AP English Literature and Composition Premium, 2025: Prep Book with 8 Practice Tests + Comprehensive Review + Online Practice

Introduction

The AP English Literature and Composition Exam

The AP English Literature and Composition exam tests your ability to understand and interpret the form and content of poems and fictional passages. It also asks you to write essays that analyze literary techniques used by poets, playwrights, and writers of fiction.

The exam takes three hours and is divided into two sections. The first section, one hour long, consists of multiple-choice questions. It counts for 45 percent of your test score. The rest of the exam, worth 55 percent of the score, lasts two hours and requires you to write three essays.

Beginning May 2025, the AP English Literature Exam will only be offered in a digital format.

Some of this book will acquaint you with the multiple-choice questions on the exam and give you practical help in essay writing. Other parts will help you develop a flair for critically evaluating poems, novels, and plays.

Your score on the exam is reported on a scale of 1–5, generally understood to mean:

5 extremely well qualified

4 well qualifed

3 qualified

2 possibly qualified

1 not recommended for AP credit

A high test score demonstrates proficiency in English at least on a par with college students who have done well in an introductory course in composition or literature. That’s why many colleges and universities waive freshman English requirements of high-scoring AP students. Or they may award academic credit or invite you to take a more advanced course during freshman year. Because each college and university uses AP test scores in its own way, check the details with the admissions office of the institution you hope to attend.

1

Getting Acquainted with the Test

Learning Objectives

Length of the exam

Types of questions

Format of questions

Overview

The analysis of poetry and prose fiction are truly at the heart of the exam. The best preparation consists of becoming familiar with the format of the exam and having plenty of experience in critical reading and analysis of prose and poetry from roughly the sixteenth century to the present. Ideally, most of the works should have been written originally in English, but high-quality literature in translation, such as Greek drama and Russian novels, serve the purpose equally well.

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To earn a top score on the exam, get into the habit of searching for the ways authors use language and literary form to convey meaning.

On the exam, you’ll be asked to analyze a number of poems and prose passages by taking into account, among other things, their structure, style, and dominant themes. You may also be asked to recognize and discuss such elements as figurative language, imagery, point of view, and tone.

You should also be conversant with several works by established novelists such as Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Updike, Toni Morrison, and Cormac McCarthy and plays by such dramatists as Shakespeare, Henrik Ibsen, Eugene O’Neill, David Mamet, Lorraine Hansberry, and August Wilson. On the exam, you’ll be asked to choose a work of high quality—the kind you’ve probably studied in AP English—and write an analytical argument that interprets the work by taking into account such matters as meaning, form, structure, or how the work reflects the place or time in which it was written.

Section I: Prose Passages and Poetry

During the first hour of the exam, you’ll answer 55 multiple-choice questions pertaining to two—or possibly three—passages of prose and one or two relatively short poems. More than half the questions pertain to the prose passages, the rest to the poems.

Prose Passages

Unlike the SAT or ACT, the AP exam almost never asks basic comprehension questions about the passages. Because AP students are assumed to have little trouble comprehending what they read, questions focus not on what the passage says but on linguistic and rhetorical choices made by the author. Emphasis is on literary technique, including, among other things, structure of the passage, effects of diction and syntax, point of view, and the relationship between parts of the passage. Instead of asking about the meaning of a particular sentence, questions may ask you to determine how the structure of a particular sentence relates to the theme or overall effect of the passage. Rather than identify the meaning of an allusion, you may be asked to determine its purpose in terms of the whole passage. Or you might be asked to decide why the author used a particular word, phrase, image, or figure of speech.

In short, your skill in literary analysis is being put to the test. According to surveys of past AP exams, the most common questions, and therefore those you are most likely to encounter, will relate to:

■tone

■shifts in the writing style within the passage

■the effects of certain words and phrases, especially figures of speech

■the relationship of one sentence or idea to another

■the relationship of one sentence to the meaning of the passage as a whole

■the rhetorical stance of the narrator

The test includes many other types of questions, too, all meant to exercise your analytical skills and your perceptions as a reader. In addition, almost every exam contains at least one question on standard English grammar.

For a comprehensive review of what you are expected to know about prose fiction, please see Chapter 2.

Poetry

Two, or sometimes three, poems appear on every test. Each one is accompanied by roughly a dozen questions that focus on anything from the aesthetic intent of the poet to the implications of a single word. Because questions may relate to almost anything the poet has done to write the poem, you could be asked to recognize structural components, types of language, diction, themes, imagery, and more.

