4.

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS CRITICISM

1. POETICS BY ARISTOTLE
1. Answer the following questions.
(i)
What
is
literary
criticism?
(ii)
What
does
Plato
say
about
poetry?
(iii)
The
subject
of
'Republic'
is
politics.
Comment.
(iv)
What
does
'Poetics'
deal
with?
(v)
How
does
Aristotle
define
poetry?
(vi) In what three ways does Aristotle differentiate various art forms from one another?
(vii)
What
is
the
difference
between
epic
poetry
and
tragedy?
(viii) Why does Aristotle value Homer so highly as a poet in 'Poetics'?
(ix)
How
does
Aristotle
define
'the
universal'?
(x)
What
are
the
three
meanings
of
imitation?
(xi)
Define
the
term
'mock
epic'.
(xii)
What
is
the
main
difference
between
poetry
and
history?
(xiii) What are the six parts every tragedy must have? Which, according to Aristotle, is the most
important?
(xiv) What, according to Aristotle, is the primary purpose of tragedy?
(xv) What is the place of cathersis in tragedy?
2. Answer the following questions.
(i)
What
is
'anti-climax'
is
drama?
(ii)
What
is
the
importance
of
plot
in
tragedy?
(iii) What is the opinion of Aristotle about three unities in the play?
(iv)
What
is
the
place
of
suffering
in
tragedy?
(v)
Among
the
three
unities,
which
one
is
called
Aristotelian?
(vi)
What
are
the
characteristics
of
an
ideal
tragic
hero?
(vii) Why does Aristotle consider a saintly figure inappropriate to be a tragic hero?
(viii)
What
does
Aristotle
mean
by
the
singleness
of
in
tragedy?
(ix)
What
does
the
term
hamartia
mean?
(x)
What
is
the
Probable
Impossibility
as
discussed
by
Aristotle?
(xi) Why is plot more important than character or speech in a tragedy?
(xii)
What
are
'recognition'
(anagnorisis)
and
'reversal'
(peripeteia)?
(xiii) What role does language play in the development of epic and tragedy?
(xiv) What is peripety? What is a discovery? What is the best form of discovery?
(xv)
What
are
the
four
requirements
of
a
character?
3. Aristotle's Theory of Tragedy
4. Aristotle's Concept of Ideal Tragic Hero
5. Importance of Plot in Tragedy
6. Plot-Character Relationship
7. Aristotle's Concept of Imitation
8. Aristotle's Concept of Cathersis
Notes Prepared By: Prof. Shahbaz Asghar

2. AN APOLOGY FOR POETRY BY PHILIP SIDNEY

9. Answer the following questions.
(i)
10.
Answer
(i)
11. The Puritan Attack on Poetry
12. Sydney's Defense of Poetry
13. Sydney's Theory of Poetry
14. Sydney As a Critic

the

following

questions.

Notes Prepared By: Prof. Shahbaz Asghar

3. SELECTED LITERARY ESSAYS BY T.S. ELIOT

15. Answer the following questions.
(i)
16.
Answer
the
(i)
17.
T.S.
Eliot
18.
Relation
Between
Tradition
19. T.S. Eliot's Concept of Metaphysical Poets
20. Theory of Impersonality in Poetry

following
As

questions.
a
Individual

and

Critic
Talent

Notes Prepared By: Prof. Shahbaz Asghar

4. THE WELL WROUGHT URN BY CLEANTH BROOKS

21. Answer the following questions.
(i)
22.
Answer
the
following
questions.
(i)
23. Cleanth Brooks As a Critic
24. Cleanth Brooks' Method for the Analysis of Poetry
25. Brooks' Views on 'What Does Poetry Communicate?'
26. Brooks' Views on Keats' Urn
Notes Prepared By: Prof. Shahbaz Asghar

5. CRITICAL PRACTICE BY CATHERINE BELSEY

37. Answer the following questions.
(i)
28.
Answer
the
following
questions.
(i)
29. Belsey's Views on 'New Criticism'
30. Relationship Between Criticism and Commonsense
31. Difference Between the Dialectical and the Rhetorical Text
32. There is no Criticism Without Ideology
Notes Prepared By: Prof. Shahbaz Asgha

6. CRITICAL APPRECIATION OF IMPORTANT POEMS

33.
(i)
And

Critically
When
all
all

evaluate
the
world
the
trees

the
is

following.
young,
lad,
are
green;

And
every
goose
a
swan,
lad,
And
every
lass
a
queen;
Then
hey
for
boot
and
horse,
lad,
And
round
the
world
away!
Young
blood
must
have
its
course,
lad,
And
every
dog
his
day.
When
all
the
world
is
old,
lad,
And
all
the
trees
are
brown;
And
all
the
sport
is
stale,
lad,
And
all
the
wheels
run
down;
Creep
home,
and
take
your
place
there
The
spent
and
maim'd
among;
God
grant
you
find
one
face
there
You loved when all was young!
(Charles Kingsley)
(ii)
Everyone
suddenly
burst
out
singing;
And
I
was
filled
with
such
delight
As
prisoned
birds
must
find
in
freedom,
Winging
wildly
across
the
white
Orchards
and
dark-green
fields;
on
--on--and
out
of
sight.
Everyone's
voice
was
suddenly
lifted;
And
beauty
came
like
the
setting
sun:
My
heart
was
shaken
with
tears;
and
horror
Drifted
away
...
O,
but
Everyone
Was
a
bird;
and
the
song
was
wordless;
The singing will never be done.
(Siegfried Sassoon)
34.
Critically
evaluate
the
following.
(i)
Never
seek
to
tell
they
love
Love
that
never
told
can
be
For
the
gentle
wind
does
move
Silently
invisibly
I
told
my
love
I
told
my
love
I
told
her
all
my
heart
Trembling
cold
in
ghastly
fears
Ah
she
doth
depart
Soon
as
she
was
gone
from
me
A
traveller
came
by
Silently
invisibly
O was no deny
(William Blake)
(ii)
I
will
drain
Long
draughts
of
quiet
As
a
purgation
Remember
Twice
daily

Who
Will
In
the
Of Reality and be comforted.

