Panjab University M. A. Part 1 ,ENGLISH Sample Questions from previous years papers

1. Examine the view that the machinery gave Pope an unrivalled opportunity of indulging his descriptive powers in The Rape of the Lock.
2. How does the use of the mock-epic conventions affect the structure of The Rape of the Lock ?
3. How are the two announced themes balanced in The Rape of the Lock ?
4. Trace the development of thought and imagery in any one of Keats’s odes.
5. Show from the odes the distinctive qualities of Keats” treatment of Nature.
6. It has been said of Keats : “Greek in temper, he is the very reverse of the Greeks in style.” Examine this view with reference to the Odes of Keats.
7. Discuss and illustrate the view that in Browning’s dramatic monologues poetry is sacrificed to the needs of the drama.
8. Attempt an essay on Browning as a poet of men and women.
9. Examine the range and variety of Browning’s use of the dramatic monologue.
10. Is Eliot’s Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock merely a character sketch, the ironical self-revelation of a neurotic case? Or does the poem carry more ? Give a reasoned answer.
11. Examine the modern qualities in the poetry of W.B. Yeats.
12. Write a critical note on Yeats poetic diction with reference to the prescribed poems.
13. Write a detailed note on Aristotle’s concept of Mimesis (‘Imitation’) and its significance in art.
14. State briefly Aristotle’s grounds of the psychological defence of poetry against its moralistic assailants.
15. What, according to Aristotle, are the constituent elements of tragedy?
16. Express your opinion about Wordsworth’s view that there is no “essential difference between the language of prose and metrical composition.”
17. How far do you agree with the remark that in spite of his moralistic attitude. Wordsworth’s theory of poetry is essentially psychological in nature ? Give reasons in support of your answer.
18. Assess the significance of the preface to the Lyrical Ballads as a manifesto of the Romantic Movement in English Literature.
19. Comment on Eliot’s view that Arnold is a “propagandist for Criticism” rather than a critic.
20. Discuss Arnold’s view of poetry as a substitute for religion.
21. Discuss the Rape of the Lock as a social satire.
22. Comment on Pope’s use of the supernatural machinery in The Rape of the Lock.
23. Comment on Wordsworth’s philosophical theory as embodied in Ode to the Intimations of Immortality.
24. Discuss the central theme in Keats” Ode to Psyche.
25. Consider the merits of Ode to Nightingale as the most representative Ode of Keats.
26. Comment on the sources of Browning’s Optimism.
27. Discuss Browning’s use of the dramatic monologue with special reference to The Last Ride Together.
28. Discuss the view that Prufrock’s love song is the confession of the despair of a romantic aesthete.
29. Comment on Yeats myth-making with reference to the prescribed poems.
30. How does Aristotle distinguish pity from fear in the effect produced on us by tragedy? How are these emotions socially and psychologically useful ?
31. ‘Without action there can not be a tragedy; there may be without character’ (Aristotle). Discuss.
32. Summarise Wordsworth’s views on the language of poetry.
33. How does Wordsworth justify his choice of subjects in his poetry from ‘common life’?
34. Comment on the view that the entire ethos of the Eighteenth Century is reflected in ‘The Rape of the Lock.”
35. Discuss the narrative and artistic significance of the ‘toilet scene’ in ‘The Rape of the Lock.’
36. Discuss the theme of illusion and reality in the ‘Odes of Keats.’
37. Comment on the recurring themes in relation to life and art in Keats Odes.
38. Discuss Browning as a poet of love with special reference to the prescribed poems.
39. Consider the merits of ‘My Last Duchess’ as a dramatic monologue.
40. Discuss the view the Eliot’s ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ is symptomatic of the plight of modern man.
41. Discuss Yeats use of symbols with reference to the prescribed poems.
42. Comment on the compulsive need of Yeats to create his own mythology.
43. What relative importance does Aristotle give to plot and character in tragedy?
44. Write an essay on Aristotle’s conception of the tragic hero.
45. Discuss Aristotle’s views on the cathartic function of tragedy.
46. Discuss the significance of ‘Preface to Lyrical Ballads’ as a statement about poetry at the time when it appeared.
47. Comment on Wordsworth’s statement that ‘poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings; it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.’
48. Summarise and discuss Arnold’s view that the most useful way of judging poetry is to apply ‘lines and expressions of the great master’s as a touchstone to other poetry.
