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
An anonymous third-person lyric voice

A poet-philosopher engaged in the search for truth

A mythological character

A stand-in for the poet herself
2 References to the human body in the poem are meant to
Lend a concrete element in an otherwise abstract poem

Encourage the reader to identify with the speaker

Emphasize the physicality of the "formal feeling" described in the poem

Convey the fundamental disruption in the speaker's sense of self
3 The "great pain" referenced by Dickinson refers to
A intense period of mental distress suffered by the poet during that time

A fundamentally ambiguous but profoundly disorienting experience

The speaker's imagination of what death is like

Dickinson's reaction to the death of a close friend
4 The critical controversy surrounding "After great pain..." mainly revolves around
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

Which version of the poem as subsequently published is accurate
5 Which of the following is NOT true about the "formal feeling" described in the poem
It suggests a reading of the poem as an 'ars poetica'

It connotes a sense of stasis and rigidity

It's part of the speaker's reaction to a life-changing and/or traumatic event

Dickinson presents it as an unequivocally horrible feeling
6 The line "A Quartz contentment, like a stone -" is an example of
Personification

Irony

Hyperbole

Simile
7 Which of the following is a true statement about the poem's formal features?
It is loosely based on the structure of Christian hymns

It draws heavily on the Shakespearean sonnet

It's written in strict iambic pentameter

It's designed as a revolt against the Romantic tradition
8 Which of the following is an example of personification in the poem?
"First - Chill - then Stupor - then the letting go -"

"Of Ground, or Air, or Ought"

"This is the Hour of Lead"

"The stiff Heart questions"
9 The opening line of the poem is best characterized as
An ironic commentary on the genre of confessional poetry

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 oblique allusion to a traumatic event in Dickinson's life
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 poetry was seen as simplistic and derivative

Her status as a woman working outside of formal instutitions

The difficulty and complexity of her work
11 The phrase "a formal feeling comes" falls most closely into what kind of meter?
Spondaic

Iambic

Anapestic

Trochaic
12 Dickinson's dashes are
Notes she made to herself about future revisions

A consistent feature of her poetry subject to multiple interpretations

Stand-ins that indicate a long pause

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 —"?
Hyperbole

Personification

Alliteration

Metaphor
14 "After great pain..." is best described as
A meditation on the nature of religious feeling

A short, confessional lyric

A philosophical exploration of the form of a peculiar kind of experience

The poet's reflection on her life's work in the face of her approaching death
15 Dickinson's idiosyncratic use of capitalization ____
Lends emphasis and a sense of generality or abstraction to particular words

Is a result of her lack of a formal education

Is meant to signal that she's using that word ironically

Indicates an allusion to the work of another poet
16 Of the following, Emily Dickinson's poetry is best known for
Its obscure, complex, striking imagery and diction

Its reflection of the poet's anger at the lack of recognition of her work

Its implicit critique of the individualistic ideology of Romanticism

Its heavily religious content
17 Which of the following is true about Emily Dickinson
Her lack of familiarity with traditional poetry enabled her radical experimentation

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

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

Is an ironic commentary on the self-seriousness of the first line

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

Describes the tragic death of the speaker
19 Which of the following is a true statement?
Dickinson's decision not to employ a traditional rhythmic or metrical structure indicates her lack of interest in these features of poetry

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

The poem is meant as an exposition of the basic tenets of the nihilist philosophy of Nietzsche

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

Allusion

Alliteration

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

Half-rhyme

Perfect rhyme

Assonance
22 One purpose for which Dickinson uses rhyme in "After great pain..." is
To draw attention to the sounds and significance of particular words

To help the reader remember the poem later

To make her poem more acceptable to traditional tastes

To make the poem's speaker seem more educated
23 Which of the following is true about the editorial history of "After great pain..."?
Multiple conflicting versions, based on Dickinson's manuscripts, continue to exist to this day

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

This history is irrelevant to the meaning of the poem

The poem continues to circulate in a version that runs contrary to Dickinson's explicit instructions
24 What is most striking about the phrase "A Quartz contentment, like a stone —"
The unusual knowledge of geology it demonstrates

Dickinson's choice of "quartz," a mineral heavily associated with damnation at the time

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 radical experiment that inspired later modernist experimentation

A highly skilled recapitulation of the Romantic tradition

A fundamental break with all previous English-language poetry

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