Literary Criticism Invitational a • 2015

Home , Della Cruscans, John Gould Fletcher, Metaphysical poets, Quatorzain, Quintain (poetry)

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE Making a World of Difference Literary Criticism Invitational A • 2015

do not turn this page until you are instructed to do so! University Interscholastic League Literary Criticism Contest • Invitational A • 2015

Part 1: Knowledge of Literary Terms and of Literary History 30 items (1 point each)

1. The form of verse to be sung or recited and charac- 6. The continuation of the sense and grammatical terized by its presentation of a dramatic or exciting construction of a line from one verse or couplet

episode in simple narrative form is the on to the next verse or couplet is

A) ballad. A) boustrophedon. B) madrigal. B) caesura. C) pantoum. C) enjambment. D) rondeau. D) fused rhyme. E) round. E) tag-line.

2. The poetic foot consisting of an accented and an 7. The diagram that is often used to reflect the unaccented syllable, as in the word happy, is the structure of a five-act tragedy is known as

A) anapest. A) episodic structure. B) dactyl. B) Freytag's pyramid. C) pyrrhic. C) hermeneutic circle. D) spondee. D) lipogram. E) trochee. E) quintain.

3. The rhyme in which the rhyming stressed syllable 8. The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry was awarded in is followed immediately by an undifferentiated both 1925 and 1928 to the creator of the ficti-

identical unstressed syllable is tious Tilbury Town,

A) beginning rhyme. A) Stephen Vincent Benet. B) compound rhyme. B) Robert P. Tristram Coffin. C) feminine rhyme. C) John Gould Fletcher. D) leonine rhyme. D) Maxine Winokur Kumin. E) masculine rhyme. E) Edwin Arlington Robinson.

4. The revival of emotional religion during the first half 9. Not among the Old English poems probably of the eighteenth century in America is known as composed during the period 450 -700 CE is

A) the Great Awakening. A) The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. B) the Harlem Renaissance. B) Beowulf. C) philistinism. C) Finnsburg. D) surrealism. D) "The Seafarer." E) transcendentalism. E) "The Wanderer."

5. The period in British history between the execution 10. The name that the Edinburgh Review gave to of Charles I and the restoration of the monarchy un- the early nineteenth-century poets Wordsworth, der Charles II, during which period John Milton, An- Coleridge, and Southey, among others, living drew Marvell, and Thomas Hobbes wrote, is the and writing in Cumbria and Lancashire is

A) Caroline Age, 1625-1649. A) Cockney School. B) Commonwealth Interregnum, 1649-1660. B) Graveyard School. C) Edwardian Age, 1901-1914. C) Kailyard School. D) Neoclassic Period, 1660-1798. D) Lake School. E) Romantic Period, 1798-1870. E) Metaphysical School.

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Literary Criticism Contest • Invitational A 2015 • page 2

11. A self-contradictory combination of words or of 16. Not among William Shakespeare's major trage-

smaller verbal units is a (n) dies is

A) hyperbole. A) Doctor Faustus. B) litotes. B) Hamlet. C) oxymoron. C) King Lear. D) paradox. D) Macbeth. E) syllepsis. E) Othello.

12. The period in English literature between the return 17. The type of lyric poem that is characterized by of the Stuarts to the English throne in 1660 and the its single, unified strain of exalted feeling and publication of Coleridge and Wordsworth's Lyrical style, by its single purpose, and by its dealing Ballads in 1798 is the with one theme is the

A) Commonwealth and Interregnum. A) aubade. B) Neoclassic Period. B) elegy. C) Realistic Period. C) hymn. D) Renaissance. D) ode. E) Romantic Period. E) sonnet.

13. The Germanic dialect that was spoken in the British 18. The nineteenth-century British author whose Isles between the invasion of the Angles, Saxons, novels include A Tale of Two Cities, David and Jutes during the fifth century and the Norman Copperfield, Hard Times, A Christmas Carol, Conquest in the eleventh century is Bleak House, and Oliver Twist is

A) Danish. A) Charles Dickens. B) Frisian. B) George Eliot. C) Norse. C) Walter Scott. D) Old English. D) William Makepeace Thackeray. E) Romany. E) Anthony Trollope.

14. The twentieth-century Noble Prize-winning Ameri- 19. The presentation of events in a work of litera- can author of East of Eden, The Grapes of Wrath, ture in such a way that later events are prepared Of Mice and Men, and Travels with Charley is for is called

A) William Faulkner. A) episodic structure. B) F. Scott Fitzgerald. B) flashback. C) Ernest Hemingway. C) foreshadowing. D) J. D. Salinger. D) prequel. E) John Steinbeck. E) prolepsis.

15. The term, which in drama, refers to a particular 20. The period in English literary history that begins kind of play as originally defined in Aristotle's with the First World War and whose literary Poetics and which recounts a causally related se- voices include the poets Yeats, Eliot, and Hardy quence of events in the life of a person of signifi- and whose experimental fiction includes works cance, culminating in an unhappy catastrophe, the by Woolf, Joyce and, to some degree, Conrad is whole treated with dignity and seriousness, is the

A) chronicle play. A) Caroline Age. B) comedy. B) Early Victorian Age. C) melodrama. C) Georgian Age. D) tragedy. D) Jacobean Age. E) tragicomedy. E) Late Victorian Age.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 2 Literary Criticism Contest • Invitational A 2015 • page 3

21. The 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama went to Stephen 26. The Chilean poet, aspirant to the Chilean presi- Sondheim (music and lyrics) and James Lapine (the dency, and recipient of the 1971 Nobel Prize

book) for their musical for Literature is

A) A Chorus Line. A) Vicente Aleixandre. B) Of Thee I Sing. B) Camilo José Cela. C) The Piano School. C) Nilo Cruz. D) Rent. D) Gabriel García Márquez. E) Sunday in the Park with George. E) Pablo Neruda.

22. The philosophical movement, characterized by both 27. The group of literary and scientific people in idealism and romanticism, originating in Europe and around Cambridge and Boston in the mid- and reaching the United States during the nine- nineteenth century who came together for so- teenth century that featured a reliance on both in- cial intercourse and good conversation, at irreg-

tuition and the conscience in artistic thought, is ular intervals, is

A) existentialism. A) the Brahmins. B) philistinism. B) The Literary Club. C) transcendentalism. C) the Roundheads. D) Unitarianism. D) the Saturday Club. E) vorticism. E) the Transcendental Club.

23. Not one of the characteristics, or features, of An- 28. The nineteenth-century British author of Sense glo-Saxon and early Germanic poetry, especially and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, Pride and epic poetry, is (the) Prejudice, and Emma is

A) alliteration. A) Jane Austen. B) caesura. B) Charlotte Brontë. C) four stressed syllables per line. C) Emily Brontë. D) kenning. D) Frances Burney. E) masculine rhyme. E) Mary Ann Evans.

24. An analogy identifying one object with another and 29. The Native American author and recipient of ascribing to the first object one or more of the qual- the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel ities of the second is a House Made of Dawn is

A) conceit. A) Saul Bellow. B) metaphor. B) Michael Chabon. C) metonymy. C) Oscar Hijuelos. D) simile. D) Larry McMurtry. E) synecdoche. E) N. Scott Momaday.

25. The belief that everything partakes of a hierarchical 30. A central idea that in nonfiction prose is recog- system, extending upward from inanimate matter, to nized as the general topic and in fiction, poetry, things that have life but not reason, to the rational and drama is considered the abstract concept human being, to angels, and finally to God is made concrete through representation is a(n)

A) Baconian Theory. A) climax. B) Freytag's Pyramid. B) in medias res. C) the Great Chain of Being. C) motif. D) Grimm's Law. D) theme. E) Ockham's Razor. E) thesis.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 3 Literary Criticism Contest • Invitational A 2015 • page 4

Part 2: The UIL Reading List 20 items (2 points each)

Items 31-36 are associated with Henrik Ibsen's A Doll House. Items 37-42 are associated with Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf. Items 43-50 are associated with Emily Dickinson's poetry (selected).

31. That Nora in Henrik Ibsen's Doll House is incontro- 36. Lost from a "home that's founded on borrowing

vertibly a dynamic character is emphasized by the and debt," according to Torvald, is

A) banning of macaroons. A) children's toys and dances. B) dancing of the tarantella. B) freedom and beauty. C) decorating of the Christmas tree. C) friends and relatives. D) mailing of a letter. D) macaroons and toffee. E) slamming of a door. E) trust and fealty.

32. Contrasting, during a conversation with Nora, his 37. In the opening passage of Seamus Heaney's or her own ability to show compassion with "a bill translation of Beowulf, the "good king" who is collector or an ambulance chaser [. . . who] has a lit- described as "a wrecker of mead-benches" and tle of what they call a heart" is "terror of the hall-troops" is

A) Anne-Marie. A) Ecgtheow. B) Helene. B) Hrothgar. C) Helmer. C) Hygelac. D) Krogstad. D) Ingeld the Heathobard. E) Linde. E) Shield Sheafson.

33. The name that Nora forges on a loan paper to save 38. In the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, Hrothgar's the life of someone she loves is wife is

A) her banker's. A) Hrunting. B) her father's. B) Hyelac. C) her husband's. C) Unferth. D) her mother's. D) Wealhtheow. E) her sister's. E) Wiglaf.

34. The character whom Nora describes as "Torvald's 39. The observation that "every man must yield / best friend from childhood, and my good friend, the leasehold of his days" points to the Anglo- too" is Saxons' recognition of

A) Dr. Rank. A) caesura. B) Mr. Helmer. B) kenning. C) Mrs. Helmer. C) scop. D) Mr. Krogstad. D) wergild, or man price. E) Mrs. Linde. E) wyrd, or fate.

35. The revealing pronouncement "I need to have 40. The lines "He announced his plan: / to sail the someone to care for; and your children need a swan's road and search out that king, / the fa- mother" defines a potential relationship between mous prince who needed defenders" feature a the characters fine example of

A) Helene and Anne-Marie. A) allusion. B) Helene and Nora. B) apostrophe. C) Linde and Krogstad. C) flyting. D) Nora and Krogstad. D) hyperbole. E) Nora and Torvald. E) kenning.

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Literary Criticism Contest • Invitational A 2015 • page 5

41. The reference Beowulf himself offers to "an old 45. The continuation of sense and grammatical con- reciter, / a carrier of stories" is a reference to what struction from the second stanza to the third is (an) is called in Old English a A) enjambment.

A) bard. B) hyperbole.

B) rhapsodist. C) metaphor.

C) scop. D) simile.

D) skald. E) tautology. E) troubadour. 46. The "distant strains of triumph" (line 11) refer to 42. The line "with spear and sword against constant A) artillery fire. assaults" is strongly marked by B) definitions being offered. A) alliteration. C) ears being forbidden. B) assonance. D) military music. C) consonance. E) sounds of soldiers dying. D) dissonance. E) onomatopoeia. 47. Characterizing victory as the "[taking] of the flag to-day" is an example of

Items 43-47 refer to Emily Dickinson's A) hyperbole.

[Success is counted sweetest] B) metonymy.

C) reification. Success is counted sweetest D) syllepsis. By those who ne'er succeed. To comprehend a nectar E) zeugma.

Requires sorest need. 4 Items 48-50 refer to Emily Dickinson's Not one of all the purple host Who took the flag to-day [There is no frigate like a book]

Can tell the definition, There is no frigate like a book So clear, of victory, 8 To take us lands away, As he, defeated, dying, Nor any coursers like a page On whose forbidden ear Of prancing poetry. 4

The distant strains of triumph This traverse may the poorest take Break, agonized and clear. 12 Without oppress of toll; How frugal is the chariot 43. The first stanza of Dickinson's ["Success is counted That bears the human soul! 8 sweetest"] is characterized by a marked use of sibi-

lants, which is known as 48. The first line of Dickinson's poem features a (n)

A) anaphora. A) allusion.

B) asyndeton. B) apostrophe.

C) epanalepsis. C) metaphor.

D) parenthesis. D) simile.

E) sigmatism. E) volta.

44. The word host, as Dickinson uses it in line 5, means 49. A frigate, as Dickinson uses the term in line 1, is

A) computer server. A) a bird.

B) eucharistic bread. B) a fast warship.

C) great number. C) a poem.

D) someone who entertains a gathering. D) a refrigerator.

E) victim of a parasite. E) a swear word.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 5 Literary Criticism Contest • Invitational A 2015 • page 6

50. The final stanza of Dickinson's ["There is no frigate 54. The controlling image, the extended metaphor, like a book"] focuses on how of Robinson's sonnet is (the)

A) chariots outstrip frigates. A) chaos. B) little a journey-by-book "costs." B) journey. C) little it "costs" to use a frigate. C) music. D) oppression dominates a frugal person. D) rose. E) strange it is that bears have souls. E) whisper.

Part 3: Ability in Literary Criticism Items 55-56 refer to Edwin Muir's 15 items (2 points each) Animals Items 51-54 refer to Edwin Arlington Robinson's They do not live in the world, * Credo Are not in time and space.

I cannot find my way: there is no star From birth to death hurled No word do they have, not one In all the shrouded heavens anywhere; To plant a foot upon, 5 And there is not a whisper in the air Of any living voice but one so far 4 Were never in any place.

That I can hear it only as a bar Of lost, imperial music, played when fair For with names the world was called And angel fingers wove, and unaware, Out of the empty air, Dead leaves to garlands where no roses are. 8 With names was built and walled, Line and circle and square, 10 No, there is not a glimmer, nor a call, Dust and emerald; For one that welcomes, welcomes when he fears, Snatched from deceiving death The black and awful chaos of the night; By the articulate breath. For through it all—above, beyond it all— 12 I know the far-sent message of the years, But these have never trod I feel the coming glory of the Light. Twice the familiar track, 15

* Latin for 'I believe' Never never turned back 51. The form of Robinson's "Credo" is the Into the memoried day. All is new and near A) English sonnet. In the unchanging Here B) Italian sonnet. Of the fifth great day of God, 20 C) Miltonic sonnet. That shall remain the same, D) Shakespearean sonnet. Never shall pass away. E) Spenserian sonnet.

52. Lines 9-14, especially line 10's "welcomes when he 55. The references in the second stanza of Edwin

fears," sum up the poem's Muir's short poem "Animals" comprise a (n)

A) dead metaphor. A) allusion. B) hyperbolic maxim. B) fabliau. C) overextended cliché. C) parable. D) paradoxical message. D) rebus. E) solemn nonce word. E) tautology.

53. The poem's imagery is 56. A scansion of Muir's poem reveals that it is

A) auditory. A) bible verse. B) auditory and olfactory. B) blank verse. C) tactile. C) free verse. D) visual. D) heroic verse. E) visual and auditory. E) shaped verse. UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 6

Literary Criticism Contest • Invitational A 2015 • page 7

Items 57-60 refer to the Old English poem 60. Lines 3-4, "across the seaways long time must / stir with his hands the rime-cold sea," describe The Wanderer [excerpted] A) a boat's captain directing the waves. Often the lone-dweller waits for favor, B) a Measurer washing his hands in cold water. mercy of the Measurer, though he unhappy C) a pilot losing his way among the waves. across the seaways long time must stir with his hands the rime-cold sea, D) a sailor rowing.

tread exile-tracks. Fate is established! 5 E) a swimmer swimming.

[...... ] When sorrow and sleep at once together 40 Items 61-65 refer to Yvor Winters's

a wretched lone-dweller often bind, To a Military Rifle it seems in his mind that he his man-lord The times come round again; clasps and kisses, and on knee lays hands and head, as when sometimes before 44 The private life is small;

in yore-days he received gifts from the gift-throne. And individual men When the friendless man awakens again, Are counted not at all. he sees before him fallow waves, Now life is general. 5 sea-birds bathing, wings spreading, And the bewildered Muse. rime and snow falling mingled with hail. Thinking what she has done, Then are the heart's wounds ever more heavy, 50 Confronts the daily news.

sore after sweet—sorrow is renewed— Blunt emblem, you have won: when memory of kin turns through the mind; With carven stock unbroke, 10 he greets with glee-staves, eagerly surveys With core of steel, with crash companions of men. Again they swim away! Of mass, and fading smoke; Spirits of seafarers bring but seldom 55 Your fire leaves little ash; known speech and song. Care is renewed Your balance on the arm to the one who frequently sends Points whither you intend; 15 over the wave's binding, weary, his thought. Your bolt is smooth with charm. When other concepts end, 57. The tone of "The Wanderer" is This concept, hard and pure, A) didactic. Shapes every mind therefor. B) elegiac. The time is yours, be sure, 20 C) indignant. Old Hammerhead of War.

D) mocking. I cannot write your praise E) optimistic. When young men go to die; Nor yet regret the ways 58. Lines 44-45 emphasize the pervasive formula That ended with this hour. 25

A) carpe diem. The hour has come. And I, Who alter nothing, pray B) in medias res. That men, surviving you, C) memento mori. May learn to do and say D) ubi sunt. The difficult and true, 30 E) verbum infans. True shape of death and power.

59. The kenning serving to characterize a good king is 61. The figure on which Winters's poem depends is

A) exile-tracks (line 5). A) apostrophe. B) gift-throne (line 45). B) hyperbole. C) glee-staves (line 53). C) litotes. D) lone-dweller (line 1). D) metonymy. E) the Measurer (line 2). E) paradox.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 7 Literary Criticism Contest • Invitational A 2015 • page 8

62. The return to the seemingly eternal dance of war is 64. Line 26's "the hour has come" is a "private" echoed, ironically, in the poet's turn to the repetition of the "general" stated in

A) anapestic trimeter. A) line 1. B) iambic tetrameter. B) line 4. C) iambic trimeter. C) line 12. D) spondaic trimeter. D) line 20. E) trochaic tetrameter. E) line 23.

63. Winters's clever use of round, private, and general 65. The long-lived "bewildered Muse" (line 6) finds in the poem's opening stanza sets up the poem's the- herself having "lost" (line 9) to the rifle, who matic has deftly out-inspired her, as evidenced by the

A) ambiguity. A) blunt emblem. B) hyperbole. B) fading smoke. C) litotes. C) news stories. D) simile. D) praise not given. E) synecdoche. E) unbroken carven stock.

Part 4: Tie-Breaking Essay (required)

Note well: Contestants who do not write an essay will be disqualified even if they are not involved in any tie.

Note well: Any essay that does not demonstrate a sincere effort to discuss the assigned topic will be disqualified. The judge(s) should note carefully this criterion when breaking ties: ranking of essays for tie-breaking purposes should be based primarily on how well the topic has been addressed.

Three sheets of paper have been provided for this essay; your written response should reflect the Handbook's notion that an essay is a "moderately brief discussion of a restricted topic": something more than just a few sentences. ______Read Emily Dickinson's ["The mountain sat upon the plain"], and discuss Dickinson's awareness of and appreciation for the relationships found in nature, as evidenced in ["The mountain sat upon the plain"].

