Quiz I.A. Richards's The Figurative Language (Practical Criticism)

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Quiz I.A. Richards's The Figurative Language (Practical Criticism)_2014

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1. Which of the following work of I.A. Richards is considered path breaking in the domain of New Criticism which is outcome of his experiment - i.e. comments of students on poems without title and name of author?

The Meaning of Meaning - 1923

The Principles of Literary Criticism - 1924

The Practical Criticism - 1929

Two Uses of Language - 1931

Clear selection

2. Which of the following/s are/were the objective/s to write 'The Practical Criticism'

To challenge T.S. Eliot's proposition of Tradition and Individual Talent

To introduce a new kind of documentation

To provide new technique in reading poetry

To prepare the way for educational method - teaching poetry

3. Tick mark the four types of misunderstanding which I A Richards' discussed in 'The Figurative Language'

Misunderstanding of the sense of poetry: careless, intuitive reading

Over-literal reading - prosaic reading

Defective scholarship

Difference in meaning of words in poetry and prose

Socio-Cultural and Religions difference

Foreignness of literature

4. This question is from I A Richards's essay 'Four Kinds of Meaning'. Match the meaning with appropriate word:

It is what is said, or the ‘items’ referred to by a writer

This refers to emotions, emotional attitudes, will, desire, pleasure, displeasure and the rest. When we say something, we have a feeling about it, “an attitude towards it, some special direction, bias or accentuation of interest towards it, some personal flavour or colouring of feeling”. Words express “these feelings, these nuances of interest”.

It is the writer’s attitude to his readers or audience. The use of language is determined by the writer’s ‘recognition’ of his relation to his readers.

It is the writer’s aim, which may be conscious or unconscious. It refers to the effect that he tries to produce. This purpose modifies the expression. It controls the emphasis, shapes the arrangement, or draws attention to something of importance.

Sense

Feeling

Tone

Intention

It is what is said, or the ‘items’ referred to by a writer

It is the writer’s attitude to his readers or audience. The use of language is determined by the writer’s ‘recognition’ of his relation to his readers.

Sense

Feeling

Tone

Intention

Clear selection

5. While the New Critics limit themselves rigorously to the poem under consideration, I A Richards also takes into account its effects on the readers. For him the real value of a poem lies in the reactions and attitudes it creates and whether or not it is conductive to greater emotional balance, equilibrium, peace and rest in the mind of the readers. For him, the value of a work of art lies in its powers to personise and organise complex and warring human impulses into patterns that are lasting and pleasurable. In the view of New Critics, all such considerations are extrinsic and they come in the way of the appreciation and evaluation of a work of art as it is in itself.

6. For the purpose of communication in poetry, the use of Metaphoric language is all important. 'A Metaphor is a shift, a carrying over of a word from its normal use to a new use'. Metaphor may of two kinds. Match these two kinds of metaphors with their meanings:

Sense - Metaphor

Emotive - Metaphor

In it, the shift is due to a similarity or analogy between the original object and the new one.

In it, the shift is due to a similarity or analogy between the feelings, the new situation and the normal situation arouse.

Clear selection

7. Read the poem 'Solemn and gray, the immense clouds of even . . .' and say which of the following complaints are based on prosaic or over-literal reading of the poem?

The Clouds cannot be of white colour

The Clouds cannot pass over the earth

A cloud cannot have 'desires'

A mantle cannot have 'imagination'

Milk does not smile

Dim with flowers is rather weak, for flowers are bright things

Observe this image and answer question no. 8

Observe this image and answer Q no. 8

8. Which of the following lines (from the poem 'Solemn and gray') can better be understood with the help of these images?

The moving pageants of the waning day

Earth's mute and languorous body rests

the Hawthorns smile like milk splashed down

From Noon's blue pitcher over mead and hill

With the tremendous triumph of tall towers

9. Read poem 'A Health, a ringing health . . .' and mark the following complaints resulted from various kinds of misunderstanding of poetic language:

A health cannot be ringing.

The only concrete simile in the octave is the linking of the sea to a harp - surely a little extravagant

The image is bad. The sea may sound like an organ but it never had the sound of a harp

A far-fetched metaphor in which the sea is pictured as a harp and each string, besides being mirthful, is made up of the lightening of spring nights.