49. Consider Arnold’s belief that great poetry is a criticism of life.
50. Consider Mother Courage as Anti-war play.
51. What is ‘Alienation Effect?’ How far does Brecht succeed in achieving it in Mother Courage?
52. Mother Courage’s contradiction and inconsistencies are rooted in her instinct survival in a system the ultimately proves stronger than her wits. Discuss.
53. Compare and contrast Anouilh’s Antigone with Sophocle’s Antigone.
54. Discuss the theme of loneliness in the play, Antigone.
55. Analyse the character of Creon
56. Discuss the Waiting for Godot as an image of the existential situation of modern man.
57. Write a critique on the stylistic devices employed in the waiting for Godot.
58. Consider the significance of Lucky and Pozzo.
59. Write a short not of any one of the following:
(a) Epic-theatre
(b) Expressionism in the twentieth-century European drama.
(c) Naturalism and theatre.
60. What characteristics of Augustanism do you find reflected in The Rape of the Lock?
61. What light does The Rape of the Lock throw upon the manners and morals of the people living in the eighteenth century England?
62. What are the contrary pulls towards which Keats feels drawn in Ode to a Nightingale?
63. What is the main theme of Ode on a Grecian Urn, and how has it been worked out?
64. In what way is the Renaissance temper reflected in Browning’s poetry? Illustrate.
65. Did Browning evolve ‘dramatic monologue’ as a compensation for his failure as a full fledged dramatist?
66. What are the peculiarities of Love-Song of Prufrock as a love poem?
67. Comments on ‘Character comes second(Aristotle)’
68. Identify the mock-heroic elements in ‘The Rape of the Lock’ and comment on their significance in the poem.
69. ‘The Rape of the Lock’ has been described as the triumph of the insignificant.’ Do you agree with this judgement?
70. What function does the process of reminiscencing play in The Prelude, especially in Bk. I ?
71. Would you regard ‘Love Song of Prufrock’ as a study in an alienated soul?
72. In what sense is W.B. Yeats a Seminal poet of our times?
73. Comment on one of the following;
a) A plot does not have unity, as some people think, simply because it deals with a single hero (Aristotle)
b) The poet thinks and feels in the spirit of human passions (Wordsworth).
74. What is the function of poetry according to Wordsworth?
75. Explain Arnold’s concept of disinterestedness.
76. Discuss Brecht’s concept of epic theatre with reference to Mother Courage.
77. “Mother Courage lives by war but does not realize that war also lives by her.” Discuss.
78. Discuss the salient features of the theatre of the Absurd in relation to the Waiting for Godot.
79. Discuss the role of Lucky in the ‘Waiting for Godot’.
80. Comment on the view that Pope’s ‘The Rape’ of the Lock’ represents the triumph of the insignificant’
81. What is the significance, moral and aesthetic of the employment of the Rosicrucian spirits in ‘The Rape of the Lock?
82. What is the significance of the Italian Renaissance and the background to Browning’s major poems?
83. Write critically on Browning’s treatment of the grotesque in art. Illustrate your answer with reference to specific poems that you know.
84. Write an essay on the new poetic technique evolved by Eliot in the ‘Prufrock’ poem.
85. Comment on one of the following:-
a) A probable impossibility is to be preferred to and improbable possibility (Aristotle).
b) Poetry is the spontaneous over flow of powerful feelings (Wordsworth).
c) The mind of the poet is the shred of platinum (Eliot).
86. Explain Aristotle’s view on Epic poetry.
87. What aspects of contemporary life in eighteenth century England have been satirically expressed in The Rape of the Lock.
88. Comment critically on the significance of the Cave of Spleen in The Rape of the Lock.
89. In what sense does Ode to Autumn represent the perfection of Keat’s sensuous art?
90. Write a brief critical essay on Keats’s notion that genuine poetry does not need to have a palpable design on the reader.
91. Write an essay on Browning as the poet of love, illustrating your answer with reference to specific poems.
92. Is Browning concerned with reflecting the crisis of the soul at a particular moment of time in his most characteristic poems?
93. In what sense may Eliat be said to break new ground in poetic technique in The Love Song Purfrock?
94. Comment on the form of Songs of Myself.
95. Comment on Miller’s dramatic technique with reference to Death of Salesman.
96. What role do the Rosicrucian spirits play in The Rape of the Lock.
97. Does the Toilet Scene in the Rape of the Lock contain any religious motifs? Write on this aspect on the poem fully and convincingly ?
98. Evaluate Keats’ Ode to Autumn as a distinctive example of his concrete sensuous art.
99. Make a critical assessment of Keats theory of poetry as reflected in his Letters and as my be inferred from his poems.
