WB SLST English : Critics comments on the Writings of Wb SLST

 WB SLST English : Critics comments on the Writings of Wb SLST 

📘 Poetry

1. Wordsworth – Lucy Poems

Francis Jeffrey: “A lover trots away… ‘If Lucy should be dead!’ And there the poem ends!” (mockery of simplicity).

John Wilson: “Powerfully pathetic.”

2. Wordsworth – The World Is Too Much with Us

Matthew Arnold: “Wordsworth is the poet of the healing power of Nature.”

3. Shelley – Ode to the West Wind

Leigh Hunt: “The trumpet of prophecy.”

4. Shelley – To a Skylark

Arthur Symons: “The skylark is not a bird, it is a spirit.”

5. Keats – Ode to a Nightingale

T. S. Eliot: “Keats’s odes are perfect poems… the very voice of poetry itself.”

6. Keats – To Autumn

Harold Bloom: “The most perfect short poem in the English language.”

7. Tennyson – Ulysses

Matthew Arnold: “Poetry of nobility and high seriousness.”

8. Browning – The Last Ride Together

George Saintsbury: “A noble and novel view of love’s defeat.”

9. Hardy – The Darkling Thrush

Lionel Johnson: “A song of hope in the midst of desolation.”

10. Yeats – The Wild Swans at Coole

Cleanth Brooks: “An image of changeless beauty against human transience.

11. Owen – Strange Meeting

W. B. Yeats (ironically dismissive): “Passive suffering is not a theme for poetry.”

Edmund Blunden (supportive): “A masterpiece of tragic pity.”

12. de la Mare – The Listeners

Walter de la Mare himself: “It is but a mood caught in words.”

Critics often call it “the finest ghostly lyric of English poetry."

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🎭 Drama

1. Goldsmith – She Stoops to Conquer

Dr. Johnson: “I know of no comedy for many years that has so much exhilarated an audience.”

2. Shaw – Arms and the Man

Shaw himself (in preface): “An anti-romantic comedy of love and war.”

William Archer: praised it as “a delightful exposure of military romance.”

3. Galsworthy – Justice

The Times review (1910): “A most moving appeal for prison reform.”

Harley Granville-Barker: “The theatre used as an engine of social justice.”

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📖 Prose & Short Stories

1. Lamb – Dream Children

Swinburne: “A sweetness like no other fragrance, a magic like no second spell in letters.”

2. Conrad – The Lagoon

Edward Garnett: praised Conrad’s “psychological depth and atmosphere.”

3. Maugham – The Lotos-Eater

Richard Cordell: “A parable of escape and its price.”

4. O. Henry – The Gift of the Magi

Burton Raffel: “The purest expression of O. Henry’s ironic humanism.”

5. H. E. Bates – The Ox

V. S. Pritchett: admired Bates’s “tender, exact prose of rural life.”

✍️ Essays

1. Lamb – Dream Children

(Already above with Swinburne).

2. L. A. Hill – Principles of Good Writing

Critics of language teaching note Hill as “the champion of clarity and simplicity in modern English prose. 

MCQs on Uncommon Poetic Devices for WB ENGLISH SLST 2025

mock set of MCQs on uncommon poetic devices (like the WB SLST exam might ask).

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🌟 MCQs on Uncommon Poetic Devices

Q1. Identify the figure of speech: “The crown will decide the nation’s future.”

a) Synecdoche

b) Metonymy

c) Apostrophe

d) Chiasmus

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Q2. “O Death, where is thy sting?” is an example of—

a) Apostrophe

b) Oxymoron

c) Paradox

d) Enjambment

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Q3. In “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” (Shakespeare), the figure of speech is—

a) Zeugma

b) Chiasmus

c) Antithesis

d) Polyptoton

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Q4. “He stole my heart and my wallet.” → Which device?

a) Zeugma

b) Irony

c) Litotes

d) Metonymy

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Q5. “This is not an unkind remark.” → Which device?

a) Hyperbole

b) Litotes

c) Oxymoron

d) Paradox

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Q6. “Here comes the sun.” → Which device is used in word order?

