth wall to speak
directly to the audience, as Hamlet does frequently, they’re often intensely performative—because
there’s no extra narration to give you a sense of what they’re thinking or what might be happening
that you can’t see on stage.
Let’s take a look at two different ways that dramatic passages might be excerpted and presented to
you on the exam.
From Shakespeare’s King Lear (Act I, Scene ii)
EARL OF GLOUCESTER. These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend
no good to us. Though the wisdom of nature can reason it thus and thus, yet
nature finds itself scourg’d by the sequent effects. Love cools,
TIP friendship falls off, brothers divide. In cities, mutinies; in

countries, discord; in palaces, treason; and the bond crack’d
In drama, ‘twixt son and father. This villain of mine comes under the
characters prediction; there’s son against father: the King falls from bias
are always of nature; there’s father against child. We have seen the best
of our time. Machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all
performing,
ruinous disorders follow us disquietly to our graves. Find out
even in intimate
this villain, Edmund; it shall lose thee nothing; do it
private moments.
carefully. And the noble and true-hearted Kent banish’d! his
(That’s why we
offence, honesty! ’Tis strange. [Exit]
have dramatic
monologues.) EDMUND. This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are
Keep this sense of sick in fortune, often the surfeit of our own behaviour, we make
performance and guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars; as if
playing to the we were villains on necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion;
audience in mind knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical pre-dominance;
as you’re reading drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforc’d obedience of
their lines. planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine
thrusting on.

Here’s a sample question about style:
What is the significance of Gloucester’s and Edmund’s uses of elaborate lists in this exchange?
Consider Gloucester’s “machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders” as well
as Edmund’s “knaves, thieves, and treachers…, drunkards, liars, and adulterers…”?
I. The lists give a précis or summary of the kinds of events and characters that populate a
tragedy, foretelling the events to come.
II. Gloucester’s list is made up of abstractions, where Edmund’s is individualized, showing
how their characters’ lofty and base perspectives intersect in villainy.
III. The lists have an incantatory quality, as though they were summoning all of these events
and villains to descend onto the stage.
A. I only
B. II only
C. III only
D. I and II
E. II and III
You’re not given much context for understanding these two characters in this excerpt from King
Lear. Perhaps you’ve read the play before, but maybe you haven’t. You may be anxious about having
to interpret these characters from a well-known tragedy in the middle of their speeches. This
question gives you a specific stylistic element to focus on, effectively helping you situate yourself in
the language of the passage. You don’t need any additional information about the characters than
their use of elaborate lists.
So, what do you see among the answer choices that might give you even more context for under-
standing the unfamiliar passage? Option I is a general enough summary that it seems like it could
account for Gloucester’s lists of villainous actions, yet it’s also specific enough to the tragedy that’s
under consideration. It’s a good middle ground between general and specific—so it gives you context.
Option II describes a stylistic distinction between the two characters’ lists—Gloucester is speaking
in abstractions, whereas Edmund is naming individuals--and then gives a reasonable interpretation
of why that distinction may be important later in the play. Option III is a fascinating possibility, but
it’s kind of the evil twin of Option I: it’s too aggressive in interpreting the passage and may mislead
you by promising events that may or may not happen in the play. It’s too good to be true—at least,
given the brevity of the passage. Option I is the safer version of this interpretation because it sticks
with what’s on the page (and stage). Therefore, you can stick with Options I and II and pick choice
D as the correct answer.
On the other hand, sometimes the excerpt may need some additional context so that you can get
up to speed with the action of the play. That’s especially true in comedies, where there may be con-
fusion about who’s who or who’s in love with whom—think of how difficult it would be to explain
Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night or Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest in just a sentence or
two. The exam will give you enough context to show you what’s going on in a dialogue.
Let’s look at an example. Lydia Languish has spent the play scheming to be married: she is in love
with a penniless but good-hearted man she knows as “Ensign Beverley,” but she has been trying
to contrive a marriage to the wealthy Sir Anthony Absolute. In this scene from Act V, scene 1, of
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Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s play The Rivals, she learns that “Ensign Beverley” is really Anthony
Absolute’s son, Captain Jack Absolute, and her plans are in disarray.
The Rivals, by Richard Brinsley Sheridan (Act V, scene 1)
LYDIA So, then, I see I have been deceived by every one! But I don’t care—I’ll
never have him.
JULIA Nay, Lydia——
LYDIA Why, is it not provoking? when I thought we were coming to the pret-
tiest distress imaginable, to find myself made a mere Smithfield bargain of
at last! There, had I projected one of the most sentimental elopements!—so
becoming a disguise!—so amiable a ladder of ropes!—Conscious moon—four
horses—Scotch parson—with such surprise to Mrs. Malaprop—and such para-
graphs in the newspapers!—Oh, I shall die with disappointment!
JULIA I don’t wonder at it!
LYDIA Now—sad reverse!—what have I to expect, but, after a deal of flimsy
preparation with a bishop’s license, and my aunt’s blessing, to go simpering up
to the altar; or perhaps be cried three times in a country church, and have an
unmannerly fat clerk ask the consent of every butcher in the parish to join John
Absolute and Lydia Languish, spinster! Oh that I should live to hear myself
called spinster!
JULIA Melancholy indeed!
LYDIA How mortifying, to remember the dear delicious shifts I used to be put
to, to gain half a minute’s conversation with this fellow! How often have I stole
forth, in the coldest night in January, and found him in the garden, stuck like a
dripping statue! There would he kneel to me in the snow, and sneeze and cough
so pathetically! he shivering with cold and I with apprehension! and while the
freezing blast numbed our joints, how warmly would he press me to pity his
flame, and glow with mutual ardour!—Ah, Julia, that was something like being
in love.
JULIA If I were in spirits, Lydia, I should chide you only by laughing heartily at
you; but it suits more the situation of my mind, at present, earnestly to entreat
you not to let a man, who loves you with sincerity, suffer that unhappiness from
your caprice, which I know too well caprice can inflict.
Here’s a sample question about vocabulary in context:

In the passage, Lydia is bemoaning how her plans for love and marriage have gone awry. A
“Smithfield bargain” is a colloquial term for a marriage of convenience; Lydia is under the age
of 21 and had therefore tried to obtain the blessing of a “Scotch parson” to grant the marriage,
as marriage laws were more relaxed in Scotland. The “ladder of ropes” is a symbol for all of the
following EXCEPT

A. the criss-crossing of identities and allegiances in the play.

B. Julia’s machinations to complicate her friend’s plan.
C. the convoluted contrivances of her plan.
D. the rickety foundation of mutual understanding between Lydia and her lover (and her
betrothed).
E. the tortuous desire to climb to the top of the social register.
This question gives you a considerable amount of contextual information about unfamiliar vocabulary
in the passage, and so it’s asking you to build on that context to interpret some figurative language.
Like the question about The House of the Seven Gables, it’s giving you a lot of context so that you can
situate yourself better into a complicated situation. The “EXCEPTION” format is helpful in that
way; you can find four of these five answer choices in the question and the explanatory headnote
at the top of the passage. Affections are indeed criss-crossed in the play, and you can tell that her
plan to climb the social ladder by marrying rich is contrived. Because of the identity mix-ups, the
foundations of these affections are constantly shifting. The only answer that doesn’t fit is choice B,
because we don’t learn enough about Julia in this passage (or in the supporting information) to tell
what her role is. She looks more like the trusty best friend here. The correct choice is B because it’s
the exception.
You may have read William Shakespeare’s plays in your classes, so you’re already familiar with reading
drama as literature. Here are some other types of drama to pay attention to. This list is by no means
exhaustive but rather a few representative plays. Of course, you’ll be reading the plays in very brief
excerpts, so it’s best to study these as forms of prose that are consciously performable, so that the
conventions of conflict, performance of one’s self, and parody are especially heightened:
• Classical drama: Aeschylus’s Oresteia, Sophocles’ Antigone and Oedipus Rex
• Renaissance drama that’s not Shakespeare: Ben Jonson’s Volpone and Christopher Mar-
lowe’s Doctor Faustus
• Plays about morals and manners: Molière’s Tartuffe, William Congreve’s The Way of the
World, Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest
• Family dramas: Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard, Henrik Ibsen’s
A Doll’s House and Hedda Gabler, Seán O’Casey’s The Plough and the Stars, Tennessee
Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, Edward Albee’s Who’s
Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Eugene O’Neill’s Long
Day’s Journey into Night, Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, Sam Shepard’s True
West, August Wilson’s Fences
• Twentieth-century experiments in form and existential questioning: George Bernard Shaw’s
Man and Superman, Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit, Luigi
Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author, Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party,
Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Bertolt Brecht’s
The Caucasian Chalk Circle
• Contemporary monologue and drama: Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls, Tony Kushner’s Angels in
America, Anna Deveare Smith’s Fires in the Mirror, Suzan-Lori Parks’s Topdog/Underdog
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Overview of Characteristic Prose Since the Beginning of the Novel

We’ve made a reading list with some recommended novels, plays, and nonfiction prose that represent
some of the major themes that organize the study of Anglophone literature. The list isn’t arranged
alphabetically or chronologically, but by theme and genre. As we discussed above, a genre is a grouping
of similar types of novels: a coming-of-age story is called a bildungsroman; a Gothic novel like Haw-
thorne’s The House of the Seven Gables is full of familiar elements, like possibly haunted houses and
secrets in the family tree. The conventions that make up these genres change and recombine over
time, with social, cultural, technological, and stylistic adaptations.
You’ll see that the thematic and generic organization is flexible, as it stretches across centuries to
juxtapose books and authors in thought-provoking ways. You’ll notice, for example, that Benjamin
Franklin’s and Frederick Douglass’s Autobiographies are in different sections, although both might
be considered part of the formation of the American identity, stories of personal development, and
stories of episodic adventures (with mixtures of truth and fiction). Franklin and Douglass draw on
all three genres of autobiography, novel of education, and prose nonfiction to create their stories.
Franklin’s could easily be moved around; we thought it would be interesting to consider it among the
eighteenth-century picaresque novels and moral tales upon which it draws for its narrative conventions.
The magic of classifications is that they make you consider the structure and themes of stories
closely. By all means, go ahead and question the way the lists are organized, because you’ll have to
examine the books more closely to argue about whether they fit or not. If you disagree with a novel’s
placement, move it around, add your own. Don’t just mark up this book, though. How would you
write a multiple-choice question or an essay question that makes you think closely about the style,
structure, and themes of these novels?
• What do you learn when you think of Saul Bellow’s Augie March and Benjamin Franklin
as similar types of characters? How do you see the similarities or distinctions reflected in
the introductions of the characters or the transitions among their adventures?
• What do you learn about the flexible, expansive genre of the bildungsroman when you
think about how Kazuo Ishiguro adapts the genre into science fiction in Never Let Me Go?
• In the novel Wide Saragasso Sea, Jean Rhys reimagines the Gothic novel Jane Eyre as a
story about colonialism in Jamaica—a fascinating recombination of genres and themes
to make you reconsider Charlotte Brontë’s novel in a new way. How does the unfamiliar
vocabulary of the island affect your understanding of how the Gothic novel plays with
making the familiar strange?
• How do we think differently about Transcendentalism and the visionary description of
the American landscape when we think about it linked with the institution of slavery, the
Civil War, or the annexation of Native lands? These are all ways that land is inherently
political—is Transcendentalism also political?
You can generate multiple-choice questions that take up these questions—and many more that you
generate—by finding passages that seem to illuminate ideas in such a way that you can pinpoint shifts
in tone or vocabulary. This is a way to focus on what’s admittedly a gigantic expanse of Anglophone
literature. Again, you’re not looking to conquer all novels with these summaries; rather, you can use
them to help you dive deeper into a novel to explore the language used to illuminate these themes.

Picaresques and Other Episodic Narratives

Prose fiction: Cervantes’ Don Quixote, Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s
Travels, Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones, Voltaire’s Candide, Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, Saul Bel-
low’s The Adventures of Augie March
Prose nonfiction: Joseph Addison’s Spectator essays from the early eighteenth century are not pica-
resques, but they follow in the tradition of short narratives, as does James Boswell’s episodic account
of the Life of Samuel Johnson and Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography.

• Elements of surprise or accident that suddenly shift the fortunes of the narrator—how does
an author play with tone and style to show these ups and downs?
• Narrators’ self-presentations as a hero on a journey—how do they introduce themselves
and explain their own behavior?
• Unreliable narration as a narrator puffs up his adventures
• Unexpected meetings and complicated interactions—how does the narrator engage with
characters from different cultures, social classes, religious perspectives?
Bildungsromans or coming of age novels

Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre; Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations and David Copperfield; Thomas
Hardy’s Jude the Obscure; Richard Wright’s Black Boy and Native Son; James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist
as a Young Man; Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God; Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows
in Brooklyn; Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings; Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Última;
Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street; Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-
Time Indian; Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go; Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

• Variations in the first-person narrative—how does the author experiment with point of
view in showing the narrator’s changing perspective?
• How does the narrator’s self-presentation and self-description change over the course of
the novel as the narrator grows older and perhaps wiser?
• The narrator’s responses to adversity or shifts in fortune
• How school and other forms of education are presented—what is the narrator’s opinion of
the lessons he’s learning, whether formally or informally? How are these opinions reflected
in the tone?
• The expansiveness of the genre, as it’s the most flexible form that the novel takes over the
centuries
Gothic and Southern Gothic

Horace Walpole’s Castle of Otranto, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre,
Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” and other
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short stories, Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Bram Stoker’s
Dracula, Oscar Wilde’s The Portrait of Dorian Gray, Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw, Flannery
O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find, William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily,” Eudora
Welty’s The Robber Bridegroom

• The way a house or natural setting takes on human characteristics to reflect the twisted
family trees of the inhabitants
• Use of the sublime, or the awed feeling one gets in the forbidding expanses of the natural
world
• The characters’ habits of retelling and reinterpreting old stories like fairy tales, myths, and
legends in fragmented, distorted forms
• Baltimore writer Edgar Allan Poe is the link between the European Gothic tradition and
the American Southern Gothic tradition
• How do the conventions of the genre shift from European estates and castles to America,
where the Southern Gothic takes up issues of racial and class distinctions?
Commentary on Manners and Morals

Prose fiction: Jane Austen’s novels, especially Pride and Prejudice; Henry Makepeace Thackeray’s
Vanity Fair; George Eliot’s Middlemarch; Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth and The Age of Inno-
cence; Henry James’s Washington Square; Evelyn Waugh’s A Handful of Dust; Kazuo Ishiguro’s The
Remains of the Day
Prose nonfiction: John Ruskin’s Modern Painters, Oscar Wilde’s “The Decay of Lying,” Matthew
Arnold’s “Sweetness and Light,” Lionel Trilling’s “Manners, Morals, and the Novel”

• How the novels discuss class distinctions among characters and whether class mobility is
possible
• Characters’ senses of constricted gender, sexual, racial, and class identities—how are these
structures expressed and challenged in their dialogue and narration?
• The novel’s incorporation of dramatic conventions like dialogue and tableaux to stage
elaborate dinner parties and other highly performative moments, to see the ways that
characters perform their social roles in conflicting ways
• How a character makes distinctions between what can and can’t be said out loud in company,
and how those conflicted inner feelings are exposed in “free indirect discourse,” or one’s
inner thoughts transcribed on the page
• Commentary on how changes in media and technology—the railroad, the photograph, the
telegraph—affect communication for the characters

Creating a Sense of History in Fiction

Prose fiction: Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe; Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter; Herman Melville’s
Benito Cereno; Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities; Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace; Virginia Woolf ’s
Orlando; Robert Graves’s I, Claudius; Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior; Toni Morrison’s
Beloved; Edward P. Jones’ The Known World
Prose nonfiction: William Hazlitt’s The Spirit of the Age and Virginia Woolf ’s A Room of One’s Own
and Three Guineas

• The use of specialized vocabulary and period-specific details to set a scene that immerses
readers in the past
• How and why authors might romanticize the past at moments when they want to preserve
(or challenge) contemporary social, cultural, technological, and political change. You might
see that romanticization reflected in style and tone
• Inferences you might draw about how a novel reflects both a vision of the past and its
context at the time it was written—say, why Dickens writes A Tale of Two Cities (about
the French Revolution) in the middle of the Victorian period
Making the American Landscape and Character

Prose fiction: Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying and The Sound and the Fury,
Willa Cather’s My Antonia, James Weldon Jones’s The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, Wallace
Stegner’s Angle of Repose
Prose nonfiction: Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass; Ralph Waldo
Emerson’s Nature and Self-Reliance; Henry David Thoreau’s Walden: Or, Life in the Woods; W.E.B.
DuBois’s The Souls of Black Folk; Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring; John McPhee’s The Control of Nature

• The concept of “Transcendentalism” in the works of Emerson and Thoreau, who built on
the European concept of the sublime and translated it to the American landscape, where
they meditated
• How conflicts between urban and rural life are described
• How regions of United States are differentiated from one another descriptively: as the
wide-open West, the cramped city, the forests of New England. What’s the significance
of an author’s challenges to those conventional descriptions or where you see a shift to see
the landscape in a new way
• Novelistic commentary on slavery, the Civil War: how does the novel become a form of
social commentary in America, as you might see in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s
Cabin or in essays and memoirs such as Frederick Douglass’s Narrative?
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• How might we see connections between these social commentary novels and contemporary
writing on the natural world, where description of the depletion of the environment becomes
a political act?
Immigration and Post-Colonialism

Prose fiction: Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Jean Rhys’s
Wide Saragasso Sea, Graham Greene’s The Quiet American, Julia Alvarez’s How the Garcia Girls Lost
Their Accents, Edwidge Danticat’s Krik? Krak!, J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace and Waiting for the Barbarians,
Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss, Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things, Chang-rae Lee’s
Native Speaker, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun
Prose nonfiction: Gloria Anzaldua’s Borderlands, Edward Said’s Orientalism

• The use of specific details to immerse the reader in a scene
• Play with narrative perspective to comment on looking in at a culture from the outside
• Incorporation of different languages and cultural references
• Conflicts between characters who disagree about cultural change
• Experiments in form to incorporate myth, magic, popular culture into traditional formats
• The novel as a form of social critique, challenges to how characters have been stereotyped,
caricatured, or erased in previous stories
Making Sense of Art and Literature in an Age of Mass Media

Prose fiction: Virginia Woolf ’s To the Lighthouse, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Ralph
Ellison’s Invisible Man, George Orwell’s 1984, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Ray Bradbury’s
Fahrenheit 451, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49
Prose nonfiction: George Orwell’s Politics and the English Language, Joan Didion’s Slouching Towards
Bethlehem, James Baldwin’s Notes of a Native Son, Susan Sontag’s Notes on Camp, bell hooks’ Ain’t I
A Woman?, John McPhee’s “The Search for Marvin Gardens”

• Literary responses to mass media in the twentieth century by incorporating bits of news-
papers, popular culture, film, jazz and other forms of popular music, technology
• The rapid switching of narrative perspective in a modern novel as a response to the innova-
tions of film and television, where switching perspective feels more intuitive
• Critiques of “literature” as a term that is too limited to account for the many different forms
that writing and cultural expression can take, experiments in form
• The use of the fragment (or the “note”) to show the author’s sense that culture is constantly
in flux and everything is partial or unable to be completely grasped

A brief multiple-choice passage or an essay question can’t take up all of these issues, of course. In
the following sample passages and questions, try to track how these passages address the topics in
these overviews. How does Olive Schreiner’s experiments in perspective reveal a character’s spiritual
crisis? How do her descriptions of the landscape show that character’s conflicted, ambivalent opinions
about spirituality? How might you consider Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels a picaresque story, in
which Gulliver the narrator is both a hero and a fool?
PRACTICE SETS
Now it’s time to try some questions on your own. Practice the techniques we’ve reviewed in this
chapter and see how you do with the following practice sets.
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SAMPLE PASSAGE 1
From The Story of an African Farm (1883), by Olive Schreiner.
The narrator of this passage is named Waldo, so we’ll use “he” in the questions and explanations,
although the use of the first-person plural narrative voice is significant.
At night, alone in our cabin, we sit no more brooding over the fire. What
should we think of now? All is emptiness. So we take the old arithmetic; and
the multiplication table, which with so much pains we learnt long ago and
forgot directly, we learn now in a few hours, and never forget again. We take a
strange satisfaction in working arithmetical problems. We pause in our building
to cover the stones with figures and calculations. We save money for a Latin
Grammar and Algebra, and carry them about in our pockets, poring over them
as over our Bible of old. We have thought we were utterly stupid, incapable
of remembering anything, of learning anything. Now we find that all is easy.
Has a new soul crept into this old body, that even our intellectual faculties are
changed? We marvel; not perceiving that what a man expends in prayer and
ecstasy he cannot have over for acquiring knowledge. You never shed a tear, or
create a beautiful image, or quiver with emotion, but you pay for it at the prac-
tical, calculating end of your nature. You have just so much force: when the one
channel runs over the other runs dry.
And now we turn to Nature. All these years we have lived beside her, and we
have never seen her; and now we open our eyes and look at her.
The rocks have been to us a blur of brown: we bend over them, and the disor-
ganized masses dissolve into a many-coloured, many-shaped, carefully-arranged
form of existence. Here masses of rainbow-tinted crystals, half-fused together;
there bands of smooth grey and red methodically overlying each other. This
rock here is covered with a delicate silver tracery, in some mineral, resembling
leaves and branches; there on the flat stone, on which we so often have sat to
weep and pray, we look down, and see it covered with the fossil footprints of
great birds, and the beautiful skeleton of a fish. We have often tried to picture in
our mind what the fossiled remains of creatures must be like, and all the while
we sat on them, we have been so blinded by thinking and feeling that we have
never seen the world.
The flat plain has been to us a reach of monotonous red. We look at it, and
every handful of sand starts into life. That wonderful people, the ants, we learn
to know; see them make war and peace, play and work, and build their huge
palaces. And that smaller people we make acquaintance with, who live in the
flowers. The bitto flower has been for us a mere blur of yellow; we find its heart
composed of a hundred perfect flowers, the homes of the tiny black people with
red stripes, who move in and out in that little yellow city. Every bluebell has its

practice set
inhabitant. Every day the karoo1 shows us a new wonder sleeping in its teeming
bosom.
On our way back to work we pause and stand to see the ground-spider make its
trap, bury itself in the sand, and then wait for the falling in of its enemy.
Further on walks a horned beetle, and near him starts open the door of a spider,
who peeps out carefully, and quickly pulls it down again. On a karoo-bush
a green fly is laying her silver eggs. We carry them home, and see the shells
pierced, the spotted grub come out, turn to a green fly, and flit away. We are
not satisfied with what Nature shows us, and we see something for ourselves.
Under the white hen we put a dozen eggs, and break one daily, to see the white
spot wax into the chicken. We are not excited or enthusiastic about it; but a
man is not to lay his throat open, he must think of something. So we plant
seeds in rows on our dam-wall, and pull one up daily to see how it goes with
them. Alladeen buried her wonderful stone, and a golden palace sprung up at
her feet2. We do far more. We put a brown seed in the earth, and a living thing
starts out—starts upward—why, no more than Alladeen can we say—starts
upward, and does not desist till it is higher than our heads, sparkling with dew
in the early morning, glittering with yellow blossoms, shaking brown seeds
with little embryo souls on to the ground. We look at it solemnly, from the time
it consists of two leaves peeping above the ground and a soft white root, till
we have to raise our faces to look at it; but we find no reason for that upward
starting.
1 The South African desert.
2
In the Aladdin story from the Arabian Nights, Aladdin uses his magic lantern to conjure a palace out of enchanted
stones.
1. What does the first-person plural narrative 2. What is the effect of the momentary shift
voice emphasize in this passage? to second-person narration in the second
A. The narrator’s attempt to negotiate a paragraph?
sense of self in the wider world after A. It shows the narrator’s total rejection
some kind of identity crisis of prior identity.
B. The author’s experimentation with B. It intensifies the narrator’s sense of
language and structure to create a delusion and disorientation.
new kind of imaginative writing
C. It exposes a lack of focus and
C. The narrator’s delusions of grandeur attention to detail.
in trying to control the natural world
D. It reveals a desire to theorize new
D. The author’s ability to mix dry scien- ideas from these kinds of knowledge.
tific writing and the conventions of
E. It criticizes family members who
fiction
have stuck to older beliefs.
E. The narrator’s social commentary on
how society has rejected a scientific
worldview
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3. How would you assess the narrator’s dilemma 6. Where is the likely source of the phrase “a
in this passage? man is not to lay his throat open”?
A. The Bible
I. The passage is set up like a debate,
with the narrator trying out different B. A Latin scholar the narrator read in
one of his books
perspectives to see which one is the
most persuasive. C. A folk saying from earlier in the nar-
rator’s life
II. The passage reveals that the narrator’s
ideas about spirituality and scientific D. An ecologist who studied man’s
impact on the natural world
observation are in tension, generating
thought and reflection. E. The narrator’s grandfather, who
studied poetry
III. The narrator wishes to return to a
time when the world seemed easier 7. The reference to Aladdin and the golden
to understand, before the desire for palace made of a single stone serves all of
scientific observation took hold. the following thematic purposes EXCEPT
A. I only A. the tale of many small rocks rein-
B. II only forces the narrator’s interest in scale.
C. III only B. it ties back to the stones on which
the narrator had written figures and
D. I and III
calculations.
E. I, II, and III
C. the narrator attempts to synthesize
4. What is the narrator’s tone in the two para- older knowledge of imaginative
stories with newer knowledge of
graphs about seeing the details of the rocks
science.
and flowers?
D. the narrator is making connections to
A. Scientific and detached
the books he saved money to buy at
B. Curious and intimate the beginning of the passage.
C. Loving and maternal E. both Aladdin and the ants build
D. Imaginative and fantastical palaces.
E. Dutiful and unenthusiastic 8. When the narrator says, “we find no reason
5. In observing the details of flowers and ants, for that upward starting,” what is the effect
the narrator uses personification to describe of that lack of resolution to the examination
ants as people and cities thriving inside of of the flowers?
flowers. What is the most important idea A. The narrator rejects science because
it cannot sate his desire for meaning.
that this technique reveals?
A. The narrator’s use of imagination to B. There is an ever-present tension
describe the natural world between the narrator’s desire to
observe small details and find larger
B. The narrator’s insistence on ranking meaning.
humans over the natural world
C. The narrator is hypothesizing about
C. The narrator’s wish to join this tiny why the plant has stunted growth.
world and reject humanity
D. The narrator is struck dumb by a
D. The narrator’s philosophizing about visionary revelation of meaning in the
the scale of mankind in the universe face of the flower.
E. The narrator’s projection of human E. There is no morality to be found in
anxieties onto nature as a pathetic the natural world.
fallacy

practice set
SAMPLE PASSAGE 2
Gulliver’s Travels, by Jonathan Swift
I had hitherto seen only one side of the academy, the other being appropriated
to the advancers of speculative learning, of whom I shall say something, when
I have mentioned one illustrious person more, who is called among them “the
universal artist.” He told us “he had been thirty years employing his thoughts
for the improvement of human life.” He had two large rooms full of wonderful
curiosities, and fifty men at work. Some were condensing air into a dry tan-
gible substance, by extracting the nitre, and letting the aqueous or fluid par-
ticles percolate; others softening marble, for pillows and pin-cushions; others
petrifying the hoofs of a living horse, to preserve them from foundering. The
artist himself was at that time busy upon two great designs; the first, to sow
land with chaff, wherein he affirmed the true seminal virtue to be contained,
as he demonstrated by several experiments, which I was not skilful enough to
comprehend. The other was, by a certain composition of gums, minerals, and
vegetables, outwardly applied, to prevent the growth of wool upon two young
lambs; and he hoped, in a reasonable time to propagate the breed of naked
sheep, all over the kingdom.
We crossed a walk to the other part of the academy, where, as I have already
said, the projectors in speculative learning resided.
The first professor I saw, was in a very large room, with forty pupils about him.
After salutation, observing me to look earnestly upon a frame, which took up
the greatest part of both the length and breadth of the room, he said, “Perhaps
I might wonder to see him employed in a project for improving speculative
knowledge, by practical and mechanical operations. But the world would
soon be sensible of its usefulness; and he flattered himself, that a more noble,
exalted thought never sprang in any other man’s head. Every one knew how
laborious the usual method is of attaining to arts and sciences; whereas, by his
contrivance, the most ignorant person, at a reasonable charge, and with a little
bodily labour, might write books in philosophy, poetry, politics, laws, math-
ematics, and theology, without the least assistance from genius or study.” He
then led me to the frame, about the sides, whereof all his pupils stood in ranks.
It was twenty feet square, placed in the middle of the room. The superfices was
composed of several bits of wood, about the bigness of a die, but some larger
than others. They were all linked together by slender wires. These bits of wood
were covered, on every square, with paper pasted on them; and on these papers
were written all the words of their language, in their several moods, tenses, and
declensions; but without any order. The professor then desired me “to observe;
for he was going to set his engine at work.” The pupils, at his command, took
each of them hold of an iron handle, whereof there were forty fixed round the
edges of the frame; and giving them a sudden turn, the whole disposition of the
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words was entirely changed. He then commanded six-and-thirty of the lads,

to read the several lines softly, as they appeared upon the frame; and where they
found three or four words together that might make part of a sentence, they
dictated to the four remaining boys, who were scribes. This work was repeated
three or four times, and at every turn, the engine was so contrived, that the
words shifted into new places, as the square bits of wood moved upside down.
Six hours a day the young students were employed in this labour; and the pro-
fessor showed me several volumes in large folio, already collected, of broken
sentences, which he intended to piece together, and out of those rich materials,
to give the world a complete body of all arts and sciences; which, however,
might be still improved, and much expedited, if the public would raise a fund
for making and employing five hundred such frames in Lagado, and oblige the
managers to contribute in common their several collections.
He assured me “that this invention had employed all his thoughts from his
youth; that he had emptied the whole vocabulary into his frame, and made the
strictest computation of the general proportion there is in books between the
numbers of particles, nouns, and verbs, and other parts of speech.”
9. During the eighteenth century, the Royal 10. What is the best description of Gulliver’s
Society of England undertook many experi- position as a narrator?
ments just like the “advancers of speculative A. Gulliver is a stand-in for the author.
learning” mentioned in the first passage, B. Gulliver is too credulous an observer.
including a “universal language” that could C. Gulliver is a satirist.
generate sentences anyone could read
D. Gulliver is an impartial witness.
without laborious translation. What kind
E. Gulliver is biased against the scien-
of commentary do you infer that Jonathan
tists in his skepticism.
Swift is making about the connection
between fiction and real life here? 11. The experiment to “sow the land with chaff ”
A. Promoting the work of these scien- is a metaphor for
tists and artists as visionaries A. the ingenuity of the projectors and
B. Reporting objectively on these universal artist to make such helpful
experiments inventions.
C. Satirizing these projects as vainglo- B. the prescience of their recycling plan.
rious and foolish C. the lesson that hard work pays off
D. Puffing up these accomplishments in when you keep trying even after
a fantasy travelogue you’ve failed.
E. Making sense of a confusing situation D. the worthlessness of the hard work
where he feels unsure about what he’s they’re investing in these projects.
seeing E. the inefficiency of reading fiction
when others are gaining knowledge
about science.

practice set
12. Swift clues the reader into Gulliver’s limited 15. Why is the word “improved” important to
understanding of the scene in front of him understanding the theme of this passage?
in all of the following phrases EXCEPT A. Gulliver feels smarter after having
A. “One illustrious person more, who learned from the scientists and uni-
is called among them ‘the universal versal artists.
artist’” B. The scientist’s many years of
B. “Rooms full of wonderful curiosities” reflecting on these issues are
beginning to pay off, slowly.
C. “Which I was not skillful enough to
comprehend” C. It raises the question as to which is
more important to society: arts or
D. The teacher’s phrase, “every one knew
sciences?
how laborious the usual method is of
attaining to arts and sciences…” D. Gulliver feels morally improved after
having experienced the social and
E. “Broken sentences, which he
emotional benefits of education.
intended to piece together”
E. It raises the paradox of whether
13. What are the two meanings of “speculative” these institutions meant to generate
that are being put into tension here? knowledge are teaching ignorance.
A. Theoretical and far-fetched
16. The description of the engine takes up
B. Future-oriented and hopeful several paragraphs for which of the following
C. Imaginative and socially conscious reasons?
D. Rational and predictive I. The long description exposes its
E. Creative and wishful contrived nature.
II. It satirizes the grand scale of the
14. If you were going to adapt Gulliver’s Travels scientist’s tiny, silly contributions to
for a contemporary setting, what kind of the world.
organization or institution would Gulliver III. The middle paragraph’s many
visit in the passage? commas in one sentence approx-
A. A museum that preserves past imate—but exceed in sense—the
artifacts broken sentences generated by the
machine.
B. A technology start-up for entrepre-
neurs to pitch ideas A. I only
C. A kindergarten with lots of activities B. II only
D. An artist’s studio devoted to artisanal C. I and II
woodworking D. II and III
E. A big box store where you could find E. I, II, and III
anything you wanted
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17. What is the best explanation of the engine’s D. Swift is provocatively asking what
larger meaning in the early science fiction separates authors from machines in a
novel/travel narrative Gulliver’s Travels? land that celebrates projecting ideas
more than realizing them.
A. There is pathos in the sad fact that
none of the sentences generated by E. Swift is like the universal artist in
the machine will be the equal of being able to devise so many different
Swift’s own prose. creative ideas.
B. There is the delicious possibility that
one of the sentences generated will
surpass the author’s own writing.
C. The machine has a structure with
different legs and posts, just like there
are different segments to Gulliver’s
journey.

answers practice set

1. A 5. D 9. C 12. E 15. E
2. D 6. C 10. B 13. A 16. E
3. B 7. D 11. D 14. B 17. D
4. B 8. B
Sample Passage 1
1. The correct answer is A. It’s somewhat we can assume that it’s significant. Many of
unusual to see a first-person plural narrator, the answer choices here may be tempting.
so this question is asking you to consider the First, you can eliminate the obvious wrong
ways that this structural and stylistic choice answers: remember to beware of overstate-
reflects the major themes in the passage. ments like “total loss of identity,” for this
You don’t know what happened to make passage is more of a struggle to reconcile
the narrator, Waldo, feel as though “a new past and present identities. Choice A is too
soul crept into this old body,” but some sort strong a statement to help you see the nuance
of existential and/or spiritual crisis seems to of a stylistic choice like this shift in voice.
have occurred. Waldo is now trying to rec- There are no family members mentioned, so
oncile past spiritual outlooks and a newfound choice E is out. As you noted in question 1,
curiosity about scientific observation of the the passage is full of uncertainty, but it’s not
natural world. That “new soul” is not fully delusive, so choice B is not a good choice.The
integrated, so “we” emphasizes the ongoing, passage shows intense attention to detail,
in-process negotiation of this new identity. so choice C is incorrect. That leaves choice
Choices B and D are too general to be good D: a desire to theorize new ideas. Even if
answers about what’s being emphasized in you weren’t sure initially, you’ve eliminated
this particular passage. Because the rest of other overstatements and judgments and
the questions are focused on the narrator you’re left with a more open-ended idea
and the narrator’s feelings, it’s a good bet of the narrator’s desire to synthesize new
that this question is meant to narrow your knowledge. You can take this idea with you
focus on the narrator. The narrator is not so as a guide to the rest of the passage.
focused on the rest of society, as choice E
3. The correct answer is B. This question asks
suggests, so it’s not a good choice. There is
you to choose among the best options, and
ambivalence and uncertainty in the passage,
with the possibility that only one option
but there aren’t any hints of delusion, so
may be correct or that there may be more
choice C is also not correct. (For clarity,
options that reveal the narrator has several
we will refer to the narrator as Waldo, and
dilemmas. The passage is not organized as
use he/him/his pronouns for the rest of the
a debate (Option I) because there’s no reso-
explanations.)
lution about which perspective is “better”:
2. The correct answer is D. This question the passage ends on an uncertain note about
builds on the ideas of the previous one and what can be known and understood about
asks you to consider the effect and meaning the growth of the flower through obser-
of a shift into the second-person narration. vation or fairy tales. Yet Waldo doesn’t see
It happens only briefly, and then the nar- a way back to erase all of these new ideas,
rative shifts back to first-person plural, so as Option III suggests; it might have been
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easier to live without doubt in the past, you to interpret its meaning in the passage.
but there are enough lines in the passage As with the other questions, there are a few
about the wonder of this new world that tempting choices that you can entertain
you don’t get a sense of renunciation. The briefly before you reject them for being
best option among these is Option II, which overstatements or generalizations. Choice A
resists the one-sidedness that Options I is way too general to be helpful, as it could
and III present. Neither of those options describe any kind of figurative language and
is a good partner or collaborator with the isn’t specific to personification. The phrases
other options; they are mutually exclusive “insistence on ranking” in choice B and
in their black-and-white hardline stances. “reject humanity” in choice C don’t give a
Option II is the most open-ended answer sense of the richness of personification as
that fits with the answers to 1 and 2, about a device, nor do they help you analyze the
negotiation of identity and new theories, so extent of the passage’s use of the device in so
choice B is the correct answer. many natural descriptions. Choice E could
be a good option, but we don’t really see
4. The correct answer is B. This question has a
anxieties here.The best choice (D) interprets
few red herring answers that might initially
the link between personification and the
seem attractive. Waldo is overwhelmed by
narrator’s questions about man’s place in
testing the scientific worldview of studying
the universe. The universe is limitless, and
geology, paleontology, and ecology for the
man is as tiny as the ants and tiny elements
first time—yet these observations are hardly
of the flowers.
detached, as choice A offers, so it is incorrect.
Waldo describes Nature as a woman, newly 6. The correct answer is C. This question asks
observed even though she’s been there all you to make an inference about the source of
this time, so you might pick choice C as a an unusual adage. We don’t have any specific
possibility—yet we don’t really see a “loving” evidence, such as a footnote or a traceable
sensibility. Choice D may also be tempting allusion to some piece of literature, so we
because the descriptions are so vivid and have to work from context. It sounds most
they use figurative language like personifi- like a folk saying that the narrator has heard
cation, but they are not exactly fantastical in in the desert, where there are few resources
building a new world as in a fantasy novel. and one must fend for oneself. (Although
Choice B is the middle ground between the narrator has now realized that there’s
C and D and more precisely describes the far more to the desert than he imagined.)
intimacy of the comparison of Nature to a It doesn’t sound like it’s from the Bible or
wife/mother, as well as the interest in these a Latin grammar (choices A or B), and,
tiny new details that you only see when you more important, such a precise answer
look closely. Waldo claims a lack of interest requires more specific evidence. Likewise,
in a later paragraph (choice E), yet this idea there’s no one mentioned who fits the bill
seems to be part of the ambivalence; indeed, as an ecologist or a poet (choices D or E),
Waldo claims a lack of enthusiasm at the for the narrator is more of an autodidact
same time as he’s crafting a comparison to a who’s teaching himself about all of these
fairy tale, that we may be somewhat skeptical subjects. Choice C is the only choice that’s
of that claim. supported by the context of the passage, and
it fits better within the narrator’s language of
5. The correct answer is D. This question
personifying nature and trying to spiritualize
names the literary device for you and asks


it at the same time in phrases like “embryo clearest way. You can almost immediately
souls.” pick choice B for its nuanced analytical
language of “tension” between two poles
7. The correct answer is D. This question asks
between which the narrator has been vacil-
you to find the one exception among four
lating throughout the passage. As with prior
correct answers. If you were unsure about
questions, you can reject the answer choices
the answer to question 5 and the importance
that have overstatements: the narrator
of perceiving scale (choice A), this question
doesn’t reject science (choice A) because
gives you that correct answer among its
he continues looking closely at the natural
choices, so it reinforces the previous answers.
world, yet he also continues trying to find
Choices B, D, and E refer to details men-
some kind of morality in it (choice E). The
tioned earlier in the passage—except that
flower does not have stunted growth (choice
D is incorrect, as the narrator buys math
C); it’s taller than the narrator and he has
and Latin books because he is attempting
to turn his face up at it. If only there were a
to gain a wholly rational take on the world.
visionary revelation in the face of the flower
Choice C explains that such a hard swerve
that might give the narrator some sense of
toward rationalism and empiricism has
resolution—but instead there are only more
been unsustainable for the narrator, for he
details to observe. In the best possible way,
seeks some kind of larger meaning in the
all of this close observation is a boon for the
universe. The narrator doesn’t believe in
narrative work of description in the novel.
Aladdin (sometimes rendered as Alladeen,
If there’s one thing we can say about this
as in the passage), but rather in the potential
passage, it’s that Waldo gives you a kind of
for imaginative stories to feed his desire for
model for looking closely and trying to find
philosophical musings on the unknowable.
deeper meanings. You can be more decisive
8. The correct answer is B. This is a summing- on the exam, however, and less ambivalent
up question that asks you to express how the and tormented.
final sentence indicates the theme in the
Sample Passage 2
9. The correct answer is C. Gulliver’s Travels science, and leaving them recognizable, yet
is a combination of several genres, including strange and fantastical. The biggest clue to
the travelogue, picaresque tale, and the satire. the satire arrives in the long description of
As you learn from the contextual information the Engine, where we realize that they’ve
in the question, he’s also incorporating real devoted an enormous amount of foolish
examples from scientific journals that were energy into trying to eliminate the human
published at the time, in which scientists part of creativity, “without the least assistance
would share their experiments and ideas from genius or study.” Gulliver himself may
for inventions. It’s kind of cool to imagine a believe that he’s promoting the scientists’
pillowy form of marble—but would that even work (choice A), reporting objectively
qualify as marble anymore? What makes a (choice B), or writing a travelogue (choice
substance a substance when we recombine all D) but keep in mind that his perspective is
of its features? This is a fascinating question separate from Swift’s (see the next question).
in a novel that innovates a form by recom- Choice E is too vague to be helpful here, so
bining features from prior genres, including it’s not a good choice. Choice C gives you
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the language of satire that you can take with lack of understanding of the teacher’s claims
you to the next questions. by his lack of commentary on the teacher’s
phrase about generating knowledge and
10. The correct answer is B. This question
art without work—he doesn’t realize the
builds on the previous one to focus on
silliness of that claim, so choice D is out.
Gulliver’s relationship to the narrative: does
He believes that his lack of understanding
the narrator realize that he’s in a satire?
is because the contraptions are too complex
Swift recombines the conventions of the
(choice C), but they are perhaps more com-
picaresque’s naive hero and the travelogue’s
plicated (and contrived) than complex. After
descriptive observer, by asking what would
eliminating those choices, you’re left with
happen if those genres, which depend so
choice E, which actually shows Gulliver’s
much on detailed observation, had a nar-
correct assessment of the situation, so it’s the
rator who didn’t understand what he was
outlier. It’s the example where Swift is not
seeing. He’s not an unreliable narrator
showing Gulliver’s limitations—it’s just an
who’s deliberately obscuring elements from
explanation of the stuff the engine makes.
readers; he simply doesn’t understand them
fully. Therefore, he is not a stand-in for the 13. The correct answer is A. These answer
author or a satirist (choices A and C)—two choices give you many synonyms for “specu-
ways of saying the same thing in this case. lative” and ask you to pick out the best pair
He is a dupe, a too-credulous observer, who with a satirical edge to them. When you see it
can’t be impartial or unbiased (choices D and that way, you can cast out any of the choices
E) because he believes just about anything that are wholly positive—because they have
they tell him. no tension in them, no contrast in the two
meanings offered. Choice B has two similar
meanings related to the future, both positive.
asks you to read a particular use of figurative
Both choices C and E focus on speculation
language through the lens of satire: how
as a form of creativity and world-building,
does this metaphor reflect the main idea of
as in speculative fiction, but they too lack
Swift’s satire? Choices A, B, and C don’t
tension. Choice D’s rationalism does not
work for a satire, for they invest value in
describe the experiments in the passage. The
the scheme, yet the scheme is pretty clearly
best answer is choice A, where you can see
a scam for “sowing” the non-seed parts of
the language of speculation in the form of
seeds. There’s a reason the phrase “separate
generating ideas—which is admirable—but
the wheat from the chaff ” is used: the chaff
also in gambling, like speculating on land or
is the stuff that you don’t want. Choice E
the stock market. This form of speculation
doesn’t bear any relation to the metaphor,
is riskier because it banks everything on
so it’s not a relevant choice. Choice D tells
imagining a future—the theory doesn’t
you exactly what chaff is: worthless, so it’s
actually relate to reality.
silly to devote so much intense labor to it.
14. The correct answer is B. As we saw in the
12. The correct answer is E. This question
previous question, Gulliver’s Travels is a story
pulls out fragments of quotations from the
about investing—investing time, interest,
passage and tests how closely you’ve read
and money into these contraptions. At the
them. You can tell the tone from many of the
end of the passage, they are trying to “raise a
adjectives like “illustrious” and “wonderful”
fund for making and employing five hundred
(choices A and B), both of which indicate
such” engines in Lagado. Such activities
Gulliver’s gullibility. We can tell Gulliver’s
would not happen at a kindergarten (choice


C), and while both artists and museums ability to take those fragments and put them
look for funding, they are not creating or together under the critical distorting lens to
displaying the kinds of speculative ideas create commentary on how knowledge is
described in this passage.The answer choices produced. The other answer choices (A, B,
give you “past artifacts” (choice A) and “arti- C, and D) leave you with only one or two
sanal woodworking” (choice D) that would options, but Options I and II work well with
be hard to scale in such a way as is being that inspired reading in Option III, so the
promoted here. The best answer is choice B, answer is choice E.
where the entrepreneurial scientists would
be able to pitch their ideas—for the engine
asks you to interpret the possibility that the
sounds a lot like predictive text algorithms,
engine is a commentary on the practice of
right?
writing itself, as both are about putting words
15. The correct answer is E. Like “specu- into different combinations. The scientists
lative,” the word “improved” takes on a have been engaged in experiments to “write
satirical meaning in this passage—for what’s books in philosophy, poetry, politics, laws,
seemingly improved is actually made worse mathematics, and theology, without the
by these contrived inventions. Who would least assistance from genius or study.” That
want a wool-less sheep or seeds that didn’t is: these scientists want to replace authors
grow? These aren’t improvements. You can with machines that will automate writing.
eliminate choices A, B, and D because they You know from previous questions that Swift
don’t account for the satire; they believe in has written a satire, and many questions in
these improvements. Choice C is too general this section have asked you variations on
to be helpful, and the question isn’t posing Swift’s lampooning of the scientists. This
that black-and-white distinction between question asks something a little different, a
art and science. It’s more like a distinction little more sophisticated; it asks you to infer
between knowledge and folly or wisdom the larger meaning of Swift’s satire beyond
and foolishness. Choice E’s statement of a lampooning silly ideas.
paradox gives you a good statement of the Choice B seems to believe that Swift and
passage’s theme. other authors could be surpassed by the
16. The correct answer is E. This question engine, while choices A and E don’t take the
asks you to tie together a stylistic element passage’s satirical perspective into account.
(language) with structure (how that language Swift doesn’t consider it sad, and he’s sati-
is arranged in paragraphs) to understand rizing the “universal artist,” not comparing
how they help Swift create his satire. Satire himself to him. Choice C is not the best
depends on playing with scale and distorting answer because that connection between
the small flaw into a large exposure of a social the word “leg” doesn’t reveal anything other
problem; here, the small flaws in the engine’s than a coincidence. That leaves choice D:
conception and execution are magnified into Swift is using the genre of science fiction
a seemingly never-ending presentation of to generate new worlds to travel to, and the
a bad idea. All three of the options listed engine is also a generator. Both the author
are excellent examples—especially option and the engine are generators and creators:
III, which draws a connection between if all that matters is the speculation on the
the long, winding sentence and the work idea, then does the painstaking work of
that the machine can’t do in putting such authoring a book matter anymore?
broken pieces together. Only a satirist has the
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SUMMING IT UP
• On Section I of your exam, you will have to answer fifty-five multiple-choice questions; at
least four passages will be prose excerpts that are up to 800 words in length.
• Do an initial quick read-through: circle any unfamiliar words or phrases, and underline
moments that jump out at you.
• Skim through the test questions—they will give you hints as to what is important within
the passage.
• Observe your own reading habits as you work through sample passages: what trips you up
in reading? As you observe, then study, then refine your own habits, you’ll start to feel more
comfortable reading and assessing passages quickly.
• Look for thematic motifs and other patterns in the passages to help you assess the thematic
elements and how they’re reflected in small details like word choices and larger abstractions.
• Eliminate the wrong answers quickly so that you can focus on fewer choices to read and assess.
• The earlier questions will give you some analytical and thematic language. If you hit on
a good answer about themes and main ideas early in the questions, circle it so you can
remember to look for later answers that use similar expressions of that language, because
they’re more likely to be correct.
• Also pay attention to significant shifts in tone and narrative voice, because they tend to
signal parts of the passage that are important for understanding larger themes in the passage.
• When you read a passage, make a quick inference about where you might be in the story.
Your analysis of the text might change, depending on whether you’re in the beginning,
middle, or end.
• When you’re looking at the setting of a passage, pay attention to the narrator’s descriptive
language. Ask yourself how the narrator describes the place, which will give you a sense of
how he or she perceives it.
• After reading a passage, make note of the author’s point of view. Who is narrating? What
is his/her perspective on the situation? How does any bias affect this point of view? The
narrator’s vocabulary gives you a sense of background, education, attitudes, and more, which
allow you to make strong inferences.
• In dramatic prose, characters are often extra-performative—there is no narration to give
you a sense of inner thoughts. The exam will always give you enough context to show you
what’s going on in a dialogue.
• Use the overviews of thematic groupings in this chapter to make a reading list, and then
practice generating possible multiple-choice questions about tone, theme, etc.
• Use the sample prose passages and questions in this chapter to devise possible essay prompts
for yourself in subsequent chapters.

Chapter 4: Free-Response
Questions on the
Chapter 4
AP® Literature and
Composition Exam
OVERVIEW
• Format of the Free-Response Section
• Learning a New Language
• Essay Section Scoring
• How to Spend Those 40 Minutes Per Essay
• Moving Beyond the Five-Paragraph Essay
• Breaking Down the Composition Process
• Home Stretch: The Last 5 Minutes of Each Essay
• Common Reader Pet Peeves
• The Smallest Details Count
• Poetry and Prose Essay Walkthroughs
• How to Approach the Open Essay
• Open Essay Walkthroughs
• Summing It Up
Forty minutes of reading, thinking, and writing—multiplied by three—is a lot of work! It

may be tempting to seek a foolproof formula to follow. Fair warning: this chapter won’t give
you such a formula. Furthermore, it will cast doubt on the five-paragraph essay you might
know from other classes: state a basic idea in an introduction; then name three discrete
features of diction, imagery, rhyme, etc.; then restate the ideas of each of the preceding four
paragraphs in a conclusion. Five-paragraph essays can be useful when you need to dump a lot
of information quickly, but the very thing that makes them simple and formulaic (and thus
easy to write) also makes them boring to read. AP® exam readers will be reading hundreds
of student essays, all about the same literary passages. They don’t want to read the same
body paragraphs over and over again. A formula might help you get through it, but it won’t
help you get a high score.
119
With that bad news out of the way, here’s some good news: there are ways to adapt that formula into
TIP more flexible, compelling essay structures—and quickly, too. In this chapter, we’ll explain how to
work through the prompts in such a way that you can write a dynamic essay, rather than a predictable,
Plan to spend mechanical one. These essays will show you how to think and work through the complexities of
about 40 minutes the prompt as you write your paragraphs. Your readers will be impressed by how your ideas develop
per essay, with over the course of the essay, instead of feeling like they’re following a schematic diagram or a script.
minimal outlining They want to be surprised, even challenged by your work—in a good way, of course. Read on to
and rewriting, so learn how to impress them!
you’re spending
the majority
of your time
FORMAT OF THE FREE-RESPONSE SECTION
composing. In Section II of the AP® English Literature and Composition Exam, you will write three short
essays in the span of 2 hours. This section is worth 55 percent of your total score, so it’s weighted
slightly heavier than the multiple-choice questions.
TIP Here is the key information to keep in mind.
Bring a watch so
SECTION II ESSENTIALS
you can keep
track of the time. You have 2 hours to complete this section.
You cannot use In those 2 hours, you will write three essays based on prompts relating to the following:
your phone,
• An analysis of a prose passage from a novel, short story, creative nonfiction, or play
smartwatch, or
• A literary analysis of a poem
other Internet-
connected
• An open topic about a literary concept or theme, in which you choose a literary work
from your own study that you believe best illuminates the prompt
device
LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE

A large part of passing the AP® exam depends on understanding its language. In Section I, the exam
writers interpret (and strategically, sometimes trickily, misinterpret) passages and ask you to assess the
best possible answers in multiple-choice format. You can apply strategic guessing or elimination, or
you may know the answer before you read it among the answer choices. The best answer, as deter-
mined by the College Board, is present on the page—you just have to find it.
That’s not the case in Section II: it’s up to you to write interpretive essays about two passages of
prose and poetry and then to write a third essay about an assigned theme or concept by discussing
your own choice of literary text. In each of the three essays, you are responsible for doing the work
of generating ideas and insights and then guiding your reader through your literary analysis in a
clear, thoughtful essay.
Some prefer the structure of the multiple choice, while others prefer the creativity of the essay
section. It’s possible, though, to take some strategies for reading and writing from Section I with
you into Section II—if you’re not too exhausted from those fifty-five questions. You won’t be able
to take notes with you from section to section, but you can pay attention to how the exam questions

Chapter 4: Free-Response Questions on the AP® Literature and Composition Exam 121
have asked you about finding themes in a passage, or analyzing a literary device. That’s the language
ETS recognizes for interpreting literary texts, so you can use it as a model for your own writing for
this exam. (ETS, or Educational Testing Service, is the company that administers AP® and other
TIP
exams on behalf of The College Board.) This book not
only gives you
The previous sections of this book helped you analyze how questions are framed, to learn how to
strategies for
answer them. In the essay section, you can use that same language you’re now so attuned to, in order
taking the test,
to frame your own analysis with analytical vocabulary terms they’re sure to recognize. You can adapt
it also gives you
their language for your own use.
many examples
The key to this chapter is adaptability. You will learn strategies for framing introductory paragraphs,
of the exam’s
analytical paragraphs in the body of your essays, and thoughtful conclusions that show how your
interpretive
idea has developed over the course of the essay. Within the sample essays, there are breakdowns of
language
specific kinds of sentences that may be useful for you to study and adapt for your own uses. These
that you can
are not formulas, but rather “moves” or “plays” such as one might find in a basketball or football
internalize.
playbook or a jazz piano fakebook. On a football or basketball team, players learn set plays that
they can call out during a game to move the ball forward; after running drills repeatedly in practice, Underline
they’ve internalized the plays and can adapt them at game time. phrases that you
might wish to
In the following sections, we’ve outlined, modeled, and debriefed thinking and writing strategies
adapt for your
that you can internalize, so you’ll have the power (and perhaps even the interest!) to adapt them in
own uses in the
your own exam essays.
practice exam,
the sample
ESSAY SECTION SCORING essays in this
chapter, and the
But you didn’t come here just to learn new language for interpreting literary essays. The essays you
sample questions
write for the AP® English Literature and Composition Exam are different from any essays you
may have written for school. They are essays that are narrowly defined enough to be composed in from the prose
40 minutes and are focused on two main skills: close literary analysis and clear organization of your and poetry
interpretations. They are essays that are meant to be read quickly for a score, not for thoughtful questions. Also
personal feedback about what you can do differently in future essays. So, let’s get down to the thing underline phrases
you’re most worried about: scoring. that seem
unfamiliar and
Each essay in Section II is scored on a scale of 0-9, for a possible total of 27 points. The majority
of the scored essays fall into the 5-6 range, while very few essays are scored with a 9. Exam readers that you want
are not trying to artificially keep the essay grades on a specific kind of distribution curve; rather, the to understand
middle is large because it’s hard to distinguish among many essays that adhere to a simple format better.
and end up sounding somewhat mechanical, superficial, or both.
Readers don’t use a checklist to look for specific items in your essays; instead, they use a rubric that
describes the features of top-scoring, middle-range, and low-scoring essays. This method is called
“holistic” grading or looking at the whole essay rather than awarding discrete points for various
features you might find in an essay. The Educational Testing Service staff trains its readers by giving
them sample essays that they’ve determined are representative of top, middle, and low scores, so exam
readers can see how the rubric works in practice, among other graders, and they submit samples of
their grades to make sure that they’re scoring consistently. Each essay you write will be graded by a
different reader who is focused on a specific category, or, in the case of the open essay, who has read
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the particular work of literature you’ve selected. Readers will not see the others’ scores, so your three
TIP essays will not be compared to each other.
The idea of a holistic rubric may sound subjective to you: it is. Assessing writing is a subjective
Don’t strive to
process. Reading is a subjective process. That’s why we read literature: to get into other people’s
be an objective
heads and explore ideas that are different from our own. Literary analysis isn’t about using a specific
essay-writing
set of tools to process texts in order to find a single meaning; it’s about examining a literary work
machine; instead,
from your personal perspective to determine what that work means to you and how you view both
be a compelling
the author’s intent and the degree to which he or she accomplished his or her objectives. The trick is
human writer that, since there’s some subjectivity involved, your job on the essay section is to analyze the author’s
with flashes of work and support your views about that work.
creativity and
What follows is a description of what the rubric looks like in general. The rubrics used from test
originality.
to test are similar enough to give you this overview, but keep in mind that different readers might
differ on the distinction between “effective” or “successful” work.
Top-scoring (8-9 range)

Essays in the top range answer the question with clarity, attention to detail, and compelling ideas.
The writer has a strong idea to guide his essay and develops depth by analyzing rich material from
the passage. The analysis feels motivated by an idea, not by a checklist of devices to be identified
dutifully. The writer engages with specific quotations (or examples in the open essay) and gives clear,
detailed context and analysis of their formal elements and meaning, beyond simple restatement and
summary. These essays may have a couple of superficial errors, but they are more notable for their
command of a rich vocabulary, a variety of sentence structures, and for the essay’s coherent fluency.
Above average (7 range)

Essays in the above average range have a good idea to guide them, but they have less robust textual
analysis. Some of that analysis may be more of a summary than an analysis of rich details. They
may read somewhat mechanically, with less fluency and a more formulaic sentence structure and
vocabulary than a top-scoring essay. They are solid essays, but they lack the sophistication and depth
of a top-scoring essay.
Middle-range essays (5-6 range)

Middle-range essays have limited insights because they are superficial, generic, judgmental rather
than analytical, and/or use formulaic organizational methods that leave the paragraphs disconnected
and mechanical. These essays often rely on generalizations or on superficial gestures to analyzing
devices. That is, their writers may know they need to mention devices like “diction” or “imagery,”
but they don’t build anything with the tools other than to refer to them once generally and move
on. The writers may simply restate the prompt, or they may stay at the level of what was given in
the question, rather than developing ideas of their own.

Below average (3-4 range)

Essays that are below average show a reader and writer who struggled to understand the passage
and question being asked. They may address an unrelated idea in the passage, or they may show
a misunderstanding of how to analyze what they’re examining. They may show some of the same
judgmental, formulaic, and superficial qualities of a middle-range essay but with more errors and
fragmented ideas. They often lack specific textual references and rely on generalizations or tangen-
tially related ideas. They are often short and abbreviated, like an outline that wasn’t finished. They
usually contain significant errors that affect the reader’s understanding.
Low-scoring (1-2 range)

Low-scoring essays show a reader who did not understand the question or the passage. They may be
too short to understand—for a writer who ran out of time and attempted to get a something brief on
the page, or for someone who struggled to understand what was being asked. The writing is difficult
to understand because of significant errors, fragmented ideas, or a poor command of writing skills.
No score (0)
No response registered, or the essay does not relate to the essay prompt at all.
Exam readers will send the combined score (0-27) to the College Board, where it will be con-
verted, along with your Section I score, into a number on the AP® point scale. You may see how
these numerical scores were converted in prior years on the College Board website. Although it’s
tempting—and perhaps comforting—to try to treat this test as a numbers game, you can’t control
some of the scoring quirks across the entire nation of test-takers in a given year. It’s best to treat this
part of the exam as a writing exam, and learn how to write the best essays that will stand out among
the readers’ large stacks of similar work.
HOW TO SPEND THOSE 40 MINUTES PER ESSAY

With that goal of clear, personal writing in mind, let’s figure out the best strategy for tackling the
three essays in the time allotted. You have 2 hours for Section II, so aim to spend 40 minutes per
essay. You may feel more or less confident about the essay types, but each essay is worth the same
number of points, so plan to spend roughly the same amount of time on each one.
If you have some weeks to practice before the exam, practice writing 40-minute essays so that you
can see what proportions of reading, planning, writing, and review work best for you. You may think
that you need a lot of time to plan and outline, but if you get in the habit of writing a 40-minute
essay every day, you’ll find that your planning time will decrease significantly because the reading and
writing process will feel more habitual—which is not the same as formulaic. You’ll hear that warning
reiterated multiple times throughout this chapter—there’s no formula to follow every time—but you’ll
feel more capable and flexible in generating and organizing ideas if you practice often. That way,
you’ll know how to turn an abstract idea about a theme or concept into a clear essay based on textual
analysis. You’ll know how to take apart a difficult passage. You’ll also know what kinds of analytical
“moves” or strategies are your favorite building blocks to stack together into interesting sequences.
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You can start with the following general guidelines for timing and then adapt them based on the
TIP habits you develop.
Writing a
8-10 minutes of reading the passage and making notes
relatively painless
40-minute essay
• Read the prompt, and underline the main task it’s asking you to perform.
takes hours • Read the passage, and underline and make annotations about
of repetitive ºº words or phrases you don’t understand.
practice. ºº words or phrases that are footnoted and may help you understand other unknowns.
ºº phrases that seem directly related to the main task that you identified in the prompt.
ºº phrases that surprise you because they seem out of place or to challenge your expecta-
tions—they may even seem confusing, unsuccessful, or wrong in some way.
• Identify a tension or conflict that seems to be present in the passage: how does your surprising/
challenging element expose that tension? Briefly note it in the margin and tag the sections
of the passage that seem relevant to exploring that tension further.
25-27 minutes of composing the essay

• Write your introduction. Explain
ºº the main idea of the passage with the vocabulary from the prompt, but don’t restate
the prompt completely.
ºº the tension or conflict that you’ve identified within that main idea, which isn’t stated
in the prompt but which you’ve identified from your own close reading of the language
in the passage.
ºº the preliminary so-what question: why that tension helps you see a new facet of the
main idea.
• Write your body paragraphs.
ºº Start with straightforward ideas to build a foundation for your analysis—both for yourself
to gain confidence and for your reader to have somewhere clear to start understanding
how you’re thinking about the passage.
ºº After that first body paragraph about the straightforward example, start looking at the
surprising, unconventional, annoying, or ambiguous quotations you’ve annotated so
that you’re not just analyzing obvious examples.
ºº Using your annotations of relevant and surprising phrases, incorporate quotations into
your own sentence.
ºº Analyze those quotations—don’t just restate them or summarize them—and give them
ample context for how they relate to your argument.
ºº Keep track of explaining the “so what” of your analysis at the end of each paragraph.
ºº It’s okay to make paragraph breaks if you feel you’re losing track of an idea—your
readers will thank you.
• Write your conclusion.
ºº Make sure to include a conclusion, even if it’s short.

