Il Penseroso quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Which genre best describes "Il Penseroso"?

   • Correct answer: Meditative Poetry
   • Epic Poetry
   • Satirical Verse
   • Dramatic Monologue
   • Heroic Couplets

   It is meditative poetry: the speaker turns from "vain deluding Joys" to a life of solitary thought, midnight study, and worship, and hopes it will end in "something like prophetic strain."

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2. 2

   Question 2. What does the title "Il Penseroso" mean in Italian?

   • The lonely or abandoned wanderer
   • Correct answer: The pensive or contemplative man
   • The passionate or inspired artist
   • The happy or cheerful man

   Il Penseroso translates to "the pensive man" or "the thinker," reflecting the poem's celebration of the contemplative, meditative temperament.

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3. 3

   Question 3. How does Milton portray Melancholy in this poem?

   • As a playful, mischievous spirit who leads the speaker on wild adventures
   • As a distant, indifferent goddess who ignores the speaker's pleas for inspiration
   • Correct answer: As a divine, nun-like figure associated with wisdom, purity, and contemplation
   • As a frightening monster born of darkness who brings suffering and despair

   Melancholy is presented as a "pensive nun, devout and pure" with a saintly visage -- noble, sacred, and associated with deep thought rather than depression or despair.

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4. 4

   Question 4. Who are Melancholy's mythological parents according to Milton?

   • Venus (goddess of love) and Bacchus (god of wine and revelry)
   • Juno (queen of the gods) and Jupiter (king of the Olympians)
   • Athena (goddess of wisdom) and Hephaestus (god of the forge)
   • Correct answer: Vesta (goddess of the sacred hearth) and Saturn (the pre-Olympian god)

   Milton gives Melancholy a nobler and more ancient lineage than Mirth receives in L'Allegro -- she is the daughter of Vesta and Saturn, conceived "While yet there was no fear of Jove."

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5. 5

   Question 5. What bird does the speaker call "Most musical, most melancholy"?

   • The mourning dove
   • The skylark
   • The night-raven
   • Correct answer: The nightingale

   The nightingale, called Philomel from the Greek myth, is the pensive man's bird -- singing in "sweetest, saddest plight" and associated with darkness, in contrast to the lark of L'Allegro.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What does the speaker imagine studying in his "high lonely tower" at midnight?

   • The romantic poetry of troubadours and the songs of medieval minstrels
   • The mathematical theories of Pythagoras and the astronomy of Ptolemy
   • Correct answer: The works of Hermes Trismegistus and the philosophy of Plato, plus elemental daemons
   • The military campaigns of Alexander the Great and the history of Rome

   The speaker imagines reading "thrice great Hermes" (Hermes Trismegistus, the legendary founder of alchemy) and unsphering "the spirit of Plato" to explore the immortal mind and elemental spirits.

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7. 7

   Question 7. Why does the speaker ask to be hidden from "Day's garish eye"?

   • Correct answer: Because bright daylight is too intrusive for the contemplative mind that finds illumination in shadow and solitude
   • Because he has a medical condition that makes him sensitive to bright sunlight
   • Because he committed a crime and must hide from public view during daytime
   • Because he believes that sunlight destroys the supernatural beings he wishes to study

   The pensive man prefers dimness and shadow because they enable contemplation. Paradoxically, darkness brings intellectual light -- he finds wisdom by lamplight, in "dim religious light," and in twilight groves.

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8. 8

   Question 8. In the line "Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes", what does rapt mean?

   • Torn apart by grief and sorrow
   • Correct answer: Completely absorbed in deep thought
   • Wrapped in a cloak and hidden from view
   • Restless and eager to break free

   Rapt means so absorbed in thought that nothing else is noticed. Melancholy walks with "looks commercing with the skies," her soul so held by contemplation that it shows in her eyes, until she seems to "Forget thyself to marble."

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9. 9

   Question 9. In the line "With thrice great Hermes, or unsphere", what does unsphere mean?

   • To break apart a crystal globe or orb
   • To chart the paths of the planets across the sky
   • Correct answer: To call a spirit down from its heavenly sphere
   • To banish a spirit to the underworld

   To unsphere a spirit is to draw it down from the heavenly sphere where it was thought to dwell. The scholar in his tower would call back "The spirit of Plato" to explain where the immortal mind goes once it leaves the body.

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10. 10

    Question 10. In the line "Hide me from Day’s garish eye", what does garish mean?

    • Harsh, cold, and unkind in temper
    • Correct answer: Glaringly bright and showy
    • Prying and suspicious
    • Dull, gray, and gloomy

    Garish means glaringly bright, too showy for comfort. When the sun begins to fling "His flaring beams," the speaker shelters by a brook in shady groves and asks, "Hide me from Day’s garish eye," because full glare disturbs the thinking man.

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11. 11

    Question 11. In the line "In sceptr’d pall come sweeping by", what does pall mean?

