John Keats (1795-1821)
Ode on a Grecian Urn [1819]
Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of Silence and slow Time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? what maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal--yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!
Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;
And, happy melodist, unwearied,
For ever piping songs for ever new;
More happy love! more happy, happy love!
For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,
For ever panting, and for ever young;
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd,
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.
Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
What little town by river or sea shore,
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.
O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede
Of marble men and maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
'Beauty is truth, truth beauty'--that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
Questions for Discussion
1. An ode is a poem
A) that tells a story.
B) that is serious in subject and dignified in style.
C) in which one character is speaking to another.
D) consisting of fourteen rhymed lines of iambic pentameter.
2. The phrase "still unravished bride" in line 1 establishes a main theme of the poem, which is
A) the eternal hope that the future will be better.
B) a love that dare not speak its name.
C) potential that will never be actualized.
D) the glory of the past versus the tawdriness of the present.
3. "Sylvan" in line 3 means
A) woodland.
B) ancient.
C) silent.
D) learned.
4. Which of the following familiar sayings is closest in meaning to lines 3-4?
A) "Silence is golden."
B) "The pen is mightier than the sword."
C) "One picture is worth a thousand words."
D) "The medium is the message."
5. In line 32, the priest is "mysterious" because
A) he's taking advantage of his followers.
B) he speaks a language we no longer understand.
C) we don't what kind of ritual he is practicing.
D) he is the leader of a secret cult.
6. The painting of the couple on the urn reminds the speaker of
A) a couple he knows.
B) the artist’s life.
C) the fleeting nature of life.
D) the woman he loves.
7. The couple is frozen
A) in an early time in history.
B) at the moment of pursuit.
C) by fear of death.
D) at the end of their relationship.
8. The priest is portrayed
A) leading a cow to be sacrificed.
B) praying to God.
C) pursuing the woman.
D. helping the poor and sick.
9. The speaker claims that melodies that are never heard are
A) the only real kind of music.
B) pointless.
C) sweeter than heard melodies.
D) all the same.
10. The speaker feels that the urn
A) is inferior to poetry.
B) will change people’s ways.
C) is beautiful but false.
D) will outlast him.
11. Which of the following statements is the strongest example of imagery?
A) “What men or gods are these? What maidens loath?”
B) “To what green altar, O mysterious priest, / Lead’st thou that heifer lowing at the skies, / And all her silken flanks with garlands dressed?”
C) “Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought / As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!”
D) “Beauty is truth, truth beauty”
1b, 2c, 3a, 4c, 5c, 6c, 7a, 11b
When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be [1817]
When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high piled books, in charactry,
Hold like rich garners the full-ripen'd grain;
When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love; -- then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Bright Star [1819]
Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art---
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors---
No---yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillowed upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever---or else swoon in death.
1.The figure of speech used in line 1 is an example of
A) simile
B) personification
C) irony
D) ambiguity
E) apostrophe
2. What is the rhyme scheme of this poem?
A) ABBA ABBA CDDCDC
B) ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
C) ABAB BCBC CDCD EE
D) ABBA ABBA CDE CDE
E) none of the above
La Belle Dame sans Merci [1819]
O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has wither’d from the lake,
And no birds sing.
II.
O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms!
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel’s granary is full,
And the harvest’s done.
III.
I see a lily on thy brow
With anguish moist and fever dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too.
IV.
I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful—a faery’s child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.
V.
I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She look’d at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan.
VI.
I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long,
For sidelong would she bend, and sing
A faery’s song.
VII.
She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna dew,
And sure in language strange she said—
“I love thee true.”
VIII.
She took me to her elfin grot,
And there she wept, and sigh’d fill sore,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
With kisses four.
IX.
And there she lulled me asleep,
And there I dream’d—Ah! woe betide!
The latest dream I ever dream’d
On the cold hill’s side.
X.
I saw pale kings and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried—“La Belle Dame sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!”
XI.
I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gaped wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
On the cold hill’s side.
XII.
And this is why I sojourn here,
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is wither’d from the lake,
And no birds sing.
1. What is one of the themes of this poem?
A) Experience destroys innocence.
B) One should not trust magical beings.
C) Death is similar to a nightmare or unpleasant dream.
D) Medieval women had no pity.
E) Beauty enslaves men.
2. Which of the following does not characterize the lady?
A) She is extremely beautiful.
B) Her hair is very long.
C) She sings enchanting songs.
D) She is the daughter of a heavenly being.
E) The lady has bedecked herself with flowers.
3. In the context of the poem, what is “relish”?
A) Condiment
B) Enjoyment
C) A food stuff
D) Magical potion
E) Faery poison
4. When the poet writes “manna dew,” he is using what type of literary device?
A) Metaphor
B) Cacophony
C) Apostrophe
D) Hyperbole
E) Allusion
5. How does setting reinforce the meaning and the mood of the poem?
A) The knight’s gambol in the woods creates a sense of playfulness.