ºº Use the first sentence of your conclusion to explain how the main idea has become
ºº
more nuanced through your analysis.
But don’t just restate what you said in the previous paragraphs—it’s a short essay, so
TIP
If you find that
repetition is unnecessary.
you struggle with
ºº Look back at your so-what statements in the body paragraphs and make one more
topic sentences,
even loftier claim for the importance of your analysis.
leave two lines
of space as
5 minutes of editing
you start your
• Read through the sentences and clearly cross out any extra words or ideas you didn’t finish. paragraphs—
• Make sure that you have clear topic sentences (and no placeholders) for each paragraph many people find
that show what your main idea is. that they’re ready
• Check for repetitive sentences that you can tighten up quickly by crossing out unnecessary to write their best
words. topic sentences
• Check for usage, punctuation, and spelling errors. at the ends of
the paragraphs
because they’ve
MOVING BEYOND THE FIVE-PARAGRAPH ESSAY just realized what
Notice how we’ve broken down the basic mechanics of literary analysis into some guidelines: start they want to say.
with a foundation and then find the more ambiguous, surprising, and complicated passages. But know
that those are guidelines, not a specific formula. We don’t recommend always dividing a paragraph
into three separate devices like diction, metaphor, and tone. We also don’t recommend writing a
formulaic thesis statement that lists those devices. Those formulas are comforting: they give you a
pre-made structure and you just have to fill in the blanks. However, the formulaic, three-pronged
structure doesn’t let you explore the nuances in the passages, because it breaks up the ideas into dis-
crete, single-use tools: first I will look at diction, then I will move on to metaphor. Those two items
aren’t related . . . are they? Of course they are! The problem with a three-pronged thesis that breaks
things up into pre-made boxes is that the tensions and conflicts you’re analyzing in these passages
have interrelated pieces; you may not be able to (or want to) separate them.
Your Trusty, Rusty Toolbox

You may be most comfortable framing your thesis and topic sentences in terms of “tools” you’ll be
using to analyze the text. It’s more compelling to explain what you realize when you use these tools.
You can and should still use those familiar tools; just focus your explanations on what they reveal,
not just that you paid attention to buzzwords such as rhyme, metaphor, diction, etc.
For example, compare the difference between these sentences:
The diction in this passage is convoluted, which shows that the narrator is confused about what he
is witnessing. The narrator’s sensory language is clearer, however, showing that the two narrative
features are contradictory.
The narrator’s convoluted diction signals his confusion at the scene in front of him; as his words
fail him, however, his sense of smell becomes sharper and he startles to recognize the clue that’s
been sitting right in front of him.
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The second sentence uses stronger verbs: signals, fail, startles vs. shows, is, showing. The stronger
verbs let you re-tell the story in your own analytical language by focusing your attention on how and
what the tools reveal in the passage, not just that you are using them and stating what’s “clearer.”
Show, don’t tell. Use strong verbs. You’ve heard these guidelines before, but you probably thought
they referred just to writing fiction. Not necessarily. Narrate your analysis like you’re re-focusing
your director’s camera on the scene to highlight the features you want the reader to notice in your
survey of the passage.
To continue with the earlier sports metaphor, when you throw a ball as part of play, you don’t explain:
“I am throwing the ball in order to advance the ball.” The act of throwing is less important than
where it ends up, and how that play generates the next play. When you’re practicing those plays,
you may be reciting to yourself, “Now I am throwing the ball” (or not), but eventually it becomes a
habit and you think about higher-order stuff. When you’re chopping onions for a dish and then you
present the complete dish after several other steps, the chopping part becomes less important than
how the onions support the other flavors. But while you’re learning to chop onions, it’s a lot of focus
and tears. We hope there are fewer tears with this strategy, even if your eyes water at our insistence
that you try something new.
You may see the word analysis and figure that it’s up to you to get inside the narrator’s or main char-
acter’s head and analyze their feelings, then solve their problems or say what they should do. You will
pretend you’re a psychologist and “read” the patient in the passage. Avoid the “should” statements:
you’re here to consider the author’s use of language, not to diagnose or fix the characters.
You may also want to judge or assess what’s effective, successful, or confusing in the passage and
TIP
give the author advice about what could be different, in your opinion. You will pretend you’re an
editor and try to fix the passage. Those judgments will limit you, the writer, because you will spend
all of your reading time trying to find “evidence” to support your dislike, confusion, or frustration.
“Show, don’t
You will pretend you’re a lawyer and try to make a case for what’s wrong, what could be better, and
tell” is not just for what the characters need to do differently.
story writing. The
You’re neither psychologist, editor, nor lawyer. You’re a reader. The task here is to read the passage
guideline helps
through the lens that the prompt gives you, and then record your readings of specific language from
you focus on
the passage in an organized, thoughtful form that takes the exam reader through your interpretations.
WHAT and HOW
You’re both readers: first of the passage, then of the essay. Just two readers, communicating via essay.
you’re learning
from your
The Benefits of the Open Thesis
analysis, not just
THAT you’re using Your first line of communication is your introduction, where you’re expected to write a thesis statement
an analytical tool that helps orient the exam reader. Instead of the three-pronged or judgment/opinion-based thesis, it’s
to pay attention a better idea to work with an open thesis. The open thesis gives an idea of what you will be analyzing
to metaphor,
in the passage and a preliminary explanation as to why that’s important. It may be more than one
sentence long—the potentially frustrating thing about it is that it’s open and adaptable to your ideas.
rhyme, or some
other device The open thesis may:
you’ve learned • reveal a deeper way of considering the main idea of the passage, by exposing a hidden
about. tension or conflict that you will analyze in depth.

• point out the surprising element of the passage that your analysis will illuminate in order
to help you reconsider the main idea in greater depth.
• propose an initial hypothesis for understanding a tension or conflict from the essay prompt
and to indicate a surprising way of reconsidering that tension.
It’s open-ended, so you can surprise yourself as you’re writing and generating new ideas as you
analyze passages. If you’re thinking deeply as you write, you may surprise yourself when you find a
new facet of your idea that you hadn’t thought about in the introduction. Because your open thesis
has promised the reader that there are depths you’ll explore in your analysis, you’ll have room to
develop those insights. A judgment or a three-pronged essay doesn’t have these dynamic qualities
or adaptability because they tend to be inflexible; they predetermine the kinds of work you’re going
to do in the essay.
Here are some comparisons between three-pronged theses, judgments/opinions, and open theses.
(Note that the works of literature in question don’t matter for these examples.)
Three-pronged thesis: The protagonist’s family background influences his behavior as an adult,
as is evidenced by his disconcertingly interrelated uses of violence, pity, and humor.
Judgment/opinion: The protagonist’s sadistic sense of humor is a product of his family background,
which makes it hard to relate to his jokes.
Open thesis: The most disconcerting element of John’s narration is the violence underlying his
humor, creating a push-pull sense of intimacy with the reader, where one is tempted to laugh and
be repulsed in successive sentences.
What might follow the open thesis: The unexpected outcome of this oscillating attraction
and repulsion is not relatability but pity for what he cannot understand about himself. This pity
combines with the violence to deepen the sense of moral ambiguity in the novel.
Three-pronged thesis: The speaker of the poem deals with disappointment in love in destructive
ways that are reflected in the form and language of the poem, as seen in the broken rhyme, the
irregular meter, and the mixed metaphors.
Judgment/opinion: The speaker’s heartbreak is clear from his use of broken rhyme and meter,
but his use of metaphors is less successful in showing his disillusionment because they are cliched.
Open thesis: The speaker rejects not only love but also the act of writing love poetry itself. Each
“broken” mode of rhyme, meter, and metaphor shows his distrust of any form of human coupling—
or linguistic pairings. He turns each sonnet convention against itself to show the insufficiency of
language to form bonds between distinct entities, be they humans or words.
What might follow the open thesis: Yet he has also left room for some hope in the flawed
attempt at composition. The poem asks, what does one do with flaws, if one cannot correct them?
These are just examples from (missing) sample passages, but they indicate the ways that you can
explore a passage to find its hidden depths, and then use the essay form to guide the reader through
that exploration. The open thesis opens up that space for exploration and provides an initial signpost.
Let’s work through a real passage and prompt to see how to do all of that exploration in less than
40 minutes.
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BREAKING DOWN THE COMPOSITION PROCESS

Your first step should always be to read the prompt. The prompt will give you the primary vocabulary,
the words that you can use to focus your attention on the passage. It may outline a tension or conflict
for you to examine; it may suggest a few analytical tools to focus your attention. Your primary goal
for the essay is to answer the question, so the most important thing is to make sure that you know
what you’re being asked to do.
Let’s start with a prose prompt.
Read the following passage carefully. Write a well-organized essay in which you discuss how the
shipwrecked sailor experiences disorientation on the island, to the extent that even familiar features
of the island become unfamiliar to him.
from Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe
I was now at a great loss which way to get home with my boat! I had run so
much hazard, and knew too much of the case, to think of attempting it by the
way I went out; and what might be at the other side (I mean the west side) I
knew not, nor had I any mind to run any more ventures; so I resolved on the
next morning to make my way westward along the shore, and to see if there was
no creek where I might lay up my frigate in safety, so as to have her again if I
wanted her. In about three miles or thereabouts, coasting the shore, I came to
a very good inlet or bay, about a mile over, which narrowed till it came to a very
little rivulet or brook, where I found a very convenient harbour for my boat, and
where she lay as if she had been in a little dock made on purpose for her. Here
I put in, and having stowed my boat very safe, I went on shore to look about
me, and see where I was.
I soon found I had but a little passed by the place where I had been before,
when I travelled on foot to that shore; so taking nothing out of my boat but my
gun and umbrella, for it was exceedingly hot, I began my march. The way was
comfortable enough after such a voyage as I had been upon, and I reached my
old bower in the evening, where I found everything standing as I left it; for I
always kept it in good order, being, as I said before, my country house.
I got over the fence, and laid me down in the shade to rest my limbs, for I was
very weary, and fell asleep; but judge you, if you can, that read my story, what a
surprise I must be in when I was awaked out of my sleep by a voice calling me
by my name several times, “Robin, Robin, Robin Crusoe: poor Robin Crusoe!
Where are you, Robin Crusoe? Where are you? Where have you been?”
I was so dead asleep at first, being fatigued with rowing, or part of the day, and
with walking the latter part, that I did not wake thoroughly; but dozing thought
I dreamed that somebody spoke to me; but as the voice continued to repeat,
“Robin Crusoe, Robin Crusoe,” at last I began to wake more perfectly, and
was at first dreadfully frightened, and started up in the utmost consternation;

but no sooner were my eyes open, but I saw my Poll sitting on the top of the
hedge; and immediately knew that it was he that spoke to me; for just in such
bemoaning language I had used to talk to him and teach him; and he had
learned it so perfectly that he would sit upon my finger, and lay his bill close to
my face and cry, “Poor Robin Crusoe! Where are you? Where have you been?
How came you here?” and such things as I had taught him.
However, even though I knew it was the parrot, and that indeed it could be
nobody else, it was a good while before I could compose myself. First, I was
amazed how the creature got thither; and then, how he should just keep about
the place, and nowhere else; but as I was well satisfied it could be nobody but
honest Poll, I got over it; and holding out my hand, and calling him by his
name, “Poll,” the sociable creature came to me, and sat upon my thumb, as he
used to do, and continued talking to me, “Poor Robin Crusoe! and how did I
come here? and where had I been?” just as if he had been overjoyed to see me
again; and so I carried him home along with me.
The Prompt
What the Prompt Asks

The prompt is asking you to find elements of disorientation and unfamiliarity in the passage. This
task is simple enough in the opening paragraphs: he gets lost. The passage continues for several
paragraphs after he finds his way back to his “country house,” where he encounters his pet parrot,
Poll, speaking to him in his own words. One way of asking this question in a pointed way is this:
Why does the unfamiliarity follow him home?
Some of the challenges of this prompt are: Resist summarizing the events of the passage, dig deeper
than the obvious examples, resist summarizing the challenging examples. This passage appears to be
simple, but that means you have to work harder to distinguish your analysis and to progress beyond
the basics in that analysis.
Read the passage for the main idea

First, find the most straightforward examples of disorientation in the passage. In the early paragraphs,
Crusoe’s disorientation is characterized by long strings of clauses and digressions that highlight the
fact that he doesn’t know where he’s going. Here’s one example:
I had run so much hazard, and knew too much of the case, to think of
attempting it by the way I went out; and what might be at the other side (I
mean the west side) I knew not, nor had I any mind to run any more ventures;
so I resolved on the next morning to make my way westward along the shore,
and to see if there was no creek where I might lay up my frigate in safety, so as
to have her again if I wanted her.
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It may be tempting to register a judgment opinion about the style of narration here: those semicolons
could be periods. First, that’s a stylistic device that’s more common in the eighteenth century (although
you wouldn’t be expected to know that). More importantly, the feature that grabs your attention
with its digressiveness is also the main idea of the passage: the somewhat disjointed style highlights the
main idea. You may remember that link from Section I of the exam: style and theme are often linked.
Mark similar passages that show this kind of digressiveness or tendency to wander about or depart
from the main subject. In other words, these passages mirror the character’s own disorientation. Of
course, they’re so long that you won’t be citing them in full in your essay—this is where fragmentary
quotations will come in useful—but it’s important to mark the examples so you can see the patterns
in the style.
Because we’re paying attention to digressive sentences, this one seems striking in how it makes the
order of words more complicated than it has to be: “...for I always kept it in good order, being, as I
said before, my country house.” If we’re thinking about how even his home becomes unfamiliar to
him, it’s useful to note that his language to introduce his “country house” is out of syntactical order,
even if he claims, interrupting himself, that it’s always in order.
Read a passage for its confusing and challenging parts

What are some other ways that Defoe signals disorientation in the passage? He is disoriented when he
is awakened by the sound of a voice mimicking him. Poll’s dialogue is strange because he is repeating
Crusoe’s own language back to him: “Poor Robin Crusoe! and how did I come here? and where had
I been?” He thought he was alone, but what challenges him is not the presence of another human,
but of a mimic that repeats his own language.
Identify tensions and conflicts

Thus, what’s most disconcerting about Poll’s language is how familiar it is. That’s a fascinating irony
to explore in your essay: what’s most familiar to Crusoe are his own thoughts, but they become
disorienting when he hears them repeated back to himself in the imitative voice of a parrot. You
can call that unsettling experience an example of the uncanny—when the familiar becomes strange.
There is a tension between familiarity and strangeness.
We reframed the essay prompt as: what happens when disorientation follows him home . . . That pro-
vocative framing makes it seem like a horror movie, and the talking parrot who repeats his own voice
only adds to such a creepy re-envisioning of the scene.
You can now write an introduction and an open-ended thesis about the passage:
We thought it was an adventure story of a shipwreck, where Robinson Crusoe’s getting lost is part
of the conventional means of exploration. In the later paragraphs of the passage, the story becomes
more like a horror tale or a Gothic novel, where Crusoe’s “country house” becomes a site for the
uncanny, where he encounters a double of himself in parrot form. Both Crusoe and the reader are
disoriented by the way familiar features become strange.

The introduction is the most important part of the essay because you’re setting up your reader’s
expectations, and this introduction certainly challenges them to reconsider the passage in a new way.
This essay promises to analyze the passages that you’ve underlined first as conventions in an adventure
story, and then flip them around to show how they may also be conventions in a horror story.
(Note: This is not the only way that you could frame this essay; it’s just an example. What would
you do differently in exploring that tension between familiarity and strangeness in the passage?)
Body Paragraphs
Straightforward Example
Write the first body paragraph about the most straightforward textual examples of the idea you’re
exploring. This way, you can start with analysis that you feel confident in explaining, and your reader
will have a firm foundation for understanding where you’re coming from. You can start with the
clear examples of digressiveness you underlined. You can explain how the stacks of clauses become
disorienting and difficult to follow and how Crusoe himself gets lost in his explanations.
Examples of Surprise
Write the next body paragraph about a textual example that has a surprising element that makes
you have to dig deeper into the tension you’ve uncovered. This may be a detail that doesn’t quite
fit your expectations and makes you reassess what was straightforward in the previous paragraph.
Here, you can find two different examples of surprise from your reading: You can note the example of
the disordered sentence in describing his home (mentioned above as something you could annotate).
That example is a short sentence fragment that locates the disorientation not just in the lost parts of
the island but in his “old bower,” “his country house.” In that way, it’s the first step to showing how
the disorientation follows him home.
Here you could start to build the case that even the home is strange to him, a common convention
in a horror story or a Gothic novel. (Indeed, you wouldn’t be responsible for knowing this, but the
“country house” poem by such poets as Andrew Marvell in the seventeenth century is sometimes
thought to be a forerunner to the Gothic novel because it describes an estate and, as we see here, it’s
only a slight shift in perspective that turns such a description into something strange.)
The second example is Poll’s repetition of his own language. We’ve noted that it’s uncanny because
it’s both familiar to him (his own words) and strange (because it comes from a parrot—and one he
hadn’t expected to see). You can identify the tension between familiarity and strangeness in this pet
who talks to its owner; indeed, it’s a pet that reminds its owner of his loneliness and self-pity, which
we don’t always expect pets to do!
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Using Quotations
TIP In order to analyze quotations in depth, you need to quote enough of the passage that you have
something substantial to work with. A sentence or most of a sentence is more useful than a single
Always
make sure to
word or two; you can zoom in and focus on particular words after you’ve given the context and
explanation. Such analysis might look like this:
incorporate
your quotations Crusoe explains the twists and turns of finding his way home in exhaustive detail, so that the
into sentences, reader can barely follow him: “In about three miles or thereabouts, coasting the shore, I came to
whether as part a very good inlet or bay, about a mile over, which narrowed till it came to a very little rivulet
of your own or brook, where I found a very convenient harbour for my boat . . . ” The clear details about esti-
narrative or set
mated distance and direction are narrated with frequent interjections to correct himself slightly
with phrases like “or thereabouts” and “about a mile over.” Why does he need this much detail? Is
off with a colon.
he explaining the route to himself so he may find it again? The description is both realistic and
Don’t just leave
disorienting in its immersive detail.
the quotations
floating by This analysis mixes longer quotations with more focused attention to patterns in single words and
themselves. phrases. The passage is introduced with enough context to explain what’s going on, but it’s not mere
summary or description. The introductory phrase “the reader can barely follow him” signals how to
pay attention to details in the quotation after the colon. When you introduce these longer quotations,
use a colon to set them off from your own language.
You might introduce quotations in context like this:
Crusoe is awakened from his slumber when he hears a strange voice that sounds both familiar and
strange: “Robin, Robin, Robin Crusoe: poor Robin Crusoe! Where are you, Robin Crusoe? Where
are you? Where have you been?”
Defoe slyly reveals Crusoe’s self-pity and loneliness, by having Poll proclaim it in mimicking his
master: “for just in such bemoaning language I had used to talk to him and teach him; and he had
learned it so perfectly. . . ”
It’s best to balance these sentences with your own words at the front and to use the quotation as
the end of the sentence. Don’t try to cram your own analysis after the quotation as part of the same
sentence. You can just start a new sentence to give your analysis a chance to breathe.
Fragmentary quotations are useful after you’ve worked with the more substantial sentence form, to
draw attention to single words or phrases that you really want to highlight.
The “bemoaning language” becomes ghostly in Poll’s repetitions, like an echo of Crusoe’s own voice
on the island that is not quite “sociable,” for it is only a repetition that the animal has “learned
. . . perfectly.”
Explain the so-what question.

Why does your analysis of the passage help you explore your surprise or challenge to your expecta-
tions? It would be difficult to over-explain the significance of your analysis; most people skimp on
this section either because they think it’s obvious, or they aren’t really sure why they’ve just analyzed

this passage. Either of those possibilities will be transparently obvious to your readers, so keep writing
these sentences until you think you’ve come up with an insight about why that analysis helped you
see a new element of the passage. Writing is a process of thinking, so it’s normal, even admirable,
to come up with ideas and insights even as you’re writing these sentences. It’s gratifying to see an
author hit on an idea, especially if it shows them reconsidering and reflecting on previous paragraphs.
We call this thinking on the page, and it shows that you’re a sophisticated reader and writer, able to
communicate that reflection in such a short span.
For this passage, you’ve taken the reader on an unexpected journey into what they thought was a
deserted island but is actually a deserted island that is haunted with echoes and disorder. Why does
this shift in expectations matter? Is it just a clever reading?
You might answer the so-what question like this:
The haunted parts of the island show Crusoe’s horror at his loneliness. When repeated back to him,
the phrases “Poor Robin! . . . how did I come here? and where had I been?” expose the fact that he
has been searching for existential answers to his condition. He wants answers; he encounters only
a voice repeating his worries back at him. His “country house” will never be his home, for he is
apparently permanently displaced. All of his explanations about distance and direction lead him
only to temporary spaces in which he can camp out. He is left to make sense of the accident that
left him shipwrecked, with no hope of an answer. He thought he was in an adventure story, but
he is also a ghost on the island.
Say what you will about that example: it’s not boring. It interprets the passage in a creative, sur-
prising way. It doesn’t have to be a perfect essay; rather, it needs to show why your analysis lets us see
something about the passage we hadn’t seen before. The prompt asked you to discuss how Crusoe
experiences disorientation on the island and back at his home, so we’ve given an interpretation about
how the disorientation warps the sense of generic conventions and expectations in the passage. We
(and he) are supposed to be in an adventure story, but the conventions become strange, unfamiliar,
and scary, as if we were instead in a horror story. The horror is not due to monsters but to existential
loneliness. That’s an intense so-what answer!
The sample essays in prose and poetry are coming up next, which is where we’ll get to breaking
down these strategies into specific sentence forms. We won’t write out the full essay; rather, we’ll
show how you can apply the reading and thinking strategies to poetry with some minor adaptations.
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Read this poem by Thomas Hardy carefully. Then write a well-organized essay in which you
discuss how the speaker reconciles his conflicted feelings about his troubled friend. By looking
at the formal elements of the poem, show how he arrives at this reconciliation.
“Confession to a Friend in Trouble,” by Thomas Hardy
Your troubles shrink not, though I feel them less

Here, far away, than when I tarried near;
I even smile old smiles—with listlessness—
Line Yet smiles they are, not ghastly mockeries mere.
5 A thought too strange to house within my brain

Haunting its outer precincts I discern:
—That I will not show zeal again to learn
Your griefs, and, sharing them, renew my pain . . . .
It goes, like murky bird or buccaneer

10 That shapes its lawless figure on the main,
And each new impulse tends to make outflee
The unseemly instinct that had lodgment here;
Yet, comrade old, can bitterer knowledge be
Than that, though banned, such instinct was in me!
What the Prompt Asks

The prompt asks you to analyze how Hardy reconciles his conflicted feelings about his troubled
friends, by looking at the formal elements of the poem. This poem is a sonnet, so we may be looking
at the sonnet’s structure, rhyme, meter, and also Hardy’s direct address to the distant friend. How do
these formal elements illuminate his ambivalent feelings and perhaps give him a bit of solace about
the irrevocably changed friendship?
Read the passage for the main idea

Thomas Hardy’s “Confession to a Friend in Trouble” is a sonnet with a conflict at its center: the poet
loves his friend, yet he is unsure how to express those feelings to a friend who is flailing for help. We
don’t have access to knowledge about what’s wrong with the speaker’s friend or what we might find
in Hardy’s biography to see any deeper connections to his life.
The ambivalence is baked into every line of the poem: the rhymes in the first paragraph are all about
missed connections, even if they rhyme in a superficial way: “less”/”listlessness” and “near”/”mere.”
Even as he’s making a poetic attempt at connection, he’s highlighting the superficiality of the exercise.

Identify Surprising, Unconventional, Challenging Qualities

One surprising element is that even though the poem is addressed to his friend, the word “you” is
mentioned only twice. The poet seems to be avoiding his friend even in the language of the poem.
This absence is not conventional in a sonnet, but then, this sonnet’s subject itself is unconventional.
We also have the sonnet form, the rhyme scheme of which takes the form abab cddc eeffgg. This
structure is not conventional for sonnets, either in English or Petrarchan forms. This shift from the
sonnet’s conventions is surprising, for it makes us pay attention to how the speaker resolves rhymes
in different schemas in each stanza.
In both of these “challenges,” it may be tempting to tell Hardy and his speaker what to do to resolve
the friendship: show more empathy, cut the cord, try to talk it out in a conversation instead of in
a one-sided poem. The thing is, the ambivalent sonnet is all we have to analyze; the “flaws” in the
sonnet form and rhyme are what make it compelling to read. Those frustrating elements, both formal
and emotional, that we might be able to advise or fix are the stuff that makes the poem so powerful.
Analyze the struggle on the page instead of trying to solve it off the page.
Why are these important for exploring the tensions in the poem?
Can a poem actually reconcile a troubled friendship? The prompt is asking you how Hardy reconciles
the conflict, but many features of the poem suggest that these feelings are in fact irreconcilable. They
will constantly shift their forms, for the feelings “like murky bird or buccaneer / That shapes its
lawless figure on the main” (9-10). The speaker is using the structural, rhythmic, and conventional
limitations of poetic form to give a shape to his diffuse feelings; the limitations of the sonnet’s form
also enable him to express ambiguities. Thus, the major tension in this poem is what reconciliation
might look like.
Body Paragraphs
Straightforward Examples
In analyzing poetry, it’s a good idea to build your foundation by looking at the largest structural ele-
ments, like form. In this case, we were surprised that the sonnet had unconventional rhyme endings.
We might interpret the unconventional stanza structure to say that it shows him struggling to figure
out the best way of making connections. The uncertain, shifting approaches to pairing formal ele-
ments reflect his personal ambivalence about pairing and connection in the friendship.
Develop Complexity
We were also surprised that the word “you” is conspicuously absent from the sonnet. “Your troubles”
and “your griefs” appear in lines 1 and 8, but they are marked with negations: they “shrink not” and
the speaker “will not show zeal again to learn” about them. The friend himself is missing from the
poem, replaced by the “pain” the speaker feels at that friend’s overwhelming troubles. In the speaker’s
mind, the friend has been eclipsed by his troubles.
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Using Quotations
In analyzing poetry, you can introduce quotations the same way you would with prose passages and
signal a line break with a backslash (/). Then cite the lines in parentheses at the very end of the sentence.
The format looks like this:
The speaker gestures to his attempt to contain his ambivalence when he voices “a thought too
strange to house within my brain” that can only “haunt the outer precincts” (5-6). Yet he sets off
this troubling thought in italics, to record its devastating ambivalence: “I will not show zeal again
to learn / Your griefs, and, sharing them, renew my pain” (7-8).
So-What Question
This is a poem about the insufficiencies of the poetic form. Each conventional element—from
structure to rhyme—is about trying to make a connection with words and formal structures that might
contain his ambivalent feelings. The final couplet is not a loving reconciliation of two old friends
who have solved their problems, but a record of the “bitterer feelings,” or the “unseemly instinct
that had lodgment here” in the poem (12-13). The reconciliation, then, is with the realization that
pain and ambivalence are constants.
TIP This is another intense so-what conclusion! It answers the question by first showing that the simple
reconciliation isn’t possible and by then suggesting a darker interpretation of the request for reso-
It may be helpful lution. The poem ends on an unsettled note, so our conclusion must take stock of that irresolution,
to underline instead of trying to tie it up neatly.
particular words
you want to
emphasize, as
HOME STRETCH: THE LAST 5 MINUTES OF EACH
though you were
ESSAY
italicizing them As you’re composing your essay, try to leave yourself a few minutes to check over your work to make
on the computer. sure you haven’t left any sentence fragments or left out any topic sentences or words.
Don’t overuse
this strategy Edit Your Ideas
and underline
Because writing is a process of thinking, you may have repeated yourself as you were writing toward
everything or
an idea. You may have come up with your best idea at the end of a paragraph. Don’t make the exam
your reader won’t reader work too hard to decipher your sentence order, but do go back and tighten up any repetitions
know which ones that you can cross out quickly and cleanly. Your essay doesn’t need to be perfect, but it does need to
are the most be legible, so make sure that you’ve crossed out stuff clearly and not left any ambiguous stray marks
important. If this or fragments.
strategy appeals
to you, you can Check for Usage Errors
use it once or
The score is holistic, so you’re not being marked down for particular errors; no one expects you to
twice an essay—
be perfect on a timed exam, but readers may get frustrated when they see a pattern of mistakes.
at most.
They often read looking for what’s called a “hierarchy of mistakes”: they care most about pervasive

patterns that affect their ability to understand what you’re saying. They won’t pay as much attention
to an extra comma that doesn’t affect their comprehension of your work.
Commas, semicolons, and periods are easier to edit than whole words or sentences, so if you have a
TIP
Make sure that
tendency to write long, winding sentences, go back and add some clarifying punctuation. Remember
you’ve spelled
Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, searching for familiarity in those long digressions; remember how he
characters’ and
encountered only repetitions and echoes of his ideas? Remember how disorienting those sentences
author names
were? Try to make your writing seem more familiar, so that it doesn’t sound like you’re parroting
correctly—those
back fragments of phrases, like Poll.
silly errors stick
out like sore
COMMON READER PET PEEVES thumbs. (See
what we did
All teachers or readers have their own pet peeves, and of course, you can’t know what idiosyncrasies
your exam readers are bringing to the table. Here are a few very common errors that seem like they’re there?)
small but which actually reveal larger thinking problems that readers will notice.
Empty Transition Words

You may have learned the value of transition words like moreover, therefore, thus, nevertheless, however,
and other phrases. Their value is relative to how frequently you use them: use them sparingly, to
emphasize important transitions. When they’re overused, it starts to look as if you’re using them
to disguise the emptiness of the connection you’re drawing between paragraphs and sentences. In
cases of overuse, either strike them out as you’re editing, or, better yet, take a moment to write out a
transition based on the actual connection between your ideas, rather than patching a gap in your logic.
Unclear Antecedents TIP

An unclear antecedent is an ambiguous reference to this, that, these, those, them, and other pronouns As you scan your
where your reader isn’t sure which noun is being specified. work one last
time, make sure
Examples:
that you haven’t
This shows how the speaker is wavering in his affections. used the word
The protagonist isn’t sure how to feel about this. “interesting”
or “unique” or
Specifying a noun after “this” in a sentence like “this shows . . . ” is a great way to build a transition
any similarly
without using empty transition words.
overused words.
Example: The speaker reiterates her loyalty to her family in the final stanza; this loyalty is tinged with Show, don’t tell:
ambivalence... choose a more
Related to the unclear antecedent problem is the sloppy connection: when you drop in a quotation specific adjective
and say “this connects because . . . (reasons),” you’re not explaining what “this” refers to. Show, don’t that indicates
tell the connection. what makes it
interesting or
unique.
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THE SMALLEST DETAILS COUNT

We’ve focused a lot on essay content, but let’s take a minute to discuss the nitty gritty of essay
mechanics.
If you are hand writing your essay, use legible handwriting. The reader will only score what he or
she can read without too much scrutiny or frustration. They know you’re rushed for time, but you
should know that they’re reading hundreds of essays and don’t have time to spend deciphering tiny,
illegible scrawl.
Make visible indentations. The reader’s eyes will glaze over if they’re reading long paragraphs.
Vary your sentence lengths. Especially in sentences where you want to emphasize your main ideas,
try using short, punchy sentences to make them stand out. Because writing is a process of thinking,
it’s common to stack up many compound sentences with and, but, or, yet, so as you string together
ideas. Make sure that you’re not just endlessly stringing clause after clause together with little
variation. Likewise, check for places where you’ve joined together independent clauses with just a
comma—called a comma splice.
Make sure that you’re using vocabulary from the question in your answer. This is the commonsense
way to make sure that you’re answering the question that ETS is asking: are you using, adapting,
and refining the terms they’ve given you? You don’t want to just restate or summarize; you want to
show that you’re building on the work they’ve done in framing the question for you.
Follow the order that works best for you. Start with the essay that most interests you, but remember
to number it with the corresponding number and label (prose, poetry, open). Make sure to spend
about 40 minutes on each one, as each one counts the same.
POETRY AND PROSE ESSAY WALKTHROUGHS

Let’s look at a sample question and three sample responses: one high-scoring, one middle-range,
and one low-scoring. For the high-scoring essays, we’ve broken down the paragraphs into tables that
show some of the strategies you might adapt for your own writing.
Sample Prose Prompt 1

Herman Melville wrote the novel Mardi in 1849, two years before Moby-Dick. Like that epic tale,
Mardi contains elements of philosophical musing about the relationship between humans and the
natural world of the sea. Read the passage carefully. Write an essay in which you analyze how Mel-
ville’s narrator combines scientific observation with figurative language in his encounter with the
strange creatures in the sea. What is the purpose or function of combining those two modes in this
passage? Are there tensions between science and metaphor? Are there unexpected correspondences
between observation and figurative expression?
From Mardi, by Herman Melville
There is a fish in the sea that evermore, like a surly lord, only goes abroad
attended by his suite. It is the Shovel-nosed Shark. A clumsy lethargic monster,
unshapely as his name, and the last species of his kind, one would think, to be

so bravely waited upon, as he is. His suite is composed of those dainty little
creatures called Pilot fish by sailors. But by night his retinue is frequently
increased by the presence of several small luminous fish, running in advance,
and flourishing their flambeaux like link-boys lighting the monster’s way. Pity
there were no ray-fish in rear, page-like, to carry his caudal train.
Now the relation subsisting between the Pilot fish above mentioned and their
huge ungainly lord, seems one of the most inscrutable things in nature. At
any rate, it poses poor me to comprehend. That a monster so ferocious, should
suffer five or six little sparks, hardly fourteen inches long, to gambol about his
grim hull with the utmost impunity, is of itself something strange. But when it
is considered, that by a reciprocal understanding, the Pilot fish seem to act as
scouts to the shark, warning him of danger, and apprising him of the vicinity
of prey; and moreover, in case of his being killed, evincing their anguish by
certain agitations, otherwise inexplicable; the whole thing becomes a mystery
unfathomable. Truly marvels abound. It needs no dead man to be raised, to con-
vince us of some things. Even my Viking marveled full as much at those Pilot
fish as he would have marveled at the Pentecost. But perhaps a little incident,
occurring about this period, will best illustrate the matter in hand.
We were gliding along, hardly three knots an hour, when my comrade, who had
been dozing over the gunwale, suddenly started to his feet, and pointed out an
immense Shovel-nosed Shark, less than a boat’s length distant, and about half
a fathom beneath the surface. A lance was at once snatched from its place; and
true to his calling, Jarl was about to dart it at the fish, when, interested by the
sight of its radiant little scouts, I begged him to desist.
One of them was right under the shark, nibbling at his ventral fin; another
above, hovering about his dorsal appurtenance; one on each flank; and a frisking
fifth pranking about his nose, seemingly having something to say of a confi-
dential nature. They were of a bright, steel-blue color, alternated with jet black
stripes; with glistening bellies of a silver-white. Clinging to the back of the
shark, were four or five Remoras, or sucking-fish; snaky parasites, impossible
to remove from whatever they adhere to, without destroying their lives. The
Remora has little power in swimming; hence its sole locomotion is on the backs
of larger fish. Leech-like, it sticketh closer than a false brother in prosperity;
closer than a beggar to the benevolent; closer than Webster to the Constitution.
But it feeds upon what it clings to; its feelers having a direct communication
with the esophagus.
The shark swam sluggishly; creating no sign of a ripple, but ever and, anon
shaking his Medusa locks, writhing and curling with horrible life. Now and
then, the nimble Pilot fish darted from his side--this way and that--mostly
toward our boat; but previous to taking a fresh start ever returning to their liege
lord to report progress.
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A thought struck me. Baiting a rope’s end with a morsel of our almost useless
salt beef, I suffered it to trail in the sea. Instantly the foremost scout swam
toward it; hesitated; paused; but at last advancing, briskly snuffed at the
line, and taking one finical little nibble, retreated toward the shark. Another
moment, and the great Tamerlane himself turned heavily about; pointing his
black, cannon-like nose directly toward our broadside. Meanwhile, the little
Pilot fish darted hither and thither; keeping up a mighty fidgeting, like men of
small minds in a state of nervous agitation.
Presently, Tamerlane swam nearer and nearer, all the while lazily eyeing the
Chamois, as a wild boar a kid. Suddenly making a rush for it, in the foam he
made away with the bait. But the next instant, the uplifted lance sped at his
skull; and thrashing his requiem with his sinewy tail, he sunk slowly, through
his own blood, out of sight. Down with him swam the terrified Pilot fish; but
soon after, three of them were observed close to the boat, gliding along at a
uniform pace; one on each side, and one in advance; even as they had attended
their lord. Doubtless, one was under our keel.
“A good omen,” said Jarl; “no harm will befall us so long as they stay.”
Sample 8-9 Essay

The narrator of Herman Melville’s Mardi is a detailed, inspired observer of the sea around him, and
he uses elaborate metaphors to show how small pilot fish attend to their protector shovel-nosed shark,
as well as how the remora fish attaches to the shark. These symbiotic relationships, or “reciprocal
understanding[s],” among animals are instructive for him, for they model the collaborative relationships
on board the ship. Scientific language and metaphors are not as distinct as they may seem, for they
both rely on models and comparisons for comprehending distinctions among details. The narrator’s
figurative language about dictators and democracies in the water helps him understand power and
authority on board his ship, so that the crew can understand their own collaborative duties. The fish
provide a biological and metaphorical model for collaborative authority, but that model is dynamic
and subject to change—much like human nature itself.
At first, the narrator is mystified by the interactions between the gigantic shark and the bright tiny
school of fish that swim around it, calling the scene “one of the most inscrutable things in nature.”
Yet he combines observation with elaborate metaphor in order to make them seem more like human
societies, with a clear distinction in roles between master and servant. The shark is “like a surly lord,
[who] only goes abroad attended by his suite,” and the pilot fish are servants who carry “flambeaux
like link-boys lighting the monster’s way” and who attend “their liege lord to report progress.” In
these metaphors, the behavior becomes not just understandable, no longer “inscrutable,” but natural.
Scientific language is full of metaphors that are used as models for understanding: schools of fish,
say, or the language of kingdoms, classes, orders, and families for classifying species. These terms
provide us a way of thinking about hierarchies and relationships. They are thus functional metaphors
for understanding the natural world in human terms.

It is strategic for a captain to organize the world around him this way—not just on board his ship,
where crewmen like Jarl will listen to him, but outside the ship as well. Indeed, the very structure
of moving from “inscrutable” to the natural order of things is a way to make the human extension
of the metaphor seem more like a natural observation of how the world works, not an imposition:
following leaders is natural, and collaboration is beneficial. One piece of figurative language, such
as the pilot fishes’ luminescent flambeaux-of-the-sea, might sound silly, but the repetition of the
language of “sparks” and “radiant little scouts” makes the metaphor seem less artificial and more like
just an observation of what the fish are and do. The description of the pilot fish becomes playful,
so that you’ll smile at the comparison rather than being confused by it, as “a frisking fifth pranking
about his nose, seemingly having something to say of a confidential nature.” The repetition of the
shark as a “lord” may sound excessive at first, but the repetition and elaboration of the metaphor
makes it seem natural. It sets up the most elaborate metaphor of all, in which the shark becomes the
dictator Tamerlane, who roams over his domain, laying waste to those in his way. Even if you don’t
know exactly who he is, the narrator’s repetition makes his power obvious. The narrator uses the
literary historical example of Tamerlane twice, so that the possibly unfamiliar comparison becomes
just a name that sounds reasonable—what was inscrutable becomes a historical reference. These
comparisons become natural; they transform from figurative language into data.
The remora that ride the shark are the reminder that the master-servant relationship is more compli-
cated than it appears to be. “Leech-like,” they ride the shark without providing any obvious benefit
to their host. Here Melville makes an unusual series of comparisons that are more “inscrutable” than
anything else in the passage: the remora “sticketh closer than a false brother in prosperity; closer
than a beggar to the benevolent; closer than Webster to the Constitution.” Even with a footnote,
that three-part comparison is unwieldy: first a comparison to the Biblical proverb, then a seemingly
satirical comparison to a historical figure. Even the middle comparison, “a beggar to the benevolent”
is unsettling because it inverts the structure of power. One expects the benevolent to act out of the
power to do good, but the language here makes it seem like the beggars are just taking without
giving back. Benevolence doesn’t seem as authoritative when its beneficiaries are accused of being
freeloading remoras. These ambiguities and conflicts are the stuff of democracy—not the rigid
autocracy of Tamerlane. Even without deep knowledge of Melville’s thoughts on Webster and the
Constitution, we know that ongoing legal discussions about the Constitution show the ways that
power and authority are subject to debate and adaptation in a democracy. Fundamentally, they are
subject to interpretation--the way that figurative language is also subject to interpretation, or how
scientific observation changes with new data.
This is why Jarl’s observation at the end of the passage is so important: they show him interpreting
a change in the pilot fishes’ behavior, as they adopt the ship as their new master, the new “shark”
they will follow. Jarl interprets their behavior as an omen, a sign that links human imagination with
the natural world. The crew member, not the captain, gets the final word in the passage, showing
the ways that the collaboration on the ship is less autocratic and more flexible than one might have
thought. The ship itself is the master here—as the pilot fish understand—not any one person.
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Reader Comments for the 8-9 Essay

(For clarity, Herman Melville is the author referred to in this explanation, and the exam writer—the
student who presumably wrote the essay—is the writer.)
This is a clear, compelling essay with a lot of depths—fittingly so for an essay about sea exploration.
The writer has identified three layers of symbiosis in the passage from Mardi: the scientific observation
of symbiosis among the sea creatures, the metaphorical extension of that symbiosis to a ship’s crew
who must collaborate, and finally to the interrelationship between the modes of scientific observation
and metaphor in the passage. In this way, the writer has addressed the essay question about how
Melville combines those two modes, and makes a clear argument that they complement each other,
and that it’s a false dichotomy to say that they’re at odds.
In the work with Tamerlane and Daniel Webster, the writer bites off a bit more than s/he can chew
(like a shark), but the writer is also to be commended for diving deep into those difficult passages.
(Sorry—the sea puns are irresistible!) The writer doesn’t try to make a wacky interpretation here;
these ideas about Melville’s references to dictatorial and democratic authority seem compelling and
would be fascinating to trace in a longer essay. Revision would let the writer be clearer about what’s
meant by “we know that legal discussions about the Constitution show . . . ” means specifically for
this argument.
The struggle to interpret those references leads the writer to a fascinating insight about how Mel-
ville himself discusses interpretation in both science and metaphor. The obvious idea would be that
metaphors are subjective and scientific observation is objective, but Melville has shown throughout
the passage that the narrator is interpreting the shark’s behavior subjectively, through the lens of his
own human organizational methods. The writer makes a sophisticated point here about the role of
interpretation in both modes of scientific observation and metaphorical language. Arguably, such
an insight wouldn’t have surfaced if not for some fumbling around in interpreting the unknowns in
Tamerlane and Webster, just like a scientist might do in investigating a new piece of unusual data.
Here is an outline of the first paragraph, the introduction, of the 8-9 essay, where you can see how
the writer used strategies for explaining the main idea about the three layers of symbiosis among
animals, shipmates, and formal scientific and metaphorical elements of the narration.
What the writer says What the writer does in the sentence
(sentence copied from the essay) (explanation of the strategy)
Note: Adapt these strategies to your own
uses, but don’t try to follow them in a rigid
order.
The narrator of Herman Melville’s Mardi is a • Names the author and title of the
detailed, inspired observer of the sea around him as excerpted work in a conversational way
he uses elaborate metaphors to show how small Pilot • Uses the vocabulary from the exam
fish attend to their protector Shovel-nosed shark . . . question (observation, metaphor) to show
the connection between the two modes

order.
These symbiotic relationships, or “reciprocal • Briefly explains the main
understanding[s],” among animals are instructive idea of the passage
for him, for they model the collaborative relation- • Integrates fragmentary quotations into
ships on board the ship. the explanation to indicate how that
main idea is conveyed in the language
of the passage. No analysis yet—these
fragments are for you to practice nar-
rowing your focus onto small examples
of the language as you explain the
main idea of the poem, as if you were
scanning your camera over the poem
to find the details on which to focus.
• Briefly explains the so what: the animal
symbiosis is an organizing metaphor
for collaboration among humans
• Cites line numbers to help the
reader find the quotations
Scientific language and metaphors are not as dis- • Makes a link between the passage’s main
tinct as they may seem, for they both rely on models idea (symbiosis of animals) and writer’s
and comparisons for comprehending distinctions own idea about the link between formal
among details. qualities of the scientific and meta-
phorical modes mentioned in the prompt
(symbiosis of science and metaphor)
The narrator’s figurative language about dictators • Builds on the so-what idea from
and democracies in the water helps him understand the earlier sentence to show how it’s
power and authority on board his ship, so that the developing complexity already
crew can understand their own collaborative duties. • The final clause about how these inter-
The fish provide a biological and metaphorical actions are subject to change guar-
model for collaborative authority, but that model is antees that the essay will be dynamic
dynamic and subject to change—much like human as the writer assesses these changes
nature itself. in different parts of the passage.
The introduction may seem a bit long—it’s a bit repetitive and could be tightened up if it were a
revisable essay. Nevertheless, it’s a sophisticated insight, so the writer seems to be working out some
of the so-what idea during the writing process. Remember, you can modify these strategies on your
own and see what works best for you.
Here are some exemplary, even ambitious, sentences and strategies from the body paragraphs of
the essay.
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order.
At first, the narrator is mystified by the interac- • Introduces the idea of “inscrutability” as
tions between the gigantic shark and the bright a theme worth considering next to the
tiny school of fish that swim around it, calling analysis of the symbiotic relationships
the scene “one of the most inscrutable things in • This key idea lays the groundwork
nature.” for later paragraphs in the essay in
which the writer develops complexity
by looking at “inscrutable” passages,
so it’s a clever way to insist that the
passage has complexity at its very core.
The shark is “like a surly lord, [who] only goes • In this early paragraph, picks rela-
abroad attended by his suite,” and the pilot fish tively straightforward (yet interesting)
are servants who carry “flambeaux like link- material from the passage to analyze
boys lighting the monster’s way” and who attend • Incorporates fragmentary quotations
“their liege lord to report progress.” from the text into own sentences, to show
how focusing on metaphorical language
illuminates the scientific observation
• Note: picking the liege/lord example
wasn’t just the most straightforward
example of metaphor; it will also
become useful as the discussion
turns to power and authority
Scientific language is full of metaphors that are • Explains the so-what of the analysis
used as models for understanding: schools of fish, of the metaphorical language,
say, or the language of kingdoms, classes, orders, then draws in how scientific lan-
and families for classifying species. These terms guage also contains metaphors
provide us a way of thinking about hierarchies • The so-what allows the writer to
and relationships. They are thus functional meta- explore the connection between the
phors for understanding the natural world in two modes. Note that the writer doesn’t
human terms. just say that they are connected—that’s
clear from the first paragraph—but
rather explains HOW they’re con-
nected. The author is developing com-
plexity and not just repeating the basic
point made in an earlier paragraph.

order.
The repetition of the shark as a “lord” may • Continues to find complexities in
sound over-determined at first, but the rep- the initial example, by building in
etition and elaboration of the metaphor makes later material from the text.
it seem natural. It sets up the most elaborate • Makes a daring move, analyzing an
metaphor, in which the shark becomes the dictator unfamiliar term—Tamerlane—from the
Tamerlane, who roams over his domain, laying footnotes. The writer uses the material
waste to those in his way. Even if you don’t from the notes and actually makes a
know exactly who he is, the narrator’s repetition concession to not knowing the full depth
makes his power obvious. The narrator uses the of the reference. The writer flips that
literary historical example of Tamerlane twice, so ignorance into an insight by discussing
that the possibly unfamiliar comparison becomes how the reference is “naturalized” by rep-
just a name that sounds reasonable—what was etition—the shark’s name just becomes
inscrutable becomes a historical reference. These Tamerlane, and so it takes on enough
comparisons become natural; they transform from context to understand that it’s a con-
figurative language into data. notation of authority and power.
• Uses a short sentence at the end to
show the so-what of the somewhat
rambling/convoluted analysis.
The remora that ride the shark are the reminder • Write a hybrid topic-transition sentence
that the master-servant relationship is more that builds the master-servant idea from
complicated than it appears to be. the previous paragraph and introduces
the new element: when symbiosis fails
• Deal with the contradiction or chal-
lenge to your main idea, to show
how it becomes more complex
Here Melville makes an unusual series of com- • Engages a complicated passage that
parisons that are more “inscrutable” than any- frustrates or confuses the writer
thing else in the passage: the remora “sticketh • Uses that “inscrutability” not as a block,
closer than a false brother in prosperity; closer but as a theme that has been under
than a beggar to the benevolent; closer than consideration since paragraph 1
Webster to the Constitution.” Even with a • Attempts to parse the quotation by
footnote, that three-part comparison is unwieldy: highlighting the difficulty, so that it’s
first a comparison to the Biblical proverb, then not just restating but is explaining the
a seemingly satirical comparison to a historical difficulty in understanding as a feature
figure.
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order.
These ambiguities and conflicts are the stuff of • Finds the ambiguity in the passage
democracy—not the autocracy of Tamerlane. and argues for its value.
Even without deep knowledge Melville’s • Makes a big so-what claim. This sen-
thoughts on Webster and the Constitution, we tence may be the fuzziest idea in the
know that ongoing legal discussions about the essay, but it’s also remarkable for its
Constitution show the ways that power and ambition and interest in ambiguity.
authority are subject to debate and adaptation in
a democracy.
Fundamentally, they are subject to interpre- • Makes a large-scale so-what claim

tation—the way that figurative language is also about the deepest connection between
subject to interpretation, or how scientific obser- scientific and metaphorical language:
vation changes with new data. they are both subject to interpretation.
If you do not feel confident leaning into the difficult passages, then tread in safer waters. It can be
rewarding to explore those confusing, frustrating moments because your insights and attempts will
show the dynamism of your interpretation. You won’t just be explaining and summarizing; you’ll be
generating ideas. The writer is “thinking on the page” about what these references might mean, and
the ambition in reaching for these interpretations is obvious. It makes for a sympathetic read, even
when it’s a little bit fuzzy and unclear.
The writer must tie these ambitions together in the conclusion.
order.
This is why Jarl’s observation at the end of the • The topic-transition sentence
passage is so important: they show him inter- builds from the insight at the end
preting a change in the pilot fishes’ behavior, as of the previous paragraph
they adopt the ship as their new master, the new • Carrying forward the idea about “inter-
“shark” they will follow. Jarl interprets their pretation” and the omens shows the value
behavior as an omen, a sign that links human of the so-what statement in the previous
imagination with the natural world. paragraph and builds on it further to
analyze the last lines of the passage
The ship itself is the master here—as the pilot • Ends with a memorable image that
fish understand—not any one person. shows the dynamics of power that were
traced throughout the paragraph

The 8-9 essay is quite long, and you may be intimidated by its length. Think of these 8-9 essays as
aspirational essays: if you practice writing them often, they won’t seem as daunting. Let’s look at some
middle- and low-scoring essays so that you can see what readers might more typically see and score.
Sample 5-6 Essay

In Herman Melville’s novel Mardi, the narrator combines scientific observation and metaphorical
language to show the philosophical relationship between man and the natural world around him.
There are tensions between metaphor and science because the similes and metaphors often distract
from the description of the sharks and fishes, so that it’s difficult to understand what they’re doing,
which is important for understanding animal behavior. This problem in the narration is evident in
Melville’s use of uncommon diction that may be unfamiliar to all readers, his confusing metaphors
that do not aid understanding, and his bias as a fisherman that can never have an unbiased relationship
with animals because of his job. For these reasons, science and metaphor cannot be reconciled.
Some of the metaphors and similes Melville uses are interesting, but mostly they just add confusing
language to his observations. For example, he describes the pilot fish swimming around the shark as
a “suite,” which is somewhat clear for understanding their proximity, and how they all travel together.
The sentences become less clear as he goes on to call it a “retinue,” when it would be easier to just say
that they are trailing the shark. If he is trying to give a clear picture to show the symbiotic relationship
between the large and small animal, that word is too unusual. He makes the description even more
convoluted in the next sentence. “(The fish are) flourishing their flambeaux like link-boys lighting
the monster’s way. Pity there were no ray-fish in rear, page-like, to carry his caudal train.” He is
being clever by saying that the illuminated fish carry “flambeaux” in the water, which is an example
of a paradox, but that figurative device is not useful for scientific understanding. This description is
not a good example of scientific observation because it mentions animals (ray-fish) that aren’t there,
which does not help with the explanation of what the pilot fish are doing. He does not explain a
“caudal train,” either, so it’s not clear if that is part of the metaphor or the scientific observation,
showing the problematic conflict between them.
The example of the remora is the most confusing simile in the passage, and it demonstrates the
problem of mixing science and figurative language. He quotes: “Leech-like, it sticketh closer than a
false brother in prosperity; closer than a beggar to the benevolent; closer than Webster to the Con-
stitution.” First, it is confusing to compare an animal to another animal that it is not, he could have
used a simile of a vacuum or something else. It doesn’t help to understand the remora by comparing
it to a different animal that isn’t remotely related. It’s misleading biology. The quotation from the
Bible about how it “sticketh closer than a brother” mixes up science and religion, which is a slippery
slope. Finally, the comparison to Webster is confusing because some readers might think it refers to
Webster’s dictionary or something else, the comparison is too unfamiliar.
These choices of diction are a reminder that Herman Melville’s narrator is biased in his account. It
is clear that even he gets mixed up in using these metaphors because he calls it “a mystery unfath-
omable.” If it is unclear why the pilot fish swim with the shovel-nosed shark, he should investigate
instead of clouding the mystery further with references to the Bible, American history, and overly
complicated metaphors. These word choices show his bias toward philosophical readers or readers
of literature, and not for readers interested in scientific observation. The fisherman wants to control
nature with language so that he can turn it into a “mystery,” not by understanding it as a disinterested
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observer. The example of Moby-Dick being written after this passage is a clear piece of evidence
that he is more interested in mystery and language than science.
In conclusion, it is possible that the metaphors and science are locked in a kind of battle of the
wills, just like the fishermen and the sharks. Who will win? The author, Herman Melville, finally
wins because he is in control of the story and he likes to show off his ability to make these kinds of
long-winded descriptions of the sea. The scientific work will be up to other writers who can write
more concisely. The conflict will rage on.
Sample 1-2 essay

The author is showing the cooperation between the shovel-nosed shark and the pilot fish, as well as
the unequal relationship between the ramora and the shark. These are examples of interspecies col-
laboration, of species together because they feed off and protect each other. Interspecies collaboration
happens often in the sea because the hierarchy among predators is strong, and they have to adapt to
find ways of existing. This passage is a good explanation of how that collaboration works, and how
sailors were the first to see that kind of interaction in nature, like Darwin and other scientists did.
It is interesting that this occurred at the same time or thereabouts.
This passage is interesting because it shows interspecies collaboration in a vivid way with unfamiliar
language. It is supposed to be clear and scientific, but there is a tension with the unknown words,
and that tension is hard to understand.
Reader Comments for the 5-6 and 1-2 Essays

The 5-6 essay is significantly constrained by the way the writer has turned the essay prompt into
a judgment-based contrast: which is better, science or metaphor. That black-and-white judgment
limits the writer to insisting that science is better than metaphor in each paragraph, flattening all
of the ambiguities, playful elements, and unusual references in Melville’s language. It looks like the
writer underlined passages that “proved” the argument that scientific language is “better,” but the
“evidence” for such a point leaves out everything that makes this novel interesting. Novels don’t tend
to prove arguments like a polemical argument would; instead, they are for exploring complexity and
ambiguity. It can be hard to see all of that richness in a short passage, but the College Board selects
these passages because they are rich, not because they are arguments to take apart as right or wrong.
The word “proved” and “evidence” got scare-quotes above because it can be limiting to think that
you’re proving a point in these literary analyses—instead, it’s more like you’re exploring the idea
by analyzing in depth. You don’t have time to assemble an air-tight “case,” and it’s more dynamic
to show how your idea becomes more complex over the course of the essay, rather than trying to
prove it in repetitive paragraphs, as this author does. The author uses words like “problem” and
“cannot be reconciled,” but the essay question has actually indicated that it’s looking more for “cor-
respondences” and something more dynamic like a “tension,” rather than absolute judgment. Those
words—“reconcile,” “correspondence, and “tension”—indicate that you should find how they play
off each other or interrelate in unexpected ways, as we saw in the 8-9 essay.
Furthermore, the attempts to edit Melville and suggest what he “should have said” are not the best way
to frame your literary analysis. Your opinions about word choice don’t matter as much as your analysis
of why the word choice is important. Even—especially—when it’s most frustrating or confusing, the

author’s choices are there for you to interpret, not to judge as good/bad. That judgment limits you
to a narrow range of ideas—which may be tempting to do to manage the material—but it doesn’t
help you write an essay with much complexity.
There are also a number of comma splices that show the author cramming together opinion and
analysis. These flawed sentence structures highlight the superficiality of the analysis and repetitiveness
of the judgments.
The 1-2 essay is severely limited by its misunderstanding of the question and brevity. This is a writer
who ran out of time or had some other problem reading and understanding the passage.
Here’s another set of high-, middle-, and low-scoring essays. We won’t go through each sentence of
this top-scoring essay about Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country, but you can annotate the
essay yourself by noting those places where the author executes some of the thinking and writing
strategies outlined in this chapter.
Sample Prose Prompt 2

Read this passage from Edith Wharton’s novel The Custom of the Country. Write a well-organized
essay in which you analyze the narrator’s relationship to the main character, Undine Spragg. Where
do you detect hints of moral judgment, irony, or some other subtle hints of a complicated relationship
between narrator and protagonist? Why is that narrative tension important for understanding the
larger complexities of social status and ambition in the passage?
Undine’s white and gold bedroom, with sea-green panels and old rose carpet,
looked along Seventy-second Street toward the leafless tree-tops of the Central
Park.
She went to the window, and drawing back its many layers of lace gazed
eastward down the long brownstone perspective. Beyond the Park lay Fifth
Avenue—and Fifth Avenue was where she wanted to be!
She turned back into the room, and going to her writing-table laid Mrs. Fair-
ford’s note before her, and began to study it minutely. She had read in the
“Boudoir Chat” of one of the Sunday papers that the smartest women were
using the new pigeon-blood notepaper with white ink; and rather against her
mother’s advice she had ordered a large supply, with her monogram in silver.
It was a disappointment, therefore, to find that Mrs. Fairford wrote on the
old-fashioned white sheet, without even a monogram—simply her address
and telephone number. It gave Undine rather a poor opinion of Mrs. Fairford’s
social standing, and for a moment she thought with considerable satisfaction
of answering the note on her pigeon-blood paper. Then she remembered Mrs.
Heeny’s emphatic commendation of Mrs. Fairford, and her pen wavered. What
if white paper were really newer than pigeon blood? It might be more stylish,
anyhow. Well, she didn’t care if Mrs. Fairford didn’t like red paper—SHE did!
And she wasn’t going to truckle to any woman who lived in a small house down
beyond Park Avenue . . .
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Undine was fiercely independent and yet passionately imitative. She wanted to
surprise every one by her dash and originality, but she could not help modelling
herself on the last person she met, and the confusion of ideals thus produced
caused her much perturbation when she had to choose between two courses.
She hesitated a moment longer, and then took from the drawer a plain sheet
with the hotel address.
It was amusing to write the note in her mother’s name—she giggled as she
formed the phrase “I shall be happy to permit my daughter to take dinner with
you” (“take dinner” seemed more elegant than Mrs. Fairford’s “dine”)—but
when she came to the signature she was met by a new difficulty. Mrs. Fairford
had signed herself “Laura Fairford”—just as one school-girl would write to
another. But could this be a proper model for Mrs. Spragg? Undine could not
tolerate the thought of her mother’s abasing herself to a denizen of regions
beyond Park Avenue, and she resolutely formed the signature: “Sincerely, Mrs.
Abner E. Spragg.” Then uncertainty overcame her, and she re-wrote her note
and copied Mrs. Fairford’s formula: “Yours sincerely, Leota B. Spragg.” But
this struck her as an odd juxtaposition of formality and freedom, and she made
a third attempt: “Yours with love, Leota B. Spragg.” This, however, seemed
excessive, as the ladies had never met; and after several other experiments she
finally decided on a compromise, and ended the note: “Yours sincerely, Mrs.
Leota B. Spragg.” That might be conventional. Undine reflected, but it was cer-
tainly correct.
This point settled, she flung open her door, calling imperiously down the
passage: “Celeste!” and adding, as the French maid appeared: “I want to look
over all my dinner-dresses.”
Considering the extent of Miss Spragg’s wardrobe her dinner-dresses were not
many. She had ordered a number the year before but, vexed at her lack of use
for them, had tossed them over impatiently to the maid. Since then, indeed, she
and Mrs. Spragg had succumbed to the abstract pleasure of buying two or three
more, simply because they were too exquisite and Undine looked too lovely in
them; but she had grown tired of these also—tired of seeing them hang unworn
in her wardrobe, like so many derisive points of interrogation. And now, as
Celeste spread them out on the bed, they seemed disgustingly common-place,
and as familiar as if she had danced them to shreds. Nevertheless, she yielded to
the maid’s persuasions and tried them on.
The first and second did not gain by prolonged inspection: they looked old-
fashioned already. “It’s something about the sleeves,” Undine grumbled as she
threw them aside.
The third was certainly the prettiest; but then it was the one she had worn at
the hotel dance the night before and the impossibility of wearing it again within
the week was too obvious for discussion. Yet she enjoyed looking at herself in it,

for it reminded her of her sparkling passages with Claud Walsingham Popple,
and her quieter but more fruitful talk with his little friend—the young man she
had hardly noticed.
“You can go, Celeste—I’ll take off the dress myself,” she said: and when Celeste
had passed out, laden with discarded finery, Undine bolted her door, dragged
the tall pier-glass forward and, rummaging in a drawer for fan and gloves, swept
to a seat before the mirror with the air of a lady arriving at an evening party.
Sample 8-9 Essay

Undine Spragg, the protagonist of Edith Wharton’s novel The Custom of the Country, is indecisive,
superficial, and vain. These qualities sit on the surface of the novel’s narration, where the narrator
details her conflicting desires to be “fiercely independent and yet passionately imitative” and details
the silly choices that she labors over, like which color of paper is most fashionable, or which dress suits
her best. It is easy to judge her. The narrator has presented these details almost like a lawyer would in
assembling a case against Undine. Yet underneath these surface details, so cunningly arrayed for the
reader’s negative judgment, is a tension between narrator and protagonist about authorship. Undine
is an unacknowledged author of her own life and reputation in this passage, which creates a power
struggle between the third-person omniscient narrator and the protagonist who is not omniscient,
but is trying to craft her own story.
Undine quibbles over the color of writing paper and the particular words to choose—but these are
just a shade removed from how an author might puzzle over the specific details to illuminate in a
passage. She has chosen “pigeon-blood notepaper . . . with her monogram in silver,” and she will
write with white ink. These choices are unusual, and the narrator points the way toward thinking of
them as tacky because Mrs. Fairford uses “the old-fashioned white sheet, without even a monogram—
simply her address and telephone number.” Mrs. Fairford’s identity is blank, registered only by her
address—a signal that people should recognize her by subtle cues of her social status. Undine makes
a decision to show off her still-in-process style: “Well, she didn’t care if Mrs. Fairford didn’t like red
paper—SHE did!” The narrator is casting aspersions on her with the capitalized letters, but these are
Undine’s choices of self-presentation: her initials, her personal style. Undine is trying to make her
mark on the page, on New York society, by authoring her own personal style. That style is “fiercely
original and yet passionately imitative,” because all authorship is a mixture of acknowledging and
tweaking of conventions.
Authors participate in genres by imitating previous styles, then adding in little details of their own.
Edith Wharton imitated the “silver fork” novels of earlier novels like Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, but she
established her own style, her own “monogram in silver,” by including details from her own social
experience in New York. Undine may not be the sophisticated author that Wharton is, but she is
trying to pick out evocative details to narrate her life to herself from her own window in her “white
and gold room,” which shows a similar attention to fashionable, aspirational colors like sea green.
She is trying to narrate the life she wants to have by creating a “perspective . . . [b]eyond the Park lay
Fifth Avenue—and Fifth Avenue was where she wanted to be!” In this way, she struggles with the
narrator over who controls the perspective: is it the narrator’s perspective that satirizes the conventions
of upper-class New York, or is it the up-and-comer’s perspective of how she aspires to imitate and
then personalize these conventions. The narrator is authoring a satire; Undine is authoring a dream.
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Indeed, we might see her indecisiveness about how to sign her mother’s name as a signal of her
confusion about her own identity. She is trying on styles, trying on names: “but when she came to the
signature she was met by a new difficulty.” What kind of woman should she be--like her mother, like
Mrs. Fairford, like herself? Her struggles to define her identity are written on the page, where Mrs.
Fairford’s remain invisible on her clean white paper. She delights in trying on the author’s persona,
even in writing a short note. “It was amusing to write the note in her mother’s name,” the narrator
writes of Undine’s behavior, trivializing the activity. The narrator infantilizes the girl who is trying
to figure out her identity with or separate from her mother and her mother’s friend’s. The narrator
details how Undine “giggled as she formed the phrase ‘I shall be happy to permit my daughter to
take dinner with you’ (‘take dinner’ seemed more elegant than Mrs. Fairford’s ‘dine’).” Undine’s
writing process, though, is understandable for testing the waters of authoring her social identity:
she is imitating her mother, then making distinctive choices of her own. The narrator may see these
choices of Undine’s self-presentation as silly and meaningless, but they are also details about how
she should identify as a young woman who is at the cusp of adulthood.
The satirizing narrator wants to have it both ways: Undine’s behavior is trivial, yet her decisions
matter to her social standing. The narrator is satirizing Undine in judgments like “the impossibility
of wearing it again within the week was too obvious for discussion,” yet Undine herself is in a context
where authoring those details correctly, strategically, confers social status. She is authoring her self-
presentation; she is editing her dress collection. She lacks the luxurious perspective of standing outside
the story as an observer; instead, she aspires to the luxurious perspective above Park Avenue, and she
is inside a confined social space in which to create her identity. Strikingly, they are both outsiders-
-the narrator is only an observer, but Undine resents her West End observer status and wants into
the inner circle. Why can’t we see her as a strategist and an author, instead of an indecisive, silly fool?
If we see her strategically, the choice of words, names, and style become more important decisions for
authoring one’s self-presentation. The reason that we think of these details as superficial and trivial
is because we associate them with women’s choices. They are gendered judgments. The notepaper,
decor, and dress are the ways that women could author their own position in society; we don’t think
of Wharton’s attention to those strategic social details as silly, so why are we so hard on Undine?
Reader Comments on the 8-9 Essay

We won’t go through each sentence of this top-scoring essay about Edith Wharton’s The Custom of
the Country, but you can annotate the essay yourself by noting those places where the author executes
some of the thinking and writing strategies outlined in the earlier chapters of the book.
The writer answers the prompt by arguing that the tension between narrator and protagonist is about
the concept of authorship. The essay makes a strong argument for seeing Undine as the author of
her social standing who is trying out the details of her self-presentation. Undine struggles with the
satirist narrator because they scrutinize these details from different perspectives: as an outsider and
as an aspirant to the inside track.
What’s impressive about the essay is how it models “retelling” the story through the analytical lens
of authorship. Talk about a power struggle: The writer seizes control of the story from the narrator
to recast the details about Undine’s choices as authorial choices. What had seemed to be silly details
about “pigeon-blood notepaper” and monograms now become choices about writing and authorial
identity. (Strangely enough, the pigeon’s-blood color detail will come back later in the book as

pigeon’s-blood rubies, as Undine has authored her destiny in very strategic ways. Yes, the color was
called “pigeon’s blood,” and not just “dark red.”)
The writer retells the paragraph about signing her mother’s name as a moment of identity formation:
what kind of woman will she be, even if she’s play-acting. This is an admirable moment of inter-
pretation that helps the writer develop the theme of identity and self-presentation in a thoughtful
way. Likewise, the writer has convincingly framed the interpretation of Undine’s desire for a Fifth
Avenue “perspective” as a story about finding her own authorial perspective.
What remains a little bit fuzzy is the role of the “real” author here: the writer makes some comparisons
between Undine and Edith Wharton. Wharton has created the satirical narrator, who comes in for
much criticism in the essay. The writer never makes the mistake of conflating Wharton and this
narrator, yet it’s still confusing to see Wharton and Undine conflated, or at least compared, in the
conclusion. Still, it’s an interesting, engaging essay, convincing in its reinterpretation of Undine
Spragg as an author and editor of her own life.
Sample 5-6 Essay

This passage from Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country shows the protagonist Undine
Spragg’s snobbery and superficiality. The narrator disapproves of these qualities, as demonstrated
by the narrator’s use of moral judgments, subtle cues of diction, and use of irony. The relationship
between narrator and protagonist is clear, that the narrator is using her to criticize how society
makes superficial judgments about social standing. Undine is a figure who represents the problems
with social judgment.
The narrator sees qualities in Undine Spragg that she does not see in herself. “Undine was fiercely
independent and yet passionately imitative. She wanted to surprise every one by her dash and origi-
nality, but she could not help modelling herself on the last person she met, and the confusion of ideals
thus produced caused her much perturbation when she had to choose between two courses.” These
sentences show that Undine has negative qualities that affect the positive ways she sees herself. She
thinks she is fashionable, but she is just copying what she thinks is trendy. She thinks she has good
judgment, but actually she is indecisive. Most importantly, she thinks that her snobbery is due to her
“ideals”—positive feelings—and not just basic social climbing that is not admirable. The narrator
exposes all of these faults in one paragraph, and they affect how the reader sees Undine for the rest
of the passage, when the narrator is just speaking through her perspective. The moral judgments in
this paragraph make it clear that Undine is not admirable at all.
To pay attention to particular words that show the narrator’s perspective peeking through outside of
that paragraph, it shows in sentences like “It gave Undine rather a poor opinion of Mrs. Fairford’s
social standing, and for a moment she thought with considerable satisfaction of answering the note
on her pigeon-blood paper.” This quote contains words like “rather” and “considerable” that show
Undine’s inner thoughts, but the narrator is making them seem silly and judgmental. That’s because
she IS silly and judgmental to try to judge someone based on the paper they use. Words like “rather”
and “considerable” show her “confusion of ideals” that was mentioned in the previous paragraph,
because they show her own judgments but also how she has been affected by other people’s judgments,
and she can’t decide which is correct. Social standing is confusing because who can tell whether one
color of paper is more fashionable. The narrator doesn’t directly voice an opinion about the color,
but it is clear that Undine’s indecisiveness, as shown by words like “rather” and “considerable” are
being judged by the narrator.
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This is even more clear in the ironic use of the word “certainly.” The word is used twice in the passage.
First, Undine cannot decide how to sign her mother’s name to a letter on her too-trendy writing
paper. She can’t decide whether it’s the right color, or how to show her mother’s social class with
signing her name. She has to “choose between two courses,” as has already been mentioned. She
decides on “Yours sincerely, Leota B. Spragg.” “That might be conventional, Undine reflected, but
it was certainly correct.” The word certainly is ironic there because she has just exhibited so much
uncertainty. She is following an etiquette book that she seems to be making up herself. This is seen
again when she cannot decide between dresses. “The third was certainly the prettiest; but then it was
the one she had worn at the hotel dance the night before and the impossibility of wearing it again
within the week was too obvious for discussion.” She is “certain” here, as seen also with words like
“too obvious for discussion,” but ironically this makes her even more indecisive because she refuses
to pick the best option. Undine is always uncertain—never certain. The narrator uses “certainly”
in an ironic fashion to show the gap between her beliefs about herself and the way she really is in
being superficial and indecisive.
The narrator can see the qualities in Undine that show how she has been affected by her desire to
live “on Fifth Avenue.” That is where she wants to be, “certainly,” but the narrator knows that social
standing is harder to achieve than just knowing she wants to be important. It is revealed in her
superficiality, but not her hard work to get to “where she wanted to be.”
Sample 1-2 Essay

The woman in the story named Undine is spoiled and vain. She focuses on the wrong things in
society, like what to wear. The silliest thing she does is worry about how to sign her name, followed
by whether people will notice if she wore a dress from a prior occasion. Superficial details don’t
matter for a person’s worth, it matters what is inside you.
The author is showing that she is not a good person because she cares about superficial details and
has not shown that she cares about other people. She treats her maid like a servant and is “careless”
with how she treats her things. This shows that she does not have a good personality.
This is seen most clearly when she looks in the mirror at the end. She is vain like an evil queen. She
cares only about herself, that’s why she spent so much time worrying about how to sign her name.
She doesn’t have anything else to think about.
She is like a princess locked away in a castle, as seen in the quotation about her “perspective.” She
doesn’t know what the rest of the world can be. Or maybe she is the evil queen.
Reader Comments on the 5-6 and 1-2 Essays

The middle-range essay is a very clear, strongly argued essay, and if we were trying Undine Spragg for
snobbery, it would be an excellent closing statement. However, the passage is asking you to find the
deeper conflicts between the narrator and main character, and the writer has composed a one-sided
prosecution of her that adheres very closely to the narrator’s position. There is a judgment-based
thesis: “The relationship between narrator and protagonist is clear, that the narrator is using her
to criticize how society makes superficial judgments about social standing.” This judgment doesn’t
become more complex or nuanced because it insists that the relationship is “clear”: this idea is a

starting place because it is obvious from the passage. It’s a fine place to start, but the thesis needs
to be more open-ended so that there’s room to find the complicated elements of the relationship
between the narrator and Undine. Even though this essay looks technically polished and clear, it’s
one-dimensional.
The 1-2 essay shows the significant limitations of the judgment-based thesis. The writer doesn’t
address the prompt at all, for there’s no mention of any conflict between the narrator and Undine.
The writer doesn’t treat the passage as anything other than a story to be summarized and judged,
so there’s no mention of any literary elements like narration, style, or irony. The writer also glosses
over the detail about Undine practicing her mother’s signature, not her own. Because the writer is
merely summarizing, there are no substantial quotations and no analysis of these stylistic elements.
The writer ends on an intriguing note about the fairy tale qualities—and, indeed, Undine Spragg
is sometimes thought of in those villainous terms—but this idea comes from a superficial reading,
and not from an inquiry about narration or style.
Sample Poetry Prompt 1

Let’s look at the following poetry analysis prompt and some high-, middle-, and low-range responses.
The first example asks you to compare two short poems (one is a selection from a longer work). You
may be asked to write such a comparative essay, but you can adapt the strategies easily to talking
about two different poets. On your initial read of the top-scoring essay, note how the writer structures
the analysis of the two poems in distinct paragraphs but then builds in work with both poems later
in the essay. That’s not the only way to organize such a comparison, but it’s one strategy that allows
you to build enough contextual analysis to make the comparisons compelling.
These two poems by Richard Savage and Charlotte Smith seem to be in dialogue with each other:
you can nearly imagine Smith encountering Savage, the restless Romantic poet, as the “Lunatic” she
has been warned about as she walks near the sea cliffs.
Read the passages carefully. Write an essay in which you analyze how these poets negotiate the
antisocial qualities of the poet as a wanderer, a figure who is who is not only wrapped up . . . but also
possibly frightens others.How do they register these uncertain reactions to a Wanderer’s inscrutable
behavior? You may want to pay attention to how the poets use formal devices such as rhyme and
structure to reconcile or resolve these wandering, antisocial qualities of genius.
Selection from “The Wanderer,” by Richard Savage
...O Contemplation, teach me to explore,

From Britain far remote, some distant Shore!
From Sleep a Dream distinct, and lively Claim;
Line Clear let the Vision strike the Moral’s Aim!
5 It comes! I feel it o’er my Soul serene!
Still Morn begins, and Frost retains the Scene!
Hark!—the loud Horn’s enlivening Note’s begun!

