1. Enumerate the characteristics of Nature Poetry by citing examples.

2. Discuss the poetic impulse to use symbols and images instead of direct expression.

3. The aim of good poetry is to avoid cliches. Do your agree? Give reasons for your answer.

4. Discuss the role of innovation in poetry. Illustrate your answer with examples of innovative techniques in Indian English poetry.

5. Write short notes on any two of the following:

Free verse

Rhyme scheme

Casual, conversational opening of a poem

Conceit and metaphor


6. Read the following poems and answer the questions below each in 150 words:

The Sunne Rising
-John Donne

Busie old foole, unruly Sunne,
Why dost thou thus,
Through windowes, and through curtaines call on us?
Must to thy motions lovers seasons run?
Sawcy pedantique wretch; goe chide
Late schoole boyes, and sowre prentices,
Goe tell Court-huntsmen, that the King will ride
Call countrey ants to harvest offices;
Love, all alike, no season knowes, nor clyme
Nor houres, dayes, moneths, which are the rags of time.

Comment on the metaphysical conceit used in this poem.

Is the approach in the poem innovative? Give reasons for your answer.

Discuss the rhyme scheme used in the poem.

Explain the significance of the first line 'Busie old foole, unruly Sunne'.

7. Untitled Poem
-N.T. Rajkumar
I tease the kites
Ask them, are you well
You flyaway,
disappear in the distance
like a dot.

I cannot touch
the shadows of your wings.
I will be born
again and again.

As a devil,
a ghost,
as Kali,
as Isaki.
As the vengeful furies
I will terrorize you and follow you.

(Translated from Tamil Dalit poetry)

What do you think is the theme of the poem?

Discuss the beginning of the poem. What is the tone in the opening lines

How does the poem end What is the significance of the contrast between the opening and closing stanzas?

Discuss the versification of the poem.

8. September 1913
-William Butler Yeats
What need you, being come to sense,
But fumble in a greasy till
And add the halfpence to the pence
And prayer to shivering prayer, until
You have dried the marrow from the bone;
For men were born to pray and save:
Romantic Ireland's dead and gone,
It's with O'Leary in the grave.

What does the line 'You have dried the marrow from the bone' mean

How does Yeats express the contemporary political situation of Ireland in the poem

Discuss the use of metre in the poem.

Write another poem which has satire and social criticism as its theme. (one stanza)

9. Ode to the West Wind
-P.B. Shelley
o wild West Wind, thou breath ofAutumn's being, Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,
Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, Pestilence-stricken multitudes: 0 thou, Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed
The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low, Each like a corpse within its grave, until Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow
Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill (Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air) With living hues and odours plain and hill:
Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere; Destroyer and Preserver; hear, O hear!

Do you think the poem can be considered a nature poem Give reasons for your answer.

Discuss the metrical pattern of the poem.

Explain the meaning of What is the central image which takes on a symbolic significance in the poem?

How does the poet evoke emotional responses from his readers in this poem

10. Write a poem (15 to 20 lines) on anyone of the following topics

Music

Old Age

Dreams

Photographs