Week 2: Poetry Practical
Save this file to your computer, then head a new Word document “Week 2
practical”, give your name and student number, and then copy-paste the poem and
questions into the new file. Answer the questions by underlining the most accurate
answer to each of the 25 questions.
When you are finished, save and submit this new document via clickUP (the filename
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system). Look for the folder “Worksheets: Submit via TurnItIn”. In there you will
find information about how to submit work to TurnItIn – as well as the link via
which to upload “Week 2 practical worksheet” to the system.
The closing date and time for the worksheet is 8 pm on Wednesday 1 March 2023.
No late submissions can be accepted, so be sure to upload your file well before the
deadline. Worksheets may not be emailed to the co-ordinator, your practical
facilitator or the lecturer. These will simply be deleted.
Shakespeare: Sonnet 18
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Introduction
1. In this poem the poet speaker considers comparing someone
(a) to the sun.
(b) to death.
(c) to a day in summer.
(d) to a contract.
2. In the comparison, the person is described as being
(a) better than the thing s/he is compared to.
(b) as good as the thing s/he is compared to.
(c) not as good as the thing s/he is compared to.
(d) the complete opposite of the thing s/he is compared to.
3. The poem is
(a) A ballad.
(b) an Italian sonnet.
(c) A Spenserian sonnet.
(d) A Shakespearian sonnet.
4. The metre of the poem is
(a) iambic tetrameter.
(b) iambic pentameter.
(c) trochaic pentameter.
(d) irregular.
5. The rhyme scheme of the poem is
(a) abbaabbacdcdee.
(b) abcdabcddcbaef.
(c) ababcdcdefefgg.
(d) None of the above.
6. The poem has a final
(a) triplet.
(b) quatrain.
(c) octave.
(d) couplet.
Body of the Analysis
7. In the first four lines we are told that
(a) summer is not necessarily perfect.
(b) summer doesn’t last forever.
(c) the person addressed is better than summer.
(d) all of the above.
8. Line 2 contains
(a) onomatopoeia.
(b) personification.
(c) repetition.
(d) a simile.
9. Line 3 means that
(a) the weather is always stormy in May.
(b) beautiful things are best when they are threatened.
(c) May’s breasts are heaving.
(d) none of the above.
10. In line 4 the words `summer’ and `short’ are linked by
(a) consonance.
(b) alliteration.
(c) assonance.
(d) no sound effect.
11. The second four lines are best summarized by
(a) the sun can be too hot or not hot enough.
(b) age and change make lasting perfection impossible.
(c) all beautiful things must be celebrated.
(d) inner beauty is what really matters.
12. The `eye of heaven’ is
(a) the sun.
(b) the beloved’s eye.
(c) the eye of God.
(d) a daisy (day’s eye).
13. Line 6 contains
(a) an inverted first foot.
(b) a metaphor.
(c) personification.
(d) alliteration.
14. The effect of the device mentioned above is
(a) to make the beloved seem very precious.
(b) to make the words sound like summer bird song.
(c) to emphasize the line.
(d) to link the sun and the human beloved.
15. In lines 9 to 12 we are told that
(a) the beloved should not boast of his/her beauty.
(b) that it is always seems like summer where the beloved is.
(c) that the beloved will never die.
(d) that poetry will preserve the life and beauty of the beloved.
16. The way the argument changes in these lines
(a) is very unusual for a sonnet.
(b) echoes the rigmarole in Spenserian sonnets.
(c) Makes the poem seem rather disjointed.
(d) echoes the volta in Italian sonnets.
17. In line 11 shade is mentioned because
(a) death offers cool relief after the pain of life.
(b) the poet’s success will overshadow the beloved’s beauty.
(c) life is associated with light and death with darkness.
(d) the poem’s shadow reaches into the future.
18. Death is described as bragging because
(a) this is a frightening word.
(b) the poet disapproves of boasting.
(c) this makes death seem more human and less threatening.
(d) all of the above.
19. `Eternal lines’ in line 12 refers to
(a) the poem.
(b) wrinkles.
(c) queues of people desperate for immortality.
(d) our inevitable progress towards death.
20. `Time’ in line 12 refers to
(a) the future.
(b) Death.
(c) the poet.
(d) the beloved’s fading beauty.
21. `This’ in the final line refers to
(a) the love the poet feels for the beloved.
(b) the beloved’s beauty.
(c) the beloved’s goodness.
(d) the poem.
22. The last two lines of the poem are different because
(a) pair rhyme is used for the first time.
(b) the metre changes.
(c) the poet’s argument changes completely.
(d) the poet stops being serious.
23. The repetition of `so long’ in the last lines is an example of
(a) onomatopoeia.
(b) synecdoche.
(c) anaphora.
(d) syncopation.
24. The effect of this repetition is to
(a) slow the lines down.
(b) emphasise the lines.
(c) stress the poet speaker’s conviction.
(d) all of the above.
Conclusion
25 The theme of this poem is that
(a) beauty is only skin deep.
(b) death is unavoidable.
(c) poetry is stronger than death.
(d) love is stronger than death.