From Rock to Vale sweet-wand’ring Echoes run!
Still floats the Sound shrill-winding from afar!
10 Wild Beasts astonish’d dread the Sylvan War!
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Spears to the Sun in Files embattled play,

March on, charge briskly, and enjoy the Fray!
Swans, Ducks, and Geese, and the wing’d, Winter Brood,

Chatter discordant on yon echoing Flood!
15 At Babel thus, when Heav’n the Tongue confounds,
Sudden a thousand different, jargon Sounds,
Like jangling Bells, harsh-mingling, grate the Ear!
All stare! all talk! all mean; but none cohere!
Mark! wiley Fowlers meditate their Doom,
20 And smoky Fate speeds thund’ring thro’ the Gloom!
Stop’d short, they cease in airy Rings to fly,
Whirl o’er, and o’er, and, flutt’ring, fall and die.
Still Fancy wafts me on! deceiv’d I stand,

Estrang’d, adventrous on a foreign Land!
25 Wide and more wide extends the Scene unknown!
Where shall I turn, a Wanderer, and alone?
From hilly Wilds, and Depths where Snows remain,
My winding Steps up a steep Mountain strain!
Emers’d a-top I mark the Hills subside,
30 And Tow’rs aspire but with inferior Pride!
“Sonnet LXX,” by Charlotte Smith

On being cautioned against walking over a headland overlooking the sea, because it
was frequented by a Lunatic.
Is there a solitary wretch who hies

To the tall cliff, with starting pace or slow,
And, measuring, views with wild and hollow eyes
Line Its distance from the waves that chide below;
5 Who, as the sea-born gale with frequent sighs
Chills his cold bed upon the mountain turf,
With hoarse, half utter’d lamentation, lies
Murmuring responses to the dashing surf?
In moody sadness, on the giddy brink,
10 I see him more with envy than with fear;
He has no nice felicities that shrink
From giant horrors; wildly wandering here,
He seems (uncursed with reason) not to know
The depth or the duration of his woe.

Sample 8-9 Essay

The most remarkable thing about Charlotte Smith’s sonnet about a wandering poet is her speaker’s
unexpected confession that she feels envy for the man that others see as a “Lunatic.” She compares
herself to him because they are in the same position: both are on the sea cliffs, staring at the sea in
abjection. She believes the man is “uncursed with reason” (13) and thus has no faculties for under-
standing his miserable state; hers is self-aware depression, however, not just “hoarse, half utter’d
lamentation” (7). There is something self-pitying, condescending, and self-centered about her
comparison, her certainty that he lacks reason and thus can’t be suffering as much as she is. How
does she know how deep his woe is? Richard Savage provides a kind of corrective to this narrow
perspective: his speaker is a wanderer like the one Smith might be warned about as the Lunatic. He
is searching for peace, for the power of “contemplation” that might help him resolve his discordant
feelings into a form that “cohere[s]” (poem 1, line 18). He is not mad, just searching for inspiration.
The unusual feature of these two poems is that Savage’s wanderer is more sympathetic than Smith’s
observer: somehow, it is easier to relate to the wandering outsider than the observant woman who
envies and condescends to him. The Romantic genius is more relatable because his feelings are familiar
in their aspirational wildness, but the woman’s envy is harder to digest and thus expands our notion
of what the Romantic poet can be and do with unsettled, even ugly feelings.
Smith’s and Savage’s poems are familiar Romantic scenes of poets projecting their conflicted emo-
tions onto the natural world, then trembling in awe at how grand those projections appear to be.
For all of the claims about wildness and ineffability of their visions, they utilize rhyme and familiar
poetic conventions like the sublime, the powerful feelings of awe at grand scenes of nature. Savage’s
speaker names what he needs to resolve his unsettled feelings: he needs to get outside of his own
head and explore beyond what he knows. He calls on the poetic muse of “Contemplation” who will
let him compose his troubled sleep into a poetic dream: “Clear let the Vision strike the Moral’s Aim!
/ It comes! I feel it o’er my Soul serene” lines 4 and 5. This step onto the poet’s wandering path
comes to him with relative ease from a familiar convention of invoking a muse. That path is rocky
and terrifying, but it’s been trod before.
In this contemplative state, he encounters a jumble of discordant sounds that he must resolve into
poetry—a familiar task for a poet. He is overwhelmed by their variety and volume, but even this
confusion he manages with repetition: “All stare! all talk! all mean; but none cohere!” (poem 1, line
18). The “jargon sounds” are not so discordant that he cannot resolve them in rhyme at the end of
each line; the evocation of “Babel” a recognizable allusion that lends coherence and familiarity to
the cacophonous scene. His lines show him encountering too much meaning and significance—an
excess of stimuli from the natural world around him—yet he has a specific tool for such a resolution:
the theory of the sublime. When he asks “Wide and more wide extends the Scene unknown / Where
shall I turn, a Wanderer, and alone?” he finds conventional scenes of the sublime; he even has an
italicized identity of a Wanderer that is familiar from Romantic poetry.
This analysis is not meant to lessen the effects of Savage’s wandering—only to note that the Wandering
is a creative journey that may look incoherent but has poetic legacies and means of comprehending
it. We can look at Savage’s Wanderer and understand him in his loneliness, in his confusion at so
much creative inspiration that he can barely contain himself. He is a type, a person whom others
want to emulate in setting off on their own inspirational Romantic journeys.
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Initially, Smith’s scene seems no less conventionally Romantic and sublime. She spies a “solitary
wretch who hies / to the tall cliff,” who stares “as the sea-born gale with frequent sighs chills his
cold bed upon the mountain turf ” (1-6). Yet even this convention is uncertain, for it is framed as
a wandering question that takes up six lines. Inspiration comes from conventional invocation for
Savage’s “Soul serene” and his muse; whereas, Smith’s speaker seems to be addressing no one, and
it’s not clear what would resolve her question. She italicizes her own reply: “He has no nice felicities”
that conflict with these sublime scenes (11). She does not feel the conventional sublime terror, but
something less poetic: envy at his freedom. As an outsider, he is free from conventions of everyday
life; he has no one to please with expectations of social graces. The comparison may sound petty or
self-pitying—especially because it negates the possibility of his suffering—but the unpleasantness
of the confession is bracing, even exhilarating.
Smith’s speaker does not seek the Wanderer for mutual understanding, but for a means to test her
anti-social feelings, an outlet for her rejection of niceties. This is a sonnet that observes the conven-
tions of the love poem—rhyme, meter, form—while rejecting the very sense of unification and mutual
dialogue that the couplet and fourteen lines promise poets. Smith’s speaker and the Wanderer will
not, cannot take solace in each other, for her envy separates them irrevocably. Savage’s sublimity
was matched with a muse who brought him contemplation; even his discord is resolved in rhymes.
Smith’s couplets isolate her speaker rather than unify her with the Wanderer, as seen in the enjambed,
questioning lines: “Who, as the sea-born gale with frequent sighs / Chills his cold bed upon the
mountain turf, / With hoarse, half utter’d lamentation, lies / Murmuring responses to the dashing
surf?” (5-8). Verbs like “chills” and “lies” are destabilizing because it’s not immediately clear what
they refer to, or even if they are verbs. Her anti-social feelings affect the structure of her sentences:
she will not be felicitous in making her questions coherent for the reader.
Envy is antisocial; it is constantly “measuring, views with wild and hollow eyes” (3) as it relentlessly
compares one’s position to others, rejecting sociality in favor of isolating jealousy. The admission of
envy becomes a way for her to be antisocial with and against the Wanderer: he can roam in solitude
without reason, while she can stew in loneliness without social niceties or “felicities.” In this way,
she plays a variation on the Romantic anti-hero in an especially provocative way that rejects female
sociality, but also rejects communion with muses and poetic resolution.
Analysis of the 8-9 Essay

This is an enormous essay—it’s perhaps more aspirational than realistic for writing in 40 minutes,
but it serves as a model here for you to adapt.
The writer composes a two-paragraph introduction, adapting the strategies discussed earlier in the
chapter. The writer reverses the analytical strategies, beginning with the surprising, challenging
element of Smith’s envy, and then bringing in Savage’s poem to show what a more conventional
“Wanderer” poem might look like. The contrast allows the writer to tease out what’s so disconcerting
about that element in Smith’s poem, creating a new depth to what we know about envy. The key
here is the adaptability of the strategies: you can write two shorter paragraphs if your paragraph is
becoming too long, and you can start with the surprising element to kick things off with a bang.

Let’s look at the introductory paragraphs.
What the author says What the author does in the sentence
order.
The most remarkable thing about Charlotte • Names the author and title/genre of
Smith’s sonnet about a wandering poet is her the poem in a conversational way
speaker’s unexpected confession that she feels envy • Focuses the analysis immediately on a
for the man that others see as a “Lunatic.” surprising or unusual aspect of the poem
She compares herself to him because they are • Briefly explains the subject
in the same position: both are on the sea cliffs, and meaning of the poem
staring at the sea in abjection. She believes the • Integrates fragmentary quotations
man is “uncursed with reason” (13) and thus has into the explanation to show the most
no faculties for understanding his miserable state; obvious, basic elements of the surprising
hers is self-aware depression, however, not just aspect you’ve identified. No analysis
“hoarse, half utter’d lamentation” (7). ... Richard yet—these fragments are for you to
Savage provides a kind of corrective to this practice narrowing your focus onto
narrow perspective: his speaker is a wanderer small examples of the language as you
like the one Smith might be warned about as the explain the main idea of the poem, like
Lunatic. He is searching for peace, for the power you’re scanning your camera over the
of “contemplation” that might help him resolve poem to find the details to focus on.
his discordant feelings into a form that “cohere[s]” • Cites line numbers to help the reader
(poem 1, line 18). keep track of fragmentary quotations
• Notice that the same strategies are
repeated in the subsequent intro-
duction of Richard Savage’s poem,
to give a sense of symmetry and
balance to the explanation
He is not mad, just seeking inspiration. • Surprises reader with a short sentence.
• Resists summing up in general:
instead, the author shows how the
poem has become more complex with
just a small shift in focus. The Wan-
derer is not the figure we thought he
was; he’s become more complex.
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order.
The unusual feature of these two poems is that • Explains the contrast
Savage’s wanderer is more sympathetic than between the two poems
Smith’s observer: somehow, it is easier to relate to • Explains why that contrast illuminates
the wandering outsider than the observant woman the surprising or unusual quality that
who envies and condescends to him. The Romantic you will analyze in the rest of the essay.
genius is more relatable because his feelings are The “envy” is the surprising element
familiar in their aspirational wildness, but the identified in the first paragraph, and
woman’s envy is harder to digest and thus expands the contrast of finding Savage’s poem
our notion of what the Romantic poet can be and more relatable amplifies what’s dis-
do with unsettled, even ugly feelings. concerting about Smith’s envy.
• Makes a preliminary claim about why
that contrast and surprise challenge your
expectations in the poem and makes you
reconsider the meaning. There is now a
tension between wanderer and envious
female poet, and the author can tug at
both ends in the body paragraphs.
Now let’s look at the body paragraphs to see how the writer has framed the comparison and contrast
between the two poems.
order.
This step onto the poet’s wandering path comes • Emphasizes the conventions of
to him with relative ease from a familiar con- Romantic poetry like references to the
vention of invoking a muse. That path is rocky sublime and inner contemplation
and terrifying, but it’s been trod before. • Identifies the convention as well
The “jargon sounds” are not so discordant that as its function in the story.
he cannot resolve them in rhyme at the end of
each line; the evocation of “Babel” a recognizable
allusion that lends coherence and familiarity to
the cacophonous scene, rather than evoking some
less poetical chaos.

This analysis is not meant to lessen the effects • Deepens the analysis of the ambiguities
of Savage’s wandering—only to note that the of the function of these conventions:
Wandering is a creative journey that may look they make the outsider figure into
incoherent but has poetic legacies and means of someone more familiar by being a type
comprehending it. We can look at Savage’s Wan- we can identify with and even emulate.
derer and understand him in his loneliness, in his • Explains the so-what of the analysis.
confusion at so much creative inspiration that he These ambiguities don’t negate the
can barely contain himself. He is a type, a person power of the Wanderer; they amplify
whom others want to emulate in setting off on that power into admiration
their own inspirational Romantic journeys. • This so-what sets the stage for ana-
lyzing what’s so alienating about
Charlotte Smith, so it sets up the con-
trasts in the next two paragraphs.
Inspiration comes from conventional invocation • Directly contrasts the language from
for Savage’s “Soul serene” and his muse; whereas, Savage’s and Smith’s poems.
Smith’s speaker seems to be addressing no one, and • Explains the significance of the con-
it’s not clear what would resolve her question. She trast: Smith’s speaker is alienated,
italicizes her own reply: “He has no nice felicities” even from the alienated figure.
that conflict with these sublime scenes (11).
The comparison may sound petty or self- • Makes a challenging, original inter-
pitying—especially because it negates the possi- pretation of the “envy” element
bility of his suffering—but the unpleasantness of that occasioned the analysis.
the confession is bracing, even exhilarating. • Demonstrates how the analysis of that
“ugly feeling” has developed through
the contrast analysis of Savage’s poem
and thus explains the “so what” of
the contrast structure for the essay
Smith’s speaker does not seek the Wanderer for • Analyzes how Smith’s sonnet simul-
mutual understanding, but for a means to test her taneously adheres to conventions like
anti-social feelings, an outlet for her rejection of rhyme and form, but it also rejects the
niceties. This is a sonnet that observes the conven- very possibility of fellow-feeling
tions of the love poem—rhyme, meter, form— • Analyzes the particular feature of
while rejecting the very sense of unification and enjambed verbs and explains the
mutual dialogue that the couplet and fourteen significance of their instability
lines promise poets. • Mirrors the analysis performed on
Smith’s couplets isolate her speaker rather than Savage’s rhymes, in order to under-
unify her with the Wanderer, as seen in the score the contrast between them
enjambed, questioning lines: “Who, as the sea-born • Explains the so-what of Smith’s
gale with frequent sighs / Chills his cold bed upon embrace and rejection of conventions
the mountain turf, / With hoarse, half utter’d
lamentation, lies / Murmuring responses to the
dashing surf?” (5-8). Verbs like “chills” and “lies”
are destabilizing because it’s not immediately clear
what they refer to, or even if they are verbs.
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Again, these paragraphs are quite long, and the writer may be writing toward some of these ideas
in a somewhat repetitive way. One of the admirable things about the essay is the writer’s sense of
motivation: the writer is not just comparing and contrasting the poems because that’s what the
prompt asked for. The writer has a clear motivating question: what do we do with envy, when it’s
such a corrosive feeling? The comparison and contrast are not just tools to be used; rather, they help
deepen our understanding of that question, and of the feeling itself. In these tables, we’ve noted the
places where the writer leads with the insight, instead of just dutifully acknowledging the tool used.
The writer notes how Savage repeats words like “all” to lend coherence to his poetic wandering, or
that Smith enjambs her lines to destabilize the sensory experience of her own wandering experience.
The contrasting use of those poetic devices to lend coherence or destabilize the senses is the meat
of this essay. Yet the writer doesn’t say: now I will look at rhyme, now I will look at the use of rep-
etition, now I will look at enjambment. The writer doesn’t say: I am making a contrast. The writer
shows, instead of telling.
Finally, the conclusion paragraph that gives the final answer to the introductory question about
Smith’s envy:
order.
Envy is antisocial; it is constantly “measuring, • States how the main idea has
views with wild and hollow eyes” (3) as it become more complex through
relentlessly compares one’s position to others, analysis of the poems’ language
rejecting sociality in favor of isolating jealousy. • Incorporates one final frag-
mentary quotation
The admission of envy becomes a way for her to • Indicates the so-what: why it’s
be anti-social with and against the Wanderer: he important that Smith’s speaker
can roam in solitude without reason, while she expresses envy and isolates herself
can stew in loneliness without social niceties or • Articulates the so-what of the essay’s
“felicities.” main tool of comparison and con-
trast, in showing new insights about
Smith and Savage’s Wanderers
In this way, she plays a variation on the • Ties back to the early paragraphs
Romantic anti-hero in an especially provocative about Savage’s use of Romantic genre
way that rejects female sociality, but also rejects conventions, showing the so-what for
communion with muses and poetic resolution. understanding how a female Wan-
derer twists the genre conventions
Some teachers may warn against using quotations in the conclusion, so that you can focus on just one
task in what will probably be the most rushed part of your writing process, but you can decide what
works for you. One benefit of it is that it allows you to show off the ways that your insights about

the poem allow you to reread lines with a newfound depth. One drawback is that you’re adding in
yet another idea, when you should be finishing up. This writer clearly chose the former approach.
The writer manages to work in a so-what sentence at three different levels: the poem, the writer’s
own essay, the field of Romantic poetry. Level 1, the poem: why Smith’s speaker confesses to an ugly
feeling of envy. Level 2, the essay: why the comparison and contrast was an important tool. Level
3: why these insights give us a new appreciation of the convention of the Wanderer in Romantic
poetry. Ambitious work, indeed!
Sample 5-6 Essay

In Charlotte Smith’s “Sonnet XXL” she expresses “envy” for the Lunatic who she sees wandering
around by the sea. She does not seem to understand that the Wanderer is suffering from mental illness,
so her poem, which is supposed to be a love poem, sounds callous and self-centered. It is important
to compare her poem to Richard Savage’s poem, “The Wanderer,” because Savage demonstrates
the way to make these feelings more relatable than Smith does, by identifying with the Wanderer
rather than the observer. This reduces the difference between them, so it is easier to understand the
emotions involved.
The most important job of the poets in these poems is to make the Wanderer seem relatable, and
Savage does this more successfully with his vivid imagery and creative rhymes. On the other hand,
Smith uses more clichéd imagery and predictable rhymes, so that we don’t get the sense of a Romantic
genius, but an envious imitator. For example, in Savage’s poem, he is very creative in describing a
jumble of sounds, but he does so with rhyming lines.
For example:
At Babel thus, when Heav’n the Tongue confounds,
Sudden a thousand different, jargon Sounds, (15-16)
And
Like jangling Bells, harsh-mingling, grate the Ear!
All stare! all talk! all mean; but none cohere! (17-18)
The rhymes are about being “confound[ed]” and the ears being “grat[ed]” with “jangling,” but the
rhymes resolve those confusing or discordant sounds. Therefore, there is a creative contrast between
his meaning and the form of the poem: is it a jumble, or is it a couplet, or is it both? On the other
hand, Charlotte Smith uses clichéd rhyming words in couplets like:
Who, as the sea-born gale with frequent sighs
Chills his cold bed upon the mountain turf,
With hoarse, half utter’d lamentation, lies
Murmuring responses to the dashing surf? (5-8)
The sighs/lies lines are so obvious that they could only be more clichéd if she used a word like “eyes”
or something, and the verb “lies” is very separate from its noun, which makes the sentence hard to
follow. The surf/turf cliché is as remarkable as you’d find on a contemporary menu. Between the
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clichés and rambling word order, her poem does not make you want to know more about the speaker
and it does not make the Wanderer himself seem interesting.
Smith’s biggest misstep in the poem is her use of the word “envy,” because it shows that even she
does not want to get to know the Wanderer as a person. On the other hand, Savage shows that the
Wanderer is worth understanding, for he is just a unique individual who wants to spend more time
in nature than with people. This does not make him envious or isolated, but more like a genius who
wants time to make his art. Savage shows this with his imagery of the Wanderer’s surroundings.
He describes:
Where shall I turn, a Wanderer, and alone?
From hilly Wilds, and Depths where Snows remain,
My winding Steps up a steep Mountain strain!
Emers’d a-top I mark the Hills subside,
And Tow’rs aspire but with inferior Pride!
Even though he is “alone,” he takes the reader on a journey with just his vision of the scene “wide and
more wide,” and shows a landscape that is compelling. He describes mountains that look forbidding,
but he makes “steps up” them and shows how the Hills “subside” as he walks them. This is a way of
making an unforgiving landscape into something more relatable and human. He is conquering the
sublime with his art, which makes him a hero or a genius. We want to salute him, even if he will
shrug it off for fear of showing too much “Pride.” This shows connections with him, rather than the
isolation of Smith’s “envy” of the Wanderer.
It should be clear that Savage’s Wanderer is more interesting than Smith’s speaker who does not
make an effort to reach out to the person who is obviously in need of help. The goal of these poems
should be to identify with the speakers, not to isolate them. Smith does not seem to consider that
possibility, as she seems to deny him his humanity. She quotes:
He seems (uncursed with reason) not to know
The depth or the duration of his woe. (13-14)
Here she is not even trying to understand him, because she says he lacks the ability to understand
or communicate. She makes her problems bigger than his by saying that it’s worse for her to have
“reason” and he is “uncursed” by it. Frankly, this is off-putting and makes the reader unsympathetic
to her because she is so self-absorbed. Savage’s Wanderer is self-focused for art, but Smith is just a
narcissist.
Perhaps that is the theme of the poems, since they are about Romantic heroes like Lord Byron’s
Manfred or Mary Shelley’s Dr. Frankenstein, who are flawed anti-heroes who are overly focused on
their own creations, to their own detriment. We don’t get the sense of that comeuppance in Smith’s
sonnet, so it is hard to tell. Instead of focusing on what she does wrong, we should reach across the
gulf of isolation to find what Savage does right in showing his wanderer as a creator in his own right,
instead of just a victim of circumstances. This is a way to claim genius from tragedy and isolation,
by showing him making something out of all that discord.

Sample 1-2 Essay

The second poem, “Sonnet XXL” is a better poem than the first poem because it is more about
emotions. The first poem is about an outsider, but it sounds to positive. It makes you feel strong
emotions like “woe” in the second poem, which means “sadness,” and that is clearly shown with
other language like “wretch” and “moody.”
You don’t get a sense of sadness in the first one, it should have with less cliches about mountains
and streams because those don’t have emotions. Instead, he mentions different birds and their dif-
ferent calls, which isn’t a clear way to show feelings. He is annoyed by their Babbling, but that is
complaining, not something for a deep poem.
The second poem is also about nature, but the nature of the sea is clearly tied to the poet’s “woe.”
That makes it makes sense as a description of her feelings. The language in the poem gives you a
sense of her feelings and what she is seeing, whereas the other poem is more about cliches of being
in the mountains.
In conclusion, language is important in these poems because it can be helpful for showing emotion,
or it can be cliches in showing how everyone talks about nature in poems. Language is important
for being creative with feelings, not cliches.
Reader Comments on 5-6 and 1-2 Essays

The middle-range essay suffers from its judgmental qualities, as the writer has taken the compare/
contrast prompt literally and offered an opinion about which poem is better. The opinion/judgment-
based thesis is too limiting: “The most important job of the poets in these poems is to make the
Wanderer seem relatable, and Savage does this more successfully with his vivid imagery and creative
rhymes.” Who decided that the most important job is to make them relatable? Is a reader’s job to
judge “success”? We’re not writing Rotten Tomatoes summaries of the poems, so you don’t need to
use those evaluative words that signal success or failure.
Actually, in picking out the less “successful” elements of Smith’s poem, the writer has found an
interesting challenge in trying to understand the concept of “envy” in the poem. The 8-9 writer uses
that off-putting quality not to judge Smith, but to understand the function of that “ugly feeling” in
the passage. The writer can flip that judgment into analysis by setting aside the opinion and digging
into why it changes the opinion of the poem’s Speaker. Why is the Wanderer “more relatable”: what
does “relatable” even mean to someone who wants to exist outside of society? What does “relatable”
mean to a reader looking back at these Romantic-era poems? The writer has exposed a lot of pos-
sible ideas to analyze in making the judgment—but they require reflection and analysis rather than
single-minded proof of Smith’s inferiority.
The writer also makes few attempts to integrate the quotations into sentences, leaving them as big
chunks in the middle of paragraphs. Sometimes, the writer uses fragmentary quotations to take the
language in those blocks apart further, but they remain undigested—it clearly takes time to copy
out those long passages, and the writer could have quoted fewer passages so as to leave time to focus
on the particular phrases.
In these ways, the writer could have both expanded the focus beyond judgment about what’s “suc-
cessful,” as well as narrowed the focus in choosing more apt, curated quotations.
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The low-range essay doesn’t consistently mention the authors’ names or titles, referring to them
TIP mainly as the first or second poem. Without authors’ names or titles, it’s hard to remember which
poem is under discussion, but even then, the writer seems to switch back and forth in judging which
If you feel poem is better. The limitations of the judgment-based thesis are magnified here: first, there’s very
repulsed or little analysis because it’s all opinion, and second, there are few details that distinguish the two poems.
annoyed by The gender pronouns may be one clue as to which poem is which, but it’s not enough to show any
a feature in a insights about them.
passage, that’s
The conclusion overgeneralizes, so that the two poems are no longer even present in the essay: “In
probably a good conclusion, language is important in these poems because it can be helpful for showing emotion, or
sign that it’s it can be cliches in showing how everyone talks about nature in poems. Language is important for
worth analyzing, being creative with feelings, not cliches.” It’s ironic that the writer warns against clichés here, yet
not to judge its falls into the essay-writing cliché, too. You don’t need to make grand sweeping statements like this
goodness or one in your conclusion (or in your introduction). They aren’t helpful for showing anything specific
badness, but to about your reading of the passage in question or your answer to the prompt.
focus on how it
challenges your Sample Poetry Prompt 2
expectations
The myth of Bluebeard has been told many times in literary and popular culture: Bluebeard is a
and makes you
mysterious man who warns his young bride not to enter the locked room in his castle. She may go
reconsider the anywhere except this room, he advises her, which makes her all the more curious. When she finds a
piece. way to enter the room, she finds the corpses of his former wives. Her fate varies from telling to telling:
sometimes she escapes with the help of her family, while other times the ending is more ambiguous.
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Read this retelling of the story in poetic form by Edna St. Vincent Millay. How does Millay chal-
lenge and subvert the plot of the fairy tale? How does she use formal poetic devices to assist her in
the subversion of a conventional tale? Why is this retelling significant?
These essays
are so short “Bluebeard,” Edna St. Vincent Millay
that you don’t
need to make This door you might not open, and you did;
generalizations So enter now, and see for what slight thing
about all You are betrayed. . . . Here is no treasure hid,
of society, Line No cauldron, no clear crystal mirroring
humanity, or
5 The sought-for truth, no heads of women slain
For greed like yours, no writhings of distress,
history. You don’t
But only what you see. . . . Look yet again--
need to drill down
An empty room, cobwebbed and comfortless.
from a general
Yet this alone out of my life I kept
statement to the
10 Unto myself, lest any know me quite;
specifics: from
And you did so profane me when you crept
the first sentence Unto the threshold of this room to-night
to the last, focus That I must never more behold your face.
on the passage This now is yours. I seek another place
and prompt.

Sample 8-9 Essay

In her sonnet “Bluebeard,” Edna St. Vincent Millay has subverted so many elements of the Bluebeard
story that one can hardly know where to start counting the differences in the retellings. What is left
of the story? The secret room is empty; the partner’s desire for privacy and boundaries is not hor-
rifying, but rather understandable; and there is no violence or attempted murder--only rejection for
violating one’s stated wishes. In rejecting what we thought we knew about the story, Millay opens
up the possibility of rejecting one more closely held idea: that we are talking about essential gender
identities in the poem. The “you” and “I” are not gendered in the poem; the reader brings their own
preconceptions about the story about the conventionality of heterosexual marriage to the story. Millay
seems to be challenging the reader: if you let go of fairy tales, you may let go of what you thought
you knew about relationships and gender.
Fundamentally, the fairy tale Bluebeard is a story about forbidden knowledge. In the traditional
fairy tale, the young wife seeks to know her older husband’s secret in forbidding her from a locked
room. Millay subverts that knowledge by having the door open to emptiness. The knowledge is not
there: “The sought-for truth” is absent (5). The truth is more personal and individual; it is a desire
for separateness, boundaries, and the space to know oneself in private. The word “know” is repeated
as an admonition not of violence, but of autonomy: “Yet this alone out of my life I kept / Unto
myself, lest any know me quite” (9-10). Millay’s Bluebeard and wife have flipped the conditions of
knowing each other. Knowledge is not a private horror, but a necessary one to maintain individuality.
Such desire for autonomy is not gendered; those beliefs could belong to anyone. Millay begins to
more directly question the reader’s notions of gender--one might say, the knowledge they think they
have about gender--by including symbols in Bluebeard’s room more traditionally associated with
women, with witches. Or, rather, there is a conspicuous absence of those symbols: “No cauldron, no
clear crystal mirroring” inside the room (4). There are “no heads of women slain” (5). These details
highlight the ambiguity of the genders in the poem: the mention of the female-oriented symbols
makes us trace backward to find any gender pronouns, other than the ones we thought we knew.
No: there are only absences. We project our own preconceptions in those absences, and Millay is
revealing that habit and subverting it. With the use of the indirect pronoun, “you,” Millay broadens
the address to the reader. Millay tells us: “But only what you see. . . . Look yet again” (7). Look at
your own preconceptions.
Millay is subverting the sonnet form, as well, and showing the preconceptions of the form to be
too limiting. The poem follows the conventions of iambic pentameter and rhymed stanzas in abab
cdcd efefgg. But the final couplet belies its “coupling”: “That I must never more behold your face. /
This now is yours. I seek another place” (13-14). The poem ends with rejection, with the end of the
relationship. Even though the form is binding the rhymes, the “you” and “I” are uncoupled in the
retelling of the story. The use of ellipses also signals ruptures and breaks in the iambic pentameter,
for they suggest words or syllables that would subvert the regular meter. They appear as absences
in the middles of the lines: “You are betrayed. . . . Here is no treasure hid” and “But only what you
see. . . . Look yet again--” (3,7). Those syllables and words are missing, unknown, unknowable.
They are like the missing symbols in the room.
In reminding the reader to look again, that second ellipsis is a reminder that “only what you see” can
be deceiving because you fill in the gaps with your own preconceptions. The fairy tale of Bluebeard
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is about violence, but this poem shows the violence of making assumptions about what’s known and
what can be knowable. Everything in the old fairy tale has been elided from the original fairy tale
with these ellipses. What is left but the warning that our conventions can also be more flexible, mal-
leable, and self-reflexive than they appear to be. Those conventions are the stories we tell ourselves
about relationships and gender, but also about how we define “you” and “I.”
Comments on the 8-9 Essay

This is a confident, compelling essay that takes on Millay’s challenges in an admirable way. It’s
actually a pretty conventional five-paragraph essay with an open thesis, but it uses that structure as
a foundation to make some fascinating insights about conventionality, or the preconceptions that
we use to set up our expectations of fairy tales, poetic genres, and social relations of marriage and
gender. The so-what sentences at the ends of paragraphs are short and punchy, driving home the
clarity of a complex idea.
What’s important to note is that the author isn’t just expressing an opinion here, or using the poem to
advance a personal belief in a polemical way. Rather, the writer uses close attention to poetic devices
like rhyme, structure, language, and even ellipses to test out this idea.
The writer uses a compelling, well-tested conventional move of analyzing the “absences” in the
ellipses: this move is eminently adaptable for many analytical essays, as it allows writers to fill those
gaps with interpretations. It’s an analytical move that was so popular that it became a cliché, in a
way, because people started interpreting anything to fill those gaps. But this particular analysis is
grounded in the language and formal elements, so the interpretation follows from reading, not just
from projecting a random idea.
Sample 5-6 Essay

There is no other way to say that this poem is anti-feminist. Women have told the story of Bluebeard
for hundreds of years as a signal that women are not safe from domestic violence. It is offensive to
retell it “from a different perspective” to show how the man feels, when the power of the story is in
its warning to women. This is like trying to understand how men feel when they hurt women. It’s
very problematic that it’s written by a woman, but it is possible that she has written a poem about
the problem of internalized misogyny. She is subverting misogyny by showing how seductive it is. In
this essay, internalized misogyny will be discussed by looking at the genre of the poem, the structural
details, and the word choice.
The first indication of the internalized misogyny is in choosing a sonnet form to tell the story of
domestic violence. It seems like it is supposed to be a provocative, contrarian choice “to play devil’s
advocate.” This is shown by how she erases the important details and gives an alternative perspective,
that there are no bodies, just cobwebs. Maybe he’s not that bad, she suggests, and he just wants to
be alone. He says “alone out of my life I kept / Unto myself, lest any know me quite,” which shows
that he is not violent, just solitary (9-10). The signals of the problematic language are still clear,
however, when he accuses the “greedy” wife of “profan[ing]” the room with her presence (6, 11).
Therefore, it is ambiguous as to whether the author believes that this is a love poem, or if she is
using the form ironically.

The meter is iambic pentameter, showing that this is a conventional sonnet. The sonnet form always
makes couples tied together in “couplets” or “couples.” They cannot escape each other, as seen in the
rhyme scheme where they always have to “finish each other’s sentences,” so to speak. This is seen in
TIP
the rhyme scheme abab cdcd efefgg. The final couplet reads: “That I must never more behold your Just as you were
face. / This now is yours. I seek another place” (13-14). This is interestingly ironic because it is a looking for the
couplet, yet it is about being separated. challenging,
surprising,
To repeat, if it is ironic, then this irony is the author’s subversion of the meaning of the original
or frustrating
story. It is significant to retell the story as a woman poet because she can comment on how sonnets
are limited forms. They are like locked rooms with significant limitations--only a key with the right elements of
sonnet rhyme scheme can “unlock” them. a passage or
poem, you
The previous paragraphs said that Millay has internalized sexism and misogyny, but her project is
can also get
actually subversive and very sneaky: she wants to show that all of our poetic structures have misogyny
good analysis
“baked” into them at their very structure. They confine their female speakers. This rejection of the
out of finding
poem space as sexist is seen in the final words that end the poem: “I seek another place,” a room
that is less limiting. significant gaps
or absences: a
missing foot in
Sample 1-2 Essay
a poem, or the
“Bluebeard” is a confusing poem, because if one did not know the story already, it would not make any mention that
sense. It is confusing to understand what is going on without the summary. The poem is addressed
something is
to the reader, you. Opening the door in the poem is forbidding, which could mean that opening the
absent. These
poem by reading it is forbidden, and that is why it is so confusing. You are not supposed to enter the
absences are
room, you are not supposed to enter the poem.
usually very
When you enter the room of the poem, there is nothing there. What makes this a poem is the significant for
rhyming, but it does not contain any meaning. exploring the
Therefore, it is a poem about meaninglessness. It is a trick poem to make you think about how the layers of a poem!
things you want are empty and meaningless, and you will only be confused when you get them. The
poem sends you away at the end because it wants to show you the meaninglessness of your desires.
Comments on the 5-6 and 1-2 Essays

The writer of the 5-6 essay starts off in the wrong direction. Confused about how to analyze gender
relations in the poem, the writer makes strong, polemical claims about how there is “no other way”
to see the poem than as the author’s internalized misogyny. These strong judgments limit the inter-
pretation, and the writer soon realizes those limitations in the body paragraphs.
The writer often twists the interpretations around trying to account for both a strong, over-deter-
mined reading of the poem’s misogyny, and the more subtle, nuanced reading that might surface in
a conversation with another reader and revision. It’s like the writer realizes the limitations of the
strong, polemical claims about internalized misogyny during the writing process, but isn’t sure how
to fix it. This is actually good evidence that writing is a process of thinking: the work of analyzing
the details of the poem causes the writer to see the complexity unaccounted for in the first reading.
What would have been a good way to fix the problem? First, the writer could have written an open
thesis that framed the issue as exploring the tensions between the man and his wife, instead of
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trying to “prove” the pervasive misogyny in the poem. If the writer then realized midway through a
paragraph that such a strong judgment was off the mark, the writer could cross out some sentences
and try to write a new introduction, space-permitting.
Another possibility would be to work that reflection into the essay itself. The writer could begin a
paragraph with the realization: one of the subversive qualities of the poem is that it tricks the reader
into judgment that they must then revise. The Bluebeard story is so familiar that we all bring pre-
conceptions about the message and theme. The sonnet form is provocative for how it excites those
preconceptions. The missing feet in the iambic pentameter clue you in that something is not quite
right, and you should examine the conventions of the poem and story more closely. The writer could
then write a clear, longer conclusion about that process of realizing one’s own preconceptions, and
how Millay’s subversions work so effectively to challenge one’s beliefs. That kind of reflection may
be difficult to pull off in 25 minutes, but it would save this essay from a 5 grade and perhaps pull it
up a few points to show the “thinking on the page.”
As a stylistic note, one of the problems with the essay is that the writer over-uses scare quotes around
conversational language. In fact, there are more scare quotes around the writer’s own language than
there are around Millay’s language. It’s best to avoid using scare quotes in a close reading of a passage,
so that you don’t mix up your own ironic use of a word and your analysis of an author’s use of irony!
The 1-2 essay is very general and vague, although there’s something unusually, if incompletely,
compelling about the fumbling analysis. There are indeed poems and prose passages about meaning-
lessness on the AP® English Literature and Composition Exam, but you still have to analyze them
and find meaning in that meaninglessness. In an existential novel, or in a nonsense poem, there are
still literary elements to analyze.
In some interesting ways, the 1-2 essay picks up on the same concept of unknowability as the 8-9
essay, but it registers those readings as confusion, rather than as ideas to be analyzed. The essay is
brief and has no quotations to analyze, nor does it answer the prompt, so it is not something to
emulate, but it does show the first steps toward thinking on the page. The writer is writing toward an
idea, but it becomes untethered from analyzing the poem’s language, where those ideas of meaning
may be explored in depth. Remember: analyze what’s on the page, not a general idea that’s floating
around as a general philosophical musing.
HOW TO APPROACH THE OPEN ESSAY

Opinions vary on the open essay: some people love it for the chance to prepare ideas about books
they’ve studied deeply, while others dread having to prepare for any possible topic.
The open essay is the last section of the exam, and many students don’t make it to this question at
all, having spent all of the time on the first two essays. Remember that you can write the essays in
whichever order you like, as long as you clearly label them, so you should read through the entire set
of prompts for the three essays at the beginning of the exam. The poetry and prose analysis sections
are constructed out of unknowns, in that you don’t know the prompts or the passages in advance.
For the open essay, you have choices about how you can fill the unknowns with your own expertise,
even your own favorite books. You can practice reading, thinking, and writing strategies to make
that openness into an opportunity.

The College Board writes these questions so that students can select from a wide variety of literary
works. They will suggest several possible plays or novels you may choose, some or many of which
will be familiar from your English class reading lists. You must choose a play or a novel, not a movie
or television show. In this chapter, we will recommend that you plan strategically, so that you have
a few texts in mind that will be adaptable to a wide variety of questions.
In the prose and poetry section, we broke down the 40-minute timeframe into blocks for reading,
writing, and editing. That 8-minute reading timeframe was very short, with limited time for reading
and analysis of the themes, characters, and language. For the open section, you theoretically have
days, weeks, even months to do some of the reading work that will pay off in those 40 minutes on
the test day.
Obviously, you have to read books in order to write these essays, but we’re talking about strategic
reading that you can do during the preparatory period. First, we’ll work on reading the prompts so that
you learn and internalize the structure for the kinds of questions that are asked in the open section.
When you learn the patterns and structures, you can practice generating them and writing your own
practice essays. This way, you’ll be learning the strategies for connecting your preparatory reading
and thinking work to the actual writing work that takes only 40 minutes on the exam. We will also
help you prepare a few trusty favorites that will be relevant to discussing a wide variety of prompts.
We can break the prompts on the open essay section down into general types of questions:
• Discuss how a particular work of literature plays with the conventions of a well-known
genre . . .
• Discuss how a particular character trait, social situation, or desire affects a character’s rela-
tionships with others . . .
• Discuss how a particular kind of setting affects the action and behavior in a work of literature...
• Discuss how a particular event changes how you perceive the characters or themes in a
work of literature . . .
These general types of questions will ask you to analyze specific themes, concepts, character types,
and social questions. You can fill in the blanks and start mixing and matching your own questions.
We can generate some possible prompts for the first bullet point by adding in specific genres or themes:
• Comic plays and novels often contain a joker, fool, or some other outsider character who is
ridiculed but has secret knowledge or commentary on the situation. Discuss the complicated
role that such a foolish character plays in a work of literature of your choosing.
• Tragedies often have hidden seams of comic relief or even grim humor shared among the
characters. In a play or novel of your choice, discuss the ways that these comic elements
amplify, alleviate, or otherwise affect the tragedy.
• They say there’s no business like show business: why do many novels and plays have plots
about getting together to put on a play or some other performance? In theater, they are
called “plays within plays,” but they exist in novels as well, as plots or subplots that revolve
around all of the preparations, rehearsals, and backstage drama. What do we learn about
characters by seeing them rehearse and perform inside the story?
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There are many other possible ways to build a prompt from that question about genre. We’re not
anticipating possible questions in the hopes that you’ll be able to prepare exactly the right answer
before the test day. Rather, we’re showing you some ways to start thinking about the structures of the
language in the prompts, so that you can internalize those structures and feel comfortable tackling
whatever they throw at you.
Let’s practice generating more prompts with another list of general structures:
• Discuss how a particular event changes how you perceive the characters or themes in a
work of literature . . .
• Discuss how a moment of unexpected violence changes the characters in a play or novel of
your choice. How does it affect their relationship with each other, and how does it change
their perception of themselves?
• Missed connections: an undelivered message or a missing letter can change the course of
an entire story. Discuss how such a miscommunication affects the characters in a play or
novel of your choice.
• Political change can often affect the everyday lives of characters who are far removed from the
court or the seat of government. Discuss a novel or play in which such changes in authority
have a ripple effect that changes the lives of characters in surprising ways.
You’ll see that the prompts might have some variation in how they frame the questions, but they
have an underlying logical structure that you can internalize so that you know what the prompt is
asking you to do.
Choosing a Work of Literature

After you’ve read the prompt, you have to decide which play or novel you’re going to choose. This
choice can seem overwhelming. You may feel like there are too many options, or you may feel like
none of them seems quite right. It can seem like a paradox: you can’t choose when you have so many
choices.
The best way to handle this paradox of choice is to prepare three plays or novels (referred to here as
“texts”) ahead of time that you feel confident discussing. You should pick texts from your English
class that you’ve read, thought about, and written about extensively, so that you’ve already internalized
the themes, concepts, character interactions, and especially the complexities of the text.
This is a very partial list, but we have found that these books are particularly rich in a variety of
themes, concepts, character types, settings, and social questions. You may adapt your knowledge of
them to answer a variety of prompts:
• Any Shakespeare play, especially Hamlet, Twelfth Night, and The Tempest
• Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
• The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
• The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner
• Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
• Middlemarch, by George Eliot

Why these books? Well, it’s partly personal preferences: those are books that teachers enjoy teaching
because there are so many ways to read, think, and write about them. They address issues of personal
identity, relationships among different people, spirituality and belief, love and loss, power struggles,
failure, and fear. You could find those themes in many different kinds of books, so this is just a
starting place.
In fact, you might think of this very short list of recommendations as a kind of challenge: what
would your own list look like, to prove us wrong? Oh, really? Prove it. Why don’t you generate four
different prompts about how you see ambition, the legacies of colonialism, the role of technology
in human life, and censorship in that list of your own top five book/play list. That will come out
to twenty essays. They take 40 minutes each to write, so that’s 800 minutes . . . and, well, this the
English exam, so you’ll have to do that math for us.
Then do it again. Practice for the free-response essay by generating sample prompts when you read
novels and plays for class. Then reverse the process and start generating lists of other books that
would be appropriate for those prompts you developed. You’ll start to see which kinds of pairings
you’re most adept at writing. You will develop preferences for writing about particular books, so
you can choose which ones to prepare the most, but you’ll also gain the experience of seeing those
favorites from many different perspectives.
But really, is there a guaranteed best choice?

No, there isn’t a guaranteed best choice. There are “best practices” that we’ve already recommended,
like preparing for two or three texts from your English class that you know inside and out. You’ll
only know what’s best for you if you practice them.
Don’t choose a movie or television show. Don’t pretend that you’ve read a book because you’ve seen
the movie or television adaptation. You may even have a lot of thoughts on how the adaptation shows
the themes differently than the book or play—this exam isn’t the place to work out those ideas.
Because these lists are not making claims about absolute quality, don’t try to make a thing out
of outsmarting them. Don’t choose a really weird book, just to challenge the reader. It may seem
satisfying to outsmart the exam, but just think of your own reaction when someone starts talking
about a book or movie you’ve never seen. Your eyes glaze over. You feel disconnected. The College
Board will find a reader who has read your text, whatever it may be, but if you treat the exam as a
chance to prove a contrarian point, you won’t have the reader on your side. You want to start with
the reader’s interest, and then reward it—not frustrate them with your insights that are so brilliant
that only you can understand them.
Don’t choose a piece of genre fiction (mystery, fantasy, science fiction, romance) or a very contem-
porary book or play. These books may be just as challenging and rich as the texts you read in English
class, but it’s less likely that a reader will be prepared to engage with you on the nuances of such a
deep dive into a fantasy novel.
It’s not really a question of quality, but of resources for the exam readers: they, too, have to prepare
texts to grade, and they have to be strategic in what they prepare. They can’t read everything, so they
make it manageable by paying attention to high school reading lists, previous exams, and test prepa-
ration books that list these likely choices. They’re a lot like you, it turns out—they’re on your side, too.
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Preparing for the Question to Come

After you’ve written many prompt-pairing practice essays, you’ll figure out your favorite texts, char-
acters who seem like old friends (or delicious foes), memorable settings, and even some important
quotations that you can keep in your back pocket. (Not literally, of course.)
You may have your own strategies for studying for English class, and you can absolutely adapt them
for studying for the exam. You may be someone who makes outlines and character maps; you may
be someone who likes to collect favorite quotations and analyze them. You may be someone who
likes to write a story from the perspective of a favorite character, so you may embody their deepest
feelings. You may be someone who draws maps and pictures of your favorite settings. All of those
strategies may be helpful: all of those strategies are ones that English teachers love to use in their
classes, so that students can find different entry points into a text. (Your English teacher may not
do all of those things, but you can do them yourself if you’re particularly interested.) Each strategy
reveals a new facet of the text and of your analysis of it: a way of thinking visually about relationships
among characters, an emotional reaction that surprises you with the insights you gain from getting
deep inside a character’s head.
Quotation analysis and character analysis are probably the most directly applicable of those reading
strategies, as you can see from the other essays on this exam. You won’t be able to draw a diagram or
perform a dramatic reading on the exam. You’re being scored on your writing, after all. But “preparing”
a text means getting in depth, and the more creative you can be with your reading and thinking, the
more insights you’ll have ready to deploy in your writing.
Within these constraints, there are many choices, and you can make some of those choices easier by
preparing for them before the exam. We’ve given you reading and thinking strategies for preparing
texts and internalizing the language of the prompts. In that way, you have an expansive knowledge
of some favorite texts, anchored by a structural knowledge of the kinds of ways that you might fit
that knowledge and preparation into a 40-minute essay. With practice, you can adapt your chosen
book to fit many different possible prompts. Do you feel more prepared already?
Adapting your 40-minute timeframe for the Free-Response Essay

We told you these strategies were adaptable! For the free-response essay, you won’t need to spend
time reading the passage and annotating it, so you can use those 8-10 minutes to brainstorm and
make a quick idea map for your essay. You know your own brainstorming strategies best—or, rather,
you know your own brainstorming strategies best from extensive practice.
Ask: “What is the prompt asking me to do?”

Read it carefully, and recognize the patterns you’ve studied and internalized from your practice gen-
erating your own prompts and lists of relevant titles. Consider whether one of your prepared texts
is relevant—you don’t want to force an irrelevant text into a prompt, but you may be able to find
a surprising link that will be fun to write as you make the case for the obscure connection. If you
really don’t think your prepared texts will work, find another title on the list that you read in class or
on your own and which seems like a solid connection you can work with. You can practice for this

somewhat disappointing event by challenging yourself in practice to write about texts you didn’t like
as much from class—and maybe you’ll change your mind about one of them!
What is the main idea that you want to explore in your essay?
You can start your notes with two foundational questions:
• What does the prompt make you reconsider about the text you’ve chosen?
• What does the text you’ve chosen make you reconsider about the prompt?
Answer these two questions in a few notes, and you’ll have some of the main ideas that you want
to address in the essay. Jot down a few examples of characters, specific scenes, and even some of the
key quotations you’ve memorized (or mostly memorized).
After your many hours of practice, you will know what kinds of notes are most helpful for you. Some
students like to make an outline, while others make a concept map they’ve used in other classes.
Strategies are most useful when you personalize them and internalize them; they’re not something
you can just take directly from this book and apply as a magic formula.
Write your introduction

The prompts often specify a tension or conflict. To take some of the earlier examples of sample
prompts, we might find tensions between comic and dramatic elements in a tragedy, between two
characters who fight unexpectedly due to underlying tensions, or between government and everyday
people who are affected their political actions. If such a conflict isn’t stated, it’s still present—it’s just
up to you to articulate it.
Write an introduction in which you adapt your notes into three or four sentences about how the
prompt shows you a new way to consider your chosen text. This reconsideration may be only partly
true: you’ve studied these texts inside and out, and you were already thinking about these themes before
you sat down at the exam. Remember that the exam reader wants to be surprised and challenged by
your analysis, so it should read like you’re discovering nuances and ideas as you write. You’re taking
the reader on a journey of discovery, not just of rehashing basic themes you and they already knew.
Such essays will feel tired and over-rehearsed. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t prepare but that
you should prepare to be (or act) surprised by the ideas you generate.
Write your body paragraphs

In the prose and poetry essays, we talked about “re-narrating” or retelling the passage through your
own analytical language, to focus the reader’s attention on seeing the passage through your eyes, as a
director would do in filming a movie. That strategy is even more relevant in the open essay, because
you don’t have the text in front of you. You’re relying on analytical description: describe what you’re
seeing, by focusing attention on specific details. Analytical description is not the same as summary,
and it’s not the same as close reading of quotations. It’s somewhere between those two modes of
analysis: you’re not zoomed out to give a bird’s eye summary view of the text, but you’re not super-
focused on particular words, either. In an analytical description, you’re revealing new details of the
text by reconsidering it through the analytical language you’ve adapted from the prompt.
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Start with the most obvious connection so that you can build a foundation and gain confidence that
TIP you’ve chosen the right text for the prompt.
Then move on to the more complex scenes that you remember from the text, the ones that will
Any notation or
help you find nuances in your idea. You can look at your list of notes and pick out some moments
outlining system
in which you can discuss such questions as:
is only as good as
you can practice • What does your chosen text show you about the prompt that makes it seem like an especially
interesting way to address the questions the prompt is suggesting?
it, personalize it,
and adapt it to • What is the so-what of your connection: why is this a productive prompt-text pairing?
your own uses. What themes does it help you see that you wouldn’t have seen otherwise? Analyze two or three
moments through these newfound realizations, realizations that wouldn’t have occurred to you
without the text.
Once you get to the body paragraphs, you’ll see that the open essay is not that much different from
TIP
the prose analysis essay. You won’t be examining an unknown text for tiny nuances of language, but
you will be relating your thoughts on the nuances of a known text. The distinctions between those
two modes will start to feel natural the more you practice them.
Don’t write your
introduction as
a direct answer: Write your conclusion
This book relates For your conclusion, remember that you’re not justifying your choice of texts for the prompt. You
to the prompt made that choice, you committed to it, and the reader wants to focus on your analysis and ideas, not
because… or your insistence that there’s a connection. You’re showing the value of your choice, not telling the
This book is reader about it or proving it.
an example You’re not restating your previous points, but rather showing a resolution to the conflict or tension
of the prompt that you’ve been exploring in the previous paragraphs.
because…
What have you reconsidered by the end of your essay? You’ve been preparing a few favorite texts
Remember to
for months, and we hope you get to write about it—so what did you learn when you studied it with
show, not tell the
the prompt?
connections.
Edit your ideas

You can use the same editing strategies from the prose and poetry essays on the open essay: check
for repetitive language, cross out any notes you’ve made for yourself, make sure that you’re spelling
characters names correctly (from memory). We’ve seen that sometimes writers include a few more
sentences of plot summary at the beginnings of their essays. It’s as if they need a few lines to talk
themselves into getting comfortable with their choice, like they have to justify it for a few sentences
before getting to their best idea. You can almost always edit these summarizations out of your essay.
The readers care about your thoughts and what you have to say. They’ve read the passage backwards
and forwards, and don’t need to be reminded of what’s in it. You have a precious amount of time to
have them get to know you and your thoughts—don’t fatigue their reading muscles with unnecessary
rehashing of text you’ve already been given.

OPEN ESSAY WALKTHROUGHS

Let’s look at some sample essays. We won’t work through them sentence by sentence as we did with
the prose and poetry essays, because the writers’ choices are not going to be fascinating to every
reader. You may not have read the writers’ chosen texts, so you don’t have the same text to compare
and analyze deeply, the way you did in reading Melville or Millay. For readers who haven’t read The
Great Gatsby or The Importance of Being Earnest, you can play along and consider what you would
have written for your own essay.
Sample Open Essay Prompt 1

The travel writer Paul Theroux has written: “An island is a fixed and finite piece of geography, and
usually the whole place has been carved up and claimed.”
Write an essay in which you discuss a literary work that is set on an island, where the setting empha-
sizes divisions among characters, social classes, or cultural groups. How does the island function in
the characters’ senses of personal and cultural identity? How does the island setting magnify conflicts
about those claims to staking one’s identity or one’s relationships with others?
Lord of the Flies

The Tempest
Treasure Island
The Count of Monte Cristo
A Brief History of Seven Killings
Robinson Crusoe
To the Lighthouse
Twelfth Night
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wide Sargasso Sea
Corelli’s Mandolin
The Light Between Oceans
A High Wind in Jamaica
Foe
The Summer Book
The Odyssey
English Passengers
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
The Island Under the Sea
Sample 8-9 Essay

It may be surprising to think of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby as an island tale like
Robinson Crusoe, for we tend to think of Fitzgerald’s novel as a story about sociability and city life.
And yet the characters in the novel are obsessed with making distinctions among island identities
in New York’s East and West Egg, peninsulas in Long Island Sound. They define their social lives
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around the ways that the island has, in Paul Theroux’s words, “carved up and claimed.” The key
conflict in the novel is about whether the island may be reclaimed in a shake-up of social classes: can
a newly rich man without family status shift the locations of status on the island? Gatsby believes
that tension lies between himself and Tom and Daisy Buchanan: if he can only possess what they
possess, he may reclaim his lost love. The novel’s tragedy is that it shows that those forces that carve
up islands are not individual, but part of a long historical arc, longer than anyone can see from his
or her own vantage point.
There is a map of West and East Egg in many editions of The Great Gatsby, to give readers a sense of
how close, yet how far apart West and East Egg are from each other. They are neighboring peninsulas,
and one may travel between them easily, but the psychic distance between them is enormous. Both
Gatsby and the narrator Nick Carraway spend time gazing across the water, assessing the distance
from West Egg, “the less fashionable of the two” peninsulas, to East Egg, where the houses are
much larger and fancier. Gatsby has moved to West Egg because he is rich and would like to live
somewhere fashionable, but he lacks the family connections to move to East Egg, where homes have
been owned by families for generations. It is not as though West Egg is impoverished, not at all;
instead, its shame is that it is only slightly less fashionable, and thus the distinctions are more about
judgments and taste than money in one’s bank account. They are not visible on a map; characters
can see those distinctions because they are trained to look for them in every social situation. Gatsby’s
gaze is always aspirational, always trying to overcome that small distance that means everything.
Nick does not see the distinctions—until he starts to see them everywhere. His perspective on the
two peninsulas changes over the course of the novel, as he sees them through Gatsby’s, then Daisy’s
eyes. Initially he reads the map of Long Island differently, because he has his own aspirations. His
distinctions are between Long Island and Manhattan, and he finds pathos in having to cross over
“the Valley of the Ashes,” or the industrial area between the two islands. The Valley of the Ashes is
a no-man’s land, a reminder of the geographic devastation of industrialization and railroad building
that changed the American landscape at the beginning of the twentieth century. Now the railroad
carves up the island, and those spaces have been claimed by factories. A gigantic sign for TJ Eckleberg
presides over the space, an island in and of itself. It is a reminder of the past, but no one has any sense
of how long it’s been there or what happened to the individual man or his store—it’s all just gray
factories now. Nick starts to see TJ Eckleberg as a kind of judge or spiritual figure, presiding over the
space as a reminder of what’s lost—because no one can remember what he means. His spectacles are
a symbol of perspective, and how that perspective may magnify our senses of perception and meaning.
Nick only realizes the distinctions between the different locations of Long Island when he sees them
through East Egg Daisy’s eyes. She is rich and always has been, so she does not even realize her
own powers of perception. She does not know the meaning of what she sees. When he realizes her
invisible judgments of class, taste, and family, Nick says “it is saddening to look through someone
else’s eyes at things you thought you knew.” It means that he does not just have to adjust his vision,
but also his perception of himself, his friends, and his own aspirations. Gatsby will never catch up to
the Buchanans, for he is only new-rich, and can never claim the long history of family background
that East Egg claims. His history can never catch up to his present, for he will always be measuring,
but never measuring up.

When he sees the world through Daisy’s perspective, he realizes how small he is in the grand scheme
of events. At the end of the novel, Nick stands on the dock again, reassessing the distance between
the peninsulas one more time. He sees his position in history: he is but a dot on a long historical
timeline. He narrates a vision of the past, when Long Island was not yet carved up or claimed, when
the Dutch settlers arrived on the “fresh green breast of the new world.” This green land is so dif-
ferent from the Valley of the Ashes and the metal tracks of the railroad. He contrasts that unspoiled
land: “face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate with wonder.” Nick
contrasts the unspoiled land with the socially stratified island, as though people were the problem
because people carve and claim.
Yet that fantasy of disappearing is also complicated. That initial provocation about thinking of
Gatsby as a Robinson Crusoe story reveals the shared theme among the two stories: both titular men
suffer from profound loneliness on the island. Nick’s fantasy takes place at about the same time that
Robinson Crusoe was shipwrecked in Daniel Defoe’s novel, in the seventeenth century. Defoe’s novel
traces that sailor’s mixture of wonder and loneliness on the island, before it’s carved up or claimed
by others. Yet even he turns wonder and freshness into a map, so that he may soothe his loneliness
and nurture his need to communicate with others, even if he doesn’t know who those others—his
future readers—might be.