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Rest assured that you won’t be asked about archaic words or obscure allusions; should the poem contain any, they’ll probably be explained in a footnote.

Other frequently asked questions relate to the implication or meaning of figures of speech, to the tone, and to the effect of poetic techniques on the unity or meaning of the entire poem. If the poem contains a shift in the speaker’s point of view or rhetorical stance, you can depend on a question about that. Technical questions on meter and rhythm show up occasionally but rarely more than once per test.

Go to Chapter 5 for what you need to know about poetry for the AP test.

Once Section I is finished, test booklets are sealed and collected, and after a five- to ten-minute break, Section II begins.

Section II: Essay Questions

Section II consists of three essay questions, the so-called free-response questions, to be completed in two hours. How you use your time is up to you, but forty minutes is recommended for each essay.

Essay 1: A Poetry Analysis

One essay is on poetry. After reading a given poem, you are asked to write an essay that defends an interpretation by explaining the techniques the poet used to convey meaning. Sometimes the question will suggest that you consider specific poetic devices, such as the use of figurative language, irony, or rhythm. Sometimes the question may be more open-ended, allowing you to identify and explain any literary devices that you find important to the purpose and meaning of the poem.

Essay 2: A Prose Fiction Argument

A second essay question asks you to interpret an excerpt from a novel or story—or possibly a series of letters, a speech in a play, or some other literary passage. The question, or prompt, will specify the purpose of your analysis, but you may choose any evidence and literary techniques in order to support your views.

Essay 3: On a Work of Literature

The last question, called the Literary Argument, asks you to write an essay on a novel or play of your choice. Typically, the prompt makes a general observation about literature. Your job is to discuss the observation as it applies to the work you’ve chosen. A list of appropriate titles is provided, but you are free to choose any other work of comparable literary merit, a phrase whose meaning is far from precise but suggests titles that have endured and deserve to be read again and again. It’s likely that a work you studied in AP English would serve well as a subject for this essay.

Each of your essays will be read by a different reader and will count as one-third of your total essay score. All three essays are equally important. Readers evaluate essays holistically. This means they’ll read them rather rapidly for an overall impression of their content and form. They’ll look for clearly organized, well-developed, and forceful responses that reveal a depth of understanding and insight. Because AP students hope to earn college credit for their efforts, ­readers will be most impressed by clarity, coherence, good reasoning, and a writing style that demonstrates—by its diction, voice, syntax, rhythm, and tone—your command of a variety of effective writing techniques. For details on how AP essays are scored, turn to pages 38–41. Also, be sure to read the comments about the sample student essays on pages 128–131.

Don’t write an essay on a mass-market best seller or pop fiction selection. And don’t write about a film. You may, of course, choose a novel or play that’s been made into a movie, but be sure to write about the original text, not about the filmed adaptation.

Test-Prep Game Plan

If you’re not taking an AP English course, but intend to take the exam, it’s essential to work through the pages of this book from beginning to end. Each part has a distinct role in your ­preparation:

Chapter 1—Introduces the exam and acquaints you with the types of short-answer and essay questions on the test.

Chapter 4—Diagnoses the present state of your readiness to take the exam.

Chapter 5—Expands your ability to read, understand, and analyze poetry.

Chapter 8—Enhances your skills in reading and analyzing fiction and drama.

Chapter 9—Helps you track your growth and progress, using practice AP exams taken under simulated test conditions.

If possible, between now and test day, build at least half an hour of AP prep time into your daily routine. Take the Diagnostic Test in Chapter 4 and the four practice tests in Chapter 9. Set aside three full hours for each one. By taking all the exams, you’ll learn to pace yourself and get to know what to expect on test day. Moreover, you can practice the test-taking tactics described in the pages of this book. It takes stamina to answer several dozen questions about poems and prose passages and then write three essays. So accustom yourself to extended periods of concentrated work. In a sense, you’re like an athlete training for a big competition. The better your condition, the better you’re apt to perform. But don’t rely on this book exclusively. After all, it’s only a guide and not a substitute for reading high-quality novels, stories, plays, and poems. Being a habitual consumer of good literature is ultimately the best preparation for the exam.

If AP test day is just around the corner, you obviously won’t have the time to study this book from cover to cover. But you can do something. For example, you can refresh your memory of a book or play to write about in response to essay question 3. Choose a work you like—perhaps a play, because it’s likely to be shorter and simpler than a novel and its details more easily mastered. Even better, prepare two plays, and hope that at least one of them will be applicable to the exam question.

