These are original Marlbridge practice questions, not past exam questions. The public-domain poems are credited to their authors: Robert Burns, “A Red, Red Rose” (1794); William Shakespeare, Sonnet 73 (1609). The unseen poem in Questions 6 to 8 is an original Marlbridge poem. The marks in the rubrics are a suggested Marlbridge rubric, not an official scoring guideline. Answer every question before opening its answer.
Question 1 (multiple choice · foundation)
Robert Burns’s “A Red, Red Rose” (1794) opens: “O my Luve’s like a red, red rose / That’s newly sprung in June: / O my Luve’s like the melodie / That’s sweetly play’d in tune.” Later stanzas include “Till a’ the seas gang dry” and “And fare thee weel, my only Luve!” and end “Tho’ it were ten thousand mile.” Which best describes how the stanzas are related?
- (A) They repeat the same idea without change.
- (B) They move from comparisons to a vow that lasts beyond natural limits, and then to parting and a promise to return.
- (C) They contradict one another.
- (D) They have nothing in common.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). Stanza 1 uses similes; stanzas 2 and 3 stretch time (“till a’ the seas gang dry”); stanza 4 turns to farewell and return.
- (A) The stanzas change what they say.
- (C) They support one another.
- (D) Repeated words (“Luve”, “dear”) connect them.
Question 2 (multiple choice · core)
In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73 (1609), each of the first three four-line units begins with a version of “In me thou seest” (or “That time of year thou may’st in me behold”). What is the most important effect of this repetition?
- (A) It makes the poem easier to memorise only.
- (B) It sets up parallel images of decline that invite comparison and build toward the ending.
- (C) It shows the speaker has run out of ideas.
- (D) It proves the poem is about a single season.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). Repeated openings set three images (autumn, twilight, fire) side by side and let the reader see the narrowing.
- (A) Sound pattern matters, but the key effect is on the relationship between ideas.
- (C) The images are varied, not exhausted.
- (D) The three images are different times and things.
Question 3 (multiple choice · core)
In Sonnet 73, the last two lines are: “This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong, / To love that well which thou must leave ere long.” What is the structural function of these lines?
- (A) They add another image of decline.
- (B) They turn from the speaker’s ageing to the listener’s response, concluding the argument.
- (C) They repeat the first line.
- (D) They have no connection to the earlier lines.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). “This thou perceiv’st” gathers the images and draws a conclusion about the listener’s love.
- (A) No new image is introduced.
- (C) The first line is not repeated.
- (D) “This” points back to everything before.
Question 4 (multiple choice · core)
In Whitman’s “A Noiseless Patient Spider”, the first stanza describes the spider and the second begins “And you O my soul where you stand”. Which best describes the stanza break?
- (A) A pause with no meaning
- (B) A turn from observing the spider to addressing the soul, linked by parallel
- (C) A change from verse to prose
- (D) The end of the poem
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). The stanza break marks the shift from “it” to “you”, and the second stanza echoes the first to relate them.
- (A) The break carries the turn.
- (C) The poem stays in verse.
- (D) The poem continues for five more lines.
Question 5 (multiple choice · stretch)
Which comment about structure is strongest?
- (A) “The poem has fourteen lines.”
- (B) “The poem uses rhyme.”
- (C) “By ending each stanza with the same phrase, the poem lets the reader hear how the speaker’s meaning of that phrase changes.”
- (D) “The poem has stanzas.”
Answer and explanation
Answer: (C). It names a pattern and explains its effect on meaning.
- (A), (B) and (D) describe features without any effect.
Question 6 (short answer · core)
Read this original Marlbridge poem, “Low Tide”.
The harbour empties like a held breath. Boats lean on their keels in the mud, ropes slack, gulls walking where water was.
Then, without announcement, the bell-buoy shifts its one note. The sea has turned. By evening the boats will stand again, and no one will say they were ever tilted.
Identify the shift in the poem and explain how the stanza structure supports it. (4 points)
Answer and explanation
Sample response. The shift comes at the stanza break: the first stanza shows stillness and tilting boats, and the second begins “Then” and turns to movement as the sea “has turned”. The first stanza has three long, slack lines that mimic the slack ropes, while the second contains a short line, “The sea has turned”, that lands abruptly like the buoy’s “one note”. The final line looks ahead and shows how quickly the state of suspension will be forgotten.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies the shift (stillness to turning) |
| 2 | Links it to the stanza break or the word “Then” |
| 3 | Comments on line length or sentence shape (long lines, short line) |
| 4 | Explains the effect on meaning (suspension, recovery, forgetting) |
Question 7 (short answer · core)
In “Low Tide”, explain one relationship between the first and last lines. (3 points)
Answer and explanation
Sample response. The first line, “The harbour empties like a held breath”, sets up a state of suspension, and the last line, “no one will say they were ever tilted”, closes that state in forgetting. The frame suggests that every pause or leaning is temporary and will be smoothed over. The pairing of a “held breath” with a quiet unspoken ending ties the poem into a loop from tension to release.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (3 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies a link between the first and last lines |
| 2 | Quotes both accurately |
| 3 | Explains what the framing suggests |
Question 8 (short answer · stretch)
Write one paragraph (about 120 words) explaining how the structure of Sonnet 73 develops the poem’s idea. Quote at least two phrases.
Answer and explanation
Sample response (written by Marlbridge). Shakespeare builds Sonnet 73 from three parallel units, each an image of decline: “yellow leaves”, “the twilight of such day” and a fire on “the ashes of his youth”. The repeated “In me thou seest” invites comparison, and the images shrink in scale from a year to a day to the final embers, so the sense of time running out intensifies. The closing couplet turns to the listener: “thy love more strong”. After three descriptions of loss, the rhymed pair of lines concludes the argument, showing that the poem uses its pattern to turn decline into a reason for love.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies the parallel three-part pattern |
| 2 | Two accurate quotations |
| 3 | Explains the narrowing or building relationship |
| 4 | Explains the effect of the final couplet on the poem’s idea |
How did you do?
Count your correct multiple-choice answers (out of 5) and your rubric points (out of 11). If you missed questions 1 to 5, reread “What structure is” and “The relationships structure can build” in the study guide. If your written scores were low, redo Question 6 in four sentences: pattern, shift, relationship, effect. Then try the checklist.