If we had to guess, we’d imagine that this writer had written an English essay about perception in The
Great Gatsby, remembered it, and reformulated parts of it for this exam. That’s a fine strategy that
shows the value of preparation. We guess that it’s partly reformulated from a prior essay because it is
long, and the two halves of the paragraph about T.J. Eckleburg seem disconnected. The writer makes
a connection in the last sentence of the paragraph, so it looks like the writer was trying to figure the
connection while writing. The language of perception, mapping, and surveying makes for strong
connections throughout the essay, so the writer had good command over that analytical vocabulary.
The writer has been very diligent about using the language of the prompt in the essay, quoting Paul
Theroux’s words of carving and claiming at multiple opportunities. Memorizing passages worked
well for the writer; although the quotations weren’t totally correct, they were especially effective in
the inspired final paragraph about Gatsby and Robinson Crusoe. That connection is a surprise, but
the writer did a good job of showing what it revealed about the desire for connection on an island.
The paragraph about the Valley of the Ashes was a good contrast to the East Egg/West Egg distinc-
tions, which were getting a bit long by the middle of the essay. The point about industrialization of
the island sets up the final paragraph about the “fresh green breast” of the New World in a fascinating
way. That passage is the key to making this essay fit into the prompt because it describes Long Island
in traditional language of exotic, unspoiled locales. Most writers would probably not think of Gatsby
as an island novel, but the writer has done a great job of changing one’s perspective on it through
strategic descriptions and quotations.
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Sample 5-6 Essay

Some might say that The Great Gatsby is not a story about islands, but in fact it takes place on Long
Island, in New York, and other parts of it take place in Manhattan, also an island. We just don’t
think of them as islands because they are so populace. On the other hand, we don’t always think
of Great Britain as an island, even though it is, but we do think of Cuba as an island. It has to do
with how far away from the dominant culture they are in how they are perceived by people to be
isolated or centralized.
This brings us to The Great Gatsby, where the characters are always judging how far apart they are
from the center of society. On one peninsula of Long Island is East Egg, which is the fanciest place
and the center of all of the parties, where Tom and Daisy Buchanan live. On the peninsula next to
it is West Egg, which is seen as less fashionable. The characters also drive along the island, past the
Valley of the Ashes, to get to Manhattan, which is seen as distant and a place where the characters
can have different lives, like Tom does in his affair with Myrtle. These three places are all distant
from each other and the characters change their behavior depending on which island/part of the
island they are on.
This shows that The Great Gatsby is actually a book about three different islands/peninsulas, and
should be thought of as in the same way we think about Lord of the Flies or The Tempest, for it is also
about how society changes in different islands. In Lord of the Flies, the group’s worst tendencies are
exaggerated when they go to the island; this is similar to how the parties at Jay Gatsby’s house are
exaggerated to the extreme, where everyone is showing off their wealth and acting crazy. Interestingly,
they also act crazy when they go to the hotel in Manhattan, because that is an island as well, so they
see these places as places to let go and indulge their worst excesses like affairs and even violence.
This brings up the point that people spend a lot of time traveling to and from the islands, which
is similar to many adventure stories. In the Great Gatsby, they travel to and from Long Island and
Manhattan, and they pass the Valley of Ashes, which is an industrial space that they want to stay as
far away from as possible because it’s not aspirational like Manhattan or either of the Eggs. The eyes
of TJ Eckleberg look down on the road, but it is like an island of something that used to be there
that it was advertising, but now it’s gone. TJ Eckleberg is like an island itself, amid the gray traffic.
It is the guardian to the bridge between the islands.
In The Tempest, the island is thought to be a place to experiment and make a new world. In the Great
Gatsby, Jay Gatsby thought he could make a new world and a new identity for himself out of his
aspirations, and his house at first seems like a utopia for him because he can satisfy all of his desires
for wealth and showing off. Then he finds a desire (Daisy) that he cannot obtain. She even comes
from a different island (East Egg). In the play, the island paradise becomes impossible because of
the desire for power. Gatsby and Tom struggle for power over Daisy, and the paradise of the parties
and the specialness of Gatsby’s paradise are ruined.
The theme of the islands is most important at the end, when the author explains the main idea of
the green light. On the last page of the book, where Nick can see the place like a lush island before
settlement, similar to the Tempest, where man views a scene that excites “his capacity for wonder.”
The Tempest is a story about wonder that gets corrupted, similar to the Great Gatsby’s last scene of
imagining how Gatsby’s own wonder has been destroyed. The “green light” is important to the island
because it shows the distance from other places.

In conclusion, it is interesting to think about the Great Gatsby as an island novel because it makes us
think about its connections to other books that it is not often compared to, like the Lord of the Flies
or The Tempest. The connections make you think about the characters and behavior in a new way.
The characters are seen to be isolated in their own islands, like the saying No man is an island. In
the Great Gatsby, everyone is an island.
Sample 1-2 essay

Islands are a theme in literature because they are a confined space, and people interact in that
space in complex ways. They fight over resources, whether those resources are food and water, or
social issues. They argue over who owns which part of land, and those arguments lead to themes of
power struggles and alienation. This happens in many novels, but I would like to look at the power
struggles in The Great Gatsby, which technically applies because it takes place on Long Island. It
applies because there are social issues about who lives where on the island, and who has more money.
It applies because they also go to Manhattan, which is another island that is separate from Long
Island. They travel over the Valley of Ashes to get there. In Manhattan, there are also struggles for
resources, which have been shown in other novels that were published around the same time. Islands
are a popular theme, it is clear, because they show isolation and the wish to gain more than you have.
Comments on 5-6 and 1-2 Essays

Both writers of these middle- and low-score essays seem uncertain that The Great Gatsby is a good
choice for the essay. The 1-2 essay is so short and general that it’s hard to give it more than a minimum
score. It looks like the writer was unsure which text to choose, wrote a few sentences of generaliza-
tions, and finally made an attempt to choose one from memory. That means that the only specific
detail is about the Valley of Ashes, which is only mentioned by not analyzed.
The writer of the 5-6 essay gains confidence after the introduction, but the quibbling over what
counts as an island is not very interesting. The writer needs to make a choice of texts and move on
to analysis, as the essay isn’t a five-paragraph proof that it’s an island novel. It’s an exploration about
what happens when you pay attention to the qualities of carving and claiming that are so complicated
in novels about islands.
The writer’s connections to The Tempest and Lord of the Flies are perfunctory, as the author stops
short of just saying “they are similar.” The connection to these extra texts is not revelatory, as it was
in the 8-9 essay, for the writer doesn’t develop the comparisons in a meaningful way. There may
indeed be some fascinating connections between Lord of the Flies and The Great Gatsby in terms
of how they show social conflicts over claiming authority on the island. Possibly. The last lines of
The Great Gatsby, explored so compellingly in the 8-9 essay, do seem to call back to the “O brave
new world” line from The Tempest, but this connection, too, would need a stronger motivation and
analysis to justify the connection.
The problem is that none of those connections is related to one another. Each paragraph is distinct,
so that there’s little development of an idea other than that one can think of The Great Gatsby as
an island novel. The ideas are superficial because they stay at the level of saying that it could be
thought of that way.
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Sample Open Essay Prompt 2

When an author writes a satire, some of the specific, personal targets of the satire may get lost to
history, as readers may not have the same reference points or knowledge of history. Yet the best
examples from the genre continue to speak to readers in later generations. Write a well-organized
essay about a work of satire that has retained its relevance—or gained a new one—in a new context
for contemporary readers. How does satire speak beyond its immediate time and place?
Candide
Catch-22
Animal Farm
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Importance of Being Earnest
1984
Brave New World
Gulliver’s Travels
A Confederacy of Dunces
Northanger Abbey
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk
Vanity Fair
A Bold Stroke for a Wife
White Noise
The Misanthrope
The Master and the Margarita
Pride and Prejudice
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Midnight’s Children
Don Quixote
Sample 8-9 Essay

“We live, as I hope you know, Mr. Worthing, in an age of ideals,” the character Gwendolen announces
to her paramour, Jack Worthing, at a crucial moment in Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being
Earnest. Gwendolen is defending her greatest ideal—to love a man named Ernest—against the
Worthing’s confession that his name is really Jack, and he has been pretending to be named Ernest for
convoluted, yet very funny reasons. The satire is that Gwendolyn’s ideal is so silly, and yet she is ready
to give up love for that inflated ideal. The satire of that silly ideal is a means to show the distortions
of other Victorian era ideals, ideals about social class, gender, and what was considered good taste.
We live in an age of ideals, too, and Wilde’s satire remains relevant more than a hundred years after it
was first performed. Twenty-first century ideals look similar to the Victorian period because we still
argue about class and gender, among many other important issues. Yet it is not just that the satirical
play remains relevant, for it is a director’s job to make these older plays relevant to today’s audiences.
It is more important to think about how the transmission of these ideals has changed, and what

those changes in media and performance mean for how we interpret them. Specifically, those ideals
look different on social media, for they are exaggerated even beyond what a satirical could play could
imagine. The exaggerated qualities of how we behave on social media makes us feel like we’re in an
Oscar Wilde play all the time with how ridiculous we act. We may look to his work to see how his
characters thought of themselves as performing those ideals, distinct from merely believing them.
In her monologue to Jack, Gwendolen goes on to explain where these ideals come from: “the monthly
magazines” and “the provincial pulpits.” Those places for popularizing ideals are no longer with us,
for magazines are dying out and social media serves as the main source of a “provincial pulpit,” or
a platform not in a church. It is a significant coincidence that pulpit is another word for platform,
because we think about platforms all the time. It’s part of our vocabulary now: I need the biggest
platform for my brand, or which platforms do you use? Gwendolyn was pointing out that then, as
now, people get their aspirations and senses of identity from the media around them. They see ideals
as aspirations, so they try to live up to them, and perform in a fantasy version of that life. Gwendolyn
is acting in two ways: she is performing as an actress, but she is also performing for herself and for
others inside the play, as the model, ideal girlfriend. Her performance shows in how she exaggerates
her affection for him, until she withholds it in her monologue.
Those platforms have changed the way that we interact socially. Everyone can see our interactions, so,
like Gwendolen, we are always performing. In the play, Algernon tells Jack: “My dear fellow, the way
you flirt with Gwendolen is disgraceful. It’s almost as bad as the way Gwendolen flirts with you.” Wilde
was satirizing the way that the two characters seemed to following a script and acting—badly—in
a play. This line is very relatable for how we perform flirting on the platforms, with bad scripts that
we know are dumb. We analyze every detail of them insistently because we have a record of them
typed on the platform, for everyone to see and over-analyze, too. In the play, when Gwendolen and
Cecily are obsessed with writing in their diaries, but ironically they aren’t writing secrets, but rather
“confessions” that are meant to be published eventually. For Wilde’s characters, the satire was about
testing the tension between public and private life, and the joke was funny because people knew that
diaries were for private thoughts and publishing was for sharing publicly.
It seems like that tension between private and public life is no longer there because they are the same.
However, it could also be that we are really anxious about the collapse of that boundary between
our private and public lives, even as we go through the motions of flirting badly and publicly online.
Wilde’s satire reminds us that people in the past had the same worries, expressed here through jokes.
Cecily and Gwendolen compare diaries to claim that they were both proposed to by “Ernest,” when
really they were using their diaries to perform as the woman they wanted to be. They were, in short,
lying. In the lies, they could barely acknowledge that there was a gap between who they wanted to
perform as, in the published form of the diary, and who they really were, which were women strug-
gling with unrealistic goals and ideals.
Seen that way, Gwendolen and Cecily look relatable from many angles. They let us see how we are
always writing in our diaries online, sharing secrets, flirtations, fantasies, and aspirational images of
ourselves—our ideals. Are our ideals any sillier than theirs? Our platforms, our provincial pulpits,
only give the satire a grander, more social way for those ideals to play out.
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This is a delightful essay that could become an interesting opinion column for a high school or college
newspaper, especially if the school is staging The Importance of Being Earnest. The “we” voice is a little
bit casual and over-generalizing, although it’s hard to see how that tone could have been avoided. In
general, the “we” can sound like you’re speaking for everyone—a problematic assumption—but the
writer has reason to speak grandly in analyzing the role of satire in an age of ideals. The “we” voice
sounds like an essay that would appear in one of Gwendolen’s magazines, and the insights are not
casual or superficial. The essay has a wonderfully satirical tone to it that Wilde would have appreciated.
This essay has a two-paragraph introduction, in which the writer has essentially reversed and adapted
what you might expect and led with a quotation and then used the second paragraph to work out a
complex idea. The writer does an admirable job of explaining the complicated plot in only as much
detail as needed, without mentioning the other subplots and complications. The writer focuses on
Gwendolen’s idea and brings in other characters to show the social interactions in more detail. That
focus is welcome for such a busy plot. The writer has recalled key moments in the play, with good
use of short quotations to show the connections to contemporary social media style.
Sample 5-6 Essay

It is interesting to read Oscar Wilde’s Importance of Being Earnest in today’s society because it is
relevant to debates about relationships and how to behave, which have changed in some ways but
are also still the same as they were a hundred years ago. The satirical parts of Wilde’s novel are
reminders that comedy is timeless because laughing is timeless. The same jokes about how people
present themselves to get married are still funny to us today because not very much has changed,
especially for how foolish and idealistic people can be. The novel itself is very complicated, which
is similar to how complicated people’s lives still are when they are presenting one feeling and pre-
tending to be another.
One way that it is still the same is in the expectations of how men and women are supposed to
behave. The character of Lady Braxton can be seen as somewhat sexist back then, and defiantly
sexist now because she tries to control how the marriages are arranged. This is seen as funny in the
play because it is satirizing her strong, rigid beliefs that she forces onto other people. It is satirical
because she tries to force her niece Cecilia to be silly and naive--she is forcing sexist ideas onto her,
but she is doing it with a lot of power herself. This satire is even more apparent now that women
are more independent, so it would seem very strange that Lady Braxton is both powerful and trying
to force her niece to be someone’s wife. It shows that social class is sometimes more important to
people than gender balance. That is something that we are still working out ourselves, and so the
satire reveals something about our lives today.
It is also interesting to see how complicated their lives are as they are trying to figure out class and
gender and what it means for modern love. The novel can be seen as the ancestor to a romantic
comedy in how people mix up identities and make plans that get mixed up in humorous ways. The
satire is about how complicated people make falling in love, especially when they have fantasies
about how things are supposed to be. This is seen with Cecilia imagining that she has to fall in love
with a man named Ernest--it is her fantasy--and she then falls in love with a man just for his name.
When she finds out that his name is really Jack, she doesn’t love him anymore. It becomes very

complicated as their names and identities get mixed up, which shows that her fantasies were more
like complications than like wishes--she wants as much “drama” as possible. This is interesting for a
satirical play because the characters can act as exaggerations, but there are items to recognize from
contemporary life.
Sample 1-2 essay

The Importance of Being Earnest is a satirical play that is still performed today because it is still
relatable. This essay is proving that it is relatable, even though it is confusing.
As a play, it is about how people flirt with each other and pretend to be something they are not.
They run into trouble because their lies catch up with them. The trouble is funny, though, because
the characters’ lies are not important in the end. They are arguing about the importance of names,
but not about their inner characters, so the lies are only on the surface.
The satire is that the surface matters too much to a character like the Mother, who cares only about
appearances and marrying the right person. She judges everyone harshly. She is the character who
is being satirized the most because she exaggerates everything.
The character who is the same the whole way through is Father Charles, who stabilizes everything
because he can see through the lies. He is steady, which is important in a satire and in society in general. TIP
Stay away from
Comments on the 5-6 and 1-2 Essays generalizations.
We realize this is
In the middle-range essay, the writer has some good ideas that get lost in generalizations. Many of
those generalizations don’t serve the writer’s purpose, because they could apply to any play or novel. a generalization,
For example, The Importance of Being Earnest is important in “today’s society because it is relevant too, but they
to debates about relationships and how to behave, which have changed in some ways but are also are rarely
still the same as they were a hundred years ago. The satirical parts of Wilde’s novel are reminders helpful in your
that comedy is timeless because laughing is timeless.” There’s an impulse to say “it’s the same but essay because
it’s different” and “it’s timeless because all humor in general is timeless.” Neither of these statements your readers
is helpful because they take away from the particular details about the play that you are trying to are looking
analyze and explain. The prompt asks you to explain the difference in time period, and why it’s still for details, not
relevant, so saying it’s timeless creates a circular argument. It’s relevant because it’s timeless because statements about
it’s relevant . . . what’s true all the
There are good ideas here, but they tend to come after a lot of generalizations. For example, the time, or in all of
open thesis arrives at an interesting idea: “people’s lives are complex when they are presenting one society.
feeling and pretending to be another.” This phrasing is a little fuzzy—how can you pretend to be a
feeling?—but the idea is solid. It’s familiar from many other works of literature about one’s private and
public personas, and The Importance of Being Earnest is a fascinating way to examine those personas
and the way the characters perform them. The best sentence in the essay is the clearest one: “The
satire is about how complicated people make falling in love, especially when they have fantasies about
how things are supposed to be.” If the writer started with this idea, there could be a lot to say about
the interconnectedness of the complicated plot and the characters’ ideals. Their ideals are both very
simple, even silly, yet made very complicated by their performances of them.
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That idea is strong, but there are many places where the phrasings are vague, generalized, and sloppy.
The author is over-reliant on phrases like “this is seen” and “it is interesting,” which don’t allow for
specific insights or connections to the details being analyzed.
Both essays show the importance of remembering people’s names: Lady Bracknell, Cecily, and
Father Chasuble are the characters’ names. (These errors seem particularly funny in essays about
name mix-ups).
For the 1-2 essay, the writer seems to know parts of the play, but doesn’t remember it in enough
detail to give specific details. The attempt to identify satire is weak and underexplained. There are
glimpses of good ideas about the importance of surfaces, but there’s not much else to read in this
short example.
We have been emphasizing the ability to adapt and personalize these strategies, so that you can
internalize them. If, in the sample essays, you saw phrases you liked, copy them down and see if
you can incorporate them into your own practice essays. They are yours to copy and adapt. If, in
the sample essays, you had a better way that you would write toward the prompt, then by all means,
practice writing that essay. Then do another, and another.
These essays aren’t going to be the last ones you ever write, and instructors in your high school or
college classes may have different strategies to recommend in the future. This isn’t the final definition
of an essay, an introduction, a thesis, a body paragraph—it’s a set of strategies that helps you write a
very specific form of an essay in 40 minutes. What matters now is what you do with the strategies,
how you make them your own, so that you can ace those exams in 2 hours.

SUMMING IT UP
• You will write three essays:

ºº An analysis of a prose passage from a novel, short story, creative nonfiction, or play
ºº A literary analysis of a poem
ºº An open topic about a literary concept or theme, in which you choose a literary work
from your own study that you believe best illuminates the prompt
• This section is worth 55 percent of your total score; it is weighted slightly more heavily
than the multiple-choice questions.
• You will have 2 hours to write three free-response essays on test day. Aim to spend 40
minutes on each essay.
• As a general guideline, spend 8-10 minutes reading the passage and making notes, and
25-27 minutes composing your essay. For the open-response question, spend the first 8-10
minutes brainstorming.
• Each essay in Section II is scored on a scale of 0-9, for a total of 27 points. Readers use
a rubric that describes the features of top-scoring, middle-range, and low-scoring essays.
• Don’t just identify literary buzzwords within the prompt passage—instead identify them
and discuss why the author uses them effectively.
• Use the vocabulary terms and analytical language from the question in your introduction as
you’re writing your main idea about what’s surprising or unconventional about the passage.
• Don’t restate the question or summarize it.
• Make sure to keep using the question’s vocabulary and analytical language, but take own-
ership of it and show how it’s serving your ideas as you write the essay.
• Focus on putting rich details in context, not giving a lot of general context and then a
small detail.
• Make paragraph “sandwiches” of your topic idea sentence, passage quotations that have been
integrated into your own sentences, analysis of those quotations and details from the passage,
and the crucial so-what sentences that show why it was important to analyze those passages.
• Don’t be afraid to write a couple of “so-what” sentences at the ends of paragraphs, as you
may write toward your best insights.
• Write a conclusion that shows how your idea has developed over the course of the essay,
not just a restatement of your previous idea: show the change; don’t just tell it (or restate
the question again).
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PART III
THREE PRACTICE TESTS
CHAPTER 5 Practice Test 1

Practice Test 1
Chapter 5
191
Chapter 5: Practice Test 1 193
answer sheet
ANSWER SHEET PRACTICE TEST 1
Section I: Multiple Choice
1. 15. 29. 43.
2. 16. 30. 44.
3. 17. 31. 45.
4. 18. 32. 46.
5. 19. 33. 47.
6. 20. 34. 48.
7. 21. 35. 49.
8. 22. 36. 50.
9. 23. 37. 51.
10. 24. 38. 52.
11. 25. 39. 53.
12. 26. 40. 54.
13. 27. 41. 55.
14. 28. 42.
Section II: Free Response
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194 Part III: Three Practice Tests

answer sheet
www.petersons.com

PRACTICE TEST 1
practice test
Time 1 hour • 55 Questions
Directions: This section consists of selections from literary works and questions on their
content, form, and style. After reading each passage or poem, choose the best answer to each
question and then fill in the corresponding circle.
Questions 1–14. Read the following poem carefully before you decide on the answers to the
questions.
“Written with a Slate Pencil on a Stone, on the Side of the Mountain of Black Comb,” by William
Wordsworth
Stay, bold Adventurer; rest awhile thy limbs

On this commodious Seat! for much remains
Of hard ascent before thou reach the top
Line Of this huge Eminence,—from blackness named,
5 And, to far-travelled storms of sea and land,
A favourite spot of tournament and war!
But thee may no such boisterous visitants
Molest; may gentle breezes fan thy brow;
And neither cloud conceal, nor misty air
10 Bedim, the grand terraqueous spectacle,
From centre to circumference, unveiled!
Know, if thou grudge not to prolong thy rest,
That on the summit whither thou art bound,
A geographic Labourer pitched his tent,
15 With books supplied and instruments of art,
To measure height and distance; lonely task,
Week after week pursued!—To him was given
Full many a glimpse (but sparingly bestowed
On timid man) of Nature’s processes
20 Upon the exalted hills. He made report
That once, while there he plied his studious work
Within that canvas Dwelling, colours, lines,
And the whole surface of the out-spread map,
Became invisible: for all around
25 Had darkness fallen—unthreatened, unproclaimed—
As if the golden day itself had been
Extinguished in a moment; total gloom,
In which he sate alone, with unclosed eyes,
Upon the blinded mountain’s silent top!
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1. What is the poetic device employed in line 2? 5. What is the thematic function of the
A. Consonance enjambed verbs (“Molest,” “Bedim”) at the
B. Paradox beginning of lines 8 and 10?
C. Symbolism A. The speaker is overcome with
emotion at the scene.
D. Allusion
B. The speaker can’t quite contain the
E. Assonance scene in poetic language.
2. The poetic device employed in line 2 serves C. The speaker keeps getting inter-
what thematic purpose? rupted in thoughts.
A. It registers the speaker’s struggle to D. The speaker is frustrated by the limi-
fully capture the majesty of nature tations of language.
with language. E. The manmade world keeps getting in
B. It establishes a poetic vantage point the way of the view.
that will help the speaker organize
the vast space. 6. What work was the geographic Labourer
performing?
C. It signals the speaker’s rejection of
language to describe the natural A. Mining to extract ore
landscape. B. Writing a patriotic poem about the
D. It shows the speaker’s mastery over landscape
nature with diction. C. Surveying to make a map
E. It shows his collaboration with D. Scouting for a military campaign
natural scientists to understand E. Leading a group of tourists
nature.
7. The speaker voices all of these beliefs about
3. The adjective “commodious” (line 2) creates
the geographic Labourer EXCEPT
what kind of tone?
A. he is like a poet, who composes his
A. Anxious views of nature in solitude.
B. Ambiguous B. he needs help from poets to put his
C. Colonialist visions into poetic language.
D. Scientific C. he is heroic in his endeavors.
E. Grandiose D. he sees the world through the lan-
guage of his own expertise.
4. What does line 6 mean?
E. his perspective is expansive yet
A. The peak has been the subject of limited.
many territorial disputes.
B. The peak is the site of many sporting
events.
C. The peak is a popular tourist
attraction.
D. The peak is a good strategic lookout.
E. The peak has been the subject of
many paintings.

practice test
8. Why is the word “terraqueous” used in 12. The personification of the “blinded
line 10? mountain” in the last line of the poem shows
A. It calls back to “commodious” to all of the following themes EXCEPT
show the whole poetic perspective. A. the absorption of the geographic
B. It indicates the insufficiency of Labourer into the darkness.
simple language to describe the scene. B. the deep connection between
C. It shows the speaker’s aspiration to the geographic Labourer and the
capture the scene with extraordinary mountain.
language. C. the expansion of a newly abstracted
D. It reveals the speaker’s hubris in over- perspective.
shadowing the scene with fanciful D. the rejection of empirical science for
language. spiritual guidance.
E. It resolves the negations of “neither” E. the shift from observation to
and “nor” in line 9. reflection.
9. What is the shift that happens to the geo- 13. Which of the following ambiguous relation-
graphic Labourer in line 24? ships is explored in this poem?
A. He goes blind. A. Science and faith
B. He loses his map. B. Observation and perception
C. Night arrives. C. Religion and spirituality
D. He witnesses a sunset. D. Man and nature
E. He enters his tent. E. Industry and nature
10. What does the circumstance in lines 23-29 14. The title of the poem is “Written with a
mean the geographic Labourer must do? Slate Pencil on a Stone, on the Side of the
A. Give up his life’s work. Mountain of Black Comb.” The choice of
B. Leave the mountain. writing implement and surface indicate all
C. Reconsider his sensory experience. of the following EXCEPT
D. Invent new tools. A. it is ironic to read the poem in print,
given that it is said to be written in
E. Acknowledge the need for spiritual an impermanent form on a rock.
guidance.
B. it is fitting that a poem about geology
11. The negative forms of adjectives in line 25 should be recorded with natural
serve what poetic purpose(s)? elements.
I. They show his terror at the change in C. it shows the poet and the geographic
scene Labourer inscribing the land for
II. They show the speaker grasping for Britain.
language in this shifted perspective D. the poem was erased by the elements
III. They echo negations used in earlier and Wordsworth recreated it with his
lines imagination.
A. I only E. it shows Wordsworth’s trans-
formation of the poetic trope of
B. II only
inscription in the natural world.
C. III only
D. I and III
E. II and III
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Questions 15–26. Read the following passage carefully before you decide on your answers to the
questions.
From The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins
The question of how I am to start the story properly I have tried to settle in two
ways. First, by scratching my head, which led to nothing. Second, by consulting
my daughter Penelope, which has resulted in an entirely new idea.
Line Penelope’s notion is that I should set down what happened, regularly day by
5 day, beginning with the day when we got the news that Mr. Franklin Blake was
expected on a visit to the house. When you come to fix your memory with a
date in this way, it is wonderful what your memory will pick up for you upon
that compulsion. The only difficulty is to fetch out the dates, in the first place.
This Penelope offers to do for me by looking into her own diary, which she was
10 taught to keep when she was at school, and which she has gone on keeping ever
since. In answer to an improvement on this notion, devised by myself, namely,
that she should tell the story instead of me, out of her own diary, Penelope
observes, with a fierce look and a red face, that her journal is for her own private
eye, and that no living creature shall ever know what is in it but herself. When I
15 inquire what this means, Penelope says, “Fiddlesticks!” I say, Sweethearts.
Beginning, then, on Penelope’s plan, I beg to mention that I was specially called
one Wednesday morning into my lady’s own sitting-room, the date being the
twenty-fourth of May, Eighteen hundred and forty-eight.
“Gabriel,” says my lady, “here is news that will surprise you. Franklin Blake has
20 come back from abroad. He has been staying with his father in London, and he
is coming to us to-morrow to stop till next month, and keep Rachel’s birthday.”
If I had had a hat in my hand, nothing but respect would have prevented me
from throwing that hat up to the ceiling. I had not seen Mr. Franklin since
he was a boy, living along with us in this house. He was, out of all sight (as I
25 remember him), the nicest boy that ever spun a top or broke a window. Miss
Rachel, who was present, and to whom I made that remark, observed, in return,
that SHE remembered him as the most atrocious tyrant that ever tortured a
doll, and the hardest driver of an exhausted little girl in string harness that
England could produce. “I burn with indignation, and I ache with fatigue,” was
30 the way Miss Rachel summed it up, “when I think of Franklin Blake.”
Hearing what I now tell you, you will naturally ask how it was that Mr. Franklin
should have passed all the years, from the time when he was a boy to the time
when he was a man, out of his own country. I answer, because his father had the
misfortune to be next heir to a Dukedom, and not to be able to prove it.
35 In two words, this was how the thing happened:

practice test
My lady’s eldest sister married the celebrated Mr. Blake—equally famous for his
great riches, and his great suit at law. How many years he went on worrying the
tribunals of his country to turn out the Duke in possession, and to put himself
in the Duke’s place—how many lawyer’s purses he filled to bursting, and how
40 many otherwise harmless people he set by the ears together disputing whether
he was right or wrong—is more by a great deal than I can reckon up. His wife
died, and two of his three children died, before the tribunals could make up
their minds to show him the door and take no more of his money. When it was
all over, and the Duke in possession was left in possession, Mr. Blake discovered
45 that the only way of being even with his country for the manner in which it had
treated him, was not to let his country have the honour of educating his son.
“How can I trust my native institutions,” was the form in which he put it, “after
the way in which my native institutions have behaved to ME?” Add to this, that
Mr. Blake disliked all boys, his own included, and you will admit that it could
50 only end in one way. Master Franklin was taken from us in England, and was
sent to institutions which his father COULD trust, in that superior country,
Germany; Mr. Blake himself, you will observe, remaining snug in England,
to improve his fellow-countrymen in the Parliament House, and to publish a
statement on the subject of the Duke in possession, which has remained an
55 unfinished statement from that day to this.
There! thank God, that’s told! Neither you nor I need trouble our heads any
more about Mr. Blake, senior. Leave him to the Dukedom; and let you and I
stick to the Diamond.
The Diamond takes us back to Mr. Franklin, who was the innocent means of
60 bringing that unlucky jewel into the house.
15. How would you characterize the relation- 16. What is Betteredge using the word “com-
ship between Betteredge and his daughter, pulsion” (line 8) to explain?
Penelope? A. His habit of recording copious details
A. Strict but loving of each day
B. Bumbling but affectionate B. His slight over-embellishments of
the truth
C. Overbearing and contentious
C. His desire to please people by telling
D. One-sided and stilted
them what they want to hear
E. Aloof and indifferent
D. His tendency to jump to conclusions
too quickly
E. His fascination with the story
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17. Based on the passage as a whole, what does 21. How would you characterize Rachel’s
the word “compulsion” (line 8) suggest about reaction to the news about Franklin Blake?
Betteredge? A. Petty and vicious
A. His mental instability B. Fearful and ashamed
B. His deferential servility C. Melodramatic and duplicitous
C. His susceptibility to being coerced D. Blushing and tentative
D. His tendency to ramble E. Disapproving and irritated
E. His habitual lying
22. How would you characterize Betteredge’s
18. Generally speaking, what is Betteredge’s tone in relating the story of Franklin Blake,
social position? senior?
A. Landowner A. Gossipy and presumptuous
B. Employee B. Penitent and anxious
C. Disinherited relative C. Chaotic and mysterious
D. Poor relative D. Chatty and unfocused
E. Lawyer E. Biased and judgmental
19. What is the rhetorical device that Betteredge 23. It is only at the very end of this passage that
uses in line 22 in saying “If I had had my the title object of the story—the Diamond,
hat . . . ” called the Moonstone—is mentioned. Based
A. Counterfactual on the details in this passage, why is this
B. Litotes delayed revelation important?
C. Chiasmus A. The Diamond is just a distraction
from the real story.
D. Anecdote
B. Betteredge is an unreliable narrator
E. Oxymoron who is going to obscure the real story
of the Diamond.
20. Given Betteredge’s established narrative
style, the rhetorical device in lines 22-23 C. The characters, including the nar-
rator, have partial, idiosyncratic per-
amplifies
spectives on the events of the story.
A. his contradiction of his daughter’s
side of the story. D. No one is who they claim to be in the
story, and the Diamond is a fake.
B. his tendency to jump around in time
and perspective. E. The characters are cursed by the
Diamond one by one.
C. his anxiety about concealing the
truth.
D. his sense of deference to the
powerful.
E. his talent for making a memorable
entrance.

practice test
24. Betteredge concludes that his explanation 25. Why is Mr. Blake’s habit of “worrying”
about Mr. Blake, senior, was unimportant potentially important to the narrative?
and you shouldn’t give him another thought, A. It reinforces the underlying anxiety
but it does serve which of the following and dread.
purposes for the narrative? B. It exposes the class divisions that
I. It reveals Mr. Blake, senior, to be an separate the characters.
important character in the narrative, C. It shows the importance of wrangling
despite Betteredge’s claims. over details ad nauseam.
II. It obliquely makes the reader pay D. It exposes Mr. Blake’s abuse of his
attention to issues of inheritance and power and influence.
legal testimony, which are important
for the main question about the E. It reveals Mr. Blake’s guilt over aban-
whereabouts of the Diamond. doning his son, Franklin.
III. It establishes Mr. Blake, senior, as the 26. What do you learn about the notion of
owner of the Diamond who is the
objective narration in this passage?
victim of the crime.
A. Everyone has something to hide.
A. I only
B. You shouldn’t trust oral testimony.
B. II only
C. Written testimony is the most
C. III only objective form of evidence.
D. I and II D. All memory is subjective.
E. II and III E. Money can make anyone say
anything.
Questions 27-38. Read the following two poems carefully before you decide on the answers to
the questions. You will be asked questions about each poem separately, as well as questions in
which you will compare the two poems by Paul Laurence Dunbar.
“Candle-Lightin’ Time”
When I come in f ’om de co’n-fiel’ aftah wo’kin’ ha’d all day,

It ‘s amazin’ nice to fin’ my suppah all erpon de way;
An’ it ‘s nice to smell de coffee bubblin’ ovah in de pot,
Line An’ it ‘s fine to see de meat a-sizzlin’ teasin’-lak an’ hot.
5 But when suppah-time is ovah, an’ de t’ings is cleahed away;

Den de happy hours dat foller are de sweetes’ of de day.
When my co’ncob pipe is sta’ted, an’ de smoke is drawin’ prime,
My ole ‘ooman says, ‘I reckon, Ike, it ‘s candle-lightin’ time.’
Den de chillun snuggle up to me, an’ all commence to call,

10 ‘Oh, say, daddy, now it ‘s time to mek de shadders on de wall.’
So I puts my han’s togethah--evah daddy knows de way,--
An’ de chillun snuggle closer roun’ ez I begin to say:--
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‘Fus’ thing, hyeah come Mistah Rabbit; don’ you see him wo’k his eahs?
Huh, uh! dis mus’ be a donkey,--look, how innercent he ‘pears!
15 Dah ‘s de ole black swan a-swimmin’--ain’t she got a’ awful neck?
Who ‘s dis feller dat ‘s a-comin’? Why, dat ‘s ole dog Tray, I ‘spec’!’
Dat ‘s de way I run on, tryin’ fu’ to please ‘em all I can;
Den I hollahs, ‘Now be keerful--dis hyeah las’ ‘s de buga-man!’
An’ dey runs an’ hides dey faces; dey ain’t skeered--dey ‘s lettin’ on:
20 But de play ain’t raaly ovah twell dat buga-man is gone.
So I jes’ teks up my banjo, an’ I plays a little chune,

An’ you see dem haids come peepin’ out to listen mighty soon.
Den my wife says, ‘Sich a pappy fu’ to give you sich a fright!
Jes, you go to baid, an’ leave him: say yo’ prayers an’ say good-night.’
“Confirmation”
25 He was a poet who wrote clever verses,

And folks said he had a fine poetical taste;
But his father, a practical farmer, accused him
Of letting the strength of his arm go to waste.
He called on his sweetheart each Saturday evening,

30 As pretty a maiden as ever man faced,
And there he confirmed the old man’s accusation
By letting the strength of his arm go to waist.
27. When is candle-lightin’ time? 29. How would you characterize the speaker’s
A. On holidays tone in lines 18-20?
B. At dawn A. Teasing and gentle
C. At church B. Mocking and sarcastic
D. At bedtime C. Terrifying and grim
E. At the end of the day D. Exhausted and short-tempered
E. Rowdy and childish
28. What is the speaker doing in lines 9-16?
A. Making dinner
B. Praying in church
C. Writing poetry
D. Telling stories
E. Drawing pictures

practice test
30. The rhyme scheme helps establish the theme 34. The literary device at the end of the second
of the poem in all of the following ways poem establishes what themes?
EXCEPT I. Appropriation of criticism allows for
A. it shows the poetry of everyday life. subversion.
B. it shows the relationship between the II. His taste is reinforced with the
family’s tune (line 21) and the poet’s waste/waist rhyme pun.
work in composition. III. Cleverness is a subtler tool than
polemic.
C. it reinforces the importance of rep-
etition and ritual in the family life. A. I only
D. it shows the long tradition of ver- B. II only
nacular stories as a tradition of oral C. III only
poetry.
D. I and III
E. it shows a disregard for poetic tra-
E. I, II, and III
dition that’s revolutionary.
35. The two poems here may be linked themati-
31. What is the main source of conflict in lines
cally in all of the following ways EXCEPT
25-28?
A. they claim African-American daily
A. Between practical labor and poetry
life and questions of identity as a
B. Between fathers and sons valid source of poetic inspiration.
C. Between physical and mental B. they show a light touch with playful
strength language.
D. Between seriousness and cleverness C. they expose rifts between fathers and
E. Between poetry and humor children.
D. they reveal some tensions between
32. What does “taste” mean in context in line 26? daily labor and the poetic retreat
A. Judgment from the world.
B. Fame E. they claim ephemeral forms like
C. Aptitude shadows, bedtime stories, and puns as
a valid source of poetic inspiration.
D. Humor
E. Generosity 36. Dunbar called the poems in dialect “Minors”
and those without dialect “Majors.” What
33. What is the literary device used at the end
dichotomies is he exploring in making those
of the second poem?
distinctions?
A. Synonym
A. Formality and informality
B. Homophone
B. Humor and seriousness
C. Epithet
C. Poetry and humor
D. Reversal
D. Speech and writing
E. Allusion
E. Family and general readers
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37. The dichotomies used by Dunbar are char- 38. The question of race underlies all of those
acterized by distinctions, but what makes distinctions between Major and Minor
the distinctions more complicated in the poems for the following reasons EXCEPT
poems? A. it speaks to how Dunbar was per-
I. The Major poem, “Confirmation,” ceived as an African-American poet
directly addresses questions of who wrote in multiple registers.
how people perceive poetic value B. it signals how labels of genre and
differently. form are laden with value judgments.
II. The Minor poem, “Candle-Lightin’ C. it claims a space for him among tra-
Time,” emphasizes the distinction ditional ballad poets and others who
between public and private life inside wrote in regional dialect.
the home.
D. it shows the pressure put on him by
III. The poems were likely recited by
white publishers to write in a specific
readers after they were published,
way to gain a wider readership.
which blurs some of the distinctions
between oral and written poetry. E. it shows a version of the “double
consciousness” that W.E.B. Dubois
A. I only
(a contemporary of Dunbar’s) wrote
B. II only about.
C. III only
D. I and II
E. I and III
Questions 39–55. Read the following passage carefully before you choose your answers to the
questions. The selection is an excerpt from the novel The Female Quixote, by Charlotte Lennox.
The Marquis, following the Plan of Life he had laid down, divided his Time
between the Company of his Lady, his Library, which was large and well fur-
nished, and his Gardens. Sometimes he took the Diversion of Hunting, but
Line never admitted any Company whatever; and his Pride and extreme Reserve ren-
5 dered him so wholly inaccessible to the Country Gentry about him, that none
ever presumed to solicit his Acquaintance.
In the Second Year of his Retirement, the Marchioness brought him a

Daughter, and died in Three Days after her Delivery. The Marquis, who had
tenderly loved her, was extremely afflicted at her Death; but Time having
10 produced its usual Effects, his great Fondness for the little Arabella entirely
engrossed his Attention, and made up all the Happiness of his Life. At Four
Years of Age he took her from under the Direction of the Nurses and Women
appointed to attend her, and permitted her to receive no Part of her Education
from another, which he was capable of giving her himself. He taught her to
15 read and write in a very few Months; and, as she grew older, finding in her an
uncommon Quickness of Apprehension, and an Understanding capable of great
Improvements, he resolved to cultivate so promising a Genius with the utmost
Care; and, as he frequently, in the Rapture of paternal Fondness, expressed
himself, render her Mind as beautiful as her Person was lovely.

practice test
20 Nature had indeed given her a most charming Face, a Shape easy and delicate,
a sweet and insinuating Voice, and an Air so full of Dignity and Grace, as
drew the Admiration of all that saw her. These native Charms were improved
with all the Heightenings of Art; her Dress was perfectly magnificent; the best
Masters of Music and Dancing were sent for from London to attend her. She
25 soon became a perfect Mistress of the French and Italian Languages, under the
Care of her Father; and it is not to be doubted, but she would have made a great
Proficiency in all useful Knowledge, had not her whole Time been taken up by
another Study.
From her earliest youth Arabella had discovered a fondness for reading, which
30 extremely delighted the marquis; he permitted her therefore the use of his
library, in which, unfortunately for her, were great store of romances, and, what
was still more unfortunate, not in the original French, but very bad translations.
The deceased marchioness had purchased these books to soften a solitude

which she found very disagreeable; and, after her death, the marquis removed
35 them from her closet into his library, where Arabella found them.
The surprising adventures with which they were filled, proved a most pleasing
entertainment to a young lady who was wholly secluded from the world; who
had no other diversion, but ranging like a nymph through gardens, or, to say
better, the woods and lawns in which she was enclosed; and who had no other
40 conversation but that of a grave and melancholy father, or her own attendants.
Her ideas, from the manner of her life, and the objects around her, had taken
a romantic turn; and, supposing romances were real pictures of life, from them
she drew all her notions and expectations. By them she was taught to believe,
that love was the ruling principle of the world; that every other passion was
45 subordinate to this; and that it caused all the happiness and miseries of life. Her
glass, which she often consulted, always showed her a form so extremely lovely,
that, not finding herself engaged in such adventures as were common to the
heroines in the romances she read, she often complained of the insensibility of
mankind, upon whom her charms seemed to have so little influence.
50 The perfect retirement she lived in afforded, indeed, no opportunities of making

the conquests she desired; but she could not comprehend how any solitude
could be obscure enough to conceal a beauty like hers from notice; and thought
the reputation of her charms sufficient to bring a crowd of adorers to demand
her of her father. Her mind being wholly filled with the most extravagant
55 expectations, she was alarmed by every trifling incident; and kept in a continual
anxiety by a vicissitude of hopes, fears, wishes, and disappointments.
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39. How would you characterize life on the 43. In context, what does “this” refer to in the
Marquis’s estate? sentence “... every other passion was subor-
A. Impoverished yet cozy dinate to this” (line 45)?
B. Pampered yet petty A. Reading
C. Erudite yet cloistered B. Dancing
D. Romantic yet dangerous C. Love
E. Friendly yet guarded D. Solitude
E. Flirtation
40. How would you characterize the Marquis’s
attention to his daughter’s education in the 44. As the narrator presents the scene, what is
second paragraph? the main problem that Arabella faces?
A. Extremely attentive in facilitating an A. She is extremely fearful about the
ideal setup outside world.
B. Distracted by his grief B. No suitors will ever get to meet her.
C. Overzealous in correcting her C. She is mechanical in everything
D. Whimsical in his choice of subjects she does because she has been
to instruct her over-coached.
E. Pragmatic in showing her how to D. She is melodramatic and self-
manage the estate absorbed because she interacts only
with fictional characters.
41. What are the narrator’s concerns about the E. She cannot discern the difference
books Arabella finds in her father’s library? between truth and lies in what she
A. They are in French. reads.
B. They belonged to her late mother, 45. Why does the narrator interject with “to say
and the memory is too painful for
better” in lines 38-39?
him to bear when he sees her reading
them. A. To show how Arabella pretends she’s
in an idyllic story, but really she’s just
C. Arabella should be doing chores to confined to her own woods and lawn
help her father, not reading novels.
B. To give another character’s more
D. Arabella treats the stories like they’re objective point of view
real life and acts foolishly because
she’s pretending she’s a character. C. To explain how her father corrects
her mistakes
E. The pictures inside are too scan-
dalous for a young woman to be D. To show Arabella’s development as a
reading. writer
E. To subtly signal unreliable narration
42. The phrase “she would have made . . . ” (line
26) is an example of what rhetorical device? 46. The long sentence which begins “By them
A. Hyperbole she was taught to believe . . . ” (line 43) is an
B. Counterfactual example of what kind of rhetorical device?
A. Analogy
C. Imperative
B. Parallelism
D. Anecdote
C. Hyperbole
E. Ethos
D. Tautology
E. Logic

practice test
47. What is the distinction between the nar- 50. The narrator characterizes Arabella’s “glass”
rator, the author, and the protagonist in this (her mirror) in all of the following ways
passage? EXCEPT
A. The author and narrator are adult A. she looks at it too frequently.
women who are concerned for B. she reads the mirror like she reads her
Arabella to grow up into a well- books.
rounded person.
C. she has a distorted interpretation of
B. The author is telling an auto- what she sees.
biographical story about how she
became a romance novelist, using a D. she is overly critical of her own
third-person omniscient narrator. appearance.
C. It is unclear what the author’s E. she has a limited perspective on the
opinion is, but the narrator is world.
objective.
51. The mirror reflects which of the following
D. The author is showing the narrator’s themes?
unreliability by showing her lapsing
I. It reinforces the sense that Arabella is
into the language of romance to
solitary because her own reflection is
describe Arabella’s life.
her main companion
E. It is unclear what the author’s II. It subtly reveals that the narrator is
opinion is, but the narrator is skep- holding a mirror, too, as a form of
tical of Arabella’s reading habits. social commentary
48. In context, what does “the insensibility of III. It shows a welcome gateway into
another world of books that allows
mankind” (lines 48-49) mean?
Arabella a way out of her confines
A. The oppression of women
A. I only
B. The inability of most people to solve
their own problems B. II only
C. The disappearance of deep conver- C. I and II

sation between friends D. II and III
D. The inability to handle criticism E. I, II, and III
E. The social tendency not to express
52. In context, the word “vicissitude” (line 56 )
strong emotions
conveys what about Arabella’s behavior?
49. The tone of the second half of the passage A. She has suffered many tragedies.
is best described as B. Her daily life is unpredictable.
A. reverential. C. She reads a huge number of different
B. satirical. stories every day.
C. ominous. D. Her whims and desires change
D. romantic. rapidly.
E. objective. E. Her fortunes are about to be reversed

with a surprise event.
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53. In context, how would you characterize the 55. What are the underlying ironies of the
narrative’s use of the adjective “trifling” (line passage?
55)? I. Readers are reading a novel about the
A. Condescending dangers of enjoying novels too much.
B. Rejected II. The narrator is unreliable, so you
can’t trust the characterizations of
C. Whimsical Arabella.
D. Gentle III. The narrator is exposing readers’
E. Anxious unacknowledged gender stereotypes
by making them consider their judg-
54. How would you characterize the narrator’s ments about Arabella.
opinions about reading? A. I only
A. Young women shouldn’t be taught to B. II only
read.
C. III only
B. Instructional books on etiquette are
more important than novels. D. I and II
C. Fathers should read to their E. I, II, and III

daughters to instill a love for the
written word.
D. Getting lost in a book is both plea-
surable and perilous.
E. Reading should be supervised, or
readers could find inappropriate
content.

practice test
Time: 2 hours
The essay section of the exam lasts 2 hours, so it is recommended that you spend 40 minutes on
each of the three essays on the exam. You may write the essays in any order you wish and return to
work on the essays if you have extra time.
Each essay will be evaluated according to how thoroughly and clearly it addresses the question, as well
as the overall quality of your writing. Please write in blue or black ink and scratch out any mistakes
thoroughly and neatly. Make sure to check your spelling and punctuation so that the reader can read
your essay without struggling over legibility.
The quality of the essay matters more than its length, so spend some time at the beginning of the
exam planning out the ideas on your sheet of scratch paper. You may write notes on the poem in the
exam booklet. Use a new sheet of paper for each essay and number them (1, 2, 3) so that the exam
question is immediately obvious.
For essay 3, you should choose to write about a novel or a play of similar literary merit to those in
your AP English Literature class. There are some suggestions listed, but you are not required to
choose one of them.
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ESSAY QUESTION 1
Why is it so much fun to love the villain? Why do audiences respond so positively to such loathsome
characters? You should treat these opening lines of Ben Jonson’s 1607 play, Volpone, as a soliloquy to
analyze on its own so that you won’t have to account for what happens in the rest of the plot. You
may choose to focus on Volpone’s self-presentation, his figurative language, his use of hyperbole, and
other devices that make him a villain you love to hate. For your reference: Volpone (Vol-pon-ay if
you want to say it in your head) means “sly fox” and Mosca means “the fly” or “the parasite,” which
may complicate your analysis of these opening lines.
Volpone, by Ben Jonson
VOLPONE: Good morning to the day; and next, my gold:

Open the shrine, that I may see my Saint.
[MOSCA withdraws the curtain and discovers piles of gold and jewels]
Line Hail the world’s soul, and mine! more glad than is
5 The teeming earth to see the long’d-for sun
Peep through the horns of the celestial Ram,
Am I, to view thy splendour darkening his;
That lying here, amongst my other hoards,
Shew’st like a flame by night; or like the day
10 Struck out of chaos, when all darkness fled
Unto the centre. O thou son of Sol,
But brighter than thy father, let me kiss,
With adoration, thee, and every relick
Of sacred treasure, in this blessed room.
15 Well did wise poets, by thy glorious name,
Title that age which they would have the best;
Thou being the best of things: and far transcending
All style of joy, in children, parents, friends,
Or any other waking dream on earth:
20 Thy looks when they to Venus did ascribe,
They should have given her twenty thousand Cupids
Such are thy beauties and our loves! Dear saint,
Riches, the dumb God, that giv’st all men tongues;
That canst do nought, and yet mak’st men do all things;
25 The price of souls; even hell, with thee to boot,
Is made worth heaven. Thou art virtue, fame,
Honour, and all things else. Who can get thee,
He shall be noble, valiant, honest, wise,—
MOSCA: And what he will, sir. Riches are in fortune
30 A greater good than wisdom is in nature.
VOLPONE: True, my beloved Mosca. Yet I glory

More in the cunning purchase of my wealth,

practice test
Than in the glad possession; since I gain
No common way; I use no trade, no venture;
35 I wound no earth with plough-shares; fat no beasts,
To feed the shambles; have no mills for iron,
Oil, corn, or men, to grind them into powder:
I blow no subtle glass; expose no ships
To threat’nings of the furrow-faced sea;
40 I turn no monies in the public bank,
Nor usure private.
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ESSAY QUESTION 2
Read this passage by Willa Cather from The Song of the Lark (1915). The narrator, Thea Kronberg,
is lying down in the sun, enjoying the quietness of the world around her and how it makes her see
new details that she would have overlooked before—not just in the scene around her, but also in her
own life. Write an essay in which you discuss how Thea reflects on the tension between busyness
and idleness in her life.
Thea went down to the stream by the Indian water trail. She had found a
bathing-pool with a sand bottom, where the creek was dammed by fallen trees.
The climb back was long and steep, and when she reached her little house in
Line the cliff she always felt fresh delight in its comfort and inaccessibility. By the
5 time she got there, the woolly red-and-gray blankets were saturated with sun-
light, and she sometimes fell asleep as soon as she stretched her body on their
warm surfaces. She used to wonder at her own inactivity. She could lie there
hour after hour in the sun and listen to the strident whir of the big locusts, and
to the light, ironical laughter of the quaking asps. All her life she had been hur-
10 rying and sputtering, as if she had been born behind time and had been trying
to catch up. Now, she reflected, as she drew herself out long upon the rugs, it
was as if she were waiting for something to catch up with her. She had got to
a place where she was out of the stream of meaningless activity and undirected
effort.
15 Here she could lie for half a day undistracted, holding pleasant and incomplete
conceptions in her mind—almost in her hands. They were scarcely clear enough
to be called ideas. They had something to do with fragrance and color and
sound, but almost nothing to do with words. She was singing very little now,
but a song would go through her head all morning, as a spring keeps welling
20 up, and it was like a pleasant sensation indefinitely prolonged. It was much
more like a sensation than like an idea, or an act of remembering. Music had
never come to her in that sensuous form before. It had always been a thing to be
struggled with, had always brought anxiety and exaltation and chagrin—never
content and indolence. Thea began to wonder whether people could not utterly
25 lose the power to work, as they can lose their voice or their memory. She had
always been a little drudge, hurrying from one task to another—as if it mat-
tered! And now her power to think seemed converted into a power of sustained
sensation. She could become a mere receptacle for heat, or become a color, like
the bright lizards that darted about on the hot stones outside her door; or she
30 could become a continuous repetition of sound, like the cicadas.
The faculty of observation was never highly developed in Thea Kronborg. A

great deal escaped her eye as she passed through the world. But the things
which were for her, she saw; she experienced them physically and remembered
them as if they had once been a part of herself. The roses she used to see in
35 the florists’ shops in Chicago were merely roses. But when she thought of the

practice test
moonflowers that grew over Mrs. Tellamantez’s door, it was as if she had been
that vine and had opened up in white flowers every night. There were memories
of light on the sand hills, of masses of prickly-pear blossoms she had found in
the desert in early childhood, of the late afternoon sun pouring through the
40 grape leaves and the mint bed in Mrs. Kohler’s garden, which she would never
lose. These recollections were a part of her mind and personality. In Chicago
she had got almost nothing that went into her subconscious self and took root
there. But here, in Panther Canyon, there were again things which seemed des-
tined for her.
45 Panther Canyon was the home of innumerable swallows. They built nests in the
wall far above the hollow groove in which Thea’s own rock chamber lay. They
seldom ventured above the rim of the canyon, to the flat, wind-swept tableland.
Their world was the blue air-river between the canyon walls. In that blue gulf
the arrow-shaped birds swam all day long, with only an occasional movement of
50 the wings. The only sad thing about them was their timidity; the way in which
they lived their lives between the echoing cliffs and never dared to rise out of
the shadow of the canyon walls. As they swam past her door, Thea often felt
how easy it would be to dream one’s life out in some cleft in the world.
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ESSAY QUESTION 3
“I love large parties. They’re so much more intimate than small ones,” claims Jordan Baker in
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby. What do we learn about the conflict between private
and public life when we see characters interact at parties and other big events, perhaps especially
when the parties don’t turn out the way the characters expected?
The Great Gatsby

The Sun Also Rises
White Teeth
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The Age of Innocence
Mrs. Dalloway
“The Dead”
Vanity Fair
The Master and the Margarita
Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There
A Streetcar Named Desire
Macbeth
Americanah
Wolf Hall
Titus Andromachus
The Virgin Suicides
Pride and Prejudice
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
The Portrait of a Lady
The Masque of the Red Death

answers practice test

1. A 11. E 20. B 29. A 38. D 47. E
2. B 12. D 21. E 30. E 39. C 48. E
3. E 13. B 22. D 31. A 40. A 49. B
4. D 14. D 23. C 32. C 41. D 50. D
5. B 15. B 24. B 33. B 42. B 51. C
6. C 16. A 25. C 34. E 43. C 52. D
7. B 17. D 26. D 35. C 44. D 53. A
8. A 18. B 27. E 36. A 45. A 54. D
9. C 19. A 28. D 37. E 46. B 55. A
10. C
Section I
1. The correct answer is A. The words “this organize the landscape with poetic language
commodious Seat” conspicuously repeat like consonance—and with cartographic
the “s” sound, so you are looking for the surveying, the subject of this particular poem.
poetic device in which consonants are The answer is choice B: he is surveying the
repeated: consonance. The easiest way to scene with poetic devices like a cartographer
remember the definition of consonance is does with his own instruments. Choice D is
that it involves consonants—very similar! too broad to be a good choice—it’s generally
You might pause on assonance (choice true, but the question asks about the poetic
E) because it’s a similar device, but it is device, not language in general. Choice E
about similar vowel sounds. There are no is basically true of the poem, but there’s
contradictions that would form a paradox, nothing about scientific collaboration in a
so it’s not choice B. There are no obvious poetic device like consonance.
symbols in these lines, so it’s not choice C.
3. The correct answer is E. Even if you don’t
It’s remotely possible that the poet is making
know what “commodious” means, you know
an allusion (choice D) here, but that would
that it has esses and multiple syllables—it
be a very obscure allusion that you couldn’t
seems to be too forced a word to describe
be expected to know. The concrete answer
the spacious view, so you can call it gran-
is the right one.
diose. There’s nothing anxious (choice A) or
2. The correct answer is B. This is a tricky ambiguous (choice B) about the description.
question because there are multiple answers It may be tempting to answer “scientific”
that echo language that is often used to (choice D) if you are yourself anxious about
analyze nature poetry by Wordsworth and not knowing the definition of the word
other Romantic authors. It may be tempting because it seems to be related to the theme
to choose choices A or C because they of the poem, but he is not using a scientific
indicate the Romantic theme that language is term here. Even though the poem is a
insufficient to capture the majesty of nature. celebration of English cartography, there
Nevertheless, in the opening lines of this is nothing obviously colonialist (choice C)
poem, the speaker is sure of his project to about the description.
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4. The correct answer is D. “A favourite spot might be writing a patriotic poem (choice
of tournament and war” means that it’s a B), but the geographic Labourer has his
good strategic location, so the answer is own expertise and duty. Others may have
choice D. We don’t know enough about the scouted for military reasons (choice D), as the
mountain to know whether it was disputed speaker has mentioned, but the geographic
territory (choice A), but we know it’s used Labourer has his own duties. Those duties
for more than sporting (choice B), so it can’t do not include any mentions of mining
be either of those two options. The peak (choice A) or guiding tourists (choice E).
probably is a good tourist attraction (choice
7. The correct answer is B. These answers are
C) and painting subject (choice E) because it
relatively similar to one another, so it may
is such a favorite spot, but the poem doesn’t
be hard to distinguish among them. Fortu-
mention those details.
nately, for a question that asks you to find
5. The correct answer is B. Enjambment is the exception, all you have to do is find the
the poetic device of letting phrases continue wrong one, not judge which one is the most
onto the next lines. This poem is in free correct. The speaker admires the geographic
verse, so the runover is not as obvious as it Labourer (the surveyor/cartographer)—he
would be if there were rhymes or a strong seems to make his own poetry more like
meter. However, those two verbs stick out, cartography, rather than saying that the
so it’s worth asking what purpose that Labourer needs his help in composing the
enjambment serves in its conspicuousness. scene. Thus choice B is too presumptuous:
The enjambment calls attention to what he doesn’t presume to tell the cartographer
doesn’t fit into the gaze. It may be tempting how to do his job in describing the scene. He
to steamroll through the question with a big does compare himself to him in surveying
Romantic theme about being overcome with space, one with a map and the other with
emotion (choice A) or the insufficiency of words, so it’s not choice A. He calls him
language (choice D), but there aren’t many a brave adventurer, so he’s treating him
markers of emotion and the language isn’t heroically—not choice C. The cartographer
what’s insufficient here—it’s the form. sees the world as a surveyor, and by the end
“Molest” does mean to bother, but there’s no of the poem his perspective is limited (but
obvious culprit for who or what’s bothering not utterly destroyed), so it’s not choice D
him, so choice C isn’t a good answer. There or E.
are no indications of the manmade world
8. The correct answer is A. Who knows what
(choice E) in the speaker’s view.
“terraqueous” means?! (It means “made of
6. The correct answer is C. You have to have land and water.”) What’s most important
read the whole poem to understand what the is that it’s a fancy word that calls back to
geographic Labourer is up to, but there are the fanciness of prior unusual vocabulary.
a number of clues: the high vantage point Choices B, C, and D are all tempting because
from the mountain, his maps, and especially they have Romantic themes in them, but
“his instruments of art / to measure height there isn’t sufficient evidence to weigh the
and distance.” That’s exactly what surveyors best one of the three. Choice C seems to
and cartographers do, so the answer is be the most tempting of those, but A is the
choice C. (It’s not the purview of the poem better choice because C is so general that
to distinguish between the surveying and it could refer to any adjective in the lines,
cartography exactly.) The speaker himself not “terraqueous” specifically. Although it


would be interesting to analyze the role of the answer is choice E because it allows for
negations in the poem in choice E, that’s both.
not what this question is asking.
12. The correct answer is D. As with question
9. The correct answer is C. Darkness falls, 7, your job here is to pick the wrong
and the most obvious answer is the correct statement out of five choices, not the only
one: it is night. The map became invisible correct one. Choices A, B, and C are all
in the darkness, but that doesn’t signal that basically correct ways to describe the effects
the Labourer went blind (choice A) or that of personification. In choice A, the object
he lost it (choice B). There’s no mention of folds the person in; in choice B, the per-
a sunset (choice D), and although one could sonification emphasizes their connection;
infer that one took place, that’s not what the in choice C, personification is the form that
question is asking. He may be in his tent the abstraction of perception takes. Clearly
(choice E), but that’s not the important the author of the test has a main theme in
detail in the question about the shift. There mind and is using related language in each
is a clear factual answer that does not require question to help you see it. Choice E is a
making inferences. generalization of the main theme of the
poem, the fundamental shift in the actions
10. The correct answer is C. This question is
of the poem. Therefore choice D is the
stealthily asking you about the theme of
wrong option about spirituality, which isn’t
the poem, even though it seems to just be
really present in the poem, nor is it related
a factual question. Choices A, B, and D are
to the device of personification—it is the
too literal-minded, and there’s no mention
exception, and thus the correct answer.
of any of them happening. That leaves
choices C and E, and there’s no mention of 13. The correct answer is B. This option
spirituality or any references to it. Choice C echoes the similar language about per-
has been the clearest answer since the early ception, observation, and sensory experience
questions about how the speaker organizes that has already been used. If you were
his perspective: from the very first question, unsure about any of them you could see the
this test has been hinting at these larger pattern and work backward to make sure
themes of sensory perception. each answer confirmed the others. For this
question, there are also obviously incorrect
11. The correct answer is E. This question asks
answers such as choices A and D, which
you to weigh the ambiguities of the three
are more like dualities or oppositions than
choices and choose which ones seem to be
ambiguities. There may be an ambiguous
complementary. The combinations give you
relationship between nature and industry
some clues about which options are comple-
(choice E) on a mountain where mining is
mentary. In this case, all three options may
taking place, but that situation isn’t present
be possible, but you don’t have the option
in the poem. Religion and spirituality (choice
to pick options I, II, and III. The negative
C) may have ambiguous overlaps, but those
adjective formations of “unthreatened” and
overlaps aren’t present in the poem, either.
“unproclaimed” might signal terror (option
I), but it’s more obvious that they show him 14. The correct answer is D. This question asks
making up new words out of negations, you to find the incorrect option, so even if
which call back to “neither/nor” (line 9) and you feel unsure about making an inference
“unveiled” (line 11) (options II and III).Thus or interpreting the title, all you have to do is
www.petersons.com
find one wrong detail, rather than choosing of his over-embellishing, two-facedness, or
between multiple similar options. Choice A over-interpretation. He is clearly fascinated
is a reasonable interpretation of the title’s with the story, but that’s not how he’s using
irony, and it matches well with choice E’s the word “compulsion,” so choice E, while
interest in the genre of the poem. These somewhat tempting, is not correct.
two answers are so specific and literary that
17. The correct answer is D. You must make
it would be difficult for them to be wrong.
an inference or an interpretation about what
If choice E is a reasonable interpretation,
his long-winded style means for him as a
that means choice C is, as well. Choice B
character. There is no textual evidence for his
follows a similar line of reasoning: all three
mental instability (choice A), being coerced
are making reference to inscription, so it’s
by another character (choice C), or lying
unlikely that any of them is wrong. It is choice
(choice E).These are all over-interpretations
D that’s the wrong answer, since it doesn’t
or red herrings—don’t jump to conclusions!
make any reference to erasure, which is the
“Compulsion” doesn’t seem to have anything
most important unique word in that answer.
to do with how he is treated by his employer,
Choice D is not a good interpretation, so it
so choice B also seems like a stretch with
is the correct answer.
no real evidence from the passage. Best to
15. The correct answer is B. Betteredge’s long- go with the descriptive choice about his
winded narrative style can be annoying, but rambling because you can definitely see that
his daughter Penelope offsets some it with quality in the text.
her slightly exasperated affection for her
18. The correct answer is B. This is a factual
father: “Fiddlesticks!” He may be bumbling,
question that you can answer by noting
but there is tenderness there, so the answer
the phrase “my lady” who calls him into
is choice B. Even though Betteredge may be
her sitting room and explains details about
both loving (choice A) and stilted (choice
visitors, so he is probably subordinate to her
D), the paired adjectives don’t match, for he
as her employee (choice B). He refers to
seems like he could never be decisive enough
other characters as Mr. and is keenly aware
to be strict, nor is he one-sided. Indeed, he
of their social classes and how they got that
seeks out her advice, so the answer can’t be
way, so he is likely observing them from a
C or E—he’s not critical of her, nor indif-
lower social position. We don’t hear him
ferent to her advice because he adopts it in
talk about his land, so choice A is unlikely.
order to tell the story.
The relatives discussed in the passage are
16. The correct answer is A. This is a factual the Blakes, not Betteredges, so choices C
question, not an inference question, so you and D are not correct. While it would be
just need to understand how Betteredge technically possible for Betteredge to be his
is using a word in context. He has been lady’s lawyer, Mr. Blake senior is the lawyer
describing his habit of recalling details, and mentioned in the passage, so it’s not choice
although it is a confusing system that leads E.
to over-explaining, you don’t need to infer
19. The correct answer is A. The phrase “if I
any ulterior motives in this question. Choice
had had . . . nothing . . .would have” is a sub-
A is the clearest explanation of an admit-
junctive + conditional phrase that indicates
tedly confusing narrative style. Choices B,
a counterfactual (choice A), something that
C, and D all jump to conclusions about
didn’t happen. He didn’t have his hat so he
him, but there’s no evidence in the passage


