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Relationships Practice Questions

Question 1

20 marks

La Belle Dame sans Merci

John Keats

1Oh what can ail thee Knight at arms
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the Lake
And no birds sing.
5Oh what can ail thee Knight at arms
So haggard, and so woe begone?
The Squirrel’s granary is full
And the harvest’s done.
I see a lily on thy brow
10With anguish moist and fever dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too.
I met a Lady in the Meads
Full beautiful, a faery’s child,
15Her hair was long, her foot was light
And her eyes were wild.
I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone,
She look’d at me as she did love
20And made sweet moan.
I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long,
For sidelong would she bend and sing
A Faery’s song.
25She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild and manna dew,
And sure in language strange she said
I love thee true.
She took me to her elfin grot,
30And there she wept and sigh’d full sore,
And there I shut her wild, wild eyes
With kisses four.
And there she lulled me asleep,
And there I dream’d, Ah! Woe betide!
35The latest dream I ever dreamt
On the cold hill side.
I saw pale Kings, and Princes too,
Pale warriors, death pale were they all;
They cried, La belle dame sans merci,
40Thee hath in thrall.
I saw their starv’d lips in the gloam
With horrid warning gaped wide,
And I awoke, and found me here
On the cold hill’s side.
45And this is why I sojourn here
Alone and palely loitering;
Though the sedge is withered from the Lake
And no birds sing.

‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’ by John Keats (1819), text of Keats’s letter of April 1819.

Glossary: sedge: grass-like plants that grow by water; meads: meadows; zone: belt; manna: food from heaven; grot: grotto, a small cave; gloam: twilight; thrall: slavery, being in someone’s power.

Re-read ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’. Choose one other poem from the Relationships anthology.

Compare how the dangers of love are presented in the two poems.

In your answer you should consider the:

  • poets’ use of language, form and structure
  • influence of the contexts in which the poems were written.

(20)

Question 2

20 marks

A Child to his Sick Grandfather

Joanna Baillie

1Grand-dad, they say your old and frail,
Your stocked legs begin to fail:
Your knobbed stick (that was my horse)
Can scarce support your bended corse;
5While back to wall, you lean so sad,
I’m vex’d to see you, dad.
You us’d to smile, and stroke my head,
And tell me how good children did;
But now I wot not how it be,
10You take me seldom on your knee;
Yet ne’ertheless I am right glad
To sit beside you, dad.
How lank and thin your beard hangs down!
Scant are the white hairs on your crown:
15How wan and hollow are your cheeks!
Your brow is rough with crossing breaks;
But yet, for all his strength is fled,
I love my own old dad.
The housewives round their potions brew,
20And gossips come to ask for you:
And for your weal each neighbour cares,
And good men kneel, and say their pray’rs:
And ev’ry body looks so sad,
When you are ailing, dad.
25You will not die, and leave us then?
Rouse up and be our dad again.
When you are quiet and laid in bed,
We’ll doff our shoes and softly tread;
And when you wake we’ll aye be near,
30To fill old dad his cheer.
When thro’ the house you shift your stand,
I’ll lead you kindly by the hand:
When dinner’s set, I’ll with you bide,
And aye be serving by your side:
35And when the weary fire burns blue,
I’ll sit and talk with you.
I have a tale both long and good,
About a partlet and her brood;
And cunning greedy fox, that stole,
40By dead of midnight thro’ a hole,
Which slyly to the hen-roost led—
You love a story, dad?
And then I have a wond’rous tale
Of men all clad in coats of mail.
45With glitt’ring swords——you nod, I think?
Your fixed eyes begin to wink:
Down on your bosom sinks your head:
You do not hear me, dad.

‘A Child to his Sick Grandfather’ by Joanna Baillie (1790).

Glossary: corse: body; wot: know; crossing breaks: wrinkles; weal: wellbeing; doff: take off; partlet: hen; coats of mail: armour.

Re-read ‘A Child to his Sick Grandfather’. Choose one other poem from the Relationships anthology.

Compare how family relationships are presented in the two poems.

In your answer you should consider the:

  • poets’ use of language, form and structure
  • influence of the contexts in which the poems were written.

(20)

Question 3

20 marks

She Walks in Beauty

Lord Byron

1She walks in Beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
5Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which Heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
10Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
15The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

‘She Walks in Beauty’ by Lord Byron (written 1814, published 1815).

Glossary: climes: regions, skies; gaudy: showy, too bright; raven tress: black lock of hair; eloquent: expressive.

Re-read ‘She Walks in Beauty’. Choose one other poem from the Relationships anthology.

Compare how admiration for another person is presented in the two poems.