For some unknown reason Dawn listened to the music of this incredible instrument.

Commons sense suggests that if the Dawn were present the lightening of spring nights would be inevitably absent

Since Dawn does not come into being till the end of night, the strings and the listener could not exits contemporaneously

Cup of crimson wine cannot be filled up to the brim

Observe this image and answer question no. 10.

10. Which of the following lines can be understood clearly with the help of this image of David playing Harp?

Unless the sea were harp, each mirthful string woven . . . (the vastness of sea can be compared with vast space where strings are spun in musical organ - harp)

A Health, a ringing health, unto the king . . . (the king playing musical instrument with children speaks about his ringing health and joyous day)

And dawn were lonely listener, glad and grave . . . (the dawn is visible outside the window and glad, metaphorically, goes with children and grave with old king)

All of the above

None of the above

Clear selection

11. The whole figure (in the poem A Health, ringing health) (that of sea, harp, lightening, spring, dawn, night, wine, crimson cup, Alps mountain) may be said to be inappropriate, for it does not serve the intention of the poet. What is the intention of the poet?

12. Read poem 'A health, ringing health to answer this question. Based on the argument about the misunderstanding resulting form over-literal or prosaic reading of the poem, which of the following justification can be given to nullify complaint by the commentator?

There is a comment that 'the sea may sound like an organ, but it never has the sound of a harp'. There is no doubt that the similarity between the sound of the sea and the sound of the harp is slight, but in poetry even such slight resemblances are sufficient ' as means of transition to something valuable'. It should be remembered that in poetry means are justified by the end. The harp image is justified bcoz its use leads to the realisation of effects aimed at by the poet.

The commentator objects to the statement that each string of this harp is made of 'the lightening of spring nights'. This is certainly neither a fact nor a possibility. To the extent the poet has violated the coherence of sense. But even such incoherence is justified in poetry, if the effect aimed at by the poet is achieved - that of exhilarating awakening of wonder and a dusign of the sea, lightening and spring, those three most moving manifestations of Nature.

'Woven' does not mix well with sea and lightening, and so here the mixed metaphor is a serious fault on the part of poet.

Certainly, dawn and night cannot be present at one and the same time. The critic is right in pointing out that if dawn were there, night and night's lightening would not be present. But in this connection, it should be remembered that Personification is a device which allows a poet to do almost anything s/he pleases with impunity.

13. Based on the poem 'Climb, cloud, and pencil all the blue', tick mark the objections raised by commentators

The whole poem is a choice example of ugliness of romantic animism - cloud climbing, penciling etc

Puzzle the cattle - did anyone ever see cattle puzzled by a cloud.

If the wind had changed would the poet have got angry?

In comparison to Shelley's West Wind, the cloud in this poem is a person with no character, doing all kinds of things, performing all kinds of antics.

All of the above

None of the above

Clear selection

14. In the conclusion, I A Richards makes following observations. Please tick the correct ones.

A proper understanding of figurative language requires close study.

A judicious balance must be struck between literalism and imaginative freedom.

The 'aim of the poem' must be clearly undestood for without such an understanding any judgementof the means the poet has used would be fallacious.

The critic must also refrain from applying his own external standards.

The Chemist must not require that the poet writes like a chemist; nor the moralist, nor the man of affairs, nor the logician, nor the professor, that s/he writes as they would.

The whole trouble of literalism is that the reader forgets that the aim of the poem comes first, and is the sole justification of its means.

We may quarrel, frequently we must, with aim of the poem, but we have first to ascertain what it is.

All of the above

None of the above

15. What does I.A. Richards mean by 'the aim of the poem'?

The moral aim of the poem - to make reader better human being

the sociological aim - to make society better place to live for all

the aesthetic aim - to please, to delight and to entertain the reader

To propagate an ideology - that of Marxism or Capitalism or Nationalism or Religiosity

To earn money should be the sole aim of writing.

To make people optimistic or pessimist

To give rise to impulses, emotions, feelings, which shaped the poem originally, in the mind/heart of the reader

Clear selection

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