didn’t toss it, but he uses the phrase to express that she has a strong reaction to the news
his surprise. The verbose style is what we’ve about Franklin Blake: she provides several
come to expect from Betteredge. Choices B, examples of his bad behavior when they were
C, and E are rhetorical devices that involve children and expresses her “indignation” and
negation (and wordiness), so they may be “fatigue.” This question has several paired
tempting. Litotes (choice B) is a rhetorical adjectives, and although a few of the full set
device that expresses a positive with the use of ten may seem to apply, you need to pick
a double negative, like “not displeased” or the pair in which both seem like reasonable
“cannot disagree.” A chiasmus (choice C) is descriptions given the little information you
a phrase that mirrors itself like “I’m tired of receive. Her irritation (choice E) is evident,
love, and love is tired of me,” and it is usually as is her disapproval of his character (at least
economical—not Betteredge’s style. An his character as a child). We don’t know
oxymoron (choice E) is a paradox like “pretty enough about Franklin Blake to know if she’s
ugly” or “cruel to be kind,” but that is not being petty or vicious (choice A), so that is
what Betteredge is saying here. Betteredge not a good option. Although she calls him a
is nothing if not anecdotal (choice D), but tyrant and was afraid of him as a child, her
choice A is the more precise explanation of feelings don’t seem to be so secretive since
this particular device. she is announcing them to Betteredge, so
choice B is not the best option. She is using
20. The correct answer is B. These questions
dramatic language, but we don’t have any
are testing your own tendency to jump to
evidence that she’s deceiving Betteredge
conclusions about Betteredge—you can start
here so it’s not choice C. She is not tentative
to learn something about the kinds of reading
in expressing her displeasure, so it’s not
techniques that the test author wants you to
choice D.
pay attention to, based on the pattern of the
questions asked. As in question 17, you’re 22. The correct answer is D. Betteredge’s in-
being tested to see if you’ll jump to conclu- troduction to the story, “two words,” signal
sions about Betteredge’s ulterior motives, that we’re in for a long digression—obviously,
but you don’t have much textual evidence it’s far more than two words. Therefore,
for these kinds of suspicions or diagnoses choice D is the best option here because it
in choices A, C, and D. Why does the test describes the tone without jumping to con-
author keep testing your habits of jumping clusions. Again, the test author seems to be
to conclusions? Maybe that’s a theme in signaling something about what you should
this passage—you might be projecting your be paying attention to in this narrative style.
own habits onto the annoying narrator, Bet- Because it’s such a short passage, you’re not
teredge! Best to go with the most descriptive going to be able to test any suspicions you
choice, B, where you can clearly see that he have about foreshadowing or irony—you
jumps around in his narration and the test have to go with the passage you have—so
has been pointing this feature out in multiple what else might be the rationale behind
questions. Choice E is not correct because these questions? To test your own biases? To
the device was a counterfactual—he didn’t show you how to pay attention to the very
toss his hat in the air upon hearing the good feature that annoys you or frustrates you?
news of Blake’s arrival. Choice A is tempting because Betteredge
can be gossipy, but he doesn’t actually make
21. The correct answer is E. We don’t know
any presumptions—he is stating facts about
much about the character of Rachel, except
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what happened to Mr. Blake, not unsubstan- in the narrative so far, so choice A is incorrect.
tiated rumors. Betteredge has nothing to be There are apparent class divisions in the
penitent or anxious about, so choice B is not story so, far, but they aren’t revealed by this
correct. The story is not really chaotic, just particular word, “worrying.” Choices D and
long, so choice C is out. Choice E may be E don’t have enough evidence to back them
tempting because the narration is making up, so they are out.
you think about bias, but Betteredge offers
26. The correct answer is D. These choices are
no judgment on the Blakes.
relatively similar to each other, so you have to
23. The correct answer is C. The Moonstone is be careful in picking the one that corresponds
partly a detective story told with multiple to the narration. Narration is the key to the
testimonies, but you don’t know that from question that you’ve been preparing for in
the passage. The only answer that doesn’t many of the other questions in this section:
ask you to leap to conclusions is choice C, what have you been asked about the narrative
which is descriptive and asks you to build and what have the choices taught you? Go
on the answers you’ve been working on. back and look at question 23, which gives
Choices A, D, and E are not supported by subjectivity as a possible underlying theme
any details in the passage. Betteredge may in the passage—that’s the answer that shows
be unreliable as a narrator because he is so the tension with objectivity in the question.
digressive, but we don’t know the motives The other answers are too broad and general,
or reasons for this narrative quirk, so B is and don’t address the style of the narration.
not a good choice. It’s not clear if Betteredge is hiding some-
thing (choice A), nor do we have much oral
testimony (choice B). Penelope has a dif-
also tests your tendency to leap to conclu-
ferent written testimony to the events in her
sions, but it does so by asking you to pick
own diary, which she has declined to show
out a likely interpretation for Betteredge’s
because it is subjective—so choice C isn’t a
digressions, beyond just being annoyed by
good one. Choice E may be generally true,
them. Option II gives a plausible, interesting
but that’s not clear from the narrative style.
explanation for why you’ve been reading
so many digressions about testimony and 27. The correct answer is E. The poem is set
inheritance: that’s the undercurrent of the after work in the cornfield when the speaker
story. Options I and III make you jump to comes home and has dinner with his family.
conclusions and infer material that isn’t in It’s possible to think that it’s bedtime (choice
the passage, so they are out; B is the only D), but the father plays with his children
choice that works. and sings to them during the poem and then
sends them to bed, so it’s more accurate to
25. The correct answer is C. “Worrying” is
pick choice E than choice D. Holidays,
what a dog does to a bone in chewing it
church, and dawn are not referred to in the
up—Mr. Blake is a lawyer who never gives
poem.
up a case as he tries to find an advantage
in the argument. Betteredge will have to 28. The correct answer is D. The speaker is
“worry” over the story, and the reader will making shadow-puppets with his family
have to “worry” over all of the minor details, and telling stories about them, so choice D
almost like a lawyer—or a detective—would. is the best option. He turns these stories into
Anxiety and dread are not noticeably present poems (choice C), but that’s not what he is


doing in this passage. One might mistakenly The poem is not really setting the two types
think he is drawing pictures, but choice E of strength against each other (choice C), as
is not correct. The speaker’s wife is making there’s no real mention of mental strength,
dinner (choice A), not the speaker. Church nor is it setting seriousness and cleverness
(choice B) is not mentioned in the passage. apart (choice D).
29. The correct answer is A. The speaker 32. The correct answer is C. “Taste” can mean
is playing with his kids and telling them many different things beyond just flavor of
scary stories, but they are delighted by the food. Here, you’re asked to pick from among
bogeyman shadow, not terrified or grim meanings of the word related to poetry: a
(choice C). It is more apt to characterize person’s preferences for and talents in dif-
him as teasing than as mocking (choice B) ferent “flavors” of writing. The best synonym
because he’s not being sarcastic—everyone for taste here is choice C, “aptitude”: the
is in on the joke and you get the sense that speaker is good at writing “flavors” of clever
this is a common story theme for the family. poems. It could be choice A, judgment—like
The scene may be slightly rowdy, but he is someone’s taste in music—but it’s not like
not childish (choice E). He and his wife his father wished he liked different poets,
may be tired, but the scene is loving and not so his father isn’t criticizing his judgment
characterized by short tempers (choice D). in poetry. Other people like the speaker’s
poetry, but the conflict between him and his
30. The correct answer is E. This is a question
father is not about his fame (choice B) or
that shows you all of the different ways you
what other people think. The speaker uses
can interpret rhyme in a poem, beyond just
humor (choice D) to disarm his father, but
describing its structure. Rhyme can give a
he and his father don’t disagree about humor,
poem all sorts of additional meaning; it
they disagree about the usefulness of poetry.
may be useful to keep these interpretive
Choice E, generosity, is not discussed in the
strategies in mind for the essay section as
poem.
you are thinking about the relationship
between form and structure. The poem’s 33. The correct answer is B. The speaker makes
rhymed couplets give a sense of the poetry a pun based on a homophone (waste and
of everyday life (choice A) that’s repeated waist) at the end of the poem, which allows
daily as a family tradition that can be sung him to appropriate his father’s criticism for
casually (choices B and C). The poem is part a clever joke. The device is about closely
of a long tradition of oral poetry (choice related sounds, not closely related meanings,
D) that can be recalled easily because of or synonyms. An epithet is an apt descriptive
the rhyme scheme. Choice E is the least phrase, but that device is not in play here.
applicable answer here because it’s not really You could say generally that the poet reverses
simplified or revolutionary. the criticism with his appropriative pun,
but it’s not as clear or obviously correct an
31. The correct answer is A. There are several
answer as choice B. It could be an allusion to
close options here, but A is the clearest
someone else’s pun, but there’s no evidence
answer. The conflict is between fathers
to suggest that.
and sons, but it’s not the main source of
the conflict, so choice B is out. The poem 34. The correct answer is E. All of the options
displays humor (choice E), but that’s not the listed are reasonable. His pun appropriates
conflict—it’s the resolution to the conflict. the criticism of his “waste” and turns it
www.petersons.com
into a strength of his poetic “taste,” thus how Dunbar represents the role of poetry
confirming his talent. The speaker is praised in family life in these poems, but that’s not
for his cleverness, so he uses cleverness as what this question is asking, so choice E is
a subtle tool to subvert criticism. It would not the best answer, either.
be difficult to choose one of those options
37. The correct answer is E. When you’re
for A, B, or C, and option II is a reasonable
looking at a question about dichotomies,
choice along with the others, so the answer
it’s best to say to yourself that he’s exploring
is E.
the nuances and contradictions inside of that
35. The correct answer is C. As you’re asked dichotomy, rather than setting it up as a total
to find the exception in drawing connec- opposition. Dichotomies are made to be com-
tions between the two poems, choice C is plicated and explored, not just contrasted. As
the obvious answer because there is no rift you’re writing the free response essays, you
between the father and his children in the might want to keep that complexity in mind,
first poem. What’s most useful about the and the answers to this question and question
other answers, however, is that they will give 35 give you some language for articulating
you clues as to how to find deeper social and those nuances: “the tensions between . . . ”,
cultural meanings in the poem, as the test “questions about how people perceive the
author is showing you all of the possibilities dichotomies differently . . . ”, “blurs some
as reasonable interpretations. You can save of the distinctions.” In this question, you’re
up the idea of “questions of identity” (choice asked to find the complexity, so options
A), “labor and poetry” (choice D), and I and III are obvious choices. Option II
“ephemeral forms” (choice E) for use in later is trickier: it talks about emphasizing the
questions that ask you to make inferences distinction, which seems to move in the
and interpretations. Even if you don’t know opposite direction as the prompt. What
what “ephemeral” means (it means “fleeting” really seals the correct answer is that there’s
or “quick to disappear”), you can guess that no option for I, II, and III, so you can choose
it means something like casual or informal the two most correct-seeming ones (I and
because it refers to bedtime stories, puns, and III) and not worry about whether II could
shadows. You already knew that the poems be correct.
used humor (choice B), so you know that
can’t be the exception to this question.
asks you to make inferences about Dunbar’s
36. The correct answer is A. The clearest answer historical and social importance. The word
to the question is A, formality and infor- “registers” in choice A refers to style and
mality, although future questions will ask you tone, and it basically states the fact that he
to complicate that dichotomy. Both poems wrote in both vernacular and formal style to
explore the use of humor, but humor is not show how he could code-switch in different
set off against seriousness nor is it opposed to racial and social contexts. Choice B also
the general definition of poetry, so choices B states a surface judgment about what major
and C are not correct. It would be very inter- and minor mean—and thus who gets to be
esting to write about how the use of dialect major or minor is a question related to race.
complicates our notions of writing, but that You can tell that choice C is a reasonable
idea is beyond the scope of this question, so interpretation because it would be difficult
choice D is not the best answer. Likewise, to argue with it, even if you’re not familiar
you could write an interesting essay about with particular ballad poets. Even if you


don’t know the historical reference points for the main idea is that he’s very devoted to
Paul Laurence Dunbar (or choice E, W.E.B. his daughter, so the answer is choice A. He
Dubois), you can still make some inferences teaches Arabella how to read and write—
on this question. Dubois is too specific a hardly whimsical subjects, so D is incorrect.
reference to be a total distraction, so choice He adores his daughter for many reasons,
E is probably a reasonable interpretation of including her “Quickness of Apprehension,”
the question. That leaves choice D, which so he doesn’t seem to be correcting her, as
leaps to some conclusions and makes state- choice C suggests. Reading and writing are
ments about Dunbar’s life and writing that pragmatic subjects today, but this option
would be hard to back up with just these speaks more to managing the estate, so E
two poems. It is the least good choice, so it is also not a good choice.
stands as the exception and thus the correct
41. The correct answer is D. The sentences in
answer.
these paragraphs are long, so you have to
39. The correct answer is C. The estate’s read them carefully to understand what the
isolation is mentioned several times, so narrator is getting at. The objections in the
“cloistered” is an apt adjective, yet the choices are mentioned in the passage, in one
Marquis makes sure that his daughter way or another, but choice D is the clearest
has every kind of access to education and explanation of the narrator’s critique of the
learning she could possibly have. He has novels Arabella is reading. The books are
set up an “erudite” life for her—even if she “very bad translations” of French, so choice
then chooses to explore the fantasy world of A is incorrect. Choice B is possible because
romances because she is cooped up inside. the narrator mentions the Marquis’s grief
The Marquis is wealthy enough to bring in and his moving his late wife’s books into
tutors, so they are not impoverished, and she his library, but it also neglects the rest of the
is described as “secluded” so frequently that passage where choice D is enumerated in
it can hardly be a “cozy” atmosphere: choice detail. Choice C is not likely, because there’s
A is out. Arabella is pampered, but we don’t no mention of Arabella doing any chores at
really see any evidence of pettiness in her all. The “real pictures from life” mentioned in
seclusion, so choice B is also out. Likewise, the passage doesn’t refer to pictorial images,
her fantasies may be romantic, but she is but of her imagination, the fantasy pictures
not in any danger because she never meets in her mind as she’s reading. Choice E is a
anyone else to indulge those fantasies or to misreading of that archaic use of the word
be friendly with, so choices D and E are also “pictures.”
incorrect.
42. The correct answer is B. The idea here is
40. The correct answer is A. The second that Arabella would have become a serious
paragraph is long and detailed, with some intellectual reader had she not frittered away
unfamiliar language, so this question asks you her reading attention on silly romances.
to wade through it strategically to find the The counterfactual shows a path that she
main idea. You can skip some of the words did not take, which will indicate the course
you don’t know; you don’t need to find the of the novel’s plot. It is not a hyperbole
significance of the capitalized nouns, even because it doesn’t exaggerate her choices
if they look strange to you. Choice B, “dis- or behavior, so A is incorrect. It does not
tracted by grief,” might be tempting if you tell Arabella—or readers—explicitly what
read only the first couple of sentences, but they should do, so it is not an imperative
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(choice C). It is more important than an future plans. The narrator describes her
anecdote (choice D), because it is the focus fluency in her lessons and doesn’t mention
of the entire passage. It is not an example of any over-correction on her father’s part, so
ethos because it’s not making a claim about choice C is unlikely.
Arabella that we should be persuaded by or
45. The correct answer is A. This question
respond to emotionally—this is a piece of
asks you to link a stylistic choice to a larger
fiction, not an argument about the value (or
narrative perspective. Choice A shows the
lack thereof ) of romances.
narrator correcting Arabella’s perspective
43. The correct answer is C. “This” is an in the third-person narration—it’s a very
unclear antecedent: it’s not immediately slight ripple in the narration that indicates
clear what “this” is referring to. All you have some of the subtle hints of satire. Choice
to do is track back through the long sentence B is not a good choice for multiple reasons:
to figure out what “this” means in the sur- previous questions have all indicated that
rounding context: every other passion was the narrator has opinions, so there is no
subordinate to (less important than) love, objective perspective to be found and there
the “ruling principle of the world.” Choice is no evidence of another character speaking.
A is incorrect because though she learns The father doesn’t speak in the narration, so
about love through reading romances, it is choice C is incorrect. There is no evidence
the subject matter of love she considers the of an autobiographical or unreliable narrator
main passion of the world, not reading. She here, so choices D and E may be leaping to
has learned how to dance (choice B), but it conclusions.
is not as important as reading. She does not
46. The correct answer is B. This question has
prefer the solitude of the isolated estate, so
a couple of possible answers, but you get a
choice D is obviously incorrect. Choice E is
clue about what to focus on in the word
not the best answer because she specifically
“long”: it’s not just telling you where to look
refers to the notion of love, not flirtation.
for the sentence, but what characterizes
44. The correct answer is D. This question asks the rhetorical device that you’re supposed
you the main idea of this passage: Arabella to identify. Many sentences in this passage
interacts only with the characters she meets are very long and winding, but this question
in her silly romances, so she loses touch with asks you to zero in on one to identify how
the outside world that she’s secluded from. and why it serves the narrator’s purpose.
The clearest statement of this idea is choice You can eliminate choice A immediately
D. Choice E is tempting because it voices because there is no comparative language to
one of the main critiques of fiction for its signal an analogy. “By them she was taught
unreality, but Arabella’s problems aren’t with to believe...” is a long sentence with three
truth and lies, but with fantasy and reality. clauses set off by “that”: that love was the
She is not especially fearful of the outside most important thing in the world, that every
world (choice A) because she doesn’t realize other passion was less important, that love
that it’s different from the world inside her causes everything to happen. This structure
books. It may be the case that no real-life is an example of parallel structure, choice B,
suitors will ever meet her in seclusion (choice and it allows the narrator to call attention to
B), but that’s not the main problem under all of the inflated ideas that delude Arabella.
discussion because the narrator is more The long sentence emphasizes the silliness
focused on her current behavior, not her of the items it is enumerating. Arabella’s


beliefs look silly when they are piled together wrong choices. There is no mention of the
so elaborately, but the narrator is not exag- oppression of women in the passage so choice
gerating how seriously she believes them, so A is out.There hasn’t been a problem for Ara-
it’s not hyperbole (choice C). A tautology is bella to solve in the narrative yet, so choice
a circular, repetitive argument, and while the B is unlikely, too. She is alone, so she has no
clauses are repetitive, they are building on conversation to miss—choice C is tempting
each other rather than proving each other as because you the reader want Arabella to
a tautology (choice D) would do. Indeed, the have friends, but that’s not what she herself
narrator is not making an argument based is lamenting here. No one is criticizing her
on logic, so choice E is out. directly, so choice D is also incorrect. If you
had to choose between choices C and E, you
47. The correct answer is E. This question asks
could think about the word “disappearance”
you to make an inference about the author’s
and whether conversation had actually ever
perspective, but that’s dangerous territory in
been apparent or present in her life. Choice
which to tread, because it can cause you to
E is the best option, for she has mistaken
project or jump to conclusions based on a
the strong emotions in the romance novels
short passage. The best answer is the most
for the way that real people behave in daily
cautious, descriptive answer, rather than
life.
one that tries to read too much into the
relationship among the three figures. We 49. The correct answer is B. Questions 45-47
can’t really even be sure that the narrator is have pointed you toward reading this passage
female, so choice A is out. Choice B reads as satirical by asking you to characterize the
too much into an autobiographical interpre- narrator’s perspective and look at stylistic
tation of the novel and is not substantiated details that signal judgment and mild cari-
by the text. The narrator clearly shows an cature. There are no adjectives that mark it
opinion about romances in lines like the as reverent, so choice A is not a good option.
counterfactual “she would have been” intel- The narrator has noted that Arabella faces
lectually ambitious had she not read so many no dangers outside of her own fantasy, so
“unfortunate” translations of romances.Thus choice C is not a good option either. The
choice C is not a good choice: We can’t tell passage is about the subject of romance, but
from this short passage whether the narrator it is not romantic because it is casting some
is unreliable (choice D), so we shouldn’t be subtle aspersions on Arabella’s swooning,
too specific in prescribing narrative intention melodramatic behavior. Choice E cannot
yet. be correct because previous questions have
indicated a narrative perspective, not an
48. The correct answer is E. If you know
objective absence of one.
about Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility,
you may know about the somewhat out- 50. The correct answer is D. This question asks
dated use of the word “sensibility” to mean you to interpret a slightly archaic vocabulary
“sensitivity to strong emotions.” It can word (“glass,” meaning mirror) through
be confusing because we use “sensible” to considering the main idea of the passage.
mean levelheaded and rational now. Even There are several clear, correct answers that
if you don’t know the novel or the word’s have already been mentioned in previous
eighteenth-century definition—which is questions: she is vain (choice A) and has a
understandable!—you can still deduce the distorted interpretation of what she reads
right answer by eliminating the obviously and sees (choices B and C), and she is limited
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by her secluded home life. The only answer its contents. It is impossible to know what’s
that doesn’t fit is choice D, and we can guess going to happen after the passage ends, so
that Arabella is so self-satisfied with being choice E is not a good option.
a heroine that she imagines herself to be
53. The correct answer is A. The narra-
the most beautiful girl in the world. The
tor’s satirical tone is becoming more and
narrator tells us that her father believes that
more apparent, and the word “trifling,” or
about her, so there’s no evidence of her self-
frivolous and unimportant, starts to expose
criticism. Choice D is the outlier and thus
the judgment more sharply. The sharpness
the correct answer.
of that judgment is best characterized as
51. The correct answer is C. As you have just condescending (choice A), for it shows the
analyzed the narrator’s characterization of narrator’s sense of superiority to judge what’s
the glass, now you are thinking about its important or unimportant. The pairing with
larger narrative function. Options I and II “vicissitudes” from question 52 also indicates
are reasonable notions that have been estab- the darker shadings of disapproval in the
lished by previous questions; indeed, one of narrator’s tone and vocabulary. If you are
the traditional functions of satire is to hold unsure about this characterization of the
up a glass to society that exposes its faults. narrator’s increasingly less subtle tone of
It might be tempting to pick Option III as judgment, you can also eliminate the other
well because that is a traditional symbolic choices. It would be several steps too far to
function of a mirror, to lead into another attribute the narrator’s judgments to feelings
world. However, options II and III cannot of rejection, so that answer is incorrect.
both be true because the mirror can’t reflect Arabella is being whimsical in her romantic
satire AND be an escape in this passage, and fantasies, but the narrator is not, so choice
the narrator has been critical of Arabella’s C is incorrect. The narrator seems more
escapist reading. That contradiction means annoyed with Arabella’s overreactions than
that you can strike choices D and E. The she seems caring or worried, so choices D
correct answer is that it is both I and II, or and E are less good choices. The best answer
option C. is choice A, and it makes sense within the
progression of the narration.
52. The correct answer is D. “Vicissitude” is
not a word you hear often, and you’re more 54. The correct answer is D. The best answer is
likely to slide over it and try to figure it out choice D, which accounts for the elaborate
in context when you do see it in reading. rhetorical devices like the counterfactuals
Here, you can do just that and figure it out and grandiose parallel structures: the long
from the long string of nouns after it: hopes, sentences may not be “fun” for you to read,
fears, wishes, and disappointments. The best but they are fun and pleasurable for the nar-
answer that accounts for all of those items is rator to deliver in a satirical tone. Although
choice D, a series of rapid changes in those you’ve been seeing the increasingly sharp
feelings. Arabella has not suffered any major judgmental language of the narration, here
tragedies, nor is her daily life unpredictable; you’re confronted with several bad reduc-
in the narrator’s eyes, it is too sheltered, too tions of those judgments, which are all
predictable, so choices A and B are out. She false answers. Choices A, B, C, and E are
does read a lot, as choice C indicates, but the not supported by the narrator, who never
rest of the sentence indicates that the focus makes a claim about what Arabella’s father
is on how the reading affects her, beyond just


should do. This is perhaps the distinction 54 suggests, it would be a mistake to flatten
between being satirical and condescending, out the passage into a single strong lesson
as opposed to being paternalistic and con- without considering the ironies—including
demnatory. The question is asking you to the fact that you’re reading a novel about
ease up on the judgment and find some the dangers of novel-reading. There is no
nuance in the passage. evidence to suggest unreliability, so option
II is unlikely and thus choices B, D, and E
55. The correct answer is A. This question
are out. It would be fascinating to write an
builds on previous ones about the increas-
essay about option III, but the evidence for
ingly satirical tone of the narration, but it
that essay would come from reader responses,
has a tricky construction that asks you to
not solely from this passage, so option C is
find some subtlety and nuance. As question
out. Therefore, choice A is the best answer.
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Section II
Essay Question 1: Volpone, Ben Jonson

8-9 Sample Essay
Every villain needs an audience to feed his ego, but every villain also needs a
parasite who feeds on him. Is the audience a form of a parasite, who seems to
take in the villain’s performance with appreciative whistles and demonstrative
boos and hisses, all the while extracting something from him unwittingly?
We can test that idea by considering the role of Mosca in Ben Jonson’s play
Volpone. Mosca is Volpone’s first audience in his opening lines of the play: he
pulls the curtain back and listens to Volpone’s hyperbolic gloating about his
riches. He even agrees with his boss. We don’t know what will happen after
these first 40 lines of the play, but Mosca’s role is like the little fly that won’t
stop buzzing around the theater, causing the audience to be perplexed as to
what his role is. He sits between the audience and their paradox of loving to
hate the villain, an unstable place indeed. He is in control of the curtain.
It seems that Mosca reveals the gold, but he is really revealing a kind of golden
mirror in which the audience can see themselves and their own position
reflected on the stage. The dark theatre with the curtain rising is like Vol-
pone’s own vision of how the gold “Shew’st like a flame by night; or like the
day /Struck out of chaos” (lines 9-10). The audience is in the same position as
Volpone peering into his own opened curtain. Volpone highlights the reflective
qualities of the gold and his seeing his own reflection to admire, calling it
“brighter than thy father, let me kiss, / With adoration, thee,” (lines 12-13).
It is simple to see that Volpone sees himself in the gold; he is kissing his own
reflection in self-adoration and in adoration of what he has amassed. But the
audience is covetous, too, because they have come to admire the props, the set,
the costumes that are like the “hoard” of “every relick /Of sacred treasure, in
this blessed room” (lines 8, 13-14). Mosca sits between the audience and their
reflected desires, in control of one curtain. He is an uncertain figure: is he seeing
himself reflected? Is he coveting the same hoard as all of the other viewers?
Mosca’s role is uncertain, caught in the middle. He gets to finish Volpone’s

sentence to agree with him, but what do we make of this interruption, only to
agree? An interruption should be more significant. It could show a turn or a
reversal, but his line “Riches are in fortune
A greater good than wisdom is in nature” (29-30) is merely a restatement of
Volpone’s more bombastic line. What is the function of this line that seems like
an old adage or a cliche? Volpone doesn’t take any notice and continues on with
his speech about the depths of his villainy: he has obtained his gold through
“cunning” rather than “common” (32, 34) ways, two words that sound similar
enough to show the sharp distinction between Volpone’s cons and others’


honest work. We may remember the other adage in play here, that cons are the
most frequently conned because they are so convinced of their own powers of
cunning. If there is one thing an audience loves more than a villain, it’s a sudden
reversal of fortune that shows the paradox in action, rather than just creating
tension. The reversal is the payoff to the paradox’s structural instability and
tension.
But what of Mosca, who stands between the audience and Volpone, in the
middle of all that tension? His name seems to indicate that he will be extracting
something from the villain. It is unwise to speculate further as an essayist,
yet this is the audience’s job as the hold the strings of tension that create the
sense of theatricality and performance. Their reactions create and maintain the
tension. Volpone gives a long list of money-making ventures he eschews: “no
trade, no venture,” no ship speculation, and so on. With so many negations,
we realize that he has nothing without his performance of the con; he needs
to perform in order to make money. He needs an audience. The audience has
handed over their money to the theater, but they control its fortunes.
The audience loves the villain Volpone because they are in control of his for-
tunes through their money and applause, whereas Mosca the minor character
seems to exist in the liminal space on the threshold, and his role is uncertain.
We cannot speculate on him, just like Volpone cannot speculate for riches, but
we have a sure bet in Volpone.
Reader response for the 8-9 essay
This is an audacious premise of a rhetorical question about the audience’s role as a parasite, but the
author follows through to write an original, memorable answer to the question. The essay develops
richness through inspired close analysis of language from the play, all in the service of a strong, clear
idea that develops complexity over the course of the paragraphs. It even follows a five-paragraph
format, with a repeated structural device of the rhetorical question as the glue between paragraphs.
What could students take from this essay as a model? The best essays have a strong idea of what
they want to do. It seems clear that this author annotated the text and had some critical vocabulary
to make it sing. The author doesn’t just repeat the suggestions for devices to analyze in the original
question, although they inspired the initial points about figurative language (the gold is like a mirror)
and the hyperbole as an indicator of Volpone’s self-aware performance.
The final line is memorable--it seems to take the weakness of some of the final lines of previous
paragraphs, which drift into speculation about what will happen next, and it reverses it into a gotcha!
sentence.
5-6 Sample Essay
As the person who delivers the opening speech of Ben Jonson’s Volpone, the
character of Volpone is both the protagonist and the villain. This puts the
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audience in a paradoxical position of being invested in his fortunes--literally,

his gold fortunes--but also in disliking him for his obvious character flaws like
greed, gloating, and sly trickery. This essay will analyze that paradox by looking
at figurative language, hyperbole, and his interactions with Mosca.
Volpone is an appealing speaker who charms the audience with his cockiness
and seductive figurative language. In line 11 he builds a structure of figurative
language about gold as the son of the Sun (Sol), to show how brightly it glows.
Who would not be attracted to such a vivid metaphor and use of figurative
language? Who would not be attracted to such a beautiful sight or beautiful lan-
guage. Everyone is seduced by his metaphors. He thinks of himself as a poet by
referring to the Golden Age: “Well did wise poets, by thy glorious name, /Title
that age which they would have the best” (lines 15-16), which shows that he is
comparing himself to a poet in his own descriptions. Which he is because he is
a great seducer with language.
His use of hyperbole is also seductive. He thinks gold is the best, so it deserves
the highest comparisons, which means that it deserves hyperbole. He says
“the best of things: and far transcending / All style of joy, in children, parents,
friends, /Or any other waking dream on earth: / Thy looks when they to Venus
did ascribe, / They should have given her twenty thousand Cupids.” (lines
17-21). He is saying that it can only be described with the highest praise from
all people, and even from “waking dreams” which he personifies as an extra
audience to give that praise. He is excessive even in writing a hyperbole. Venus
is a Roman goddess, so she is the height of power, and she gets an excess of
Cupids in her own part of the hyperbole. It is like he is Oprah, shouting out
“you get a car, and you get a car, and you get a car!” But all of the cars come
to him because all of the gold belongs to him. The hyperbole is pleasing other
people in its outrageousness, but it only serves him.
His selfishness is portrayed through his interactions with Mosca, who bows
down to him and agrees with him. Mosca is like the sidekick on the talk show
who starts the laughter when the audience isn’t responding--he is the hype man,
opening the curtain to reveal the gold to the audience. Mosca is such a sidekick
that he is called a parasite or an insignificant fly. He only agrees with Volpone
when he says “Riches are in fortune /A greater good than wisdom is in nature.”
He is just agreeing that it’s better to be rich than wise.
The villain has to be punished in plays like this one. When you open with so
much boasting, where else can you go? Volpone will probably have something
happen to him that causes him to lose his gold because he is setting himself up
for a heist or something. A heist would be interesting to watch because it would
be like the reverse of the revelation of the gold in lines 2-3--you could get to
watch him get out-foxed!


This is a superficial essay where the author loses track of the essay question about why audiences
have a complicated, paradoxical relationship with characters they love to hate. The author makes
gestures toward quoting lines but mostly summarizes them instead of analyzing them. By the
third body paragraph, there’s less attention to the main problem, as the author has lost the essay to
summarizing and describing Mosca.
This essay question may be especially challenging, because very few students will be familiar with
the play. They aren’t expected to know the plot, but they may feel anxious about speculating or
filling in the gaps of the entire rest of the plot. The stronger essays will ignore that trap because
speculation will just waste space and time that you could be using to analyze what’s actually on
the page. The stronger essays will focus on the complicated language in these forty lines, because
there’s plenty of rich material.
In this essay, there are these charming, funny moments when the author’s personality shines through
the artificial, superficial essay: in comparing Volpone to Oprah and in comparing him to a talk show
host’s sidekick or hype man. These moments aren’t exactly appropriate for the exam, but they are
also places where the author could have pursued the idea that led him to the unlikely comparisons.
What is it about Volpone’s talents as a hyperbolic showman that make him both seductive and
repellant? The essayist could have started with the idea of the hyperbole as a strategy to attract and
repel with exaggerated performance, rather than relegating it to a discrete example buried in the
five-paragraph format. It would have been interesting to take that idea of Mosca as the hypeman
and explore what it means for Volpone to need an audience for his performance.
Can a villain ever be satisfied? What happens to their performance when they get what they want,
and if Volpone is already at the apex, what else can he get?
1-2 Sample Essay
In this passage from Volpone by Ben Johnson, the speaker is admiring his gold
First he compares it to a Saint, showing a blasphemous, idolatrous relationship
with the gold. You should never compare your wealth to a religious figure
because that shows that you are worshipping the wrong thing. It symbolizes
that he is going to get punished. Furthermore, he compares it to a ram that is
like a nature god in line 6, so he is offending everyone with his similes. The
speaker is offensive and likes being offensive--you can see imagine him walking
around like he owns the place (and maybe he does).
He continues being offensive with his metaphors in calling it sacred in line

14, so he is foreshadowing that he going to get in trouble. It’s not enough
for him to say that he doesn’t steal or commit usury--he is still greedy, which
is unappealing. It is not easy to like the speaker because he has so many bad
behaviors. Therefore it is impossible to love him because you just want him to
be punished.
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This reader used the essay space to judge Volpone (who is never named, a bad sign), summarize the
play’s language, and speculate about what might happen, which was not a good use of the space. The
essay prompt asks exam-takers to agree to part of the question--the paradox that audiences love to
hate villains--in order to enter into the analysis of the play. It’s better to just agree to that initial
paradox so that you can enter into the essay format on the same terms as other authors, instead of
rejecting it totally with a flat-out disagreement. You may quibble with the terms or reject parts of
them as you develop your analysis; that’s how you create a complex essay that doesn’t just restate
the question. By specifying the paradox, however, the instructions provide some helpful boundaries or
limitations in which to frame the essay and start writing. Those limitations actually make it easier
to write because there’s a starting place--a paradox, a literary device that’s worth analyzing for the
tensions it creates between audiences and actors. The personal opinion of the character matters less
than the analysis of HOW he acts as a villain to the other characters onstage.
Perhaps the author’s strong sense of moral judgment could have served the essay well as a device for
diving deeper into the paradox, instead of rejecting it outright. Why does Volpone tread into those
dangerous waters of blasphemy and idolatry? Why does he risk being offensive by calling it sacred?
There may be something worth analyzing in his constant push to the bounds of good taste; perhaps
that boundary-pushing creates an interesting tension with the audience?
Essay Question 2: The Song of the Lark, Willa Cather

8-9 Sample Essay
As Thea Kronberg descends into Panther Canyon, she feels like she has totally
new eyes to see the world. These eyes are less focused on darting around to
notice day-to-day distractions; they are more focused on looking inward, medi-
tatively, on her own life and its relationship to the natural world. One might say
that she is moving from observation to reflection, a sign of inner growth. But
such a characterization is too easy and reduces the scene to a kind of cliched
aha! moment referenced in the first sentences of this very paragraph, full of
cliches about seeing through new eyes, about the dangers of distraction. Those
cliches are seductive because we want to believe in a character’s inner growth.
Yet there are signs that something is amiss in Thea’s narration of her realization,
and it is up to the reader to be both observant and reflective about how both she
and we project our own desires onto the natural world.
Thea distinguishes between her vision in Panther Canyon and in Chicago by

how she sees new details in nature that she would have just generalized before.
She finds new ways of seeing in her stillness, the freedom from not being
subject to the monotonous, pounding rhythms of urban life. Whereas before she
was “hurrying and sputtering, as if she had been born behind time and had been
trying to catch up,” she now waits and “reflects” on her new perceptions. She
has some leftover judgments in calling it “idleness” or laziness, but perhaps that
judgmental language lets her sharpen the distinction between now and then.


In the stillness and quietness of nature, she can slow down and take in new
details. What is striking, however, is that in claiming she can now see so much
more, she makes herself into a busy viewer whose eyes are always on. If roses
were just roses in Chicago, now she sees not only the moonflowers above Mrs.
Tellamantez’s door, but also “masses of prickly-pear blossoms she had found in
the desert in early childhood, . . . grape leaves and the mint bed.” This may
be a welcome change for Thea, but it’s not as much of a change from the “hur-
rying from one task to another” in her past. In quotes like that one, we see that
she can’t actually stop being a busy viewer, no matter how much she wishes she
could slow down. This makes her habits of reflection somewhat suspect--not
because she is lying, but because she is still over-thinking and processing like a
busy person would. She is not as still as she thinks she is.
It is unclear if Thea realizes how much of a pathetic fallacy she is committing

when she says “how easy it would be to dream one’s life out of some cleft in
the world” like Panther Canyon. Perhaps she does realize that it’s a fallacy;
after all, she says it’s easy. She projects her own prior “timidity” onto the swarm
of swallows who don’t break out of their familiar flock. The function of the
pathetic fallacy is not just a fallacy or an error, however; it is Thea’s vehicle or
tool for contemplation. She uses the pathetic fallacy of imagining herself a
color or a sensation in the landscape as a tool for getting outside her head. She
is using contemplation like a tool, like a busy person would--she must reflect,
she must learn, grow, and change from these reflections. Reflection becomes
instrument. Her “effort” is not “undirected” but instead directed toward
describing everything in elaborate poetic detail!
Clearly, that “fallacy” of effort and projection does not ruin the passage, but it
does suggest that these natural reveries are not diametrically different than what
she used to be like. She reflects with this tool, which signals that she has some
control over it. The world is not swimming over her; she is projecting herself
onto it. It is a kind of guided meditation that allows for more control than she’s
saying in ecstatic quotes like “her power to think seemed converted into a power
of sustained sensation.” The appeal of a line like that one is undeniable, for we
want to have those kinds of sublime encounters with nature. The language is
seductive because we take on that power when we contemplate it as readers. As
readers, we also want to go with characters like Thea Kronberg on a journey, so
we project ourselves onto her to find our own paths, like she projected herself
onto nature. It is easier to identify with a novel’s character than with heat or
color, but we should not pretend that we are ever wholly.
After all, human perception and language shapes our encounters with the
natural world. We are always busy making metaphors and poetry out of our
visions, even when we think we’re being idle.
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This is an ambitious essay that impresses with its elegant integration of well-chosen quotations and the
author’s desire to philosophize beyond the easy dichotomy of busyness and idleness in the quotation.
The author has constructed a dynamic structure by pointing out the limitations of the dichotomy in
the first paragraph, before diving into the text to find evidence of tensions in the language, not just
evidence of one “side” or another. That tension creates the insight about how Thea is still busy, even
as she thinks she’s idle, because she is still processing and thinking as she’s reflecting. The simple
statement, “she is not as still as she thinks she is” is a simple, clear articulation that is a nice stylistic
change from some of the pontification and overly complex sentences.
The author is astute in saying that she uses description as a tool--it’s a clever of inversion of the
writer’s toolbox of examining discrete literary devices like diction, imagery, tone, etc. Instead of
using that writer’s toolbox to analyze the scene, the author locates that same toolbox in Thea’s own
reflective toolkit. She too is using tools to process the world, like the student is processing the passage.
This inventive analysis allows the author to ask the big “so what” question about why we want to
believe Thea as she reflects in such beautiful language that Cather uses. The author has identified
projection as a tool like pathetic fallacy, and so zooms out to consider how readers project themselves
onto books, as Thea has projected herself onto the natural world. This is an ambitious move that
prompts some big-picture pontification and generalization, but it’s a believable argument that allows
for a sophisticated reading of the passage.
The author’s work is an interesting model because it resists the either/or approach to find complexity,
and the passages reflect a nuanced reading. If students were going to imitate this author’s “moves”
it might work best to say:
A. Identify the paradox in the question—we’re never fully idle when we’re writing because
that activity takes not just reflection but creation.
B. Analyze two or three fragment quotations that illustrate the shades of gray in that
paradox: e.g., even a beautiful description of flowers is still full of details that needed work
to be observed.
C. Analyze another quotation that shows a full literary device like the pathetic fallacy, but
show how the device has nuances in it, not just that the author employs it. How does the
device show a surprising effect beyond what it normally does as device, e.g., how does the
poetic fallacy act as an engine for generating more descriptive language and grandiose
insights about power?
D. Take apart the most grandiose quotation in the passage by showing that it has more
shades of meaning than just “grand reflection of an idea.” Here the author picks the quo-
tation about “power” and reads it skeptically—the power is not just natural reflection, but
human-generated action of description, not idleness
E. Discuss the “so what” of this revelation that the scene is more complex than it appears.


5-6 Sample Essay
In Willa Cather’s novel, The Song of the Lark, we learn the lesson with Thea
Kronberg that we all need to step back and smell the roses sometimes. Not just
roses--also moonflowers, mint, and other kinds of vegetation. Cather makes an
argument for the value of sensory perception in this passage, for Thea has never
realized so much about herself as when she is paying attention to what she sees,
hears, feels, smells, and tastes. She would not have been able to pay that kind
of attention if she was still as busy as she used to be; therefore, it is important
to slow down and really see the world. Cather uses sensory details, diction, and
other literary devices in order to show this point.
Thea uses all five senses in this passage. She starts by saying that her newfound
attention is on “fragrance and color and sound, but almost nothing to do with
words.” She can see the swallows, hear the cicadas, smell the different flowers,
feel the sunlight, and taste food. The change in her senses are all obvious in
this quote: “It was much more like a sensation than like an idea, or an act of
remembering. Music had never come to her in that sensuous form before.
It had always been a thing to be struggled with.” She is now better at just
sensing in the moment rather than worrying about it or struggling with it. This
improvement is clear in the vivid sensory details.
Thea’s diction shows complexity in long sentences like the one in the paragraph
above, and also in this quote: “she could become a mere receptacle for heat, or
become a color, like the bright lizards . . . she could become a continuous rep-
etition of sound, like the cicadas.” The long sentences show the way the details
fit together in a long train of thought. Probably in Chicago she would not have
written such a long sentence with so many details. This shows her change in
mind that came because she slowed down.
The other literary device she uses in addition to diction and sensory details is
the pathetic fallacy, or seeing her own emotions reflected in nature. She does
that in several places like with the cicadas, the laughing aspens, and the birds
in the last paragraph. She wouldn’t have been able to do that if she were busy
because she wouldn’t be looking closely enough to see what she was thinking.
These three devices show the value of Cather’s argument about the need to slow
down. Thea Kronberg only learns her true inner self when she slows down.
This is a partly competent essay that seems to be hampered by the artificial set-up of the five-
paragraph structure and a lack of analysis. The author seems to be ticking off boxes of devices to
list and quotations to summarize rather than analyze.
The author has picked out some interesting details of the natural descriptions, but seems unsure
how to connect those details to the question that the prompt is asking about busyness. Without that
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clear connection, the author summarizes the question instead of analyzing it, repeating phrases
like “the need to slow down.”
The author overuses cliched language like “stop and smell the roses” (although the comparison
with the other flowers is clever) and “true inner self.” That cliché stands out for its blandness in a
passage that describes one’s growing self-awareness in such vivid language.
One way that the author could make a significant change in the essay’s setup is use a phrase like
“Cather shows the tension between idleness and busyness,” instead of saying that she’s making an
argument or proving a point. Novels rarely prove points or arguments--essays do that, but rarely do
novels make such a black-and-white case a lesson. If the author were looking for tensions, there’s one
in the chosen quotation about the way that Thea used to struggle with music--that word “struggle”
indicates a kind of tension that would allow for deeper analysis of the surrounding language and a
more complex, detailed analysis.
The last two paragraphs are all summary and no quotations; for an essay that asks for close analysis
of language, summary is not enough, especially when illustrating a literary device like the pathetic
fallacy. The laughing aspens were an apt example to pick out, but they’re brushed over quickly.
1-2 Sample Essay
You shouldn’t be busy all the time, but you shouldn’t be lazy either. You have
to find a happy medium, the way that Thea does in the passage. She starts off
busy hiking, but she finally slows down and enjoys nature without thinking too
much. We need that kind of balance, as the author shows in her descriptions
and literary devices.
She talks about being hurried and anxious until she gets into the canyon and
sits on the blanket. She needs to find a happy medium between working and
playing, so she can take time every day to go on a hike and “listen to the whir”
of her thoughts. She needs to slow down and start hearing the “music” of
nature.
The use of the passive voice in the line “was never highly developed” shows that
she is not in full command of her life because it is running her, not the other
way around. Therefore, she needs to relax in nature, like she does in the last
paragraph when she sees the birds and realizes that it would be “easy to dream
one’s life out in some cleft in the world.”
This essay shows an author who has run out of time and who is reading the passage quickly and
writing just a short blurb. The author shows a superficial reading with the artificial set-up of the
two opposed poles that need to find a “happy medium.” Not only does the author artificially devise
those two poles, but the “happy medium” is a cliché that generalizes any complexity that might
be explored in an essay. The author quotes only single words that, by themselves, are not useful
for analysis. The author does not attempt analysis, so the single word quotations just look like a
last-minute attempt to fulfill the prompt.

Essay Question 3: Reader’s Choice

8-9 Sample Essay
Audiences are familiar with the public banquet scene in Act III of Macbeth,
after Banquo has been murdered and the newly powerful title character can
barely contain his conflicted feelings in front of the assembled group and Lady
Macbeth. In fact the audience has seen another banquet scene that is less public
during Macbeth’s memorable private soliloquy, “if it twere well it were done
quickly.” The stage directions show that people are setting up another banquet
around him as he schemes--such is the life of a Scottish thane, always hosting
people and then worrying about the power dynamics on display. These two
scenes illustrate the complicated private and public reactions caused by these
elaborate displays of power and deference. They mean that the characters must
be performers two times over: they are performing intricate acts of power
struggles and betrayals for each other in the hall, while they are also performing
for the audience. The audience sees the struggle to reconcile those two over-
lapping performances. Most of the time, the actors cannot see it themselves.
In a soliloquy like Macbeth’s in Act I, he is speaking directly to the audience

as an aside--he is both private and public in this iconically theatrical device.
Macbeth turns over his scheming to kill Duncan and seize power. He notes
the duplicity of his action when he says that he is in “double trust” as a subject
and a kinsman. This duplicity and double trust extends to his position as an
actor on a stage who is sharing his inner thoughts with an audience that is both
present and absent--it’s not as though he acknowledges the audience when he is
not performing a soliloquy. No, it’s the act of soliloquizing, of performing, that
brings up the “double trust” because it casts doubt on reality.
Macbeth seems to be most uncertain of the double trust and the problem of
his having to perform when he has to act self-consciously for others. He is
thoughtful in his soliloquy in Act I, but it all falls apart in Act III, scene 4 when
he has to perform as though he doesn’t know that Banquo has been murdered.
He shows his conflict when he says at the beginning of the scene: “Ourself will
mingle with society / And play the humble host.” He has never liked having to
perform humbleness in front of society in order to maintain power dynamics,
but now that illusion is starting to crumble onstage in front of him. Having
destroyed the terms of his “double trust” of kinship and service in his murderous
actions, he does not know what his identity is. He starts to see the ghost of
Banquo in the banquet hall--or is it a manifestation of his own guilt at being
unable to handle the breakdown of the “double trust” facade? The ghost treads
a similar kind of “is this real?” situation for the audience that the soliloquy did:
they seem to be seeing something that the actors don’t. The ghost problematizes
the public/private distinction because it appears to Macbeth in the privacy of
his own madness onstage, but that madness is also public to the audience. The
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other characters cannot perceive the source of this strangeness, but they, too,
notice that something is going wrong.
Lady Macbeth is the character with the least conflict between private and
public with a gracious performance of being a gracious hostess who can cover
for her husband. She literally covers up his bad behavior with the “sauce” of
ceremony--she is trying to return to the familiar performance space of elaborate
kinship rituals. She does not realize that Macbeth can no longer function inside
that performance space.
Macbeth is not as much of a play about acting as, say, Hamlet, but it does make
commentary on the nature of having to perform deference. Is the deference
to those about to be murdered, like Duncan and Banquo, or are Macbeth and
Lady Macbeth also anxious about their performance for those they cannot fully
see--the audience who are like ghosts?
This essay rambles a bit, especially in the third paragraph, but it’s a strong idea that shows command
of sophisticated ideas about performance and meta-theater (theater about the function of perfor-
mance among the characters, or theater about theatricality). It would not be surprising if this were
an adaptation of a class essay assignment about this subject of performing soliloquies, for the
author seems to have remembered key details and fragments of quotations that fit her argument
about the role of performance in Macbeth. Some of the seams of the adaptation show, but it is still
ambitious and interesting to read.
The author starts with a clear structure of comparing two separate scenes and showing how the
themes of the play change from Act I’s soliloquy to Act III’s public banquet. The author pushes
beyond the basic distinction that a soliloquy is private and introduces the key idea, that the Mac-
beths are always aware of their own performances of schemes and betrayal, always conflicted by that
constant performance and self-awareness. The author adds an even more interesting complexity by
implicating the audience in this vexing self-awareness.
This is a complex juggling act, to be sure, and it’s not always successful. It is, however, interesting
and ambitious, and it led me to reconsider the play through this compelling lens that illuminates
new ideas. The essay loses some momentum in the Lady Macbeth paragraph, where there’s less
detail and analysis, but the (fragment) quotation about the sauce of ceremony is a thoughtful way
to bring the analysis back to her initial articulation of her analytical lens on the play in the essay’s
introductory paragraph.
5-6 Sample Essay
To address the question of how a party scene reflects the conflict between
public and private behavior, we may look at how the banquet scene in Macbeth
relates. It relates because it is a conflict between Macbeth’s private guilt about
ordering Banquo’s death, and it takes place in public as he is at a banquet where
Banquo is supposed to be a guest. Before the banquet starts, the murderers tell


him and he is greedy for the power that Banquo had, but he is also stunned
by the extreme situation. The conflict occurs when he sees a ghost of Banquo,
but others cannot see the ghost. His public and private feelings are in conflict,
which you can see in his diction, Lady Macbeth’s reaction, and the reaction of
the other characters.
Macbeth’s diction shows his conflict in multiple different ways. His famous line
“if it were done then twere well done quickly” about the need to kill Banquo
occurs in the first act of the play, long before the banquet scene, but it is an
interesting foreshadowing of his conflict that will show up later. Macbeth is
private in this example of a soliloquy and he can express his feelings clearly. In
public, after the murder, he is much more muddled in his thoughts and lan-
guage, to the point that people cannot understand what he is saying.
Lady Macbeth is stronger in her will and behaves the same in private and
public, so she is a contrast to her conflicted husband. At the banquet, she reas-
sures the guests that Macbeth is ill, so that explains his odd behavior. She is
very conscious of appearing to be in control, and in private she thinks of herself
in control, so she is not conflicted the way that Macbeth is.
The theme of hospitality connects to this theme about public and private
behavior because you should treat guests in public the way you would treat
them in private. Lady Macbeth and her husband try to pretend that they are
treating their guests well, and they even say that if Banquo had been forgotten,
it would have been “unbecoming.” This is a pun on Banquo not “becoming,” or
not being alive anymore--not being. The other characters don’t know that; they
think she is just being polite and talking about good behavior. They make a big
production out of the banquet, but it is a display of their power and their desire
for more power, not a statement of being kind or generous. They are publicly
behaving as being generous, but in private they seek power. Banquo’s ghost is
the form that the disconnect takes because it shows the gap between private and
public, but the ghost is something between those two places, neither one or the
other. The ghost at the party is troubling because the party is excessive. It is too
public because Macbeth’s haunted behavior is even more noticeable at a party,
than it would be in private. It is too private, though, because only Macbeth and
the ghost are in this netherworld. Even the audience is unsure what they are
seeing. This is the conflict between private and public.
This essay takes a while to get going, but the author makes some interesting, original points in the
last paragraph. It is hampered by the artificial set-up of the five-paragraph essay with three dis-
connected body paragraphs about different ideas. The author could have taken some time to free-
write or make a concept map about how his ideas connected to one another, where he could have
started with his strongest ideas about hospitality rather than writing toward them. Of course, it’s
better for an essay to gain steam than to lose it--the author was clearly thinking while he was writing.
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The author’s best ideas are about the notion of Macbeth’s “unbecoming” behavior in the public
banquet paired with his private anguish about Banquo’s “unbecoming” through death. This is an
interesting, specific example that would have been even stronger with more context, but it is still
a striking word to point out.
There are a number of run-on sentences and comma splices that show the author jamming
together ideas. That process shows the author’s thought process, but some of that material can stay
on scratch paper or get revised with more definite punctuation in a quick revision. It’s also less
elegant to keep saying “this relates”--it’s clear that it relates, or the author wouldn’t be writing it.
The goal in sentences like those is to show the relationship, not just to tell it. We don’t just say “this
is evidence!” in a court case; we take the audience/readers through it.
1-2 Sample Essay
In private, Macbeth can make up schemes with murderers and Lady Macbeth,
but in public he must pretend that he is loyal. This problem comes to a head in
the banquet scene of Macbeth, when he sees the ghost of Banquo, who he has
just ordered to be killed. The ghost represents the conflict between private and
public because he can only be seen as a private torment for Macbeth of how he
was supposed to be loyal but he wasn’t.
This is a very brief essay that looks like the author ran out of time and just left notes. The essay is not
structured in any way, nor is there development of a thesis, point-of-view, or exploration of themes
and how they relate back to the essay question. It seems like the essay writer ran out of time—be
sure to pace yourself on test day so you aren’t left with only a few minutes to write your final essay.

Practice Test 2
Chapter 6
243
answer sheet
ANSWER SHEET PRACTICE TEST 2
1. 15. 29. 43.
2. 16. 30. 44.
3. 17. 31. 45.
4. 18. 32. 46.
5. 19. 33. 47.
6. 20. 34. 48.
7. 21. 35. 49.
8. 22. 36. 50.
9. 23. 37. 51.
10. 24. 38. 52.
11. 25. 39. 53.
12. 26. 40. 54.
13. 27. 41. 55.
14. 28. 42.
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answer sheet
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PRACTICE TEST 2
practice test
Questions 1-13. Read the following poem carefully before you decide on the answers to the
questions.
From “A Japanese Wood-Carving,” by Amy Lowel.
High up above the open, welcoming door

It hangs, a piece of wood with colors dim.
Once, long ago, it was a waving tree
Line And knew the sun and shadow through the leaves
5 Of forest trees, in a thick eastern wood.
The winter snows had bent its branches down,
The spring had swelled its buds with coming flowers,
Summer had run like fire through its veins,
While autumn pelted it with chestnut burrs,
10 And strewed the leafy ground with acorn cups.
Dark midnight storms had roared and crashed among
Its branches, breaking here and there a limb;
But every now and then broad sunlit days
Lovingly lingered, caught among the leaves.
15 Yes, it had known all this, and yet to us
It does not speak of mossy forest ways,
Of whispering pine trees or the shimmering birch;
But of quick winds, and the salt, stinging sea!
An artist once, with patient, careful knife,
20 Had fashioned it like to the untamed sea.
Here waves uprear themselves, their tops blown back
By the gay, sunny wind, which whips the blue
And breaks it into gleams and sparks of light.
Among the flashing waves are two white birds
25 Which swoop, and soar, and scream for very joy
At the wild sport. Now diving quickly in,
Questing some glistening fish. Now flying up,
Their dripping feathers shining in the sun,
While the wet drops like little glints of light,
30 Fall pattering backward to the parent sea.
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Gliding along the green and foam-flecked hollows,

Or skimming some white crest about to break,
The spirits of the sky deigning to stoop
And play with ocean in a summer mood.
35 Hanging above the high, wide open door,
It brings to us in quiet, firelit room,
The freedom of the earth’s vast solitudes,
Where heaping, sunny waves tumble and roll,
And seabirds scream in wanton happiness.
1. What is being described in the first fourteen 5. The “patient, careful knife” in line 19 is an
lines of the poem? example of what poetic device?
A. The intricacies of the design A. Personification
B. The emotions stirred up by the art B. Antithesis
C. The speaker’s childhood C. Oxymoron
D. The tree before it was carved D. Synesthesia
E. A favorite spot in nature E. Foreshadowing
2. The characterizations of the tree in lines 6. What is the most important purpose that
6-10 are the device in question 5 serves in the poem?
A. unconventional yet pleasing. A. It dulls the contrast between the
artist’s calmness and the scene’s
B. brilliant yet grounded.
wildness.
C. familiar yet hackneyed.
B. It pairs with the woodcut’s insistence
D. marvelous yet earthy. in telling its own story outside of
E. subtle yet strong. human conventions.
C. It indicates the sensory confusion in
3. What is the shift in scene in lines 15-18? the wild, salty sea.
A. From the forest to the home
D. It exemplifies the relationship
B. From the storm to the home between humans and the natural
C. From the forest to the sea world.
D. From the storm to the sea E. It signals the shift in the scene from
the sea to the home.
E. From the sea to the home
7. Why doesn’t the wood-carving “speak of
4. The most important contrast between lines
mossy forest ways”?
20-34 and the opening lines are that these
A. It wants to find beauty elsewhere in
later descriptions are
the sea.
A. blue and silver.
B. It prefers its life as a piece of
B. dynamic and unpredictable. driftwood.
C. marine and avian. C. It does not want to remember the
D. carved and artistic. trauma of the storm that broke its
E. beautiful and mysterious. limbs.
D. It prefers the sea image depicted on
its surface to its initial tree form.
E. It rejects language in favor of images.

practice test
8. Lines 33-36 each end with similar vowel 12. How would you best characterize the rela-
sounds, a poetic device called tionship between the carving’s medium
A. assonance. (wood) and the images depicted on it?
B. consonance. I. The wood’s solidity is contrasted
with the sea’s changeability.
C. alliteration.
II. The wood changes shape through
D. synesthesia.
human imposition, while the waves
E. internal rhyme. shift with the unpredictable forces of
wind.
9. The language in lines 33-36 serves all of the
III. The wood-carving becomes disen-
following thematic purposes EXCEPT
chanted with the cliched language
A. it creates harmony for the wood- used to describe the seascape, just as
carving with its resting spot above it did with the forest.
the door.
A. I only
B. it makes sounds reverberate in the
memory, from the sea into the room. B. II only
C. it imposes some order on the scene C. I and II
to take it from the wild sea into the D. II and III
enclosed room. E. I, II, and III
D. it adds a poetic shaping quality to
the scene, to pair with the shaping 13. The author of this poem, Amy Lowell, went
quality of the knife. on to write the preface to a book called
E. it shows the over-arching importance Some Imagist Poets, in which she listed the
of the human eye in composing the essential goals of the Imagist movement: “to
scene. present an image .... We are not a school of
painters, but we believe that poetry should
10. What best describes the colors on the
render particulars exactly and not deal in
wood-carving?
vague generalities, however magnificent
A. Faded
and sonorous.” What do the Imagist poet
B. Vivid
and the wood-carver share?
C. Dark I. The ability to remake nature
D. Embellished with silver according to their own desires
E. It is unknown from the information II. The ability to shape the meaning of
in the passage the wood through poetic devices and
carving
11. What is the literary device used to describe
III. The concern for the intricacies of
a work of art in this poem? surface details
A. Metaphor
A. I only
B. Simile
B. II only
C. Ekphrasis
C. I and III
D. Monologue
D. II and III
E. Apostrophe
E. I, II, and III
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14. If you were going to write an essay form of

this poem, which would NOT be a good
title?
A. Carving Open a Poem
B. The Beauty of Autumn
C. The Story of a Knife
D. How to “Sea” an Image
E. High Up Above the Open,
Welcoming Door
Questions 15-29. Read the following passage carefully before you decide on your answers to the
questions.
From New Grub Street, by George Gissing
One day at the end of the month [Marian] sat with books open before her, but
by no effort could fix her attention upon them. It was gloomy, and one could
scarcely see to read; a taste of fog grew perceptible in the warm, headachy air.
Line Such profound discouragement possessed her that she could not even maintain
5 the pretence of study; heedless whether anyone observed her, she let her hands
fall and her head droop. She kept asking herself what was the use and purpose
of such a life as she was condemned to lead. When already there was more
good literature in the world than any mortal could cope with in his lifetime,
here was she exhausting herself in the manufacture of printed stuff which no
10 one even pretended to be more than a commodity for the day’s market. What
unspeakable folly! To write—was not that the joy and the privilege of one who
had an urgent message for the world?
Her father, she knew well, had no such message; he had abandoned all thought
of original production, and only wrote about writing.
15 She herself would throw away her pen with joy but for the need of earning
money. And all these people about her, what aim had they save to make new
books out of those already existing, that yet newer books might in turn be made
out of theirs? This huge library, growing into unwieldiness, threatening to
become a trackless desert of print—how intolerably it weighed upon the spirit!
20 Oh, to go forth and labour with one’s hands, to do any poorest, commonest
work of which the world had truly need! It was ignoble to sit here and support
the paltry pretence of intellectual dignity. A few days ago her startled eye had
caught an advertisement in the newspaper, headed ‘Literary Machine’; had it
then been invented at last, some automaton to supply the place of such poor
25 creatures as herself to turn out books and articles? Alas! the machine was only
one for holding volumes conveniently, that the work of literary manufacture
might be physically lightened. But surely before long some Edison would make

practice test
the true automaton; the problem must be comparatively such a simple one.
Only to throw in a given number of old books, and have them reduced, blended,
30 modernised into a single one for to-day’s consumption.
The fog grew thicker; she looked up at the windows beneath the dome and
saw that they were a dusky yellow. Then her eye discerned an official walking
along the upper gallery, and in pursuance of her grotesque humour, her mocking
misery, she likened him to a black, lost soul, doomed to wander in an eternity of
35 vain research along endless shelves. Or again, the readers who sat here at these
radiating lines of desks, what were they but hapless flies caught in a huge web,
its nucleus the great circle of the Catalogue? Darker, darker. From the towering
wall of volumes seemed to emanate visible motes, intensifying the obscurity; in
a moment the book-lined circumference of the room would be but a featureless
40 prison-limit.
But then flashed forth the sputtering whiteness of the electric light, and its
ceaseless hum was henceforth a new source of headache. It reminded her how
little work she had done to-day; she must, she must force herself to think of
the task in hand. A machine has no business to refuse its duty. But the pages
45 were blue and green and yellow before her eyes; the uncertainty of the light was
intolerable. Right or wrong she would go home, and hide herself, and let her
heart unburden itself of tears.
15. How would Marian characterize her job as 17. What is the best way to describe the imagery
a writer? in Marian’s visions in this scene?
A. A privilege, even when it’s a difficult A. Vivid scenes that will become part of
day her novel
B. A career she’s pursuing to gain fame B. Disillusioned daydreams
C. A creative outlet that’s better than C. Revelations of insight
being a critic D. Fantasies of future fame
D. A pointless, yet undemanding job E. Imaginative storytelling
E. A daily task of drudgery
18. All of the following adjectives might describe
16. What is the literary device employed in the Marian’s opinion of “writing about writing”
phrase “a taste of fog” (line 3)? (line 14) EXCEPT
A. Simile A. postmodern.
B. Metonymy B. commodified.
C. Synesthesia C. derivative.
D. Hyperbole D. pointless.
E. Oxymoron E. uninventive.
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19. The imagery associated with the “trackless 23. We can infer all of the following about the
desert of print” (line 19) indicates Marian’s function of the Literary Machine in the
vision of narrative EXCEPT
A. the Internet. A. it serves as satire of the social con-
B. a world without writing. cerns of the time.
C. books without readers, only writers. B. it is foreshadowing that it will
eventually replace Marian’s job in the
D. inspiration without realization. novel.
E. the obliteration of the library. C. it is prescient for imagining the
future of technology.
20. Why is it unlikely that Marian will quit her
job to take “any poorest, commonest work”? D. it shows the problem that advertising
is more flash than substance.
A. She’s not strong or healthy enough to
take another job. E. it is a commentary on the changing
nature of labor in industrial society.
B. She has found the inspiration for her
own novel. 24. When Marian uses the word “hapless” (line
C. Her father won’t let her be down- 36) she is
wardly mobile in the social register. A. condemning others for being
D. She’s being condescending in imag- mindless workers.
ining that writing is the worst job B. describing the official’s shared sense
one can have. of drudgery.
E. She secretly loves writing, even if she C. complaining about how miserable she
complains about it. is.
21. What is the Literary Machine? D. voicing fear that such a vision could
A. A device for making new books by come true.
combining sections of older books E. counting herself as one of the
B. A device for holding books unlucky ones.
C. A device for reading books quickly 25. What is the image she’s conjuring in the
D. A device enabling the library to store sentence “volumes seemed to emanate visible
books for patrons more efficiently so motes” (line 38)?
it’s less unwieldy A. The fog is taking vaguely human
E. A device for writing books, like an shape.
early version of the computer B. Flying bugs seem to be swarming
around the room.
22. “Some Edison” (line 27) is an example of
what rhetorical device? C. Specks of dust seem to be swirling
around the room.
A. Anecdote
D. The books are growing in size to
B. Metaphor
become like walls.
C. Simile
E. The room seems to be growing bars
D. Zeugma like a cage.
E. Metonymy

practice test
26. What are the ironies of Marian’s vision that 28. The phrase “the uncertainty of the light”
she does not realize? (line 46) is what kind of literary device in
I. In day-dreaming, she is more creative this passage?
than when she is working. A. Pathetic fallacy
II. In the obscure fog of her vision, she B. Oxymoron
comes up with vivid images.
C. Synesthesia
III. They occur in the library, where
D. A collective noun
writers are inspired by all of the
literature that surrounds them. E. Antithesis
A. I only 29. What does “the uncertainty of the light”
B. II only (line 46) indicate?
C. III only I. A light turning on in the stacks,
D. I and II interrupting her dark fantasies and
creating yet another unwanted
E. II and III sensory stimulus
27. How would you characterize the tone in II. A manifestation of the saying “a light
the sentence: “A machine has no business bulb goes off in her head,” which
indicates that she may be having a
to refuse its duty.” (line 44)?
breakthrough idea
A. Pessimistic, yet inspired
III. An allusion to Thomas Edison, the
B. Driven, yet unconfident inventor of the light bulb mentioned
C. Sardonic, yet resigned earlier in the passage, and a marker
D. Bitter, yet hopeful of how technological inventions
bring as many headaches as they do
E. Gritty, yet creative efficiencies
A. I only
B. II only
C. III only
D. I and II
E. I and III
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Questions 30-43. Read the following poem carefully before you decide on your answers to the
questions.
Prologue, David Garrick from Oliver Goldsmith’s play, She Stoops to Conquer
Excuse me, sirs, I pray—I can’t yet speak—