a) Apostrophe

b) Inversion

c) Synecdoche

d) Anaphora

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Q7. In “O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being!” (Shelley), the device is—

a) Personification

b) Apostrophe

c) Alliteration

d) Hyperbole

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Q8. “The child is father of the man.” → This is a—

a) Paradox

b) Oxymoron

c) Epistrophe

d) Synecdoche

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Q9. “To err is human || to forgive, divine.” The mid-line pause is called—

a) Caesura

b) Enjambment

c) Ellipsis

d) Epistrophe

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Q10. “Love is not love / Which alters when it alteration finds.” (Shakespeare, Sonnet 116). Repetition of the root word alter is—

a) Alliteration

b) Polyptoton

c) Anaphora

d) Refrain

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✅ Answer Key

1 → b) Metonymy

2 → a) Apostrophe

3 → b) Chiasmus

4 → a) Zeugma

5 → b) Litotes

6 → b) Inversion

7 → b) Apostrophe

8 → a) Paradox

9 → a) Caesura

10 → b) Polyptoton

Wb SLST 2025 ENGLISH GRAMMAR UNCOMMON POETIC DEVICES REVISION

 Uncommon #PoeticDevices: Quick Notes For West Bengal #SLST English Revision 2025

Device Definition (Easy) Example

Synecdoche 

Part used for whole or whole for part All hands on deck (hands = sailors)

Metonymy 

One word replaced with something closely linked 

The pen is mightier than the sword

Anaphora 

Repetition at beginning of lines/clauses We shall fight… we shall fight…

Epistrophe 

Repetition at end of lines/clauses Of the people, by the people, for the people

Chiasmus 

Reversal of structure Fair is foul, and foul is fair

Zeugma 

One verb/adjective used for two different objects He stole my heart and my wallet

Litotes 

Understatement using negative He is not a bad singer

Transferred Epithet 

Adjective applied to wrong noun He spent a restless night

Apostrophe 

Direct address to absent person/idea/object O Death, where is thy sting?

Enjambment 

Continuation of a line into the next without pause 

A thing of beauty is a joy forever: / Its loveliness increases…

Caesura 

A pause in the middle of a line *To err is human

Paradox Seeming contradiction but true The child is father of the man

Oxymoron 

Two opposite words together Sweet sorrow, deafening silence

Polyptoton 

Repetition of same root word Love is not love / Which alters when it alteration finds.

WEST Bengal ENGLISH SLST MOCK TEST 2025

 WEST BENGAL 2nd SLST MOCK TEST 2025

Sub : English in IX-X Category, 

👉 60 MCQS 

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✔️Section A: Poetry :

1. In "The World is Too Much With Us", Wordsworth condemns mankind’s:

A) Religious indifference

B) War-like tendencies

C) Materialism

D) Political views

2. "To a Skylark" by Shelley portrays the bird as:

A) A symbol of love

B) A night predator

C) A spiritual inspirer

D) A common bird

3. "Ode to the West Wind" ends with a hope for:

A) Destruction

B) Immortality

C) Rebirth

D) Silence

4. Which season is personified in "Ode to Autumn"?

A) Winter

B) Autumn

C) Summer

D) Spring

5. The dominant theme of "Ulysses" is:

A) Domestic joy

B) Heroic restlessness

C) Romantic love

D) Social criticism

6. Browning's "The Last Ride Together" is a blend of:

A) Comedy and satire

B) Tragedy and revenge

C) Passion and philosophy

D) Religion and myth

7. In "The Darkling Thrush", the thrush is a symbol of:

A) Old age

B) Death

C) Hope

D) Futility

8. "The Wild Swans at Coole" reveals Yeats’s:

A) Political views

B) Religious belief

C) Poetic rivalry

D) Emotional aging

9. Wilfred Owen's "Strange Meeting" is set in:

A) A battlefield hospital

B) A dreamlike underworld

C) A churchyard

D) A prison

10. “The Listeners” by Walter de la Mare evokes:

A) Joyful mood

B) Mystery and silence

C) Romantic celebration

D) Allegorical fantasy

11. Wordsworth’s Lucy Poems often represent:

A) Revolutionary thoughts

B) Idealized rural simplicity

C) Political satire

D) Urban chaos

12. “To a Skylark” is a/an:

A) Satire

B) Sonnet

C) Narrative

D) Lyrical apostrophe

13. “Ulysses” ends with the resolve to:

A) Die in peace

B) Continue striving

C) Return to Penelope

D) Settle in Ithaca

14. Shelley invokes the West Wind as:

A) A destroyer and preserver

B) A gentle breeze

C) A healing force

D) A seasonal poem

15. In “Strange Meeting”, Owen uses:

A) Allegory

B) Dramatic monologue

C) Elegy

D) Satire

16. “The Wild Swans at Coole” represents:

A) Political debate

B) Personal loss and aging

C) Satirical tone

D) Comic relief

17. In "The Darkling Thrush", the landscape is depicted as:

A) Lush and thriving

B) Joyous and lively

C) Bleak and wintry

D) Festive and warm

18. Which poetic device is most used in "To a Skylark"?

A) Oxymoron

B) Apostrophe

C) Hyperbole

D) Paradox

19. “The Last Ride Together” reflects:

A) Political ambition

B) Stoic acceptance

C) Mystical denial

D) Marital bliss

20. In “The Listeners,” the Traveller is:

A) Welcomed

B) Banished

C) Ignored

D) Attacked

✔️Section B: Drama :

_______________________________________

21. Who disguises herself in "She Stoops to Conquer"?

A) Mrs. Hardcastle

B) Miss Neville

C) Kate Hardcastle

D) Lady Marlow

22. "Arms and the Man" critiques:

A) British monarchy

B) Romantic ideals of war

C) Courtly manners

D) Education system

23. Raina’s chocolate-cream soldier is actually a:

A) Spy

B) Cook

C) Professional soldier

D) Serbian officer

24. In "Justice", the central issue is:

A) Police brutality

B) Judicial cruelty

C) Prison reform and mercy

D) Political corruption

25. Bluntschli is contrasted with:

A) Catherine

B) Petkoff

C) Sergius

D) Louka

26. In “Justice”, the playwright criticizes:

A) Poverty

B) Hypocrisy

C) Legal system’s inhumanity

D) Democracy

27. “She Stoops to Conquer” is an example of:

A) Romantic drama

B) Farcical comedy

C) Melodrama

D) History play

28. Sergius is often described as:

A) A brave realist

B) A coward

C) A pompous romantic

D) A servant in disguise

29. Galworthy’s tone in "Justice" can be best described as:

A) Sarcastic

B) Melancholic

C) Sympathetic

D) Ironic

30. The subplot in "She Stoops to Conquer" involves:

A) A duel

B) Tony and Miss Neville

C) Kate’s marriage to Hastings

D) Marlow’s father

✔️Section C: Short Story and Essay :

_______________________________________

31. The central theme of “The Gift of the Magi” is:

A) Irony and sacrifice

B) Inheritance

C) Greed and punishment

D) Religion

32. In “The Ox”, the protagonist is:

A) A nursemaid with suppressed anger

B) A bold teacher

C) An abusive aunt

D) A lazy stepmother

33. "The Lotos Eater" by Maugham deals with:

A) British imperialism

B) A man escaping responsibility

C) Greek mythology

D) Drug abuse

34. Conrad’s “Lagoon” is set in:

A) Africa

B) India

C) Malay jungle

D) Pacific islands

35. The narrator in “The Ox” is:

A) The woman’s husband

B) Her child

C) Her employer

D) A neighbor

36. Arsat in "Lagoon" tells the story of:

A) His love and guilt

B) His escape from war

C) British colonizers

D) His merchant life

37. “Dream Children” reflects:

A) Satirical style

B) Humorous commentary

C) Deep personal sorrow

D) Political turmoil

38. In “The Lotos Eater”, the protagonist’s choice leads to:

A) Fame

B) Madness and poverty

C) Redemption

D) Employment

39. O. Henry’s famous style includes:

A) Poetic devices

B) Dramatic endings

C) Twist in the tale

D) Mythical allegory

40. “The Ox” can be seen as:

A) An allegory

B) A horror story

C) A comic tale

D) A psychological study

41. Lamb’s “Dream Children” is:

A) A dramatic monologue

B) A fantasy memoir

C) A satirical parody

D) A travelogue

42. Arsat’s brother dies because:

A) He is betrayed

B) He is old

C) He is greedy

D) He helps Arsat escape

43. “The Gift of the Magi” is set during:

A) Summer

B) Christmas

C) Easter

D) Autumn

44. “The Lotos Eater” originally refers to:

A) Roman myth

B) Irish folklore

C) Homer’s Odyssey

D) Dante’s Inferno

45. In “The Ox”, the woman is likened to:

A) A witch

B) An ox

C) A snake

D) A queen

✔️Section D: Grammar and Usage :

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46. Identify the correct sentence:

A) She don’t like coffee.

