SHALL I COMPARE THEE (SONNET-18) MCQ, QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

 SHALL I COMPARE THEE (SONNET-18)  MCQ, QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS



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Section 1: Poem Basics 

  1. What is the rhyme scheme of Sonnet 18?
    a) ABBA ABBA CDCDCD
    b) ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
    c) AABB CCDD EEFF GG
    d) ABAB BCBC CDCD EE
    Answer: b) Shakespearean sonnet structure

  2. The primary subject of the poem is:
    a) The beauty of summer
    b) The immortalization of the beloved through poetry
    c) The poet's despair over aging
    d) A comparison of seasons
    Answer: b) Key theme of artistic preservation

  3. "Thou art more lovely and more temperate" contrasts the beloved with:
    a) Winter storms
    b) Summer's extremes
    c) Spring flowers
    d) Autumnal decay
    *Answer: b) Lines 2-4 detail summer's flaws*

Section 2: Literary Devices 

  1. "Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May" employs:
    a) Personification (winds "shake")
    b) Simile
    c) Onomatopoeia
    d) Synecdoche
    Answer: a) Nature given human actions

  2. The rhetorical question in line 1 serves to:
    a) Invite the reader into the poet's argument
    b) Express doubt about the beloved's beauty
    c) Mock Petrarchan conventions
    d) Introduce a paradox
    Answer: a) Engaging the audience

  3. "Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade" uses:
    a) Personification (Death as a boastful figure)
    b) Metaphor
    c) Biblical allusion
    d) Oxymoron
    Answer: a) Death given human traits

Section 3: Themes & Interpretation 

  1. The volta (turn) occurs in line 9 to:
    a) Shift from summer's flaws to poetry's power
    b) Introduce a new metaphor
    c) Address the beloved directly
    d) Reject the opening question
    Answer: a) "But thy eternal summer shall not fade"

  2. The poem's argument challenges which traditional idea?
    a) Carpe diem ("seize the day")
    b) Memento mori ("remember you must die")
    c) Ars gratia artis ("art for art's sake")
    d) Tempus fugit ("time flies")
    Answer: b) It defies mortality through art

  3. The beloved's "eternal summer" symbolizes:
    a) Perpetual beauty preserved in verse
    b) The actual season of summer
    c) The poet's youthful memories
    d) A pagan fertility rite
    Answer: a) Central metaphor

Section 4: Meter & Structure 

  1. The line "So long lives this, and this gives life to thee" contains:
    a) Alliteration ("long lives," "this gives")
    b) Assonance
    c) Internal rhyme
    d) Caesura
    Answer: a) Repetition of consonant sounds

  2. The spondaic substitution in "Sometimes too hot" emphasizes:
    a) Summer's oppressive heat
    b) The beloved's coolness
    c) The poet's anger
    d) Time's swift passage
    Answer: a) Two stressed syllables mimic intensity

  3. The final couplet's rhyming GG serves to:
    a) Deliver a conclusive epigram
    b) Introduce ambiguity
    c) Mock Petrarchan conventions
    d) Address the reader directly
    Answer: a) Shakespearean sonnet signature

Section 5: Comparative Analysis 

  1. Unlike Spenser's Amoretti Sonnet 75, Shakespeare's solution to mortality is:
    a) Secular (relying on art, not divine grace)
    b) Religious
    c) Nature-centered
    d) Pessimistic
    Answer: a) Contrast with Spenser's Christian humility

  2. The poem's defiance of time parallels which work?
    a) Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn"
    b) Donne's "Death Be Not Proud"
    c) Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd"
    d) Milton's Lycidas
    Answer: a) Art's permanence vs. time

  3. Compared to Sonnet 130 ("My mistress' eyes"), Sonnet 18 is more:
    a) Idealistic
    b) Satirical
    c) Realistic
    d) Ambiguous
    Answer: a) Conventional praise vs. subversion

Section 6: Vocabulary & Context 

  1. "Summer's lease" (line 4) suggests beauty is:
    a) A temporary contract
    b) A legal obligation
    c) A divine gift
    d) Infinite
    Answer: a) Metaphor for transience

  2. "Ow'st" (line 10) means:
    a) Ownest
    b) Owest
    c) Growest
    d) Showest
    Answer: a) Archaic form of "own"