Then, too, become very familiar with the format of the exam. Take as many practice exams as possible. Knowing what to expect on test day reduces anxiety and enhances performance. For instance, you can count on finding an unvarying set of test directions in your exam booklet. Read the directions carefully while taking the practice exams, and follow them to the letter. Once you’ve taken a couple of exams, the directions are likely to become second nature and you won’t need to devote precious time to reading them again on test day.

Because each section of the AP is timed literally to the second, pacing is critical. By taking practice exams, you can adjust the rate at which you answer the questions and write the essays. With experience, you can learn to set a comfortable pace, neither too fast nor too slow. Then on test day, you’ll have one less thing to worry about.

2

Answering Questions on the Test

Learning Objectives

How to answer questions

When to guess

Techniques for reading the passages

Things to know about poetry questions

Things to know about fiction questions

Multiple-Choice Questions

Knowing the answers to the multiple-choice questions shows that you’ve got what it takes to read perceptively and to extract meaning from poems and passages of prose fiction. The selections you’ll find on the exam are taken from contemporary literature, as well as from the literature of previous eras. In most cases, the poets and authors are not identified, but the date, which is always given, may drop a hint about the work’s historical context. Your knowledge of history isn’t being tested, but if a sonnet is dated, say, 1625, you might justifiably surmise that it is a Shakespearean sonnet with a prescribed structure and pattern of rhymes. Likewise, an allusion to a war in a piece written in 1920, while not necessarily a reference to World War I, would at least enable you to ignore every war fought since then.

Although the multiple-choice questions are not intended to baffle you, not everyone who takes the test is expected to answer every question correctly. Each exam is designed for a range of test takers. Ninety out of a hundred students may get some questions right, while other questions will probably stump more than half the students taking the exam. This is as it ought to be. If every ­student earned a perfect score, the AP test would be a test in name only.

Even before you walk into the testing room, you can count on these facts:

■The test contains poetry and prose passages.

■Every question has five choices, A–E.

■The questions are not arranged in order of difficulty.

■The questions generally follow the progress of the poems and passages.

■You can scribble all over the test booklet, make notes in it, underline, etc.

■The test directions will be the same as they were on all the practice tests:

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Memorize test directions so you won’t waste precious seconds rereading what you already know.

This section consists of selections from literary works and questions on their content, form, and style. After reading each passage and poem, choose the best answer to each question and then fill in the corresponding circle on the answer sheet.

Tactics for Answering Questions

The next few pages offer several approaches to answering the questions. Some will work better than others, some contradict each other, some may even be counterintuitive. Nevertheless, try them all to increase your chances of picking the best answers. Once you recognize techniques that consistently work for you, practice them again and again until they become second nature.

Scan the Test First

After opening your test booklet, scan the test to see what’s on it. Answer the poetry questions first if you’re good at poetry. If you’re better with prose passages, start with them. For each passage or poem, answer first those questions you know for sure. Sometimes you’ll find a cluster of questions about a single paragraph or stanza. Concentrate on them. It’s probably smart to finish all the questions about a poem or passage before going to the next one, but that’s not an unbreakable rule because during a return visit to answer a question you skipped, you may see things you hadn’t noticed before.

Answer the Questions in the Order Presented

Although opinions differ, answering the questions in order may be a smart move. Why? Because working through each question in turn could prepare you to answer later ones. But if you come to a question that stumps you, don’t agonize. Just go to the next one and come back later if you have time. Obviously, if you skip a question, don’t fill in the circle for that question on the answer sheet. (That’s no joke; more than one student has lost track and answered question #12 in the space for #11, etc.) To avoid such a mistake, try this: Write all your answers in the test booklet first. Later, transfer them to the answer sheet.

Pace Yourself

In one hour, you must carefully read four or five passages and poems and answer between 50 and 60 questions. If you spend five minutes reading each passage and poem, you’ll have roughly 45 seconds for each question. Every exam contains questions that eat up the clock, especially those that ask you to identify the choice that doesn’t apply to the passage or poem (see #3, page 12) and those on which you must pick which of three choices are correct (see #4, page 12). Because these questions are particularly time-consuming, you may wish to save them for last.

