For 3CA3 (Literature 103)

GUIDE QUESTIONS
Answer in essay form the following questions (50 points total):
(Remember that ARTICULATION is what matters most.)


1. (a) In "Poem on Returning to Dwell in the Country", what is the meaning of Tao's observation that "the life of man is like a shadow-play"? (b) What details in the poem support this observation?

2. (a) In "I Built My House Near Where Others Dwell", why is it paradoxical, or apparently self-contradictory, that though the persona lives near other people he does not hear the "clamor of carriages and horses"? (b) How does he explain this paradox?

3. (a) What does the persona of "To the Assistant Prefect Chang" mean when he says that he plans to "unlearn"? (b) What is the significance of his loosening his robe?

4. (a) How would you describe the mood of "The Hill"? (b) What emotions does the poem evoke?

5. How do the final two lines of "On an Autumn Evening in the Mountains" tie the rest of the poem together?


Note: Submit your computer-printed or typewritten essays on July 25, 2008, during the first hour of our class period: 3:00-4:00 PM. I will not accept late papers, nor handwritten answers.