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

O fearful meditation! where, alack,
Shall Time's best jewel from Time's
chest lie hid
Or what strong hand can hold his swift
foot back?
Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid?

One speaks the Glory of the British Queen,
And one describes a charming Indian Screen;
A third interprets motions, looks, and eyes;
At ev'ry word a reputation dies.

Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown;

So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,

There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt I have seen
birth and death,
But had thought they were different;
this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us,
like Death, our death.

Towers of fables immortal fashion'd
from mortal dreams
You too I welcome and fully the
same as the rest
You too with joy I sing.

O Bird of Time, say where do you learn
The changing measures you sing?

2. Scan anyone of the following passages and comment on its prosodic features:

Confusion, shame, remorse, despair,
At once his bosom swell;
The damps of death bedewed his brow;
He shook, he groaned, he fell.

I am monarch of all I survey;
My right there is none to dispute;
From the centre all round to the sea
I am lord of the fowl and the brute.

3. Write brief notes on any two of the following:

Petrarchan Sonnet

Metaphor

Metonymy

Eye rhyme

Enjambment

4. Comment on Shakespeare as a sonneteer. Cite suitable examples from his sonnets in support of your points.

5. Charactenze Thomas Gray as a transition poet.

6. Critically appreciate either 'Roll on, Thou Deep and Dark Blue Ocean' or a Skylark'.

7. Do you agree with the view that Browning speaks in two voices in Last Duchess' Which are those?

8. Evaluate either Edger Allan Poe or Robert Frost as a poet.

9. Bring out the Indian elements in the poetry of A.K. Ramanujan and Jayant Mahapatra.