[The mountain sat upon the plain]

The mountain sat upon the plain In his tremendous chair, His observation omnifold,* infinite; many-'perspectived' His inquest,* everywhere. evidence found through investigation

The seasons played around his knees Like children round a sire:* father Grandfather of the days is he, Of dawn, the ancestor.

Emily Dickinson

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 8 ANSWER SHEET

Items 31-65 2 points each ______

UIL Literary Criticism contestant number 31. ____

32. ____

33. ____ ç ______34. ____ SCORE Items 1-30 1 point each 35. ____

1. ____ 36. ____ Please note that the objective scores should not be altered to 2. ____ 37. ____ reflect the breaking of any ties.

3. ____ 38. ____ Simply adjust ranking.

4. ____ 39. ____

5. ____ 40. ____ The thirty items in Part 1 are worth one point each. 6. ____ 41. ____

7. ____ 42. ____ The twenty items in Part 2 are worth two points each. 8. ____ 43. ____ The fifteen items in Part 3 9. ____ 44. ____ are worth two points each. 10. ____ 45. ____

11. ____ 46. ____ FIRST GRADER

12. ____ 47. ____ number correct x 1 ______

13. ____ 48. ____ + number correct x 2 ______14. ____ 49. ____

= ______15. ____ 50. ______16. ____ 51. ____ Part 3 ______initials

17. ____ 52. ____

SECOND GRADER 18. ____ 53. ____

number correct x 1 ______19. ____ 54. ____ + 20. ____ 55. ____ x 2 ______number correct 21. ____ 56. ____ = ______22. ____ 57. ______23. ____ 58. ____ initials

24. ____ 59. ____ THIRD GRADER 25. ____ 60. ____ number correct x 1 ______26. ____ 61. ____ + 27. ____ 62. ____ number correct x 2 ______

28. ____ 63. ____ = ______

29. ____ 64. ______30. ____ 65. ____ initials

KEY

31. E 114 FOLD UIL Literary Criticism along the three 32. D 86 Invitational A • 2015 longitudinal 33. B 66 lines for ease line arrows up  in grading.  34. A 74

35. C 96

1. A 49 36. B 44 Please note that the objective

scores should not be altered to 2. E 486 37. E 4-11 reflect the breaking of any ties.

3. C 196 38. D 665 Simply adjust ranking.

4. A 47 39. E 2591-2

5. B 102 40. E 199-01 The thirty items in Part 1 are worth one point each. 6. C 174 41. C 2105-6

7. B 211 42. A 1771 The twenty items in Part 2 are worth two points each. 8. E 604 43. E

9. A 517 44. C The fifteen items in Part 3 are worth two points each. 10. D 268 45. A 174

11. C 345 46. D DO NOT

mark (cross out) 12. B 320 47. B 298 actual LETTER answer;

13. D 335 48. D 445 mark the answer NUMERAL.

14. E 597 49. B

15. D 480 50. B

16. A 532 51. B 260

17. D 334 52. D

18. A 558 53. E

19. C 205 54. B Page numbers refer 20. C 216 55. A 14 to the Handbook 12e,

21. E 608 56. C 209 to the Signet House,

22. C 483 57. B to the Norton Beowulf,

23. E 336 58. D 489 and to Collins's

24. B 294 59. B Dickinson collection.

25. C 222 60. D

26. E 600 61. A 37

27. D 429 62. C

28. A 554 63. A 17

64. 29. E 603 64. A

30. D 476 65. C

Part 4: Tie-Breaking Essay

These notes are not intended to be understood as a key for the Tie-Breaking Essay prompt; rather, they should serve the judge(s) as a presentation of critical ideas that might appear in an essay responding to the prompt.

Criteria for judging the Tie-Breaking Essay SHOULD include

the degree to which the instructions have been followed,

the quality of the critical insight offered in response to the selection,

the overall effectiveness of the written discussion, and

the grammatical correctness of the essay.

Note well that the quality of the contestant's critical insight is more important than the contestant's prose style. In short, the Literary Criticism contest is one that promotes the critical analysis of literature. The quality of the writing, which should never go unappreciated, does not trump evidence of critical analysis. ______

Critical Notes on Emily Dickinson's ["The mountain sat upon the plain"]

Literary concepts that MIGHT be used in a discussion of the speaker's awareness of and appreciation for nature in Dickinson's poem include

chiasmus, connotation, controlling image, hapax legomenon, imagery, metaphor, personification, simile, symbol, and tone.

The young writer should recognize the mountain's central rôle as paternal precursor to all we encounter in our day-to-day walk through the world, as synecdochally represented by the plain and by the all-embracing seasons.

The contestant might begin a discussion of the relationship between the mountain and the plain by noting the speaker's personification of the mountain, which is followed by a once-removed personification (by way of simile) of the seasons, and the seasons' "playing" might well be understood as simple personification rather than metaphor.

The contestant should recognize and speak to the plain's having evolved from the mountain, perhaps in terms more metaphysical than erosion. The "inquest" (line 4)—the evidence of the mountain's having, like a father, sired the plain around him—suggests , by connotation, the circle of life motif.

The "tremendous chair" (line 2), perhaps a commanding throne, perhaps god-like, initially defines the relationships for which the mountain is central, which is then reinforced by the mountain's guardianship role: his "observation omnifold" (line 3). The description "Grandfather of the days" (line 7) reinforces the guardianship metaphor.

Something might be made of the mountain's relationship to/with the dawn, his being "there" before the dawn's light actually reveals him—thus the mountain as ancestor (line 8).

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE Making a World of Difference Literary Criticism Invitational B • 2015

do not turn this page until you are instructed to do so! University Interscholastic League Literary Criticism Contest • Invitational B • 2015

Part 1: Knowledge of Literary Terms and of Literary History 30 items (1 point each)

1. The device by which a work presents material that 6. The recipient of the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Fic-

occurrs prior to the opening scene of a work is tion for The Optimist's Daughter is

A) digression. A) Toni Morrison. B) elaboration. B) E. Annie Proulx. C) flashback. C) Marilynne Robinson. D) flashforward. D) Carol Shields. E) foreshadowing. E) Eudora Welty.

2. The group of American writers in the 1950s and '60s 7. A lighter form of drama that aims primarily to that included poet Allen Ginsberg and novelist Jack amuse and is characterized by, among other as- Kerouac and who were in rebellion against what they pects, both lifelike characters and a sustained considered failures of American culture is the plot is

A) Angry Young Men. A) comedy. B) Beat Generation. B) farce. C) Fugitives. C) melodrama. D) Lollards. D) parody. E) Muckrakers. E) tragicomedy.

3. The 1971 Pulitzer Prize for Drama was awarded to 8. The genre of novel dominated by social cus- the author of the novel The Pigman for his compel- toms, conventions, and habits of a particular ling play The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the- social class, which is always characterized by Moon Marigolds, realism and at times by satire, is the

A) Edward Albee. A) novel of character. B) Charles Fuller. B) novel of incident. C) David Mamet. C) novel of manners. D) Neil Simon. D) novel of sensibility. E) Paul Zindel. E) novel of the soil.

4. Not a novel written by the nineteenth-century Amer- 9. All of the poetic feet listed below can comprise

ican author Samuel Langhorne Clemens is duple meter, with the exception of

A) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. A) dactylic. B) The Prince and the Pauper. B) iambic. C) Pudd'nhead Wilson. C) pyrrhic. D) The Red Badge of Courage. D) spondaic. E) Roughing It. E) trochaic.

5. The figure of speech in which a similarity between 10. The time in English literature between the per- two objects is directly expressed and which is char- iod during which French was the language of acterized by an introductory word such as like, as, English court life and the appearance of Mod- resembles, compare, than, and unlike is the ern English writings is known as the

A) analogue. A) Anglo-Saxon Period. B) metaphor. B) Jacobean Age. C) metonymy. C) Middle English Period. D) simile. D) Old English Period. E) verisimilitude. E) Renaissance.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 1

Literary Criticism Contest • Invitational B 2015 • page 2

11. The derogatory term applied contemptuously to char- 16. The twentieth-century American author of The acterize the "tribe" of bad writers and hacks living in Old Man and the Sea, For Whom the Bell Tolls, central London since the eighteenth century is Islands in the Stream, and A Moveable Feast is

A) Angry Young Men. A) Saul Bellow. B) Grub Street. B) William Faulkner. C) the Martian School. C) F. Scott Fitzgerald. D) the Satanic School. D) Ernest Hemingway. E) Spasmodics. E) John Steinbeck.

12. A play on words based on the similarity of sound 17. The currently influential African American between two words with different meanings is poet and recipient of the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for

called a (n) Poetry for his collection Neon Vernacular is

A) cliché. A) James Baldwin. B) double entendre. B) Alex Haley. C) litotes. C) Yusef Komunyakaa. D) oxymoron. D) August Wilson. E) pun. E) Richard Wright.

13. Not a genre associated with the Anglo-Saxon Per- 18. Generally, a patterning of vowel sounds with- iod of English literary history is the out regard to consonants is called

A) art epic. A) assonance. B) folk epic. B) balance. C) homily. C) concordance. D) religious narrative. D) consonance. E) riddle. E) dissonance.

14. The placing of a sentence element out of its normal 19. The playwright responsible for the comedies position, especially the ordering of the words in a All's Well That Ends Well, Much Ado about line of poetry to accommodate rhyme and rhythm, is Nothing, and A Midsummer Night's Dream is

A) accentualism. A) Francis Beaumont. B) enjambment. B) John Fletcher. C) inversion. C) Thomas Kyd. D) ornamentalism. D) Christopher Marlowe. E) uchronia. E) William Shakespeare.

15. A term often applied to the Neoclassic Period in 20. The French writer whom the Nobel committee English Literature and sometimes to the Revolu- considered an "author of new departures, poetic tionary and Early National Period in American adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a hu- Literature because these periods emphasized self- manity beyond and below the reigning civiliza- knowledge, self-control, the rule of order, as well tion" and who received the 2008 Nobel Prize for as decorum in life and art, is the Literature is

A) Age of Johnson. A) André Gide. B) Age of Reason. B) Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio. C) Augustan Age. C) François Mauriac. D) Period of the Confessional Self. D) Jean-Paul Sartre. E) Realistic Period. E) Claude Simon.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 2 Literary Criticism Contest • Invitational B 2015 • page 3

21. The figure of speech that may be used to heighten 26. The period of American literature in which Ben- effect, including for humorous effect, through exag- jamin Franklin, Anne Bradstreet, and Jonathan geration is Edwards flourished as authors is called the

A) gigantism. A) Colonial Period. B) hyperbole. B) Postmodern Period. C) litotes. C) Realistic Period. D) meiosis. D) Revolutionary and Early National Period. E) understatement. E) Romantic Period.

22. Not a form of verse is the 27. The author of the Old English epic Beowulf is

A) ballad. A) Alfred the Great. B) canzone. B) Cædmon. C) haiku. C) M. S. Exeter. D) sonnet. D) unknown. E) stanza. E) the Venerable Bede.

23. The group of American writers, born around 1900, 28. The nineteenth-century period during which the some of whom served in the First World War and United States experienced its first great creative reacted during the 1920s against certain tendencies wave—the period of Hawthorne, Melville, Poe, of older writers of their time is known as the Thoreau, and Emerson, among others—is the

A) Beat Generation. A) Colonial Period, 1607-1765. B) Black Mountain Group. B) Federalist Period, 1790-1830. C) Knickerbocker Group. C) Realistic Period, 1865-1900. D) Lost Generation. D) Revolutionary/Early National Period, 1765-1830. E) New York School. E) Romantic Period, 1830-1865.

24. Drama that presents a view of the ridiculousness 29. The turn in thought—from question to answer; and ludicrousness of the human condition through problem to solution—that occurs at the begin- its abandonment of the usual or rational devices ning of the sestet in an Italian sonnet (and some and by its use of nonrealistic form is known as other forms) is the

A) reductio ad absurdum. A) catastrophe. B) Theater of Cruelty. B) complication. C) Theater of the Absurd. C) exposition. D) tragedy of blood. D) reversal. E) tragicomedy. E) volta.

25. A form of light verse that follows a definite pattern, 30. The group of eighteenth-century poets, both including the use of the anapestic foot, which orig- British and American, who wrote poems on inated as epigrammatic song but now addresses, a- death and immortality that attempted to estab- mong a wide range of subject matter, the manners, lish an atmosphere of pleasing gloom in order the morals, and the peculiarities of imaginary peo- to call up the horrors of death through the im- ple, is the agery of the charnel house is the

A) doggerel. A) Graveyard School. B) epigram. B) Kailyard School. C) limerick. C) Lake School. D) vers de société. D) Satanic School. E) verset. E) Spasmodic School.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 3 Literary Criticism Contest • Invitational B 2015 • page 4

Part 2: The UIL Reading List 20 items (2 points each)

31. In Henrik Ibsen's Doll House the pivotal declara- 36. The argument for a relationship in terms of tion "I'm the one who saved Torvald's life" is of- "two shipwrecked people [reaching] across to fered, in conversation, by each other" involves

A) Helmer. A) Helmer and Nora. B) Krogstad. B) Helmer and Rank. C) Linde. C) Krogstad and Mrs. Linde. D) Nora. D) Nora and Helene. E) Rank. E) Nora and Rank.

32. Needing to "win back as much respect as possible 37. In Heaney's Beowulf, the queen who sometimes here in town," and affirming that "the job in the "hand[s] out / a torque to a warrior" and is back [is] like the first rung" is known as a "peace pledge between nations" is

A) Helene. A) Aethelflaed. B) Krogstad. B) Cynethryth. C) Nora. C) Ealhswith. D) Rank. D) Ingeld the Heathobard. E) Torvald. E) Wealhtheow.

33. The conversation regarding "sacred duties" takes 38. The meaningful kenning "monstrous hell-bride" place between refers to

A) Nora and Anne-Marie. A) Grendel's mother. B) Nora and Christine. B) Hulga Hopewell. C) Nora and Helmer. C) Marie Devlin. D) Nora and Nils. D) Unferth. E) Nora and Rank. E) Wealhtheow.

34. Nora's response, "And it is," to Helmer's observa- 39. "He has no idea of the arts of war, / of shield or tion, "[Y]ou dance as if your life were at stake," sword-play, although he does possess / a wild constitutes strength" describes

A) cosmic irony. A) Beowulf. B) dramatic irony. B) Grendel. C) hyperbole. C) Hrothgar. D) prolepsis. D) Naegling. E) syllepsis. E) Wiglaf.

35. The differential between the date of Nora's father's 40. The aspect of Anglo-Saxon prosody that shows death and the date on which her dated father's sig- forth strongly in the line "away with a will in nature appears as cosigner on the loan is their wood-wreathed ship" is

A) one day. A) alliteration. B) five days. B) elegiac tone. C) four days. C) kenning. D) three days. D) personification. E) two days. E) vorticism.

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Literary Criticism Contest • Invitational B 2015 • page 5

41. The "great mead-hall / meant to be a wonder of the 45. The persona's observation that "[m]irth is the world forever" is named mail of anguish" suggests that people tend to

A) Barad-dur. A) conceal what is painful.

B) Brandy Hall. B) enjoy going into battle.

C) Heorot. C) forget the difficulties of life.

D) Hrothgar. D) throw caution to the wind.

E) Hrunting. E) write a letter about happiness and pain.

42. Not a kenning describing the dragon Beowulf 46. Line 4's brake is a (n) encounters is A) deer's back.

A) cave-guard. B) end of life.

B) ground-burner. C) form of death dance.

C) hoard-guard. D) type of fern.

D) mound-keeper. E) wound. E) terror-monger.

47. The "smitten rock that gushes" is a (n)

Items 43-47 refer to Emily Dickinson's A) amorous pet rock.

[A wounded deer leaps highest] B) biblical allusion.

C) geological phenomenon. A wounded deer leaps highest, D) latter-day kenning. I've heard the hunter tell; 'T is but the ecstasy of death, E) unexplained image.

And then the brake is still. 4

The smitten rock that gushes, Items 48-50 refer to Emily Dickinson's The trampled steel that springs: A cheek is always redder ["A route of evanescence"]

Just where the hectic stings! 8 A route of evanescence

Mirth is the mail of anguish, With a revolving wheel; A resonance of emerald In which it caution arm A rush of cochineal; 4 Lest anybody spy the blood And "you're hurt" exclaim! 12 And every blossom on the bush Adjusts its tumbled head,— 43. The third line of Dickinson's "[A wounded deer The mail from Tunis, probably, leaps highest]" features the first in a series of An easy morning's ride. 8

A) allusions. 48. The first line's evanescence refers to the quality of B) hyperboles. A) escapism. C) metaphors. B) fleetingness. D) paradoxes.

C) gyration. E) similes. D) permanence.

44. The linking of enlivenment ("ecstasy" and "mirth," E) vorticism. for example) with violence ("wounded" and "anguish," for example) underscores the third stanza's 49. Line 3's "resonance of emerald" is an example of

A) incoherent syntax. A) chiaroscuro.

B) juxtaposing of appearances and reality. B) mosaic.

C) push to point out any spilling of blood. C) sfumato.

D) reliance on anatomical imagery. D) symbolism.

E) shift from a wounded deer to a wounded hunter. E) synæsthesia.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 5 Literary Criticism Contest • Invitational B 2015 • page 6

50. Dickinson's "[A route of evanescence]" has as its 54. The poem's controlling image might be best un- subject the derstood in terms of a

A) hummingbird. A) circus. B) invention of the wheel. B) grammar lesson. C) pony express. C) green tree. D) range of colors from cochineal to emerald. D) marionette. E) route of a morning's ride. E) strands of deoxyribonucleic acid.

Part 3: Ability in Literary Criticism Items 55-57 Siegfried Sassoon's 15 items (2 points each) Does It Matter?

Items 51-54 refer to Henry Taylor's Does it matter?—losing your legs? Green Springs the Tree For people will always be kind,

My young son lurches halfway down the stair And you need not show that you mind or shrieks and totters midway through a climb When others come in after hunting

from the wobbling bookcase to the rocking chair. To gobble their muffins and eggs. 5

I freeze and hold my breath. Most of the time 4 Does it matter?—losing you sight?

I am too far away to break the fall There's such splendid work for the blind; that seldom comes. Instead, I stoop and bend And people will always be kind, with him, as if threads of remote control As you sit on the terrace remembering could reel out and connect him to my hand 8 And turning your face to the light. 10 that strains against his fall, against my leap to rescue him. My twisting body prays Do they matter-those dreams in the pit? for skill in this, the high wire he will keep You can drink and forget and be glad, both of us on as we rehearse the ways 12 And people won't say that you're mad; to braid these strands of inheritance For they know that you've fought for your country, and teach poor body English how to dance. And no one will worry a bit. 15

51. The form of Taylor's "Green Springs the Tree" is the 55. The stanza form that makes up Sassoon's poem is

A) English sonnet. A) bob and wheel.

