Town and Country quiz – revising the poems
Please add in annotations to the poems if/when you see fit as you are answering these questions
London
- What does Blake notice in every face he meets? (weakness, woe or sorrow)
- TRUE OR FALSE:
‘Mind-forged manacles’ are chains created by minds which have been oppressed or brainwashed
They are a special type of clothing people wore in Blake’s time.
- Why did the chimney sweeper’s cry ‘appall’ or shame the church?
a) because the people in the church cried when they saw chimney sweepers
b) because the church employed chimney sweepers and used them as slave labour to make a profit for the church
- The ‘youthful harlot’s curse’ is:
a) Venereal disease that infected young prostitutes
b) A lucky charm that horses wore
c) A type of food people ate
- Marriage in Blake’s time was a ‘hearse’ because
a) hearses carried coffins and therefore marriages were like funerals
b) hearses were nice cars that everyone wanted to drive and therefore everyone loved being married
IF YOU DON’T FULLY UNDERSTAND THIS POEM, YOU SHOULD ALSO: summarise in five lines what the poem is about, using two quotes.
The World
Christina Rossetti thinks that the World has snakes in her hair because
a) Rossetti likes snakes and wants them as pets
b) Rossetti hates snakes and thinks that the world is like the Greek monster Medusa who had snakes in her hair.
Christina Rossetti thinks that the world is very nice during the day because
a) she woos her with ‘ripe fruits’, ‘sweet flowers’
b) she gives her lots of work to do
Christina Rossetti thinks that the world lies to her during the day because
a) at night the truth of the world appears
b) the world wants to take her money
Christina Rossetti believes that the world will turn her into:
a) a cow
b) a rabbit
c) the devil
IF YOU DON’T FULLY UNDERSTAND THIS POEM, YOU SHOULD ALSO: summarise in five lines what the poem is about, using two quotes.
The Song of the Shirt
Thomas Hood has written a protest poem here. He is protesting about:
a) rich people’s clothes being of poor quality
b) rich people’s clothes being made by slave labour in sweat shops
Thomas Hood uses a great deal of repetition because
a) he can’t think of anything else to say
b) to emphasize his key theme of the injustice of the work the lady has to do
Thomas Hood gets the woman to sing a song because
a) it will make her message more powerful
b) he wanted to be a musician
IF YOU DON’T FULLY UNDERSTAND THIS POEM, YOU SHOULD ALSO: summarise in five lines what the poem is about, using two quotes.
A Dead Harvest in Kensington Gardens
This poem is about:
a) people living miserable lives in the city and being treated like a ‘dead harvest’
b) how nice the countryside is and how horrible the city is
c) how horrible the countryside is and how nice the city is
When the poet talks about a futile crop, she uses this metaphor because
a) she wants to make a comparison between a ‘useless’ crop and the people of the town
b) she wants to complain about a very bad harvest and nothing to eat
The town’s lives are like leaves on the breeze because
a) leaves are old and smelly
b) leaves are symbols for the wasted lives of the people of the city
IF YOU DON’T FULLY UNDERSTAND THIS POEM, YOU SHOULD ALSO: summarise in five lines what the poem is about, using two quotes.
Composed Upon Westminster Bridge
- Wordsworth has written this poem because
a) he hates London and wants to present it as having a heart-attack
b) he loves London and wants to spend all his money in its shops
c) he is seeing London for the first time at dawn and wishes to paint a picture in words of its beauty
Wordsworth personifies the City as:
a) a giant who is dying
b) a woman who is wearing the morning like ‘garment’
Wordsworth is very happy because
a) he has won the lottery
b) he is seeing a sight the like of which has never been seen before
c) he is in love with a woman
IF YOU DON’T FULLY UNDERSTAND THIS POEM, YOU SHOULD ALSO: summarise in five lines what the poem is about, using two quotes.
Conveyancing
Thomas Hood wrote this poem because
a) he wanted to present the world of travel in a humorous fashion
b) he wanted to complain about spending too much time on the bus
Thomas Hood talks about ‘conveying’ and ‘conveyancing’ which means:
a) swimming in a pool
b) measuring things
c) travelling from place to place
Thomas Hood makes lots of jokes in this poem. Pick out TWO puns that are particularly painful.
Thomas Hood advises against going on stage coaches because they will
a) cost too much money
b) make you feel sick
Thomas Hood advises against going on a ‘Gurney’ or locomotive because
a) you will get covered in soot
b) you might die when the engine explodes
Thomas Hood complains about the omnibus because
a) it’s too crowded
b) it’s too smelly
Thomas Hood has something stolen at the end of the poem. What is it?
IF YOU DON’T FULLY UNDERSTAND THIS POEM, YOU SHOULD ALSO: summarise in five lines what the poem is about, using two quotes.
Symphony in Yellow
Oscar Wilde wrote this poem because
a) he wanted to tell people about the drugs he’d been taking
b) he wanted to present the city as surreal
c) he wanted to tell us about meeting his friends by the Thames
Oscar Wilde makes a number of strange comparisons in this poem. Pick out TWO strange comparisons and say why he makes them.