I’m crying now—and have been all the week.
“‘Tis not alone this mourning suit,” good masters:
Line “I’ve that within”—for which there are no plasters1!
5 Pray, would you know the reason why I’m crying?
The Comic Muse, long sick, is now a-dying!
And if she goes, my tears will never stop;
For as a player, I can’t squeeze out one drop:
I am undone, that’s all—shall lose my bread—
10 I’d rather, but that’s nothing—lose my head.
When the sweet maid is laid upon the bier,
Shuter2 and I shall be chief mourners here.
To her a mawkish drab of spurious breed,
Who deals in sentimentals, will succeed!
15 Poor Ned and I are dead to all intents;
We can as soon speak Greek as sentiments!
Both nervous grown, to keep our spirits up.
We now and then take down a hearty cup.
What shall we do? If Comedy forsake us,
20 They’ll turn us out, and no one else will take us.
But why can’t I be moral?—Let me try—
My heart thus pressing—fixed my face and eye—
With a sententious look, that nothing means,
(Faces are blocks in sentimental scenes)
25 Thus I begin: “All is not gold that glitters,
“Pleasure seems sweet, but proves a glass of bitters.
“When Ignorance enters, Folly is at hand:
“Learning is better far than house and land.
“Let not your virtue trip; who trips may stumble,
30 “And virtue is not virtue, if she tumble.”
I give it up—morals won’t do for me;
To make you laugh, I must play tragedy.
One hope remains—hearing the maid was ill,
A Doctor comes this night to show his skill.
35 To cheer her heart, and give your muscles motion,
He, in Five Draughts prepar’d, presents a potion:
A kind of magic charm—for be assur’d,
If you will swallow it, the maid is cur’d:
1 bandages
2 Shuter is playing the role of Hardcastle.

practice test
But desperate the Doctor, and her case is,
40 If you reject the dose, and make wry faces!
This truth he boasts, will boast it while he lives,
No poisonous drugs are mixed in what he gives.
Should he succeed, you’ll give him his degree;
If not, within he will receive no fee!
45 The College YOU, must his pretensions back,
Pronounce him Regular, or dub him Quack.
30. From what position in the theater is the 33. In lines 8-14, the speaker is critical of the type
speaker speaking in this prologue? of plays he calls “mawkish” and “spurious,”
A. Playwright which most closely mean
B. Actor A. emotional and realistic.
C. Critic B. devastating and cruel.
D. Rival playwright C. satirical and dark.
E. Audience member D. maudlin and contrived.
E. spectacular and expensive.
31. Who are the “sirs” in line 1?
A. The rest of the theatrical company 34. What are the ironies of lines 8-14?
B. Playwrights he’s asking to write I. People were laughing at a tragedy.
better comedies II. The genre has died the same kind of
C. Directors he’s asking to put on more contrived death that he criticizes.
skilled productions III. The speaker can’t cry for her death
D. The patrons who finance productions because he’s not a good tragic actor.
E. The audience A. II only
B. III only
32. Who is the “sweet maid” in line 11?
C. III only
A. An actress “player” in a tragic play
D. I and III
B. The Muse of Tragedy, performing
her role to audience acclaim E. II and III
C. The Muse of Comedy, who is ailing 35. How do you imagine the speaker’s tone in
and needs to be revived
lines 25-30?
D. An actress “player” in a comic role, A. Gradually gaining confidence
who will come back to life in a
reversal B. Finally inspired
E. A male “player” disguised for a female C. Exaggeratedly grandiose
role D. Authoritative and respectable
E. Wise and kind
www.petersons.com
36. Generally speaking, what does he need? 40. What is the best paraphrase of line 40?
A. Money to put on a production A. If you miss the point and treat the
B. A good comedy to perform in comedy as satire.
C. A replacement actor from the B. If you don’t like the play and refuse to
audience laugh.
D. A source of inspiration C. If you miss the point and treat the
tragedy as comedy.
E. An actress to serve as leading lady
D. If you recognize the actor in disguise
37. The rhyme “do for me” / “tragedy” in lines and ruin the surprise.
31-32 serves all of the following purposes E. If you don’t like the play and retaliate
EXCEPT against the playwright.
A. its stiltedness matches with the tragic
41. In context, what are “pretensions” in line
clichés he was just reciting badly.
45?
B. it shows how the unwitting effects of
A. Claims to the play’s quality
his grief.
B. Insistences that he’s a good actor
C. it makes the audience laugh at the
bad rhyme, which helps to set up the C. Disguises that the actors wear
play. D. Criticisms of the play
D. it heightens the self-deprecation in E. Arguments among the theater
the speaker’s prologue. company
E. it shows them bending rules in a
playful way, just like they bend the 42. In the extended analogy, what is a quack?
rules of the genre. A. A comic actor who can’t make the
audience laugh
38. In the analogy of theater to medicine in lines B. A tragic actor who can’t make the
34-46, what do the Five Draughts refer to? audience feel deep emotions
A. The senses C. A director who can’t get good perfor-
B. The muses mances out of his actors
C. The charms D. A comic playwright who can’t make
D. The acts of the play the audience laugh
E. The beverages E. A playwright who can’t transform
sentiment into stirring art
39. Who is the Doctor in the analogy?
43. In this example, the prologue serves which
A. The hero
of the following purposes?
B. The villain
A. It defends against criticism of the
C. The playwright play.
D. The audience B. It acknowledges the audience’s power.
E. The actor in disguise C. It uses pathos to appeal to the
audience.
D. It threatens the audience with
retaliation.
E. It criticizes rival theater companies.

practice test
Questions 44-55. Read the following passage carefully before you decide on your answers to the
questions.
My Brilliant Career, by Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin, known as Miles Franklin. For reference,
the narrator’s name is Sybylla.
Every night unfailingly when at home M’Swat sat in the bosom of his family
and speculated as to how much richer he was than his neighbours, what old
Recce lived on, and who had the best breed of sheep and who was the smartest
Line at counting these animals, until the sordidness of it turned me dizzy, and I
5 would steal out under the stars to try and cool my heated spirit. This became
a practice with me, and every night I would slip away out of hearing of the
household to sing the songs I had heard at Caddagat, and in imagination to
relive every day and hour there, till the thing became too much for me, and I
was scarcely responsible for my actions. Often I knelt on the parched ground
10 beneath the balmy summer sky to pray—wild passionate prayers that were never
answered.
I was under the impression that my nightly ramble was not specially noticed by
any one, but I was mistaken. Mr M’Swat, it appears, suspected me of having a
lover, but was never able to catch me red-handed.
15 The possibility of a girl going out at night to gaze at the stars and dream was as
improbable a thought for him as flying is to me, and having no soul above mud,
had I attempted an explanation he would have considered me mad, and dan-
gerous to have about the place.
Peter, junior, had a sweetheart, one Susie Duffy, who lived some miles on the
20 other side of the Murrumbidgee. He was in the habit of courting her every
Sunday and two or three nights during the week, and I often heard the clang
of his stirrup-irons and the clink of hobble-chain when he returned late; but
on one occasion I stayed out later than usual, and he passed me going home.
I stood still and he did not see me, but his horse shied violently. I thought he
25 would imagine I was a ghost, so called out:
“It is I.”
“Well, I’ll be hanged! What are ye doin’ at this time ev night. Ain’t yuz afraid of
ghosts?”
“Oh dear no. I had a bad headache and couldn’t sleep, so came out to try if a
30 walk would cure it,” I explained.
We were a quarter of a mile or so from the house, so Peter slackened his speed
that I might keep pace with him. His knowledge of ‘etiquette did not extend as
far as dismounting. There is a great difference between rudeness and ignorance.
www.petersons.com
Peter was not rude; he was merely ignorant. For the same reason he let his
35 mother feed the pigs, clean his boots, and chop wood, while he sat down and
smoked and spat. It was not that he was unmanly, as that this was the only
manliness he had known.
I was alone in the schoolroom next afternoon when Mr M’Swat sidled in, and
after stuttering and hawing a little, delivered himself of:
40 “I want to tell ye that I don’t hold with a gu-r-r-r-l going out of nights for
to meet young men: if ye want to do any coortin’ yuz can do it inside, if it’s a
decent young man. I have no objections to yer hangin’ yer cap up to our Peter,
only that ye have no prawperty—in yerself I like ye well enough, but we have
other views for Peter. He’s almost as good as made it sure with Susie Duffy, an’
45 as ole Duffy will have a bit ev prawperty I want him to git her, an’ wouldn’t like
ye to spoil the fun.”
Peter was “tall and freckled and sandy, face of a country lout”, and, like
Middleton’s rouse-about, “hadn’t any opinions, hadn’t any ideas”3, but pos-
sessed sufficient instinct and common bushcraft with which, by hard slogging,
50 to amass money. He was developing a moustache, and had a “gu-r-r-r-l”; he
wore tight trousers and long spurs; he walked with a sidling swagger that was
a cross between shyness and flashness, and took as much pride in his necktie
as any man; he had a kind heart, honest principles, and would not hurt a fly;
he worked away from morning till night, and contentedly did his duty like a
55 bullock4 in the sphere in which God had placed him; he never had a bath while
I knew him, and was a man according to his lights. He knew there was such
a thing as the outside world, as I know there is such a thing as algebra; but it
troubled him no more than algebra troubles me.
This was my estimation of Peter M’Swat, junior. I respected him right enough
60 in his place, as I trust he respected me in mine, but though fate thought fit for
the present to place us in the one groove, yet our lives were unmixable com-
modities as oil and water, which lay apart and would never meet until taken in
hand by the omnipotent leveller—death.
Marriage with Peter M’Swat!
65 Consternation and disgust held me speechless, and yet I was half inclined to
laugh at the preposterousness of the thing...
3
The phrases in quotations are from an Australian poem called “Middleton’s Rouseabout,” by Henry Lawson,
which begins “Tall, freckled, and sandy / Face of a country lout . . . ” about a man who has no “opinions or
ideas,” with few aspirations in life.
4 A steer

44. When the narrator grows annoyed with
practice test
47. She adopts that tone in her narration for all
M’Swat’s nightly conversation topics and of the following reasons EXCEPT
says she can hardly stand the “sordidness,” A. she wants to sound smarter and more
she is objecting to all of these qualities sophisticated.
EXCEPT B. language gives her power, when she
A. his bragging. has very little real power over her
day-to-day life.
B. his gossiping.
C. she is a stickler for proper etiquette.
C. the dirty details of livestock.
D. she thinks she’s better than the
D. the smallness of country life.
M’Swats and wants to distinguish
E. his speculations on her romantic life. herself from them.
45. What does “having no soul above mud, had E. she prefers the space inside her own
head to what’s around her.
I attempted an explanation he would have
considered me mad, and dangerous to have 48. What does she mean when she describes
about the place” mean? Peter: “it was not that he was unmanly, as
A. I wanted to commune with nature. that this was the only manliness he had
B. My reasons will remain obscure. known” (line 36)?
C. I’m forming a plan to escape. A. Peter is rude and vulgar to women.
D. I was out doing things he shouldn’t B. Peter is condescending to women.
know about. C. Peter has never had to consider his
E. My fantasies are embarrassing to talk own behavior seriously.
about. D. Peter takes care to reject his father’s
overbearing example.
46. What is the contrast between the narrator’s
E. Peter is never rude or condescending,
spoken dialogue and her inner narration in
and his father teases him for it.
the passage?
A. Her dialogue is in dialect, and her
inner narration is grandiloquent.
B. Her dialogue is sparse, and her inner
narration is verbose.
C. Her dialogue is sassy, and her inner
narration is sassier.
D. Her dialogue is in dialect, and her
inner narration is plainspoken.
E. Her dialogue is comic, and her inner
narration is serious.
www.petersons.com
49. As noted in the footnotes, the narrator 51. What is the best description of the word
is quoting a poem called “Middleton’s “bushcraft” (line 49) as the narrator uses it?
Rouseabout,” about an Australian “country A. A complimentary way of describing
lout” who works as an unskilled laborer and Peter’s money-making skills
doesn’t distinguish himself in life.The refrain B. A mean-spirited way of character-
about him is that he “hadn’t any opinions, izing the M’Swat family’s traditions
hadn’t any ideas.” Why does she use the C. A dismissive way of describing Peter’s
poem to describe Peter? outdoor skills
A. She sees him as a stereotypical guy D. A blushing way of describing Peter’s
who will never rise above his station horse-riding skills
in life. E. A neutral way of describing
B. She wants to demonstrate to him Australian spiritual beliefs
that she can understand his situation.
52. When Sybylla characterizes Peter as “a man
C. She wants to show the many facets of
his personality. by his own lights,” what are the tensions
underneath her appraisal?
D. She wants to hint at his literary
sensibilities, even though he seems to I. She uses a colloquial term that Peter
lack them. himself might use.
E. She cannot imagine what goes on II. You could say that his father has the
inside his head, but she wants to same qualities.
understand him. III. Even though she looks down on him,
Sybylla herself tries to live by her
50. What are some of the ironies underlying own conscience and desires.
the narrator’s long description of Peter? A. I only
I. When she quotes the poem and
B. II only
M’Swat in her description, she has
to shift her style back and forth to C. III only
account for those multiple registers of D. I and II
dialect and high-mindedness.
E. I and III
II. Her list of Peter’s qualities is longer
than M’Swat’s list at the beginning
of the passage, and it grows just as
gossipy.
III. She is showing that she has paid
attention to every detail of Peter’s
behavior, and she may be in love with
him.
A. I only
B. II only
C. I and II
D. II and III
E. I, II, and III

practice test
53. The narrator describes the possibility of 54. How do you think the narrator means the
M’Swat’s understanding her behavior with word “respected” in the second-to-last
the phrase “as improbable a thought for him paragraph?
as flying is to me.” (line 15) She describes A. Dutifully
Peter with a similar comment: “He knew B. Grudgingly
there was such a thing as the outside world, C. Ashamedly
as I know there is such a thing as algebra;
D. Mournfully
but it troubled him no more than algebra
E. Adoringly
troubles me.” (lines 56-58) Why does the
narrator assess people with the literary 55. Why is it striking that Sybylla tells Peter
device of imagining improbabilities and that she is not a ghost when she sees him
counterfactuals—what they don’t or can’t late at night?
believe, rather than what they might or do? A. She spends her time on the margins
A. She wants to teach them how to of the scene, observing rather than
be more cultured and intellectual, interacting.
but they refuse her condescending B. She wants to get her revenge on
attitude. M’Swat in the next life.
B. She is offended by their beliefs, so C. She is imagining what will happen
she inserts her own narration. after she and Peter are dead.
C. She wants them to understand her, D. She wants to float above the scene
but they refuse to do so. like a spirit when she is praying.
D. She believes they have sparse interior E. She is always inside of other people’s
lives, so she fills those gaps with her heads, trying to imagine what they
own ideas. are thinking.
E. She imagines these conversations
because she is so lonely with the
M’Swats.
www.petersons.com
Time: 2 hours
your essay without struggling over legibility.
choose one of them.

ESSAY QUESTION 1
practice test
Read the following poem carefully and write a well-organized essay in which you discuss the speaker’s
preferences—and prejudices—for listening to music in different locations. How does setting affect the
way that he hears? You may choose to analyze his diction, imagery, and use of comparison, although
you are welcome to discuss other features, as well.
“Lines Composed in a Concert-Room,” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Nor cold, nor stern, my soul! Yet I detest

These scented Rooms, where to a gaudy throng,
Heaves the proud Harlot her distended breast
Line In intricacies of laborious song.
5 These feel not Music’s genuine power nor deign

To melt at Nature’s passion-warbled plaint;
But when the long-breathed singers up-trilled strain
Bursts in a squall--they gape for wonderment.
Hark! the deep buzz of Vanity and Hate!

10 Scornful, yet envious, with self-torturing sneer
My lady eyes some maid of humbler state,
While the pert Captain, or the primmer Priest,
Prattles accordant scandal in her ear.
O give me, from this heartless scene released,

15 To hear our old Musician, blind and gray,
(Whom, stretching from my nurse’s arms I kissed,)
His Scottish tunes and warlike marches play,
By moonshine, on the balmy summer-night,
The while I dance amid the tedded hay
20 With merry maids, whose ringlets toss in light.
Or lies the purple evening on the bay

Of the calm glossy lake, O let me hid
Unheard, unseen, behind the alder-trees,
For round their roots the fisher’s boat is tied,
25 On whose trim seat doth Edmund stretch at ease,
And while the lazy boat sways to and fro,
Breathes in his flute sad airs, so wild and slow,
That his own cheek is wet with quiet tears.
www.petersons.com
But O, dear Anne! when midnight wind careers,

30 And the gust pelting on the out-house shed
Makes the cock shrilly on the rain-storm crow,
To hear thee sing some ballad full of woe,
Ballad of ship-wrecked sailor floating dead,
Whom his own true-love buried in the sands!
35 Thee, gentle woman, for thy voice re-measures
Whatever tones and melancholy pleasures
The things of Nature utter; birds or trees
Or moan of ocean-gale in weedy caves,
Or where the stiff grass mid the heath-plant waves,
40 Murmur and music thin of sudden breeze.

ESSAY QUESTION 2
practice test
Prose analysis from “The Library Window,” by Margaret Oliphant
Margaret Oliphant was a prolific 19th-century novelist best known for her domestic fiction and her
ghost stories. Write an essay about this passage’s extended conversation about “the library window.”
Why do the characters argue about it in this passage? How is it a kind of metaphor for the work of
interpretation, in which we wonder over what an object “really means” in a text? What other purposes
might the mysterious window serve in this passage?
It was, and still is, the last window in the row, of the College Library, which is
opposite my aunt’s house in the High Street. Yet it is not exactly opposite, but a
little to the west, so that I could see it best from the left side of my recess. I took
Line it calmly for granted that it was a window like any other till I first heard the
5 talk about it which was going on in the drawing-room. “Have you never made
up your mind, Mrs. Balcarres,” said old Mr. Pitmilly, “whether that window
opposite is a window or no?” He said Mistress Balcarres, and he was always
called Mr. Pitmilly, Morton: which was the name of this place.
“I am never sure of it, to tell the truth,” said Aunt Mary, “all these years.”
10 “Bless me!” said one of the old ladies, “and what window may that be?”
Mr. Pitmilly had a way of laughing as he spoke, which did not please me; but
it was true that he was not perhaps desirous of pleasing me. He said, “Oh, just
the window opposite,” with his laugh running through his words; “our friend
can never make up her mind about it, though she has been living opposite it
15 since— ”
“You need never mind the date,” said another; “the Leebrary window! Dear me,
what should it be but a window? Up at that height it could not be a door.”
“The question is,” said my aunt, “if it is a real window with glass in it, or if it
is merely painted, or if it once was a window, and has been built up. And the
20 oftener people look at it, the less they are able to say.”
“Let me see this window,” said old Lady Carnbee, who was very active and
strong-minded; and then they all came crowding upon me—three or four old
ladies, very eager, and Mr. Pitmilly’s white hair appearing over their heads, and
my aunt sitting quiet and smiling behind.
25 “I mind the window very well,” said Lady Carnbee; “ay: and so do more than
me. But in its present appearance it is just like any other window; but has not
been cleaned, I should say, in the memory of man.”
“I see what ye mean,” said one of the others. “It is just a very dead thing without
any reflection in it; but I’ve seen as bad before.”
www.petersons.com
30 “Ay, it’s dead enough,” said another, “but that’s no rule; for these hizzies of
women-servants in this ill age—”
“Nay, the women are well enough,” said the softest voice of all, which was Aunt
Mary’s. “I will never let them risk their lives cleaning the outside of mine. And
there are no women-servants in the Old Library; there is maybe something
35 more in it than that.”
They were all pressing into my recess, pressing upon me, a row of old faces,
peering into something they could not understand. I had a sense in my mind
how curious it was, the wall of old ladies in their old satin gowns all glazed with
age. Lady Carnbee with her lace about her head. Nobody was looking at me or
40 thinking of me, but I felt unconsciously the contrast of my youngness to their
oldness, and stared at them as they stared over my head at the Library window.
I had given it no attention up to this time. I was more taken with the old ladies
than with the thing they were looking at.
“The framework is all right at least, I can see that, and pented black—”
45 “And the panes are pented black too. It’s no window, Mrs. Balcarres. It has been
filled in, in the days of the window duties: you will mind, Leddy Carnbee.”
“Mind!” said the oldest lady. “I mind when our mother was marriet, Jeanie: and
that’s neither the day nor yesterday. But as for the window, it’s just a delusion:
and that is my opinion of the matter, if you ask me.”
50 “There’s a great want of light in that muckle room at the college,” said another.
“If it was a window, the Leebrary would have more light.”
“One thing is clear,” said one of the younger ones, “it cannot be a window to see
through. It may be filled in or it may be built up, but it is not a window to give
light.”
55 “And who ever heard of a window that was no to see through?” Lady Carnbee
said.

ESSAY QUESTION 3
practice test
Free Response
When you see a character reading a book inside a novel or a play, you may experience a moment of
recognition: they’re doing what I’m doing! You might see them struggle to read, fall in love with a
character, learn lessons, even misinterpret what they’re reading!
Write an essay in which you explore a character’s relationship with reading inside a novel. What do
you learn from seeing someone else’s habits of interpretation spelled out for you as you yourself are
trying to interpret the text? You should pick a novel or a play that depicts a multifaceted, complicated,
or otherwise rich reading experience, so that you have some tensions and complexities to analyze in
interpreting a fictional character’s reading habits.
Catcher in the Rye

Frankenstein
Oliver Twist
Don Quixote
The Sorrows of Young Werther
Invisible Man
The Narrative of Frederick Douglass
I Capture the Castle
The Hours
Hamlet
Twelfth Night
Sense and Sensibility
Northanger Abbey
If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler
The Book Thief
The Book of Lost Things
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
Great Expectations
People of the Book
Possession
www.petersons.com
1. D 11. C 20. D 29. E 38. D 47. C

2. C 12. C 21. B 30. B 39. C 48. C
3. C 13. D 22. E 31. E 40. B 49. A
4. B 14. B 23. B 32. C 41. A 50. C
5. A 15. E 24. E 33. D 42. D 51. C
6. B 16. C 25. C 34. E 43. B 52. E
7. D 17. B 26. D 35. C 44. E 53. D
8. A 18. A 27. C 36. B 45. B 54. B
9. E 19. C 28. A 37. B 46. B 55. A
10. A
Section I
1. The correct answer is D. The answer to 3. The correct answer is C. The poem rejects
this question is stated directly in line 3: the conventional descriptions of the forest
“once, long ago, it was a waving tree,” but in favor of the “salt, stinging sea!” In line 1,
it may be tempting to get caught up in the the wood-carving “lives” above the doorway,
descriptive language. Choices B, C, and E but it prefers to indulge in the image of the
feel like familiar answers to a question about sea depicted on its surface, rather than its
nature poetry—memory, emotions, favorite prior life as a tree. You can strike all of the
spots—but they are actually pointing readers home possibilities in choices A, B, and E.
toward a reversal in line 15 that will reject There was mention of a storm in line 11,
those timeworn associations with nature. so this is a technical possibility, but the
The intricate design (choice A) is not scene shifts back to the sunlit woods in the
described until later in the poem. next two lines and the focus of those lines
is mostly on the forest, not the brief storm.
2. The correct answer is C. If you read these
Choice C is a better choice than D.
opening lines and thought, “I know exactly
that feeling of autumn in the woods!” then 4. The correct answer is B. The familiar
this poem knows it. The interplay between seasonal rhythms of the forest give way
the sun and shadow, the branches bent by to images of the dynamic, thrashing sea,
snow in the winter, the pelting acorns—these where the birds swoop unpredictably and
are all conventional descriptions of trees the waves are always changing in the wind.
and forest that are so familiar that they are Choice D describes the wood carving in the
hackneyed, or clichés. The descriptions may most general terms, but there’s no contrast
be pleasing, but they are hardly unconven- and no focus on the content of lines 20-34
tional, which makes choice A incorrect. The about the sea. Choice E is also much too
positive adjectives in choices B, D, and E may general to be a good choice. Choice C is
be true of these lines—and it’s okay to like a contender because there are marine and
them!—but they aren’t the best answers for avian elements in the lines, but the question
guiding you to the poem’s main idea about asks you to choose the most important con-
breaking free from convention. trast. Similarly, the scene may be blue and


silver (choice A), which contrasts with the among the three devices. If you’re asked to
green and sunlight in the opening lines, but identify that kind of device, you will probably
that’s not the most important contrast, either. see only one of them among choices. (To add
Choice B is the most important change that to the confusion, not all personification is
takes place in the poem. metonymy: a storm may be personified with
a name, but that name isn’t substituting for a
5. The correct answer is A. You may elimi-
particular person associated with the storm.)
nate the obvious wrong answers: a patient
To reiterate: the best choice here is A, but
knife is not an example of antithesis or
you probably won’t have to agonize over so
oxymoron because the adjective and noun
many fine distinctions on your own exam.
aren’t obviously opposed to each other. It is
not a case of mixed sensory adjectives so it is 6. The correct answer is B. This question
not synesthesia, nor is it a case of foreshad- asks you to identify the function of the
owing because the knife doesn’t play a role literary device: what does the personifi-
later in the poem. You can eliminate all of cation highlight in the poem? Throughout
those answers and be sure about the correct these answers, we’ve been referring to the
choice, A, personification. A warning, wood-carving as though it were an entity
however: This can be a difficult question itself, personifying it even before question
because it can be hard to sort out the differ- 5 appeared. The personified knife carves
ences between metonymy, synecdoche, and the personified wood, so the correct answer
personification. Some writers don’t make a is choice B. You can eliminate choice E
strong distinction between metonymy and because the shift to the home happens later
synecdoche or say that synecdoche is a special in the poem, and we’re still out at sea. You
case of metonymy, or that personification is might pause on choice A as you assess the
also a special case of metonymy. In general relationship between the calm wood-carver
terms, metonymy is a device in which a and the wild scene, but the personified knife
writer substitutes a word with a closely isn’t dulling the scene. If anything, it’s sharp-
associated word, like a ruling party may ening it. Choice C describes the image of
be called “the Crown” because rulers wear unpredictable sea, but the personification of
crowns. Synecdoche is a device in which a the knife doesn’t create any notable sensory
writer substitutes a word for a whole with confusion. Choice D is basically true, but,
a word for a part of it, like you might call as with question 4, you’re not trying to
your car “your wheels,” and wheels are part find the most general answer but the most
of a car. Personification can be a special specific, important one. Multiple choice
form of metonymy in which, in the case of exams don’t reward generalizations; that
this question, a patient, calm wood-carver recommendation is true of the essay part of
is substituted with his handy knife. If there the exam, as well. You are better off looking
were a different set of answer choices for for the important idea, instead of trying to
this question and you saw “metonymy” but find an answer that’s almost always true, no
not “personification,” you would be correct matter the context.
to choose metonymy because the knife is
7. The correct answer is D. The wood-
associated with the wood-carver and takes
carving fantasizes about the sea carved on its
on his calmness and patience.
surface and prefers those fantasies to what it
Unless there is a very obvious distinction to knows from its old life in the familiar forest.
be made between those devices in a passage, In this preference, the poem signals its deeper
the exam will probably not make you choose meaning to champion aesthetics, art, and
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artifice over one’s “natural” state. Choice A Choices A and E seem to be a bit more of a
is too general to be a good choice. Choice stretch, but, again, it is hard to argue with the
B misreads the poem: the wood-carving has idea of harmony in the sounds—especially
an image of the sea carved on its surface, but since there is no counter-example to find.
it was never a piece of driftwood. Choice C Choice E is the outlier because it overstates
would be a potentially interesting, though the role of human perception in a poem that
strange, companion poem for the wood- is mostly concerned with how wood-carvings
carving to narrate, but there’s no evidence and knives might tell their own stories.
in this poem that it was affected emotionally
10. The correct answer is A. The answer is
by the storm. Choice E is the most tempting
stated in line 2 of the poem—“a piece of
alternative because the poem does proceed
wood with colors dim”—but you may have
in many images of the sea; nevertheless,
missed it in the many shifts of tone and mood
the shifts in the poem aren’t from language
throughout the poem. It’s important to go
to image, but from images of the forest to
back and read the poem all the way through as
images of the sea. It’s still a poem, so language
you’re moving to make more interpretations
is its medium for describing those images.
of the poem’s larger meaning, otherwise you
8. The correct answer is A. The repetition of may not be able to answer the question and
the “oo” vowel sounds is a form of assonance. go with choice E. If you don’t go back, you
It’s relatively common for the exam to ask may be tempted to go for an answer that
you to distinguish among assonance, con- reflects the more vivid or sparkling imagery
sonance, and alliteration in answer choices of the rest of the poem. This question was
because those distinctions are clear-cut just to check that you can find the details!
(unlike those blurrier lines between other
11. The correct answer is C. Ekphrasis is the
rhetorical devices). It’s easy to remember
rhetorical term for a description of a work
the distinction because consonance involves
of art inside a poem, which often expands
similar consonants, so assonance refers to
the story to get the “inside view” of what’s
similar vowel sounds. Alliteration involves
happening in the depicted scene. Here we get
similar sounds at the beginning of a word, so
to zoom into the image to see it like a movie
it is not the correct choice here. Synesthesia
instead of just a still image. The poem is not
is a mixing of the senses, but that’s not the
a metaphor nor an extended comparison to
device you’re looking for in the question
something else in simile form. Despite all
about similar sounds. It is not a case of
of the personification and perspective, the
internal rhyme among words inside a line,
wood-carving is not actually speaking in a
so choice E is also incorrect. You have a clear
monologue. An apostrophe is the poetic form
correct answer in choice A.
in which a writer addresses a person, object,
9. The correct answer is E. You are looking or idea as though he were speaking directly
for the EXCEPTION in this question, so to it abstractly: “O Death,” or “Twinkle,
the correct answer will be the one that seems twinkle little star” are both apostrophes.
least appropriate. In looking at the possi- In this case, the poet is not addressing the
bilities, it seems difficult to take exception wood-carving directly; she is describing its
with choices B, C, and D because they seem image in ekphrastic form.
to add a thoughtful layer of interpretation to
12. The correct answer is C. This question
the poem. They help us interpret what the
asks you to choose the best set of answers,
assonance resolves in the poem and what
to show that there may be more than one
it adds to our understanding of the scene.


correct answer or meaning. In this case, choices A and D may make you groan, but
options I and II are similar to one another in they’re not incorrect choices. Choice E
describing the way the wood changes shape repeats the phrase from lines 1 and 35, so
and meaning, but you don’t have to choose it’s an apt title for an essay. Choice C picks
between them. Why not both? Option III up the personification device from line 19,
is not a good choice because there are waves so it could work, too, especially to talk about
and seagulls in the final two lines, so there’s the relationship between the poet’s craft and
no rejection of the sea. You can thus eliminate the wood-carver’s craft.
it and the choices that contain it (D and E),
15. The correct answer is E. The character
so choice C is the correct answer.
Marian describes her job as “exhausting
13. The correct answer is D. This question gives herself in the manufacture of printed stuff
you some information about the literary which no one even pretended to be more
movement of Imagism that Amy Lowell than a commodity”—in other words,
embraced in her later poetry. This poem drudgery. She repeats several related adjec-
is a good example of an extended Imagist tives throughout the passage: discouraged,
poem—sometimes her poems could be just intolerable, condemned. Choices A and D
two lines long, a very brief image! As with are each only half-correct: she finds the work
question 12, there are multiple options that pointless and is having a difficult day, but she
may be correct, and you have to choose the also finds it overly demanding and explicitly
right set of them. The quotation tells you rejects the idea that it’s a privilege. She has
that option I is wrong because Lowell specifi- given up on the idea of fame (choice B), and
cally rejects the idea of grandiose statements she has stopped thinking of it as a creative
about nature; option I is also too presump- outlet (choice C), comparing it more to a
tuous because we don’t have any sense of kind of intellectual factory-work.
the wood-carver’s desires. You can strike
16. The correct answer is C. The “taste of fog”
choices A, C, and E. Option II may seem
is an example of synesthesia, or the mixing
like a reiteration of option I, but it’s much
up of the senses—here, the mixing of taste
more specific to “the” wood in the poem,
and sight/touch—which signal her addled
not wood or nature in general. Lowell asked
frame of mind in the passage. Although
for specificity in the question’s quotation;
Marian has an excruciating headache, “a
that’s a scale that the patient, careful wood-
taste of fog” is not a hyperbole because she is
carver can work on. Option III resembles
not intentionally exaggerating for rhetorical
the question’s quotation for its attention to
effect. It is not an oxymoron because the
particular images, the wood-carver’s métier.
phrase doesn’t contain opposites—taste
Options II and III complement each other,
and fog may be different senses, but they
so the answer is choice D.
aren’t opposed. It’s not a simile because it’s
14. The correct answer is B. Some of these not directly comparing two things, and it’s
are cheesy titles, no doubt, but only one of not an example of metonymy because taste
them is the wrong answer. That choice won’t isn’t replacing an idea commonly linked with
be based on the quality of the title, but on fog. Synesthesia is the clear answer about
whether it’s relevant to the discussion of the sensory confusion.
poem. Choice B is the least relevant title
17. The correct answer is B. As we saw in
because it’s about autumn, and the wood-
question 16, Marian is disillusioned with her
carving doesn’t want to talk about seasonal
writing career, and her daydreams show the
beauty in the forest. The silly wordplay in
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intensity of that feeling of drudgery. She does B) or the destruction of the library (choice
not gain any insights (choice C) from these E), but the opposite. She has given up on
visions; one imagines that she has similar inspiration (choice D), so that is not one
visions every day, yet she is “condemned” to of her concerns here. Choice A is a cheeky
return to it over and over again. She has given choice—this story does seem very prescient
up the idea of fame (choice D). It is entirely of our current times!—but choice C is more
possible that the author of this novel, George in keeping with the specific imagery of the
Gissing, has taken Marian’s fantasies from passage.
his own experience as a disillusioned writer
20. The correct answer is D. It may be difficult
and turned them into this novel (choices A
to make an inference here, but it’s easier to
and E)—but that information is not present
eliminate the incorrect answers. We can
in this passage. Choice B is the best answer
strike choice E, because each preceding
here.
question has emphasized just how much
18. The correct answer is A. Several of these Marian dislikes her job, and there’s no
choices are very similar, but it’s your job to reversal indicated in the passage that might
pick the EXCEPTION, so you can eliminate indicate inspiration (choice B)—it ends in
the choices that are near synonyms. Marian tears. We don’t have enough information
feels condemned to her job of research and about Marian’s father to ascribe any motives
writing, yet she looks to her father’s job as a to him, so choice C is out. Although she is
critic as derivative, pointless, and uninventive clearly sick of her job, the focus of the passage
(choices C, D, and E). Critics merely recycle is on her job, not on her health, so choice A
other bits of writing into new forms of is too much of a stretch. Those eliminations
writing, she thinks; they are the first stage leave choice D, and although we don’t have
of the robotic Literary Machines she will go any other comparisons to jobs in the passage,
on to imagine as those who perpetuate the her disdain for her father’s position as a critic
cycle of commodification, of turning writing indicates her limited perspective on what’s
into something just to be sold (choice B). considered an “acceptable” job.
That leaves the correct answer, choice A,
21. The correct answer is B. This question asks
as the best exception. It may be tempting
you to distinguish between Marian’s frus-
to call this novel about the pointlessness of
trated projections and the reality outside the
writing “postmodern,” but that term does
library. Choice B copies the language directly
not yet exist in the nineteenth century, so
from the passage: the Literary Machine is
Marian wouldn’t use it to describe her own
a device for holding books. She imagines
situation, nor her father’s position as a critic!
that it’s a device for making books out of
Indeed, writers have been writing about the
old books (choice A), only to say “Alas!”
drudgery of writing for a long time—that
Choices C, D, and E—a device for reading
anxiety was not invented recently.
quickly, an automated cataloging system,
19. The correct answer is C. Marian’s vision and a computer—are machines that would
of this vicious cycle of print production increase efficiency, to be sure, but they are
is bleak: the library’s shelves will become not what’s in the advertisement. Again, it’s
unwieldy with books that no one will ever striking how prescient this book from 1891
read for their substance or meaning, except could be!
to make new books out of them. She is not
describing a world without books (choice


22. The correct answer is E. “Some Edison” playfully and figuratively to apply to more
is an example of metonymy because she than one noun in the phrase. An example
has replaced “inventor” with a closely might be: she gave you her heart and her
related phrase—Thomas Edison, the most lunch, where lunch is literal and heart is
famous inventor of the time, the inventor figurative. Choice E is the best answer.
of the light bulb. Marian’s fantasies are very
similar to what Edison imagined for the
effectively asks you to assess which forms
future, where work would become auto-
of prescience and foreshadowing you can
mated, thanks to efficient machines. It is
identify based on the information inside the
an example of metonymy in the same way
passage. It is not asking you to predict what
that we’d say “Hollywood gives us unrealistic
comes next in the novel because you don’t
fantasies,” where Hollywood stands for the
have that information. Choice B is the most
film industry. It is not an example of per-
unlikely outcome (especially given that you
sonification because there’s no object being
have no way of knowing what comes next in
replaced: she’s replacing one person with a
the novel), and thus the EXCEPTION that
proper name. Some may call it an eponym,
the question is asking you to find. Choices A,
the replacement of a noun with a person’s
C, and E are reasonable inferences about the
name, but that term is used more often to
novel’s social concerns and the satirical edge
show how we derived the name for Kleenex®
to Marian’s vision of writing as machine-
or Xerox® products from the companies that
work. The idea about advertising in choice
created them. An epithet is also sometimes
D is a reasonable choice for interpreting
used to show this kind of replacement, but it
the passage; indeed, the next inference one
tends to do so with an adjective, not another
might draw is that those kinds of advertise-
noun: Muhammad Ali was “the Greatest”
ments are part of the vast volume of stuff
so sportswriters sometimes replace his name
that is written but which is not important
with that phrase.
to actually read.
It was noted earlier that it is unlikely that
24. The correct answer is E. Hapless means
you’ll have to decide between two devices
unfortunate, and Marian’s sense of being
that overlap unless the distinction is clear-
unable to extricate from the situation is
cut. Here, you probably wouldn’t get meton-
palpable in her figurative language of unlucky
ymy, synecdoche, personification, eponym,
flies stuck to a web. She is not condemning
and epithet as five of the answer choices. The
others (choice A), for she feels that they are
exam may give you misleading answers that
all condemned to the same situation, with
come from common misunderstandings, but
little recourse to change. The other options
it’s probably not going to ask you to make
are tempting because they are similar and
fine-grained rhetorical differentiations
generally true, but they aren’t specific to the
among closely related devices, unless the
word “hapless” in the question. The official
distinction is (or should be) obvious.
(choice B) is also a “lost soul, doomed” to
In this case, you can answer the question by
be stuck in the library, but “hapless” refers
eliminating the wrong answers. She is not
specifically to the faceless group of readers
comparing two items, so it is not a simile
like herself. She has been complaining
or a metaphor. It is not a short example,
for the entire passage, so choice C is not
an anecdote. It is not a zeugma, a figure of
specific enough to be a good answer to this
speech in which an adjective or a verb is used
vocabulary question. Her vision is dark
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and scary (choice D), but “hapless” isn’t an the elimination, you should look at all ten
indicator of her fear—it’s more about her adjectives listed and try to find single ones
feeling stuck. that don’t seem to fit—inspired (choice A),
hopeful (choice D), and creative (choice E)
25. The correct answer is C. Motes are flecks
are all adjectives that are sorely missing from
of dust and other tiny bits of matter—you
Marian’s perspective in this passage. You can
can imagine that an old library might be
strike those three because you’re looking
full of them. To emanate is to appear from
for a pair of adjectives. (Arguably, she has
a source. This is a vocabulary question in
been creative and inspired in imagining this
disguise, so the main goal is to find the
elaborate scene, but she doesn’t realize that,
answer that indicates dust emitting from
as question 26 points out.) We don’t really
the shelves. Marian has conjured up plenty
see a lack of confidence as her problem in
of crazy fantasies of flies ensnared in webs
this passage, so choice B is not a good fit,
and lost souls, but the other choices do not
either. She is being sarcastic or sardonic in
involve flecks of dust.
her cynical, mocking extension of the idea
26. The correct answer is D. Here you have to of the Literary Machine from earlier in
identify the irony or ironies of this passage, the passage. The word “resigned” may trip
for there may be more than one good option you up because we tend to associate it with
listed. Option I seems like a good choice, quitting a job, but it also means that she
for her vision has shown the originality of has acquiesced to a situation without
her perspective, missing from her profes- wanting to.
sional work. Option II is also a good choice
28. The correct answer is A. Marian has pro-
because it plays with the notions of fog and
jected her feelings upon the light, so it is an
vividity—and the first question about this
example of pathetic fallacy. She can’t make a
passage called your attention to the use of
decision to quit, but she doesn’t know how
synesthesia as a poetic device. Option III
she can go on. The gloom in the library
may be tempting because it describes how we
has matched her own inner sense of gloom;
normally think of libraries as fantasy spaces
the suddenness of the light signals her own
for intellectual growth. However, the passage
uncertainty about her intolerable future. It is
has been suggesting something different:
not a case of oxymoron or antithesis because
that libraries are not sources of inspiration,
uncertainty and light aren’t opposed to each
but rather of oppressive bulk that no one
other, nor is it a case of synesthesia because
will ever read. They are monuments to
uncertainty isn’t a sensory feeling. Although
over-producing stuff, not sites of inspiration.
“an uncertainty of light bulbs” would be a
You may quibble with this characterization
creative way to describe a group of light
of the passage by saying that literature (not
bulbs in a collective noun, that is unlikely
the hack-writing Marian refers to) should
to ever gain popular use!
serve as an inspiration. Nevertheless, the
answer choices don’t let you select all three 29. The correct answer is E. Here you are
options, so you have to go with the choice asked to interpret the function of the light
that contains the two best possibilities: bulb: is it symbolic, allusive, literal, or some
choice D. combination of these? Option I describes the
literal events of the scene in sensory terms:
27. The correct answer is C. These answers
the light flashes, her headache grows worse
have many similarities, so it may be dif-
from the intensifying stimuli around. Option
ficult to choose the best one. To begin
II gives you the possibility of a revelation,


but such a moment doesn’t occur in these King and Queen who perform the play
last sentences, so you can strike choices B within a play in Hamlet. If you’re really not
and D. Option III seems like it may be a sure about the answer to this question, it’s a
stretch—we can’t ask Gissing if he meant to good strategy to skip it and get some clues
allude to Edison twice in the passage—but for answering it by looking at the rest of the
the explanation for its function is a rea- questions in the section, which differentiate
sonable one, as it sets up a tension between the playwright, audience, and other actors
innovation and frustration. Such an inter- more clearly. You will start to get some of
pretive possibility doesn’t seem tangential that language about “players” defined for
or unrelated to the passage. It is the kind of you in context, starting in question 32.
creative interpretation that would serve you
31. The correct answer is E. As in question 30,
well on the essay section because it allows
the speaker gives you the answer later in the
you to draw interesting connections to other
passage, in line 32: “To make you laugh . . . ”
parts of the passage in context. If you wanted
and then in the extended metaphor about “if
to pursue this idea in an essay, you’d have to
you reject the dose” (40) and “YOU must his
frame it in terms of what it lets you under-
pretensions back” (45). If you are stumped
stand about larger concepts like innovation,
by the strangeness of the language, it may
sensation, and work. You wouldn’t write a
be worth it to try to eliminate some obvious
sentence like “The phrase ‘an uncertainty of
wrong answers and then return to these
light’ is a reference to Thomas Edison” and
questions with more context from the rest
be done with it—you’d have to explain why
of the passage and exam. The question of
that insight is important for understanding
who “you” is becomes clearer as the prologue
the rest of the passage.
goes on.
30. The correct answer is B. This is a difficult
32. The correct answer is C. The speaker gives
passage to understand for modern readers
you the answer in line 6: “The Comic Muse,
because we aren’t as used to formats in
long sick, is now a-dying! / And if she
which someone addresses the audience
goes, my tears will never stop . . . ” If you’re
before a play starts. There’s also a lot of old-
having a hard time reading the lines and
fashioned words and clever wordplay. For
understanding who he’s referring to, try to
these reasons, the exam is going to lead you
track the pronouns: if there’s a “sweet maid,”
through simpler questions to help you get
then where are the other female-identifying
a handle on some of these theatrical terms
pronouns in the surrounding lines? The
and conventions so that you can answer
Comic Muse is referred to as “she” in the
progressively more complicated interpretive
preceding lines, and the speaker says he is
questions about the passage. The speaker
not good enough an actor to be able to cry:
tells you the correct answer “as a player . . . ”
“as a player, I can’t squeeze out one drop.” If
in line 8, and even though you may not have
you’re unsure what “bier” means, then you
heard actors referred to as “players” before,
can get some information from the next line,
the lines around it make it clear that he and
where there are “mourners,” so you know it
Shuter (named in the footnote) and Ned are
must be sad. The actor is saying that he and
actors in the play. You may have heard the
the other players are ill-suited to playing
word in context in Macbeth: “Life’s but a
tragedies because they can’t cry on cue. They
walking shadow, / A poor player that struts
need to revive the Comic Muse (hopefully,
and frets his hour upon the stage, and then
is heard no more” or read about the Player
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with this play) so that they can continue to You can imagine his tone as exaggeratedly
act in the theater. grandiose—he is being like Polonius in
Hamlet when he delivers his advice, but
33. The correct answer is D. The following
he is mixing up all of the advice so that it
line “who deals in sentimentals” can help
comes out as nonsense. The advice is hard
you answer this question, even if you don’t
to imagine being authoritative (choice D)
know what “mawkish” means. Sentimental
or wise (choice E), so you can strike those
means emotional, so that adjective eliminates
options. It would be silly if he were gaining
choices C and E. Choice B, “devastating and
confidence from delivering clichés, so choice
cruel,” is not usually described as sentimental,
A is also not a good option. The problem
either. You can eliminate choice A because
is that those lines don’t inspire his comic
“realistic” doesn’t square with the adjective
gifts, so choice B gives you the opposite.
“spurious,” which means false. The best
With these descriptions of the actor’s tone,
answer is choice D, maudlin and contrived,
the shape of the passage starts to become
which fit with the critiques of sentimental
clearer, one hopes, and you’re getting a sense
movies that we watch even today, so it’s
for the peculiarities of historical humor.
not as unfamiliar as it seems to be. As the
speaker has been noting that he can’t cry 36. The correct answer is B. If you read ques-
on cue, he is showing that he doesn’t want tions 30-36 together, you can start to get
a maudlin, sentimental story—he wants a a good sense of what’s happening in the
rousing comedy! passage, even if the language mystifies you.
The Comic Muse is sick, so he needs to
34. The correct answer is E. The options to
revive her with a play to perform in so that
choose from use words like “contrived”
he and his friends can act in their preferred
(which you saw in question 33) and pro-
genre. He can elicit laughs by acting poorly
poses that a genre has died and the actor
when he tries to proclaim serious lines from
cannot cry for it (which you saw in question
other plays. You can eliminate choice A
32). These questions can’t contradict each
because there are no mentions of money,
other: what can you take from 32 and 33
and choice D is too general to be a useful
together? Options II and III present the
answer. No one has actually died on the
situation in clear language: the speaker
stage—just the genre of comedy—so he
disdains sentimental plays, but he’s staged
doesn’t need a replacement actor (choice
a sentimental death scene for the Muse of
C) or actress (choice E). The answer is in
Comedy, only to show that he can’t cry for her
the shift at line 33: “One hope remains!”
death. There’s no mention of the audience
and he introduces a “Doctor” who can cure
laughing in lines 8-14—although he asks
the Comic Muse . . . with a new play to
them to laugh later—so Option I is unlikely.
stage for the audience. Thus, the answer to
There’s no choice for options I, II, and III
the question is that he needs a good comic
all together, so you know that you have to
play to perform in, choice B.
make a choice of the best combinations. The
correct combination of options is choice E. 37. The correct answer is B. The rhyme is
self-consciously bad, so you need to find
35. The correct answer is C. Here the actor is
the choice among the answers that does not
proclaiming lines from those “mawkish,”
indicate this self-consciousness or the inside
“spurious,” “sentimental” plays, along with
joke of “killing” the Comic Muse with bad
famous lines from tragic plays, just to
acting. Choices A, C, D, and E each make
show the audience what a bad actor he is.
reference to the play’s jokes, while choice B


seems to still believe that we’re watching a may have a desperate, incurable ailment,
tragedy. Therefore, choice B is the outlier if the audience doesn’t laugh at the new
and the correct answer. play—so they have an incentive to laugh,
lest Comedy be gone forever! Choices A and
38. The correct answer is D. The Five
D mention satire and disguises, but neither
Draughts—the cures for the ailing Comic
has been important to this prologue, so they
Muse—are the five acts of the play. He has
are not good options. Choice C repeats his
only mentioned two muses, Comedy and
game from earlier in the passage, when he
Tragedy, and there are nine Muses, not five,
acts so melodramatically that the tragedy
so choice B is unlikely. He has not made
becomes comic—one hopes the playwright
reference to the five senses (choice A), so
has a better production to show the audience
they are also not the best choice. Neither
than that goof. Choice E is a possibility, but
choice C nor D makes sense in the extended
“making wry faces” is not much of a retali-
metaphor that he will draw in lines 34-46,
ation. Choice B is the best option.
so the best answer is choice D. In five acts,
the upcoming comedy will try to cure its 41. The correct answer is A. It’s useful to
dying Muse. figure out who “his”/”him” is referring to in
the line “YOU, must his pretensions back /
39. The correct answer is C. As you’ve gradu-
Pronounce him Regular, or dub him Quack.”
ally been figuring out the context and
He is the Doctor, and “you,” the audience,
meaning of the unfamiliar theatrical terms
are being asked to assess his worthiness as
in this passage, this question might allow you
a doctor of the Comic Muse—that is, as a
to go back to questions 30 and 31 to sort
playwright. We might say the College is the
out who’s speaking to whom: The actor is
theater itself, where he is being assessed.
introducing a new play. Who can best cure
Therefore, the audience is assessing choice A,
the ailing Comic Muse but a playwright
the claims to the play’s quality. His/him/he
who has composed the play the audience
does not refer to the actor delivering the pro-
is about to view? If you’re still unsure, you
logue, so choice B is incorrect; the criticisms
can eliminate the less likely choices of hero
(choice D) of the play will be the judgments
and villain because those figures haven’t
of those pretensions. A pretense may be a
been mentioned yet. The audience is the
disguise (choice C) in other contexts, but
group being addressed and asked to judge
not here; there haven’t been any mentions
the Doctor, so choice D is unlikely. The
of arguments among the theater company,
playwright and the actor could be the same
so choice E isn’t supported by the passage.
person, but you wouldn’t be asked to make
that determination—that would be a very 42. The correct answer is D. The Doctor (the
specific historical detail to recall without playwright) has been given but one task
any textual evidence. (David Garrick was here, to cure the Comic Muse. A doctor who
indeed an actor, director, and playwright, makes false claims for his cures is called a
but he is serving only the role of actor in quack. Thus there is only one good choice:
this prologue.) the playwright who can’t cure the Comic
Muse with a good comedy has failed at his
40. The correct answer is B. “If you reject the
job and is a quack. Choices A and B about
dose, and make wry faces” means that the
actors don’t follow from that Doctor analogy,
audience may reject the play and refuse to
which focuses on the playwright. There are
laugh. “Wry” means mocking or unim-
no directors (choice C) mentioned directly
pressed. He is saying that the Comic Muse
in the passage; as noted earlier, even today
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we remember playwrights from that period has bigger sheep, who has more sheep, etc.
more than we do directors. The playwright Choices A, B, C, and D all describe features
isn’t being asked to play multiple registers, on that list; his speculations about her
so choice E is asking too much! romantic interest in Peter don’t come until
later in the passage, so the best choice is E.
43. The correct answer is B. It may seem unfa-
miliar today to read such a direct appeal to 45. The correct answer is B. Sybylla’s narrative
the audience in a prologue, for we now treat style is distinctive, and this question sets up
the prologue as something more neutral, used a series of questions about how to interpret
for scene-setting or general introduction. In her idiosyncrasies. Her description of her
this situation, the audience would probably motives is evasive—yet she has no reason
be familiar with the theater company, their to evade the readers she is addressing. It’s
previous productions, the playwright’s last more likely that she likes to hear how these
success or bomb, and so on. Going to the words sound as she’s authoring her own life.
theater to see a comedy was a social expe- Indeed, Miles Franklin wrote My Brilliant
rience, with lots of inside jokes between the Career while she was still a teenager, mostly
actors, playwrights, and members of the for her friends’ entertainment, before sub-
audience that showed the strength of the mitting it to a publisher. (You would not
social bonds inside the theater. You can get need to know that in order to answer the
a sense of that idea from the speaker’s self- question, but still: she was in high school!)
deprecating humor at the beginning of the Choices C, D, and E aren’t supported by
prologue, the inside jokes about the other the passage, for she has just described her
actors’ abilities, and the direct address to the walks as a way to remember her home in
audience to judge the playwright’s success. Caddagat and to pray that she can get out
That’s their power. The other options here of the country. She doesn’t want to explain
don’t work as well: the audience is being the walks further, so the answer is choice B.
asked to judge the playwright, which doesn’t
46. The correct answer is B. Sybylla rarely
defend (choice A) against criticism—it
speaks in dialogue in this passage, filling
may even invite it as a joking reaction. The
it instead with her own verbose narration,
“tragic” death of the Comic Muse was not an
rich with her 50-cent vocabulary. She rarely
example of pathos (choice C), or an appeal
picks a short word, if a long one like “con-
to strong emotion, because it was intended
sternation” or “presumptuousness” will work
as a joke. There are no threats against the
instead. One gets the feeling that she has
audience or rival companies (choices D and
read these words more often than she has
E)—this was a jovial environment where
spoken them aloud--or heard them spoken
the jokes on the playwright warm up the
aloud. Her short, formal dialogue, like “It
audience, helping them enjoy the play and
is I,” contrasts with the M’Swat men’s use
laugh a little more easily.
of dialect. You can strike the options that
44. The correct answer is E. Sent to live in suggest she uses dialect (choices A and D).
the country, the narrator Sybylla gives a “It is I” and her headache explanation are
long list of all of her host M’Swat’s nightly hardly sassy or comic (choices C and E), so
conversation topics until she cannot bear those choices are incorrect, too.
the “sordidness” any longer. We tend to use
47. The correct answer is C. Choosing the
“sordid” to refer to something sleazy, but
outlier here is relatively easy. Although
she is mostly just objecting to the tedium
Sybylla goes on to discuss Peter’s etiquette,
of so many details about country life—who


the reason for her verbosity is that she uses There’s no textual evidence to support that
language aspirationally. Choices A, B, D, and possibility, unless you wanted to read against
E are all versions of that explanation: her her strong “consternation” in the last line
narrative voice is self-consciously writerly of the passage. Such a reading would echo
because she wants something better than M’Swat’s own jumping to conclusions, and
where she is. That tone can be supercilious the passage is aligned squarely against him.
and condescending (choices A and D), or it You can eliminate the choices with option
can be authorial (choices B and E). Choice III, choices D and E. The other two options
C is the only one that doesn’t fit. in this question have more interesting
tensions to explore in Sybylla’s descriptive
48. The correct answer is C. As Sybylla goes
abilities and her language. Sybylla is a keen
on to describe Peter’s habits, she notes that
observer of details, mostly centered around
he does not question the gender roles around
solidifying the stereotype of him in the “no
the house. His mother does his chores for
opinions, no idears” mode that she quotes.
him, but he does not even notice the effort,
In observing so keenly, she starts to echo
for why would he? That’s what he thinks is
M’Swat’s assessments of his neighbors—a
normal. She takes care to say that he is only
dip into her own sordidness, though she
ignorant, not rude, so choices A and B are
would hardly say so. Sybylla’s fragmentary
incorrect. Sybylla likes Peter more than she
quotations of the poem’s dialect “idears,”
likes his father, but she does not characterize
together with her imitation of M’Swat’s
him as rejecting his father’s example, so
“g-u-r-r-r-l” are striking in a narration filled
choices D and E are incorrect. Choice C is
with so many aspirational words. As option
the best option.
I suggests, they show the mix of highbrow
49. The correct answer is A. The snippets of aspirations and country language that she
the poem that Sybylla quotes, taken with the hears and digests every day. They show her
bits in the footnote and question text, don’t ability to switch between those registers.
give a flattering picture of the Middleton Options I and II are the most interesting
Rouseabout as a poetic subject. Choices B, tensions to consider in this passage, so the
C, D, and E indicate far more generosity answer is choice C.
of spirit to Sybylla than she merits in this
51. The correct answer is C. “Bushcraft” is
description—she has no real desire to
an Australian term for outdoor skills, a
understand Peter’s inner life more than she
term that’s guessable from the context of
describes here. Interestingly, Miles Franklin
the passage about how he might make
sent My Brilliant Career to the “Middleton
money through hard slogging. From that
Rouseabout” poet Henry Lawson, so he
description, it seems like choices A and
wrote the preface for the book to celebrate
C are the best possibilities, and Sybylla’s
a remarkable writing achievement for a
characterization is not very complimentary.
teenager. (He worked as a roustabout for
Her tone in the whole passage is dismissive,
some years before becoming a writer.)
so choice C is the clear answer.
50. The correct answer is C. For those roman-
52. The correct answer is E. Sybylla takes
tics who detect a crush: there’s no romance
pains to say that she respected Peter, but
between Sybylla and Peter. You don’t need
her condescension seems to be getting in
to know that for this passage, but it does
the way of her seeing some of the ironies
go to show that you would be jumping
in her dismissal of him. These ironies aren’t
to conclusions if you went for option III.
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going to fully reverse the way she feels about the passage, because she has no desire to
him, but they add some complexity to her understand them more deeply, nor for them
narration. First, we can strike Option II to understand her. She is content with being
because we don’t get any indication that annoyed most of the time—it helps her feel
the elder M’Swat goes his own way: Sybylla superior. Choice E is a strong possibility, for
notes that he is obsessed with his family’s Sybylla is lonely on their farm and does fill
standing compared to others, and he tries up that space with her narration. However,
to intervene (mistakenly) to tell her she the word “conversations” is not quite the
can’t have Peter because she’s not wealthy right description of this device, for she is not
enough. Those objections do not sound like imagining dialogue or back-and-forth with
an independent spirit, so we can strike all them about their opinions or interests. She
choices with Option II: B and D. Option is imagining their dumb silence, what they
I points out that “a man by his own lights” don’t know—rather than what they might
is a colloquial phrase, and it’s not hard to say. Choice D is a better description of that
imagine Peter using it. Option III points narrative device and its purpose.
out that such a phrase describes Sybylla
54. The correct answer is B. When Sybylla
herself, although if she were adapting it for
says that she and Peter respected each other,
her own narration, she would come up with
she has a sharp tone behind it. The adverb
a longer way to say “she plays by her own
that best modifies this verb is definitely
rules.” These are reasonable complexities to
“grudgingly,” because it’s clear that she
find in Sybylla’s characterization of Peter, so
doesn’t have much respect for him. Choice
we can pick choice E. They don’t jump to
A is a slight possibility, but Sybylla rarely
conclusions; they are notes about her tone,
feels duty in this passage—it’s more apt to
not her intentions or motives. From the
say that she holds grudges.
phrasing of these options, you might note
some of the ways you can discuss these kinds 55. The correct answer is A. This question
of tensions and complexities in narrative asks you to make an inference about the
language and tone without insisting that relationship between Sybylla’s narration
you know a character’s inner motivations, and her brief dialogue with Peter. Sybylla
even in a first-person narration. Indeed, would perhaps rather be a ghost than be
Sybylla herself warns against trying to do trapped on the farm, so she spends her
that. Some of those writing strategies that time observing and trying to interact with
may be useful for the essay section include them as little as possible. You can eliminate
using phrases like “the tensions in her lan- the heavy-handed explanations like choices
guage indicate a conflict between” or “her B and C. She stays grounded when she is
description becomes complicated when we praying, “[kneeling] on the parched ground,”
notice that even though....” so choice D is not a good choice. Choice E is
a strong possibility, except that, as question
53. The correct answer is D. Sybylla’s verbose
53 asks, she is not really trying to understand
counterfactuals about what the M’Swat’s
other people. She is content to project her
cannot think are the most striking part of her
own feelings onto them, because she believes
narration, so this question is asking you to
they are boring blanks. The best answer here
infer the meaning behind this unusual device.
is choice A: that she stays on the margins,
Choices A, B, and C are not supported by
where she can project all the more easily.