B) Autumn suggests decay and decline.
C) Pale knights, princes, and kings imply death.
D) Flowers, woods, and herbs create a sense of nature, and thus a romantic mood.
E) Warriors and knights are soldiers, and the implication is violence.
6. How do the people in the knight’s dream relate to his present condition?
A) The people are earlier victims of the lady and demonstrate his condition as a new victim.
B) They represent the end of the chivalric hierarchy.
C) The people represent rejected suitors for the lady’s hand.
D) They are her guardians.
E) They are foils for the knight by contrasting with his youth and vigor.
7. Why is the knight “alone and pale”?
A) The knight is terrified by his experiences in the woods.
B) He is dead.
C) He is heartbroken because the lady rejected him.
D) The knight is shocked by the lady’s cruelty.
E) He believes that he has seen ghosts.
8. This selection is an example of which two kinds of poetry?
A) Narrative and ballad
B) Elegy and lyric
C) Romantic and narrative
D) Ballad and elegy
E) Sonnet and lyric
9. Stanzas in this poem are
A) tercets
B) couplets
C) quatrains
D) septets
E) cinquains
10. The meter of the poem is
A) iambic pentameter
B) iambic tetrameter
C) iambic trimeter
D) alternating iambic pentameter and tetrameter
E) alternating iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter
11. What is indicated by the change in person between stanzas 4–6 and 7–9?
A) The speaker of the poem changes.
B) The switch foreshadows doom.
C) The lady’s point of view is intriguing.
D) Humans need to believe in the occult world and mythical beings.
E) The change indicates that control has switched from the knight to the lady.
12. The repetitions in the first, second, and final stanzas serve what purpose?
A) The repeating phrases indicate that the knight understands his predicament.
B) They serve no actual purpose.
C) The repetitions add to the musicality.
D) They are examples of symbolism.
E) They are the refrain.
On the Sonnet [1819]
If by dull rhymes our English must be chained,
And, like Andromeda, the Sonnet sweet
Fettered, in spite of painéd loveliness;
Let us find out, if we must be constrained,
Sandals more interwoven and complete
To fit the naked foot of poesy;
Let us inspect the lyre, and weigh the stress
Of every chord, and see what may be gained
By ear industrious, and attention meet;
Misers of sound and syllable, no less
Than Midas of his coinage, let us be
Jealous of dead leaves in the bay-wreath crown;
So, if we may not let the Muse be free,
She will be bound with garlands of her own.
1. The “we” (“us”) of the poem refers to
A) literary critics
B) misers
C) readers of poetry
D) the Muses
E) English poets
2. Which of the following best describes the major structural divisions of the poem?
A) Lines 1–3; 4–6; 7–9; 10–14
B) Lines 1–8; 9–14
C) Lines 1–6; 7–9; 10–12; 13–14
D) Lines 1–4; 5–8; 9–12; 13–14
E) Lines 1–6; 7–14
3. The metaphor used in the first line of the poem compares English to
A) carefully guarded treasure
B) Andromeda
C) a bound creature
D) a necklace
E) a sonnet
4. In lines 2–3, the poem compares the sonnet to Andromeda because
I. both are beautiful
II. neither is free
III. both are inventions of classical Greece
A) III only
B) I and II only
C) I and III only
D) II and III only
E) I, II, and III
5. The main verb of the first grammatically complete sentence of the poem is
A) “must be” (line 1)
B) “be chained” (line 1)
C) “Fettered” (line 3)
D) “let . . . find” (line 4)
E) “must be” (line 4)
6. The phrase “naked foot of poesy” in line 6 is an example of which of the following technical devices?
A) simile
B) personification
C) oxymoron
D) allusion
E) transferred epithet
7. In line 9, the word “meet” is best defined as
A) suitable
B) concentrated
C) unified
D) distributed
E) introductory
8. The poet alludes to Midas in line 11 to encourage poets to be
A) miserly
B) generous
C) mythical
D) magical
E) royal
9. In line 12, the phrase “dead leaves” probably refers to
A) boring passages in poetry
B) the pages of a book of poetry
C) worn-out conventions of poetry
D) surprising but inappropriate original metaphors
E) the closely guarded secrets of style that make great poetry
10. All of the following words denote restraint EXCEPT
A) “chained” (line 1)
B) “Fettered” (line 3)
C) “constrained” (line 4)
D) “interwoven” (line 5)
E) “bound” (line 14)
11. Which of the following best states thecentral idea of the poem?
A) Poems must be carefully crafted and decorously adorned.
B) Poets must jealously guard the traditional forms of the sonnet.
C) Sonnets should be free of all restrictions.
D) The constraint of the sonnet form will lead to discipline and creativity.
E) Poems in restricted forms should be original and carefully crafted.