B) She doesn’t likes coffee.

C) She doesn’t like coffee.

D) She don’t likes coffee.

47. Choose the correct form: “Each of the boys ___ given a book.”

A) were

B) have

C) has

D) are

48. Identify the relative clause:

A) He runs fast.

B) I met a man who knew you.

C) It rained heavily.

D) She sang loudly.

49. Choose the sentence with correct use of articles:

A) He is an honest man.

B) He is a honest man.

C) He is the honest man.

D) He is honest man.

50. “He said, ‘I am going now.’” Change into indirect speech:

A) He said he is going now.

B) He said he was going then.

C) He said I am going now.

D) He says he went then.

51. Choose the complex sentence:

A) He ran fast and won.

B) Although he was late, he attended the class.

C) He wrote a letter.

D) He came, he saw.

52. Which is a simple sentence?

A) She cooked and he cleaned.

B) Although he was ill, he worked.

C) He laughed.

D) When she came, I was eating.

53. Identify the correct narration:

A) He asked what is my name.

B) He asked what was my name.

C) He asked what my name was.

D) He asked what my name is.

54. Choose the grammatically correct sentence:

A) She sing well.

B) She sings well.

C) She singing well.

D) She sangs well.

55. Identify the sentence with a mood of suggestion:

A) Go and study now.

B) You might do better.

C) I wish I were rich.

D) Let’s go out.

56. "He is taller than ___ in the class." Choose the correct pronoun.

A) any

B) all

C) everyone

D) anyone else

57. Combine: “He failed. He worked hard.”

A) Although he worked hard, he failed.

B) He failed and worked hard.

C) He failed when he worked hard.

D) He failed as he worked hard.

58. Direct to indirect: “She said, ‘Do it now.’”

A) She told me to do it then.

B) She said me do it now.

C) She asked me did it then.

D) She says do it now.

59. Choose the correct voice:

A) The song sung by her.

B) The song was sung by her.

C) The song were sung by her.

D) The song was sing by her.

60. Choose the sentence in passive voice:

A) They completed the task.

B) The task was completed.

C) She is cooking.

D) He sings.

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Answer Key:

1. C 2. C 3. C 4. B 5. B 6. C 7. C 8. D 9. B 10. B  

11. B 12. D 13. B 14. A 15. B 16. B 17. C 18. B 19. B 20. C  

21. C 22. B 23. C 24. C 25. C 26. C 27. B 28. C 29. C 30. B  

31. A 32. A 33. B 34. C 35. C 36. A 37. C 38. B 39. C 40. D  

41. B 42. D 43. B 44. C 45. B  

46. C 47. C 48. B 49. A 50. B 51. B 52. C 53. C 54. B 55. D  

56. D 57. A 58. A 59. B 60. B

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Critical commentary on Ode to Autumn by John Keats

 John Keats' *To Autumn* is one of his most celebrated odes, composed in 1819, and demonstrates complete mastery over the materials of the Romantic tradition. It is a richly sensory and deeply reflective ode to autumn. The following is a critical interpretation of the poem, focused on its themes, structure, language, and philosophical undercurrents.

### **Celebration of Autumn and the Natural World**

Keats's To Autumn is a meditation on the season as the moment of ripeness, completion, and the gentle transition into another season. While other poems describe spring or summer as the pinnacle of natural beauty, Keats attests to autumn's less showy, more mature phase in the cycle. For him, there is no rot but rather the absolute fullness of nature.