  3. The "eye of heaven" (line 5) refers to:
    a) The sun
    b) God's judgment
    c) The beloved's gaze
    d) A celestial being
    Answer: a) Common Renaissance metaphor

Section 7: Critical Approaches 

  1. A feminist reading might argue the beloved is:
    a) Silenced by the poet's appropriation
    b) Empowered by the poem
    c) A symbol of nature
    d) Irrelevant to the meaning
    Answer: a) Objectification critique

  2. A psychoanalytic critic would focus on:
    a) The poet's anxiety about mortality
    b) Meter variations
    c) Historical context
    d) Rhyme scheme
    Answer: a) Sublimation of fear

Section 8: Metrical Nuances 

  1. The trochaic inversion in "Rough winds" (line 3) serves to:
    a) Mirror the violent motion of winds
    b) Create a melodic effect
    c) Highlight the beloved's name
    d) Prepare for the volta
    Answer: a) Metrical emphasis matches meaning

  2. Which line contains a pyrrhic foot?
    a) "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"
    b) "And summer's lease hath all too short a date" (pyrrhic on "hath all")
    c) "Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st"
    d) "So long lives this, and this gives life to thee"
    Answer: b) Two unstressed syllables emphasize fleetingness

  3. The spondee in "too hot" (line 5) contrasts with which metrical foot in line 6?
    a) Iamb ("often is his gold complexion dimmed")
    b) Trochee ("Rough winds")
    c) Anapest ("So long as men can breathe")
    d) Dactyl ("Darling buds of May")
    Answer: a) Regular iambic meter returns

Section 9: Philosophical Context

  1. The poem's argument aligns with which Renaissance idea?
    a) Neoplatonism (earthly beauty reflects divine ideals)
    b) Calvinist predestination
    c) Machiavellian realism
    d) Scholastic logic
    Answer: a) Idealization of eternal beauty

  2. "Death shall not brag" (line 11) subverts which medieval tradition?
    a) Danse Macabre (Death's triumph over all)
    b) Courtly love
    c) Chivalric romance
    d) Allegorical dream vision
    Answer: a) Defiance of Death's power

  3. The sonnet's closing couplet echoes Horace's:
    a) "Exegi monumentum" (I have built a monument)
    b) "Carpe diem"
    c) "Ars Poetica"
    d) "Odi profanum vulgus"
    Answer: a) Art's immortality claim

Section 10: Comparative Sonnets 

  1. Unlike Sidney's Astrophil and Stella Sonnet 1, Shakespeare's Sonnet 18:
    a) Avoids confessional frustration
    b) Uses archaic diction
    c) Focuses on unrequited love
    d) Rejects nature imagery
    Answer: a) Shakespeare's assured tone vs. Sidney's struggle

  2. Compared to Donne's "Death Be Not Proud," Sonnet 18 shares:
    a) Defiance of mortality
    b) Religious consolation
    c) Violent imagery
    d) Irregular meter
    Answer: a) Both challenge Death's power

  3. The legal metaphor in "lease" (line 4) contrasts with which sonnet's economic imagery?
    a) Sonnet 30 ("When to the sessions of sweet silent thought")
    b) Sonnet 116 ("Let me not to the marriage")
    c) Sonnet 130 ("My mistress' eyes")
    d) Sonnet 73 ("That time of year")
    Answer: a) Legal/financial metaphors

  4. A New Historicist reading might contextualize the poem's immortality claim with:
    a) Elizabethan patronage system
    b) The Gunpowder Plot
    c) Puritan iconoclasm
    d) The Scientific Revolution
    Answer: a) Poets seeking aristocratic favor

Section 11: Advanced Metrical Analysis 

  1. The line "And every fair from fair sometime declines" contains:
    a) A trochaic substitution in "And every"
    b) A pyrrhic-spondee combination ("from fair sometime")
    c) Perfect iambic pentameter
    d) An alexandrine
    Answer: b) Pyrrhic ("from fair") + spondee ("sometime declines") emphasizes loss

  2. The metrical irregularity in "Nor shall Death brag" (line 11) serves to:
    a) Mirror Death's abrupt power
    b) Create a musical effect
    c) Prepare for the couplet
    d) Highlight the beloved's name
    Answer: a) Spondaic emphasis on "Death brag"