    • Correct answer: A rich, flowing robe of state
    • A cloth spread over a coffin
    • A royal staff or sceptre
    • A heavy cloud of gloom or smoke

    A pall here is a rich robe of state, the kind a king in a tragedy would wear. Tragedy is pictured "In sceptr’d pall come sweeping by," holding a sceptre and trailing a royal robe, not a cloth laid over a coffin.

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12. 12

    Question 12. In the line "Dissolve me into ecstasies", what does ecstasies mean?

    • Fits of wild laughter and noisy merriment
    • Bouts of fever or physical weakness
    • Moods of deep sorrow and weeping
    • Correct answer: States of overwhelming spiritual rapture

    Ecstasies are moments of overwhelming joy that seem to lift the soul out of itself. In the cloister the organ and choir "Dissolve me into ecstasies" and "bring all Heav’n before mine eyes," a holy rapture, not mirth or noise.

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13. 13

    Question 13. What unfinished literary work does Milton wish could be completed?

    • Ovid's lost poem about the founding of Rome and the fall of the Republic
    • Correct answer: Chaucer's Squire's Tale about Cambuscan and his magical ring, mirror, and brass horse
    • Homer's planned third epic about the wanderings of Telemachus after the Odyssey
    • Virgil's unfinished Book XIII of the Aeneid about Aeneas's later reign in Italy

    Milton references "him that left half told / The story of Cambuscan bold" -- Chaucer's unfinished Squire's Tale, with its air of mystery and romance that appeals to the contemplative temperament.

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14. 14

    Question 14. What experience does the speaker describe in the poem's cloister scene?

    • A private audience with the bishop who reveals the secrets of divine prophecy
    • Silent prayer in a dark chapel where he receives a vision of angels descending from heaven
    • Correct answer: Organ music and stained glass in a cathedral that dissolve him into ecstasies and bring heaven before his eyes
    • A debate among monks about the meaning of scripture that sharpens his philosophical reasoning

    The speaker walks the "studious cloister's pale" and hears the organ blow "To the full-voic'd quire below" through "storied windows richly dight, / Casting a dim religious light" -- music so powerful it dissolves him into spiritual ecstasy.

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15. 15

    Question 15. Which of these events actually happened in the story?

    • The speaker opens by banishing "vain deluding Joys" and calling them the "brood of Folly."

      Happened

      The poem begins "Hence vain deluding Joys, / The brood of Folly without father bred."

    • The speaker describes Melancholy as dressed in dark robes with a sable stole of cypress lawn.

      Happened

      Lines 33-36 describe her "All in a robe of darkest grain" with "sable stole of cypress lawn / Over thy decent shoulders drawn."

    • The speaker listens to a lark singing at dawn to mark the start of a cheerful day.

      Didn't happen

      The lark belongs to L'Allegro. In Il Penseroso, the speaker's bird is the nightingale (Philomel), which sings at night.

    • The speaker imagines watching "gorgeous Tragedy / In sceptr'd pall come sweeping by."

      Happened

      Lines 97-98 describe the speaker's preference for tragic drama, referencing the tales of Thebes, Pelops, and Troy.

    • The speaker attends a village dance with merry bells and jocund rebecks.

      Didn't happen

      Village dancing with bells and rebecks is a scene from L'Allegro. The pensive man avoids such communal mirth.

    • The speaker asks to be hidden from "Day's garish eye" in twilight groves.

      Happened

      Lines 131-141 describe the speaker retreating into "arched walks of twilight groves" and asking to be hidden from daylight.

    • The speaker describes organ music in a cathedral that brings "all Heav'n before mine eyes."

      Happened

      Lines 161-166 describe the organ and choir in a cloister that "Dissolve me into ecstasies, / And bring all Heav'n before mine eyes."

    • The speaker envisions attending a masquerade with masks and pageantry.

      Didn't happen

      Masques and pageantry belong to L'Allegro's cheerful city scenes. Il Penseroso's speaker prefers solitary study and worship.

    • The speaker hopes that old experience will bring "something like prophetic strain."

      Happened

      Lines 173-174 express the poem's culminating hope that a lifetime of contemplation will yield near-prophetic wisdom.

    • The speaker describes drinking nut-brown ale and telling folk tales by firelight.

      Didn't happen

      Ale-drinking and folk tales belong to L'Allegro's country holiday scene. Il Penseroso's fireside scene involves only glowing embers and the cricket's song.

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16. 16

    Question 16. What famous line from the poem has become a common phrase meaning "more than surface meaning"?

    • Correct answer: Where more is meant than meets the ear
    • Casting a dim religious light
    • Teach light to counterfeit a gloom
    • The fickle pensioners of Morpheus’ train

    This line (120) describes allegorical literature where the surface meaning conceals deeper significance -- a perfect summary of what the contemplative reader seeks.

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