Directions: Each passage in this section is followed by a group of questions to be answered on the basis of what is stated or implies in the passage for some of the questions more than one of the choices could conceivably answer the question. However you are to choose the best answer that is the response that most accurately and completely answers the question and blacken the corresponding space on your answer sheet
Three kinds of study have been performed on Byron. There is the biographical study-the very valuable examination of Byron s psychology and the events in his life. Escarpit s 1958 work is an example
(5) of this kind of study and biographers to this day continue to speculate about Byron s life. Equally valuable is the study of Byron as a figure important in the history of ideas. Russell and Prza have written studies of this kind. Finally, there are
(10)studies that primarily consider Byron s poetry. Such inerary studies are valuable however only when they avoid concentrating solely on analyzing the verbal shadings of Byron s poetry to the exclusion of any discussion of biographical considerations. A
(15)study with such a concentration would be of questionable value because Byron s poetry, for the most part, is simply not a poetry of subtle verbal most part, is simply not a poetry of subtle verbal meanings. Rather, on the whole, Byron s poerns record the emotional pressure of certain moments
(20)in his life. I believe we cannot often read a poem of Bvron s we often can one of Shakespeare s without wondering what events or circumstances in his life prompted him to write it.
No doubt the fact that most of Byron s poems
(25)cannot be convincingly read as subtle verbal creations indicates that Byron is not a "great" poet. It must be admitted too that Byron s literary craftsmanship is irregular and often his temperament disrupts even his lax literrary method
(30)(although the result an absence of method has a significant purpose: it functions as a rebuke to a cosmos that Byron feels he cannot understand). If Byron is not a "great" poet his poetry is nonetheless of extrtaordinary interest to us because
(35)of the pleasure it gives us: Our main pleasure in reading Byron s poetry is the contact with a singular personality. Reading his work gives us illumination-self-understanding-after we have seen our weaknesses and aspirations mirrored in
(40)the personality we usually find in the poems. Anyone who thinks that this kind of illumination is not a genuine reason for reading a poet should think carefully about why we read Donne s sonnets.
It is Byron and Byron s idea of himself that hold
(45)his work together (and that enthralled early nineteenth-century Europe Different characters speak in his poems, but finally it is usually he himself who is speaking a far cry from the impersonal poet Keats. Byron s poetry alludes to)
(50)Greek and Roman myth in the context of contemporary affairs, but his work remains generally of a piece because of his close presence in the poetry. In sum, the poetry is a shrewd personal performance, and to shut out Byron the man is to
(55)fabricate a work of pseudocriticism.
1.Which one of the following titles best expresses the main idea of the passage?
(A) An Absence of Method. Why Byron is Not a "Great" Poet (B) Byron: The Recurring Presence in Byron s Poetry (C) Personality and Poetry. The Biographical Dimension of Nineteenth-Century Poetty (D) Byron s Poetry: Its Influence on the imagination of Early-Nineteenth-Century Europe (E) Verbal Shadings: The Fatal Flaw of Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism
2. The author s mention of Russell and Praz serves primarily to
(A) differentiate them from one another (B) contrast their conclusions about Byron with those of Escarptt (C) point out the writers whose studies suggest a new direction for Byron scholarship (D) provide examples of writers who have written one kind of study of Byron (E) give credit to the writers who have composed the best studies of Byrson
3.Which one of the following would the author most likely consider to be a valuable study of Byron?
(A) a study that compared Byron s poetic style with Keats poetic style (B) a study that argued that Byron s thought ought not to be analyzed in terms of its importance in the history of ideas (C) a study that sought to identify the emotions felt by Byron at a particular time in his life (D) a study in which a literary critic argues that the language of Byron s poetry was more subtle than that of Keat s poetry (E) a study in which a literary critic drew on experiences from his or her own life
4.Which one of the following statements best describes the organization of first paragraph of the passage?
(A) A generalization is made and then gradually refuted (B) A number of theories are discussed and then the author chooses the most convincing one (C) Several categories are mentioned and then one category is discussed in some detail (D) A historical trend is delineated and then a prediction about the future of the trend is offered (E) A classification is made and then a rival classification is substituted in its place
5.The author mentions that "Byron s literary craftsmanship is irregular" (lines 27-28) most probably in order to
(A) contrast Byron s poetic skill with that of Shakespeare (B) dismiss craftsmanship as a standard by which to judge poets (C) offer another reason why Byron is not a "great" poet (D) pornt out a negative consequence of Byron s belief that the cosmos is mcomprehensible (E) mdicate the most-often-cited explanation of why Byron s poetry lacks subtle verbal nuances