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English Literature Admissions Test

4501/11

Wednesday 5 November 2014

1 hour 30 minutes

Instructions to Candidates

Please read this page carefully, but do not open the question paper until

told to do so.

A separate 8-page answer booklet is provided. Please check you have one.

Write your name, date of birth and Centre number in the spaces provided on the

answer booklet. Please write very clearly, preferably in black ink.

You should allow at least 30 minutes for reading this question paper, making

notes and preparing your answer.

At the end of the examination, you must hand in both your answer booklet and

this question paper. Any rough notes or plans that you make should be written

only in your answer booklet.

No texts, dictionaries or sources of reference may be brought into the

examination.

Developed and administered on behalf of the University of Oxford by

the Admissions Testing Service, part of Cambridge Assessment, a

non-teaching department of the University of Cambridge.



BLANK PAGE

Time allowed: 1 hour 30 minutes.

You should spend at least 30 minutes reading and annotating the passages and in preparing

your answer.

The following poems and extracts from longer prose and prose texts are all linked by

the theme of journeys and journeying. They are arranged chronologically by date of

publication. Read all the material carefully, and then complete the task below.

(a) From

The Rape of Lucrece (1594), a poem by William

Shakespeare

page 4

(b)

From the novel Dombey and Son (1848) by Charles

Dickens

page 5

’(1865), a poem by Christina Rossetti

page 6

(d)

From ‘Railway Bridges’ (1928), a radio broadcast by

E.M. Forster

page 7

(e)

From ‘Questions of Travel’ (1965), a poem by Elizabeth

Bishop

page 8

(f)

‘Night Train’ (2013), a poem by Michael Symmons

Roberts

page 9

Task:

Select two or three of the passages (a) to (f) and compare and contrast them in any

ways that seem interesting to you, paying particular attention to distinctive features of

structure, language and style. In your introduction, indicate briefly what you intend to

explore or illustrate through close reading of your chosen passages.

This task is designed to assess your responsiveness to unfamiliar literary material

and your skills in close reading. Marks are not awarded for references to other texts or

authors you have studied.

(a)

from The Rape of Lucrece (1594), a poem by William Shakespeare

By reprobate desire thus madly led,

The Roman lord marcheth to Lucrece’ bed.

The locks between her chamber and his will,

Each one by him enforced, retires his ward;

But, as they open, they all rate his ill,

[rate: scold, rebuke

Which drives the creeping thief to some regard:

The threshold grates the door to have him heard;

Night-wandering weasels shriek to see him there;

They fright him, yet he still pursues his fear.

As each unwilling portal yields him way,

Through little vents and crannies of the place

The wind wars with his torch to make him stay,

And blows the smoke of it into his face,

Extinguishing his conduct in this case;

But his hot heart, which fond desire doth scorch,

Puffs forth another wind that fires the torch:

And being lighted, by the light he spies

Lucretia's glove, wherein her needle sticks:

He takes it from the rushes where it lies,

And gripping it, the needle his finger pricks;

As who should say ‘This glove to wanton tricks

Is not inured; return again in haste;

[inured: accustomed

Thou see’st our mistress’ ornaments are chaste.’

But all these poor forbiddings could not stay him;

He in the worst sense construes their denial:

The doors, the wind, the glove, that did delay him,

He takes for accidental things of trial;

Or as those bars which stop the hourly dial,

Who with a lingering stay his course doth let,

[let: hinder

Till every minute pays the hour his debt.

‘So, so,’ quoth he, ‘these lets attend the time,

[lets: hindrances

Like little frosts that sometime threat the spring,

To add a more rejoicing to the prime,

And give the sneaped birds more cause to sing.

[sneaped: frozen

Pain pays the income of each precious thing;

[income: attainment, acquisition

Huge rocks, high winds, strong pirates, shelves and sands,

The merchant fears, ere rich at home he lands.’

Now is he come unto the chamber-door,

That shuts him from the heaven of his thought,

Which with a yielding latch, and with no more,

Hath barr’d him from the blessed thing he sought.

So from himself impiety hath wrought,

That for his prey to pray he doth begin,

As if the heavens should countenance his sin.

(b)

From the novel Dombey and Son (1848) by Charles Dickens

He found no pleasure or relief in the journey. Tortured by these thoughts he carried

monotony with him, through the rushing landscape, and hurried headlong, not through a

rich and varied country, but a wilderness of blighted plans and gnawing jealousies. The

very speed at which the train was whirled along, mocked the swift course of the young

life that had been borne away so steadily and so inexorably to its foredoomed end. The

power that forced itself upon its iron way—its own—defiant of all paths and roads,

piercing through the heart of every obstacle, and dragging living creatures of all classes,

ages, and degrees behind it, was a type of the triumphant monster, Death.

