2014

English

Subject code: 1186

American Poetry

Time: 4 hours                                                                                                              Marks-80

Part – A

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

      a.  Who is Walt Whitman?

           Ans :  Walt Whitman is the poet of democracy in American literature.

      b.  What does the poet offer to the coffin of Lincoln?

           Ans : The poet offers a sprig of lilac to the coffin of Lincoln.

      c.  Why does Whitman address Abraham Lincoln as 'Captain'?

           Ans : The poet addresses Abraham Lincoln as "Captain" because he thinks that Abraham Lincoln is the captain of the ship “America”.

      d.  What does the lilac-bush look like?

           Ans : The lilac bush looked tall-growing; with heart-shaped leaves of rich green, with many a pointed blossom, rising, delicate, with the perfume the poet loved very much.

      e.  Who was Silas?

           Ans : Silas was the hired man or servant of Warren in the poem “The Death of the Hired Man” by Robert Frost.

      f.  Why wasn't Warren satisfied with Silas?

           Ans : Warren wasn’t satisfied with Silas because he was in the habit of working for others when Warren needed him most. 

      g.  What does the tree in "Tree at My Window" stand for?

           Ans : The tree in Tree at My Window stands for nature.

      h.  Why did the poet take the other road?

           Ans : The poet took the other road because it was grassy and had a better claim to be trodden.

      i.   What do you mean by the expression "Good fences make good neighbours"?

           Ans : "Good fences make good neighbors" means that if good fences are maintained between two neighbours, quarrels decrease and a good relationship increases between them.

      j.  What inspired Langston Hughes to write the poem 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers'?

           Ans : The beautiful sight of the river Mississippi enjoyed from inside a train while crossing the river inspired Langston Hughes to write the poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers"

      k.  What attitude to America does the poet express by "I, too, Sing America?

           Ans : By the poem "I, too, Sing America" the poet expresses his liberal attitude to America.

      l.   What is New Orleans?

           Ans : New Orleans is a Louisiana city on the Mississippi River, near the Gulf of Mexico.

Part – B

Answer any five questions:                                                                                          4 ´ 5 = 20

2. How does Dickinson treat immortality in her poems?

3. How does Whitman describe the beauty of his “Own Manhattan”?

4. Why does the poet cry out “But O heart! heart! heart”?

5. What message does Frost convey through his poem “Mending Wall”?

6. Who was Harold Wilson and what did Silas say about him?

7. What similarities do you find between the poet and the tree at his window?

8. How are the rivers ‘mentioned in “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” associated with the Negro slavery?

9. What is the subject-matter of the song that the African-American sang, on the Lenox Avenue of New York one night?

Part – C

Answer any five questions:                                                                                        10 ´ 5 = 50

10. Write a note on Whitman as a mystic poet with special reference to the poem “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”.

11. Consider Whitman as a modem poet.

12. Discuss the elements of anti-racialism in the poems of Langston Hughes.

13. Write an essay on Langston Hughes’ use of symbols.

14. Comment on the rural settings in the poems of Robert Frost.

15. Evaluate Robert Frost as a poet of nature.

16. How does Dickinson explore different aspects of death in her poems?

17. Write a critical appreciation of Emily Dickinson’s “I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed”.