100. Is it correct to hold that in Browning’s poetry passion is offered in its crude elemental from ?
101. Write a brief essay on Browning as a poet of love. Illustrate your answer from his poems.
102. Explain Eliot’s method’s of critical enquiry.
103. Write a critical essay on Pope’s mode of satiric portraiture in The Rape of the Lock.
104. How do you identify the ethos of the eighteenth century Society in England that has been satirized in The Rape of the Lock ?
105. What are the different attitudes to death that have been dramatized in Ode to A Nightingale?
106. Write a brief essay on Keats notion of Negative Capability. Illustrate it with the help of his poems.
107. In what way does Browning’s poetry reflect the ethos of the Italian Renaissance? Illustrate from the poems that you have read.
108. How does the technique of the dramatic Monologue bring out the strength and limitations of Browning’s genius as a poet and dramatist ?
109. Explain fully the description of The Rape of the Lock as a mock-heroic poem.
110. ‘In the main; The Rape of Lock is matching artificiality with artifice, pretentiousness with pretence-satirically, but with a mitigating gaiety and lightness of touch’ Discuss in the light of the remark, Pope’s satiric method in The Rape of the Lock.
111. ‘Keat’s profound sense of reality saves The Ode on a Grecian Urn from being a mere escapes poem about the supremacy of art., Elucidate.
112. The union of amplitude and economy that the from of Ode has given Keats unique opportunities for a concentrated intensity and concreteness of idiom.’ Discuss the odes of Keats in the light of remark.
113. Bring out Browning’s mastery of the dramatic monologue with the help of any one of the poems you have studied.
114. Show from the poems you have studied how Browning’s optimism is never skin-deep and it always spring from a sense of the mobility of life.
115. The rich disorganization of The Waste Land is symbolic of the modern, uprooted civilisation’, Discuss.
116. Analyse The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock as a typically modern love poem.
117. In what sense does The Rape of the Lock represent the triumph of the insignificant’ Amplify.
118. What is the parodic intention of the Cave of Spleen in The Rape of the Lock ?
119. What are the recurrent themes and Motifs in Keats’s five famous Odes ? Elucidate and illustrate with the reference to the text of the poems.
120. Write a brief essay on Keats’s development from a sensuous to a deeply contemplative poet.
121. “While the odes were not composed as parts of any coherent programme , they are naturally linked together as variations on some central ideas and questionings which had long been active in Keat’s mind.” Discuss.
122. In the twentieth century Browning has been praised for his development of the dramatic monologue, his analysis of the passion of love, and for his refreshing diction. Write a critical note on any one of these in the light of the poems you have read.
123. Write a critical appreciation of “Sailing to Byzantium” or “The Second Coming” showing how history and anthropology provide both the symbolic framework and the bulk of the details by which the over riding myth is established.
124. “We value the poetry of Yeats, like other good poetry, because it fixes moments of experience in memorable image and distinctly heard rhythms, and so seems to make them timeless. His art has an additional value for us because it belongs so definitely to our own time.’
125. Discuss the above statement with particular attention to Yeats’s “distinctly heart rhythms” or “modernity” as found in the poems you have read.
126. First, clearly state Wordsworth’s views on the language of poetry; and then examine their validity on their own merit.
127. What new criteria of judgement of poetry does Arnold offer in his essay Study of Poetry ? Give your own assessment of their distinctive value.
128. Do you agree with the view that, in The Rape of the Lock, the familiar devices of epic are observed, but the incidents or characters are beautifully proportioned to the scale of mock-epic?
129. Do you think the sylphs and gnomes in The Rape of the Lock are not so much external guardians as projections outward of states of mind, from conquettish concern with one’s appearance to the self-pitying rancor of the spoilsport, and the ideal of good humour, explicity introduced by Clarissa, is a everywhere present?
130. Write a brief note on the theme and imagery of the Ode on a Grecian Urn, and show that the statement, ‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty” is an integral part of the poem.
131. Write an appreciation of Ode to Psyche or Ode to a Nightingale.
132. Does Browning seem out of step with his fellow Victorian poets in style ? Illustrate your answer with examples from the poems prescribed in your course.
133. In the light of the poems prescribed in your course examine the following statement: ‘A blind optimist might be simply unreadable, but Browning’s optimism was not blind”.
134. In what respect does The Love Song of J. Alfred Purfrock represent twentieth century poetic revolution?
135. Write an essay on
a) Imagery in Metaphysical poetry.
b) The theme of alienation in contemporary British of American drama.
c) The Humanitarian novel in the Victorian age.