B) Italian sonnet. B) clerihew.

C) Miltonic sonnet. C) pantoum.

D) Petrarchan sonnet. D) pentastich.

E) Spenserian sonnet. E) poulter's measure.

52. The phrase "the high wire he will keep / both of us 56. Sassoon's "Does It Matter?" relies on a sequence on as we rehearse the ways [. . .]" (lines 11-12) is of

A) allusory. A) apostrophes. B) hyperbolic. B) euphemisms. C) metaphorical. C) invocations. D) metonymic. D) metaphors. E) pyramidal. E) rhetorical questions.

53. The type of rhyme that dominates the sonnet is 57. The tone of Sassoon's poem is

A) compound rhyme. A) affirmative. B) eye rhyme. B) compassionate. C) feminine rhyme. C) optimistic. D) masculine rhyme. D) patriotic. E) slant rhyme. E) satiric. UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 6

Literary Criticism Contest • Invitational B2015 • page 7

Items 58-61 refer to the Old English poem 60. The kenning serving to characterize the tone of "The Seafarer" is The Seafarer [excerpted] A) breast-care (line 4).

About myself I can utter a truth-song, B) care-wretched (line 14). tell journeys—how I in toil-days C) exile-tracks (line 15). torment-time often endured, D) mead-drink (line 22). abode and still do bitter breast-care, E) night-watch (line 6). sought in my ship many a care-hall, 5 horrible waves' rolling, where narrow night-watch 61. The poem's pervasive imagery is overwhelmingly often has kept me at the ship's stem A) auditory. when it dashes by cliffs. Pinched by the cold B) gustatory. were my feet, bound by frost's frozen fetters, where those cares sighed 10 C) olfactory.

hot about heart; hunger within tore D) tactile. the mind of the sea-weary one. That man knows not, E) visual. to whom on earth fairest falls, how I, care-wretched, ice-cold sea Items 62-65 refer to Robert Herrick's dwelt on in winter along the exile-tracks, 15 bereaved both of friend and of kin, To His Mistress Objecting to Him behung with rime-crystals. Hail showers flew. Neither Toying nor Talking

I heard nothing there but the sea's sounding, You say I love not, 'cause I do not play ice-cold wave. At times the swan's song Still with your curls, and kiss the time away. served me for merriment, gannet's crying 20 You blame me too, because I can't devise and curlew's sound instead of men's laughter, Some sport to please those babies in your eyes: 4 mew's singing in place of mead-drink. By love's religion, I must here confess it, Storms there beat stone-cliffs, where starn, icy-feathered, The most I love when I the least express it. answered and called to them; often the eagle screamed, Small griefs find tongues: full casks are ever found dew-feathered fowl: no sheltering kinsman 25 To give (if any, yet) but little sound. 8 brought consolation to a destitute life. Deep waters noiseless are; and this we know, That chiding streams betray small depth below. 58. The tone of the Anglo-Saxon poem "The Seafarer" is, So, when love speechless is, she doth express characteristically A depth in love and that depth bottomless. 12 A) didactic. Now, since my love is tongueless, know me such

B) elegiac. Who speak but little 'cause I love so much.

C) indignant. 62. The strength of the poem's persona's protest that D) mocking. true love is "tongueless" (line 13) is found in E) optimistic. A) lines 1-2.

B) lines 3-4. 59. The two halves of the four-stressed-syllable lines that characterize the poem, especially evident in the alliter- C) lines 5-6.

ative lines 6 and 11, are known as D) lines 9-10.

A) caesuras. E) lines 13-14.

B) distichs. 63. "The most I love when I the least express it" (6) is (a) C) hemistichs. A) hypallage. D) hiatuses. B) hyperbole. E) stichs. C) litotes.

D) paradox.

E) tautology.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 7 Literary Criticism Contest • Invitational B2015 • page 8

64. The repetition of sibilant sounds that characterizes 65. The three phrases "I do not play / Still with your Herrick's poem, especially the lines "because I can't curls" (lines 1-2), "[d]eep waters noiseless are" devise / Some sport to please those babies in your (line 9), and "when love speechless is" (line 11) eyes" (3-4) is called are examples of

A) assonance. A) enjambment. B) consonance. B) inversion. C) dissonance. C) litotes. D) resonance. D) metathesis. E) sigmatism. E) parenthesis.

Part 4: Tie-Breaking Essay (required)

Note well: Contestants who do not write an essay will be disqualified even if they are not involved in any tie.

Three sheets of paper have been provided for this essay; your written response should reflect the Handbook's notion that an essay is a "moderately brief discussion of a restricted topic": something more than just a few sentences. ______Read Emily Dickinson's "[As imperceptibly as grief]," and address the effectiveness of Dickinson's similes.

[As imperceptibly as Grief]

As imperceptibly as grief The summer lapsed away,— Too imperceptible, at last, To seem like perfidy.* betrayal; lack of loyalty

A quietness distilled, As twilight long begun, Or Nature spending with herself Sequestered* afternoon. set apart; secluded

The dusk drew earlier in, The morning foreign shone,— A courteous, yet harrowing* grace, acutely distressing As guest who would be gone.

And thus, without a wing, Or service of a keel,* stabilizing structure of a boat Our summer made her light escape Into the beautiful.

Emily Dickinson

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 8 ANSWER SHEET

Items 31-65 2 points each ______

UIL Literary Criticism contestant number 31. ____

32. ____

33. ____ ç ______34. ____ SCORE Items 1-30 1 point each 35. ____

1. ____ 36. ____ Please note that the objective scores should not be altered to 2. ____ 37. ____ reflect the breaking of any ties.

3. ____ 38. ____ Simply adjust ranking.

4. ____ 39. ____

5. ____ 40. ____ The thirty items in Part 1 are worth one point each. 6. ____ 41. ____

7. ____ 42. ____ The twenty items in Part 2 are worth two points each. 8. ____ 43. ____ The fifteen items in Part 3 9. ____ 44. ____ are worth two points each. 10. ____ 45. ____

11. ____ 46. ____ FIRST GRADER

12. ____ 47. ____ number correct x 1 ______

13. ____ 48. ____ + number correct x 2 ______14. ____ 49. ____

= ______15. ____ 50. ______16. ____ 51. ____ Part 3 ______initials

17. ____ 52. ____

SECOND GRADER 18. ____ 53. ____

number correct x 1 ______19. ____ 54. ____ + 20. ____ 55. ____ x 2 ______number correct 21. ____ 56. ____ = ______22. ____ 57. ______23. ____ 58. ____ initials

24. ____ 59. ____ THIRD GRADER 25. ____ 60. ____ number correct x 1 ______26. ____ 61. ____ + 27. ____ 62. ____ number correct x 2 ______

28. ____ 63. ____ = ______

29. ____ 64. ______30. ____ 65. ____ initials

KEY

31. D 53 FOLD UIL Literary Criticism along the three 32. B 64 Invitational B • 2015 longitudinal 33. C 111 lines for ease line arrows up  in grading.  34. B 92

35. D 66

1. C 200 36. C 96 Please note that the objective

scores should not be altered to 2. B 51 37. E 2016-20 reflect the breaking of any ties.

3. E 608 38. A 1259 Simply adjust ranking.

4. D 568 39. B 681-83

5. D 445 40. A 216 The thirty items in Part 1 are worth one point each. 6. E 603 41. C 78

7. A 98 42. E 765 The twenty items in Part 2 are worth two points each. 8. C 330 43. D 349

9. A 129 44. B The fifteen items in Part 3 are worth two points each. 10. C 299 45. A

11. B 224 46. D DO NOT

mark (cross out) 12. E 390 47. B actual LETTER answer;

13. A 41 48. B mark the answer NUMERAL.

14. C 257 49. E 469

15. B 9 50. A

16. D 582 51. A 173

17. C 605 52. C

18. A 43 53. D 287

19. E 533 54. D Page numbers refer 20. B 601 55. D 357 to the Handbook 12e,

21. B 242 56. E 412 to the Signet House,

22. E 454 57. E to the Norton Beowulf,

23. D 279 58. B 167 and to Collins's

24. C 2 59. C 228 Dickinson collection.

25. C 272 60. A 266

26. A 96 61. A

27. D 62. D

28. E 422 63. D 349

64. 29. E 498 64. E

30. A 221 65. B 257

Part 4: Tie-Breaking Essay

Criteria for judging the Tie-Breaking Essay SHOULD include

the degree to which the instructions have been followed,

the quality of the critical insight offered in response to the selection,

the overall effectiveness of the written discussion, and

the grammatical correctness of the essay.

Critical Notes on Emily Dickinson's "[As imperceptibly as grief]"

Literary concepts that MIGHT be used in a discussion of the effectiveness of Emily Dickinson's use of the simile in "[As imperceptibly as grief]" include

alliteration, assonance, imagery, internal rhyme, inversion, oxymoron, personification, sigmatism, synecdoche, tenor, tone, and vehicle.

The contestant should recognize that each of the first three stanzas turns on a simile and that the final stanza serves to sum up the overall qualities of three of the poem's four vehicles (the comparison's immediate subject) as the summer's "light escape" (line 15), summer's exit—initially argued to be perfid- ious (4)—being the collective tenor (the poem's intentional subject). Something might be made of the positioning of each of the succeeding stanza's dominant similes: the first stanza begins with a simile; the second stanza's simile is found on that stanza's second line; the third stanza presents its simile on its final line. If this sequence is part of the student's observation, something should be noted regarding the positioning of the poem's tenor "summer['s making] her light escape" in its own, the poem's final, stanza.

The focus of a good response to the poem is the aggregate of the comparisons, which Dickinson, as speaker, draws through the poem. The first stanza finds an emotive aspect of summer's lapsing and presents it as grief: the summer is passive in this comparison. The second stanza shifts from an imperceptible lapsing to a process of distillation and sequestering (summer yet passive; overarching Nature as active). The third stanza colors the shift with anxiety, the simile suggesting a decidedly active summer (a "guest who would be gone").

Dickinson's synecdochical "without a wing, / Or service of a keel" (13-14) sustains the effortlessness, the stealthiness, and the quickness of summer's exit as suggested by the similes dominating the first three stanzas. The resolution of the poem's imagery and sentiment (15-16) [the first stanza's grief, the second stanza's isolation, and the third stanza's "harrowing grace" (11)],"[i]nto the beautiful," controls, finally, the tone of the poem. UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE Making a World of Difference Literary Criticism District 1 • 2015

do not turn this page until you are instructed to do so! University Interscholastic League Literary Criticism Contest • District 1 • 2015

Part 1: Knowledge of Literary Terms and of Literary History 30 items (1 point each)

1. Vernacular speech not accepted as suitable for highly 6. The three-line stanza, purportedly devised by formal usage, although much used in everyday con- Dante, with the rhyme scheme aba bcb cdc ded versation, is called (a) and so forth is called a

A) barbarism. A) tercet. B) idiom. B) terza rima. C) jeremiad. C) triolet. D) patter. D) triple meter. E) slang. E) trivium.

2. The late-twentieth to early twenty-first century Irish 7. Not representative of the genre known as the cour- author of the poetry collections Door into the Dark, tesy book, which flourished in Renaissance times North, The Haw Lantern, District and Circle, and (though there are more recent examples) and deal- (his final collection) Human Chain is ing with the training of the "courtly" person, is

A) Samuel Beckett. A) Castiglione's The Courtier. B) J. P. Donleavy. B) Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage. C) Seamus Heaney. C) Ben Franklin's Autobiography. D) George Bernard Shaw. D) Henry Peacham's The Compleat Gentleman. E) William Butler Yeats. E) Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queen.

3. The form of extended metaphor in which objects, per- 8. A term originally applied to painting and now sons, places, and actions in a narrative are equated used in the criticism of various literary forms

with meanings outside the narrative itself is a (n) involving the contrast of light and darkness is

A) allegory. A) chanson. B) allusion. B) charade. C) almanac. C) chiaroscuro. D) paradox. D) chrestomathy. E) parody. E) chronotope.

4. The twentieth-century American author whose novel 9. The instructiveness in a literary work, one pur- The Shipping News and novella "Brokeback Moun- pose of which is to give guidance in moral, eth- tain" have been made into successful movies is ical, or religious matters, is known as

A) Shirley Ann Grau. A) aestheticism. B) Harper Lee. B) catechism. C) Toni Morrison. C) determinism. D) Annie Proulx. D) didacticism. E) Anne Tyler. E) humanism.

5. The term applied to the group of twentieth-century 10. The author of The Pearl, The Red Pony, The Win- writers in the American South who published The Fu- ter of Our Discontent and recipient of the 1940 gitive and who founded the New Criticism is (the) Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Grapes of Wrath is

A) Agrarians. A) John Cheever. B) Hartford Wits. B) William Faulkner. C) Lollards. C) John Hersey. D) Lost Generation. D) Larry McMurtry. E) Muckrakers. E) John Steinbeck.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 1

Literary Criticism Contest • District 1 2015 • page 2

11. A work or manner that blends a censorious attitude 16. The term literally meaning 'mask' that is widely with humor and wit for improving human institu- used to refer to a "second self" created by an tions or humanity in general is categorized as (an) author and through whom a narrative is told is

A) burlesque. A) allonym. B) exordium. B) eponym. C) irony. C) persona. D) meliorism. D) pseudonym. E) satire. E) putative author.

12. An extended and vigorous verbal exchange, often 17. The controversial poet whose Self-Portrait in a found in Old English poetry, as well as Greek, Ara- Convex Mirror earned him the 1976 Pulitzer

bic, Celtic, Italian, and Provençal poetry is (the) Prize for Poetry is

A) bombast. A) John Ashbery. B) flyting. B) Richard Eberhart. C) gasconade. C) James Merrill. D) rodomontade. D) Mark Strand. E) stichomythia. E) Richard Wilbur.

13. The ascription of human characteristics to nonhuman 18. Not one of the twentieth-century British writer objects or the interpretation of nonhuman things or and essayist George Orwell's (Eric Blair's) sev- events in terms of human characteristics is eral novels is

A) anthropomorphism. A) Animal Farm. B) hendiadys. B) Burmese Days. C) kenosis. C) Keep the Aspidistra Flying. D) prosopopoeia. D) Nineteen Eighty-Four. E) reification. E) The Scarlet Letter.

14. The group of American writers, including Ida Tar- 19. A name frequently applied to the last half of bell, Lincoln Steffens, and Upton Sinclair, who be- the eighteenth century in England, resulting tween 1902 and 1911 worked to expose the dishon- from historians' seeing the interval between est methods and unscrupulous motives in big busi- 1750 and 1798 as a seed field for emerging ness and in city, state, and national government is Romantic qualities in literature, is the

A) the Agrarians. A) Age of Johnson. B) the Fugitives. B) Age of Sensibility. C) the Hartford Wits. C) Early Restoration Period. D) the Lost Generation. D) Early Victorian Period. E) the Muckrakers. E) Late Victorian Period.

15. The three-time recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama 20. A narrator, like those in George Eliot's Adam whose absurdist plays The Zoo Story and Who's Afraid Bede, Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, and Henry of Virginia Woolf? as well as his prize-winning A Del- Fielding's Tom Jones, whose explanatory, icate Balance, Seascape, and Three Tall Women, have interpretative, and qualifying contributions

ensured him a place in the American literary canon, is interrupt the flow of the storytelling is a (n)

A) George Aiken. A) intrusive narrator. B) Edward Albee. B) naïve narrator. C) Arthur Miller. C) omniscient narrator. D) Thornton Wilder. D) putative author. E) August Wilson. E) unreliable narrator.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 2 Literary Criticism Contest • District 1 2015 • page 3

21. In its figurative sense, the special usage of words, 26. The term that means literally a manifestation or often without the conscious knowledge of the author showing forth that designates an event in which or reader, in which there is a change in the word's or the essential nature of something—a person, a words' basic meanings is situation, an object—is suddenly perceived is

A) denotation. A) apostrophe. B) diction. B) epiphany. C) digression. C) locus classicus. D) imagery. D) nekuia. E) plain style. E) zeugma.

22. A sustained and formal poem setting forth medita- 27. Not a form of poetry considered to be a pattern tions on death or another solemn theme is a(n) poem is the

A) aubade A) altar poem. B) chantey. B) carmen figuratum. C) elegy. C) figure poem. D) encomium. D) rebus. E) eulogy. E) shaped verse.

23. A term applied in general to things English and in 28. The use of the morbid and the absurd for darkly particular to the English royal court during the sec- comic purposes by such modern writers as Gün- ond quarter of the seventeenth century, a term that ter Grass, Joseph Heller, Thomas Pynchon, Kurt can encompass both Cavalier and Puritan literary Vonnegut, Jr., Harold Pinter, and Edward Albee expression is is known as

A) Augustine. A) black humor. B) Caroline. B) blood and thunder. C) Edwardian. C) fantasy. D) Jacobean. D) surrealism. E) Victorian. E) travesty.

24. The American author whose award-winning novels 29. A candidate for the Peruvian presidency in 1990, No Country for Old Men, All the Pretty Horses, and leading Latin American man of letters, and recip- The Road have been adapted for the silver screen is ient of the 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature is

A) F. Scott Fitzgerald. A) Vicente Aleixandre. B) Joseph Heller. B) José Echegaray. C) Ernest Hemingway. C) Mario Vargas Llosa. D) Cormac McCarthy. D) Gabriel García Márquez. E) John Steinbeck. E) Pablo Neruda.

25. The term applied to women of pronounced intel- 30. The first English translation of Boethius' Con- lectual interest that gained currency after 1750 as solation of Philosophy, the first history of the a result of its application to a London group of wo- English people, Bede's Ecclesiastical History, men of literary and intellectual tastes who held and the flourishing of the School of Cædmon meetings to which literary men were invited is the represent the

A) Bloomsbury Group. A) Anglo-Norman Period. B) Bluestockings. B) Early Tudor Age. C) Della Cruscans. C) Middle English Period. D) Geneva School. D) Neoclassic Period. E) Hermeneutic Circle. E) Old English Period.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 3 Literary Criticism Contest • District 1 2015 • page 4

Part 2: The UIL Reading List 20 items (2 points each)

31. In Henrik Ibsen's drama A Doll House, Nora is char- 36. The troubling confession, "I wouldn't be a man acterized as a "free spender" and a "spendthrift," re- if this feminine helplessness didn't make you spectively, by both twice as attractive to me," is declared by

A) Anne-Marie and Kristine. A) Nils to Anne-Marie. B) Helene and Anne-Marie. B) Nils to Helene. C) Kristine and Nils. C) Nils to Kristine. D) Kristine and Torvald. D) Torvald to Kristine. E) Nils and Dr. Rank. E) Torvald to Nora.

