Modern Poetry and Poetics

Generally speaking, African-American themes were very rare in white modernist poetry. Which of the following white poets attempted to evoke elements of black experience in his or her poems ?

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Generally speaking, African-American themes were very rare in white modernist poetry. Which of the following white poets attempted to evoke elements of black experience in his or her poems ?

A. H.D.
B. Hart Crane
C. William Carlos Williams
D. T.S. Eliot

Complete the following sentence. Poetic images which idealize war and ascribe spiritual qualities to battle can be found primarily in English poems written_______________?

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Complete the following sentence. Poetic images which idealize war and ascribe spiritual qualities to battle can be found primarily in English poems written_______________?

A. around 1900.
B. in the early stages of World War I.
C. in the late stages of World War I.
D. in the 1920s.

Which of the following images in Arthur Rimbaud’s poem “Eternity” undermines the idea that eternity is something fixed and permanent ?

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Which of the following images in Arthur Rimbaud’s poem “Eternity” undermines the idea that eternity is something fixed and permanent ?

A. The image of a sentinel
B. The image of the sun reflected on the sea
C. The image of a quest for knowledge
D. The image of satiny embers

Professor Hammer argues that in a certain sense Wallace Stevens’s poetry is always meta-poetry. What does this mean ?

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Professor Hammer argues that in a certain sense Wallace Stevens’s poetry is always meta-poetry. What does this mean ?

A. Stevens’s poetry is primarily, though not explicitly, concerned with metaphysics.
B. Stevens’s poetry investigates its own rules.
C. Stevens’s poetry always addresses several different audiences.
D. Stevens’s poetry highlights an objective voice.

In the first lecture of his Modern Poetry course, what argument does Professor Langdon Hammer make about the relationship between the modern city and poetic modernism ?

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In the first lecture of his Modern Poetry course, what argument does Professor Langdon Hammer make about the relationship between the modern city and poetic modernism ?

A. Most modernist poets lived in large cities; therefore, they often used urban imagery in their poetry.
B. Many languages and many forms of language were used in large cities; modernist poets often treated language not as something given and natural but as a construct which they could manipulate.
C. Individuals often felt lost and alienated in large cities, and among poets this resulted in turning inward and focusing only on the world of one’s own imagination.
D. All of these answers

Which of the following statements best characterizes Ezra Pound’s poem “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley” ?

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Which of the following statements best characterizes Ezra Pound’s poem “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley” ?

A. It is primarily a narrative poem.
B. It uses iambic pentameter to achieve tonal fluidity.
C. It undermines the idea of a single lyrical voice by using diverse cultural symbols and numerous phrases in various languages.
D. Its intensity derives from the combination of modern subject matter and alexandrine couplets.

According to Langston Hughes’s essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” (his answer to George Schuyler’s essay “Negro Art Hokum”), what is the “mountain” that stands in the way of “any true Negro art in America” ?

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According to Langston Hughes’s essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” (his answer to George Schuyler’s essay “Negro Art Hokum”), what is the “mountain” that stands in the way of “any true Negro art in America” ?

A. It is the racial discrimination endemic in the white community.
B. It is the racial segregation in the South.
C. It is a widespread “urge toward whiteness” among African Americans.
D. It is a widespread “urge to incorporate and neutralize other cultures” among white Americans.

Which of the following descriptors does NOT apply to the features of French Symbolist poetry that influenced other modernist poetry ?

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Which of the following descriptors does NOT apply to the features of French Symbolist poetry that influenced other modernist poetry ?

A. French Symbolist poetry is full of exaggerated metaphors.
B. French Symbolist poetry has narrative clarity.
C. French Symbolist poetry is shocking.
D. French Symbolist poetry is formally experimental.