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a) On what occasion does Hamlet speak these words? Explain their meaning in your own words.

b) Why does he reproach himself as he does in the first two lines?

c) Show in what specific ways Hamlet may seem to deserve this reproach. Do you yourself think that he deserves it?

(Topic 1) Milton's Poems

GROUP II-POETRY

Do you regard Milton's use of allusion as a grace or as an encumbrance to his verse? Illustrate your answer by reference to particular passages in L' Allegro, Il Penseroso, or Comus in which he employs at continuous length allusions of (a) a mythological, (b) a pastoral, or (c) a literary

nature.

(Topic 2) Tennyson's Idylls of the King

O, when we reach'd

The city, our horses stumbling as they trode
On heaps of ruin, hornless unicorns,

Crack'd basilisks, and splinter'd cockatrices,
And shatter'd talbots, which had left the stones
Raw, that they fell from, brought us to the hall.

Who speaks these words and on what occasion? Explain the meaning of the italicized words. For what reason had the ruin come about? What report did the persons mentioned bring with them? Who is the chief figure in this story?

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a) How does the form of the above sonnet differ from the sonnet form used by Wordsworth?

b) Explain why Keats should be writing of death, and show how his desires as here expressed are partially, at least, realized in the Ode to Autumn and Ode on a Grecian Urn or any other of his poems to which you may wish to refer.

GROUP III-ORATORY

(Topic 1) Burke's Speech on Conciliation

What were the principles underlying Lord North's policy in regard to America? Upon what different principles does Burke base his objections to Lord North's project?

(Topic 2) Washington's Farewell Address and Webster's First Bunker Hill Oration

a) What were the internal conditions in America which led Washington to argue as he did for a firm union?

b) What bearing have this situation and this argument upon the present problem of international union?

(Topic 3) Macaulay's Speeches on Copyright and Lincoln's Speech at Cooper

Union

a) On what ground does Macaulay object to extending the period of copyright, and what are some of the illustrations with which he enlivens his argument?

b) "Our fathers, when they framed the government under which we live, understood this question just as well, and even better, than we do now." From whom did Lincoln quote this? What is the question referred to? What was Lincoln's argument on this question? How does the development of his argument make this Cooper Union speech a valuable historical document?

GROUP IV-ESSAYS

(Topic 1) Macaulay's Life of Johnson

Give some account of Johnson's friends, and explain their admiration of him and his influence among them.

(Topic 2) Carlyle's Essay on Burns

What parallels in environment and in traditions in the lives of Burns and Carlyle created the basis of Carlyle's understanding of Burns's life and work? What differences between the two men in character and intellect are discoverable in Carlyle's essay?

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(Topic 3) Emerson's Essay on Manners

"The open air and the fields, the street and public chambers are the places where Man executes his will; let him yield or divide the sceptre at the door of the house.'

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How does Emerson go on to deal with the influence of woman upon manners?

PART II-BOOKS FOR READING

Discuss briefly one of the following topics in one or more well constructed paragraphs:

1. The military, family, or business life of today as contrasted with that depicted in the Old Testament, the Iliad, the Odyssey, or the Aeneid.

2. The scene of action, and its appropriateness to the events, in any one of the novels or dramas that you have read.

3. Craft and cruelty as exemplified in any of the novels and dramas you have read.

4. "What and how produced was the effect of society on him, what and how produced was his effect on society?" In these words Carlyle sets forth his idea of the aim of biography. From this point of view comment upon some biography. 5. The element of the heroic in some of the

poems that you have read.

ENGLISH AB, A, and B

ENGLISH AB-GRAMMAR, COMPOSITION, READING, AND STUDY
ENGLISH A-GRAMMAR, COMPOSITION, AND READING
ENGLISH B-GRAMMAR, COMPOSITION, AND STUDY

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