MEG - 1 : BRITISH POETRY previous question papers

 

MASTER'S DEGREE PROGRAMME IN
ENGLISH
Term-End Examination
December, 2022

MEG - 1 : BRITISH POETRY
Time : 3 hours                Maximum Marks : 100

Note : Question No.1 is compulsory

          Answer any four other questions

 No additional answer booklet shall be provided  

 

Answer any two of the following with reference to the context:  (10×2 = 20) 

 

(a) Mark but this flea, and mark in this,   

       How little that which thou deniest me is;   

       It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,

       And in this flea our two bloods mingled be; 

 

(b) Hence loathed Melancholy,

Of Cerberus, and blackest Midnight born,

In Stygian cave forlorn,

             'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights unholy;

 

(c)    In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree:

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man

                 Down to a sunless sea.

 

(d)   Swift as a spirit hastening to his task

Of glory & of good, the Sun sprang forth

Rejoicing in his splendour, & the mask

Of darkness fell from the awakened Earth.

2.  Do you think that the three major sources of Chaucer’s vocabulary contributed to his poetry? Elucidate with examples?

3. Was Dryden  justified in attacking the metaphysical poets ? justify your stance with suitable examples?

4. Examine some of the personifications Milton employs in ‘Lycidas’ . Would you say that they add to the sense of lament in the poem?

5. Discuss the prelude as an autobiographical poem ?

6. Write a critique of any one of the following poet?

            (a) Spenser

            (b) Herbert

            (c) Pope

            (d) William Blake

7. How does W.B Yeats make use of history in his poems?

8. Critically evaluate any one of the following poems?

            (a) Porphyria’s Lover

            (b) The Blessed Damozel

            (c) I remember I remember

            (d) Lady Lazurus

 

 

MASTER'S DEGREE PROGRAMME IN
ENGLISH
Term-End Examination
June, 2018

MEG - 1 : BRITISH POETRY
Time : 3 hours                Maximum Marks : 100

Note : Question No.1 is compulsory

          Answer any four other questions

 No additional answer booklet shall be provided 

 1. Explain any two of the following passages with reference to their contexts and supply brief critical comments where necessary : 10+10=20

(a) Was it a dreame, or did I see it playne ?
A goodly table of pure yvory,
All spred with juncats, fit to entertayne
The greatest Prince with pompous roialty.

(b) Thou by the Indian Ganges' side.
Should'st Rubies find : I by the Tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood;
And you should if you please refuse
Till the Conversion of the Jews.

(c) Ring out, ye crystal spheres !
Once bless our human ears,
If ye have power to touch our senses so;
And let your silver chime
Move in melodious time;

(d) He enter'd but he enter'd full of wrath;
His flaming robes stream'd out
beyond his heels,
And gave a roar, as if of earthly fire,
That scar'd away the meek ethereal Hours

e) Why, what could she have done, being
what she is ?
Was there another Troy for her to burn ?

2. Chaucer wrote, `The wordes moote be cosyn to the dede'. Comment on Chaucer's poetry in light of his aim ?                            (20)    

3. 'Metaphysical poetry, according to Herbert Grierson, is a poetry which has been inspired by a philosophical conception of the Universe and the role assigned to the human spirit in the great drama of existence.' Examine this opinion in the light of your reading of any two of the following poets : Donne, Herbert, Marvell.          (20)

4. Evaluate The Triumph of Life in the light of the opinion that "Shelley achieves the sublime".                                                  (20)

5. Would you agree with the point of view that Oscar Wilde's The Ballad of Reading Gaol suggests the futility of Christian ethics and loss of faith in Christianity ? Illustrate your answer with suitable examples from the text of the poem.  (20)

 6. Write a critique of W.B. Yeats as a modernist poet.      (20)

7. Critically evaluate any one of the following     poems : (20)
(a) `Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came'
(b) 'A Valediction : Forbidding Mourning'
(c) 'Mr Bleaney'
(d) 'The Colossus'
(e) 'Fern Hill' 

 

 

MASTER'S DEGREE PROGRAMME IN
ENGLISH
Term-End Examination
June, 2020

MEG - 1 : BRITISH POETRY
Time : 3 hours                Maximum Marks : 100

Note : Question No.1 is compulsory

          Answer any four other questions

 No additional answer booklet shall be provided 

1. Answer with reference to the context any two of the following : 10 x 2 = 20
(a) Ye learned sisters which have oftentimes
been to me ayding, others to adorne :
Whom ye thought worthy of your grace full rymes, 

That even the greatest did not greathy scorne
To heare then names sung in your simple layes.
But joyed in theyr prayse.

(b) Where were ye Nymphs when the
remorseless deep
clos'd o're the head of your lou'd Lycidas ?

 (c) Swift as a spirit hastening to his task
of glory and of good, the sun sprang ferth
Rejoicing in his splendour, and the mask.
of darkness fell from the Awakened Earth.

 (d) The rain set early in to-night,
The sullen wind soon awake,
It tore the elm-tops down for spite,
And did its worst to vex the lake :
I listened with heart fit to break.

2. Identify the most influential factors that shaped Spenser's career as a poet. Illustrate
with examples from the poems you have read.         (20)

3. Write a detailed note on John Donne's poetic medium. (20)

4. Why do you think the Restoration age (1660- 1700 A. D.) is called the Age of Dryden ? Give a detailed answer with examples?        (20)

5. Explain the salient features of Romanticism based on your understanding of the Romantic poets.      (20)
6. Attempt a critical appreciation of any one poem : (20)
(a) "The Triumph of Life"
(b) "Hyperion : A Fragment"
(c) "The Sick Rose"
(d), "London" 

7.Bring out the Imagist elements in T. S. Eliot with reference to The Wasteland. (20)

8. Show, how death and suicide are important themes in Sylvia Plath's poems. (20)  

 

MASTER'S DEGREE PROGRAMME IN
ENGLISH
Term-End Examination
December, 2019

MEG - 1 : BRITISH POETRY
Time : 3 hours                Maximum Marks : 100

Note : Question No.1 is compulsory

          Answer any four other questions

 No additional answer booklet shall be provided 

 1. Answer any two with reference to the context : 2x10=20

 (a) The forward youth that would appear
Must now forsake his Muses dear,
Nor in the shadows sing
His numbers languishing.

 (b) Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,

(c) All human things are subject to decay,
And, when Fate summons, monarchs must obey.

 (d) Oh there is blessing in this gentle breeze,
A visitant that while it fans my cheek
Doth seem half-conscious of the joy it brings
From the green fields, and from yon azure sky. 

Answer any four questions : 4x20=80

 2. What does the term "Renaissance" mean ? Identify some of the key factors responsible for the spread of the Renaissance in Europe.

 3. Compare Epithalamion and Prothalamion as wedding songs.

 4. What were some of the cultural and political factors that led to the making of Milton as the first major English epic poet ?

 5. Why do you think satire became popular in the age of Dryden and Pope ?

 6. What early imitations of Romanticism do you find in Robert Burns ?

 7. Assess the contribution of the poets of the First World War to modern British poetry.

 8. Comment on Yeats' poetic use of his ambivalent attitude to the Easter Rebellion in "Easter 1916".

 9. How does Confessional Poetry differ from the kind of poetry that was written in the early decades of the twentieth century ?