Section II
Essay 1: “Lines Composed in a Concert-Room,” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

8-9 Sample Essay
In “Lines Composed in a Concert Room,” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, it is

difficult for the modern reader to ignore the word “Harlot” in the first stanza.
Coleridge’s speaker says that he “detest[s] / These scented Rooms, where to a
gaudy throng, / Heaves the proud Harlot her distended breast,” as though it
were the female singer’s “laborious song” that were distracting him. Nonsense:
he is leering at her. It is difficult to ignore this gross objectification of female
singers, especially when Coleridge’s speaker seems to build an entire argument
out of it. He prefers “the merry maids, whose ringlets toss in light” in nature, or,
best of all, his “dear Anne” a “gentle woman” who sings ballads that are simple
and evocative. He may praise Anne for her natural simplicity, but why does that
praise have to follow so much objectification of other women?
The direction of this critique is not just a 21st-century gender studies criticism
of Coleridge; rather, it is useful for thinking about how we always bring our
context with us as we experience poetry and song. Contemporary female readers
may bring their own enlightened distaste for leering to the poetry anthology;
Coleridge’s speaker brought his sexism to the concert hall. Context matters:
our environments and preferences are things we build. The thrust of the poem
seems clear, as the speaker makes a basic distinction between how he prefers
to hear music: in a natural setting as opposed to an artificial concert hall. That
opposition seems fitting for a Romantic poet. Yet his distinction is too simple,
for the speaker is blind to the ways in which he constructs both spaces: it is
not that one is artificial and the other is not, but that both are highly artificial
spaces, constructed by the poet’s eye and ear. Ironically, the best example of
that construction comes from his praise for Anne’s natural singing, as she “re-
measures / Whatever tones and melancholy pleasures / The things of Nature
utter.” Anne reconstructs Nature with her own human voice: she is making,
constructing, artificing nature.
It may even be possible to say that Anne and the speaker do similar work in
artificing nature, for the speaker could be said to “re-measure” nature with
his own rhyming lines in the poem. He creates a complex rhyme scheme that
begins ABAB, only to add in an extra ABACB CDCEFE in the following two
stanzas, adding an extra predictive rhyme in each stanza--”re-measuring” the
structure with more counter-point as he goes along. This is a poem that’s highly
attuned to creating an artificial, complex structure and context out of rhyme; it
is a celebration of artifice, even as he claims to disdain such a structured situ-
ation when he listens to music. Is there such a strong difference between music
and poetry here?
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The speaker seems to think that he is merely an observer in these listening

spaces, either as a leering, snobby critic in the concert hall where he wants to be
“released,” or an appreciative lounger when he is listening to Anne. The passage
with the Musician, a male singer of Scottish folk ballads, furthers this idea,
for he remembers the old man in the context of a constructed parenthetical
statement: “(Whom, stretching from my nurse’s arms I kissed,).” This paren-
thetical could not be more artificial as a structure inside a poem--we see the
parentheses around it but could never hear them.
He constructs these listening spaces with his eyes and ears, picking up on the
tiny details of the “long-breathed singers up-trilled strain / Bursts in a squall.”
These details aren’t noticed by the “prattl[ing]” audience members who aren’t
listening to her, so they may as well not exist until he details them in his own
rhymed context of criticism. Like a tree falling in a forest with no one around to
hear it, a singer with bad melisma doesn’t know she is bad until it is heard and
remarked upon: listening takes two people to create a context. The speaker is
not merely passive: he makes these scenes with his discerning ear.
That is why his obnoxious leering gaze matters: it is like a “male ear” form of
the “male gaze.” (The blind Musician only underscores this idea.) John Berger
says that the entire history of art is about this subject: “Men look at women.
Women watch themselves being looked at.” In this poem, men hear women
and construct the scenes for assessing them, all the while thinking that they
are merely telling it like it is. The concert hall is artificial. Natural voices are
the best. No, the male ear is constructing these scenes and then denying their
own role in that construction. There’s no way out for the female voice but to be
heard without being listened to.
One of the reasons this essay is admirable is that the author begins with something that bothered her
about the poem—the use of the word “Harlot”—and used that anger to write an interesting essay.
The essay isn’t merely a takedown of Coleridge or the speaker for being sexist, though; she doesn’t
spend it “proving” an uncontroversial point and amassing evidence for it in lines from the poem.
Instead, she lets that initial frustration motivate her to dig deeper into the question of how men listen
to women in the poem. A less sophisticated essay might just be about sexism in this poem; this essay
is about gender and the construction of a listening space. That’s a rich concept to develop in only a
short time, so the author must have been thinking about the subject in her own life of listening to
popular music. (That’s a fine way to practice thinking about gender in poetry or representations of
art: practice analyzing them in the popular culture you consume.)
The author builds the concept of the “constructed listening space” by paying close attention to lan-
guage in the poem, especially that crucial word “re-measure.” That word ends up being very useful
for the argument! Again, a less sophisticated essay might read: he uses language about measurement
in the poem and leaves it at that observation, whereas this essay takes that attention to diction and


uses it to develop her own argument and idea. The author’s idea dominates the essay, and the close-
reading scaffolds it, instead of it being mere surface observations.
The attention to rhyme is also compelling, although the author could have spent more time discussing
how that elaborate structure worked and explained it in more detail.
The detail about the Musician allows her to add in a slightly complicated example of a male singer;
without him, the essay would have felt like she was conveniently skipping over evidence that didn’t
support her claim about the objectified women. Having to account for him also lets her make an
interesting point about the constructed space of parentheses inside the nurse’s arms: a highly original
reading!
There are many insights and remarkable ideas in this essay, with a compelling line of argument to
the end with the John Berger quotation. A fitting conclusion.
5-6 Sample Essay
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “Lines Composed in a Concert Room” shows

his preference for natural beauty. He is inside a concert hall, but the audience
all around him is more concerned with socializing and being seen than listening
to the music, ruining the experience for him. In this poem, he argues that we
should listen to nature instead of to recorded music. You can even say that we
should make our own music out of nature, the way that Anne does in the last
stanza. He uses diction, rhyme scheme, and the example of Anne to make his
argument for how nature is better than fakeness.
In the concert hall, everyone is watching themselves instead of listening. The

performer is full of “Vanity” and even “Hatred,” and the audience feels the same
way. They have reason to hate her, for she is not a good singer. The speaker
quotes that it sounds like she is “burst in a squall.” The speaker also quotes,
“These feel not Music’s genuine power,” even if she was a good singer they
would still not being paying attention because the concert hall is so cramped.
Even the Priest does not listen to the music, even though he should.
In contrast, the speaker says he likes being “unheard” and “unseen” when he
is out in nature on the lake. He can remember fond times of hearing a blind
musician sing. The blind musician is not vain like the concert hall singer, so the
speaker is drawing a connection between seeing and hearing. It is best not to
be to self-conscious when you are listening or when you are singing, so that you
can enjoy the music. Everyone in the concert hall could learn that lesson better
from this poem.
The rhyme scheme in the poem seems simple at first, but it becomes more
complicated as he adds more lines to the stanzas. This shows that he can find
beauty not just in the simplicities of nature but also make something beautiful
out of simple language that becomes more complicated. He uses rhymes such
as “sneer” and “ear” in the second stanza to show how people are listening badly
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in the concert, but then he starts to show “pleasure” in the listening by rhyming
it with “measure.” This shows that he can listen better in nature (where the
pleasure takes place) but he can also make measures of lines in the form of
stanzas. The rhymes become pleasing to him, instead of obnoxious.
Finally, it is the example of Anne who shows that you can mix human song and
nature. She is the compromise between nature and human voices because she is
so unaware of herself. She does not realize the speaker is paying attention to her
in lines like “birds or trees / Or moan of ocean-gale in weedy caves, / Or where
the stiff grass mid the heath-plant waves, / Murmur and music thin of sudden
breeze” because she is literally lost in nature. There’s no description of her,
just of the nature that surrounds her. It is best when she fades into the back-
ground and it is not about her but her music. This is the opposite to the concert
hall, where they are obsessed with being seen in the audience. Here, the only
audience is the grass and birds.
The speaker starts the poem opposed to human voices, but he ends it feeling
like he has found a compromise when he can listen to Anne in nature. What’s
important is that there is no stage to perform on, but nature to be embedded in
like you are part of it. The best way to listen is not to be aware that it’s artificial,
when you internalize the rhymes and rhythms instead of being aware of them so
much.
There is a good idea here about the way that seeing and listening work together, and the author
is beginning to think about the way those ideas work in complex ways throughout the poem. The
mention of the lines about “unseen, unheard” is a good foil to the opening lines about the constant
surveillance in the concert space. It might be a good idea to start with a larger concept about the
complicated relationship between seeing and hearing, to shift the reader outside of the obvious points
of opposing art and nature, or artifice and nature.
The problem is that those obvious art vs. nature dichotomies limit the essay to being a THESIS
ANTITHESIS SYNTHESIS (or compromise, in the example of Anne) essay. The author uses the
language of “argument,” as though Coleridge were constructing an essay rather than a poem. It would
be more productive to use a phrase like: “The speaker’s perspective changes,” or “The speaker sets up
an opposition and then finds tensions in it.” Those kinds of analytical phrases would be more useful
than framing the poem as an argument. The three paragraphs don’t relate to one another—each
one seems like just an example, rather than the development of a more interesting, original theme
in considering that possible tie between seeing and hearing.
The author can continue to work on integrating quotations into his or her analysis. The author
misreads some lines about “Hatred” and “Vanity.” That problem could be addressed by trying to
quote more substantial fragments--phrases, rather than single words. Single words can be useful
for analyzing AFTER you’ve quoted a line and given context, but they have a way of losing context
when they are just single words floating around in the paragraph. The author tries to use a more


substantial quotation from the end of the poem, and that’s a good start, but there’s little analysis of
the language in those final lines of the poem, so that passage remains undigested.
The mention of “recorded music” in the opening paragraph is an odd mistake that the author could
have checked in editing, but it doesn’t really detract from the essay.
1-2 Sample Essay
This poem is about art and nature, and how you find the best kinds of art from
the natural world, not the world of people. At the same time, the poem is full
of rhymes, which are not natural. There is a contradiction between the author’s
use of rhymes and his dislike of human voices, because rhymes only happen
from human voices. It is unclear what he wants, or if there is a happy medium
between the two.
This is shown in the first paragraph about the concert hall and how bored
he is, and how bad the singer is. Her voice “bursts.” He feels suffocated. He
doesn’t want to be indoors or listening to her. He quotes, “O give me, from this
heartless scene released.” He wants to be outside in nature. This is shown by
the last paragraph where he describes “trees” and “grass” that he can listen to in
the wind. He likes the sound of nature and quotes “The things of Nature utter;
birds or trees.” Utter means that that is all he wants.
Nevertheless, nature doesn’t contain rhymes, but the poet is using rhymes to
talk about nature. What does he want: art or nature? Can he have both? That is
the question left open by this poem.
This essay is very short and superficial. The author makes an attempt at integrating quotations into
the essay and picks some good possibilities, but there is little analysis. The author’s main idea about
the absence of rhyme in nature is confusing. It almost seems contrarian to make a point like this,
because it seems to ignore the kind of contract that a poet makes with the genre: there are long
traditions of poems about nature and art that use rhyme. It’s not a contradiction to use rhyme in a
poem about the pleasures of nature.
At the same time, that tension is always underlying these poems, and I wonder if the student might
be convinced (outside of the exam structure) that paying attention to the subtleties of rhyme might
enhance their understanding of how a poet comments on his own use of artifice to order the natural
world. In this essay, that idea isn’t possible because it’s so brief, but there may be a way to turn this
contrarianism into poetic attention. Maybe!
Essay 2: “The Library Window,” Margaret Oliphant

8-9 Sample Essay
During her career as a novelist, Margaret Oliphant wrote different genres of

novels, from domestic novels about “women’s issues” to ghost stories. In her
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short story “The Library Window,” the majority of the story seems to be taken
up by a never-ending conversation among old people at a nursing home of sorts,
as they bicker about whether a window across the street is really a window. Is it
painted over? Is it a door? Is it boarded up? The narrator is visiting her elderly
aunt, who explains: “the oftener people look at it, the less they are able to say.”
This essay will interpret that conversation as a deeper inquiry on the question
of genre: how is a story constructed by its frame, then filled in with reader
interpretations? Margaret Oliphant’s career writing domestic fiction and ghost
stories will serve as a frame for the essay, for “The Library Window” seems to
take on elements of both genres, depending on how you look at it, just like the
titular window.
As the elderly people argue about whether it’s a window, a high door, a
boarded-up window, or some other architecture feature, they start to intersperse
these observations with bits of family history and events they have witnessed in
their own lives. Lady Carnbee brings her domestic squabbles into the argument:
she doesn’t mind about the window, but she is nursing resentments with Jeanie:
“Mind!... I mind when our mother was marriet, Jeanie . . . ” Another lady wants
to use the window to comment on how there are no good servants anymore: “for
these hizzies of women-servants in this ill age . . . ” They have been practicing
two kinds of observation all those years: observation of the window, and obser-
vation of each other’s domestic concerns. In these parts of the conversation, the
story feels like a drawing story of manners about the minutia of everyday life.
The window allows them to attach their attention onto an object, then to filter
their everyday concerns through that question. It must be a window of sorts,
because it is a marker of domestic life.
However, it might be more ambiguous than a simple domestic window into

everyday observation. Its middle, ambiguous position is that of screen, instead
of window. Instead of being able to look through it to see inside the Library
or other house on the street, the characters can only look at the blankness
to project their own opinions. The narrator herself projects her own feelings
of comparison: “she felt unconsciously the contrast of my youngness to their
oldness . . . ” With the narrator’s added comparison perspective, the library
window is a screen to project one’s anxieties about age, or servants and class, or
family resentments. The narrator remarks on this projection: “I was more taken
with the old ladies than with the thing they were looking at.” These old women
become a kind of architectural feature themselves: “the wall of old ladies in
their old satin gowns all glazed with age. Lady Carnbee with her lace about her
head.” The content of their conversation doesn’t matter when the window is just
a screen for projections, for the important thing is the viewer’s subjectivity.
One might say that when the window is a screen, the story becomes more
complex than just a domestic fiction; it becomes a psychological fiction that
became popular at the beginning of the twentieth century with Sigmund Freud.


There is less evidence of his psychology in this passage, but it is a possibility
worth considering.
However, it might be easier to see the psychological ambiguities by looking at it

as a genre of a ghost story, which Margaret Oliphant was a major author of. She
is mixing the components of the domestic story about marriages and servants
with the more ambiguous stories about ghosts. Ghosts can serve as markers of
psychology because they are projections. They are not solid like a screen, but
diaphanous and changing, just like the window may be, itself. In this passage,
Oliphant does not say either way whether this is a ghost story, but the elderly
people’s arguments may be interpreted as arguments about seeing the super-
natural. They call it a “dead thing” and yet they try to see if it’s still active, like
they are trying to detect a ghost. One character says: “It is just a very dead thing
without any reflection in it” but others see the reflection. The questions sound
like a ghost story: what is it? Are they seeing the same thing?
Ghost stories are fundamentally stories about interpretations and what they say
about us, as Freud says in the Interpretations of Dreams. If one could continue
reading this story, would the answer ever be revealed or would it go on forever?
What kind of genre story would it turn into after it’s a domestic fiction or a
ghost story? The reader’s own interpretations have the power to make it become
another genre, like it’s a window of text that we see through to see our own
ideas.
This is a very long, very interesting essay. The author tends to ramble a bit and the Sigmund Freud
tangent is perhaps not necessary because it gets away from the text, but it shows significant thinking
on the page.
The author sets up a compelling initial framework around the idea of the window in different
genres of fiction. It was not necessary for exam-writers to work with that brief bit of biographical
material, but this is an inspired reading. (It may be too brief for the reader’s desire to find Freud in
it.) That strong structure is a traditional five-paragraph essay, but the idea develops significantly
from paragraph to paragraph, so each idea seems to relate to the next one. The essay does not have
the sense that the author has three distinct ideas and has fit them into boxes; rather, it seems as if
the essay builds from the consideration of the domestic, then the ambiguous screen (a good middle
paragraph), and finally to the ghost story.
There are some repetitive passages and unwieldy sentences, but this author was clearly inspired by
the prompt.
5-6 Sample Essay
In Margaret Oliphant’s short story, “The Library Window,” the characters

argue about whether a window is actually a window. Not very much else
happens, which makes the reader wonder why it’s a story. The narrator is in the
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same situation of wondering why she is listening to the old people argue, so we
identify with her. When she remarks that listening to them makes her feel her
age, the point of the story becomes clear. This is a story about the fear of death,
and the conversation about the window is to stall off death for the elderly resi-
dents across the street. This idea might sound like an over-interpretation, but
there are three pieces of evidence: the black paint (pent), the “memory of man”
mentioned by one of the characters, and the length of the conversation.
The characters use the symbolism of black paint to show, but not tell, that the
window symbolizes death. They say that it has “black pent” on it. It is also high
up, which could symbolize that it is not part of the earth anymore. The sym-
bolism is ambiguous, just like the window.
The reason for this ambiguous interpretation is that it’s a lot like Waiting for
Godot or another existential play, which are all about the fear of death. The
existential questions that the characters are asking about the “memory of man”
is like what one would discuss in Godot or even Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Are Dead. This could be a play and it would be an interesting way of designing
a set, where you’d only see them looking out a curtain, but you wouldn’t see
what they’re looking at. That would show the audience that we’ll never be able
to know for certain.
This is a story about the fear of death because the old people are all afraid of
dying. The main character cares about them, especially her aunt, and does not
want them to die. So she keeps the story going to stall off death. If they keep
guessing, maybe the story will never end.
This essay runs out of steam, in part because it can’t sustain a thoughtful development with such a
strong overstated interpretation at the beginning. “The Library Window” seems to be more about
competing interpretations and the unresolvability of those questions, instead of just one idea: the fear
of death. When the author makes a one-way claim like that, there’s not much room to test related
ideas. Everything gets filtered into that particular interpretation, and the evidence for that idea seems
thin. The interpretation becomes overdetermined.
Another problem with the essay is the lack of textual evidence that might support this reading. The
fragmentary quotations don’t serve the author well. “Black paint” is hardly enough to hang this kind
of interpretation on. It may be that the author realized the lack of textual evidence that could be
quoted and analyzed and went for digressions instead.
The digressions show someone who’s interested in existential philosophy and has some kind of
reference point for comparing this story’s confusion with existential drama. It’s an unusual reading,
and perhaps outside of this exam there’s more to say by comparing the whole story with Beckett’s
writings. It’s an unlikely pairing, but who knows? The comparison doesn’t serve the author as well,
though, because it becomes a long digression about how to perform the story as a play, which
doesn’t have anything to do with what’s on this exam page. The author needs to stick to what can


be analyzed from the language on the sheet of paper, instead of imagining what it could look like
in some other imaginary context.
1-2 Sample Essay
In the short story, “The Library Window,” the characters are in a ghost story, in
which they keep seeing something outside the window, but they aren’t sure what
it is. It is a very interesting ghost story because it doesn’t seem like one. You
don’t ever see the ghost. That’s what makes it a ghost story, though. You never
know what the answer could be. It seems like this story is just one day in a lot of
years where they’re having the same conversation. They are locked in a kind of
eternal question because they can’t go outside to look at it.
The answer comes from the lady who says it’s a “delusion.” That’s the secret to
the ghost story, they have been making it all up in their heads like a collective
delusion that everyone sees the same imaginary thing. This is a story that looks
like a story about nothing, then a ghost story, and then it becomes apparent that
it is all a delusion that they will keep talking about forever.
This is a short essay without textual evidence, except for one word: “delusion.” That’s a good word
to analyze in depth, because it’s potentially interesting to showing the unresolvability of the story’s
main question. However, without more analysis from the text, these two brief paragraphs look more
like misguided summary of the story.
In the very brief item written, the author makes an interesting point that it’s a ghost story that doesn’t
seem like a ghost story. Perhaps the author was inspired to write that after reading the biographical
material in the prompt. The author might be able to pursue this kind of question in a longer essay
with more evidence.
Essay 3: Free Response

8-9 Sample Essay
The first thing for modern readers to know about Sense and Sensibility is that
in Jane Austen’s time, “sensible” means too romantic and emotional, not level-
headed and wise. Marianne is the sensible sister who seems to believe she lives
in a love poem that she may read and perform with great emotion; whereas her
sister Elinor is the rational, logical one. This contrast is too simple, however.
Instead, it is instructive to pay attention to how the two sisters re-read poems
and letters, for those reading habits are more complicated than they appear to
be. Both sisters are obsessive re-readers, for they each believe that re-reading
will somehow show them a new interpretation, or even, just slightly, shift the
situation into their favor.
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Indeed, it is in their reading habits that we can see problems in the overly
simple contrast, for Elinor is not the wholly rational reader she appears to be.
She is not a credulous reader; she is very attentive to details. Early in the novel,
we see her reading the offer of the small house carefully, where she notes the
rent and the proximity to others, and she looks it over carefully before making
her decision. She is used to dotting her i’s and crossing her t’s. She applies the
same attentiveness to her emotions, however guardedly she keeps them. She
reads and re-reads the letters to Edward Ferrars obsessively, making small infer-
ences from his shared details, which add up into her picture of the man she
loves but cannot quite approach. Nevertheless, she makes a large mistake in
interpreting that he is already spoken for; it is only a personal interaction late in
the story that solves her misinterpretation, when she cannot hide behind letters
anymore. This complication does not mean that she is a bad reader, but rather
that she over-relies on her normal, even admirable mode of re-reading carefully
with too narrow a focus that limits her vision beyond the written page. Her
strength in reading becomes her weakness: she is too careful an interpreter to
take risks as a reader.
Her sister Marianne also over-relies on her reading talents because they bring
her such pleasure and praise. She is a skilled reader of poetry because she reads
it and performs it so often, and she admires others who have similar talents. She
criticizes Edward Ferrars for how he “read with so little sensibility.” Her initial
paramour, Willoughby, on the other hand, is an “exquisite” reader, who “was
exactly formed to engage Marianne’s heart.” Marianne’s sensibility comes not
just from her habit of mirroring her reality to what she reads in a love poem,
but in the very notion that reading is a form of mirroring. To use a word that is
somewhat taboo: she wants reading to be relatable, so she makes it relate to her
life by seeing the page as a mirror that she may look at again and again as she
re-reads poems and situations through her sensibility.
There are limitations to this mode of reading, however. After Marianne and
Willoughby part, she “read nothing but what they had been used to read
together.” She wants to recreate those reading experiences that made her fall in
love with him, to freeze the past by reading. At the same time, she is a romantic,
sensible reader who feels transformed by books, so she knows that they are
dynamic. Books and poems do change as we read them; we become different
people as we grow up, read more, experience new things. Marianne and Elinor
each seem to want nothing and something to change as they read. They want
their cherished prior interpretations to remain the same, while the current situ-
ation to change through some new interpretation that will reveal itself through
another glance at the poem or letter. Wouldn’t it make as much sense for re-
reading to reveal to Marianne that Willoughby the exquisite reader was mir-
roring her not because he was “exactly formed to engage [her] heart,” but rather
as a seduction trick? He may not have completely realized it, too, as mirroring
behavior was so crucial to his exquisite reading performances.


Marianne screams as she reads Willoughby’s letter confessing that he did not
mean to hurt her. He writes that he did not mean to make her think that he
cared for her more than he did--he did not mean to be such an exquisite reader
or performer. Crucially, Austen notes that Marianne “read it again and again,”
for that is the Dashwood sisters’ reading habit. She writes multiple notes to
him to make the situation different--she is trying to re-read the situation and
re-write it so that she may not be as hurt this time around. Willoughby has
stopped mirroring her, however, so her re-reading is like looking only at herself,
and not at her exquisite partner.
What of Jane Austen’s own obsessive re-readers? It is well known that people
love to read Austen’s novels and mirror the characters, like they are Marianne.
They can use the books as models for how to fall in love with a Darcy from
Pride and Prejudice. Or perhaps they are cautious readers like Elinor, careful
readers who want the novels to remain the same artifacts whenever they pick
them up again. Whichever sister we read into, we should know that our re-
readings will always be slightly different.

This is a lovely essay that shifts expectations a bit because it focuses on Elinor’s reading habits, rather
than Marianne’s, which are more dramatic and obvious to see shift. Marianne’s habits do appear as
an instructive contrast, but it is a nuanced portrayal of both characters’ habits rather than a black-
and-white opposition of the two sisters.
The essay gets out of that oppositional approach by focusing on a shared habit: re-reading. That
concept lets the author compare and contrast scenes that one has read many times before (fittlingly
enough). The idea that one’s strengths become one’s weaknesses in re-reading is lovely and helps
cast the characters into new perspectives.
From the author’s use of brief quotations, it seems like this is a subject or a novel that she has pre-
pared for the exam, which was a wise choice. That preparation allowed for a long, nuanced analysis.
5-6 Sample Essay
In Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, the character of Marianne often gets
too involved in the love poetry she is reading. The reader can relate with her
because she loves to read, but she also needs to look up from her book some-
times and realize that people are not characters. She mistakes it for reality and
doesn’t realize that people act different in books than they do in real life. She
is an example of sensibility, she was a too romantic and emotional. The love
poems distract her from the sense she needs to make good choices. She falls in
love with the wrong person and doesn’t see the right person. She needs to learn
the lesson to be a better reader so she can progress as a character. This lesson
is seen in her abilities, the comparison with her sister, and the changes in her
behavior and choices.
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Marianne is admired for her ability to sing, play piano, and recite poetry. These
abilities come from her creativity and emotions. She is good at making other
people feel the emotions that are overflowing from her, she is a performer. Wil-
loughby is similar at being able to perform for people; Marianne falls in love
with him because he can recite poetry with emotion, too. He is a complex char-
acter because he is too good at making people believe his performances, he has
seduced others with his behavior, which Marianne finds out too late. Performers
have a gift for making other people feel emotions. Sensibility is a problem when
they feel too much without thinking. Therefore Marianne needs to be better
at reading people who are good at reading poetry, that’s a complicated way of
saying she needs to not believe performances and start understanding human
nature.
Marianne needs to be more like her sister, who is the character with sense from
the title. Her sister needs to pretend more that she is in one of Marianne’s love
poems and stop being so hesitant. They both need to become better readers.
Her sister is right to be distrustful of Willoughby for being a seducer, but she
is also not trusting enough of other people and keeps them at a distance, they
are opposites in this way. If Marianne is always performing, her sister Elinor is
always hiding behind her common sense. Hiding is a form of reading, and you
can see that in the role of the other sister Margaret, who surprises people in the
map room where she is hiding and reading a book of maps at the same time.
Margaret is like the blend of the two sister because she can talk to people and
show off, but she still likes to read for learning and sense, like Elinor. She is the
happy medium.
Marianne needs to change, and she does so by becoming a better reader of

people. She sees through Willoughby’s performances and starts to look beyond
her first reactions to Colonel Brandon. It’s like Willoughby is an actor, but
Brandon is a book you can’t judge it by its cover or the first chapter, you have to
keep reading it to understand it. There is more to him than meets the eye.
This is a book about people becoming better readers, so it makes sense that Jane
Austen was trying to show people how to become better readers themselves.
She wants people to read the novel and see these characters for their flaws and
their positives, and how they resolve them into becoming better readers of
human nature. Therefore, reading is not just for books, it can also be for reading
people.
The writer often seems to be writing toward interesting ideas, which is understandable in a timed
essay. The idea of reading books and reading people would be a good way organize the whole essay,
and the writer even seems to realize that strength because it shows up in the conclusion. It’s under-
developed, however, because the idea is used only to judge Marianne and Elinor, rather than to show
the different ways it manifests in the novel.


The essay is limited by the artificiality of the five-paragraph structure and the notion that there
needs to be a lesson or a judgment of the characters—a “should” for Marianne. The essay confines
Marianne’s behavior, the comparison with Elinor (and Margaret), and Marianne’s changes to one
paragraph each, making it difficult to show the interrelationships between the characters, or how
each character changes.
It’s also a concern that the author is getting some ideas from the movie version of the novel, because
the anecdote about Margaret’s hiding and reading the atlas is, to my knowledge, not in the novel.
Because the author is clearly interested in the film adaptations, she might be able to work in a small
mention into an expandable, refocused essay around her clearest idea. That essay might be structured
as follows:
1. Introduction: Reading books is like reading people.
2. Marianne is good at reading poetry and people and responding to them engagingly.
3. Willoughby is very good at reading poetry and people, yet he is all performance without
reciprocation, and this is where Marianne runs into a conflict because she sees only the
performance part at first. This paragraph would build on the previous only, rather than
being a totally different idea.
4. Contrast Marianne with Elinor, who is more guarded about reciprocation.
5. The idea has developed into the concept of being a reciprocal reader who can be a flexible,
adaptable, even skeptical (for Marianne) reader of people and books.
6. Show how the idea of reciprocity relates to our readings of Austen’s novels as they’re
adapted, reciprocally, by filmmakers, other novelists. Champion the role of adaptation as
transformation while staying grounded, just like Marianne and Elinor have to adapt their
expectations while staying grounded.
1-2 Sample Essay
People love to read books by Jane Austen and imagine that they are the char-
acters. They learn about the characters by pretending they are being them as
they are reading about them. However, reading Sense and Sensibility by Jane
Austen today is different from the past because the characters aren’t relatable
anymore. The two sisters Ella and Mary are the title characters. They each
represent a different emotion, so someone is supposed to identify with Ella
or Mary as their favorite when they are reading. They love to read letters and
books, but we don’t read the same books anymore, so it’s hard for us to under-
stand what they enjoy. From the general reader’s point of view, the book is hard
to understand because it’s like people telling about their favorite book or movie,
but others don’t have the same experiences to compare to or relate to. Books
about the pleasure of reading are supposed to be universal because you can read
the book the same way a character does, but Sense and Sensibility is not suc-
cessful in conveying a universal reading experience. It is not universal because
the characters read letters and we don’t, the characters read books that we don’t
know about anymore, and they use diction that is outdated, so it is hard to
identify with them.
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The characters send letters to each other. They wait for each other’s letters and
it’s like waiting for people to write back today, except it’s a shorter period of
time. It is similar, but hard to relate to waiting so long. The book is not told in
letters like some other books from then, but the whole book is based on this
waiting period that we don’t experience anymore. Therefore the reading expe-
rience is unlike ours, which makes it hard to relate to the characters.
They also read poems and books that we don’t read anymore, so it is hard to
understand what they are reading. For instance, Maria reads love poetry, but
the diction in those poems is hard to understand so we would not have the
same sense of falling in love with it. Maria relates to these poems, but times
have changed and they do not have the same importance anymore. This makes
it hard to relate to her. It is almost ironic that she relates to what she reads by
believing she’s in a love poem, but we don’t understand what she’s relating to,
so she is unrelatable. Jane Austen is an author that everyone wants to read, but
they don’t really read her--they just identify with the characters that they see
elsewhere. It is ironic that a book about reading isn’t really read, just liked in
a shallow way. If they had to read it, they might not actually identify with the
characters because they seem so far away.
The writer’s carelessness in not referencing the characters by the correct name further illustrates the
writer doesn’t want to write about Sense and Sensibility and would have more success with a different
book. Use the essay to write about a book you feel prepared to write about because you have a lot
to say—not one that you didn’t understand or like. It’s hard to explore the nuances in a negative
because you keep looking for evidence to prove your dislike: everything becomes evidence of
unrelatability or lack of “success.” At the same time, there’s no specific scenes or moments to
be analyzed and so the writer gets stuck generalizing to prove the dislike, rather than analyzing
moments where there may be “relatability” to be found. This mode might be better suited to a
polemical review, rather than a timed essay in a literature exam—even then it’s a superficial reading
of the book.
On the question of relatability, that word shows up frequently in this essay—repetitively, nearly
compulsively—yet it’s not clear what it means to the author. The author is using it as though it were
obvious what relatability means to a “general reader,” but if the author’s point is that reading is sub-
jective, then it doesn’t make sense to use a blanket term like “relatable” without some explanation.
It becomes a crutch, an overused term for the author, and it limits the specificity of the analysis.
(That and the lack of specific examples from the novel.)

Practice Test 3
Chapter 7
297
answer sheet
PRACTICE TEST ANSWER SHEET
1. 15. 29. 43.
2. 16. 30. 44.
3. 17. 31. 45.
4. 18. 32. 46.
5. 19. 33. 47.
6. 20. 34. 48.
7. 21. 35. 49.
8. 22. 36. 50.
9. 23. 37. 51.
10. 24. 38. 52.
11. 25. 39. 53.
12. 26. 40. 54.
13. 27. 41. 55.
14. 28. 42.
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answer sheet
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PRACTICE TEST 3
practice test
Questions 1–11. Read the following poem carefully before you decide on the answers to the
questions.
“Delight in Disorder,” by Robert Herrick
A sweet disorder in the dress

Kindles in clothes a wantonness;
A lawn about the shoulders thrown
Line Into a fine distraction;
5 An erring lace, which here and there
Enthrals the crimson stomacher;
A cuff neglectful, and thereby
Ribbons to flow confusedly;
A winning wave, deserving note,
10 In the tempestuous petticoat;
A careless shoe-string, in whose tie
I see a wild civility;--
Do more bewitch me, than when art
Is too precise in every part.
1. How is the word “kindles” being used in 2. “Erring” pairs with “here and there” in line
line 2? 5 to produce
A. Judgmentally, to mean that he’s A. alliteration.
beginning to get annoyed B. antithesis.
B. Figuratively, to mean that it sparks C. false rhymes.
interest
D. internal rhymes.
C. Anxiously, to mean that he wants to
help E. repetition.
D. Carelessly, to mean that he is messy

E. Sympathetically, to mean that he
won’t judge
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3. “A cuff neglectful” (line 7), “a tempestuous 7. The poem proceeds in rhymed couplets,
petticoat” (line 10) and “a careless shoe- but the rhymes in lines 3-4 (“thrown”/ “dis-
string” (line 11) are examples of what traction”), 5-6 (“there”/“stomacher”), 11-12
rhetorical device? (“tie”/“civility”) pair a monosyllable with a
A. Synecdoche polysyllable to produce slant rhymes. What
B. Simile is the effect of these pairings?
C. Hyperbole I. They signal his criticism of the
couplet form as a limiting form for
D. Antithesis poetry.
E. Ellipsis II. They show his inattention to detail,
similar to his lover’s own fashion
4. “Careless shoe-string” (line 11) is an example
mishaps.
of what poetic device?
III. They produce harmony in mistakes.
A. Alliteration
A. I only
B. Assonance
B. II only
C. Jargon
C. III only
D. Epithet
D. I and III
E. Consonance
E. II and III
5. “Enthrals” (line 6) has a double meaning in
the poem. It means that the bodice’s strings 8. The speaker’s tone is best described as
A. get tangled in her dress and trip her A. playful, yet controlled.
lover. B. loving, yet judgmental.
B. barely fasten her dress and charm her C. chaotic, yet appreciative.
lover. D. silly, yet sarcastic.
C. decorate her dress and please her E. noncommittal, yet self-conscious.
lover.
D. clash with her dress and annoy her 9. The oxymoron in the title of the poem does
lover. all of the following EXCEPT
E. cover her dress and mystify her lover. A. match the similar device in the
phrase “wild civility.”
6. All of the following statements about the B. show off the same poetic ostenta-
couplets in the middle of the poem are true tiousness as his lover’s dress.
EXCEPT C. lend the poem a firm underlying
A. they are examples of inverted diction. structure of repetitive contradiction.
B. taken together, they are examples of D. reveal the speaker’s unacknowledged
parallel structure. ambivalence.
C. they are deceptively disordered E. use alliteration to unify the seeming
because they form a set of similarities. paradox.
D. the sense of the descriptions runs
over from line to line like the lover’s
shawl
E. they are in iambic pentameter appro-
priate for a sonnet

practice test
10. The speaker is comparing fashion to art 11. What do you infer is his lover’s opinion
because about her disordered dress?
A. the contrast between the two shows A. She is ashamed of her inferior
that fashion is frivolous compared to clothing.
great sculptures and paintings. B. She and her partner play out a
B. he is showing the similarities between mutual flirtation.
his lover and a figure in a painting. C. She is unaware that he is looking at
C. neither fashion nor art can compare her so closely.
to the beautiful imperfections of D. She is pushing back at his criticisms
nature. and insisting on her independent
D. he is complicating the idea that the style.
eye always prefers symmetry and E. She is an artist who cares more for
order in appearance. her work than her appearance.
E. he is writing a critique of the objecti-
fication of women and wants them to
be able to dress how they wish.
questions.
From Shadowings, by Lafcadio Hearn
The characteristics of many kinds of palm have been made familiar by pictures
and photographs. But the giant palms of the American tropics cannot be ade-
quately represented by the modern methods of pictorial illustration: they must
Line be seen. You cannot draw or photograph a palm two hundred feet high.
5 The first sight of a group of such forms, in their natural environment of tropical
forest, is a magnificent surprise,—a surprise that strikes you dumb. Nothing
seen in temperate zones,—not even the huger growths of the Californian
slope,—could have prepared your imagination for the weird solemnity of that
mighty colonnade. Each stone-grey trunk is a perfect pillar,—but a pillar of
10 which the stupendous grace has no counterpart in the works of man. You must
strain your head well back to follow the soaring of the prodigious column, up,
up, up through abysses of green twilight, till at last—far beyond a break in that
infinite interweaving of limbs and lianas which is the roof of the forest—you
catch one dizzy glimpse of the capital: a parasol of emerald feathers outspread
15 in a sky so blinding as to suggest the notion of azure electricity.
Now what is the emotion that such a vision excites,—an emotion too powerful
to be called wonder, too weird to be called delight? Only when the first shock
of it has passed,—when the several elements that were combined in it have
begun to set in motion widely different groups of ideas,—can you comprehend
20 how very complex it must have been. Many impressions belonging to personal
experience were doubtless revived in it, but also with them a multitude of sensa-
tions more shadowy,—accumulations of organic memory; possibly even vague
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feelings older than man,—for the tropical shapes that aroused the emotion have
a history more ancient than our race.
25 One of the first elements of the emotion to become clearly distinguishable is

the æsthetic; and this, in its general mass, might be termed the sense of ter-
rible beauty. Certainly the spectacle of that unfamiliar life,—silent, tremendous,
springing to the sun in colossal aspiration, striving for light against Titans,
and heedless of man in the gloom beneath as of a groping beetle,—thrills like
30 the rhythm of some single marvellous verse that is learned in a glance and
remembered forever. Yet the delight, even at its vividest, is shadowed by a queer
disquiet. ... You stare at the towering lines of the shape,—vaguely fearing to
discern some sign of stealthy movement, some beginning of undulation. Then
sight and reason combine to correct the suspicion. Yes, motion is there, and life
35 enormous—but a life seeking only sun,—life, rushing like the jet of a geyser,
straight to the giant day.
During my own experience I could perceive that certain feelings commingled

in the wave of delight,—feelings related to ideas of power and splendor and
triumph,—were accompanied by a faint sense of religious awe. Perhaps our
40 modern æsthetic sentiments are so interwoven with various inherited elements
of religious emotionalism that the recognition of beauty cannot arise indepen-
dently of reverential feeling. Be this as it may, such a feeling defined itself while
I gazed;—and at once the great grey trunks were changed to the pillars of a
mighty aisle; and from altitudes of dream there suddenly descended upon me
45 the old dark thrill of Gothic horror.
12. The use of the second-person address “you” 13. What is the effect of directing the reader’s
A. familiarizes the scene for the reader vision “up, up, up through abysses of green
by making it appeal to a general twilight” (lines 11-12)?
perspective. I. It amplifies the sense of enormous
B. judges the reader for trying to take a scale of the trees compared to the
photograph of the trees, despite his human viewer.
admonition. II. It enhances the sense of disorien-
C. immerses the reader in an alien envi- tation because you normally look
ronment with no warning or guide. down into an abyss.
D. gives the reader a bird’s-eye view of III. It exposes how the narrator is
the scene. tricking the reader with unreliable
E. recounts a dream in which the writer narration.
wasn’t sure who or where he was. A. I only
B. II only
C. III only
D. I and II
E. I, II, and III

practice test
14. In the second paragraph, what does the word 19. What does the repetition of the word “weird”
“capital” (line 14) refer to, specifically? in the phrases “weird solemnity” (line 8) and
A. A large city gleaming in the distance “too weird to be called delight” (line 17) help
B. The green fronds (leaves) at the top the author convey?
of the tree A. His confusion about if what he is
C. A bird that’s sitting at the top of a seeing is real or an illusion
tree B. His sense of the sublime, of feelings
D. The money that palm growers use to that exceed the limitations of
build the plantation language
E. The height of the writer’s C. His paranoia about the spirits he
imagination senses around him but cannot see
D. His annoyance at how others have
15. What is the extended metaphor of col- described the trees inaccurately
onnades and other nouns in the second E. The insufficiency of words to convey
paragraph? their majesty the way an image could
A. Natural do
B. Spiritual
20. What is the source of the “shock” he men-
C. Supernatural tions in line 17?
D. Architectural A. The “azure electricity” he mentioned
E. Military earlier
B. The spooky trees that seem to be still
16. In the phrase “that were combined in it,” but are moving slightly
(line 18) what does “it” refer to?
C. The terror at being left alone
A. Shock
D. The nausea that has overtaken him
B. Vision
E. The emotional realization of the
C. Emotion complicated network of nature
D. Delight
21. What sensory effect does “undulation” bring
E. Complexity
to the description?
17. “Terrible beauty” is an example of what A. Immense growth
literary device? B. Slight swaying
A. Oxymoron C. Shimmering light
B. Synesthesia D. Overwhelming scent
C. Synecdoche E. Swirling mist
D. Fallacy
E. Cacophony
18. What is the best description of the effect of

all of the dashes and interruptions in this
description?
A. Fear
B. Distraction
C. Drowsiness
D. Ineffability
E. Delusion
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22. “Queer disquiet” (lines 31-32) is an example 25. What is “a life seeking only sun” (line 35)?
of what poetic device, and what does it help A. The human desire for joy
the author establish? B. The writer’s quest for illuminating
A. Synesthesia that shows his confusion knowledge
of sight and sound C. A personification of the tree’s photo-
B. Assonance that gives a sense of the synthesis process
strange mix of sound and silence D. An unusual ghostly form that lives in
around him the sun, not the shadows
C. Psychological jargon that shows his E. The spiritual revelation the author
grandiosity and his losing touch with seeks
reality
D. Consonance that crystallizes a 26. The word “perhaps” in the phrase “[p]erhaps
moment of revelation our modern æsthetic sentiments are so
E. Alliteration that gives a sense of his interwoven” (lines 39-40) helps the author
declamatory tone A. express his sense of uncertainty and
dislocation in the jungle.
23. The line about “heedless of man in the
B. propose a theory for his nearly
gloom beneath as of a groping beetle” (line spiritual sense of wonder.
29) helps the writer express his
C. suggest a course of action to find a
A. sadness about the eventual extinction way out.
of the trees.
D. reveal to readers that he has been hal-
B. anger at humans for cutting down the lucinating all along.
trees without appreciating them.
E. sum up his description of the scene’s
C. awe at how insignificant humans are beauty.
compared to the gigantic, ancient
trees. 27. With the phrase “Gothic horror” in the final
D. disgust at the oppressive nature that’s sentence, the author
overwhelming him. I. concludes his extended architectural
E. deep, abiding love for all creatures, metaphor: the tree canopy is like the
even the seemingly insignificant. arched ceiling of a Gothic cathedral.
II. follows through with the foreshad-
24. What does “aspiration” (line 28) refer to? owing about the ancient spirits that
A. The writer’s dreams of success seem to be lurking in the forest, as
B. The tremendous height of the trees they finally become visible to him
and the reader.
C. The personification of the trees
III. reveals he has been deeply absorbed
D. The movement of the leaves in the
in reading a scary story and has pro-
breeze
jected his fears onto the scene.
E. The writer’s palpable sense of longing
A. I only
B. II only
C. III only
D. I and II
E. I and III

practice test
Questions 28–42. Read the following poem carefully before you decide on your answers to the
questions.
“On Recollection,” by Phillis Wheatley
MNEME1 begin. Inspire, ye sacred nine,

Your vent’rous Afric in her great design.
Mneme, immortal pow’r, I trace thy spring:
Line Assist my strains, while I thy glories sing:
5 The acts of long departed years, by thee
Recover’d, in due order rang’d we see:
Thy pow’r the long-forgotten calls from night,
That sweetly plays before the fancy’s sight.
Mneme in our nocturnal visions pours
10 The ample treasure of her secret stores;
Swift from above the wings her silent flight
Through Phoebe’s realms2, fair regent of the night;
And, in her pomp of images display’d,
To the high-raptur’d poet gives her aid,
15 Through the unbounded regions of the mind,
Diffusing light celestial and refin’d.
The heav’nly phantom paints the actions done
By ev’ry tribe beneath the rolling sun.
Mneme, enthron’d within the human breast,
20 Has vice condemn’d, and ev’ry virtue blest.
How sweet the sound when we her plaudit hear?
Sweeter than music to the ravish’d ear,
Sweeter than Maro’s entertaining strains
Resounding through the groves, and hills, and plains.
25 But how is Mneme dreaded by the race,
Who scorn her warnings and despise her grace?
By her unveil’d each horrid crime appears,
Her awful hand a cup of wormwood bears.
Days, years mispent, O what a hell of woe!
30 Hers the worst tortures that our souls can know.
Now eighteen years their destin’d course have run,
In fast succession round the central sun.
How did the follies of that period pass
Unnotic’d, but behold them writ in brass!
35 In Recollection see them fresh return,
And sure ‘tis mine to be asham’d, and mourn.
O Virtue, smiling in immortal green,
Do thou exert thy pow’r, and change the scene;
1 The Muse of Memory

2 Phoebe is associated with the moon
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Be thine employ to guide my future days,

40 And mine to pay the tribute of my praise.
Of Recollection such the pow’r enthron’d
In ev’ry breast, and thus her pow’r is own’d.
The wretch, who dar’d the vengeance of the skies,
At last awakes in horror and surprise,
45 By her alarm’d, he sees impending fate,
He howls in anguish, and repents too late.
But O! what peace, what joys are hers t’ impart
To ev’ry holy, ev’ry upright heart!
Thrice blest the man, who, in her sacred shrine,
50 Feels himself shelter’d from the wrath divine!
28. The first two words “Mneme begin” are an 31. In lines 9-16, the poet is
example of what poetic convention? A. singing.
A. Invocation B. crying.
B. Fragmentation C. flying.
C. Inscription D. dreaming.
D. Antithesis E. writing.
E. Authority
32. In context, what is a “pomp of images” (line
29. In context, what does “spring” mean in line 13) that Phoebe displays?
3? A. A vivid spectacle
A. Season B. A carefully edited scene
B. Leap C. A deliberately deceptive vision
C. Source D. A foreboding shadow
D. Surprise E. A pleasing medley
E. Song
30. The repetition of “I” rhymes like nine,

design, night, flight, and sight in the first six
couplets serves all of the following purposes
EXCEPT
A. it employs traditional imagery of
inspiration by the muses to write
poetry.
B. the I/eye homophone emphasizes
personal vision.
C. it gives the poem a traditional rhyme
and metrical structure.
D. the light of inspiration is enhanced
through its conspicuous absence.
E. the repetition of night in lines 7 and
12 shows the poet exhausted for
inspiration.

practice test
33. Phillis Wheatley was taken from West Africa 35. The rhyme “appears/bears” in lines 27-28
as a slave when she was a child. How does is the only slant rhyme in a poem full of
she shift the meaning of Mneme as a muse couplets. The slant rhyme does all of the
in line 25? following EXCEPT
A. She is no longer solely a classical A. signal disorientation from Mneme’s
source of poetic inspiration but “cup of wormwood.”
now a figure who brings traumatic B. introduce another competing muse of
memories. history and resistance.
B. She adjudicates the clash between C. expose a fissure in the relationship
Wheatley and older British poets between poet and muse.
who have written in the mode of
invocation before. D. show her resisting the orderly power
of the muse.
C. She cannot be a poetic source of
inspiration because the memories she E. show her growing into her own
brings are traumatic ones. poetic authority to be creative.
D. She and Phoebe depart Wheatley’s 36. How would you characterize the relationship
vision abruptly when the scene between Mneme and the speaker in lines
becomes traumatic.
25-36?
E. Wheatley must claim her own poetic A. At a standoff
voice separate from Mneme.
B. In productive tension
34. How is the shift in line 25 reflected in her C. Mutually beneficial
style? D. Familiar
A. Her use of iambs shows the back-
E. Maternal
and-forth pattern of her struggle with
Mneme for authority. 37. In line 35, what does “them” refer to?
B. Her use of use of formal language A. Poetic authorities
shows her deference to classical
B. Poetic abilities
authority.
C. Traumatic historical events
C. Her use of variable pentameter
reflects her ambivalence about the D. Acts of resistance
classical form. E. Disagreements
D. Her use of free verse reflects her
insistence on finding her own voice.
E. Her use of iambic pentameter reflects
her joining her own voice to classical
forms.
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38. Wheatley’s description of memories “writ in 40. What kind of realization does Wheatley
brass” (line 34) refers to the slave bracelets call for at the end of the poem?
used to trade slaves. Why does she connect A. Political revolution
these two forms of writing: the contract and B. Spiritual awakening
the poem? C. Collective activism
I. Written as poetry, the memories
D. Poetic rejection of old forms
themselves may induce the same
trauma as the inscribed bracelets. E. Individual self-reflection
II. The slave bracelets serve as a marker 41. The shift in emphasis in lines 43-50 signals
of collective memory, as a form of
I. a poet’s act of creative resistance
historical objects, and her writing is
is not just personal, but part of a
another form of record.
spiritual movement.
III. Writing is not a neutral activity, for
II. the means by which one learns from
the same power of inscription that a
history by synthesizing memory and
poet claims is also used to claim the
spiritual grace.
authority to mark someone for sale.
III. the rejection of classical models of
A. I only
memory for religious authority.
B. II only
A. I only
C. III only
B. II only
D. I and III
C. III only
E. I, II, and III
D. I and II
39. The repetition of the word “enthron’d” in E. I and III
lines 19 and 41 serves to emphasize all of
42. Who is likely the intended audience for this
the following ideas EXCEPT
poem?
A. memory has protected the poet from
trauma. I. Readers who know the classical con-
ventions of poetry and mythology
B. memory is not just external to the
poet as a Muse, it is within herself. II. Political activists who want anti-
slave-trade anthems to sing in the
C. the power of Memory is made streets
stronger by combining with the force
of spiritual Virtue. III. Readers of religious poetry who are
opposed to the slave trade
D. recollection is a public act for
everyone to contend with history. A. I only
E. spiritual authority is important for B. II only
leading a moral, ethical life. C. III only
D. I and II
E. I and III

practice test
questions.
Villette, by Charlotte Brontë. The narrator, Lucy Snowe, is on board a ship traveling from England
to Belgium, where she meets Ginevra Fanshawe, a young woman who lives in the village of Villette
in Belgium.
“Do you like Villette?” I asked.3
“Pretty well. The natives, you know, are intensely stupid and vulgar; but there
are some nice English families.”
Line “Are you in a school?”
5 “Yes.”
“A good one?”
“Oh, no! horrid: but I go out every Sunday, and care nothing about the maî-
tresses or the professeurs, or the élèves, and send lessons au diable (one daren’t say
that in English, you know, but it sounds quite right in French); and thus I get
10 on charmingly . . . . You are laughing at me again?”
“No—I am only smiling at my own thoughts.”
“What are they?” (Without waiting for an answer)—“Now, do tell me where

you are going.”
“Where Fate may lead me. My business is to earn a living where I can find it.”
15 “To earn!” (in consternation) “are you poor, then?”
“As poor as Job.”
(After a pause)— “Bah! how unpleasant! But I know what it is to be poor: they
are poor enough at home—papa and mamma, and all of them. Papa is called
Captain Fanshawe; he is an officer on half-pay, but well-descended, and some
20 of our connections are great enough; but my uncle and godpapa De Bassom-
pierre, who lives in France, is the only one that helps us: he educates us girls. I
have five sisters and three brothers. By-and-by we are to marry—rather elderly
gentlemen, I suppose, with cash: papa and mamma manage that. My sister
Augusta is married now to a man much older-looking than papa. Augusta is
25 very beautiful—not in my style—but dark; her husband, Mr. Davies, had the
yellow fever in India, and he is still the colour of a guinea; but then he is rich,
and Augusta has her carriage and establishment, and we all think she has done
3
Villette is the Belgian village where the second half of the novel is set, modeled in part on Brussels.
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perfectly well. Now, this is better than ‘earning a living,’ as you say. By the way,
are you clever?”
30 “No—not at all.”
“You can play, sing, speak three or four languages?”
“By no means.”
“Still I think you are clever” (a pause and a yawn).
“Shall you be sea-sick?”
35 “Shall you?”
“Oh, immensely! as soon as ever we get in sight of the sea: I begin, indeed, to
feel it already. I shall go below; and won’t I order about that fat odious stew-
ardess! Heureusement je sais faire aller mon monde.4”
Down she went.
40 It was not long before the other passengers followed her: throughout the
afternoon I remained on deck alone. When I recall the tranquil, and even
happy mood in which I passed those hours, and remember, at the same time,
the position in which I was placed; its hazardous—some would have said its
hopeless—character; I feel that, as—
45 Stone walls do not a prison make,

Nor iron bars—a cage,
so peril, loneliness, an uncertain future, are not oppressive evils, so long as the
frame is healthy and the faculties are employed; so long, especially, as Liberty
lends us her wings, and Hope guides us by her star.
50 I was not sick till long after we passed Margate, and deep was the pleasure
I drank in with the sea-breeze; divine the delight I drew from the heaving
Channel waves, from the sea-birds on their ridges, from the white sails on
their dark distance, from the quiet yet beclouded sky, overhanging all. In my
reverie, methought I saw the continent of Europe, like a wide dream-land, far
55 away. Sunshine lay on it, making the long coast one line of gold; tiniest tracery
of clustered town and snow-gleaming tower, of woods deep massed, of heights
serrated, of smooth pasturage and veiny stream, embossed the metal-bright
prospect. For background, spread a sky, solemn and dark blue, and—grand with
imperial promise, soft with tints of enchantment—strode from north to south a
60 God-bent bow, an arch of hope.
4 “Fortunately, I know how to get my own way.”

practice test
Cancel the whole of that, if you please, reader—or rather let it stand, and draw
thence a moral—an alliterative, text-hand copy—
Day-dreams are delusions of the demon.
Becoming excessively sick, I faltered down into the cabin.
43. Which adjectives best describe Lucy’s part 46. What are some inferences to draw from
in the opening dialogue? Ginevra’s cutting remarks about the
A. Witty and urbane inhabitants of Villette, the appearance and
B. Confessional and intimate ethnicity of her family members, and the
C. Tense and guarded appearance and behavior of other people
onboard the ship?
D. Pompous and judgmental
I. Ginevra is a stand-in for the author,
E. Sentimental and self-pitying who casts a satirical eye on society
around her.
44. The dialogue between Lucy and Ginevra
Fanshawe on the ship reveals all of the fol- II. With her relentless external judg-
ments, she serves as a foil to the more
lowing EXCEPT
inward-focused Lucy.
A. Ginevra’s tendency to talk without
thinking. III. Many characters in the novel, not
just Lucy, lack agency to live the lives
B. Lucy’s tendency to think more than they want to live.
she talks.
A. I
C. Lucy’s idealism.
B. II
D. Ginevra’s sense of entitlement.
C. I and III
E. Lucy’s reason for leaving home.
D. II and III
45. How would you characterize Lucy’s reaction E. I, II, and III
to Ginevra’s long story about her family in
lines 17-29 [(After a pause)—”Bah! how 47. Ginevra’s use of French phrases reveals her
unpleasant!......are you clever?”]? A. disdain for the English language.
A. Confusion at the digressions and B. attempts to be fashionable.
numerous details C. intellectual aspirations.
B. Empathy for her suffering D. attempt to shame Lucy.
C. Reflection on her own precarious E. moodiness.
situation
D. Annoyance at the girl’s prattling 48. What is the best way to describe Lucy’s tone
in the lines that begin “When I recall the
E. Gratitude for Ginevra’s advice to be
hopeful tranquil, and even happy mood . . . ” (lines
41-42)?
A. Euphemistic
B. Epigrammatic
C. Polemical
D. Moral
E. Circuitous
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49. The two lines of verse she quotes further 53. The seasickness serves all of the following
emphasize her interior monologue’s thematic purposes EXCEPT
A. precision. A. it reverses the direction of her vision
B. lyricism. from upward to downward.
C. misery. B. it grounds her generalized vision in
her own embodied experience.
D. haughtiness.
C. it reminds her of the reality of the
E. persuasiveness. world around her.
D. it punishes her for being too hopeful.
50. The exalted diction in Lucy’s interior E. it adds an edge to her rich sensory
monologue reveals her description.
A. embellishing of her prospects.
54. The direction to “cancel . . . ” (lines 61-64)
B. religious vision.
asks the readers to
C. willful ignorance of Ginevra’s
A. stop reading the novel and look to a
warning.
religious text instead.
D. fear for the future.
B. reconsider their opinion of Ginevra.
E. ambition to be rich.
C. follow the advice of the author.
51. Why does Lucy use the passive voice in her D. reconcile the beauty of her
vision of how “the faculties are employed” description with a contradiction.
(line 48)? E. reject novels for the alliterative beauty
A. She is giving advice that readers may of poetry.
follow themselves.
55. Lucy’s direct address to the reader serves
B. She is recalling from a story about
what purposes?
someone else’s experiences.
I. It shows the unreliability of her nar-
C. She can imagine her future only in ration because she is liable to make
idealized terms, without herself at the changes.
center.
II. It extends the metaphor of her vision
D. She herself lacks the “faculties” to into the related realm of annotation.
follow through on these plans.
III. It gives her some subjectivity, which
E. She wants to sound more objective by she immediately contests as she tries
removing her subjective perspective to fade away.
from the experience.
A. I only
52. What kind of extended metaphor is Lucy B. III only
building in her description of the gold and C. I and III
blue vision?
D. II and III
A. Maritime
E. I, II, and III
B. Archaeological
C. Ornamentation
D. Astronomical
E. Sculpting

practice test
Time: 2 hours
your essay without struggle over legibility.
choose one of them.
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ESSAY QUESTION 1
James Weldon Johnson was a poet, novelist, lawyer, diplomat, and civic leader in the National Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). His poem “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” was
promoted as the “Negro National Anthem.” The most well-known of his novels, The Autobiography
of an Ex-Colored Man, was first published anonymously in 1912.
Read the following poem closely and write a well-organized essay in which you discuss how Johnson
characterizes conflicts among different forms of authority in this poem. Those entities vying for
authority may include: nature, science, religious authority, the poet himself. How does Johnson
animate these conflicts? What are the terms they argue about? Are the conflicts resolved—or exac-
erbated—by the end of the poem?
“The Word of an Engineer,” by James Weldon Johnson
“She’s built of steel

From deck to keel,
And bolted strong and tight;
Line In scorn she’ll sail
5 The fiercest gale,
And pierce the darkest night.
“The builder’s art

Has proved each part
Throughout her breadth and length;
10 Deep in the hulk,
Of her mighty bulk,
Ten thousand Titans’ strength.”
The tempest howls,

The Ice Wolf prowls,
15 The winds they shift and veer,
But calm I sleep,
And faith I keep
In the word of an engineer.
Along the trail

20 Of the slender rail
The train, like a nightmare, flies
And dashes on
Through the black-mouthed yawn
Where the cavernous tunnel lies.
25 Over the ridge,

Across the bridge,
Swung twixt the sky and hell,

practice test
On an iron thread
Spun from the head
30 Of the man in a draughtsman’s cell.
And so we ride
Over land and tide,
Without a thought of fear—
Man never had
35 The faith in God
That he has in an engineer!
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ESSAY QUESTION 2
Vernon Lee was the pen name of Violet Paget, an essayist and short story writer in Victorian
England. “Against Thinking,” Lee’s essay excerpted here, is one of her nonfiction essays, yet she uses
many of the same writing techniques that you might find in a novel or a play. After you read her
work carefully, write your own essay about how Lee incorporates elements of fiction, poetry, and/or
drama into her nonfiction essayistic style. Be specific about which imaginative literary elements you
see, by using quotations from her essay paired with specific illustrations of how those features pair
with literature or drama. Why does she incorporate these literary techniques into an essay about the
trouble of communicating ideas to other people?
Your task is to analyze her style and argue for the function of her most distinctive features, so you
may want to consider her use of allusions, diction, style, and personification. You may choose other
stylistic features that jump out at you, as well. Be sure to also give an example of a literary work
that uses similar devices, so that you can illustrate how Lee adapts those devices for her own uses.
“Against Thinking,” by Vernon Lee
As towards most other things of which we have but little personal experience
(foreigners, or socialists, or aristocrats, as the case may be), there is a degree of
vague ill-will towards what is called Thinking. It is reputed to impede action,
Line to make hay of instincts and of standards, to fritter reality into doubt; and the
5 career of Hamlet is frequently pointed out as a proof of its unhappy effects. But,
as I hinted, one has not very often an opportunity of verifying these drawbacks
of thinking, or its advantages either. And I am tempted to believe that much of
the mischief thus laid at the door of that poor unknown quantity Thinking is
really due to its ubiquitous twin-brother Talking.
10 I call them twins on the analogy of Death and Sleep, because there is something
poetical and attractive in such references to family relations; and also because,
as many people cannot think without talking, and talking, at all events, is the
supposed indication that thinking is within, there has arisen about these two
human activities a good deal of that confusion and amiable not-caring-which-
15 is-which so characteristic of our dealings with twins. But Talking, take my word
for it, is the true villain of the couple.
Talking, however, should never be discouraged in the young. Not talking with
them (largely reiteration of the word “Why?”), but talking among themselves.
Its beneficial effects are of the sort which ought to make us patient with the
20 crying of infants. Talking helps growth. M. Renan, with his saintly ironical
sympathy for the young and weak, knew it when he excused the symbolists
and decadents of various kinds with that indulgent sentence, Ce sont des enfants
qui s’amusent5. It matters little what litter they leave behind, what mud pies
they make and little daily dug-up gardens of philosophy, ethics, literature, and
25 general scandal; they will grow out of the need to make them and meanwhile,
5 They are children having fun.

practice test
making this sort of mess will help them grow. Besides, is it nothing that they
should be amusing themselves once in their lives (we cannot be sure of the
future)? And what amusement, what material revelry can be compared with the
great carouses of words in which the young can still indulge? We were most of
30 us young once, odd as it appears; and some of us can remember our youthful
discussions, our salad-day talks, prolonged to hours, trespassing on to subjects,
which added such a fine spice of the forbidden and therefore the free! The joy
of asking reasons where you have hitherto answered school queries; of extem-
porizing replies, magnificent, irresponsible, instead of laboriously remembering
35 mere solutions; of describing, analyzing, and generally laying bold mental
eyes, irreverent intellectual hands, on personalities whose real presence would
merely make you stumble over a chair or drop a tea-cup! For talking is the
great equalizer of positions, turning the humble, the painfully immature, into
judges with rope and torch; and in a kindlier way allowing the totally obscure
40 to share the life of kings, and queens, and generals, and opera-singers; which
is the reason that items of Court news or of “dramatic gossip” are so frequently
exchanged in omnibuses and at small, decent dinner-tables.
Moreover, talking has for the young the joys of personal exuberance; it is all
honeycombed, or rather, filled (like champagne) with the generous gaseousness
45 of self-analysis, self-accusation, self-pity, self-righteousness, and autobiography.
The poor mortal, in that delusive sense of sympathy and perfect understanding
which comes of perfect indifference to one’s neighbour’s presence, has quicker
pulses, higher temperature, more vigorous movements than are compatible
with the sober sense of human unimportance. In conversation, clever young
50 people vain, kindly, selfish, ridiculous, happy young people actually take body
and weight, expand. And are you quite sure, my own dear, mature, efficient, and
thoroughly productive friends and contemporaries, that it is not this expansion
of youthful rubbish which makes the true movement of the centuries?
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ESSAY QUESTION 3
The word “nostalgia” has opposition in its word roots: nostos means home, but algia means pain.
The word mixes familiarity with tinges of distress: no wonder it is such a ripe theme for literature.
Characters may indulge in nostalgia for their childhoods when life seemed simpler, or they may look
back at other moments to freeze a point when everything seemed to have more promise and pos-
sibility. Those indulgences may be bittersweet, however, as characters realize that they cannot relive
those moments. In your essay, you should devise an answer to the following question:
The Great Gatsby

In Search of Lost Time
When We Were Orphans
Absalom, Absalom!
The Remains of the Day
The Sound and the Fury
One Hundred Years of Solitude
The Age of Innocence
Death of a Salesman
To the Lighthouse
Dandelion Wine
Ignorance
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
The Virgin Suicides
Cannery Row
The Ice Storm
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Like Water for Chocolate
The Way We Live Now
Little Dorrit


