Free CLEP Composition and Literature Exam Braindumps (page: 18)

Page 17 of 54

Which influential epic poem symbolizes Western civilization as a dry desert needing the rain of spiritual renewal?

  1. Gertrude Stein’s “Tender Buttons”
  2. Ezra Pound’s “The Cantos”
  3. Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”
  4. Wallace Stevens’s “Harmonium”
  5. T.S. Elliot’s “The Waste Land”

Answer(s): E

Explanation:

T.S. Elliot’s poem “The Waste Land” incorporates the disillusionment of the so-called “Lost Generation” of Americans between World War I and II.



Which writer who described his poetic style as objectivist aimed to bring an almost photographic clarity to his work with concrete images?

  1. William Carlos Williams
  2. Wallace Stevens
  3. Ezra Pound
  4. T.S. Elliot
  5. Cummings

Answer(s): A

Explanation:

William Carlos Williams wrote poems with very strong visual images that were in part inspired by the photographs he viewed at the Stieglitz salon in New York.



For I have known them all already, known them all: –
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?

And I have known the eyes already, known them all –
The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,
And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
Then how should I begin
To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?
And how should I presume?

The mood of the passage above is best described as

  1. regretful and resigned
  2. somber but optimistic
  3. apologetic but proud
  4. ecstatic and vivacious
  5. tired and unknowing

Answer(s): A

Explanation:

The narrator of the poem is regretful for a wasted life “measured out in coffee spoons.” However, he cannot act and is resigned to his fate.



For I have known them all already, known them all: –
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?

And I have known the eyes already, known them all –
The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,
And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
Then how should I begin
To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?
And how should I presume?

What does the narrator mean when he says, “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons”? (Line 51)

  1. He has taken several spoonfuls of poison and awaits his death.
  2. He is a waiter and the coffee spoons represent the profession he hates.
  3. He uses the symbol of coffee spoons to represent his dull existence.
  4. He is obsessed with his weight and worries about every spoonful he eats.
  5. He regrets that he cannot drink alcohol, unlike the others at the party.

Answer(s): C

Explanation:

The image of measuring out life in coffee spoons symbolizes the narrator’s narrow and ultimately meaningless life.






Post your Comments and Discuss Test Prep CLEP Composition and Literature exam with other Community members:

CLEP Composition and Literature Discussions & Posts