Learn to pace yourself by taking the practice tests in this book. Find a quiet place, mute your phone, clear away distractions, and allow yourself exactly one hour to complete the questions. If you run out of time, you’ll have to pick up the pace. Maybe you’re reading too slowly (see Decide on a Reading Technique, pages 9–10), or agonizing too long—a minute or more—over hard questions, or spending time gloating over correct answers.

AP test writers have been known to include a difficult, time-consuming question or two in the first half dozen or so questions. Don’t get stuck on them. Answer as best you can, but leave a mark behind to remind you to come back later.

Don’t Know the Answer? Guess!

Each correct answer is worth one point. Your score will be based solely on the number of ­questions answered correctly. This manner of scoring means that it always pays to guess, even when a question stumps you completely. By guessing at random, you still have a one-in-five chance of getting it right, and by eliminating one or more choices, you significantly improve the odds of picking the correct answer. In short, DON’T LEAVE BLANKS. ANSWER EVERY QUESTION.

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Answer every question, even those that stump you. Take a stab at the answer and move on.

A piece of folk wisdom about AP exams is that if one choice is longer than the others, that’s the one to choose. Don’t believe it! Since economy of expression is a virtue in writing test questions as well as in most other places, the shorter choice may just as often be the correct answer. If a question gives you trouble and you can’t decide among, say, three choices, common wisdom says that you should go with your initial impulse. Testing experts and psychologists agree that there’s a better than average chance of success if you trust your intuition. But there are no guarantees. Because the mind works in so many strange ways, relying on your first choice may not always work.

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Don’t always look for tricky answers. Some questions are easy, and the most obvious answer may be the correct one.

This above all: Use the process of elimination. AP exam writers often include one choice that is obviously wrong and two others that are moderately far from the mark. Whenever possible, therefore, narrow the five choices to the two that could be correct—one of them almost right, the other unquestionably right. Naturally, you should pick the better of the two, but there’s no sure-fire technique for doing that except for a close, perceptive reading of the passage or poem. And to do that nothing beats practice, practice, practice.

Read the Questions Carefully

Such advice is self-evident, but in the rush of taking the test it’s easy to forget. Pay particular attention to questions that contain the words NOT, LEAST, or EXCEPT (see sample #3, page 12). Answering such questions requires a rapid shift of your thought patterns. Instead of searching a poem or passage for what it says or implies, you must suddenly seek out what it fails to say or imply. Then read every choice, even if you think you’ve found the answer. After all, choice (B) may be pretty good, but choice (E) may be even better.

Decide on a Reading Technique

The test directions above work for some people, but not necessarily for everyone—including you. As you prepare for the exam, therefore, try to answer all the practice questions using the various options described in the following list. Although each option carries gains and losses, give each one a chance before deciding which produces the best results for you.

Option A. Read the poem or passage carefully from start to finish. Don’t try to recall every detail. As you read, ask yourself, What is this poem or passage about? The answer will often be evident within a few lines. When you have finished, state the point of the poem or passage in your own words. Even if your interpretation is vague, it will give you a starting point for answering the questions. Sometimes the questions themselves will shed light on the point of the poem or passage. Keep going back to the text while answering the questions.

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Don’t be tempted to answer a question before reading the entire passage or poem.

This widely used technique takes longer at the start but allows you to make up the time later.

Option B. Skim the poem or passage for its general idea. Read faster than you normally would. At the same time, try to sense what the piece is saying. Read the poem or passage just intently enough to get an impression of what it’s about. Don’t expect to keep details in mind. Then, as you answer each question, refer to the text.

This technique saves time at the start and keeps your mind free of needless details. At some point, however, you’ll be forced to scour the passage for specific answers to the questions.

Some test takers adopt a variation of Option B. Before reading the passage, they skim the questions for a preview of what to watch for as they read. You might give that technique a try to see if it works for you.

Option C. Skim the poem or passage to get its general meaning; then go back and read it carefully. Two readings, one fast and one slow, enable you to grasp the piece better than if you read it only once. During the second reading, confirm that your first impressions were accurate. Then proceed to the questions, referring frequently to the text.

This technique takes the most time but offers you the firmest grip on the poem or passage. Above all, don’t even think about answering the questions without first reading the passage or poem at least once from start to finish. Not only will you waste time, but you will be unable to answer questions about the overall intent or effect of the poem or passage.

Increasing Your Reading Power

To answer AP test questions, you’ve got to know what the poems and passages say. The good news is that you can increase your comprehension over time by habitually analyzing whatever you read. The best sort of analysis is not unlike a dissection, a process that singles out each literary element a writer has used to convey ideas and create effects.