In your answer you should consider the:

  • poets’ use of language, form and structure
  • influence of the contexts in which the poems were written.

(20)

Question 4

20 marks

A Complaint

William Wordsworth

1There is a change—and I am poor;
Your love hath been, nor long ago,
A fountain at my fond heart’s door,
Whose only business was to flow;
5And flow it did; not taking heed
Of its own bounty, or my need.
What happy moments did I count!
Blest was I then all bliss above!
Now, for that consecrated fount
10Of murmuring, sparkling, living love,
What have I? shall I dare to tell?
A comfortless and hidden well.
A well of love—it may be deep—
I trust it is,—and never dry:
15What matter? if the waters sleep
In silence and obscurity.
—Such change, and at the very door
Of my fond heart, hath made me poor.

‘A Complaint’ by William Wordsworth (written 1806, published 1807).

Glossary: heed: notice; bounty: generosity; consecrated: made holy; fount: fountain, spring; obscurity: darkness, being hidden.

Re-read ‘A Complaint’. Choose one other poem from the Relationships anthology.

Compare how a change in a relationship is presented in the two poems.

In your answer you should consider the:

  • poets’ use of language, form and structure
  • influence of the contexts in which the poems were written.

(20)

Question 5

20 marks

Neutral Tones

Thomas Hardy

1We stood by a pond that winter day,
And the sun was white, as though chidden of God,
And a few leaves lay on the starving sod,
—They had fallen from an ash, and were gray.
5Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove
Over tedious riddles solved years ago;
And some words played between us to and fro—
On which lost the more by our love.
The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing
10Alive enough to have strength to die;
And a grin of bitterness swept thereby
Like an ominous bird a-wing . . .
Since then, keen lessons that love deceives,
And wrings with wrong, have shaped to me
15Your face, and the God-curst sun, and a tree,
And a pond edged with grayish leaves.

‘Neutral Tones’ by Thomas Hardy (written 1867, published 1898).

Glossary: chidden: scolded; sod: earth, turf; a-wing: in flight.

Re-read ‘Neutral Tones’. Choose one other poem from the Relationships anthology.

Compare how the end of a relationship is presented in the two poems.

In your answer you should consider the:

  • poets’ use of language, form and structure
  • influence of the contexts in which the poems were written.

(20)

Question 6

20 marks

My Last Duchess

Robert Browning

1That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf’s hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
5Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said
“Frà Pandolf” by design: for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
The depth and passion of its earnest glance,
But to myself they turned (since none puts by
10The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
How such a glance came there; so, not the first
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, ’twas not
Her husband’s presence only, called that spot
15Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek: perhaps
Frà Pandolf chanced to say “Her mantle laps
Over my lady’s wrist too much,” or “Paint
Must never hope to reproduce the faint
Half-flush that dies along her throat:” such stuff
20Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough
For calling up that spot of joy. She had
A heart—how shall I say?—too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
25Sir, ’twas all one! My favour at her breast,
The dropping of the daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace—all and each
30Would draw from her alike the approving speech,
Or blush, at least. She thanked men,—good! but thanked
Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybody’s gift. Who’d stoop to blame
35This sort of trifling? Even had you skill
In speech—(which I have not)—to make your will
Quite clear to such an one, and say, “Just this
Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,
Or there exceed the mark”—and if she let
40Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse,
—E’en then would be some stooping: and I choose
Never to stoop. Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without
45Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive. Will’t please you rise? We’ll meet
The company below, then. I repeat,
The Count your master’s known munificence
50Is ample warrant that no just pretence
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed
At starting, is my object. Nay, we’ll go
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,
55Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!

‘My Last Duchess’ by Robert Browning (1842).

Glossary: Frà Pandolf and Claus of Innsbruck: invented artists; durst: dared; officious: interfering; munificence: generosity; dowry: money a bride’s family gives on marriage.

Re-read ‘My Last Duchess’. Choose one other poem from the Relationships anthology.

Compare how power in a relationship is presented in the two poems.

In your answer you should consider the:

  • poets’ use of language, form and structure
  • influence of the contexts in which the poems were written.

(20)

Question 7

20 marks

Sonnet 43

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

1How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
5I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
10In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,—I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Sonnet 43 from Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1850).

Glossary: ends of Being: the purposes of life; ideal Grace: perfect holiness; Right: justice; Praise: being praised.

Re-read ‘Sonnet 43’. Choose one other poem from the Relationships anthology.

Compare how the strength of love is presented in the two poems.

In your answer you should consider the:

  • poets’ use of language, form and structure
  • influence of the contexts in which the poems were written.

(20)