University : Gauhati University
Degree : M.A English
Question Paper Subject:ENGLISH SECOND PAPER
(New syllabus)
(Poetry I: Chaucer to Romantics)
1. Write essay-type answers for any four of the following: 15×4=60
a) Analyze Chaucer's reasons for structuring the Prologue to the Canterbury
Tales in the manner of a 'gallery'. Comment, with illustrations from the text,
on his choice of characters-in terms of inclusion and omission.
b) Discuss the 'addressee' in Shakespeare's sonnets. Would you say that they
'personalize' the poems? Answer with adequate examples from your text.
c) Assess the 'I-thou' relationship within the format of John Donne's poems.
Would you say that these are merely intellectual exercises rather than love
poetry?
d) Note how both Dryden and Pope bring in the personal into the public sphere
in terms of their handling of social satire. Discuss the similarities and
differences of their approaches with reference to their poems.
e) Write an. essay on Blake's, representation of 'God'/'divinity' in the Songs of
Innocence and Experience. Illustrate your answer with reference to the
symbols he uses in his poetry.
f) Contrast the images and stylistic devices used by Wordsworth (in Composed
upon Westminster Bridge) and Byron (in Bk XI, Don Juan) in their
rendering of their ideas of contemporary London. How do they achieve their
effects in two entirely different genres (the lyric vis-à-vis narrative verse)?
g) "I fall upon the thorns of life/l bleed ... is a phrase that made Shelley
notorious in modernist critical assessments. Discuss the reasons for this with
examples from the text.
h) Trace the ideas of 'forgetfulness' and 'memory' evoked by Keats in Ode to a
Nightingale. How do they contribute to notions of 'romantic melancholy'
that is discernible in the period when he was writing?
2. Write short notes on any two of the following: 5×2=10
a) The Shakespearean Sonnet
b) Narrative Poetry of the Romantic Period
c) The use of the Heroic Couplet in Poetry
d) Conceits in Metaphysical Poetry
3. Answer, with reference to the context, any two of the following: 5×2=10
a) "Oh carve not with thy hours my
love's fair brow,
Nor draw no lines there with thine
antique pen..."
b) "Thou'rt slave to fate, chance, kings,
and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war,
and sickness dwell;
And poppy or charms can make us
sleep as well
And better than thy stroke..."
(c) "The hum of multitudes was there,
but multitudes of lambs,
Thousands of little boys and girls
raising their innocent hands."
(d) "Where queens are formed and future
heroes bred,
Where unfledged actors learn to laugh
and cry,
Where infant punks their tender voices try,
And little Maximins the gods defy."
(Old syllabus)
(Poetry)
Write the answers to the two Halves in separate books
FIRST HALF
4. Answer any two of the following: l0×2=20
a) Locate the allusions in The Faerie Queene within the contextual historical
milieu, and the figure of Elizabeth I. Cite examples from the text to make your
point.
b) Examine Chaucer's stance on the ecclesiastical characters in The Prologue with
illustrations from the text.
c) Analyze the paradoxes within the arguments that are put forward in the love
poetry of John Donne, and comment on the manner in which he engages with
them.
d) How do you think satirists like Pope and Dryden project their 'selves' within
their critique of the society? Compare their techniques and poetic devices with
'adequate examples.
e) Assess Wordsworth's handling of the notion of 'fear; that is associated with
nature in Bks I and II of The Prelude.
5. Write short notes on/Answer the following (any four): 5×4=20
(a) The design of The Canterbury Tales as it begins to unfold in The Prologue
(b) The notion of mutability and time in Shakespeare's sonnets
(c) The 'playful' and. complex imagery of Herbert's religious verse
(d) The particular use of symbols in Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience
(e) Keats's ideas of forgetfulness and memory in the Odes
(f) The narrative devices used by Byron in Don Juan
(g) Explain with reference to the context:
"Where are the songs of spring?
Ay, where are they?
Think not of them-thou hast thy
music too ..."
6. Answer any two of the following questions: 14×2=28
a) "Tennyson is the most representative poet of the Victorian period."
Discuss with reference to In Memoriam
b) Evaluate Browning’s handling of the Dramatic Monologue with special
reference to the relevant poems prescribed for you.
c) Bring out the salient features of hardy’s lyrical poetry from your reading of his
poems prescribed for you.
d) Characterize the mature style of Yeats’s poetry with special reference to
Byzantium and Sailing to Byzantium.
e) Discuss the salient features of Auden’s poetry with special reference to the poems
prescribed for you.
f) Write brief critical appreciations of any two of the following poems:
(i) Poem in October
(ii) Thrushes
(iii) Church Going
(iv) Dover Beach
(v) Felix Randall
7. Explain, any two of the following, with reference to their contexts: 6×2=12
(a) That's the appropriate country;
there man's thought
Rarers intenser,
Self-gathered for an outbreak, as it ought,
Chafes in the censer.
(b) When lovely woman stoops to folly and
Paces about her room again, alone,
She smooths her hair with automatic hand,
And puts a record on the gramophone.
(c) And may her bridegroom bring
her to a house
Where all's accustomed, ceremonious;
For arrogance and hatred are the wares
Peddled in the thoroughfares.
(d) It was my thirtieth
Year to heaven stood there then
in the summer noon
Though the town below lay leaved with
. October blood.
