IGNOU BEGC-107 - British Poetry and Drama: 17th and 18th Centuries

Section A 1. Write short notes on any four of the following. a) Metaphysical Poetry b) Heroic couplet c) Pastoral elegy d) Mock epic e) satire Section B Attempt any four questions. All questions carry equal marks. 2. Explain with examples, the mock-heroic elements in Mac Flecknoe. 3. Discuss The Duchess of Malfi as a tragedy of transgression. 4. Discuss the reasons for the rise of the novel form in the 18th century. 5. Elucidate the central idea of “An Essay on Man.” 6. Comment on the superhuman and religious elements in Mac Flecknoe. Section C Attempt any two questions. All questions carry equal marks. 7. Would you agree that Dryden and the age that he lived and wrote in brought about a change in English poetry? Give a reasoned answer. 8. Differentiate between Classicism and Romanticism, giving examples. 9. Do you agree that Lycidus is an example of pastoral elegy? Discuss.

Section A Write short notes on any two (02) of the following in about 200 words each. a. Pastoral Poetry and Pastoral elegy. b. Characteristic features of an Epic. c. Shakespearean tragedy. Section B Explain the following with reference to the context in about 300 words each: a) Hence, vain deluding Joys, The brood of Folly without father bred! How little you bested Or fill the fixed mind with all your toys! Dwell in some idle brain, And fancies fond with gaudy shapes possess, As thick and numberless b) And, when the sun begins to fling His flaring beams, me, Goddess, bring To arched walks of twilight groves, And shadows brown, that Sylvan loves, Of pine, or monumental oak, Where the rude axe with heaved stroke Was never heard the nymphs to daunt, Or fright them from their hallowed haunt. There, in close covert, by some brook, Where no profaner eye may look, Hide me from day’s garish eye,……. c) Then flash’d the living lightning from her eyes, And screams of horror rend th’ affrighted skies. Not louder shrieks to pitying Heav’n are cast, When husbands or when lap-dogs breathe their last, Or when rich China vessels, fall’ n from high, In glitt’ ring dust and painted fragments lie! Section C Attempt any (03) three of the following question. 1. What are dominant tendencies of Jacobean Drama? 2. Who were the three Johns of the 17th century and what was their contribution to Literature? 3. What are the features of a mock-epic? Why is ‘The Rape of the Lock’ known as a mock heroic poem? 4. How did Dryden define satire? Comment on the central idea of ‘An Essay on Man’?