Reread the following lines from the two poems. Then, answer the multiple-choice questions that follow.


From “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Eliot:

Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question ...
Oh, do not ask, "What is it?"
Let us go and make our visit.


“The Great Figure” by William Carlos Williams:

Among the rain
and lights
I saw the figure 5
in gold
on a red
firetruck
moving
with weight and urgency
tense
unheeded
to gong clangs
siren howls
and wheels rumbling
through the dark city.

1. What theme, common to the literary period of Modernism, do you see in these lines from both poems?

A. The chaos of modern life can sometimes make one feel isolated and overwhelmed.

B. One should be fearful of the technology and industrialization at the center of modern life.

C. Those who are tasked with protecting others grow accustomed to chaotic experiences.

D. The world seems forever dark and cold to those who are too afraid to love.


2. Which statement best compares the use of sentence structure in both poems?

A. Both poems reject traditional punctuation to allow readers to follow the flow of ideas.

B. Both poems experiment with sentence structure to show the positive outlook of the speaker.

C. Both poems use a combination of very short and very long sentences to highlight the main ideas.

D. Both poems use long and fragmented sentence structures to show new thoughts entering the text.