32. Central to the crisis at the heart of Nora's story is the 37. In Heaney's Beowulf the trophy that the hell- observation that "[l]aws don't inquire into motives," dam, the monstrous hell-bride, the tarn-hag, which is snatches from the mead-hall is (the)

A) Kristine's defense of Nora. A) chain mail. B) Krogstad's answer to Nora. B) Geatish prize for best mead. C) Nora's comment to herself. C) Grendel's bloodied hand. D) Rank's observation to Nora. D) Grendel's head. E) Torvald's remonstration to Nora. E) Naegling.

33. "[Y]ou shut yourself in every evening till long after 38. Beowulf's recounting of some of his exploits, in midnight, making flowers for the Christmas tree, which he notes that "all knew of my awesome and all the other decorations to surprise us. [. . .] strength" is expected of a warrior-leader and But the outcome was pretty sorry" because the constitutes an example of

A) cat tore everything to shreds. A) boasting. B) children snuck in and opened the presents. B) caesura. C) dancing of the tarantella was too wild. C) flyting. D) popcorn strings were eaten by the mice. D) remonstration. E) visitors were not able to appreciate Nora's skill. E) storytelling.

34. The confessional statement "Today for the first time 39. Beowulf "order[s] Hrunting / to be brought to I learned that it's you I'm replacing at the bank" is Unferth / [. . .] and thanked him for lending it";

shared by Hrunting is a

A) Kristine with Nils. A) Danish mead cup. B) Kristine with Torvald. B) GPS device. C) Nora with Nils. C) horse. D) Torvald with Nils. D) shield. E) Torvald with Rank. E) sword.

35. Torvald Helmer's question "[I]s my stubborn little 40. Hrothgar, speaking about corruption associated creature calling for a lifeguard?" is in response to with power, addresses all who "have wintered Nora's into wisdom," which is a fine example of (a)

A) admitting that she ate too many macaroons. A) flyting. B) asking for forgiveness regarding the forgery. B) hyperbole. C) asking for help in planning her costume. C) litotes. D) complaining about having to raise her children. D) metaphor. E) cowering before a flood of criticism. E) paradox.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 4

Literary Criticism Contest • District 1 2015 • page 5

41. The Danes, in their desperation to rid themselves of 45. Dickinson's poem focuses on the soul's Grendel's destruction turned to their heathen gods, A) cautious approach to dating royalty. hoping, according to the scop, to be rescued by the B) frustration stemming from not being able to move.

A) God-cursed brute. C) inability to know everyone well. B) Head of the Heavens. D) reflection on the stone-like quality of society. C) killer of souls E) single-mindedness in finding a companion. D) sky-winger. E) terror of hall-troops. 46. The last line of the poem suggests

A) bullheadedness. 42. The admonition, "[R]ecollect as well / all of the boons B) defiance. that have been bestowed on you" is delivered by

C) finality. A) Beowulf to the warriors in Heorot. D) lethargy. B) Hrothgar to the recently arrived Geats. E) weightiness. C) Hygelac to Ecgtheow.

D) Unferth to anyone accepting his challenge. 47. The second and fourth lines of each of the first two

E) Wealhtheow to the court of Heorot. stanzas is a (n)

A) amphiboly. Items 43-47 refer to Emily Dickinson's B) dimeter.

[The soul selects her own society] C) dipody.

D) distitch. The soul selects her own society, Then shuts the door; E) douzain. On her divine majority Items 48-50 refer to Emily Dickinson's

Obtrude no more. 4 [There is no frigate like a book] Unmoved, she notes the chariot's pausing At her low gate; There is no frigate like a book Unmoved, an emperor is kneeling To take us lands away, Upon her mat. 8 Nor any coursers like a page

4 Of prancing poetry. I've known her from an ample nation Choose one; This traverse may the poorest take Then close the valves of her attention Without oppress of toll; Like stone. 12 How frugal is the chariot

That bears a human soul! 8 43. The overriding melopoeic device in the first two lines

of the first stanza of Dickinson's poem is 48. The imagery of the poem's first stanza depends on

A) alliteration. A) anaphora.

B) assonance. B) inversion.

C) consonance. C) metaphors.

D) dissonance. D) paradoxes.

E) onomatopoeia. E) similes.

44. In the second stanza the imagery, controlled by 49. Line 5's "traverse [. . .] the poorest [Without oppress chariot and emperor suggests that the speaker of toll] take" is a

A) dreams of having a horse and chariot. A) comical euphemism.

B) fancies herself living in Roman times. B) mystical scansion.

C) is a princess waiting for a prince. C) metaphorical journey

D) is unfazed by wealth and position. D) snarky metalepsis.

E) knows that the emperor wants to be part of her life. E) transferred epithet.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 5 Literary Criticism Contest • District 1 2015 • page 6

50. The thematic concern of "[There is no frigate like a the noble man for spite, lets a nasty dart book ]" is (the) shatter the shield-wall, though the Measurer commanded

A) books about travel making the best reading. that he should protect that battle-position. (He) sits, dinner-proud, deviously 40 B) frugality being a metaphor for spirituality. words loose, warped with wine, C) poetry about horses being uplifting. (lets) hatreds, violently swollen, hasten out, D) promise of exploration afforded by reading. inflamed with envy, full of vanity, E) travel broadens a reader's horizons. nasty, narrow tricks. Now you will recognize, if you ever meet such a man 45 living in the towns—realize for your own sake, Part 3: Ability in Literary Criticism 15 items (2 points each) with few deliberations, that he is the devil's child wrapped in flesh, has a filthy life, Items 51-56 refer to the Anglo-Saxon Poem a spirit hastening to hell, sickening to God,

the Splendor-king. So sang the seer, 50 Vainglory that quick-worded man, and spoke this speech:

Listen! an ancient prophet declared to me in distant days, "Whoever props himself up in pride in these sadistic times, exalts himself, a well-informed messenger, many a unique miracle. high-handed–he must be humiliated. This man, masterful in books, unlocked the word-hoard with a wise man's learning, the foreseeing words of the After he is crushed down in his corpse-journey, 55

seer, (he must) live on, transfixed with tortures, surrounded so that afterwards I might truly understand 5 by serpents. God’s own son, that welcome guest in the dwellings, So it was once long ago in God’s kingdom by (that man's) incantation, (recognize) in my under- that pride arose among the angels, standing a well-known misfortune. They mounted an insurrection, the feebler one as well, flawed by his faults. a pitiless battle-run, polluted heaven, 60 Everyone can easily understand this, renounced their ruler, when they intended too treacher- who does not, in this loaned life, let 10 ously the lust of the mind murder his memories, to rob the rich Glory-King (does not) in his count of days let drunkenness rule, of his prince-throne, as was not proper, when so many meeting-givers, and then to subjugate glory's joy-land proud war-smiths in the wine-soaked towns to their own will. But He withstood them with war, 65

sit in a senate, speak true tales, 15 the Father of first-creation; that fight was too grim for

trade words: wise ones will discover them. what a spear-place lives inside with the people Then so unlike these others is in that hall when wine whets the one who here on earth lives humbly, a man's mind-thoughts. A murmuring rises, and always keeps peace with kin shouting in the assembly, various men 20 among the people and loves his enemies 70 their harangues. Thus are heart-minds though they have often made annoyances for him divided by differences: troop-men are willfully in this world. He will ascend from here not alike. In his arrogance a certain one to the joy of saints, splendor's ecstasy, presses for power, puffs up within into the angels' home. For the others it will not be so, with an uncalmed mind; there are too many of these 25 for those who in arrogant, ugly deeds 75 So it is that everyone is filled with fury, live in lusts—their rewards will not be alike from the Glory-King." Remind yourself of this, with the Enemy's flying arrows, with evil plots each one barks and bellows, boasts about himself if you meet a humble man, much more greatly than the good man (does), a servant among the people whose soul, imagines that his ways seem to well-near 30 / not united, is similar to God's own Son, 80 at all despicable. Afterwards comes a second delusion wonderful in the world—if the wise one did not deceive when he sees the aftermath of his evil. me!

He sneaks and cheats and thinks up a throng Therefore we must always remember in our minds, of underhand (lies), lets loose a thought-spear, meditating at all times on the might of salvation, shoots them in showers. He knows then no shame 35 the very best Ruler of victories. for feuds fanned up, he flouts his betters, Amen. Trans. Bob Hasenfratz

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 6 Literary Criticism Contest • District 1 2015 • page 7

51. The description of a less-than-honorable mode of ex- 56. The phrasing "his ways seem to well-near / not at

pression as a "thought-spear" (34) constitutes a (n) all despicable" (lines 30-31) centers on

A) caesura. A) ambiguity. B) euphemism. B) chiasmus. C) kenning. C) hyperbole. D) metonymy. D) litotes. E) syllepsis. E) synecdoche.

52. "So it was once long ago in God’s kingdom / that pride arose among the angels, / a well-known mis- Items 57-62 refer to John Davies's poem fortune" (lines 57-59) is a [As when the bright cerulean firmament] A) biblical allusion. B) classical allusion. As when the bright cerulean firmament* C) historical allusion. Hath not his glory with black clouds defaced D) literary allusion. So were my thoughts void of all discontent And with no mist of passions overcast 4 E) topical allusion. They all were pure and clear, till at the last

An idle careless thought for the wand'ring went 53. "Vainglory" is a fine example of the Celtic and Ger- and of that poisonous beauty took a taste manic verse form associated with both the Old Eng- Which does the hearts of lovers so torment. 8 lish Period and the Middle English Period through Then as it chanceth in a flock of sheep the fifteenth century known as When some contagious ill breeds first in one A) alliterative verse. Daily it spreads and secretly doth creep B) the bob and wheel. Till all the silly troop be overgone; 12 C) cynghanedd. So by close neighbourhood within my breast One scurvy* thought infecteth all the rest. D) metaphysical poetry. * E) rhopalic verse. deep blue sky * arousing disgust

54. The poem contrasts two ways of conducting one- 57. John Davies's "[As when the bright cerulean fir- self:one way is with boastful pride; the other is in mament]" both begins with and turns on a

A) arrogance. A) euphemism. B) drunkenness. B) hyperbole. C) humility. C) paradox. D) meditation. D) simile. E) vaingloriousness. E) syllepsis.

55. The poem's speaker notes that "when wine whets 58. The repetition of the vocalic quality that threads ['stimulates'] / a man's mind-thoughts. A murmur- through "When some contagious ill breeds first in ing rises, / shouting in the assembly, various men one / Daily it spreads and secretly doth creep / their harangues" (18-21); the murmuring is an Till all the silly troop be over-gone" (10-12) is example of called

A) cacophony. A) assonance. B) hapax legomenon. B) consonance. C) mythopoeia. C) dissonance D) nonce word. D) resonance. E) onomatopoeia. E) sigmatism.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 7 Literary Criticism Contest • District 1 2015 • page 8

59. While the sonnet's rhyme scheme is a fairly rare vari- Items 63-65 refer to Wilfred Owen's poem ant, Davies's sonnet most closely conforms to the Arms and the Boy A) Anglo-Italian sonnet. B) English sonnet. Let the boy try along this bayonet-blade C) Italian sonnet. How cold steel is, and keen with hunger of blood; D) Miltonic sonnet. Blue with all malice, like a madman's flash; And thinly drawn with famishing for flesh. 4 E) Spenserian sonnet. Lend him to stroke these blind, blunt bullet-heads 60. The phrase "poisonous beauty" (line 7) can be under- Which long to nuzzle in the hearts of lads. stood as being subtly Or give him cartridges of fine zinc teeth,

A) didactic. Sharp with the sharpness of grief and death. 8

B) hyperbolic. For his teeth seem for laughing round an apple. C) metonymic. There lurk no claws behind his fingers supple; D) oxymoronic. And God will grow no talons at his heels, E) syllogistic. Nor antlers through the thickness of his curls. 12

61. The narrative turn upon which the sonnet relies as it 63. In Wilfred Owen's poem "Arms and the Boy" moves from one comparison to another occurs at the the dissonance of war determinedly echoes in beginning of line the melopoeic use of

A) 3. A) assonance. B) 9. B) consonance. C) 11. C) feminine rhyme. D) 12. D) identical rhyme. E) 13. E) internal rhyme.

62. The sonnet's lyric nature, especially in terms of its 64. Lines 5-6, which suggest that the "blind, blunt focusing on a personally experienced emotional re- bullet-heads / Which long to nuzzle in the hearts sponse, contributes to the poem's of lads," depend for its full effect on

A) cautionary tone. A) affective fallacy. B) dramatic braggadocio. B) hyperbole. C) monotonous imagery. C) onomatopoeia. D) stanzaic structure. D) pathetic fallacy. E) unenlightening irony. E) personification.

65. The imagery in which are couched the boy's teeth

and his lack of claws constitutes, effectively, a (n)

A) absurdist contrast. B) anatomical contrast. C) moral contrast. D) semiotic contrast. E) surrealistic contrast.

Required tie-breaking essay prompt on the next page.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 8

Part 4: Tie-Breaking Essay (required)

Note well: Contestants who do not write an essay will be disqualified even if they are not involved in any tie.

Three sheets of paper have been provided for this essay; your written response should reflect the Handbook's notion that an essay is a "moderately brief discussion of a restricted topic": something more than just a few sentences. ______Read Emily Dickinson's "[The mushroom is the elf of plants]," and address the poet's use of comparison, specifically simile, metaphor, and allusion.

[The mushroom is the elf of plants]

The mushroom is the elf of plants, At evening, it is not; * * At morning, in a truffled hut an adjective derived from a

It stops upon a spot 4 synonym for mushroom

* * As if it tarried always; delayed progress And yet its whole career Is shorter than a snake's delay, And fleeter than a tare.* 8 * an invasive plant

'T is vegetation's juggler, The germ of alibi; Doth like a bubble antedate,* * occur before And like a bubble hie.* 12 * to go quickly

I feel as if the grass were pleased To have it intermit;* * pause at intervals * # * This surreptitious scion stealthy Of summer's circumspect. 16 # next generation of a plant

Had nature any outcast face, Could she a son contemn,* * despise Had nature an Iscariot,* * Judas who betrayed Jesus That mushroom,—it is him. 20

Emily Dickinson

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 9 ANSWER SHEET

Items 31-65 2 points each ______

UIL Literary Criticism contestant number 31. ____

32. ____

33. ____ ç ______34. ____ SCORE Items 1-30 1 point each 35. ____

1. ____ 36. ____ Please note that the objective scores should not be altered to 2. ____ 37. ____ reflect the breaking of any ties.

3. ____ 38. ____ Simply adjust ranking.

4. ____ 39. ____

5. ____ 40. ____ The thirty items in Part 1 are worth one point each. 6. ____ 41. ____

7. ____ 42. ____ The twenty items in Part 2 are worth two points each. 8. ____ 43. ____ The fifteen items in Part 3 9. ____ 44. ____ are worth two points each. 10. ____ 45. ____

11. ____ 46. ____ FIRST GRADER

12. ____ 47. ____ number correct x 1 ______

13. ____ 48. ____ + number correct x 2 ______14. ____ 49. ____

= ______15. ____ 50. ______16. ____ 51. ____ Part 3 ______initials

17. ____ 52. ____

SECOND GRADER 18. ____ 53. ____

number correct x 1 ______19. ____ 54. ____ + 20. ____ 55. ____ x 2 ______number correct 21. ____ 56. ____ = ______22. ____ 57. ______23. ____ 58. ____ initials

24. ____ 59. ____ THIRD GRADER 25. ____ 60. ____ number correct x 1 ______26. ____ 61. ____ + 27. ____ 62. ____ number correct x 2 ______

28. ____ 63. ____ = ______

29. ____ 64. ______30. ____ 65. ____ initials

KEY

UIL Literary Criticism 31. D 50 FOLD along the three 67 District 1 • 2015 32. B longitudinal 33. A 47 lines for ease line arrows up  in grading.  34. A 95 35. C 69 1. E 447 36. E 107 Please note that the objective scores should not be altered to 2. C 587 37. C 1303 reflect the breaking of any ties. 3. A 12 38. A 418 Simply adjust ranking. 4. D 592 39. E 1807 5. A 279 40. D 294 The thirty items in Part 1 are worth one point each. 6. B 475 41. C 77 7. B 42. E 1172 The twenty items in Part 2 are worth two points each. 8. C 84 43. A 13 9. D 142 44. D The fifteen items in Part 3 are worth two points each. 10. E 602 45. E 11. E 427 46. C DO NOT mark (cross out) 12. B 201 47. B 144 actual LETTER answer; 13. A 30 48. E 445 mark the answer NUMERAL. 14. E 309 49. C 15. B 608 50. D 16. C 361 51. C 266 17. A 605 52. A 18. E 561 53. A 14

19. B 9 54. C Page numbers refer 20. A 256 55. E 337 to the Handbook 12e, 21. D 246 56. D 275 to the Signet House,

22. C 167 57. D 445 to the Norton Beowulf,

23. B 75 58. A 43 and to Collins's 24. D 59. B 173 Dickinson collection. 25. B 62 60. D 345 26. B 178 61. B 27. D 401 62. A 28. A 58 63. B 107

64. 29. C 601 64. E 361 30. E 516 65. C

Part 4: Tie-Breaking Essay

Criteria for judging the Tie-Breaking Essay SHOULD include

the degree to which the instructions have been followed,

the quality of the critical insight offered in response to the selection,

the overall effectiveness of the written discussion, and

the grammatical correctness of the essay.

Critical Notes on Emily Dickinson's "[The mushroom is the elf of plants]"

Literary concepts that MIGHT be used in a discussion of the figures of comparison—similes, metaphors, and allusions—in Emily Dickinson's "[The mushroom is the elf of plants]" include

alliteration, metaphor, allusion, paradox, antecedent, personification, assonance, rhyme, connotation, rhythm, consonance, sigmatism, contrast, simile, denotation, speaker, enjambment, tenor and vehicle, and imagery, tone.

The young writer should recognize that Dickinson's poem progresses through a series of comparisons, the overwhelming majority of which are metaphors and similes, the allusion ending the poem characterizing the capstone comparison. The writer might focus on the shift that occurs in line 13, at which point the speaker offers a personal assessment of the nature of the relationship that the mushroom has with the rest of the vegetation, including the tare (line 8), which is also considered unwanted.

The contestant might instead focus on the imagery that is embedded in the vehicles of the comparisons: an elf, not an elf, a snake, a tare, a juggler, a germ of an alibi, a bubble (a pair of similes balanc- ing as a paradox), an offshoot of the summer's otherwise carefulness, and the pointed last clause, which declares that the mushroom is Judas.

The thread of comparison that culminates in the speaker's allusion to Judas Iscariot as son despised (lines 17-19)—the mushroom as an outcast from the world of vegetation—gives the writer an opportunity to address the personification of grass being pleased with the mushroom as intermittent inter- loper.