1. B 11. B 20. E 29. C 38. E 47. B
2. D 12. C 21. B 30. E 39. A 48. E
3. A 13. D 22. D 31. D 40. B 49. B
4. E 14. B 23. C 32. A 41. D 50. A
5. B 15. D 24. B 33. A 42. E 51. C
6. E 16. C 25. C 34. E 43. C 52. C
7. C 17. A 26. B 35. B 44. E 53. D
8. A 18. D 27. A 36. B 45. C 54. D
9. D 19. B 28. A 37. C 46. D 55. D
10. D
Section I
1. The correct answer is B. The verb on this particular answer selection, the best
“kindles” is being used figuratively; you answer would be internal rhyme because
may know the word “kindle” from kindling it accounts for the multiple devices in use
for firewood or kindling a spark to start a here.) It’s more likely that you’ll have to
fire. He’s saying that her slightly disarrayed choose between assonance and consonance
outfit sparks his interest. He is not being because those are distinct devices. It’s not a
judgmental (choice A) or anxious (choice case of alliteration because that device uses
C). He likes the disarray. That arousal means repetition in the first syllable; repetition is
he’s not writing the poem out of sympathy too general to be the right answer here. It’s
(choice E), but desire. It might be tempting not a false rhyme because those are imperfect
to say that he must be careless (choice D), rhymes at the ends of lines. It’s not an
too, but the poem is more about him looking example of antithesis because that device
at a woman, so we don’t know the state of pairs two opposites to emphasize contrast.
his own dress. Here, “erring” has multiple meanings: not
just of being wrong, but of meandering or
2. The correct answer is D. “Erring” pairs
wandering, like the laces in her dress that
with “here and there” to produce internal
are trailing down.
rhymes in the line. It’s repeating the “er”
sound in both vowel and consonant form, 3. The correct answer is A. “A cuff neglectful,”
which means that the poet is playing with “a tempestuous petticoat,” and “a careless
assonance (repeated vowels) and consonance shoe-string” are all examples of a part
(repeated consonants) here to produce the representing the whole, or a synecdoche.
internal rhyme. It would be unlikely that Those items themselves are not neglectful,
you’d have to choose between internal rhyme, tempestuous, or careless: their owner is.
assonance, and consonance in a selection There are, arguably, other interpretations
of answers because the internal rhyme is of this device; for example, one could say
produced by the combination of the other that Herrick is personifying the petticoat
two. (If one of those other two showed up rather than using it as a synecdoche. As
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with question 2, you will probably not have speaker doesn’t trip on the strings (choice A),
to make these small distinctions: either nor is there any mention of clashing designs
the answer will be clear-cut, or you will be that might be annoying (choice D). The
asked to choose the best answer among the speaker is excited, not mystified (E), by those
answer choices. The petticoat itself could be gaps. The stomacher is a kind of decoration,
personified, but the cuff and the shoe-string and the speaker is pleased (choice C), but
are more obviously cases of synecdoche. this choice is much too general and doesn’t
The four other answer choices don’t work: adequately describe the specific qualities of
there’s no comparison for it to be a simile, “enthral” as a word with a double meaning
there’s no pause for an ellipsis, it’s not an here.
obvious exaggeration for a hyperbole, nor
6. The correct answer is E. Here you are
are those objects and adjectives opposed for
looking for the EXCEPTION among all
an antithesis. You have a clear choice in A.
of the answer choices, so you know that
4. The correct answer is E. “Careless shoe- four of the possibilities are correct and
string” has many devices attached to it for there’s one outlier. The lines are only four
such a minor item! The repeated s-sounds feet (four iambs: a LINE / a-BOUT / the
create consonance, or repeated consonants. SHOUL- / ders THROWN) long, so they
Note here that assonance is listed among are in iambic tetrameter, not pentameter.
the answer choices: the distinction between Even if you immediately counted those
assonance and consonance is clear, so you syllables and figured out the right answer,
can easily choose between them. (The it’s worth pausing on the other four choices
distinction between internal rhyme and just to see what the test is telling you about
assonance was less clear in question 2.) It what it considers the correct way to interpret
is not an example of alliteration because these lines. The rest of the choices are good
alliteration depends on repeated sounds in examples of how the poet is using these
the first syllables of the words; whereas, the devices to add structure and order to a poem
repeated s-sounds appear in -less and then that says it’s about disorder. The repetition
tie to shoe and string. It is not an example of synecdoches creates parallel structure of
of jargon because the words are relatively phrases with similarities in inverted diction
common and not examples of specialized (choices A, B, and C). The sense of the
knowledge. You might pause on choice D, descriptions runs over from line to line, much
epithet, if you remember that an epithet is like the shawl falling over her shoulders
usually an example of an adjective-noun (choice D). That’s a lot of structural work
pairing, but epithets usually describe the for those devices to do!
qualities inherent in the noun. Even if they’re
7. The correct answer is C. The list of all of
difficult to keep tied, we don’t normally
the ways that Herrick is creating order in
think of carelessness as a quality that defines
question 6 should give you some clues for
shoe-strings.
understanding this question: fundamentally,
5. The correct answer is B. A “stomacher” this poem is more about order than disorder,
is a piece of fabric that is tied to the mid- despite the title. He is not rejecting the
section, kind of like a corset. The laces in couplet (option I): the slant rhymes call
the woman’s stomacher are not fully tied, attention to the value of the couplet as a form
causing provocative gaps that charm the that’s special to the couplet. The charming
speaker. You can eliminate the other choices cases of disorder exalt the couplet, rather
by what’s not mentioned in the poem: the than denouncing it. With so many poetic


devices in play, you can see that Herrick is it muddles the situation in a bad way—it’s
anything but careless (option II). Thus, the usually used as a positive term to show the
only good option is III, where you see that newly revealed depths of the text. They want
he’s creating harmony with the repetition. you to be clear in discussing complexity—
The correct choice is option III only, or which may be a daunting task, but terms like
choice C. these can help you put those interpretive
moves into analytical language. When you
8. The correct answer is A. The playful dis-
see this word in an answer choice, it’s a good
order in the poem is superficial; beneath it
one to consider because it’s unlikely that the
all, the speaker is controlling the scene with
test is proposing an incorrect way of seeing
his poetic devices. You can also eliminate
more deeply into the situation. (It’s possible,
the adjectives in the pairs that don’t seem
of course, but, if so, there would likely to be
to fit: although there’s a trailing lace or a
other synonyms in the other answer choices
slant rhyme here and there, there’s no chaos
like: adds nuance, deepens, leaves unresolved
(choice C) in the poem’s tight structure.
. . . ) Among these answer choices, you can
There’s little judgment or sarcasm in the
strike choices A and B because there are
poem, so choices B and D are not a good fit,
no paintings mentioned, and there’s no
nor is the speaker apparently self-conscious
contrast with the natural world, so choice C
himself (choice E).
is also incorrect. The speaker is not writing
9. The correct answer is D. Here you are a critique of objectification here (choice
looking for another exception among four E)—especially not since there are so many
correct answers, and many of the previous objects that are taken as part of the woman’s
correct answer choices will give you clues as whole in the poetic device of the synecdoche
to how the test is leading you to interpret the in these poem.
poem.The previous four questions have each
pointed out that the disorder in the poem is
may be tricky if you are not inclined to make
really example of ordering through poetic
inferences, or if you tend to read poems by
devices, so these answer choices will point
forming an opinion or judgment about the
to a similar line of interpretation. Choices
speaker. You may be unimpressed with the
C and E echo that interpretation of the
speaker’s ogling of her gaping stomacher
oxymoron as a structural device. Choices
and playful flirtation—it may read a little
A and B both point to other similarities
gross to you. However, this question is
in the poem: in other poetic devices and in
asking for an interpretation, not a judgment
the main subject. The only outlier is choice
or an opinion of the poet. That means you
D, which asks you to interpret the poem as
have to pay attention to the stylistic devices
ambivalent. None of the previous questions
themselves, and the questions have given you
has pointed toward uncertainty or mixed
many clues of how to interpret the mutuality
feelings, so this one is the outlier.
and playfulness of the poem’s tone. The
10. The correct answer is D. Choice D pro- synecdoches, assonance, and rhymes show
poses that he is “complicating” the traditional a tight structure of mutuality in the poem:
idea of order as pleasing: “complicating” is a every problem gets resolved with a perfect
classic interpretive word that works well in imperfection. Thus, the best inference is that
essays as a way for you to insist that a situ- the woman is an equal partner; they have
ation isn’t simple or black and white. In these a kind of rapport, even if we can’t hear her
kinds of literature exams, it rarely means that speaking back in her own voice in this poem.
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You may also eliminate the more obviously evidence that he himself is unreliable, even
incorrect answers: we don’t know much if the scene around you is disorienting.
about her identity, so choices A and E are
14. The correct answer is B. Hearn is using
incorrect. We don’t hear from her, so choice
“capital” to describe the palm trees as
D is also not a good option. It’s possible that
building elements. A capital is the flourish
she doesn’t know that her laces are trailing,
at the top of a column, like the fronds at the
but because we never see the situation from
top of the palm tree. Capital can have other,
her perspective, we can’t know what she
more familiar, meanings in other contexts,
sees (choice C). It may seem like it’s hard
but here it doesn’t refer to a city, money, or a
to interpret all of those eliminations, or to
more abstract kind of height. It’s not a bird,
see why B is correct, but C isn’t. Another
either.
way of thinking about it is that the test
won’t ask you to prove a negative (she can’t 15. The correct answer is D. As with question
see . . . ) but it might ask you to interpret 14, this question is asking you about specific
from the devices. With that logic, choice B architectural terms, such as “capital” and
is better supported by those frequent pairs “colonnade.” Even if you don’t know those
and mutual resolutions. particular terms (and you can figure out
capital from context in question 14), Hearn
12. The correct answer is C. This passage is
gives you the more recognizable comparison
from an essay, not a piece of fiction, so there
of a tree trunk to a gray pillar. (A colonnade
are no characters to analyze here. Hearn is
is a grouping of columns, referring to the
describing palm trees in a tropical forest, so
grouping of trees in the scene.) You can
he uses the second-person “you” to immerse
use pillar and capital to give you choice D.
readers in the unfamiliar, dense scene. This
It’s unlikely that it’s a natural metaphor:
isn’t a choose-your-own adventure story
the scene itself is in nature, so there’s no
where you can perform actions of your
metaphor to be detected. The other options
own volition—he guides your vision with
may be tempting to describe such a strange
significant control of how and where to
scene that might be spiritual or supernatural
look—so there’s no possibility that you are
(choices B and C), but Hearn uses mostly
taking a photo (choice B). He is emphasizing
adjectives and verbs to get those feelings
the unfamiliar, while choice A describes
across. Colonnade, pillar, and capital are all
the opposite. He asks readers to look up at
specific nouns tied to a specific metaphor.
the trees, so they are under the canopy, not
above it (choice D). Choice E is possible, 16. The correct answer is C. It’s difficult to
but there’s no textual evidence to support keep track of Hearn’s nouns; he uses them
the dream hypothesis. as obscure signposts as he winds his way
through the sentences to describe this dense
forest. If you trace the word “it” back to
builds on question 12; through the particular
the beginning of the paragraph, you can
antithetical detail of looking up into the abyss
see that “the emotion” is the main idea
of trees, Hearn increases the disorientation.
he’s describing. That same word applies
Options I and II well describe the effect of
the examples of “it” in these references:
this particular reversal of normal perspective:
“shock of it,” “combined in it,” “how very
it’s a reminder of the enormous scale and its
complex it must have been,” and “revived
disorienting effects. You may want to read
in it.” Hearn is speaking in terms of the
more into the narrative voice, but there’s no


sublime, or the Romantic notion of awe the hints of the sublime in the other ques-
and trembling before a scene that excites tions. Choices C and E aren’t good options
emotions too complex to be pinned down. because they aren’t mentioned in the text.
The other choices might seem plausible if
19. The correct answer is B. Following the
you’re reading the passage quickly, but “the
markers of the sublime in question 17’s
emotion” is the main antecedent of the rest
oxymoron and question 16’s and 18’s too-
of the references in the rest of the paragraph.
complex, twisty emotions, we can see that
17. The correct answer is A. “Terrible beauty” Hearn is hammering home the idea that
is an oxymoron, another signal that Hearn these feelings are too intense to be described
is writing about the sublime. For Romantic fully. He can only give partial views through
writers, who were used to describing the these literary devices. Choice B is the
awe-inspiring mountains of the Alps or skeleton key for questions 16-22: it identifies
grand storms, such scenes could not just the main idea of the tropical sublime. Choice
be described as beautiful—they inspired E initially looks like the very definition of
complex feelings of fear and terror. Hearn the sublime: “the insufficiency of words . . . ”
is writing a hundred years later than the but he has specifically said that photographs
Romantics, but he is applying those theories cannot capture their majesty. Choices A, C,
of the sublime to the jungle (where Word- and D are not supported by the text, for
sworth and Coleridge had not visited). there’s no annoyance or obvious paranoia,
The Romantics and their inheritors of the nor is there a question of what’s illusory in
sublime knew that it was not a fallacy, but the scene, for it’s all emotion, not tricks or
rather the basis of all creative tension in delusions.
their art. The device is not an example of
20. The correct answer is E. The shock comes
synesthesia (blended sensory descriptions)
from the realization of the immensity of the
or synecdoche (where the part stands for
natural world and all of the emotions it stirs
the whole). It may be cacophonous in the
up. Shock may come from electricity in other
jungle, but we don’t get a sense of it in the
contexts (choice A), but here you just need
phrase “terrible beauty.”
to trace the source to the main grammatical
18. The correct answer is D. In question 16, antecedent—the emotion—rather than
you had to follow one of these sentences building a metaphor. There are probably
back to the beginning of the paragraph to elements of fear in the description (choices
trace the antecedent for the word “it” in B and C), but you’re looking for the best
the paragraph’s description of the intense description of the main idea of the passage.
emotions aroused by the sublime tropical
21. The correct answer is B. The answer to the
scene. That is not the only winding sen-
question is in the preceding phrase: “some
tence; this question asks you to interpret
sign of stealthy movement, some beginning
why these sentences might be so long and
of undulation,” but it might be difficult to
twisty. Several of the possible choices may
parse the twisting sentences. Undulation
be partially correct: there are elements of
means slight swaying. Choices A, C, D,
fear and distraction in his description as
and E refer to other examples of sensory
he keeps finding new terrors. But the best
overload in the passage, but you are being
answer is choice D, ineffability, as he keeps
asked about only one specific word in this
turning back on descriptions to qualify them
question.
or add new details. Ineffability fits well with
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22. The correct answer is D. “Queer disquiet” literally described the height of the trees.
is an example of consonance, the repetition They are seeking the sun to grow higher,
of the “qu” consonants. You may not believe so the best answer is also the strangest: “a
that it crystallizes a moment of realization, life seeking only sun” describes the plants’
but you don’t have any other correct choices photosynthesis as a kind of arboreal desire.
among the selections. Arguably, the real- Hearn was writing without extensive
ization is one of the smallness of man among knowledge of botany, so he was speaking
the gigantic trees. This question might be figuratively rather than scientifically. (You
tricky because the descriptions of the func- might be asked to differentiate a palm tree’s
tions are more tempting than the specific photosynthesis on a different exam, but here
poetic devices named. It’s not an example of we can just go with his figurative language.)
assonance or alliteration (choices B and E), Even with some quibbles about biology, you
although those explanations of its function can eliminate the other answers because only
are in keeping with what you’ve been inter- one refers to the trees. “A life” refers to the
preting so far. You may be annoyed by his trees, not to humans (choices A and B) or
verbosity, but that phrase is not a marker of spiritual elements (choices D and E).
his confusion or grandiosity (choices A and
26. The correct answer is B. After obliquely
C).
referring to the theory of the sublime so
23. The correct answer is C. The word “awe” frequently in the preceding lines, Hearn
might be a good signal that you’re working in wants to add his own theories of spiritual
the language of the sublime in this passage. aesthetics to the paragraph. “Perhaps” lets
Anger and disgust (choices B and D) are him move into theorizing, even pontificating
not present in the passage, and there’s little mode, and his sentences will remain twisty
sense of love (choice E). There’s no mention to take you through his complex thoughts.
of trees being cut down (choice A). Awe is He is not expressing ambivalence (choice
the best word to tie back to the sublime. A) but instead building to his grandest idea
of Gothic horror, as though he creates an
24. The correct answer is B. Aspiration is
imaginative space for himself in a tropical
another word that has different meanings
cathedral. We don’t see evidence of his hal-
depending on the context. Although there
lucination, so choice D is not supported by
has been plenty of figurative language in
the text. It may be tempting to pick choice E,
this passage, the context here is literal: the
but “summing up” is not the best description
aspiration is the enormous height of the
of his tone here, nor has he been describing
trees. The human senses of the word—to
beauty, but something more ineffable and
mean ambition or achievement—don’t
sublime.
work here, for the author’s own ambitions
aren’t discussed (choice A), and the trees are 27. The correct answer is A. Option I is the
mostly strange, not human (choice C). You best description of how the architectural
shouldn’t mix up aspiration and respiration metaphors resolve into creating a tropical
to mean breathing. The author has many Gothic cathedral in the forest. The other
longings (choice E), but aspiration is not two options are not supported by the text:
the right word to describe them. it would be fascinating if the spirits were
real (option II), but they seem to be mostly
25. The correct answer is C. Here is the figu-
just part of his sense of the deep history of
rative version of question 23. “Aspiration”
the place. Similarly, although he has been


twisting the reader’s perspective around in so 30. The correct answer is E. You are looking
many complex sentences, we don’t have any for the exception here, and choice E is an
sense that the narrator is actually unreliable obvious choice because the poem continues
(option III). Remember, this is a piece of for thirty more lines after those repetitions
prose nonfiction, not a novel. It’s safest to of “night” in lines 7 and 12, so she’s not
pick the clear description of the main idea exhausted so early in the poem. As with
here, instead of trying to interpret more, the other questions that ask you to find
and choose only option I, or choice A. the EXCEPTION, you should look to the
four correct answers as clues to help you
28. The correct answer is A. “Mneme begin” is
with future questions, for the exam has
a classic example of a poet’s invocation of her
told you that all of those interpretations are
muse, the muse of Memory. That invocation
reasonable. You should keep in mind those
will become complicated in the following
ideas about the importance of the poem’s
lines, but with this opening line, Wheatley
adherence to formal rules from classical
places herself in a long poetic tradition of
models, as well as how the speaker uses
poets like Virgil and John Milton, who
imagery to build her vision.
invoke the muses to give them the powers
to describe the scene in poetry. Despite 31. The correct answer is D. She is asleep,
the short phrasing, it is not an example of as noted by the phrase “in our nocturnal
fragmentation: the brevity is part of the con- visions pours” and the footnoted reference
vention. Inscription is a different device that to Phoebe, who is associated with the moon.
usually refers to reading an inscription on a Mneme has come in dream form to inspire.
building or a gravestone, although the act You may be tempted to follow the line of
of inscription itself will become important singing from line 4 or more generally writing,
later in the poem. It is not an example of but the question asks you about a specific
antithesis because she’s not setting opposed passage, so it’s important to pay attention
ideas against each other. You might say that to that specific request.
she is claiming authority by invoking the
32. The correct answer is A. Phoebe is the
Muse in this way, but that is only an effect
mythological figure associated with radiance;
of the device, not the name of the device
together with Mneme, she displays a vivid
itself.
spectacle of memories. “Pomp” means
29. The correct answer is C. This question asks something like a spectacle or parade. In
you to identify the meaning of a common the phrase “a pomp of images,” we don’t
word in the context of the poem, just to get any sense of deception (choice C) or
check your understanding of diction that foreboding (choice D), although there will
may be unfamiliar to you. You can trace be a significant shift in the following lines.
the subject of “spring” back to Mneme, for Your choices may come down to A or B, but
the poet traces the source, or spring, of her there’s no mention of Phoebe (or Mneme)
inspiration back to the Muse. The spring is editing these scenes—that’s for the poet to
like the source of water in a hot springs. It is do herself, as a means of composition. They
not referring to a season, a jumping motion, are the source, but she must craft the visions.
or a surprise—all legitimate meanings of the
33. The correct answer is A. These answers
word, just in other contexts. She is going to
are all similar to one another, so you must
use Mneme’s song to write a poem, but she
pick the one that best describes the situ-
is looking for the source of inspiration, not
ation. Choice A gives you a useful structure:
the song itself.
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“Mneme is not solely . . . but also” which not supported by the text: there’s no new
would allow you to see the ongoing tension Muse introduced in the poem (choice B).
between Mneme’s poetic inspiration and the That means that you can continue reading
poet’s trauma that define a course for Wheat- the poem as evidence of Wheatley’s creative
ley’s voice in the rest of the poem. The other tension with Mneme—a tension that is
choices are too limiting: she does not reject not debilitating (see the next question) but
Mneme (choice E), nor does Mneme reject productive, for it allows her to find her own
her (choices C and D). Choice B is another voice and style (choices C, D, and E),
possibility because it describes a conflict that
36. The correct answer is B. “Productive”
could be potentially productive, but she is
tension is the key to this exam’s interpre-
not really the judge of that conflict.
tation of the poem. The possibility of mutual
34. The correct answer is E. Wheatley gener- benefit is not supported by Wheatley’s lines
ally uses iambic pentameter so that she may about memory and trauma—benefit is the
claim her own position in the formal classical opposite word to use there. But they are not
tradition. She is joining her own distinctive at a standoff, either, for Wheatley continues
voice and set of memories as a freed slave with to write the poem and gains authority from
the poetic forms that white poets have domi- her recasting of Mneme’s power for her
nated. Other poets wrote about recollection- own uses. Choices D and E are not good
-and her slightly later contemporaries like descriptions of the relationship, either.
William Wordsworth would go on to write
37. The correct answer is C. If Wheatley can
about the subject as well--but none showed
be said to have a thesis in this poem, it is
the complex relationship between memory
in these lines, about the tension between
and trauma, tied to the national past, like she
trauma and recollection. The memories of
did. Among these answer choices, B and D
the slave trade may be called back in Rec-
are too heavy-handed interpretations. Not
ollection, to serve as a corrective to history
every line may sound like obvious iambic
that’s been forgotten. The word “them” lets
pentameter to you, but there’s no textual
her link traumatic memories and history
evidence to suggest ambivalence (choice
together; when those memories become
C) on her part—indeed, the formal rhyme
history, then their memory can become
and meter are ways for her to tap into a col-
part of the national consciousness so that
lective experience with poetry, history, and
the shame and mourning in line 36 may
literary memory. Choice A is a possibility,
become collective, not just personal, memory.
although iambs rarely signal struggle; they’re
“Them” is a strategically unclear antecedent
more about regularity. Choice E is the best
that may make you think she’s referring to
answer to show Wheatley’s style.
previous poets or her own abilities (choices
35. The correct answer is B. This question A and B), or to disagreements and conflicts
builds on the previous one by looking at a more generally (choices D and E), but in
particular line and example of slight variation fact it joins together two larger concepts of
for you to interpret. It gives you four correct memory and history.
answers, and it’s worthwhile to check those
38. The correct answer is E. This question
interpretations against question 34 and
asks you to interpret the meaning behind
later questions to make sure that you’re
her invocation of the slave bracelets. They
on the right track with your readings. The
are markers of trauma, to be sure, as option
exception is the only one that is obviously


I suggests. It’s important to pay attention slumbering. Spiritual awakening is the key
when a poet mentions any kind of writing, to the final lines of the poem, for it is what
for poets are especially attuned to acts of allows people to see their collective rela-
inscription in letters, gravestones, monu- tionship to one another as spiritual beings
ments—and, here, in Wheatley’s poems, in who can be saved. The other options may be
the metal slave manacles used to trade slaves. secondary goals of collective action (choice
This is a reference that other classical poets C) or the end of the slave trade—which
would not be able to make, so here it shows was often advocated by religious groups of
her using the classical form to comment on abolitionists, who used Wheatley’s poems
how those bracelets must join those other in the movement.
inscriptions in literature, in history. The
41. The correct answer is D. This question asks
work of inscription, she says, is not merely
you to specify how Wheatley explains the
poetic: it is also an economic act of claiming
spiritual awakening. Option II is clearly a
authority over others, of inscribing a contract
good choice, for it builds on the work you
(option II). Seen through her poem, the
did in question 38 about how she wants to
inscriptions are not only personal memory
build historical memory. Option I is also a
but also a national, historical memory of the
reasonable interpretation of the poem that
slave trade. This is a poem that flows in the
is difficult to argue with. Option III is the
iambic pentameter of celebrated poets, but
one that seems less certain, for she is not
it questions the very activity of writing for
rejecting any other models of memory, nor
how it marks authority, as option III sug-
is it specified what those would be, anyway.
gests. There is little to argue with in any of
You can be sure of options I and II—and
these three interpretations of those lines, so
there is not an answer choice for all three to
choice E is correct.
be correct—so choice D is the best answer.
39. The correct answer is A. Memory has no
42. The correct answer is E. The references to
protective powers in this poem, for the
mythology and the classical conventions of
main idea is how Wheatley takes control
poetry indicate Wheatley’s own education;
of the Muse herself and turns her work
among abolitionists who promoted her work,
into a national, spiritual project so that “in
she became the most well-known former
ev’ry breast, and thus her pow’r is own’d.”
slave poet in America in the eighteenth
Thus, Recollection is not protective but
century. Thus, option I is a good choice that
provocative, and choice A is the outlier
pairs well with option III, the religious abo-
among four reasonable interpretations of
litionists who joined spiritual and political
the final lines. Memory is “enthron’d” inside
activism. Although many abolitionists wrote
people (choice B) and should be combined
anthems to be sung in the streets, there’s
with Virtue for a spiritual project of grace
some contradiction between those classical
(choices C and E). The poem turns it from a
references and an anthem to be sung in the
personal sense into a public one (choice D).
streets. Option II is less likely. Choice E is
40. The correct answer is B. There is some the best pairing of options here.
ambiguity in the poem: has everyone been
43. The correct answer is C. It may be useful for
sleeping? Who is awakening? In these
you to annotate the passage like a dialogue
lines, Wheatley turns to those who have
if you can’t follow who says what. Lucy says
not combined Recollection and Virtue and
very little in her exchange with Ginevra. She
have not been saved by grace; they are still
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can barely get a word in, but she also doesn’t draws connections to Ginevra’s story, you can
say much about her own background. This eliminate the other answers: Ginevra is not
guardedness is a puzzling part of her char- really suffering (choice B), except perhaps
acter throughout the novel. After you figure in her own mind. Even if you’re annoyed by
out who’s saying what, you can eliminate Ginevra, there’s stronger textual evidence
the adjectives that apply more to Ginevra for Lucy’s reflectiveness (choice C) than
than to Lucy: judgmental, confessional, and for her annoyance (choice D). Lucy draws
sentimental (choices B, D, and E). There’s her hope from her own idealism, not from
no indication of Lucy’s wit, even if Ginevra Ginevra’s advice (choice E).
thinks she must speak multiple languages
46. The correct answer is D. Ginevra’s long
(choice A). The best answer is indicated in
speech is annoying, perhaps, but it draws
her tendency to respond in single words or
attention in the passage because it is so dif-
very short sentences: choice C.
ferent from Lucy’s own self-reflection and
44. The correct answer is E. Choices A and B terseness.This question asks you to infer why
are apparent immediately: Ginevra and Lucy that contrast in tone might be important
are conversational opposites who mostly talk for the themes of the novel. We don’t have
and mostly listen, respectively. Lucy is ideal- any evidence that Ginevra is a stand-in for
istic (choice C) for her desire to set off abroad the author, so option I is not good, and you
without a plan or connections in Belgium. can strike choices A, C, and E that contain
Ginevra, on the other hand, is materialistic it. Nevertheless, Ginevra can still serve an
and looking for the most strategic way to important role even if she is not a stand-in
get ahead (choice D). What we never learn for the author; here, she serves as Lucy’s
in this passage is Lucy’s reason for leaving. opposite who reveals her defining qualities
It is not clear if Ginevra has trampled on through opposition (option II). Ginevra’s
those reasons with her own story, or if Lucy speech also signals a theme that Lucy reflects
has some unspoken reason for not explaining on later in the passage, about how to take
herself. What seems clearer in the passage agency and get what you want (as the young
is that in her idealism, she wants to look girl says haughtily in French). This theme
ahead, not behind her. is clearly important to Lucy, and Ginevra’s
speech widens the world to show that other
45. The correct answer is C. Lucy listens to
characters may also be struggling to be agents
Ginevra’s long story and does not offer
in their own lives. Thus, options II and III
immediate sympathy or reaction—Ginevra
are the best pair, and you can select choice
just keeps talking. After the younger woman
D.
has gone inside the boat, Lucy reflects
on “the position in which I was placed; 47. The correct answer is B. Ginevra answers
its hazardous—some would have said its this question when she tells Lucy that she
hopeless—character.” Although she does shouldn’t refer to the diable (devil) in English
not make specific connections to Ginevra’s but that “it sounds quite right in French.”
loquacious anxiety about her marriage pros- She calls the residents of Villette “vulgar,”
pects, she sees some kind of kinship between which signals her own class anxieties even
them as young women who are subject to though her family is poor because her
precarious fortune. Lucy seems to have no father is an officer at half-pay. She is not
family, no money, no prospects other than learning the lessons for intellectual reasons,
her idealism. Even if you’re not sure that she exactly (choice C), but so that she may act


cosmopolitan and fashionable. That desire 50. The correct answer is A. In her idealism
isn’t directed at anyone in particular, not even and hope, Lucy is literally embellishing
Lucy, so choice D is also not a good pick. her vision with gold edges. She has been
working her way through her fears for
48. The correct answer is E. Lucy’s reflec-
the future (choice D), but the question is
tions meander all over the place as she
asking you about her exalted diction, not
keeps interrupting herself to pin down
her meandering style (addressed in question
exactly what she’s feeling: fear, anxiety,
48). When the question gives you “exalted”
danger, hopelessness, etc.? Her thoughts
as a clue, you can pick an answer that has
are circuitous; by following them through
a positive, heightened answer to match it,
all of those fears, anxieties, and hazards,
like “embellishing.” There are no obvious
she might arrive at Hope at the very end
markers of a religious vision (choice B) or
of that paragraph, after a lot of twists and
an ambition to be rich (choice E). Ginevra
turns. We don’t see her trying to find more
hasn’t issued a warning, so choice C is also
positive words for those fears, so choice A
not a possibility.
is incorrect. Epigrammatic means witty and
brief, the opposite qualities displayed in this 51. The correct answer is C. The previous ques-
paragraph. Polemical means argumentative, tions have indicated that the theme of agency
but while she may be arguing with herself, is important to this passage, so this question
she is not constructing an argument to be asks you to find that theme in a particular
defended strenuously. Her language may example of Lucy’s inward-facing style. She
have moral qualities, but its twists and turns cannot see herself actually taking specific
are the more important parts of this tone to actions in the future; she can only imagine
analyze. the general, idealized version of what one
ought to do. She is not giving general advice
49. The correct answer is B. Lucy has nearly
(choice A); rather, she is trying, incompletely
succumbed to the fears and hazards that
in this passage, to find her own position in
preoccupy her in the beginning of her interior
this imagined future. Although she quotes
monologue, but she draws strength from
a poem, there’s no mention of her reading a
remembered lines of poetry that allow her
story (choice B) in order to figure out what
to reframe the scene not as a prison, but as
she must do. We don’t yet know if she has
a place to stand, or even to pull herself up
the ability to finally take action (choice
and steady herself. The poem reveals the
D), but she has the rest of the novel to try
lyricism of her vision that pulls her away
to do so! Choice E makes reference to a
from the circuitous meandering of her fears,
desire for “objectivity,” but this passage is
toward a steadier, more inspiring vision of
all about her subjectivity, for it ends with
Hope. The poem negates the misery she
her own personal vision (and her subjective
might feel. She is not persuading anyone but
experience being ill--the scene affects her
herself here, so that’s not the best option.
in particular). Indeed, most literary pas-
There’s no evidence for her haughtiness or
sages will not ask you to find “objectivity”
precision in the passage (choices A and D);
because few narrators ever pretend to being
indeed, her verbosity indicates she is not
objective; novels are better for exploring the
the most precise thinker and has to work
vastness and changeability of perspective
her way toward ideas, rather than pinning
and subjective experience.
them down immediately.
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52. The correct answer is C. With her men- of her vomit. That word is useful in literary
tions of gold tracery and embossing, she is analysis, for it shows an interpreter who
talking about adding ornamentation to some can work between extremes, rather than
kind of surface—as a form of embroidery, choosing between them as a judgment or
probably. As noted in question 50, she is a strong dichotomy. Choices A and E are
literally embellishing her vision with these too extreme, and they are not supported
artistic flourishes. Although the colors may by the text. Ginevra has left the scene by
match a maritime or astronomical vision now (choice B), so it is unlikely that she
of the sky or sea (choices A and B), the is important to this address to the reader.
main metaphor of tracing and embossing Choice C may be tempting, but there’s
is specific to ornamentation. nothing to suggest that Charlotte Brontë
herself is speaking here or that this is some
53. The correct answer is D. As question 51
evidence of a correction that could never
points out, Lucy loses her own self in her
be made. No, the act of correction has to
vision, preferring those ornaments to her
be meaningful in and of itself.
own specific abilities. When she becomes ill,
it reminds her that she is not just a visionary 55. The correct answer is D. In the previous
who can look toward that beautiful future, question, the exam asked you to interpret
but a human on a boat. Choices A, B, C, the meaning of Lucy’s direct address to the
and E all point to that subjective, embodied author; this question builds on that idea by
sensory experience. Choice D is an over- asking you to use the action to interpret
statement and a judgmental interpretation something about her character (and not
of the passage, and we don’t want to overstep just its function in the novel). You know
those bounds. It’s the outlier among those that you’re looking for her subjectivity, as
answer choices, so it is the correct answer suggested in option III. You know that the
here. embellishment of her vision is important
to notice, and option II suggests a reason
54. The correct answer is D. This question may
why: from embellishing we see her asking
be more difficult than the previous one, for
the reader to cross out, or perform their own
it asks you to interpret a strange moment
tracery on the text. She is finding her own
when Lucy speaks directly to the reader. We
form of subjectivity in writing metaphors,
are used to her visionary language, which she
even if it’s incomplete in this passage.
introduced by noting that she would be sick
Recall the question about writing in Phillis
later on. The direct address to the reader is
Wheatley’s poem: whenever an author makes
a surprise: what does it mean? You will be
reference to writing in a text, especially in
in the best position if you can read it for its
something as strange as a direct address to
ambiguities; indeed, it is so unexpected and
the reader, it’s significant. Option I is the
strange that you can’t determine its meaning
only question mark here: we don’t see any
at the end of this selected passage. Choice D
evidence of her unreliability in this passage,
uses the interpretive language to suggest that
even if she is passive and not as garrulous
you can “reconcile” the contrasts between her
as Ginevra. Options II and III are the best
visionary language and the sensory details
interpretations, so choice D is correct.


Section II
Essay 1: “The Word of an Engineer,” by James Weldon Johnson

8-9 Sample Essay
The first thing to notice about James Weldon Johnson’s poem “The Word
of an Engineer” is the quotation marks around the first two stanzas. Who is
speaking? Based on the title, we can infer that it is the engineer. What happens
in the third stanza, however? Who is speaking once the quotation marks have
disappeared? And who is speaking in the final three italicized lines at the end
of the poem? These are formatting questions, questions that could have been
settled by someone other than Johnson himself, like an editor or a typesetter.
They seem too incidental to base an entire interpretation upon. However, they
also reveal the smaller conflicts of authority in the poem, the ones less visible
than those more obvious conflicts between engineers and religious authorities
that are italicized so noticeably in the last stanza.
Johnson cannot settle that eternal conflict between science and religion, nor
between nature and art--two overly familiar conflicts. He sets those aside and
takes on the very notion of words as a source of authority, where he himself
may be considered the heavy favorite as a poet. Johnson is writing a poem about
the “word of an engineer,” but it is his “words of the poet” that are the most
important to the poem.
The words of the poet are in control of the narrative, in control of guiding
the reader’s interpretations. The poet lets the engineer speak first about “the
builder’s art” (line 7) with hyperboles like “Ten thousand Titans’ strength” (line
12). That hyperbole sounds like an advertisement. It contrasts with the more
ambiguous similes and metaphors later in the poem, presumably in the poet’s
own voice, in which the train is “like a nightmare” (21) or a bridge is “an iron
thread / Spun from the head / Of the man in a draughtsman’s cell” (28-30).
That imagery is literally more open-ended, like a “black-mouthed yawn” (23)
into a tunnel of ambiguity, for the speaker must weigh his own imagistic words
of terror against the “word of an engineer” that vouches for them. The ambi-
guity lies between trust and fear--the poet has to accept that he feels some
combination of both emotions as he’s riding on a train through a tunnel or over
a bridge.
That sense of ambiguity is the middle ground of the poem, between the word
of an engineer and the word of a poet. If the engineer carves the land with
metal, the poet carves the space on the page that follow his own structural
logic of rhyme--yet he turns that logic against the engineer. The poem has
a regular rhyme scheme of AABCCB in each of its stanzas. The B rhymes
are remarkable for how they at first create a strong structure--like a covered
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tunnel--for the CC rhymes. This structure is given by the quotation in the first
two stanzas, but Johnson starts to introduce doubt and ambiguity through his
own rhyme choices. He makes the pairs sinister: “sky and hell / draughtsman’s
cell,” (27-30) “thought and fear / engineer” (33-36). Even the structure itself
is wobbly: “shift and veer/ engineer” (15-18). The poet appropriates the rhyme
structure--indeed, the entire theme of sturdy structure--and then turns it into a
vehicle of doubt, rather than a strong train or ship. The poet has used his own
words to show the limitations of the engineer’s words. The poet chose the terms
of that conflict and where it could take place: in a poem, on the printed page.
Yet do these semantic conflicts matter? Who cares about a conflict of authority
between a poet and an engineer, carried out on the poet’s home arena? The
smaller conflicts of authority in this poem are about who’s speaking on the page,
for the written word is more durable than a ship or an train. The “Ice Wolf ”
once “prowl[ed]” the seas, but that ship became obsolete. The railroads them-
selves are forms of writing on the landscape--forms of italics across America-
-indeed, we know many of the tracks of trolleys and smaller rails by how they’ve
been paved over with roads, so that the engineer’s marvels are no longer as
visible as they once were. That perspective looks far into the future from John-
son’s time, of course, but that is Johnson’s point: the engineers work on a short
time of consciousness about the novelty and immediate power, but those powers
are “shift[ing] and veer[ing],” not stable.
The italicized three lines at the end of the poem call attention to how we take
the “word” of an engineer as faith, which seems like a rejection of religious
authority. However, the deeper value of “words” has already been established by
Johnson in the rhymes and metaphors: who controls words but poets? The word
of an engineer can be reformatted, manipulated, and controlled by the poet. He
gets to have the last word in his italics, not the engineer, whose creation is too
bulky to be adapted in such a way.
The author of this essay had a clever idea, and the essay reads like a very smart response to a dare
to interpret the smallest marks of quotation marks and italics. The author seems to be reaching a
bit in the conclusion of the essay, and trying very hard to follow through on the promises made in
the introduction, but the rest of the essay shows a remarkable command of analysis of language and
rhyme, and a thoughtful way of framing the essay around the notion of the poetic métier of words.
What is admirable about the poem is the author’s rigor and care in reading the smallest details in
the poem. The readings of similes, metaphors, and “sinister” rhymes are attentive and well cited.
The paragraph about obsolescence takes the author’s problem about not knowing the “Ice Wolf ”
and turns it into a thoughtful reading of what we do and don’t know based on written records. The
engineer’s work is less durable, the essay suggests, than the records about it. Stuff breaks, but written
records are as durable as the poem is, as it was written a hundred years ago. The author argues that
the words of the poem have aged more durably than the specific trains, tunnels, bridges constructed


by engineers of the same period. That’s a lot to pin on the “Ice Wolf,” but it’s not a bad reading. It’s
an admirable paragraph, in fact, for it looks toward interpretation of larger themes, beyond the small
details observed in the other two body paragraphs.
5-6 Sample Essay
In “The Words of an Engineer,” by James Weldon Johnson, we see the conflict

between multiple people/things/ideas. Those conflicts include: between nature
and science, between science and religion, and poetry and science. These con-
flicts overlap like a Venn diagram to show the ways that they can meet in the
middle, to form a resolution in this poem.
The first conflict, between nature and science, is shown in the ways that the
author uses negative imagery to describe the way that the engineer’s have
affected the land. The engineer’s inventions “prowl” (14) the landscape like a
burglar, or they are “like a nightmare” (21). The sky is cut in half by an “iron
thread” that creates a “hell” below (26). These are negative imagery that shows
the poet’s opinion of the engineer against the nature; it is a kind of machine
version of the pathetic fallacy, where the engineer puts their rational emo-
tions on the scene to carve it up into black yawns and hell, but then they aren’t
rational anymore. They are destroying the landscape with pollution and taking
resources.
The next conflict is between science and religion, as seen in the last stanza, in
which the poet writes; “Man never had / The faith in God / That he has in an
engineer!” (33-36). This shows that the author’s opinion that we trust engi-
neers more than God, which is true when we start building really big machines
that seem all-powerful. He is saying that we have faith that ships won’t sink
or bridges won’t collapse (even though they do sometimes), but we have these
doubts about whether God exists. This is the role of the ambiguity of doubt in
the poem, that we can accept debate about God in poems and philosophy, but
we don’t accept doubt about engineers. The poet is saying that we have deep
trust in engineers, but actually this is a superficial idea because the engineers
never have to be tested with doubt, whereas God survives doubt and debate for
centuries. God can live in the gray area, but engineers are mostly black-and-
white: either it works or it doesn’t. So while the poet talks about faith, he doesn’t
talk about the role of doubt.
This poem is about the overlaps between conflicting ideas, to try to find the
middle ground for them. The poet tells the story of how the conflicts to take
place by setting the scene in quotes like “in faith I keep,” which mixes up
science and religion so that they’ll be in conflict (line 17). He uses the word
faith deliberately. It is like he is creating a kind of trial like the Scopes Trial,
which took place around the same time at the beginning of the 20th century.
He is a lawyer, so it makes sense that he would put them up against each other.
What this means is, the poet is like the ringmaster who is creating the conflicts.
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They are eternal, but we don’t have to accept that they are always in conflict.
We don’t have to make them fight, which he knows as a diplomat.
This essay has a lot of ideas, and the author strikes upon a very interesting idea about whether engi-
neers can support the weight of doubt the way that religious debates have grown stronger over time
through contending with so much doubt. That’s a very interesting idea that the author might test with
the imagery about the blankness of the engineering spaces—like yawns, or threads—that don’t seem
strong enough to support the weight of doubt. Such a reading would be very attentive and creative.
The author doesn’t quite get there, though, because that idea is more like a philosophical tangent
than an idea tied to specific language in the poem. There are many sentences that seem to be ges-
turing toward an idea, without clear language of expression. In sentences like “This is the role of
the ambiguity of doubt,” the author is less certain of how to integrate quotations or how to discuss
the complex ideas that are bubbling beneath the surface here. It might be useful to use phrases like
“The speaker uses figurative language of doubt in metaphors such as ‘the iron thread’...” or “The
phrase ‘and faith I keep’ is ambiguous because . . . ” These are simpler phrases that might help the
author do the kind of philosophy that comes naturally in the last two paragraphs.
The essay ends on an interesting note about Johnson’s own position as a “ringmaster” or lawyer who
can “try” these oppositions like a lawyer (apparently drawing on the biographical material about
Johnson’s life as a diplomat). This information is really interesting and would be fascinating to test
out in a longer essay that’s not on the exam; the ambition is admirable, even if it falls flat in the
conclusion here. One lesson might be that the author should focus more on the poem itself, instead
of on the more general ideas.
1-2 Sample Essay
In the poem “The Word of an Engineer,” the author contrasts religion and
science. The author proves that science is religion in each stanza. The ship can
sail through seas that no one thought were able to navigate. The train can go
faster than a horse. You might think that he is saying that one is better, but
really he is showing that science is a kind of religion for how we believe in it.
Thats why he says that we have more faith in engineers than religion, because
they are now the same.
The first evidence that they are the same is how in the author uses similes and
metaphors to compare them. The quote “like a nightmare” show that they
become the same thing when you think or worry about them: science can be a
nightmare when it is like Frankenstein, or religion can be a nightmare like in
poems about hell, which is mentioned in the poem, too.
“Hell” is another place where they become the same thing. The bridge goes
across the sky and divides it, which show how engineers create religion with
their manufacturing. The bridge creates an idea of hell.


Finally, they show that they are the same in the way that they both come from
your mind when they are “Spun from the head.” Some people say that all of
Religion is spun from someone’s head, and the poem agrees that engineers ideas
are also spun from someone’s head.
It is interesting that there is no conflict after all, for science and religion have
been shown in the poem to be the same. They are both able to be authorities
because theyre power comes from the same place. It is not clear if religion is a
kind of science, or if science is a kind of religion that you believe in with “faith,”
but they are the same.
The author misunderstands the poem and proceeds from the wrong idea from the start. Instead of
seeing Johnson’s deliberate play with calling the faith in engineers as a kind of religion, the author
takes that idea as a fact that must be “proved” with very superficial readings of the poem. It looks
like the author tried to find three examples of proof for this specious logic and tried to construct the
paragraphs of a brief five-paragraph essay. The problem is that the small snippets of the poem are
cherry-picked to “support” a thesis that doesn’t make sense.
A few lessons from this essay: Read the poem closely for tone and irony before you decide what the
main meaning is. Don’t cherry-pick tiny fragments to “prove” an idea.
Most important, if the question asks you to analyze the conflicts, then it’s asking you to work
through oppositions and tensions, rather than trying to show that they’re “the same.” This essay
doesn’t address any conflicts because the author has steam-rolled over all of the material that the
essay question asked for in the analysis. Insisting that two opposed ideas are “the same” is usually
an overstatement that doesn’t pay off.
Essay 2: “Against Thinking,” by Vernon Lee

8-9 Sample Essay
At first, it is off-putting to read Vernon Lee’s essay “Against Thinking,” because

it seems like it’s rambling and improvised. She writes in nearly interminable
sentences that are full of lists, digressions, parentheses, and asides. It seems pos-
sible that the “essay” is just the unedited record of her random flights of fancy
as she was talking without taking a breath. She is writing about how we often
mistake Talking for Thinking, because they are twins and we are frequently
experiencing “that confusion and amiable not-caring-which-is-which so char-
acteristic of our dealings with twins.” Talking is “the more ubiquitous twin-
brother” who masquerades as though he were Thinking, but he is just taking up
all the air in the room. She even calls Talking the “villain” twin. If Talking is the
villain, it seems Vernon is playing the villain of her own essay, making the reader
hate her talkative style.
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After considerable confusion and frustration, the reasons behind her rambling
style become clearer in a subtle, sneaky revelation. In the first paragraph of this
essay, there are hints to Lee’s game: she is using the elements of drama--a form
made of talking--to construct her essay about Talking and Thinking. The reader
may have been frustrated when they believed they were reading an essay, but
it opens up when it is considered to be a form of drama, in the tradition of the
dramatic monologue and the reversal in the Shakespearean comedy. Lee has
pulled a kind of dramatic bait and switch, to play with the reader’s expectations
about Talking and Thinking--which makes them start thinking about form,
style, and even identity.
The key to this interpretation is her mention of Hamlet, the prince of the ram-
bling monologue. Hamlet is an example of a dramatic character who thinks
too much. As Lee puts it: “the career of Hamlet is frequently pointed out as a
proof of its unhappy effects.” Hamlet’s soliloquies are full of the same rambling
qualities as in Lee’s essay, like parenthetical aside to the audience in a line like
“(Though this is madness, there is method in it.)” He has over-thought his plan
in that scene with the players, and it backfires on him because he starts talking
too much and ruins the plan. Lee is not writing a critique of Hamlet, though;
she is taking her cues from him. In the opening sentence, she uses those same
stylistic features for her own version of the monologue: “As towards most other
things of which we have but little personal experience (foreigners, or socialists,
or aristocrats, as the case may be)...” This digression in the very first sentence
is a demonstration of how difficult it is to follow someone’s train of thought
when you are not inside their head. The monologue is evidence of “the generous
gaseousness of self-analysis, self-accusation, self-pity, self-righteousness, and
autobiography.” People start talking to try to communicate, but it only exag-
gerates the situation. It is easier to understand Lee, when you start to imagine
her acting as Hamlet in the midst of a talkative monologue about what he is
thinking.
There is more Shakespeare in the rest of her essay, because she has used one
of Shakespeare’s most famous devices of mixed-up twins. In Twelfth Night
and other plays, the twins Viola and Sebastian get mixed up for one another,
causing comic misunderstandings. The comic misunderstandings sound a lot
like the way that “talking is the great equalizer of positions, turning the humble,
the painfully immature, into judges with rope and torch; and in a kindlier way
allowing the totally obscure to share the life of kings, and queens, and generals,
and opera-singers.” Lee has described the plot of a Shakespearean comedy like
Twelfth Night or The Comedy of Errors. The twin reversal story causes mix-ups,
frustrations, confusions--interactions, in short. Lee writes: “In conversation,
clever young people vain, kindly, selfish, ridiculous, happy young people actually
take body and weight, expand.” The Talking Twin causes people to break out
of their monologues and talk to one another. When Lee lets the Talking Twin
take over in her writing, she creates a performance of exposing readers’ social


stereotypes about what should count as “proper” writing. Their judgments about
gender might also become clear as people judge her as a silly rambling woman.
Lee plays the villain, then, in making people wish they could have more
familiar, staid Thinking, only to pull off her mask and reveal the performance
of Talking, Talking, Talking to expose your prejudices about style. Readers may
have been muttering under their breath, talking to themselves about how frus-
trating her essay is to read. Lee addresses them at the end: “are you quite sure,”
she asks, “dear, mature, efficient, and thoroughly productive friends,” that your
own talking isn’t adding to that which you say you disdain, the talking rather
than reflecting on your own habits?
The author has a wonderful idea for reading Vernon Lee’s essay as though it were a dramatic mono-
logue, so that she may use the conventions of monologue and dramatic reversal to comment on style
as a kind of performance. Her reading of Hamlet’s digressions as compared with Lee’s is inspired and
thoughtful. The essay question asked for specific details from other forms of imaginative writing,
and this essay delivers those in large quantity. The paragraph about twins in Twelfth Night is less
persuasive because there are fewer specific details that connect the play and Lee’s sentences. The
author seems to realize that problem and starts to generalize about the role of the Twin plot, and so
finds a way out of that problem relatively gracefully.
It is also admirable that the author constructs the essay around a feature of Lee’s style that was ini-
tially off-putting. The author sets up the reconsideration with remarkable deftness in the opening
paragraph by using so many “dramatic” vocabulary words. That paragraph sets up a thoughtful thesis
paragraph about the function of the dramatic elements in Lee’s style. The reconsideration approach
allows for a dynamic structure: one gets the sense that the author is discovering little nuggets in Lee’s
sentences that were initially confounding. Some essays might try to prove that Lee is a good or bad
stylist; this essayist tries to change the initial perception with some reflection.
That’s a good gambit to follow in writing these kinds of essay exams: How can I show my reconsid-
eration of an idea, to see how it’s more complicated than it initially appeared?
5-6 Sample Essay
In her essay entitled, “Against Thinking,” the author Vernon Lee has a very
unusual style of writing like she is talking too quickly at a coffee shop. It seems
like she is writing her thoughts as they come to her in a free-write. This style
makes sense because she is arguing “against thinking” and for talking, so she
decides to write how she talks, without revising or going back to look at what
she wrote. She writes more about living life in the moment, which is an idea
that we see characters in novels like On the Road. Whereas, essays make argu-
ments and support them. Thus, she has a paradox of writing an essay that
doesn’t have any of the same goals of an essay. It makes a kind of paradoxical
sense that she has to use other genres to write an essay that is not an essay.
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She says that most people who want to be great thinkers have to go through
a phase of talking about their ideas before they produce anything. She quotes
about the “litter they leave behind, what mud pies they make and little daily
dug-up gardens of philosophy, ethics, literature, and general scandal; they will
grow out of the need to make them and meanwhile, making this sort of mess
will help them grow.” This essay is a mess that helps her “grow” as a writer, so it
makes sense that it is rambling and all over the place.
Lee’s essay is similar to Jack Kerouac’s novel/autobiography On the Road, which

he typed onto one continuous sheet of paper as he traveled around the United
States and Mexico. He wrote it like a letter to his friend, Neal Cassady. In
the novel, they have the names Sal and Dean Moriarity, and it is like they are
talking to each other the whole time about such subjects as jazz, sex, drugs,
Eastern religion, travel, and many other subjects. In On the Road, the value of
talking is expressed in the quote where he says that he likes “the mad ones” who
love to talk until they are worn out, like a firework that is brilliant until it’s dead.
Or it is like a jazz musician who talks through improvising. Most jazz improvi-
sation isn’t recorded, it’s another form of art that’s “against thinking,” and more
like a way of just being creative without worrying about someone else judging
it. Jazz musicians are like the people who are talking to practice in Vernon Lee’s
essay—that is how they grow. They are “the mad ones.”
This idea about On the Road is a demonstration of how an essay can be about
throwing ideas out there “like mud pies” because it’s more about creativity and
ideas, and not about making the ideas pretty or acceptable for other people.
Vernon Lee doesn’t care about people understanding her, she just wants to show
that talking matters more than arguing in a formal way. She is more like Sal and
Dean than anyone could have realized.

This author is onto a great idea in the first paragraph about how Lee is writing an essay that doesn’t
appear to be a conventional essay, so she has to look to other genres of writing for inspiration. That
argument would make for an excellent essay, if it were backed up with detailed analysis of how ele-
ments from those genres appear in her style. That was the essay question, in fact.
Instead, the author gives a perfunctory quotation and then writes her off with a superficial reading
of Lee’s essay. The author underestimates Lee’s style in saying that she “doesn’t care” about style,
only about random ideas or improvisation. It’s a mistake to believe that “Against Thinking” was just
free-writing that she didn’t revise. It’s also not a good strategic move on the author’s part: Lee’s essay
was picked for the exam for a reason, so it makes sense to take it seriously as a passage to analyze in
depth. Lee’s style, though unusual, is also highly stylized as an embellished, thrilling conversational
style. The essay question asked students to analyze that style, to not take it for granted.
The connection to On the Road is unexpected and could be useful as a minor example, but it takes
up too much space in the essay, because the writer seems more interested in writing about the


pleasures of Kerouac’s novel than analyzing Vernon Lee’s style. The essay goes off on a digression
and doesn’t recover.
If the author wanted to pursue the idea of On the Road, she might make some connections between
Sal and Dean as “twins” who are at odds about experience and reflection, in some of the same ways
that the twins of Talking and Thinking square off in Lee’s essay. Sal and Dean have many conversa-
tions that seem to upend social conventions in some of the same ways that Lee describes in her essay;
if one were really good at quoting Kerouac’s style about “the mad ones,” one could also compare
their digressive habits. (One could do something similar by thinking about Walt Whitman’s “Song
of Myself,” perhaps.) Any of those approaches would be a way to get this essay back on track—just
remember to focus on the passage itself, and not on a summary of a totally different work.
1-2 Sample Essay
This essay uses elements of other imaginative works like drama, literature, and
poetry, which makes it hard to read because it is a combination of so many dif-
ferent styles. The author is critical of Thinking, saying that Talking is better
because it is an easier way to communicate. After reading this essay, I would
recommend that the writer take some of her own advice and practice communi-
cating her ideas more clearly. She can eliminate some of the poetic or rambling
parts of her style so that others can understand her more clearly.
I think that is the point of this essay, though, that we will never be able to
communicate with each other clearly. The author is just making that idea in
an annoying, melodramatic way. In a quote that begins “I call them twins on
the analogy of Death and Sleep,” she puts in too many examples from poetry to
make her point clear--why does there need to be an analogy or twin characters
in an essay? She wants to make it seem more interesting by adding elements of
literature, drama, and/or poetry, but it just makes it more confusing.
For example, she can cut out the extra words and synonyms in a quote like “It
is reputed to impede action, to make hay of instincts and of standards, to fritter
reality into doubt.” All she is really saying is that thinking is wasteful, but she
ironically wastes a lot of words in order to get there. That is the irony of this
essay about the problems of talking to others, we can’t understand her.
This essay is limited by the author’s opinion, rather than analysis, of the passage. The task of the essay
is to analyze the literary elements of Lee’s essay, and although the author repeats the essay prompt
twice, the author is more interested in judging and even “editing” the passage. This judgment limits
what the author can do in more than one sentence or paragraph: there’s nowhere to go, because the
only idea here is that the essay is “annoying” or overwritten.
As with the 5-6 essay, the author needs to work more strategically here, and enter the essay under the
agreement that the passages are worth analyzing in depth, not just dismissing. The 8-9 essay author
started with a statement of skepticism about Lee’s style; however, the rest of the essay answered the
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question in depth by relating it to dramatic works that illuminated Lee’s unusual style. The 5-6 essay
author made a gesture toward doing that with the mention of On the Road, although that comparison
could have been more focused on textual comparison with Lee’s sentences.
This author doesn’t even make a gesture toward specifying any literary texts that it resembles. It may
be helpful to list a few possibilities, for those who are taking the sample exam and are frustrated by
Lee’s style. You could draw comparisons between her work and:
• examples of characters who talk rather than listen
• examples of elaborate interior monologues or first-person narrations
• unreliable narrations
• dramatic soliloquies
• comic monologues
• comic poems that play with language in a self-conscious way
Essay 3: Free Response

8-9 Sample Essay
In Ray Bradbury’s short story “The Third Expedition,” the archaeologist-rock-

etman Hinkston is asked a crazy question: can two societies on two different
planets, hundreds of years apart, evolve at the same rate to produce exactly the
same culture, architecture, technology, and even songs? Hinkston and the other
scientists are stunned to land on Mars in the 2030s and see that it looks exactly
like the 1950s midwest, down to the music playing. They experience a sense
of nostalgia, of coming home to a familiar space, but it is understandably con-
fusing. To solve the confusion, they try to use their scientific backgrounds and
habits of observation and experiment, leading to the story’s conflict between
science and nostalgia.
They would seem to be opposed, for science is rational but nostalgia is a feeling.
Science forms impersonal theories, while nostalgia tells personal stories. In “The
Third Expedition,” from The Martian Chronicles, Bradbury complicates those
oppositions by showing that the scientists succumb to the Martians’ nostalgia
trap because of their scientific backgrounds, not in spite of them. The two ways
of understanding the world are more linked than they seem. Both scientific
observation and nostalgia depend on intense observation of sensory details, and
they each depend on using past information to help make sense of the present.
In this way, science becomes the paradoxical way of enhancing one’s sense of
nostalgia--and thus of falling right in the trap set by the Martians’ nostalgic
glue-trap for the scientists to get stuck in.
At first, each of the scientists sees the nostalgic world through his own field of
science. The plant expert notices that the flowers were created in a laboratory


on earth in the 20th century, so it would be unlikely that the exact same plant
would be made on Mars 80 years later, especially in the thinner air. The archae-
ologist Hinkston wants to see this new world through his own desire to find a
kind of map for civilization, where they follow similar patterns. Speaking as a
scientist, he says “we have the proof before us, we just have to verify it.” Each
nostalgic detail that they take pleasure in seeing, hearing, touching, tasting
(like the lemonade), is a way that he verifies his theories. Hinkston says that
he doesn’t know “whether to laugh or cry,” because either option would be
incredible. Either they are getting to relive happy memories of the past, or they
are getting to achieve their scientific fantasies of discovery of a grand theory.
He loves conducting this scientific research and exploration because it lets him
indulge in both his nostalgia and his ambition.
Hinkston is talented at creating theories, depending on the new information

he comes across. This is another way that nostalgia and science are similar: they
are both about making sense of those sensory details with narratives about how
they came to be. Hinkston never stops coming up with alternate theories of
how the Martian Midwest came to be, showing how generative that habit of
rearranging information, observations, and hypotheses can be. Faced with the
other scientists’ skepticism, he abandons the theory of convergent evolution
on Mars. He proposes the idea that the reason the Martian town appears to
be frozen in the 1950s is because it is the work of 20th century scientists who
started building rockets earlier than anyone knew. They wanted to escape the
wars of the 20th century, so they built rockets and went to Mars. He also comes
up with another theory that it’s all a delusion of these 20th century explorers
who were nostalgic for earth and remade Mars. He doesn’t realize that he is
projecting his own nostalgia and delusion onto his proposed hypothesis. He
never hits on the best hypothesis, that it’s a trap designed to hit their psycho-
logical weaknesses via nostalgia. They confuse their nostalgic indulgence with
their own heightened abilities for observation and hypothesis.
Finally, what of that second root word in “nostalgia,” about pain. We don’t see
the deaths of the scientists, only their graves. All of Hinkston’s theories have an
underlying root--not just of his ambition to come up with grand theories, but of
his desire to cure pain. He comes up with psychological theories about humans
leaving earth to protest World War I and World War II because he wants pre-
vious scientists to have found a way to escape suffering and death. When they
see their relatives, they wonder if they’ve found a cure for death, grief, and suf-
fering, even if they know it’s implausible. They want a cure for grief. They think
they’ve found it, not realizing that they’ve entered into that familiar pain all
over again.
This essay takes a creative, independent approach to the free response question by looking at an
unusual form of nostalgia: scientific observation in Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles. Bradbury’s
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novels are full of nostalgia and science fictional detail, and this essay brings those two kinds of details
together under a plausible argument about the nostalgic elements of scientific observation. It’s a
well-argued essay with compelling readings of details from “The Third Expedition”—one wonders
if the essay might expand to consider this idea in other short stories from the collection.
In the final paragraph, the author seems to write toward a connection with the exam question about
the “pain” root of nostalgia. Nevertheless, the author recovers with a memorable final idea about the
desire for a cure for grief.
For those students who wish to emulate an essay like this one, it may be useful to follow the author’s
format of showing that two seemingly opposed concepts are not as opposed they appear, and to
frame the argument as: “in fact, these two opposed ideas actually enhance each other.” That format
is as familiar as dramatic irony: love and hate actually produce stronger emotions; ambition and fear
actually intensify both feelings; a scientific view of nature actually enhances one’s powers of obser-
vation. With that “formula,” the author was able to construct this argument to create a compelling
reading of the short story.
5-6 Sample Essay
The story ‘The Third Expedition” in The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
is an example of nostalgia that is both pleasurable and dangerous. In the story,
the scientists who are going to Mars are surprised when they land that Mars
looks like the United States, specifically Illinois, from the 1950s. It looks like
what they remember or what they heard about the past, since some of them
are younger and can only imagine what it would have looked like when theyre
grandparents lived there. Then they see their grandparents and other family
members, which is confusing but also exciting. It is like the past is living on
Mars. It is the pleasurable part of coming home and seeing the people you miss
and most want to see.
However, one of the scientists is not as sure as the others. He is the one who the
memories seem to be most important to because they come from his childhood,
when he can remember songs and Victorian houses, and other items from the
past. It seems to convenient to him. His dilemma in the nostalgia is whether to
find it pleasurable or painful. He doesn’t want to destroy the good times that the
other scientists are having with their families, but he also doesn’t know whether
it is a trick.
The reason it might be a trick is that the Martians might “hate” the Americans.
That is the word he uses: hate. Hate is a painful emotion that contrasts with
pleasure, that is the form that the pain and pleasure contrast takes in this story.
The reason that they would hate the Americans is that they could construct
some kind of mirage of all of their happy memories to trick them and then
they could use that mirage against them. They could make themselves appear
like the grandparents and brothers, and then use the nostalgia as a trap. That is
what the main scientist whose memories are the main mirage realizes, but it is
too late. He tries to escape by saying he is going to get a glass of water, but the


Martians tell him that he doesn’t want a glass of water and that is the last that is
heard of him.
The next scene is of the Martians around the graves of all of the scientists. The
trick worked, and the main Martian is a contrast to the scientist because he has
executed the plan. The reason that he is a contrast is that he can shift his face to
appear like a memory. Whereas, the scientist cannot shift his memories because
he is too nostalgic. The memories are unchanging for him because of the nos-
talgia, and that is the weakness that the Martians exploit.
There are other short stories in the Martian Chronicles that contain the theme
of nostalgia. For example, in the story The Fire Blooms, the priest compares
the sight of the rockets going to Mars to his nostalgia for the fireworks on the
4th of July when he was growing up. He uses this nostalgia to make a decision
about whether he should go to Mars. He knows that it will not be like going
home to the past, but he uses the nostalgic sense of familiarity to help him see
what he wants. Bradbury shows in this story that the nostalgia makes him make
the wrong decision because he is making decisions based on a fantasy.
In the narration in “The Third Expedition” and “The Fire Blooms,” Ray
Bradbury calls nostalgia a “myth,” showing that it is not real but it is powerful
for the scientists and for Father. He shows but doesn’t tell that it is painful and
dangerous too.
The author has chosen a good text to work with in The Martian Chronicles. This is an essay with
a lot of detail, but most of that detail is summary of “The Third Expedition.” The author has the
beginning of an idea in contrasting “pain” with the Martians’ “hatred” (which might be a form of
extracting pain from the humans), but that idea isn’t really explored in the essay. The author would
have had more success with analysis of the story, rather than just stating the examples of nostalgia
in the plots of the two stories and restating the exam question.
In the fourth paragraph, there’s another potentially interesting idea about how one might be able
to change one’s nostalgia. The author mentions that the Martian in charge is able to shift his face,
referring to how the Martians seem to shift away from their human forms once the scientists have
been killed. The author notes that the Martian is able to change, but the scientist is not. The scientist’s
memory stays the same, which makes him susceptible to the nostalgia trick. This idea is potentially
compelling for thinking about how nostalgia can change shape, like the Martians themselves. With
less plot summary and perhaps a comparison to another story in the volume, the author might be
onto something.
(Note that the title of the second story is “The Fire Balloons,” not the “The Fire Blooms.”)
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1-2 Sample Essay
The theme of nostalgia is explored in Ray Bradbury’s novel The Martian

Chronicles. There are many stories about humans going to Mars expecting it
will be like their hometowns on Earth. Why they believe that is irrational, but
they do believe it. Their nostalgia gets in the way of rational thinking about
what Mars will really be like. It is ironic that the scientists become the most
irrational thinkers.
Ray Bradbury has different characters who are nostalgic in the stories. The sci-
entists in “The Third Expedition” are nostalgic for the towns they grew up in,
and they don’t even become suspicious when it starts to seem too perfect. They
aren’t using their brains when they see their old relatives who died a long time
ago, even though they are supposed to be conducting a scientific exploration.
All of the characters act like this. It makes more sense that the priest in another
story might act like this, because he sees the world through his personal beliefs.
The priest decides to go to Mars because they need people who believe in the
new colony. But even he is overcome with the deleterious effects of nostalgia.
Bradbury gives a counterexample when he talks about the beings that actually
live on Mars without human contact. In the story with Ylla, there is no nos-
talgia at first because Yll and Ylla have had no human contact. Their pain
doesn’t start until Ylla meets one of the Earth explorers who brings his pain
with him. The counterexample shows the argument best: nostalgia is a negative
emotion that leads people to act against their best interests.
The message in the stories is simple: Humans shouldn’t impose their nostalgia
onto other planets. We’ve already screwed up one Earth, so they should not
make other planets in our own wishes and memories of the past.
The author of this essay uses the prompt to make an argument about whether nostalgia is good or
bad, and in so doing misses the point of Bradbury’s nostalgic scientists and how they meet their
doom on Mars. In giving the root words of nostalgia, the question sets up a tension between home
and pain. A more successful essay would have dealt with the scientists’ conflicting desires for home
and their exploration, between their “rationality” and their human qualities (including their desire
to beat death and see loved ones again). This author rejects all of those tensions, in a misreading of
Bradbury’s ingenious blending of nostalgia for the past and interest in what the future might look
like. The takeaways from this black-and-white, judgmental essay are that you should resist trying
to find a single “should” from the essay, and one should find the complex parts of the stories instead
of trying to show that they’re simple.
On a stylistic note, it’s important to name the stories and give more details from “The Fire Balloons,”
for even some explanation of details might help you find those complexities that you need to write
a longer, more nuanced essay.

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Peterson’s Master AP U.S. History

PART I: AP® ENGLISH LITERATURE AND

PART II: AP® ENGLISH LITERATURE AND

How to Read Nonfiction Prose.............................................................................. 94

PART III: THREE PRACTICE TESTS

Master the™ AP® English Literature and Composition Exam

HOW THIS BOOK IS ORGANIZED

SPECIAL STUDY FEATURES

HOW TO PLAN FOR YOUR TEST USING THIS BOOK

YOU’RE WELL ON YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS

GIVE US YOUR FEEDBACK

Master the™ AP® English Literature and Composition Exam

Excerpt from “Ode to a Nightingale,” by John Keats

Excerpt from “Philomela,” by Matthew Arnold

Excerpt from Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare

Excerpt from “Amoretti LXXV,” by Edmund Spenser

Excerpt from “London, 1802,” by William Wordsworth

“Villanelle,” by Edmund Gosse

Excerpt from “The Bells,” by Edgar Allan Poe

“I Am!,” by John Clare

Excerpt from “My Last Duchess,” by Robert Browning

“Sonnet 116,” by William Shakespeare

“The Tree” by Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea

“Long-Legged Fly,” by William Butler Yeats

Excerpt from Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, by James Weldon Johnson

Excerpt from Oroonoko, by Aphra Behn

Excerpt from Karain: A Memory, by Joseph Conrad

Excerpt from The Haunted Mind,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Excerpt from Persuasion, by Jane Austen

Excerpt from Middlemarch, by George Eliot

Excerpt from English Hours, by Henry James

Excerpt from King Lear, by William Shakespeare

Excerpt from The Rivals, by Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Excerpt from The Story of an African Farm, by Olive Schreiner

Excerpt from Gulliver’s Travels, by Jonathan Swift

Excerpt from Confession to a Friend in Trouble, by Thomas Hardy

Excerpt from Mardi, by Herman Melville

Excerpt from The Custom of the Country, by Edith Wharton

Excerpt from “The Wanderer,” by Richard Savage

“Sonnet LXX,” by Charlotte Smith

“Bluebeard,” by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Excerpt from The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins

“Candle-Lightin’ Time” and “Confirmation” by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Excerpt from The Female Quixote, by Charlotte Lennox

“Volpone,” by Ben Jonson

Excerpt from The Song of the Lark, by Willa Cather

Excerpt from New Grub Street, by George Gissing

Prologue of She Stoops to Conquer, by David Garrick on Oliver Goldsmith

“Lines Composed in a Concert Hall,” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Excerpt from The Library Window, by Margaret Oliphant

Master the™ AP® English Literature and Composition Exam

Excerpt from Shadowings, by Lafcadio Hearn

“On Recollection,” by Phillis Wheatley

Excerpt from Villette, by Charlotte Brontë

“The Word of an Engineer,” by James Weldon Johnson

Excerpt from “Against Thinking,” by Vernon Lee

PART I: AP® ENGLISH LITERATURE AND

PART II: AP® ENGLISH LITERATURE AND