THE RAVEN

What is most likely the author’s reason for putting the poem into stanzas of five octameter lines, each ending with a short and flat statement?

• A. The author wants to create a lively, comic atmosphere.

• B. The author wants to build an ominous mood through repetition.

• C. The author puts pauses after the stanzas create confusion.

• D. The poet wants to make the confrontation with the raven peaceful.

“The Raven” is delivered mainly in ________ tense, from a ________ point of view.

• A. past; first person

• B. present; first person

• C. past; third person

• D. present; third person

What most closely does the raven perching on the bust of Pallas Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, symbolize in the following passage?

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,

In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore;

Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;

But with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door —

Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door —

Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

• A. That the bird is also a figure from Greek mythology.

• B. That the narrator is wealthy enough to have marble busts for furniture.

• C. That nature powers over the strongest of human knowledge.

• D. That the narrator was an antique collector.

What is most closely the meaning of the word countenance as it is used in the following passage?

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,

By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,

“Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,” I said, “art sure no craven,

Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore —

Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!”

Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

• A. noun | shoes

• B. verb | to support

• C. verb | to allow

• D. noun | facial expression

What is most closely the central theme of the passage below?

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;

And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.

Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow

From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore —

For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore —

Nameless here for evermore.

• A. The narrator attempts to distract himself from his grief through reading.

• B. The fire throws shadows on the floor that look like ghosts.

• C. Lenore no longer has a name because she is dead

• D. The events recounted happened in December.

Which of the following inferences is most strongly supported by the passage below?

On the cushion’s velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o’er,

But whose velvet-violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o’er,

She shall press, ah, nevermore!

• A. The narrator is not very intelligent, despite the fact that he is one of the wealthiest people in the country.

• B. The velvet cushion is so soft and comfortable that the narrator has started to dream.

• C. The raven is a reflection of the narrator’s grief for his beloved.

• D. The narrator has mistaken the raven for his love, returned from the dead.

Place the events in chronological order as they appear in the poem.

FIRST

• The narrator is reading alone at midnight.

• The narrator hears a knock at the door.

• The raven perches on the bust of Pallas.

• The narrator curses the raven and demands he leave.

Place the events in chronological order as they appear in the poem.

SECOND

• The narrator curses the raven and demands he leave.

• The raven perches on the bust of Pallas.

• The narrator hears a knock at the door.

• The narrator is reading alone at midnight.

Place the events in chronological order as they appear in the poem.

THIRD

• The raven perches on the bust of Pallas.

• The narrator curses the raven and demands he leave.

• The narrator hears a knock at the door.

• The narrator is reading alone at midnight.

Place the events in chronological order as they appear in the poem.

FOURTH

• The narrator is reading alone at midnight.

• The narrator hears a knock at the door.

• The raven perches on the bust of Pallas.

• The narrator curses the raven and demands he leave.