  3. Which line contains an example of catalexis?
    a) "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"
    b) "Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May"
    c) "And summer's lease hath all too short a date" (truncated final foot)
    d) "So long lives this, and this gives life to thee"
    Answer: c) Incomplete final foot ("date") creates urgency

Section 12: Critical Theory & Context 

  1. A Marxist reading might interpret "eternal lines" (line 12) as:
    a) A commodification of artistic production
    b) A rejection of capitalism
    c) An allegory for class struggle
    d) A critique of patronage systems
    Answer: a) Poetry as cultural capital

  2. The poem's immortality claim reflects Renaissance:
    a) Humanist confidence in individual achievement
    b) Calvinist predestination
    c) Medieval memento mori traditions
    d) Baroque pessimism
    Answer: a) Celebration of human creativity

  3. The "eye of heaven" (line 5) alludes to:
    a) Ptolemaic cosmology
    b) Biblical apocalypse
    c) Alchemical symbolism
    d) Petrarchan conceits
    Answer: a) Sun as celestial eye in pre-Copernican models

Section 13: Comparative Sonnets 

  1. Unlike Milton's "When I Consider How My Light Is Spent," Sonnet 18:
    a) Affirms earthly artistic legacy
    b) Questions divine justice
    c) Uses blank verse
    d) Focuses on physical blindness
    Answer: a) Shakespeare's secular resolution vs. Milton's religious doubt

  2. The theme of "eternal summer" contrasts most sharply with:
    a) Donne's "A Nocturnal upon St. Lucy's Day"
    b) Sidney's "Loving in Truth"
    c) Spenser's Amoretti Sonnet 75
    d) Wyatt's "Whoso List to Hunt"
    Answer: a) Donne's winter imagery of despair

  3. The couplet's epigrammatic quality resembles:
    a) Jonson's "On My First Son"
    b) Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd"
    c) Herbert's "The Collar"
    d) Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress"
    Answer: a) Concise, conclusive endings

  4. A Freudian reading might interpret the waves erasing the name as:
    a) The unconscious suppressing desire
    b) Oedipal conflict
    c) Death drive symbolism
    d) Ego defense mechanisms
    Answer: a) Sublimation of mortal fears


Section 14: Textual & Editorial Challenges 

  1. The 1609 Quarto reading "ow'st" (line 10) instead of "own'st" suggests:
    a) Typesetter error preserving pronunciation
    b) Shakespeare's intentional archaism
    c) A pun on monetary debt
    d) Puritan censorship
    Answer: a) Common compositor variations in early prints

  2. Which variant reading appears in some manuscript copies for line 4?
    a) "Summer's lease hath all too short a date" (Quarto)
    b) "Summer's joy hath all too short a stay" (Folger MS V.a.89)
    c) "Summer's pride hath all too short a day" (Rosenbach MS)
    d) Both b and c
    Answer: d) Demonstrates fluid textual transmission

  3. The capitalization of "Death" (line 11) in the Quarto reflects:
    a) Personification convention
    b) Printer's arbitrary choice
    c) Christian allegory
    d) Iambic meter requirement
    Answer: a) Renaissance typographic personification

Section 15: Deconstruction & Postmodern Readings 

  1. A deconstructionist might argue the "eternal lines" (line 12) are:
    a) Self-undermining (language cannot guarantee permanence)
    b) Perfectly stable signifiers
    c) Biblical allusions
    d) Political manifestos
    Answer: a) Language's inherent instability

  2. The poem's claim to defeat time is ironically undermined by:
    a) The material decay of the 1609 Quarto
    b) The beloved's eventual death
    c) Shakespeare's own mortality
    d) All of the above
    Answer: d) Highlights performative contradiction

  3. The couplet's assertion depends on:
    a) Readers' continued existence (paradoxical circularity)
    b) Divine intervention
    c) Nature's cooperation
    d) Historical forgetfulness
    Answer: a) Text requires future audiences

  4. "So long lives this" (line 13) exposes poetry's:
    a) Dependence on mutable language
    b) Mathematical precision
    c) Musical qualities
    d) Political power
    Answer: a) Deconstruction of "eternal" promise

  5. The sonnet's preservation in anthologies proves:
    a) Institutional power over textual meaning
    b) Shakespeare's clairvoyance
    c) Universal aesthetic standards
    d) Print technology's infallibility
    Answer: a) Cultural apparatus sustains "immortality"

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