Degree : M.A English
Question Paper Subject:ENGLISH SECOND PAPER
Question Paper Year : 2007
Question Paper Details : Previous Years Question Papers Types Version
ENGLISH
SECOND PAPER
Full Marks: 80
Time: 3 hours
The figures in the margin indicate full marks for the questions(New syllabus)
(Poetry I: Chaucer to Romantics)
1. Write essay-type answers for any four of the following: 15×4=60
a) Analyze Chaucer's reasons for structuring the Prologue to the Canterbury
Tales in the manner of a 'gallery'. Comment, with illustrations from the text,
on his choice of characters-in terms of inclusion and omission.
b) Discuss the 'addressee' in Shakespeare's sonnets. Would you say that they
'personalize' the poems? Answer with adequate examples from your text.
c) Assess the 'I-thou' relationship within the format of John Donne's poems.
Would you say that these are merely intellectual exercises rather than love
poetry?
d) Note how both Dryden and Pope bring in the personal into the public sphere
in terms of their handling of social satire. Discuss the similarities and
differences of their approaches with reference to their poems.
e) Write an. essay on Blake's, representation of 'God'/'divinity' in the Songs of
Innocence and Experience. Illustrate your answer with reference to the
symbols he uses in his poetry.
f) Contrast the images and stylistic devices used by Wordsworth (in Composed
upon Westminster Bridge) and Byron (in Bk XI, Don Juan) in their
rendering of their ideas of contemporary London. How do they achieve their
effects in two entirely different genres (the lyric vis-à-vis narrative verse)?
g) "I fall upon the thorns of life/l bleed ... is a phrase that made Shelley
notorious in modernist critical assessments. Discuss the reasons for this with
examples from the text.
h) Trace the ideas of 'forgetfulness' and 'memory' evoked by Keats in Ode to a
Nightingale. How do they contribute to notions of 'romantic melancholy'
that is discernible in the period when he was writing?
2. Write short notes on any two of the following: 5×2=10
a) The Shakespearean Sonnet
b) Narrative Poetry of the Romantic Period
c) The use of the Heroic Couplet in Poetry
d) Conceits in Metaphysical Poetry
3. Answer, with reference to the context, any two of the following: 5×2=10
a) "Oh carve not with thy hours my
love's fair brow,
Nor draw no lines there with thine
antique pen..."
b) "Thou'rt slave to fate, chance, kings,
and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war,
and sickness dwell;
And poppy or charms can make us
sleep as well
And better than thy stroke..."
(c) "The hum of multitudes was there,
but multitudes of lambs,
Thousands of little boys and girls
raising their innocent hands."
(d) "Where queens are formed and future
heroes bred,
Where unfledged actors learn to laugh
and cry,
Where infant punks their tender voices try,
And little Maximins the gods defy."
(Old syllabus)
(Poetry)
Write the answers to the two Halves in separate books
FIRST HALF
4. Answer any two of the following: l0×2=20
a) Locate the allusions in The Faerie Queene within the contextual historical
milieu, and the figure of Elizabeth I. Cite examples from the text to make your
point.
b) Examine Chaucer's stance on the ecclesiastical characters in The Prologue with
illustrations from the text.
c) Analyze the paradoxes within the arguments that are put forward in the love
poetry of John Donne, and comment on the manner in which he engages with
them.
d) How do you think satirists like Pope and Dryden project their 'selves' within
their critique of the society? Compare their techniques and poetic devices with
'adequate examples.
e) Assess Wordsworth's handling of the notion of 'fear; that is associated with
nature in Bks I and II of The Prelude.
5. Write short notes on/Answer the following (any four): 5×4=20
(a) The design of The Canterbury Tales as it begins to unfold in The Prologue
(b) The notion of mutability and time in Shakespeare's sonnets
(c) The 'playful' and. complex imagery of Herbert's religious verse
(d) The particular use of symbols in Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience
(e) Keats's ideas of forgetfulness and memory in the Odes
(f) The narrative devices used by Byron in Don Juan
(g) Explain with reference to the context:
"Where are the songs of spring?
Ay, where are they?
Think not of them-thou hast thy
music too ..."
6. Answer any two of the following questions: 14×2=28
a) "Tennyson is the most representative poet of the Victorian period."
Discuss with reference to In Memoriam
b) Evaluate Browning’s handling of the Dramatic Monologue with special
reference to the relevant poems prescribed for you.
c) Bring out the salient features of hardy’s lyrical poetry from your reading of his
poems prescribed for you.
d) Characterize the mature style of Yeats’s poetry with special reference to
Byzantium and Sailing to Byzantium.
e) Discuss the salient features of Auden’s poetry with special reference to the poems
prescribed for you.
f) Write brief critical appreciations of any two of the following poems:
(i) Poem in October
(ii) Thrushes
(iii) Church Going
(iv) Dover Beach
(v) Felix Randall
7. Explain, any two of the following, with reference to their contexts: 6×2=12
(a) That's the appropriate country;
there man's thought
Rarers intenser,
Self-gathered for an outbreak, as it ought,
Chafes in the censer.
(b) When lovely woman stoops to folly and
Paces about her room again, alone,
She smooths her hair with automatic hand,
And puts a record on the gramophone.
(c) And may her bridegroom bring
her to a house
Where all's accustomed, ceremonious;
For arrogance and hatred are the wares
Peddled in the thoroughfares.
(d) It was my thirtieth
Year to heaven stood there then
in the summer noon
Though the town below lay leaved with
. October blood.
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