Q8

[yoohoo081]

So, I had a question about how e is the best answer.

I understand that death is mentioned in the passage - line 8
However, love isn't mentioned and other option such as d mentions love,but with the word upheaval, which isn't mentioned.
So, is e the best answer because of "convention of the form expressing feeling"part?

Please clarify for me why e is the best answer. Thank you

[timmydoeslsat]

We asked to pick an answer choice that is a hypothetical example of Cullen's work.

We know from the passage that Cullen preferred controlled poetic forms. He strove to establish himself as an author in poetry on abstract and universal topics.

Answer choices:

A) Attempts to lure you in with the word "atmosphere" as it is used in line 22. This answer choice does not speak of subject matter.

B) Deliberate disregard for conventions of form? Does not sound like the Cullen I read about!

C) To explore the aesthetic impact of radical innovations in diction, rhyme, and sonority? This is answer choice that someone selects when they do not have a firm grasp of the passage. They are simply doing word play at this point.

D) Great stylistic freedom? He preferred controlled poetic forms. The subject matter of emotional upheaval of romantic love may be OK with regard to Cullen. That is debatable. The form part of this answer choice makes that issue irrelevant.

E) Gives us a universal subject matter and a controlled form.

[velvet]

I'm still not sure why (A) is incorrect? (E) is obviously the best answer between the two...but are you saying the (A) is too narrow in scope? I mean, I think (A) fits the description of "The Ballad of the Brown Girl" as described in the passage

[timmydoeslsat]

The problem with A is that it does not give us enough as E does. In A, we are not given universal topics. Cullen's conception of poetry was that of lofty thoughts as well. A and E both have it correct in the idea of the controlled aspect. Yet, E gives us that universal topic.

[WaltGrace1983]

I'm still not sure why (A) is incorrect? (E) is obviously the best answer between the two...but are you saying the (A) is too narrow in scope? I mean, I think (A) fits the description of "The Ballad of the Brown Girl" as described in the passage

(A) gives the CRITIC's conception of Cullen's poetry. The answer asked for "CULLEN'S conception of poetry."

[bswise2]

Just by looking at the first paragraph, we get that Cullen's style had the following characteristics
- romantic (line 7)
- abstract and universal topics, like love and death (line 8)
- Controlled (line 10)
- European forms and devices (lines 11-13)
- classical allusions (line 14)
- Christian religious imagery (line 14)

So E employs his "control" and "abstract" topics. But can someone explain to me how A does not equally work in that it employs his "control" and "classical allusions" by "re-creating the atmosphere of sixteenth-century English poetry"?

Thank you.

[ohthatpatrick]

A 'classical allusion' doesn't really mean to try to re-create the feeling of that time period.

I might say "Jay-Z is Beyonce's Romeo". That was a classical allusion, because I alluded to Romeo from the classic work "Romeo & Juliet". But it's not like that allusion involved re-creating Elizabethan England.

Does that make sense?

More generally, I think (A) sounds like Cullen was aspiring to write poems that would fit into the world of the 16th century.

But the passage seems to get more at the idea that Cullen wants to use old forms to write about modern things.

When you're down to 2, ask yourself, "How are they trying to trap me into liking one of these?"

(A) steals the phrase "re-create the atmosphere of 16th-century English poetry" from line 21-22.

But that line comes from the mouth of a critic, not from Cullen. And this question stem is asking us for CULLEN'S conception of poetry. The line reference (6-8) that supports (E) begins with the words "Cullen strove to ... "