Memorial Verses (Practice Test)

1. Memorial Verses primarily commemorates:
(A) The death of Wordsworth
(B) Three Romantic poets: Wordsworth, Byron, and Goethe
(C) Arnold’s childhood friend
(D) A historical battle

2. Arnold describes Wordsworth as a poet of:
(A) Revolutionary fervor
(B) Healing and nature
(C) Dark melancholy
(D) Urban realism

3. The poem suggests Byron’s poetry was:
(A) A source of comfort in grief
(B) A fiery but fleeting force
(C) Superior to Goethe’s
(D) Irrelevant to modern readers

4. Arnold credits Goethe with:
(A) Creating perfect poetic form
(B) Diagnosing the modern age’s spiritual sickness
(C) Reviving classical ideals
(D) Pioneering the novel

5. The poem’s tone toward Wordsworth is predominantly:
(A) Reverent
(B) Critical
(C) Indifferent
(D) Mocking

6. Arnold suggests the modern world needs:
(A) More scientific poetry
(B) Wordsworth’s healing power
(C) Byron’s revolutionary zeal
(D) Political manifestos

7. The phrase “He spoke, and loosed our heart in tears” refers to:
(A) Byron’s emotional intensity
(B) Goethe’s intellectual depth
(C) Wordsworth’s cathartic effect
(D) Arnold’s own grief

8. Arnold dates the poem to April 1850, which marks:
(A) Goethe’s birthday
(B) Wordsworth’s death
(C) The French Revolution
(D) Byron’s exile

9. The poem’s form is a(n):
(A) Sonnet sequence
(B) Irregular elegiac ode
(C) Blank verse meditation
(D) Ballad stanza

10. Arnold implies that Wordsworth’s poetry offers:
(A) Escape from modernity
(B) A mirror for Victorian anxieties
(C) Religious dogma
(D) Political solutions