These are original Marlbridge practice questions, not past exam questions. The public-domain poems are credited to their authors: John Keats, “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” (1816); Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Ozymandias” (1818). The unseen poem and sample lines were written by Marlbridge for practice. 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)
In Keats’s sonnet “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” (1816), the speaker mentions “bards in fealty to Apollo”. What kind of allusion is “Apollo”?
- (A) A reference to a historical battle
- (B) A reference to a figure from myth, a literary and religious tradition
- (C) A reference to a painting
- (D) A reference to the speaker’s own life
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). Apollo is a god of Greek myth, associated with poetry and the sun.
- (A), (C) and (D) name kinds of source that do not fit.
Question 2 (multiple choice · core)
In the same sonnet, the speaker compares his feeling to that of “stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes / He stared at the Pacific”. What does this allusion mainly contribute?
- (A) A sense of discovery and wonder at a vast new sight
- (B) A sense of defeat
- (C) A description of a battle plan
- (D) An argument about politics
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). The explorer’s first sight of an ocean carries awe, which the speaker applies to his first reading of Homer in Chapman’s translation.
- (B), (C) and (D) are not supported by the lines.
Question 3 (multiple choice · core)
In Shelley’s “Ozymandias” (1818), the pedestal reads “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: / Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” while around it “Nothing beside remains”. What is the main effect of the allusion?
- (A) It praises the lasting power of ancient rulers.
- (B) It creates irony by setting a boast of great power beside a ruin.
- (C) It describes the weather in the desert.
- (D) It tells the reader the name of the sculptor.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). The name and title promise power; the scene shows decay.
- (A) The poem shows power failing.
- (C) The desert is described but is not the effect of the allusion.
- (D) The sculptor is not named.
Question 4 (multiple choice · core)
Which of the following is an allusion rather than a quotation?
- (A) The speaker repeats, in quotation marks, a line from another poem.
- (B) The speaker says, “I felt like Atlas that morning.”
- (C) The speaker says, “It was cold.”
- (D) The speaker lists the days of the week.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). It refers indirectly to a figure from myth (the one who holds up the sky) and trusts the reader to bring the associations of burden.
- (A) is a quotation.
- (C) and (D) do not refer to anything outside the text.
Question 5 (multiple choice · stretch)
A Marlbridge poem says: “He carried his small disappointment like Atlas.” What is the most likely effect?
- (A) The speaker is boasting about strength.
- (B) The grand allusion exaggerates a small matter, creating humour or ironic self-pity.
- (C) The speaker believes he holds up the sky.
- (D) The line is a literal description.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). Atlas’s huge burden set against a “small disappointment” produces gentle irony.
- (A) The line is about weight, not strength, and the mismatch undercuts it.
- (C) It is a comparison, not a belief.
- (D) A literal reading is impossible.
Question 6 (short answer · core)
Read this original Marlbridge poem, “Night Ledger”. (In Homer’s Odyssey, Penelope delays unwelcome suitors by weaving a shroud by day and unpicking it by night.)
Mara rinses the last cup and turns off the tap. On the desk the unfinished ledger waits like Penelope’s loom: each night she undoes the columns that would end the work, so that morning will still have something to be for.
Explain the allusion and what it adds to the poem. (4 points)
Answer and explanation
Sample response. The allusion to Penelope’s loom refers to a story of delay and endurance: a faithful woman who unpicks her weaving so that an ending never comes. The poem links this to Mara, who undoes her columns at night so that she will have work to return to. The reference gives her ordinary routine a mythic dignity and suggests that her unfinished ledger is a form of waiting, perhaps from fear of what an ending would bring. It also adds a note of sad irony, since her delay is to preserve purpose, not to escape suitors.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies the reference (Penelope, the weaving and unpicking) |
| 2 | Names associations (delay, endurance, faithful waiting) |
| 3 | Links them to Mara’s undoing of the columns |
| 4 | Explains the effect (dignity, irony, what the ending would mean) |
Question 7 (short answer · core)
In Keats’s sonnet the speaker says he felt “like some watcher of the skies / When a new planet swims into his ken”. Explain what the reference brings to the poem. (3 points)
Answer and explanation
Sample response. The reference to an astronomer who sees a new planet brings the associations of scientific discovery and sudden wonder: a world that was always there is revealed for the first time. Applied to the speaker’s reading of Chapman’s Homer, it suggests that great poetry is also a vast world newly seen. The verb “swims” adds a sense of slow, shining arrival.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (3 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies the reference (an astronomer’s discovery) |
| 2 | States the associations (wonder, discovery) |
| 3 | Links them to the speaker’s reading experience |
Question 8 (short answer · stretch)
Write one paragraph (about 120 words) explaining how the allusion to Ozymandias creates irony in Shelley’s poem. Quote at least two phrases.
Answer and explanation
Sample response (written by Marlbridge). Shelley’s allusion to the pharaoh Ozymandias calls up the associations of absolute power and monuments built to last. The inscription, “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings”, commands the “Mighty” to “despair”, a boast that expects awe. But the scene is “Nothing beside remains”, with a “shatter’d visage” and “two vast and trunkless legs of stone” in the sand. The gap between the king’s claim and the surviving fragments creates irony: his own words are the evidence that power does not last. The poem ends with the “lone and level sands”, as if time itself were the true ruler.
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points).
| Point | Awarded for |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identifies the allusion and its associations |
| 2 | Two accurate quotations |
| 3 | Explains the contrast between boast and ruin |
| 4 | States the effect on the poem’s meaning (irony, time’s power) |
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 an allusion is” and “What to say when you explain one” in the study guide. If your written scores were low, redo Question 6 in four sentences: reference, associations, link, effect. Then try the checklist.