Any recognition of the poet's inclination to speak in terms of nature (obvious), religion (the allusion), or death (the mushroom's life cycle) should be specific to the poem's imagery and diction.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE Making a World of Difference Literary Criticism District 2 • 2015

do not turn this page until you are instructed to do so! University Interscholastic League Literary Criticism Contest • District 2 • 2015

Part 1: Knowledge of Literary Terms and of Literary History 30 items (1 point each)

1. A pause or break in a line of verse, which in clas- 6. Not a term used to designate a poet or a musi- sical poetry usually occurs near the middle of a cian, often one who travels, who tells stories of

line, is the great deeds, love, or chivalry is

A) cadence. A) bard. B) caesura. B) braggadocio. C) chiasmus. C) gleeman. D) elision. D) scop. E) enjambment. E) troubadour.

2. The authors John Barbour, Adam Smith, David 7. The dramatic convention by which an actor di- Hume, Alexander Montgomerie, John Knox, Wal- rectly addresses the audience but is not sup- ter Scott, and Robert Burns represent the body of posed to be heard by the other actors on stage is

A) African American literature. A) apostrophe. B) Irish literature. B) aside. C) Jewish American literature. C) dramatic monologue. D) Scottish literature. D) harangue. E) Welsh literature. E) soliloquy.

3. The device of repetition in which the same expres- 8. The imagist poet who authored the poetry collec- sion (word or words) is repeated as the beginning of tion Pictures from Brueghel for which he won the

two or more lines, clauses, or sentences is known as 1963 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry posthumously is

A) anaphora. A) Wallace Stevens. B) epanalepsis. B) Peter Viereck. C) merism. C) Robert Penn Warren. D) ploce. D) Richard Wilbur. E) polyptoton. E) William Carlos Williams.

4. The American author of A Farewell to Arms, The Old 9. The period in English literature (1700-1750) that Man and the Sea, and For Whom the Bell Tolls and encompasses the reign of Queen Anne and the recipient of the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature is flourishing of Alexander Pope is called the

A) Saul Bellow. A) Augustan Age. B) Joseph Brodsky. B) Caroline Age. C) William Faulkner. C) Edwardian Age. D) Ernest Hemingway. D) Elizabethan Age. E) Sinclair Lewis. E) Jacobean Age.

5. The early nineteenth-century New York literary 10. The Polish-born Jewish-American author of the society that includes Washington Irving, James short story collection The Magic Barrel and the Fenimore Cooper, and William Cullen Bryant, and novels The Natural (which was made into a film), which was based more on geography and chance The Assistant, and The Fixer, for which he re- rather than on close organization, is the ceived the 1967 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is

A) Fireside Poets. A) Bernard Malamud. B) Hartford Wits. B) Philip Roth. C) Knickerbocker Group. C) J. D. Salinger. D) Muckrakers. D) Isaac Bashevis Singer. E) New York School. E) Wallace Stegner.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 1

Literary Criticism Contest • District 2 2015 • page 2

11. The gathering of writers and thinkers, many of 16. The French verse pattern that is artificial but whom lived in a residential district near central very popular with many English-language London, after which the group takes its name, the poets and which consists of fifteen lines, the collective counting among its membership Virginia ninth and fifteenth being a short refrain, and Woolf, Lytton Strachey, E. M. Forster, and John which has only two rhymes (exclusive of the Maynard Keynes, among others, is the refrain) is the

A) Bloomsbury Group. A) bouts-rimés. B) Bluestockings. B) chant royal. C) Fugitives. C) pantoum. D) Knickerbocker Group. D) pastourelle. E) Scriblerus Club. E) rondeau.

12. The phenomenon in which a syllable both begins 17. Commonplace in literature and movies, the and ends phonetically in the same way as a rhym- character serving as a mysterious look-alike

ing syllable, without being the same word is called is known as a (n)

A) compound rhyme. A) braggadocio. B) eye rhyme. B) doppelgänger. C) identical rhyme. C) femme fatale. D) leonine rhyme. D) ingénue. E) masculine rhyme. E) twiner.

13. Not designated by Edmund Burke as one of the 18. In earlier forms of a language, a word for which

four master tropes (master because of their role in there is a single recorded occurrence is known as a the discovery and description of "the truth") is

A) irony. A) euphemism. B) metaphor. B) kenning. C) metonymy. C) nonce word. D) simile. D) pun. E) synecdoche. E) repartee.

14. The twentieth-century Chinese-American author of The 19. A character who changes little if at all is known Joy Luck Club and Sagwa, the Chinese-Siamese Cat is as a

A) Maxine Hong Kingston. A) dynamic character. B) Michelle Kwan. B) flat character. C) Ursula Le Guin. C) round character. D) Amy Tan. D) static character.

E) Gao Xing jian. E) stock character.

15. The seventeenth-century English poet and essayist 20. The nineteenth-century American essayist, orator, whose Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Areo- and member of the Transcendental Club, whose pagitica underscore Harold Bloom's argument re- delivery of the "Harvard Divinity School Address" garding the importance of this author's contribution and the Phi Beta Kappa address, "The American to the British canon is Scholar" has enshrined him in history is

A) Francis Bacon. A) William Cullen Bryant. B) John Donne. B) Ralph Waldo Emerson. C) Ben Jonson. C) Oliver Wendell Holmes. D) John Milton. D) William Dean Howells. E) Henry Vaughan. E) Henry David Thoreau.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 2 Literary Criticism Contest • District 2 2015 • page 3

21. A listing of people, things, or attributes as a character- 26. A poem that reveals "a soul in action" through istic of primitive literature, e.g., epics, as well as not- the speech of one character in a dramatic situa-

so-primitive literature, e.g., art epics, is called a (n) tion is called (a)

A) archive. A) dramatic irony. B) catalog. B) dramaticle. C) chrestomathy. C) dramedy. D) index. D) dramatic monologue. E) miscellany. E) dramatic personae.

22. The eighteenth-century Anglo-Irish novelist, play- 27. The often ludicrous effect, intended or other- wright, and poet whose The Vicar of Wakefield, She wise, resulting from the unsuccessful effort to Stoops to Conquer, and The Deserted Village earned achieve dignity or sublimity of style is known him membership in Johnson's Literary Club is as

A) George Berkeley. A) bathos. B) Edmund Burke. B) ethos. C) Oliver Goldsmith. C) logos. D) Laurence Sterne. D) mythos. E) Jonathan Swift. E) pathos.

23. The appellation by which the nineteenth-century 28. Not the eighteenth- or nineteenth-century liter- English Romantics William Wordsworth, Samuel ary period in which historical and religious con- Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey have come to cerns, or the romantic spirit, or pragmatic verisi-

be known is the militude characterizes the literature is the

A) Black Mountain School. A) Colonial Period. B) Cockney School. B) Period of Confessional Self. C) Graveyard School. C) Realistic Period. D) Kailyard School. D) Revolutionary Period. E) Lake School. E) Romantic Period.

24. An interrogative statement propounded for its styl- 29. Often performed at UIL One-Act Play contests, istic or oratorical effect and not requiring a reply or Harvey, which was awarded the 1945 Pulitzer

intended to induce a reply is a (n) Prize for Drama, was written by

A) dialectic. A) Mary Chase. B) equivoque. B) Ketti Frings. C) objective correlative. C) David Lindsay-Abaire. D) rhetorical accent. D) Marsha Norman. E) rhetorical question. E) Neil Simon.

25. The name for certain young scholars, including Chris- 30. A work of fiction, a major concern of which is topher Marlowe and Thomas Kyd, who came to Lon- the nature of fiction itself, such as Miguel de don in the late 1580s, undertook careers as professional Cervantes' Don Quixote, John Barth's Lost in writers, and played an important part in the develop- the Funhouse, and John Fowles's The French ment of great literature is Lieutenant's Woman, is known as (a/an)

A) Inkhornists. A) epistolary novel. B) Literary Club. B) framework-story. C) Scriblerus Club. C) leitmotif. D) Stationers' Company. D) metafiction. E) University Wits. E) palimpsest.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 3 Literary Criticism Contest • District 2 2015 • page 4

Part 2: The UIL Reading List 20 items (2 points each)

31. In Ibsen's A Doll House the threat "I'm telling you 36. Mrs. Linde's revelation that "[t]here was a time this: if I get shoved down a second time, you're go- once when he'd gladly have done anything for ing to keep me company" is delivered by me" is referring to

A) Nils to Helene. A) Helmer. B) Nils to Kristine. B) Krogstad. C) Nils to Nora. C) Linde's first husband. D) Torvald to Kristine. D) Rank. E) Torvald to Nora. E) Torvald.

32. Central to Nora's comment to Kristine, "Being a law- 37. In Heaney's Beowulf the son of Ecgtheow announ- yer is such an uncertain living [. . .] especially if one ces that he and his retainers have "come in good won't touch any cases that aren't clean and decent," is faith to find [the watchman's] lord / and nation's a reference to shield, the son of Halfdane," specifically, to find

A) Bob. A) Beow. B) Ivar. B) Beowulf. C) Nils. C) Hrothgar. D) Rank. D) Hygelac. E) Torvald. E) Ongentheow.

33. The admonitory observation that "[p]lenty of men 38. Heaney's translation of the Old English word wist, have redeemed themselves by openly confessing which means 'feasting,' as 'wassail' in "Grendel's their crimes and taking their punishment" is strong powers of destruction were plain: their wassail advice given by was over" constitutes (a)

A) Kristine to Nora. A) barbarism. B) Nils to Nora. B) heteronym. C) Nora to Kristine. C) hyperbole. D) Rank to Nora. D) synecdoche. E) Torvald to Nora. E) transvocalization.

34. The "better hands" to which Nora refers in her riposte, 39. "As God is my witness, / I would rather my body "Good-bye, Torvald. I won't look in on the children. were robed in the same / burning blaze as my gold- I know they're in better hands than mine," are giver's body" prefaces an action undertaken by

A) Anne-Marie's. A) Aeschere. B) Emmy's. B) Beowulf. C) Helene's. C) Hygelac. D) Kristine's. D) Unferth. E) Torvald's. E) Wiglaf.

35. Revealingly, the object of Helmer's question, "Why 40. The "hall session that harrowed every Dane / in- shouldn't I look at my dearest possession?" is his side the stockade" is the

A) bank portfolio. A) distribution of mead by Wealhtheow. B) copy of the forged document that saved his life. B) fight between Grendel and Beowulf. C) gold-framed family tree. C) flyting undertaken by Unferth. D) oldest son. D) greeting of the Geats by the Danes. E) wife. E) redistribution of booty by Hrothgar.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 4

Literary Criticism Contest • District 2 2015 • page 5

41. Not among the peoples that Wiglaf lists as potential 45. The poem's rhyme scheme depends on enemies upon the death of the king, Beowulf, are the A) assonance.

A) Franks. B) consonance.

B) Frisians. C) dissonance.

C) Geats. D) feminine endings.

D) Hetware. E) sigmatism. E) Swedes. 46. Line 13's "neigh like Boanerges" is a 42. Beowulf cuts Grendel's head off

A) biblical allusion. A) after he kills the dragon. B) classical allusion. B) after he severs the tarn-hag's neck-bone. C) historical allusion. C) during the battle in the mead hall. D) literary allusion. D) while he chases him through the fens.

E) while searching for Grendel's mother. E) topical allusion.

47. The subject of Dickinson's poem is a (n)

Items 43-47 refer to Emily Dickinson's A) athlete.

[I like to see it lap the miles] B) horse.

I like to see it lap the miles, C) owl. And lick the valleys up, D) storm. And stop to feed itself at tanks; E) train. And then, prodigious, step 4

Around a pile of mountains, Items 48-50 refer to Emily Dickinson's And, supercilious, peer [I heard a fly buzz when I died] In shanties by the sides of roads; And then a quarry pare 8 I heard a fly buzz when I died;

To fit its sides, and crawl between The stillness round my form Complaining all the while Was like the stillness in the air In horrid, hooting stanza; Between the heaves of storm. 4

Then chase itself down hill 12 The eyes beside had wrung them dry,

And neigh like Boanerges; And breaths were gathering sure

Then, punctual as a star, For that last onset, when the king Stop—docile and omnipotent— Be witnessed in his power. 8 At its own stable door. 16 I willed my keepsakes, signed away 43. The dynamic progress through Dickinson's "[I like What portion of me I to see it lap the miles]" is reinforced by Could make assignable,—and then

A) anadiplosis. There interposed a fly, 12

B) elision. With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz, C) enjambment. Between the light and me;

D) onomatopoeia. And then the windows failed, and then

I could not see. 16 E) reduplication.

44. Line 6's "supercilious" means 48. The imagery of Dickinson's poem is primarily

A) cautiously. A) auditory.

B) fanatically. B) gustatory.

C) maniacally. C) olfactory.

D) pridefully D) tactile.

E) tautological. E) visual.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 5 Literary Criticism Contest • District 2 2015 • page 6

49. The figure of speech that enlivens line 13 is Dim are the dales, dark the hills tower, 30

A) apostrophe. Bleak the tribe-dwellings, with briars entangled, Unblessed abodes. Here bitterly I have suffered B) conceit. The faring of my lord afar. Friends there are on earth C) irony. Living in love, in lasting bliss, D) mimesis. While, wakeful at dawn, I wander alone 35 E) synæsthesia. Under the oak-tree the earth-cave near. Sadly, I sit there the summer-long day, 50. Thematically, Dickinson's poem, which focuses on the Wearily weeping my woeful exile, threshold that is death, is concerned with My many miseries. Hence I may not ever A) aesthetic distance. Cease my sorrowing, my sad bewailing, 40 B) kenosis. Nor all the longings of my life of woe. C) liminality. Always may the young man be mournful of spirit, Unhappy of heart, and have as his portion D) luminism. Many sorrows of soul, unceasing breast-cares, E) ratiocination. Though now blithe of behavior. Unbearable likewise 45

Be his joys in the world. Wide be his exile

Part 3: Ability in Literary Criticism To far-away folk-lands where my friend sits alone, 15 items (2 points each) A stranger under stone-cliffs, by storm made hoary, A weary-souled wanderer, by waters encompassed, Items 51-53 refer to the Anglo-Saxon Poem In his lonely lodging. My lover endures 50 The Wife's Lament Unmeasured mind-care: he remembers too oft A happier home. To him is fate cruel Sorrowfully I sing my song of woe, Who lingers and longs for the loved one's return! My tale of trials. In truth I may say Trans. Friedrich Kluge That the buffets I have borne since my birth in the world Were never more than now, either new or old. 51. Overall, the tone of "The Wife's Lament" is Ever the evils of exile I endure! 5 Long since went my lord from the land of his birth, A) apologetic.

Over the welling waves. Woeful at dawn I asked B) condescending.

Where lingers my lord, in what land does he dwell? C) elegiac. Then I fared into far lands and faithfully sought him, D) indignant. A weary wanderer in want of comfort. 10 His treacherous tribesmen contrived a plot, E) morose.

Dark and dastardly, to drive us apart 52. The separation to which the wife refers (lines 17-25) The width of a world, where with weary hearts seems to have become indubitable in light of the We live in loneliness, and longing consumes me. A) approach of Judgment Day. My master commanded me to make my home here. 15 Alas, in this land my loved ones are few, B) arrival of faithful friends.

My faithful friends! Hence I feel great sorrow C) husband's deceptive bearing.

That the man well-matched with me I have found D) overuse of alliteration.

To be sad in soul and sorrowful in mind, E) wearied loneliness despite faith and friendship. Concealing his thoughts and thinking of murder, 20

Though blithe in his bearing. Oft we bound us by oath 53. The wife's closing remarks (lines 51-53) suggest That the day of our death should draw us apart, the Nothing less end our love. Alas, all is changed! A) despair of exile. Now is as naught, as if never it were, Our faith and our friendship. Far and near I shall 25 B) favored status of mind-care.

Endure the hate of one dear to my heart! C) husband's deception.

He condemned me to dwell in a darksome wood, D) return of the weary-souled wanderer. Under an oak-tree in an earth-cave drear. E) speaker's generous humanity. Old is the earth-hall. I am anxious with longing. Literary Criticism Contest • District 2 2015 • page 8

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 6 Literary Criticism Contest • District 2 2015 • page 7

Items 54-58 refer to Elizabeth Barrett Browning's 57. Lines 1, 4, 5, and 8 are examples of

To George Sand:* A Recognition A) eye rhyme. B) feminine rhyme. True genius, but true woman! dost deny C) half rhyme. The woman's nature with a manly scorn And break away the gauds and armlets worn jewelry D) leonine rhyme. By weaker women in captivity? 4 E) rime riche. Ah, vain denial! that revolted cry Is sobbed in by a woman's voice forlorn, 58. Browning's sonnet is a near-perfect

Thy woman's hair, my sister, all unshorn A) Anglo-Italian sonnet. Floats back dishevelled strength in agony 8 B) English sonnet. Disproving thy man's name*: and while before The world thou burnest in a poet-fire, C) Italian sonnet. We see thy woman-heart beat evermore D) Miltonic sonnet. Through the large flame. Beat purer, heart, and higher, E) Spenserian sonnet. Till God unsex thee on the heavenly shore 13 Where unincarnate spirits purely aspire!

George Sand is the pseudonym of Items 59-60 refer to George Eliot's Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin, a nineteenth-century author who, 'Mid My Gold-Brown Curls like Mary Ann Evan, took a man's

name in order to publish.

'Mid my gold-brown curls 54. The societal expectations regarding women, against There twined a silver hair: which Elizabeth Barrett Browning's praise of George I plucked it idly out Sand finds expression in this sonnet, are best summa- And scarcely knew 'twas there. 4 rized in the imagery of Coiled in my velvet sleeve it lay A) line 1. And like a serpent hissed: B) line 4. "Me thou canst pluck and fling away, One hair is lightly missed; 8 C) line 6. But how on that near day D) line 11. * When all the wintry army muster in array?"

E) line 13. * to assemble

55. The world's burning in line 10's "poet-fire," imagery 59. Thematically, the concern seriously expressed that is repeated in line 12's "large flame," refers to in George Eliot's (Mary Ann Evan's) "'Mid My the novelist George Sand's Gold-Brown Curls" is the

A) artistic inspiration. A) inevitability of aging. B) lack of culinary expertise. B) infelicity of shed hair on fine attire. C) need to see her old boyfriend. C) insecurity associated with aging. D) pseudonymic carelessness. D) intransigence of Samuel L. Jackson's nemeses. E) pyromaniacal inclination. E) unenviable worry about turning gray.