Good authors leave nothing to chance. They painstakingly select their words and construct sentences that convey whatever they want readers to know. Every bit of their writing—from ­punctuation to paragraph development, from word order to sequence of ideas—has a point and purpose.

Using a #2 Pencil

As you prepare for the AP exam, let a pencil become a tool you can’t do without. Use it to highlight the key phrases and ideas in poems and prose passages. Whenever you read a poem or piece of prose, try to identify the author’s point or purpose. Jot down reasons why the author may have chosen particular words and details. Observe sentence structure and the sequence of thought. Figure out how the author creates a tone and develops important ideas. Note also the author’s rhetoric—from the use of emotional and figurative language to statements of fact and expressions of opinion.

At first, you may highlight too much rather than too little—or vice versa. It takes practice to find the happy medium. To achieve the right balance, annotation can help. Annotation consists of writing a critical or explanatory note about style and substance of a text. When, for some reason, a word, phrase, or sentence strikes you as particularly noteworthy, underline it and briefly explain what it contributes to the meaning or effect of the text. An allusion or figure of speech, emotionally charged words, a change in tone, a cliché, a quotation, the use of repetition, the use of irony or sarcasm—all these and numerous other techniques may deserve to be annotated.

Example 1

Steelton is a harsh, gritty town, founded in 1929 and old for its age, with a gaudy main street and a thousand identical gaunt gray houses.

Annotation: Clearly, the author of this sentence found Steelton a bleak, dreary place. To emphasize that impression, she chose words and phrases (underlined and some of them alliterated) that enable the reader to see and feel the town as she does.

Example 2

The visitor told the high school history class, Research studies reveal the existence of large, complex sociological, as distinguished from psychophysical, sources of marital disharmony.

Annotation: The author may have put obscure, technical, jargon-filled language into the visitor’s mouth to make the point that the speaker was out of touch with his audience or that he had failed to prepare remarks appropriate for a high school history class. Still another possibility: The speaker felt insecure and hid behind a screen of technical double-talk.

These sample annotations are spelled out in complete sentences in order to explain them fully. Yours, written only to identify a noteworthy literary element, may consist of just a word or two. For more about annotation and crucial do-it-yourself practice, turn to pages 134–145.

SAMPLE POETRY QUESTIONS

Although many of the poetry questions focus on a segment of the poem, such as a particular phrase or a pair of lines, try to become familiar with the entire poem when answering the questions.

Complete familiarity with a poem can be a struggle, especially if you seldom read poems unless you have to—as in an AP English class. If you’re basically indifferent to poetry, you’re not alone, but this book’s sections on poetry have awakened countless students to its pleasures. Maybe you, too, can learn to enjoy it. Give it a chance. What have you got to lose?

If you are already an avid poetry buff, you may well find yourself romping through the exam’s poetry questions.

Sample #1

The poem might best be described as

(A)a recollection of childhood

(B)a series of epiphanies

(C)a touching anecdote

(D)a coming-of-age reminiscence

(E)a sentimental journey

To answer this question, read the whole poem and then determine which choice describes it most accurately. Because a few of the choices are similar—(A) and (D), for example—you must choose the best description, a judgment that must be based on evidence in the poem, not on your intuition or feelings.

Sample #2

The speaker in the poem views the city primarily in terms of

(A)sounds and smells

(B)colors and shapes

(C)dark and light

(D)textures and patterns

(E)youth and innocence

This question asks you to identify the poem’s main images. To choose the best answer, you must inspect every line of the poem, picking out images of sounds, smells, colors, and so forth. Frequency is a good criterion for deciding which images dominate the poem. But not always. If two sorts of images recur about equally, your decision must be based on more subtle evidence, such as the placement of images in the poem. Those that appear in the first and last lines of a stanza will probably stand out from those buried in the middle. Unfortunately, there are no hard and fast rules that apply to every poem. On the test, however, the question is sure to have a reasonably clear-cut answer.

Sample #3

Looking into the dark cave allows the speaker to experience all of the following EXCEPT

(A)a surge of remorse for what he had done

(B)a sudden awareness of his own folly

(C)a rush of anger toward his former companions

(D)pride in overcoming the odds against him

(E)fear of what may be hiding inside the cave

To respond to this question you must read the poem not for what it says but for what it doesn’t say. That is, four of the choices make true statements, and the correct answer is the one that states something inaccurate or false. A handful of questions on the exam may be of this type.