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness," the poem starts, immediately grounding the reader in an atmosphere of richness and fulfillment. The fruits are heavy with ripeness, the fields full of harvested grain, and even the small creatures like bees are intoxicated by the late-blooming flowers. In this way, *To Autumn* is a hymn to the fullness and fruitfulness of nature: tasting the ripeness of life before it falls into decline in winter.

### Themes of Time and Transience

Behind Keats' paean to autumn lies a consciousness of time and evanescence. The season of ripeness marks also the end of the growing season, foreshadowing the advent of winter. However, Keats does not pessimistically stay in decay; instead, he sees beauty in the cyclical pattern of life. Autumn ripeness, after all does yield to decline; but Keats has that turn toward decay into a positive direction: change and transition as elements within life's eternal cycle.

This acknowledgment of transience aligns with Keats' broader philosophical vision, sometimes described using the term "negative capability"—his belief in his ability to bear uncertainty and mystery and not to be overmuch resolved into convictions of what is right or wrong. *In To Autumn*, Keats celebrates the ephemeral beauty of the season, in full awareness of its impermanence, but finds pleasure in this perfect moment of its being.

### **Imagery and Sensory Experience**

Poem *To Autumn* has many characteristics; one is its rich, sensory imagery. Keats engages all the senses while describing the visible images of the season. All are involved: the sights and sounds, even the feel of the season, in his rich vocabulary and keen detail to draw pictures of the fruit, the gourds swollen with ripeness, and the "budding more" that stretches out the bees' life. This first stanza is especially focused on aspects of sight and touch, portrayals of the natural world at its prime.

Keats becomes more centered upon sound as the poem progresses. In the second stanza, autumn is personified as a figure lying or laboring in the fields, and, in the third, he introduces the "music" of autumn, that is, the soft, mournful sounds of the season: the "wailful choir" of gnats, the bleating lambs, and the singing crickets. This sense chronology illustrates the languid draining of the season, as summer's mad energies give up to autumn's more sedate and contemplative rhythm.

### Anthropomorphism of Autumn

Keats anthropomorphizes autumn in the second stanza quite dramatically. He represents this season as an "out-door laborer,/ Sitting careless on a granary floor," resting after a long season of labor, or lying asleep in a field in which he has gathered in the harvest. Keats has given human-like qualities to the autumn season, thus breathing life and personality into it. Therefore, autumn was not only a natural phenomenon; it is that can be felt and viewed intimately, almost as an acquaintance.

This personification also evokes the sense that autumn is, like a man, experiencing his cycles of work, repose, and a silent, slow existence. This adds layers to Keats' description of the season as being more than a simple phase of the year but as metaphorical expression for life's rhythms of action and repose.

### Structure and Form

*To Autumn* consists of three stanzas with eleven lines each. In this regard it is a poetically balanced and controlled piece that mirrors the poem's calm and well-balanced mood. The rhyme scheme - ABAB CDE DCCE enhances this further sense of harmony and order. Keats' exactly controlled form very much reflects the completeness and fulfillment of the season of autumn. The stanzaic structure mirrors the natural cycles and rhythms of life that Keats celebrates.

### **Philosophical Implication**

More profoundly, *To Autumn* is a meditation in mortality or the embracing of impermanence. As autumn commemorates winter's approach and the end of the year is at hand, Keats does not treat it with something melancholy or regretful. He rather evokes the beauty of it in its own self. This reflects a bigger concern with the fleeting nature of human existence involved in the search for meaning and beauty within that transience.

Therefore, the poem is often viewed as mature reflection on life and death. Rather than lamenting the lost time, Keats holds some peace in the cycle of life in which every existence comes to be, grows, and then declines. The quiet and reflective rhythm of the poem underscores acceptance of this natural process and even an element of satisfaction in the knowledge that just as autumn stands still, so too does life.

### **Conclusion**

*To Autumn* is a rich, textured poem that catches the whole warmth and beauty of the season. Deeply and vividly using sensory imagery, the poem reflects on life and time with reverberations of personification and philosophical undertones in this fruitfulness of time and inevitable passage of life. Keats's ode is finally an ode to the existing moment, urging the reader to revel in the richness of the world even as it readies itself for its disappearance. It is his acceptance of transience and ability to find beauty within the mundane aspects of nature that form the words of the lovely lines, which make this a profound and most long-lasting piece of work.