Comparing Poems from Town and Country — mock exam questions

Comparing poem from Town and Country by FGI

1. Comparing The Passionate Shepherd to His Love and The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd. Marlowe’s poem is very passionate. What imagery does the poet use to make the shepherd’s love seem so passionate? What are the delights that the shepherd is offering? In Ralegh’s poem, the Nymph has many doubts about the delights that the shepherd promises. What are these doubts? What are the two poet’s contrasting attitudes towards the country and to love?
2. Comparing To Autumn page 47 and Binsey Poplars page 50. In To Autumn Keats personifies Autumn. What sort of person is Autumn? Explain the imagery that Keats uses to describe this season: explain what ‘close bosom-friend of the maturing sun’ means, describe what he is like in verse 2, the jobs he does and his laziness, and the music of Autumn in verse 3. In Binsey Poplars Manley Hopkins personifies the poplar trees, how does he do this? Both poems use complex rhythm and rhyme, and imagery to suggest the beauty and complexity of nature, how and why do they do this?
3. Comparing Beeny Cliff and The Eagle. Both poems attempt to describe the grandeur of nature. How and why do they do this? What imagery in the poems suggest the monumental qualities of nature?
4. The Way Through The Woods and On Wenlock Edge. Both poems are about the ways in the which the past affects the present. Explain the ways in which the imagery explores the world of the past.
5. The Lake Isle of Innisfree page 51 and Symphony in Yellow page 51. Both poems use three verses to suggest the magical qualities of the town and the country. How do the poets’ attitudes towards the town and country contrast? Discuss the ways in which the poets create certain effects through their use of imagery, rhythm and rhyme.
6. Conveyancing and A Dead House in Kensington Gardens. How do both poems suggest the difficulties of living and existing in  London? One poem is very humorous but has some serious criticisms of London, and the other uses mysterious, sad imagery to suggest the futility of living in the city.
7. Composed Upon Westminster Bridge and London. In what ways do the poets attitudes towards London contrast and differ in these poems?
8. The Song Of The Shirt and The World. In what ways do these poems suggest that we live in a hellish world?