2015

English

Subject code: 1186

American Poetry

Time: 4 hours                                                                                                              Marks-80

Part – A

1.   Answer any ten questions:                                                                                     1´10 = 10

a) How does Whitman welcome death?

      Ans: Whitman welcomes death by chanting a song of reception for death.

b) What is the earth right place for?

      Ans : The earth is the right place for love.

c) Where is Harlem?

Ans: Harlem is a large neighborhood within the northern section of the New York City borough of Manhattan.

d) Who does Whitman call “Captain”?

      Ans: Whitman calls Abraham Lincoln “Captain”.

e) What was Mary’s idea about the return of Silas?

      Ans : Mary believed that Silas returned home to die. 

f) What forced the branches of Birches bend?

Ans:

g) What do you understand by ‘The Blues’?

      Ans : ‘The Blues’ is a genre and musical form originated by African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the end of the 19th century.                                                                                  

h) What was Dickinson’s idea about liquor?

      Ans : Dickinson's idea about the liquor she was drinking was that it was an unusual kind of liquor, one that had not been brewed but that wass superior to the finest Rhine wine.

i) Whom did Dickinson feel moving ‘to and fro’ in “I felt a funeral in my brain”?

Ans:

j) Who was Langston Hughes?

Ans:

k) Why does the poet call grass as ‘hoary grass’?

      Ans : The poet calls the grass “hoary grass” because the morning grass is grayish white or frost-covered.

l) Did Langston Hughes love America?

      Ans : Yes, Langston Hughes, a negro, loved America as deeply as the white people of America do.   

Part – B

Answer any five questions:                                                                                          4 ´ 5 = 20

2. Are dreams everlasting?

3. How does the poet use colour as a symbol of race?

4. What does the poet mean by ‘‘our fearful trip is done”?

5. How did the poet fell when the coffin was lifted by the mourners?

6. What does the speaker of “After Apple-Picking” for tell about his dreaming?

7. How does Dickinson express her love in Wild Nights, Wild Nights?

8. What did Langston Hughes learn from his visit in the rivers?

9. Write a short note on one of the following:  a) Mysticism  b) Silas

Part – C

Answer any five questions:                                                                                        10 ´ 5 = 50

10. Do you think “When Lilacs last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” is an elegy? Substantiate your answer.

11. Write a note on Dickinson’s treatment of death in her poems.

12. How does Whitman express the grief of Americans during the funeral procession of Lincoln?

13. Discuss the liberal attitude of Langston Hughes towards America.

14. Evaluate Frost as a poet of common man.

15. How does Langston Hughes expose some ugly aspects in American life?

16. Discuss the symbolism in Robert Frost’s poetry.

17. Discuss the major themes in Dickinson’s poems you have read.