I
lie
bony

am;
o'nights
arms

(Elizabeth Sewell)
35.
Critically
evaluate
the
following.
(i)
'Nature'
is
what
we
see
-The
Hill
-the
Afternoon
-Squirrel
-Eclipse
-the
Bumble
bee
-Nay
-Nature
is
Heaven
-Nature
is
what
we
hear
-The
Bobolink
-the
Sea
-Thunder
-the
Cricket
-Nay
-Nature
is
Harmony
-Nature
is
what
we
know
-Yet
have
no
art
to
say
-So
impotent
Our
Wisdom
is
To her Simplicity.
(Emily Dickinson)
(ii)
Where
had
I
heard
this
wind
before
Change
like
this
to
a
deeper
roar?
What
would
it
take
my
standing
there
for,
Holding
open
a
restive
door,
Looking
down
hill
to
a
frothy
shore?
Summer
was
past
and
the
day
was
past.
Sombre
clouds
in
the
west
were
massed.
Out
on
the
porch's
sagging
floor,
Leaves
got
up
in
a
coil
and
hissed,
Blindly
struck
at
my
knee
and
missed.
Something
sinister
in
the
tone
Told
me
my
secret
must
be
known.
Word
I
was
in
the
house
alone
Somehow
must
have
gotten
abroad,
Word
I
was
in
my
life
alone,
Word I had no one left but God.
(Robert Frost)
36. Critically evaluate the following.
(i) One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But came the waves and washed it away:
Again I wrote it with a second hand,
But came the tide and made my pains his prey.
Vain man (said she) that dost in vain assay
A mortal thing so to immortalise;
For I myself shall like to this decay,
And eke my name be wiped out likewise.
Not so (quod I); let baser things devise

To die in dust, but you shall live by fame;

My verse your virtues rare shall eternise,
And in the heavens write your glorious name:
Where, when as Death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live, and later life renew.
(Edmund Spenser)
(ii) Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;
But they eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
(William Shakespeare)
37. Critically evaluate the following.
(i) The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours:
We have given our hears away, a sordid boon!
The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. --- Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.
(William Wordsworth)
(ii) Do you ask what the birds say? The sparrow, the dove,
The linner and thrush say, 'I love and I love!'
In the winter they're silent -- the wind is so strong;
What is says, I don't know, but it sings a loud song.
But green leaves, and blossoms, and sunny warm weather,
And singing, and loving -- all come back together.
But the lark is so brimful of gladness and love,
The green fields below him, the blue sky above,
The he sings, and he sings; and for ever sings he -

'I love my Love, and my Love loves me!'

(S.T. Coleridge)
38. Critically evaluate the following.
(i) There be none of Beauty's daughters
With a magic like thee;
And like music on the waters
Is they sweet voice to me:
When, as if its sound were causing
The charmed ocean's pausing,
The waves lie still and gleaming,
And the lull'd winds seem dreaming:
And the midnight moon is weaving
Her bright chain o'er the deep,
Whose breast is gently heaving
As an infant's asleep:
So the spirit bows before thee
To listen and adore thee;
With a full but soft emotion,
Like the swell of summer's ocean.
(Lord Byron)
(ii) BRIGHT star! Would I were steadfast as thou art -Not in love splendour hung aloft the night,
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like Nature's patient sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priest-like task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or grazing on the new soft fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors -No --- yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever --- or else swoon to death.
(John Keats)
39. Critically evaluate the following.
(i) Out of the wood of thoughts that grows by night
To be cut down by the sharp axe of light, -Out of the night, two cocks together crow,
Cleaving the darkness with a silver blow:
And bright before my eyes with trumpeters stand,
Heralds of splendour, one at either hand,
Each facing each as in a coat of arms:
The milkers lace their boots up at the farms.
(Edward Thomas)
(ii) Twelve o'clock
Along the reaches of the street

Held in a lunar synthesis,

Whispering lunar incantations
Dissolve the floors of memory
And all its clear relations,
Its divisions and precisions,
Every street lamp that I pass
Beats like a fatalistic drum,
And through the spaces of the dark
Midnight shakes the memory
As a madman shakes a dead geranium.
(T.S. Eliot)
40. Critically evaluate the following.
(i) Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Easter tide.
Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.
And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.
(A.E. Houseman)
(ii) At school I loved one picture's heavy greenness Horizons rigged with windmills' arms and sails.
The millhouses' still outlines. Their in-placeness
Still more in place when mirrored in canals.
I can't remember not ever having known
The immanent hydraulics of a land
Of glar and glit and floods at dailigone.
My silting hope. My lowlands of the mind.
Heaviness of being. And poetry
Sluggish in the doldrums of what happens.
Me waiting until I was nearly fifty
To credit marvels. Like the tree-clock of tin cans
The tinkers made. So long for air to brighten,
Time to be dazzled and the heart to lighten.
(Seamus Heaney)