#8 - Global Reference, Must Be True, Subject Perspective

[Jeff Wren]

Complete Question Explanation
(See the complete passage discussion here: viewtopic.php?f=894&t=38299)

The correct answer choice is (E).

This question is asking for the answer that most closely exemplifies Cullen's conception of poetry. To correctly answer this question, it is critical to correctly identify and track the different viewpoints in the passage and only rely on Cullen's own viewpoint of poetry rather than any viewpoints of critics that are discussed.

Most of Cullen's conceptions of poetry are discussed in the first paragraph. He preferred controlled poetic forms, used European forms such as sonnets, and wrote about universal topics such as love and death (lines 6-13).

Answer choice (A): Answer A starts off good, but the second half goes wrong. Specifically, re-creating the atmosphere of past centuries is something that certain critics praised Cullen for in the second paragraph (lines 2-23), but there is no indication in the passage the Cullen himself shared this objective or even agreed with this assessment.

Answer choice (B): Answer B is an opposite answer as it describes a disregard for conventions of the form, while Cullen carefully adheres to conventions of the form.

Answer choice (C): Answer C is also an opposite answer as it describes radical innovations, while Cullen carefully adheres to conventions of the form. Cullen also distinguished his poetry from poetry of solely political intent (lines 36-37).

Answer choice (D): Answer D is also an opposite answer as it describes stylistic freedom, while Cullen carefully adheres to conventions of the form.

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice. Answer E best captures Cullen's preferred poetic style (sonnet with careful attention to the conventions of form) and one of his preferred topics (death).

[gfeen]

Hi - can you please offer explanation for Question number 8 as to why E is correct and A is wrong? Thank you!

[James Finch]

Hi G.

(A) is a classic half-right answer choice. The first part, about strict adherence to the sonnet form, is correct. However, the second part, about the goal of recreating the atmosphere of 16th-century poetry, is not. Why? The question stem here is referring to Cullen's own position on his poetry, not that of any critics. The second paragraph mentions that some of his critic's praised “The Ballad of the Brown Girl” for capturing "the atmosphere typical of the English ballad form of past centuries." But that's not necessarily Cullen's position, of which we only know that he believed poetry should be "lofty thoughts beautifully expressed.” Not a lot to go on, but it does suggest that he was as interested in substance as style. (A) is only talking about style.

Contrast that to (E), where we have the same conventional sonnet but now written to talk about a "lofty thought," the inevitability of death. This is both style and substance, fitting much closer than (A) does to the quote given in the first paragraph.

Hope this clears things up!

[frk215]

Hello,

Why is the answer to this E instead of A? According to the following quote from the passage, " an artful use of diction and a rhythm and sonority that allow him to capture the atmosphere typical of the English ballad form of past centuries" doesn't this match the latter part of answer choice A as well as the first part matching the following, " Believing poetry should consist of "lofty thoughts beautifully expressed," Cullen preferred controlled poetic forms. He used European forms such as sonnets and devices such as quatrains, couplets, and conventional rhyme," which demonstrates careful attention to conventions?

[Jeremy Press]

Hi frk215,

Part of the problem with answer choice A lies in the specificity of the historical reference. How could we know specifically that Cullen conceived of poetry as a way to recreate the atmosphere, specifically, of sixteenth-century English poetry? The passage's reference to "past centuries" isn't specific enough to support such an inference. A potentially greater problem with the reference you're using, though, is that when the passage states that his techniques "allow him to capture the atmosphere typical of the English ballad form of past centuries," it's referring to the opinion of "ome literary critics" and not necessarily Cullen himself. This is what the critics thought Cullen's poetry allowed him to do. But is it what Cullen thought he was doing? We're not sure.

In fact, later on, the same paragraph says that Cullen saw himself as using his work (and its techniques) to "reflect[] his identity as an African American." And in the last paragraph, we get more explicit information on Cullen's intent in his work, exploring existential concerns, where we're told that Cullen "imagines the death and resurrection of a rural African American," and that "Cullen's thoughts on race were subsumed within what he conceived of as broader and more urgent questions about the suffering and redemption of the soul." Those existential concerns fit much better with the ending of answer choice E, and its reference to "feelings about the inevitability of death."

I hope this helps!