IF YOU DON’T FULLY UNDERSTAND THIS POEM, YOU SHOULD ALSO: summarise in five lines what the poem is about, using two quotes.
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
Yeats wrote this poem because he wanted:
a) lots of tourists to go to Innisfree
b) to talk about how Innisfree gives him inner peace ‘deep in his heart’s core’
c) he wanted to tell people about his love of beans
Yeats uses alliteration and onomatopoeia in this poem. Pick out ONE example of alliteration and ONE example of onomatopoeia and say why Yeats uses it.
IF YOU DON’T FULLY UNDERSTAND THIS POEM, YOU SHOULD ALSO: summarise in five lines what the poem is about, using two quotes.
Binsey Poplars
Hopkins wrote this poem because;
a) he wanted people to visit his favourite trees in Binsey
b) he wanted to complain and lament the chopping down of his favourite trees in Binsey
c) he wanted to tell his lover that he preferred trees to her
Hopkins uses a great deal of alliteration in this poem. Pick out one example of this and say WHY he uses it.
Hopkins makes a comparison in this poem, saying that chopping down the trees is like putting a needle into your eye. He makes this comparison because:
a) he thought people needed eye surgery
b) he wanted to show that the countryside was just as delicate as an eye
c) he was blinded when an angry student stabbed him in the eye
IF YOU DON’T FULLY UNDERSTAND THIS POEM, YOU SHOULD ALSO: summarise in five lines what the poem is about, using two quotes.
On Wenlock Edge
Houseman wrote this poem because:
a) he wanted people to know that Wenlock Edge is very windy
b) he wanted to show how he is just as miserable as a Roman soldier on Wenlock Edge two thousand years ago
Houseman says ‘the tree of man’ is never quiet because:
a) he is saying all mankind is linked by its misery
b) men like growing trees
Houseman compares the gale on Wenlock Edge to:
a) the gale that blows through all of us when we are unhappy
b) gales in other parts of the world
IF YOU DON’T FULLY UNDERSTAND THIS POEM, YOU SHOULD ALSO: summarise in five lines what the poem is about, using two quotes.
The Way Through The Woods
Kipling says that there was once a way through the woods but there isn’t now. Who is the only person who sees the way through the woods?
It is possible to see the way through the woods, when and where is this possible?
IF YOU DON’T FULLY UNDERSTAND THIS POEM, YOU SHOULD ALSO: summarise in five lines what the poem is about, using two quotes.
Beeny Cliff
Hardy wrote this poem because:
a) he wanted to complain about his wife dying
b) he wanted to remember the happy times he and his wife had on Beeny Cliff
c) he wanted Beeny Cliff to fall into the sea.
His loved one rides a pony and has her hair flapping free. This imagery suggests his wife is:
a) beautiful
b) stupid
c) very keen to go site-seeing
Hardy says his wife is ‘elsewhere’. This means his wife is:
a) in Dorset
b) in London
c) dead
IF YOU DON’T FULLY UNDERSTAND THIS POEM, YOU SHOULD ALSO: summarise in five lines what the poem is about, using two quotes.
The Eagle
Tennyson wrote this poem because
a) he wanted to present the Eagle as ‘majestic’ specimen of nature, personifying him as a god.
b) He wanted to point out the Eagle is a threatened species
Tennyson uses a simile in this poem ‘like a thunderbolt’ because:
a) he wanted to compare the Eagle to a sad storm
b) he wanted to compare the Eagle to a very powerful phenomenon in nature
IF YOU DON’T FULLY UNDERSTAND THIS POEM, YOU SHOULD ALSO: summarise in five lines what the poem is about, using two quotes.
To Autumn
Keats wrote To Autumn because:
a) he wanted to convey the beauty of autumn in language
b) to show terrible autumn was compared to summer and spring
Keats personifies Autumn as (tick the right answer):
a) a very good friend of the sun
b) a druggy farm worker who has finished his/her work for the day, and smoked some opium
c) a nasty old man
d) a bossy middle-aged woman with leaves in her hair
IF YOU DON’T FULLY UNDERSTAND THIS POEM, YOU SHOULD ALSO: summarise in five lines what the poem is about, using two quotes.
The Passionate Shepherd To His Love and The Nymph’s Reply
These two poems are often grouped together because:
a) they were written by the same person
b) they are exactly the same in their attitudes
c) they about the same people and use the same imagery and verse forms
The Passionate Shepherd tries to persuade his loved one to live with him by:
a) promising her lovely clothes and a lovely place to live
b) explaining that he’s got a ‘fit’ body
c) explaining that he is a famous person
The Nymph replies in Raleigh’s poem, saying:
a) she would love to live with him
b) she doesn’t want to live with him because she believes that he won’t keep his promises and that summer won’t last, nor will her clothes
IF YOU DON’T FULLY UNDERSTAND THIS POEM, YOU SHOULD ALSO: summarise in five lines what the poem is about, using two quotes.
