No. of Printed Pages : 4+4=8 BEGE-106/EEG-06

BEGE-106

BACHELOR'S DEGREE PROGRAMME Term-End Examination

D —?

June, 2017

ELECTIVE COURSE : ENGLISH

BEGE-106 : UNDERSTANDING POETRY

Time : 3 hours Maximum Marks : 100

Note : Answer questions no. 1, 2 and 3 and any two of the

remaining questions in not more than 800 words

each.

1. (a) Scan any one of the following passages and

comment on its prosodic features : 10

(i) Confusion shame remorse despair,

At once his bosom swell;

The damps of death bedewed his brow :

He shook, he groaned, he fell.

(ii) Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,

As his corpse to the ramparts we hurried;

Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot

O'er the grave where our hero we buried.

BEGE-106

1 P.T.O.

(b) Write short notes on any two of the following : 10

(i) Pastoral

(ii) Irony

(iii) Bathos

(iv) Assonance

(v) Caesura

(vi) Percontatio

2. Explain any four of the following passages with reference to their contexts supplying brief critical comments where necessary : 4x8=32

(a) Lift not thy spear against the Muse's bower :

The great Emathian conqueror bid spare

The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower

Went to the ground; and the repeated air

Of sad Electra's poet had the power

To save the Athenian walls from ruin bare.

(b) Sh — alone my perfect image bears,

Mature in dullness from his tender years;

Sh — alone of all my sons is he

Who stands confirm'd in full stupidity.

(c) I love not Man the less, but Nature more,

From these our interviews, in which I steal

From all I may be, or have been before,

To mingle with the Universe, and feel

What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.

BEGE-106 2

(d) Love is, yea, a great thing,

A great thing to me,

When, having drawn across the lawn

In darkness silently,

A figure flits like one-a-wing

Out from the nearest tree:

(e) I sickened, turned and ran. The great slime

kings.

Were gathered there for vengeance and I knew

That if I dipped my hand the spawn would

clutch it.

(f) Eagerly I wished the morrow;

— vainly I had sought to borrow

From my books surcease of sorrow —

sorrow for the lost Lenore —

(g) I've known rivers:

Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

(h) The land beneath him was

filmed with salt:

grass-seed, insect, bird –

nothing could thrive here.

3. Characterize Indian English poetry of the period

1857 to 1947 in the light of M.K. Naik's words;

"Indian English literature really came of age

after 1857 ..." 16

OR

BEGE-1 06

3

`Miserly nature' wrote Emile Legouis, "created only imitators and reiterators of outworn themes." Is this a fair estimate of English poetry in the period 1400 — 1550 ? Give reasons for your answer. 16

4. In the light of your reading of Samuel Johnson's poetry, would you agree with the view that he was "not the summer-up of the virtues of his time but the heroic redeemer of its faults". Illustrate your points with suitable examples from Johnson's poetry. 16

5. Give a critical assessment of any one of the following poems : 16

(a) Kubla Khan

(b) Andrea del Sarto

(c) The Second Coming

(d) Because I Could Not Stop for Death

(e) The Dance of the Eunuchs

(0 Ganga

6. Assess the life and work of any one of the following poets in your own words :

16

(a) William Wordsworth

(b) Lord Tennyson

(c) Allen Ginsberg

(d) Agha Shahid Ali

7. Comment on the achievements of the poets of the American Enlightenment. 16

BEGE-106 4

EEG-06

BACHELOR'S DEGREE PROGRAMME

Term-End Examination

June, 2017

ELECTIVE COURSE : ENGLISH

EEG-06 : UNDERSTANDING POETRY

Time : 3 hours Maximum Marks : 100

Note : Questions no. 1, 2 and 3 are compulsory. Answer any three parts from question no. 4.

1. Explain any four of the following passages with reference to their contexts, supplying brief critical comments where necessary : 4x7=28

(a) So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

(b) Where were ye, Nymphs, when the

remorseless deep

Closed o'er the head of your loved Lycidas ?

(c) She's all states, and all Princes, I,

Nothing else is.

EEG-06

5 P.T.O.

(d) Close by those meads, for ever crown'd

with flowers,

Where Thames with pride surveys his

rising towers,

There stands a structure of majestic frame,

Which from the neighb'ring Hampton

takes its name.

(e) The trumpet of a prophecy ! 0 Wind,

If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind ?

(f) The sea is calm tonight,

The tide is full, the moon lies fair

Upon the straits; on the French coast

the light

Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England

stand,

Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.

(g) Softly, 0 softly we bear her along,

She hangs like a star in the dew of our song;

She springs like a beam on the brow of the tide,

She falls like a tear from the eyes of a bride.

EEG-06 6

2. Scan any one of the following passages and

comment on its prosodic features :

(a) We noticed nothing as we went,

A straggling crowd of little hope,

Ignoring what the thunder meant,

Deprived of common needs like soap.

Some were broken, some merely bent.

(b) Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant !

Let the dead Past bury its dead !

Act, — act in the living Present !

Heart within, and God o'erhead !

3. Write brief notes on any two of the following : 2x3=6

(a) Elegy

(b) Metaphor

(c) Caesura

(d) Feminine Rhyme

(e) Apostrophe

4. Answer any three of the following : 3x20=60

(a) Give a detailed analysis of the characteristic

features of a pastoral elegy, with special

reference to the poetry of John Milton.

EEG-06

7 P.T.O.

(b) Metaphysical poetry is characterized by its intellectual content, passionate feelings, learned but startling imagery. Discuss.

(c) Critically comment on the sensuous imagery and poetic craftsmanship of John Keats.

(d) Characterize the pictorial qualities of Alfred Lord Tennyson's verse, with special reference to "The Lady of Shallot".

(e) Interpret the poetry of Ralph Waldo Emerson in terms of his Indian thought,

with special reference to "Brahma".

(f) Bring out the autobiographical qualities in the poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra. Is recollection a mode of redemption for Mahapatra ?

EEG-06

8 7,500