Sample #4

The title of the poem suggests that the poem is about

an ancient religious rite

a historic site now overrun by visitors

the scene of an unsolved murder

(A)I only

(B)II only

(C)I and II only

(D)II and III only

(E)I, II, and III

Because ambiguity is a cornerstone of literature, you may be asked questions that offer one, two, or three correct choices. On the test, you may find one or two questions in this format. To answer questions formatted in this way, figure out first which of the three choices are valid. Then pick the best answer from the (A)–(E) choices. By itself, the poem’s title may not evoke a complex response, but once you have read the poem, the title may take on far greater significance. Titles, always included on the test, often help unlock a poem’s meaning.

Note: Answering this type of question can eat up several minutes. If you’re running out of time, move on to simpler types, such as the line-referenced question (see #6 below). If only seconds remain until time is called, go back to skipped questions and guess at the answer.

Sample #5

The primary rhetorical function of lines 21–23 is to

(A)introduce a digression from the central theme of the poem

(B)extend the metaphor developed in lines 19–20

(C)illustrate the speaker’s ambivalence toward the child

(D)contradict a point made previously

(E)develop a theme stated in the first stanza

Although this question relates specifically to lines 21–23, it can’t be answered without revisiting the rest of the poem. To determine whether (A) is the best answer, you must reflect on the poem’s main theme. Choices (B) and (D) require you to reread material that came before. Choice (C) forces you to assess the speaker’s tone or point of view throughout the poem, and (E) obliges you to reread the first stanza.

Not all poetry questions on the exam are strictly interpretive. Some are more objective, calling for straightforward factual answers. Sample questions 6–8 are of this type.

Sample #6

Line 7 includes an example of

(A)hyperbole

(B)oxymoron

(C)allegory

(D)consonance

(E)antithesis

To answer this question, you need to be acquainted with rhetorical terms. Then you must be able to identify which of these terms is exemplified in line 7 of the poem. In the Glossary of Literary and Rhetorical Terms on pages 293–301, you’ll find definitions and examples of many terms. For a more thorough discussion of poetic terminology, see Chapter 5.

Sample #7

In context, innocence (line 16) is best interpreted to mean

(A)virtue

(B)simplicity

(C)naïveté

(D)trust

(E)purity

Although all the choices relate in one way or other to innocence, the word has so many subtle meanings that to find the best answer you must analyze the context in which the word is used. Think about the subject matter of the poem and its central idea. Then consider the meaning and purpose of the sentence in which the word appears.

Sample #8

Grammatically, the word demon (line 14) functions as

(A)the direct object of eats (line 12)

(B)an appositive for underbelly (line 14)

(C)the subject of Screams (line 15)

(D)the direct object of Screams (line 15)

(E)the indirect object of Screams (line 15)

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Brush up on your grammar skills before the exam.

The test usually contains one question meant to test your knowledge of parts of speech, sentence structure, or standard usage. It may appear as a poetry question or a question on a prose passage. If your grammar skills are rusty, a few hours spent in the company of a basic grammar book prior to the exam may serve you well.

PRACTICE WITH POETRY

To see how questions apply to a specific poem, carefully read Sonnet—to Science by Edgar Allan Poe. Then study the questions. Be sure to read the accompanying comments. They illustrate the kind of analytical thinking that you must do (and practice) in order to find the best answers.

Sonnet—to Science

Science! true daughter of Old Time thou art!

Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes.

Why preyest thou thus upon the poet’s heart,

line (5) Vulture, whose wings are dull realities?

How should he love thee? or how deem thee wise,

Who wouldst not leave him in his wandering

To seek for treasure in the jewelled skies,

Albeit he soared with an undaunted wing?

Hast thou not dragged Diana¹ from her car?

(10) And driven the Hamadryad² from the wood

To seek a shelter in some happier star?

Hast thou not torn the Naiad³ from her flood,

The Elfin⁴ from the green grass, and from me

The summer dream beneath the tamarind tree?⁵

(1830)

¹The huntress, a goddess of chastity. Her car is the moon.