12. The poem is written in
A) rhymed couplets
B) blank verse
C) rhymed iambic pentameter
D) Shakespearean sonnet form
E) rhymed triplets
1. E. The first questions asks you to identify the speaker and his audience. This is one of the poems which tell us nothing about the time period or the location of the speaker. But we do know he is a poet, because the poem is called “On the Sonnet” and deals with his ideas about how the sonnet should be composed. Because he speaks of English as “chained” by the rhymes of poetry (and because he writes in English), we infer that the speaker and his audience are English poets. The correct choice is E. The next-best choice is A, but though the poem does include some literary criticism, E is the “best” answer. The very existence of this poem tells us the speaker is a poet, and his plural pronoun defines his audience as like himself.
2. C. The best choice here is C, dividing the poem at the semicolons (which may have been periods) at the end of lines 6, 9, and 12. Those of you familiar with other sonnets will recognize that this is an unusual poem. Most sonnets break naturally in units of eight and six lines (Italian sonnets especially) or into three four-line units and a closing couplet (the English, or Shakespearean, sonnet). But it is these restrictions Keats is complaining about. And so his poem falls into units of six, three, three, and two lines. And it pays no attention to the abba, abba, cdcdcd rhyme scheme of the Italian sonnet or to the abab, dcdc, efef, gg of the Shakespearean sonnet. Notice that you cannot stop at the comma in line 3. The first three lines are a dependent clause, and the sentence is not yet grammatically coherent.
3. C. The metaphor presents English chained without defining any more clearly whether the language is compared to a human or an animal. The comparison to Andromeda in line 2 is a simile.
4. B. This is an example of a question where part of your answer comes from reading the poem carefully and part from your general information. Both I and II are clear from the poem, because both Andromeda and the sonnet are said to be “sweet” and to have “loveliness” and both are “Fettered.” Though Andromeda is the creation of Greek mythology — she was chained to a rock and rescued by Perseus — the sonnet is not an ancient Greek poetic form.
5. D. The main verb of the sentence is “let (us) find.” The verbs “must be chained” and “Fettered” are part of the dependent clause.
6. B. There is no “like” or “as,” so the figure is a metaphor, not a simile. It is also a personification, in this case, a metaphor in which poetry is represented as possessing human form, having a foot that can wear a sandal. Keats is probably punning here on another meaning of foot, the term to denote the metric unit of a line of verse.
7. A. As it is used here, “meet” is an adjective meaning “suitable” or “fitting” (compare Hamlet’s line “meet it is I set it down” or the phrase “meet and just”).
8. A. This question calls for a literal reading of the line, not an explanation of the figure. Surprisingly, because Midas is usually viewed as a fool or a villain, Keats urges poets to be miserly, like Midas, though not with money but with the sounds and syllables of their poems.
9. C. Here the question calls for an explanation of the metaphor “dead leaves.” The adjective “Jealous” in this sentence does not mean “envious,” as it usually does, but “watchful” or “very attentive to.” The poet is urging other poets to scrupulously keep “dead leaves” from the bay-leaf crown that is traditionally associated with the poet. The metaphor, in keeping with the advice of the rest of the poem, is probably a reference to poetic practices that are no longer alive or natural like the green leaves of the laurel (bay) wreath. The word “leaves” here might be a play on “leaf” as “page,” but the more important meaning is the metaphorical one, and C is the best of the five options.
10. D. The question combines diction and structure. The word “interwoven” in its context refers to the structure of the sandal. Arguably, because an interwoven sandal fits the foot, even this word suggests constraint, but the question calls for the best answer of the five, and constraint is much more clearly the denotation of the other four choices. The reference of the sandals metaphor is probably to the rhyme scheme into which the poem (the foot) must fit. The more interwoven rhyme scheme Keats has in mind is the one he uses here: not the abab, dcdc, efef, gg of the traditional English sonnet where new rhymes appear in each of the following quatrains, but the “interwoven” abc, abd, cabcdede.
11. E. This is the theme-of-the-poem question. Though Keats may agree with choice A, this poem doesn’t make this point. In all multiple choice sets, beware of the answer that in itself is true or morally uplifting or an idea that poems often express but which is not the issue in the poem you’re dealing with. Good, wrong answers, test writers believe, must sound true even if they are irrelevant. Choice B is an idea some poets may hold, but this poem rejects the traditional forms if they have become “dead leaves.” Choice C is not an issue here. Keats begins with the condition of English poetry chained by rhymes, and though this suggests some sympathy with the idea of even greater freedom, the poem never advocates giving up all restrictions. Choice D is another of those good-sounding wrong answers. It is an idea that many poets, perhaps including Keats, would endorse, but it is not the theme of this sonnet. Choice E is the best of the five.
12. C. This is an example of a question on the metrics of the poem. Choice C is right; A, B, D, and E are all untrue. Given the concern of this poem with the rhyme scheme of the sonnet, one should not be surprised to find a question about the rhyme scheme Keats uses here in a set of questions on the poem.