56. The aspect of George Sand's appearance that the poem's speaker singles out as the apparently open defiance of 60. The visual imagery that is found in the single Sand's having adopted a male pseudonym is/are the strand of hair's question (lines 7-10) is/are

A) broken gauds. A) drifts of snow. B) manly armlets. B) Medusa's snake-locks. C) unsexed heavenly shore. C) the speaker's hair. D) unshorn floating hair. D) the speaker's mourners at her winter funeral. E) voice forlorn. E) winter-camouflaged soldiers.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 7 Literary Criticism Contest • District 2 2015 • page 8

Items 61-65 refer to Thom Gunn's 61. The literary archetype upon which Thom Gunn bases the allusory concern in his poem "The * The Secret Sharer Secret Sharer" is the

Over the ankles in snow and numb past pain A) antihero. I stared up at my window three stories high: B) braggadocio. From a white street unconcerned as a dead eye, C) doppelgänger. I patiently called my name again and again. 4 D) double entendre. The curtains were lit, through glass were lit by doubt E) twiner. And there was I, within the room alone. In the empty wind I stood and shouted on: 62. The stanzaic form that characterizes Gunn's But O, what if the strange head should peer out? 8 poem is the

Suspended taut between two equal fears A) ballad stanza. I was like to be torn apart by their strong pull: B) englyn. What, I asked, if I never hear my call? C) heroic quatrain. And what if it reaches my sensitive ears? 12 D) quatorzain.

Fixed in my socket of thought I saw them move E) quatrain. Aside, I saw that some uncertain hand 63. The figure of speech represented by line 5's "lit Had touched the curtains. Mine, I wondered? And, by doubt" is At this instant, the wind turned in its groove. 16 A) conceit. The wind turns in its groove and I am here B) hyperbole. Lying in bed, the snow and street outside; Fire-glow still reassuring; dark defied. C) litotes. The wind turns in its groove: I am still there. 20 D) paradox. E) zeugma. * Titled after a Joseph Conrad novel in which story a ship's captain hides a stowaway in his own room 64. The species of end rhyme found in lines 1 and 4 and experiences a sense of watching his other self. and in lines 17 and 20 is

A) macaronic rhyme. B) near rhyme. C) onomatopoeia. D) rime riche. E) wrenched rhyme.

65. The focus of the theme of Gunn's poem is the

A) concern regarding personal identity. B) fright that comes with nightmares. C) psychiatry of self-stalking. D) sharing of warm housing with the homeless. E) ubiquity of schizophrenic versification.

Required tie-breaking essay prompt on the next page.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 8 Literary Criticism Contest • District 2 2015 • page 9

Part 4: Tie-Breaking Essay (required)

Note well: Contestants who do not write an essay will be disqualified even if they are not involved in any tie.

Three sheets of paper have been provided for this essay; your written response should reflect the Handbook's notion that an essay is a "moderately brief discussion of a restricted topic": something more than just a few sentences. ______Read Emily Dickinson's "[Nature, the gentlest mother]," and address the poet's characterization of nature.

[Nature, the gentlest mother]

Nature, the gentlest mother, Impatient of no child, The feeblest of the waywardest,— Her admonition mild 4

In forest and the hill By traveller is heard, Restraining rampant squirrel Or too impetuous bird. 8

How fair her conversation A summer afternoon,— Her household, her assembly; And when the sun goes down 12

Her voice among the aisles Incites the timid prayer Of the minutest cricket, The most unworthy flower. 16

When all the children sleep She turns as long away As will suffice to light her lamps; Then, bending from the sky, 20

With infinite affection An infiniter care, Her golden finger on her lip, Wills silence everywhere. 24

Emily Dickinson

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 9 ANSWER SHEET

Items 31-65 2 points each ______

UIL Literary Criticism contestant number 31. ____

32. ____

33. ____ ç ______34. ____ SCORE Items 1-30 1 point each 35. ____

1. ____ 36. ____ Please note that the objective scores should not be altered to 2. ____ 37. ____ reflect the breaking of any ties.

3. ____ 38. ____ Simply adjust ranking.

4. ____ 39. ____

5. ____ 40. ____ The thirty items in Part 1 are worth one point each. 6. ____ 41. ____

7. ____ 42. ____ The twenty items in Part 2 are worth two points each. 8. ____ 43. ____ The fifteen items in Part 3 9. ____ 44. ____ are worth two points each. 10. ____ 45. ____

11. ____ 46. ____ FIRST GRADER

12. ____ 47. ____ number correct x 1 ______

13. ____ 48. ____ + number correct x 2 ______14. ____ 49. ____

= ______15. ____ 50. ______16. ____ 51. ____ Part 3 ______initials

17. ____ 52. ____

SECOND GRADER 18. ____ 53. ____

number correct x 1 ______19. ____ 54. ____ + 20. ____ 55. ____ x 2 ______number correct 21. ____ 56. ____ = ______22. ____ 57. ______23. ____ 58. ____ initials

24. ____ 59. ____ THIRD GRADER 25. ____ 60. ____ number correct x 1 ______26. ____ 61. ____ + 27. ____ 62. ____ number correct x 2 ______

28. ____ 63. ____ = ______

29. ____ 64. ______30. ____ 65. ____ initials

KEY

31. C 67 FOLD UIL Literary Criticism along the three 32. E 49 District 2 • 2015 longitudinal 33. E 70 lines for ease line arrows up  in grading.  34. A 113/73

35. E 100

1. B 71 36. B 90 Please note that the objective

scores should not be altered to 2. D 435 37. C 267-68 reflect the breaking of any ties.

3. A 24 38. D 470 Simply adjust ranking.

4. D 600 39. E 2650 ff.

5. C 267 40. B 767 The thirty items in Part 1 are worth one point each. 6. B 66 41. C 2910 ff.

7. B 43 42. B 1590 The twenty items in Part 2 are worth two points each. 8. E 605 43. C 174

9. A 45 44. D The fifteen items in Part 3 are worth two points each. 10. A 603 45. B 107

11. A 61 46. A DO NOT

mark (cross out) 12. C 244 47. E actual LETTER answer;

13. D 239 48. A mark the answer NUMERAL.

14. D 592 49. E 469

15. D 540 50. C 273

16. E 424 51. C 167

17. B 151 52. C

18. C 326 53. E

19. D 455 54. B Page numbers refer 20. B 558 55. A to the Handbook 12e,

21. B 76 56. D to the Signet House,

22. C 548 57. A 191 to the Norton Beowulf,

23. E 268 58. D 300 and to Collins's

24. E 412 59. A Dickinson collection.

25. E 491 60. C

26. D 155 61. C 151

27. A 51 62. E 395

28. B 19 63. D 349

64. 29. A 607 64. B 318

30. D 293 65. A

Part 4: Tie-Breaking Essay

Criteria for judging the Tie-Breaking Essay SHOULD include

the degree to which the instructions have been followed,

the quality of the critical insight offered in response to the selection,

the overall effectiveness of the written discussion, and

the grammatical correctness of the essay.

Critical Notes on Emily Dickinson's "[Nature, the gentlest mothers]"

Literary concepts that MIGHT be used in a discussion of Emily Dickinson's characterization of nature in "[Nature, the gentlest of mothers]" include

alliteration, metaphor, anthropomorphism, paradox, characterization, pathetic fallacy, connotation, personification, consonance, sigmatism, enjambment, speaker, imagery, synecdoche, and litotes, tone.

Dickinson's personification of nature as mother is nothing new; however, Dickinson's characterization develops the maternal aspects through metaphor and imagery in a manner that the contestant should be able to appreciate. The young writer should note the patience, care, and affection that the speaker presents as the hallmarks of our personified nature's gentleness. Nature's rôle as caretaker of the forest's denizens is emphasized in the enjambed lines of the first two stanzas—"Her admonition mild / In forest and the hill / By traveler is heard"—and apparently recognized, a recognition that allows the anthropomorphizing of the forest critters: the rampant squirrel and the impetuous bird.

The contestant might recognize the mild admonition (line 4) as pathetic fallacy, and so also nature's "fair conversation" (line 9); both can be argued to be an endowing of nature with human emotion, the mildness and the fairness exceeding the simpler care and affection that are usually ascribed to both the sentient constituents of the natural world and the collective that is nature herself. Indeed, the description of the squirrel as rampant and the bird as impetuous might be seen as pathetic fallacy.

Something might be made of the metaphor and the synecdoche that suggest the forest as church: nature's "voice among the aisles," as well as the cricket's "timid prayer"; both of which are prefaced with a reference to nature's "assembly."

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE Making a World of Difference Literary Criticism Regional • 2015

do not turn this page until you are instructed to do so! University Interscholastic League Literary Criticism Contest • Region • 2015

Part 1: Knowledge of Literary Terms and of Literary History 30 items (1 point each) 1. 6. The group of eighteenth-century English poets who wrote poems on death and immortality that attempt to establish an atmosphere of pleasing gloom in order to call up the horrors of death through the imagery of the charnel house and similar places is the A) Graveyard School. B) Kailyard School. C) Lake School. . D) Satanic School. E) Spasmodic School.

2. The system for describing conventional rhythms by di- 7. The fictional author of a work supposedly writ- viding lines into feet, indicating the locations of binom- ten by someone other than the actual author is

ial accents, and counting the syllables is known as known as a (n) A) exegesis. A) allonym. B) reception theory. B) nom de plume. C) scansion. C) pseudonym. D) typology. D) putative author. E) versification. E) redende name.

3. The final unraveling of a plot, the solution of a mys- 8. A poem expressing grief in a very intense and

tery, or an explanation or outcome is known as (the) personal manner is a (n) A) débat. A) aubade. B) de casibus. B) epithalamium. C) dénouement. C) lament. D) deus ex machina. D) ode. E) dolce stil nuovo. E) pastoral.

4. The eighteenth-century English author of The Shortest 9. The name given in derision to a group of nine- Way with Dissenters, The Review, Robinson Crusoe, teenth-century English novelists whose writing The Journal of the Plague Year, and Moll Flanders is emphasizes gentility and etiquette is the A) Jane Austen. A) School of Night. B) Daniel Defoe. B) Silver-Fork School. C) Oliver Goldsmith. C) Transcendental Club. D) Laurence Sterne. D) Tribe of Ben. E) Jonathan Swift. E) University Wits.

5. Not one of the commonly used feet in English- 10. A self-contradictory combination of words or

language poetic expression is the smaller verbal units is a (n) A) anapest. A) hyperbole. B) dactyl. B) litotes. C) iamb. C) mimesis. D) paeon. D) oxymoron. E) trochee. E) paradox.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 1

Literary Criticism Contest • Region 2015 • page 2

11. The gathering of writers and thinkers, many of whom 16. The name for a group of prizes/awards for jour- lived in a residential district near central London, after nalism, literature, music, biography, history, and which the group takes its name, and counting among other fields awarded since 1917 by the School of its membership Virginia Woolf, Lytton Strachey, E. M. Journalism and the Board of Trustees of Colum- Forster, and John Maynard Keynes, among others, is the bia University is the

A) Bloomsbury Group. A) Booker Prizes. B) Bluestockings. B) Nobel Prizes. C) Fugitives. C) Orange Prizes. D) Knickerbocker Group. D) PEN American Center Awards. E) Scriblerus Club. E) Pulitzer Prizes.

12. The recipient of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 17. Not one of the four ages that comprise the Eng- for his Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is lish Renaissance Period (1500-1660) is the

A) Michael Chabon. A) Augustan Age. B) William Faulkner. B) Caroline Age. C) William Kennedy. C) Early Tudor Age. D) Harper Lee. D) Elizabethan Age. E) James A. Michener. E) Jacobean Age.

13. The author of the onomatopoeic poem "The Skater 18. The group of American writers of the 1950s and of Ghost Lake" and recipient of the 1942 Pulitzer '60s, including Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, Prize for Poetry for his autobiographical collection in rebellion against what they conceived of as the entitled The Dust Which Is God is failures of American culture is the

A) W. H. Auden. A) Agrarians. B) Stephen Vincent Benét. B) Angry Young Men. C) William Rose Benét. C) Beat Generation. D) Edwin Arlington Robinson. D) Lollards. E) Mark Van Doren. E) Muckrakers.

14. The process by which an unhealthy emotional state 19. The celebrated twentieth-century short story au- produced by an imbalance of feelings is corrected thor whose collections The Worn Path and Col- and emotional health is restored, especially in terms lected Stories, as well as her prize-winning novel of an audience's response to the fate of a tragic hero, The Optimist's Daughter, earned her national ac- is known as claim is

A) aporia. A) Willa Cather. B) catharsis. B) Shirley Ann Grau. C) hubris. C) Alison Lurie. D) pleonasm. D) Joyce Carol Oates. E) reification. E) Eudora Welty.

15. An interlude in which a drama's actors freeze in 20. The term used metaphorically as a critical stan- position and then resume action as before or hold dard by Matthew Arnold to detect the presence

their positions until the curtain falls is a (n) or absence of high poetic quality is (the)

A) establishing shot. A) aesthetic distance. B) hiatus. B) alienation effect. C) macrosegment. C) jumping the shark. D) suspension of disbelief. D) objective correlative. E) tableau. E) touchstone.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 2 Literary Criticism Contest • Region 2015 • page 3

21. The fixed nineteen-line form, originally French, em- 26. The twentieth-century Russian writer, author of ploying only two rhymes and repeating two of the One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Cancer lines according to the pattern abá aba abá aba abá Ward, and The Gulag Archipelago, who was abaá is the awarded the 1970 Nobel Prize for Literature is

A) cinquain. A) Ivan A. Bunin. B) pantoum. B) Boris L. Pasternak. C) rondeau. C) Mikhail A. Sholokhov. D) terza rima. D) Alexander I. Solzhenitsyn. E) villanelle. E) Leo N. Tolstoy.

22. The literary group writing during the English Renais- 27. An outgrowth of an earlier group and associated sance who favored the introduction of heavy Latin with the Irish Literary Revival, a group founded and Greek words into the standard English vocabu- by William Butler Yeats and Lady Gregory in lary is the 1899, enduring until 1951, is the

A) Goliards. A) Abbey Theatre. B) Inkhornists. B) Fleshly School. C) Parnassians. C) Gaelic Movement. D) Stationers' Company. D) Lost Generation. E) University Wits. E) Pre-Raphaelites.

23. The nineteenth-century American author of the long 28. An important genre in the vernacular literatures narrative poem Snow-Bound and the collections In of Western Europe, including Old English (of War Time and Other Poems, National Lyrics, and which it is the most secular of the extant gen- Among the Hills is res), a genre requiring interpretation, is the

A) Charles Brockden Brown. A) art epic. B) James Fenimore Cooper. B) folk epic. C) Ralph Waldo Emerson. C) hymn. D) Edgar Allan Poe. D) riddle. E) John Greenleaf Whittier. E) saga.

24. The American playwright who adapted Arthur Koest- 29. Not among the very influential twentieth-cen- ler's Darkness at Noon for the stage and who received tury mythopoeic Irish novelist, playwright, and the 1934 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Men in White is poet James Joyce's literary works is

A) Frank D. Gilroy. A) Dracula. B) Sidney Kingsley. B) Dubliners. C) Eugene O'Neill. C) Finnegans Wake. D) Will Smith. D) A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. E) Thornton Wilder. E) Ulysses.

25. The term that is widely used to refer to a "second 30. The conventionalized stanza appearing at the

self " created by an author and through whom, in close of certain kinds of poems frequently serv-

the case of prose, the narrative is told is ing as a "sending" or "dispatching" poem is a (n)

A) allonym. A) addendum. B) eponym. B) coda. C) persona. C) envoy. D) pseudonym. D) peroration. E) putative author. E) versicle.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 3 Literary Criticism Contest • Region 2015 • page 4

Part 2: The UIL Reading List 20 items (2 points each)

31. In Henrik Ibsen's A Doll House the confidence 36. "Helmer's got to learn everything; this dreadful shared in the statement, "So many times I've felt secret has to be aired; those two have to come you'd almost rather be with me than with Helmer," to a full understanding; all these lies and eva- is shared by sions can't go on" is a strong opinion voiced by

A) Nils with Kristine. A) Helmer. B) Nils with Nora. B) Krogstad. C) Rank with Kristine. C) Linde. D) Rank with Nora. D) Nora's father's spirit. E) Torvald with Nora. E) Rank.

32. Helmer's chastising comment, "A songbird needs a 37. In Heaney's translation of Beowulf the length of clean beak to warble with," is in response to Nora's time that Grendel's rampage has lasted—"twelve having winters"—is laden with

A) bitten her lip while dancing the tarantella. A) ambiguity. B) failed to admit Krogstad had visited. B) connotation. C) lied about the forging of the signature. C) denotation. D) macaroon crumbs on her lips. D) isobaric stress. E) pricked her lip with a sewing needle. E) paradox.

33. The tone of her cryptic remark in Act 1, "Hm, if you 38. The scop's philosophical comment, "Whoever re- only knew what expenses we larks and squirrels have," mains / for long here in this earthly life / will en-

is, given the history that haunts an uneasy Nora, joy and endure more than enough," suggests a (n)

A) angrily resentful. A) elegiac attitude. B) bizarrely malicious. B) gift for versification. C) cautiously facetious. C) hyperbolic understanding. D) deeply sarcastic. D) predisposition for euphemism. E) painfully scornful. E) recantation of all things heroic.

34. Crucial to the play's crisis is the declaration, "But 39. "Unferth [. . .], / could hardly have remembered there's no one who gives up honor for love," a dis- the ranting speech / he had made in his cups." The turbing precept uttered by "ranting speech" to which the scop refers is (a)

A) Anne-Marie. A) bombast. B) Nils. B) flyting. C) Nora. C) gasconade. D) Rank. D) rodomontade. E) Torvald. E) stichomythia.

35. The accusatory remark, "He with his suffering and 40. Unferth's lending to Beowulf the sword Hrunting loneliness—like a dark cloud setting off our sunlit is described by Heaney as being of "no small im- happiness," is portance," is a fine example of

A) Helmer's description of Krogstad. A) ambiguity. B) Helmer's description of Rank. B) equivoque. C) Nora's description of Krogstad. C) litotes. D) Nora's description of Torvald. D) meiosis. E) Rank's description of Torvald. E) understatement.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 4

Literary Criticism Contest • Region 2015 • page 5

41. The "rune-markings correctly incised" on the sword 44. The auditory imagery of line 4 relies particu- given to Hrothgar are larly on

A) claw marks from combating Grendel. A) assonance.

B) gauge marks for measuring the length of battle scars. B) consonance.

C) scoring from the dragon's teeth. C) dissonance.

D) tick marks indicating the number of dragons slain. D) feminine endings.

E) words in a Germanic alphabet. E) sigmatism.

42. The only treasure that Beowulf carries away from the 45. The poem's final line speaks to a (n) fight with Grendel's mother is a/the

A) cryobiologist's epiphany. A) battled-scarred linden shield. B) emotional intensity. B) gold mead cup stolen from Heorot. C) herpetologist's ecstasy. C) hilt of the dagger Grendel carried. D) remembered encounter with another snake. D) melted sword from the days of the giants.

E) pouch of silver boar's head-embossed coins. E) sudden change in weather conditions.