²wood nymph

³water nymph

⁴tiny creature residing in flowers

⁵a tropical tree with edible fruit and blossoms used for medicine

1.The speaker’s attitude toward science is best described as

(A)inquisitive

(B)resentful

(C)mournful

(D)indifferent

(E)antagonistic

Comment: This is an example of the type of bread-and-butter question that appears usually more than once on every test. Read the phrase speaker’s attitude as a synonym for speaker’s tone. Tone questions are popular on the AP exam because every piece of literature has one or more identifiable tones, and an analysis of a literary selection would hardly be complete without taking tone into account.

To answer this question, consider the intent of a speaker who laments the effects of science on poetry—a common theme at the dawn of the Darwinian Age (when Poe wrote this sonnet). As the poem unfolds, the speaker asks a series of questions. Choice (A) is a feasible answer. But notice that the questions are more accusatory than inquisitive. Each finds fault with science or rational thinking for ravaging the romantic world of the imagination. Choice (C) suggests that poetry has died, an unlikely assertion, especially if you consider that the poet is actually engaged in writing a poem. Choice (D) is clearly wrong because the speaker mounts a vigorous attack on science. That leaves Choices (B) and (E). Antagonistic implies hostility, as though the speaker, given the chance, would thwart or somehow oppose scientific progress—a totally unrealistic prospect. Resentful, on the other hand, is a far more moderate feeling and, therefore, best represents the speaker’s attitude toward science. The best answer, therefore, is Choice (B).

2.The pronoun he in line 5 refers to

(A)the vulture

(B)the scientist

(C)the poet

(D)God

(E)science

Comment: Because poets often take liberties with English syntax and disregard conventions of grammar and style, readers are often left to puzzle out just what the poet is saying. Poetry questions on the AP test, therefore, sometimes ask you to figure out the intent of certain usages or, in this case, a pronoun reference.

The second quatrain of a sonnet usually starts with a new sentence that may or may not refer directly to something in the first four lines. The antecedent of he in line 5 remains ambiguous unless you read on. The images in lines 6–8 reveal that he refers to the poet—Choice (C)—a figure who cannot love or respect science because it has, like a predatory vulture, snatched away, among other things, his freedom to wander and seek for treasure in the jewelled skies.

3.In line 5, should is best interpreted as

(A)can

(B)must

(C)is supposed to

(D)may

(E)might

TIP

To interpret the meaning of an unfamiliar word, read the entire sentence in which it appears.

Comment: Because language and usage change constantly, it is hardly a surprise that a poem written nearly two centuries ago will contain words that, while perfectly proper then, may now sound odd or archaic. The use of should in this context is a case in point.

To interpret its meaning you must read the entire sentence in which the word appears (lines 5–8). The sentence is a question in which the speaker asks how he can love something that has restricted his freedom or reined in his imagination. In context, then, should is not used in its usual sense, to suggest duty or obligation, but rather to express the conditional. To paraphrase the line loosely: How can you expect me to love you, if you treat me so badly? Choice (A), therefore, is the best answer. All the other choices miss the mark.

4.Which of the following stylistic features most significantly contributes to the poem’s unity?

(A)Numerous allusions to folklore and myth

(B)A series of interrogative sentences

(C)An extended metaphor

(D)The use of alliteration

(E)The pattern of end rhymes

Comment: A poem, an essay, a painting, or any other work of art is unified when all its components—style, subject matter, structure, themes, composition, even its technique—work together to create a harmonious whole. Unity of action, of form, of intent—these, along with dramatic unity, are principles that one might apply to a literary work. The concept of unity in literature is hard to pin down but easy to recognize when absent.

To answer the question, survey the poem for stylistic features listed in Choices (A) through (E). Because the poet used them all, your job is to determine which feature is most significant to the poem’s unity. Since unity is derived from the overall effect of the work rather than from its individual parts, the best answer is (C), the central metaphor that compares science to a type of vulture. Throughout the poem, the speaker uses words and phrases that suggest the actions of a predatory bird, among them preyest, soared, dragged, and torn. In contrast to (C), the other choices are insignificant.

5.The speaker in the poem suggests all of the following EXCEPT

(A)science is responsible for destroying the poet’s capacity to dream

(B)science fails to value human emotions

(C)science reduces everything to observable facts

(D)science is the death knell of poetry

(E)a function of poetry and of science is to uncover reality

Comment: Four of the five choices restate or paraphrase an idea found in the poem. Your task is to identify the one that doesn’t. Choice (A) is suggested by the last two lines of the poem, Choice (B) by the idea that science preys on the poet’s heart. Choice (C) is clearly stated in line 2, and Choice (E), while not stated directly, is implied by the