Final Exam

The Final Exam is on Thursday, December 17th, from 9:00 to 11:00 in room 305.

The exam contains four sections, A to D.

Section A: Sound & Meaning concerns musical devices, including rhythm, rhyme, and so on. The focus will be on poems by Langston Hughes. There are two questions, the first counting three (3) points, and the second six (6) points.

Section B: Meaning & Idea focuses on poems by Wallace Stevens, concerning prose meaning and total meaning, idea, tone and theme. There are three questions, counting six (6), four (4), and three (3) points respectively.

Section C: Imagism will focus on one Imagist poet. There are three questions. The first two questions will focus on poetic devices, counting eight (8) points and five (5) points respectively. The third question requires an explication of an imagist poem and counts five (5) points.

Section D: Race & Gender focuses on two poems by Maya Angelou. There are three questions. The first and second questions each counts five (5) points and will be on poetic devices. The third question requires a comparative paragraph of the two poems in which you discuss the issues of race and gender; it counts ten (10) points.

The exam is an open book exam, so please bring your textbook, notes, and the photocopies of poems that are not in the textbook. You may also use a dictionary. Please remember that most of the questions require your own answers – don’t merely copy material from the textbook or other sources. Give your personal answer and then quote from the poems and use the textbook or other material to augment and motivate your answer.

Good luck.