[kathy]

Questions 1-10 go with Shakespeare’s sonnet #55

1. Who or what is the speaker of this poem?
a. William Shakespeare
b. a friend of the poet
c. the writer’s lover
d. a lover and a poet e. “You”

2. To whom is the poem spoken?
a. an idealized friend or lover of the speaker
b. a beautiful but coy woman
c. the reader d. Queen Elizabeth I
e. the dark lady

3. Which of the following best describes the theme of the poem?
a. war is wasteful and destructive
b. poetry and the memory of the person about whom this poem is written will outlast material things
c. poetry can never be a destructive force
d. memory lives on
e. a poet can overcome death

4. Which of the following best identifies the subject of Sonnet #55
a. time and war
b. the memory of the speaker’s beloved
c. the immortality of lovers
d. death and love
e. the “all-oblivious enmity”

5. All of the following are mentioned as powers of destruction in the poem EXCEPT
a. unfeeling nature
b. time
c. death
d. war
e. malevolent forgetfulness

6. The poet alludes to which of the following in the poem?
a. the god of war and the goddess of love
b. the apocalypse and Elizabeth
c. Judgment Day and the god of war
d. the goddess of love and Judgment Day
e. the apocalypse and the goddess of love

7. What is “the living record of your memory” (line 8)?
a. poetry, specifically Sonnet #55
b. the will of Shakespeare’s beloved
c. ending doom
d. a Renaissance journal
e. the beloved’s diary

8. To what does the phrase “the ending doom” in line 12 refer?
a. a deep, hidden meaning
b. this powerful poem
c. the apocalypse described in the Bible
d. the poet’s fear of death
e. war and destruction

9. What does the poet mean by “sluttish time” (line 4)?
a. time is wasteful
b. with the end of time come all kinds of horrors
c. time ruins everything eventually
d. time is an immoral woman
e. time is indiscriminate and wanton when it comes to destruction

10. In the couplet the speaker argues which of the following?
a. the god of war brings doom
b. the beloved will live on in the sonnet and lovers’ eyes
c. time is the ultimate destroyer
d. poetry is important
e. He will rise again on Judgment Day