After great pain, a formal feeling comes – Quizzes

After great pain, a formal feeling comes – Quiz

1 The speaker in "After great pain..." is best described as
A mythological character

An anonymous third-person lyric voice

A stand-in for the poet herself

A poet-philosopher engaged in the search for truth
2 References to the human body in the poem are meant to
Encourage the reader to identify with the speaker

Lend a concrete element in an otherwise abstract poem

Convey the fundamental disruption in the speaker's sense of self

Emphasize the physicality of the "formal feeling" described in the poem
3 The "great pain" referenced by Dickinson refers to
The speaker's imagination of what death is like

A intense period of mental distress suffered by the poet during that time

A fundamentally ambiguous but profoundly disorienting experience

Dickinson's reaction to the death of a close friend
4 The critical controversy surrounding "After great pain..." mainly revolves around
Which version of the poem as subsequently published is accurate

Whether or not it fits into the Lyric or Post-Lyric tradition of poetry in English

How old Emily Dickinson was when she wrote it

The extent to which it can be read as a psychological examination of the poet's own experience
5 Which of the following is NOT true about the "formal feeling" described in the poem
It's part of the speaker's reaction to a life-changing and/or traumatic event

Dickinson presents it as an unequivocally horrible feeling

It suggests a reading of the poem as an 'ars poetica'

It connotes a sense of stasis and rigidity
6 The line "A Quartz contentment, like a stone -" is an example of
Personification

Simile

Hyperbole

Irony
7 Which of the following is a true statement about the poem's formal features?
It's designed as a revolt against the Romantic tradition

It is loosely based on the structure of Christian hymns

It's written in strict iambic pentameter

It draws heavily on the Shakespearean sonnet
8 Which of the following is an example of personification in the poem?
"Of Ground, or Air, or Ought"

"The stiff Heart questions"

"This is the Hour of Lead"

"First - Chill - then Stupor - then the letting go -"
9 The opening line of the poem is best characterized as
An oblique allusion to a traumatic event in Dickinson's life

Establishing a clear scene and strong voice for the speaker

Setting up a complex set of questions to be explored in the rest of the poem

An ironic commentary on the genre of confessional poetry
10 Which of the following did NOT contribute to the lack of acknowledgement of Dickinson's poetry during her lifetime?
Her radical experimentation with poetic form

Her status as a woman working outside of formal instutitions

The difficulty and complexity of her work

Her poetry was seen as simplistic and derivative
11 The phrase "a formal feeling comes" falls most closely into what kind of meter?
Iambic

Spondaic

Trochaic

Anapestic
12 Dickinson's dashes are
Stand-ins that indicate a long pause

A consistent feature of her poetry subject to multiple interpretations

Notes she made to herself about future revisions

An idiosyncratic habit without poetic significance
13 Which of the following literary elements is NOT present in the line "The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs —"?
Personification

Alliteration

Metaphor

Hyperbole
14 "After great pain..." is best described as
A short, confessional lyric

The poet's reflection on her life's work in the face of her approaching death

A meditation on the nature of religious feeling

A philosophical exploration of the form of a peculiar kind of experience
15 Dickinson's idiosyncratic use of capitalization ____
Is meant to signal that she's using that word ironically

Indicates an allusion to the work of another poet

Is a result of her lack of a formal education

Lends emphasis and a sense of generality or abstraction to particular words
16 Of the following, Emily Dickinson's poetry is best known for
Its reflection of the poet's anger at the lack of recognition of her work

Its heavily religious content

Its implicit critique of the individualistic ideology of Romanticism

Its obscure, complex, striking imagery and diction
17 Which of the following is true about Emily Dickinson
Though without much formal education, she had a deep knowledge of both poetry and philosophy

She claimed that her poems came to her as a form of quasi-mystic visions or inspiration

Her lack of familiarity with traditional poetry enabled her radical experimentation

She was familiar with the classics, but rejected them as dated and uninteresting
18 The last line of "After great pain..."
Indicates a Christian acceptance of death as salvation

Describes the tragic death of the speaker

Has conflicting connotations both of death and a radical openness to the future

Is an ironic commentary on the self-seriousness of the first line
19 Which of the following is a true statement?
The poem is meant as an exposition of the basic tenets of the nihilist philosophy of Nietzsche

The sonic and metrical qualities of "After great pain" are crucial for analyzing the poem

Dickinson's decision not to employ a traditional rhythmic or metrical structure indicates her lack of interest in these features of poetry

"After great pain" is a rough draft that Dickinson never intended to publish
20 The phrase "Wooden way" is an example of
Alliteration

Allusion

Understatement

Foreshadowing
21 "Snow"/"letting go" and "Lead"/"outlived" are both examples of
Eye-rhyme

Half-rhyme

Assonance

Perfect rhyme
22 One purpose for which Dickinson uses rhyme in "After great pain..." is
To make the poem's speaker seem more educated

To help the reader remember the poem later

To make her poem more acceptable to traditional tastes

To draw attention to the sounds and significance of particular words
23 Which of the following is true about the editorial history of "After great pain..."?
The poem continues to circulate in a version that runs contrary to Dickinson's explicit instructions

This history is irrelevant to the meaning of the poem

The version of the poem widely read until the 1960s was discovered to be inaccurate

Multiple conflicting versions, based on Dickinson's manuscripts, continue to exist to this day
24 What is most striking about the phrase "A Quartz contentment, like a stone —"
Dickinson's choice of "quartz," a mineral heavily associated with damnation at the time

The unusual knowledge of geology it demonstrates

Its compounding of a simile with already metaphorical language

The irony of describing a "stone" as "content"
25 In terms of literary history, Dickinson's poetry represents
The first poetry written by a woman in English to gain widespread recognition

A highly skilled recapitulation of the Romantic tradition

A radical experiment that inspired later modernist experimentation

A fundamental break with all previous English-language poetry

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