The desire for an escape from society and a return to ______ became a permanent convention of the American literature.

Briefly discuss William Shakespeare's artistic achievements in characterization, plot construction and language.

Briefly discuss Mark Twain's art of fiction in terms of the setting,the language, and the characters, etc.,based on his novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

What's Dreiser' s naturalistic belief? Please discuss the question with Carrie, a character in Sister Carrie as an example.

Who are the three dominant figures of the American Age of Realism and what are the differences in their understanding of the “truth”?

Jane Eyre is one of the most popular and important novels of the Victorian Age. Why is Jane Eyre such a successful novel?

I heard a Fly buzz- when I died-

The Stillness in the Room

Was like the Stillness in the Air-

Between the Heaves of Storm-

The Eyes around- had wrung them dry-

And Breaths were gathering firm

For that last Onset- when the King

Be witnessed - in the Room-

Questions:

A.Identify the poet.

B.What does “the King” refer to?

C.What moment is the poem trying to describe?

List at least two leading neoclassicists in England.What did Neoclassicists celebrate in literary creation?

Wherefore feed and clothe and save

From the cradle to the grave

Those ungrateful drones who would

Drain your sweat- nay, drink your blood?

Questions:

A.Identify the poet and the title of the poem from which the stanza is taken.

B.What figure of speech is used in Line 2?

C.Whom does “drones” refer to?

The following quotation is from one of the poems by T. S. Eliot:

No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;

Am an attendant lord, one that will do.

To swell a progress, start a scene or two.

Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,

Deferential, glad to be of use,

Politic, cautious, and meticulous,

Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;

Questions:

A.Identify the title of the poem from which the quoted part is taken.

B.Who's the speaker of the quoted lines?

C.What does the first line show about the speaker?

There was a child went forth every day

And the first object he look'd upon, that object he became

And that object became part of him for the day or a certain part of the day

Or for many years or stretching cycles of years.

Questions:

A.Identify the poet.

B.From which poem and which collection of the poet are these lines taken?

C.What does the poet describe in the poem?