46. Dickinson's poem can be recognized as a (n) Items 43-46 refer to Emily Dickinson's

A) ballad. [A narrow fellow in the grass] B) doggerel. A narrow fellow in the grass C) ode. Occasionally rides; D) riddle. You may have met him,—did you not? His notice sudden is. 4 E) Skeltonic verse.

The grass divides as with a comb, Items 47-50 refer to Emily Dickinson's A spotted shaft is seen; And then it closes at your feet [One dignity delays for all]

And opens further on. 8 One dignity delays for all, He likes a boggy acre, One mitred afternoon A floor too cool for corn. None can avoid this purple, Yet when a child, and barefoot, None evade this crown. 4 I more than once, at morn, 12 Coach it insures, and footmen,

Have passed, I thought, a whip-lash Chamber and state and throng;

Unbraiding in the sun,— Bells, also, in the village, When, stooping to secure it, As we ride grand along. 8 It wrinkled, and was gone. 16

What dignified attendants!

Several of nature's people What service when we pause! I know, and they know me; How loyally at parting I feel for them a transport Their hundred hats they raise! 12 Of cordiality; 20

But never met this fellow, Her pomp surpassing ermine, When simple you and I Attended or alone, Present our meek escutcheon, Without a tighter breathing, And claim the rank to die! 16 And zero at the bone. 24

43. The imagery of Dickinson's poem is primarily 47. The subject of Dickinson's "[One dignity]" is

A) auditory. A) ceremony.

B) gustatory. B) death.

C) olfactory. C) dignity.

D) tactile. D) loyalty.

E) visual. E) royalty. UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 5

Literary Criticism Contest • Region 2015 • page 6

48. The words mitred (line 2) and, especially, ermine 52. The "small balloon" (line 8) suggests a graphic (line 13) are examples of convention that is used to indicate a person's

A) conceit. A) lost idea. B) heaping figure. B) moment of absolute nexility. C) kenning. C) remembering a birthday party. D) metonymy. D) rushing gait. E) synæsthesia. E) thought.

49. Line 5's "Coach it insures, and footmen" refers to a 53. Lines 9 and 12 end with

A) bishop's carriage. A) feminine rhyme. B) hearse. B) head rhyme. C) royal couple's carriage. C) masculine rhyme. D) sedan chair. D) rime riche. E) soccer instructor. E) slant rhyme.

50. Line 15's phrase "meek escutcheon," while both 54. The imagery of the children in the park is rein- metaphorical and metonymic, is, ultimately forced in lines 2 and 11 by

A) allusive. A) hypallage. B) hyperbolic. B) melopoeia. C) oxymoronic. C) mythopoeia. D) paradoxical. D) onomatopoeia. E) rhopalic. E) sigmatism.

Part 3: Ability in Literary Criticism 55. The continuation of both the poem's sense and 15 items (2 points each) the grammatical construction from the first quatrain to the second quatrain is called Items 51-57 refer to Gwen Harwood's A) boustrophedon. In the Park B) enjambment. She sits in the park. Her clothes are out of date. C) metathesis. Two children whine and bicker, tug her skirt. D) tagline. A third draws aimless patterns in the dirt Someone she loved once passes by—too late 4 E) truncation.

to feign* indifference to that casual nod. *pretend 56. The sonnet ends with the speaker saying that "How nice," et cetera. "Time holds great surprises." "[t]hey have eaten [her] alive"; at this point From his neat head unquestionably rises the speaker is sharing a (n) a small balloon . . . "but for the grace of God . . ." 8 A) epiphany.

They stand a while in flickering light, rehearsing B) foul copy. the children's names and birthdays. "It's so sweet C) genteel tradition. to hear their chatter, watch them grow and thrive," D) harangue. she says to his departing smile. Then, nursing 12 the youngest child, sits staring at her feet. E) inscape.

To the Wind she says, "They have eaten me alive." 57. Unconventionally, the volta in Harwood's son-

51. Gwen Harwood's "In the Park" is most like a (n) net occurs in

A) English sonnet. A) line 4.

B) Italian sonnet. B) line 8.

C) Miltonic stanza. C) line 9.

D) Pushkin stanza. D) line 12.

E) Spenserian sonnet. E) line 14.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 6

Literary Criticism Contest • Region 2015 • page 7

Items 58-62 refer to W. H. Auden's 61. In spite of its tendency toward rage, the type of

Funeral Blues formal poem represented by Auden's "Funeral

Blues" is Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, A) bucolic. Silence the pianos and with muffled drum B) elegy. Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. C) eulogy. D) madrigal. Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead, E) pastoral.

Put crêpe bows round the white necks of the public doves, 62. The third stanza's declarations are Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves. A) ambiguous. He was my North, my South, my East and West, B) hyperbolic. My working week and my Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; C) literal. I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong. D) macabre. E) repetitive. The stars are not wanted now: put out every one; Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun; Items 63-65 refer to Gerard Manley Hopkins's

Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood; Pied Beauty For nothing now can ever come to any good. Glory be to God for dappled things— For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; 58. The contrast that is initiated in the first stanza of For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; W. H. Auden's "Funeral Blues" and which finds Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings; 4 its opposite in the last stanza is a move from the Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough; And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim. A) mechanical to the spiritual. B) mournful to the celebratory. All things counter, original, spare, strange; C) musical to the directional. Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?) 8 D) noisy to the peaceful. With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim; He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: E) particular to the universal. Praise him.

59. The speaker's delivery of commands to what seems 63. The sequence in line 9 of Hopkins's second stanza to be the world in general should be recognized as consists of

A) apostrophe. A) lampooning pairs. B) harangue. B) malaphoristic pairs. C) reification. C) neologistic pairs. D) rhetorical accent. D) oxymoronic pairs. E) synæthesia. E) paradoxical pairs.

60. In the third stanza of "Funeral Blues" the speaker 64. The overriding melopoeic quality of Hopkins's offers a series of sonnet depends on

A) elisions. A) alliteration. B) heteronyms. B) heteroglossia. C) metaphors. C) nonce words. D) paradoxes. D) onomatopoeia. E) similes. E) sigmatism.

Item 65 is on the next page.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 7 Literary Criticism Contest • Region 2015 • page 8

65. The form of Hopkins's "Pied Beauty" is the

A) Anglo-Italian sonnet. B) caudate sonnet. Required tie-breaking essay prompt

C) curtal sonnet. immediately below. D) English sonnet. E) Italian sonnet.

Part 4: Tie-Breaking Essay (required)

Note well: Contestants who do not write an essay will be disqualified even if they are not involved in any tie. Any essay that does not demonstrate a sincere effort to discuss the assigned topic will be disqualified. The judge(s) should note carefully this criterion when breaking ties: ranking of essays for tie-breaking purposes should be based primarily on how well the topic has been addressed.

Three sheets of paper have been provided; your written response should reflect the Handbook's notion that an essay is a "moderately brief discussion of a restricted topic": something more than just a few sentences. ______Read Philip Levine's "Gospel," and, focusing on the poem's sensory imagery, offer a discussion of the speaker's thematic "How weightless / words are when nothing will do."

Gospel*

The new grass rising in the hills, *the literal meaning of the cows loitering in the morning chill, gospel is 'good news' a dozen or more old browns hidden in the shadows of the cottonwoods beside the streambed. I go higher 5 to where the road gives up and there's only a faint path strewn with lupine* *a type of plant between the mountain oaks. I don't ask myself what I'm looking for. I didn't come for answers 10 to a place like this, I came to walk on the earth, still cold, still silent. Still ungiving, I've said to myself, although it greets me with last year's dead thistles and this year's 15 hard spines, early blooming wild onions, the curling remains of spider's cloth. What did I bring to the dance? In my back pocket a crushed letter from a woman 20 I've never met bearing bad news I can do nothing about. So I wander these woods half sightless while a west wind picks up in the trees clustered above. The pines make 25 a music like no other, rising and falling like a distant surf at night that calms the darkness before first light. "Soughing" we call it, from Old English, no less. How weightless 30 words are when nothing will do.

Philip Levine (1928 – 2015) UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 8 ANSWER SHEET

Items 31-65 2 points each ______

UIL Literary Criticism contestant number 31. ____

32. ____

33. ____ ç ______34. ____ SCORE Items 1-30 1 point each 35. ____

1. ____ 36. ____ Please note that the objective scores should not be altered to 2. ____ 37. ____ reflect the breaking of any ties.

3. ____ 38. ____ Simply adjust ranking.

4. ____ 39. ____

5. ____ 40. ____ The thirty items in Part 1 are worth one point each. 6. ____ 41. ____

7. ____ 42. ____ The twenty items in Part 2 are worth two points each. 8. ____ 43. ____ The fifteen items in Part 3 9. ____ 44. ____ are worth two points each. 10. ____ 45. ____

11. ____ 46. ____ FIRST GRADER

12. ____ 47. ____ number correct x 1 ______

13. ____ 48. ____ + number correct x 2 ______14. ____ 49. ____

= ______15. ____ 50. ______16. ____ 51. ____ Part 3 ______initials

17. ____ 52. ____

SECOND GRADER 18. ____ 53. ____

number correct x 1 ______19. ____ 54. ____ + 20. ____ 55. ____ x 2 ______number correct 21. ____ 56. ____ = ______22. ____ 57. ______23. ____ 58. ____ initials

24. ____ 59. ____ THIRD GRADER 25. ____ 60. ____ number correct x 1 ______26. ____ 61. ____ + 27. ____ 62. ____ number correct x 2 ______

28. ____ 63. ____ = ______

29. ____ 64. ______30. ____ 65. ____ initials

KEY

UIL Literary Criticism 31. D 84 FOLD along the three 68 Region • 2015 32. B longitudinal 33. C lines for ease line arrows up  in grading.  34. E 113 35. B 104 1. 36. C 97 Please note that the objective scores should not be altered to 2. C 430 37. B 107 reflect the breaking of any ties. 3. C 135 38. A 1059-61 Simply adjust ranking.

4. B 543 39. B 1466; 201

5. D 205; 346 40. C 1956; 275 The thirty items in Part 1 are worth one point each. 6. A 221 41. E 1695; 425 7. D 393 42. D 1559;1613 The twenty items in Part 2 are worth two points each. 8. C 268 43. E 9. B 445 44. E The fifteen items in Part 3 are worth two points each. 10. D 345 45. B 11. A 61 46. D 416 DO NOT mark (cross out) 12. A 603 47. B actual LETTER answer; 13. C 604 48. D 298 mark the answer NUMERAL. 14. B 77 49. B 15. E 472 50. C 345 16. E 389 51. B 260 17. A 173 52. E 18. C 51 53. A 196

19. E 588 54. D 337 Page numbers refer 20. E 479 55. B 174 to the Handbook 12e, 21. E 497 56. A 178 to the Signet House,

22. B 253 57. D to the Norton Beowulf,

23. E 563 58. E and to Collins's 24. B 607 59. A 37 Dickinson collection. 25. C 361 60. C 294 26. D 600 61. B 167 27. A 1 62. B 242 28. D 416 63. D 345

64. 29. A 573 64. A 13 30. C 175 65. C 126

Part 4: Tie-Breaking Essay

Criteria for judging the Tie-Breaking Essay SHOULD include

the degree to which the instructions have been followed,

the quality of the critical insight offered in response to the selection,

the overall effectiveness of the written discussion, and

the grammatical correctness of the essay.

Critical Notes on Philip Levine's "Gospel"

Literary concepts that MIGHT be used in a discussion of sensory imagery as it contributes to the theme of Philip Levine's "Gospel" include

diction, imagery, irony, metaphor, rhetorical question, theme, and tone.

The young writer's approach to a discussion of the sensory imagery of Levine's "Gospel" might turn on a recognition that imagery controls the tone of the poem and thus supports the isolation and, to some degree, the helplessness that is central to the speaker's experience, a sentiment coloring the speaker's final observation, "How weightless / words are when nothing will do" (lines 30-31).

The student of Anglo-Saxon poetry might sense the poem's thematic and tonal kinship with the ele- gies of the Anglo-Saxon canon he or she has read this season. That this kinship is somehow the focus of a tie-breaking essay should not make that essay automatically or necessarily a better essay this season. The connection would, indeed, be a happy one; however, the tie-breaking prompt does not point the contestant in that direction.

The contestant might appreciate the positioning of the metaphor that is the question "What did I bring / to the dance?" (lines 18-19). The speaker has wandered through a natural world that reinforces a meditative brooding, and, caught up in the natural imagery of memory (lines 14-18), the speaker dwells on a question regarding his own contribution: "What did I bring / to the dance?" What follows the rhetorical question turns on the immediate and distant crushed letter (line 20) in his pocket.

Something might be made of the poem's title "good news" and the poem's last line, which essentially contradicts or denies the efficacy of words (good news). Perhaps the natural world acts as both re- minder of the inefficacy, the inadequacy, of words and solace in the face of this inadequacy, part of the irony being that it is the poem, as a collection of words that work, arguably, toward—through sensory imagery—a calming (line 28) that has been used to explore the inadequacy. UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE Making a World of Difference Literary Criticism State • 2015

do not turn this page until you are instructed to do so! University Interscholastic League Literary Criticism Contest • State • 2015

Part 1: Knowledge of Literary Terms and of Literary History 30 items (1 point each)

1. A character in the alphabet developed about the 6. The eighteenth-century Irish author of A Tale second or third century by the Germanic tribes in of a Tub, The Battle of the Books, Gulliver's Europe and carved on stones, drinking horns, and Travels, "An Argument against Abolishing weapons as formulae with magical powers is the Christianity," and "A Modest Proposal" is

A) keen. A) Samuel Beckett. B) koine. B) Oliver Goldsmith. C) logo. C) John Millington Synge. D) rune. D) Jonathan Swift. E) siglum. E) William Butler Yeats.

2. The character of the speaker or writer as reflected in 7. Not a literary form that either praises or cele- speech or writing is known as brates a person, an object, or an occasion is the

A) bathos. A) dirge. B) ethos. B) encomium. C) logos. C) epithalamium. D) mythos. D) eulogy. E) pathos. E) ode.

3. The Southern writer who has a sixty-year-old manu- 8. The character or actor, often taking the third script that is being billed as a sequel to her 1961 Pu- rank of importance in a narrative or drama, that litzer Prize-winning novel hitting the bookshelves the tragedian Sophocles added to Greek drama this coming July is during the fifth century is the

A) Willa Cather. A) antagonist. B) Shirley Ann Grau. B) deuteragonist. C) Harper Lee. C) eiron. D) Carson McCullers. D) protagonist. E) Eudora Welty. E) tritagonist.

4. The mode of informal public performance and com- 9. The prose genre that involves crime, detection, petition engaged in by poets beginning around 1990 punishment, and corruption in high places, a in Chicago is (the) genre that includes the thriller, is the

A) calypso. A) Gothic novel. B) rap. B) novel of incident. C) reggae. C) roman à clef. D) scat. D) roman noir. E) slam. E) underground press.

5. The study or philosophy of beauty in nature and art, 10. The term usually applied to a group of early- which in literature concentrates on the sense and the twentieth-century Southern American writers in experiencing of the beautiful rather than on moral, Nashville, Tennessee, who published the little social, or practical considerations, is magazine entitled The Fugitive is

A) aesthetics. A) Agrarians. B) essentialism. B) Beat Generation. C) expressionism. C) Knickerbocker Group. D) formalism. D) Muckrakers. E) metaphysics. E) Transcendental Club.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 1

Literary Criticism Contest • State 2015 • page 2

11. Another name for the Metaphysical Poets of England's 16. Originally, a retort or sarcastic jest and now, by seventeenth century is the extension, any witty saying, is known as (a)

A) Fleshly School of Poetry. A) antiphrasis. B) Graveyard School. B) equivoque. C) School of Donne. C) litotes. D) School of Night. D) paragram. E) School of Spenser. E) quip.

12. The entreaty addressed to the Muse at the beginning 17. The analysis, study, and evaluation of individual of an epic (the narrative that follows serving in re- works of art as well as the formulation of general sponse to that request) is called an principles for the examination of such works is

A) epic catalog. A) criticism. B) epic formula. B) excursus. C) epic ideal. C) exegesis. D) epic question. D) hermeneutics. E) epic simile. E) typology.

13. The term meaning metrically complete that is ap- 18. The nineteenth-century English novels Jane plied, especially, to a line of poetry having the full Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Agnes Grey, The number of syllables in the final foot, thus carrying Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Villette, Shirley, and out the basic metrical and rhythmic pattern of a The Professor were each written by one of the poem, is three acclaimed

A) acatalectic. A) Bennett sisters. B) catalectic. B) Blackwood sisters. C) chiasmic. C) Brontë sisters. D) hypercatalectic. D) Dashwood sisters. E) vatic. E) March sisters.

14. The scientific study of both language and literature, 19. Not among names associated with Scottish lit- especially in the general use of the term, is called erature, fiction and nonfiction, is

A) belles-lettres. A) Robert Burns. B) exegesis. B) Geoffrey Chaucer. C) lexicography. C) David Hume. D) philology. D) Walter Scott. E) synopsis. E) Adam Smith.

15. The species of novel that reconstructs a past age 20. The form of light verse that follows a definite during which, as Walter Scott, who created the cate- pattern: five anapestic lines of which the first, gory, defines it, two cultures are in conflict and in second, and fifth, consisting of three feet, which fictitious characters move through a recreated rhyme; and the third and fourth lines, consis- world of actual events is the ting of two feet, rhyme, is the

A) historical novel. A) dizain. B) Künstlerroman. B) haiku. C) novel of incident. C) limerick. D) roman à clef. D) sonnet. E) roman de gest. E) virelay.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 2 Literary Criticism Contest • State 2015 • page 3

21. The nickname given to the young seventeenth-cen- 26. In prosody, the system for describing conven- tury poets, including the Cavalier Lyricists, who tional rhythms by dividing lines into feet, in- acknowledged the second-only-to-Shakespeare dicating the locations of binomial accents, and Elizabethan playwright Jonson as their master is counting syllables is called

A) Martian School. A) annotation. B) Pre-Raphaelites. B) exegesis. C) Silver-Fork School. C) intertextual analysis. D) Spasmodics. D) scansion. E) Tribe of Ben. E) typology.

22. Not among the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright 27. Characterized variously as a tragic comedy and August Wilson's many dramatic works, including a dark comedy, the 1981 Pulitzer Prize-winning his ten-play series The Pittsburg Cycle, is drama Crimes of the Heart was written by

A) Fences. A) Margaret Edson. B) Joe Turner's Come and Gone. B) Beth Henley. C) Long Day's Journey into Night. C) Marsha Norman. D) Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. D) Lynn Nottage. E) The Piano Lesson. E) Paula Vogel.

23. The twentieth-century American playwright whose 28. A student of Marianne Moore, 1949-1950 Poet dramatic works include The Glass Menagerie, A Laureate, and author of the collection entitled Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Poems—North and South, for which she re- and The Night of the Iguana is ceived the 1956 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, is

A) Edward Albee. A) Elizabeth Bishop. B) David Mamet. B) Rita Dove. C) Arthur Miller. C) Claudia Emerson. D) Eugene O'Neill. D) Louise Glück. E) Tennessee Williams. E) Anne Sexton.