Away, with a shriek, and a roar, and a rattle, from the town, burrowing among the

dwellings of men and making the streets hum, flashing out into the meadows for a

moment, mining in through the damp earth, booming on in darkness and heavy air,

bursting out again into the sunny day so bright and wide; away, with a shriek, and a

roar, and a rattle, through the fields, through the woods, through the corn, through the

hay, through the chalk, through the mould, through the clay, through the rock, among

objects close at hand and almost in the grasp, ever flying from the traveller, and a

deceitful distance ever moving slowly within him: like as in the track of the remorseless

monster, Death!

Through the hollow, on the height, by the heath, by the orchard, by the park, by the

garden, over the canal, across the river, where the sheep are feeding, where the mill is

going, where the barge is floating, where the dead are lying, where the factory is

smoking, where the stream is running, where the village clusters, where the great

cathedral rises, where the bleak moor lies, and the wild breeze smooths or ruffles it at

its inconstant will; away, with a shriek, and a roar, and a rattle, and no trace to leave

behind but dust and vapour: like as in the track of the remorseless monster, Death!

Breasting the wind and light, the shower and sunshine, away, and still away, it rolls and

roars, fierce and rapid, smooth and certain, and great works and massive bridges

crossing up above, fall like a beam of shadow an inch broad, upon the eye, and then

are lost. Away, and still away, onward and onward ever: glimpses of cottage-homes, of

houses, mansions, rich estates, of husbandry and handicraft, of people, of old roads

and paths that look deserted, small, and insignificant as they are left behind: and so

they do, and what else is there but such glimpses, in the track of the indomitable

monster, Death!

(c)

‘Amor Mundi’ * (1865), a poem by Christina Rossetti

“Oh where are you going with your love-locks flowing

On the west wind blowing along this valley track?”

“The downhill path is easy, come with me an’ it please ye,

We shall escape the uphill by never turning back.”

So they two went together in glowing August weather,

The honey-breathing heather lay to their left and right;

And dear she was to dote on, her swift feet seemed to float on

The air like soft twin pigeons too sportive to alight.

“Oh what is that in heaven where grey cloud-flakes are seven,

Where blackest clouds hang riven just at the rainy skirt?”

“Oh that’s a meteor sent us, a message dumb, portentous,

An undeciphered solemn signal of help or hurt.”

“Oh what is that glides quickly where velvet flowers grow thickly,

Their scent comes rich and sickly?”-“A scaled and hooded worm.”

“Oh what’s that in the hollow, so pale I quake to follow?”

“Oh that’s a thin dead body which waits the eternal term.”

“Turn again, O my sweetest,—turn again, false and fleetest:

This beaten way thou beatest I fear is hell’s own track.”

“Nay, too steep for hill-mounting; nay, too late for cost-counting:

This downhill path is easy, but there’s no turning back.”

*Amor Mundi: love of the world

(d)

From ‘Railway Bridges’ (1928), a radio broadcast by E.M. Forster

Starting “I ask for three things to be precise: firstly, movement, which is or

ought to be provided by the train. Then I want a nice view. And thirdly I want

what I am going to call geographical emotion.”

Ending: “Certainly not looking at Benares, which is all sectioned up behind the

girders. And one does want to look, one does want a beautiful view as well as

thoughts and ideas, and my bridge must combine them all.”

Unable to publish due to copyright restrictions

(e)

From ‘Questions of Travel’ (1965), a poem by Elizabeth Bishop

Starting: “Think of the long trip home.

Should we have stayed at home and thought of here?

Where should we be today?”

Ending “Never to have studied history in

the weak calligraphy of songbirds’ cages.”

Unable to publish due to copyright restrictions but available on

http://www.poemhunter.com/best-poems/elizabeth-bishop/questions-of-travel/

(f)

‘Night Train’ (2013), a poem by Michael Symmons Roberts

Starting: “Lit not so she can see to clip our tickets,

nor so we can read to see the news, but lit

to make of us and it an eel-shaped full”

Ending: “from south to north, slowest synapse ever,

one idea, say, life as a journey, fading

even as it bears us, and silence in its wake.”

Unable to publish due to copyright restrictions

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