24. The form of repartee developed in classical drama 29. Classically, the employment of some unexpected and later employed by many Elizabethan writers, and improbable incident to make things turn out especially those imitating the Senecan tragedies, right, and currently, any device whereby an in which a line-by-line verbal fencing match is ex- author solves a difficult situation by a forced changed between characters is (the) invention is called

A) amoebean verse. A) coup de théâtre. B) flyting. B) deus ex machina. C) harangue. C) dolce stil nuovo. D) repetend. D) in medias res. E) stichomythia. E) scène affàire.

25. The very recently passed German recipient of the 30. In Greek mythology, the three sister goddesses, 1999 Nobel Prize for Literature, author of The Tin Aglaea, Euphrosyne, and Thalia, who confer el- Drum, one of his many "frolicsome black fables egance, beauty, charm, and joy on human beings [that] portray the forgotten face of history," is and nature are the

A) Heinrich Böll. A) Furies. B) Rudolf C. Eucken. B) Graces. C) Günter Grass. C) Humors. D) Thomas Mann. D) Muses. E) Theodor Mommsen. E) Worthies.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 3 Literary Criticism Contest • State 2015 • page 4

Part 2: The UIL Reading List 20 items (2 points each)

31. In Henrik Ibsen's tragedy A Doll House, Kristine 36. The qualified certitude of Helmer's response to Linde's comment, "Not even a sense of loss to feed both Kristine and Nora's regarding the possibility on," is in response to Nora's question about Mrs. of his hiring Kristine, "Yes, it's not at all impos- Linde's sible," relies on

A) brothers. A) hyperbole. B) children. B) litotes. C) former husband. C) paradox. D) friendship with Krogstad. D) synecdoche. E) job at the bank. E) zeugma.

32. The metaphorical abstraction that Dr. Rank offers in 37. In Heaney's translation of Beowulf the warrior- response to Nora's question regarding the guise in scop chants, "[T]he Lord was weaving / a vic- which her husband and she should dress for the next tory on His war-loom for the Weather-Geats," masquerade party is which serves as

A) Charmed Life. A) abridgement. B) Dancing Macaroons. B) dénouement. C) Enunciated Endearments. C) digression. D) Forgery Fantasy. D) exposition. E) Implicit Misogyny. E) foreshadowing.

33. The referent of Nora's cautious declaration, "my joy 38. The Helming woman who goes "on her rounds, / and my pride," is [. . .] / offering the goblet to all ranks" is

A) her ability to dance the tarantella. A) Freawaru. B) her children, Ivar, Bob, and Emmy. B) Hildeburh. C) her doll house. C) Hygd. D) her relationship with her husband. D) Modthryth. E) her underlying reason for owing Krogstad money. E) Wealhtheow. her relationship with her husband. 34. While talking to his wife, Torvald Helmer suggests 39. After the hell-dam's raid in revenge for her loss, that, contrary to her opinion, the person whose "of- Hrothgar laments the loss of his most beloved of ficial career was hardly above reproach" is friends, his counsellor

A) his own. A) Aeschere. B) Nils Krogstad's. B) Breca. C) Kristine Linde's C) Ecgtheow. D) Nora's father's. D) Hygelac. E) Dr. Rank's. E) Wulfgar.

35. Kristine Linde's mistaken guesswork assumption is 40. The location of the earth-gallery where the bat- that Nora borrowed the forty-eight hundred crowns tle between the custodian of gold and the ring- she needed for travel from giver occurrs is

A) the bank. A) Earnaness. B) a lawyer. B) Heorot. C) Nora's father. C) Hreasnahill. D) the Oslo State Fund. D) Hronesness. E) Dr. Rank. E) Ravenswood.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 4

Literary Criticism Contest • State 2015 • page 5

41. The hearth-companion who does not break rank and 44. Line 5's "inebriate" and line 6's "debauchee" who is someone in whose "heart / sorrow well[s] up: contribute to the poem's

in a man of worth / the claims of kinship cannot be A) aesthetic distance. denied," is B) anachronistic imagery.

A) Breca. C) controlling metaphor. B) Ecgtheow. D) objective correlative. C) Hrothgar. E) transcendent paradox. D) Unferth. E) Wiglaf. 45. The source of the persona's intoxication is

A) the dew. 42. The event that puts Beowulf's mind "in turmoil" so B) her landlord. that "unaccustomed anxiety and gloom / confuse his brain" is (the) C) nature.

D) the tankards. A) finding a parking ticket on his wood-wreathed ship.

B) fire-dragon's razing of the coastal region. E) the vats.

C) sharing of several rounds of mead with Hrothgar. 46. Dickinson's "tippler" (line 15) is D) snapping of Naegling while fighting the tarn-hag. A) the bee. E) watching his own mead hall burn to the ground. B) the butterfly.

C) the foxglove.

Items 43-46 refer to Emily Dickinson's D) herself.

E) the liquor. [I taste a liquor never brewed]

Items 47-48 refer to Emily Dickinson's I taste a liquor never brewed,

From tankards scooped in pearl; [I bring an unaccustomed wine] Not all the vats upon the Rhine I bring an unaccustomed wine Yield such an alcohol! 4 To lips long parching, next to mine, Inebriate of air am I, And summon them to drink.

And debauchee of dew, Crackling with fever, they essay;

Reeling, through endless summer days, I turn my brimming eyes away, 5 From inns of molten blue. 8 And come next hour to look.

When landlords turn the drunken bee The hands still hug the tardy glass; Out of the foxglove's door, The lips I would have cooled, alas! When butterflies renounce their drams, Are so superfluous cold,

I shall but drink the more! 12 I would as soon attempt to warm 10

Till seraphs swing their snowy hats, The bosoms where the frost has lain

And saints to windows run, Ages beneath the mould. To see the little tippler Some other thirsty there may be Leaning against the sun! 16 To whom this would have pointed me

15 Had it remained to speak.

43. The tone of Dickinson's "[I taste]" is delightfully And so I always bear the cup A) apathetic. If, haply, mine may be the drop

B) capricious. Some pilgrim thirst to slake,—

C) condescending. If, haply, any say to me, D) quarrelsome. "Unto the little, unto me," 20

E) sardonic. When I at last awake.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 5 Literary Criticism Contest • State 2015 • page 6

47. Line 4 of Dickinson's "[I bring]," "Crackling with Part 3: Ability in Literary Criticism fever, they essay," describes 15 items (2 points each)

A) an attempt to kiss someone who has a fever. Items 51-54 refer to Vachel Lindsay's

B) eyes that witness someone dying of thirst. The Flower-Fed Buffaloes C) lips attempting to drink. D) lips talking about being parched. The flower-fed buffaloes of the spring In the days of long ago, E) wine causing the lips to dry. Ranged where the locomotives sing

48. The possibility that others, perhaps pilgrims, whose And the prairie flowers lie low:— . needs might have been pointed out depends on the The tossing, blooming, perfumed grass 5 Is swept away by the wheat, A) awakening of the persona. Wheels and wheels and wheels spin by B) quality of the wine. In the spring that still is sweet. C) survival of the dying soul. But the flower-fed buffaloes of the spring D) "tardy glass [. . .] so superfluous[ly] cold." Left us, long ago. 10 E) wine being served in a timely manner. They gore no more, they bellow no more, They trundle around the hills no more:— With the Blackfeet, lying low,

With the Pawnees, lying low,

Lying low. 15 Items 49-50 refer to Emily Dickinson's 51. The thematic sense of loss in Lindsay's poem can [I died for beauty, but was scarce] be understood in terms of the formulaic I died for beauty, but was scarce Adjusted in the tomb, A) carpe diem. When one who died for truth was lain B) fin de siècle. In an adjoining room. 4 C) in medias res. D) jeu d'espirit. He questioned softly why I failed? E) ubi sunt. "For beauty," I replied. "And I for truth,—the two are one; 52. The repeated phrase, "lying low," works as (a ) We brethren are," he said. 8 A) aphorism.

And so, as kinsmen met a night, B) euphemism.

We talked between the rooms, C) kenning. Until the moss had reached our lips, D) neologism. And covered up our names. 12

E) transverse alliteration.

49. The first stanza of Dickinson's poem suggests 53. Lines 11 through 14 are characterized by

A) acquiescence. A) antanaclasis.

B) apathy. B) asyndeton.

C) futility. C) epanalepsis.

D) martyrdom. D) symploce.

E) suicide. E) tautology.

50. Ultimately, the persona's recounting of a dialogue 54. The foundational contrast in Lindsay's "The

with someone who died for truth suggests a (n) Flower-Fed Buffaloes" is between

A) acceptance of death. A) Blackfeet and Pawnee.

B) appreciation of beauty. B) buffaloes and locomotives.

C) dialogue among kinsmen takes place after death. C) hooves and wheels.

D) lost struggle with the moss. D) prairies and wheat fields.

E) uncertainty regarding our finality. E) singing and bellowing.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 6 Literary Criticism Contest • State 2015 • page 7

59. Lines 1, 3, 5, 11, 12, and 13 begin with a (n) Items 55-60 refer to Bartholomew Griffin's

A) anapestic foot. [Fair is my love that feeds among the lilies] B) dactylic foot. Fair is my love that feeds among the lilies, C) iambic foot. The lilies growing in that pleasant garden D) spondaic foot. Where Cupid's mount, that well belovéd hill is, E) trochaic foot. And where that little god himself is warden. 4 See where my love sits in the beds of spices, 60. Line 12's "unrespected love" is best understood as Beset all round with camphor, myrrh, and roses, And interlaced with curious devices, A) disembodied love. Which her from all the world apart incloses. 8 B) misunderstood love. There doth she tune her lute for her delight, C) platonic love. And with sweet music makes the ground to move, D) unrequited love. Whilst I, poor I, do sit in heavy plight, Wailing alone my unrespected love; 12 E) unsolicited love.

Not daring rush into so rare a place, That gives to her, and she to it, a grace.

Items 61-65 refer to William Wordsworth's

55. Griffin's "[Fair is my love that feeds among the Steamboats, Viaducts, and Railways lilies]" conforms to the expectations of a (n) Motions and Means, on land and sea at war A) Anglo-Italian sonnet. With old poetic feeling, not for this, B) English sonnet. Shall ye, by Poets even, be judged amiss! C) Italian sonnet. Nor shall your presence, howsoe'er it mar 4 D) Miltonic sonnet. The loveliness of Nature, prove a bar E) Spenserian sonnet. To the Mind's gaining that prophetic sense Of future change, that point of vision, whence 56. The first two quatrains of Griffin's sonnet rely on May be discovered what in soul ye are. 8

A) compound rhyme. In spite of all that beauty may disown In your harsh features, Nature doth embrace B) feminine rhyme. Her lawful offspring in Man's art; and Time, 11 C) leonine rhyme. Pleased with your triumphs o'er his brother Space, D) masculine rhyme. Accepts from your bold hands the proffered crown E) rime riche. Of hope, and smiles on you with cheer sublime.

57. Collectively, the strongest imagery in Griffin's son- 61. The speaker in Wordsworth's sonnet is directly net is addressing examples of

A) auditory and tactile. A) natural beauty. B) gustatory and tactile. B) personified concepts. C) olfactory and auditory. C) poetic feelings. D) tactile and olfactory. D) prophetic visions. E) visual and gustatory. E) technology.

58. Lines 10 and 12 provide an example of 62. Wordsworth's sonnet exhibits the pattern of a (n)

A) dissonance. A) Anglo-Italian sonnet. B) eye rhyme. B) English sonnet. C) identical rhyme. C) Italian sonnet. D) internal rhyme. D) Miltonic sonnet. E) true rhyme. E) Spenserian sonnet.

UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 7 Literary Criticism Contest • State 2015 • page 8

63. The "judg[ing] amiss [. . .] by Poets even" (line 3) 65. The "lawful offspring" assessment found in the sets up the sonnet's seemingly epiphanic argument eleventh line of Wordsworth's poem finds sup- that port in the reasoning that "the Mind" (line 6) is

A) nature admires steamboats, viaducts, and railways. A) also of nature.

B) points of vision disown harsh features. B) capable of judging.

C) proffered crowns bring smiles. C) capable of prophecy.

D) space and time are brothers. D) discovered in the soul. E) there is no beauty in that which is not natural. E) possessed of a poetic sense of things.

64. Line 4's howsoe'er and line 12's o'er are examples of

A) apostrophe. B) ellipsis. C) metathesis. Required tie-breaking essay prompt

D) pleonasm. immediately below. E) syncope.

Part 4: Tie-Breaking Essay (required)

Three sheets of paper have been provided; your written response should reflect the Handbook's notion that an essay is a "moderately brief discussion of a restricted topic": something more than just a few sentences. ______Read Sharon Olds's "He Comes for the Jewish Family, 1942," and offer a discussion of the emotional crescendo that underscores the theme and tone of the poem.

He Comes for the Jewish Family, 1942

When the German came, they knew he would take them. They knew his body hated them, they could feel it in their bodies when he looked at them, a kind of wax spread over their skin. They didn't hate anything like that, 5 not even the pig, who was merely unclean, so they knew he was capable of anything. They had heard about trucks, they could smell his passion to put them in trucks, he would do it to the children as avidly as to them. He came and they 10 looked at their daughter standing with her music in her hand, the page covered with dots and lines like some dark language, and they knew he would take her, their bodies even knew about the camps, they could smell his gold hair smoking, 15 they knew it was the end. What they did not know was the way he would pick her cello up by the scroll neck and take its dark lovely body shape and break it against the fireplace. The brickwork crushed the 20 amber satiny wood, they stood and stared at him in terror. Sharon Olds UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 8 ANSWER SHEET

Items 31-65 2 points each ______

UIL Literary Criticism contestant number 31. ____

32. ____

33. ____ ç ______34. ____ SCORE Items 1-30 1 point each 35. ____

1. ____ 36. ____ Please note that the objective scores should not be altered to 2. ____ 37. ____ reflect the breaking of any ties.

3. ____ 38. ____ Simply adjust ranking.

4. ____ 39. ____

5. ____ 40. ____ The thirty items in Part 1 are worth one point each. 6. ____ 41. ____

7. ____ 42. ____ The twenty items in Part 2 are worth two points each. 8. ____ 43. ____ The fifteen items in Part 3 9. ____ 44. ____ are worth two points each. 10. ____ 45. ____

11. ____ 46. ____ FIRST GRADER

12. ____ 47. ____ number correct x 1 ______

13. ____ 48. ____ + number correct x 2 ______14. ____ 49. ____

= ______15. ____ 50. ______16. ____ 51. ____ Part 3 ______initials

17. ____ 52. ____

SECOND GRADER 18. ____ 53. ____

number correct x 1 ______19. ____ 54. ____ + 20. ____ 55. ____ x 2 ______number correct 21. ____ 56. ____ = ______22. ____ 57. ______23. ____ 58. ____ initials

24. ____ 59. ____ THIRD GRADER 25. ____ 60. ____ number correct x 1 ______26. ____ 61. ____ + 27. ____ 62. ____ number correct x 2 ______

28. ____ 63. ____ = ______

29. ____ 64. ______30. ____ 65. ____ initials

KEY

31. C 49 FOLD UIL Literary Criticism along the three 32. A 102 State • 2015 longitudinal 33. E 64 lines for ease line arrows up  in grading.  34. D 78

35. E 75

1. D 425 36. B 60, 275 Please note that the objective

scores should not be altered to 2. B 185 37. E 696-97 reflect the breaking of any ties.

3. C 602 38. E 620-22 Simply adjust ranking.

4. E 447 39. A 1323

5. A 7 40. A 3032 The thirty items in Part 1 are worth one point each. 6. D 542 41. E 2599

7. A 146 42. B 2331-34 The twenty items in Part 2 are worth two points each. 8. E 486 43. B

9. D 418 44. C 108 The fifteen items in Part 3 are worth two points each. 10. A 10 45. C

11. C 432 46. D DO NOT

mark (cross out) 12. D 176 47. C actual LETTER answer;

13. A 3 48. C mark the answer NUMERAL.

14. D 362 49. D

15. A 234 50. A

16. E 396 51. E 489

17. A 115 52. B 186

18. C 53. D 468

19. B 173, 435 54. B Page numbers refer 20. C 272 55. B 173 to the Handbook 12e,

21. E 485 56. B 196 to the Signet House,

22. C 607 57. C to the Norton Beowulf,

23. E 581 58. B 191 and to Collins's

24. E 455 59. D 452 Dickinson collection.

25. C 601 60. D

26. D 430 61. E

27. B 608 62. C 260

28. A 604 63. A

64. 29. B 137 64. E 469

30. B 221 65. A

Part 4: Tie-Breaking Essay

Criteria for judging the Tie-Breaking Essay SHOULD include

the degree to which the instructions have been followed,

the quality of the critical insight offered in response to the selection,

the overall effectiveness of the written discussion, and

the grammatical correctness of the essay.

Critical Notes on Sharon Olds's "He Comes for the Jewish Family, 1942"

Literary concepts that MIGHT be used in a discussion of the emotional crescendo that underscores the theme and the tone of Olds's "He Comes for the Jewish Family, 1942" include

aesthetics, aesthetic distance, diction, free verse, imagery, irony, objective correlative, simile, synecdoche, theme, and tone.

Sharon Olds's poem is a fairly straightforward portrayal of the benighted barbarity that often finds occasion and opportunity in uniformed authority. The student might recognize, additionally, something of the distance that is established in the poem's lack of emotively charged diction. The writer might perceive a level of irony in this disconnect.

The contestant has been asked to develop a discussion of the crescendo that begins as a chronologi- cally placed knowledge-in-anticipation and ends with the silence that follows the inferred loudness of the brickwork's crushing of the daughter's cello (lines 20-21), the brickwork having been given the role of active destroyer. The idea that a fellow human being, even one intent on a personal role in a genocide, could play the active role in the destruction of that which is party to beauty, the cello, is presented as unfathomable through the aesthetic distance defining the speaker's own role. Thus an awareness of the narrative quality of the poem's setting up the final lines' "they stood and / stared at him in terror" might inform the essay response.

The triad that is the victimizer, the victims, and the instrument representing, quintessentially the ter- minal—both primitive and sophisticated—completeness of human expression, the shared-across-cultures love of music, is lined up as target, the cello in unexpected inclusion. The anticipated dehu- manization, torture, rape, and murder is trumped, in the eyes of the speaker and of the victims who are about to be taken to their deaths, by the unanticipated destruction of, in the concrete, the beauty of music, arguably so much a part of both Jewish and German traditions. The perceptive student might sense in the German's action an envy of the artistry and beauty that is frequently synonymous with Jewish musical accomplishment. The well-read contestant might reference Hannah Arendt's "banality of evil."