A timed essay test on "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" is available on page 153.  Take this before or after completing the multiple-choice exam.  To begin the multiple-choice test, read the poem carefully.

1.  In the context of lines 4-6, "forked no lightning" means that wise men at the end regret that their words have
      (A)  caused too much damage
      (B)  created no radical change
      (C)  lit up too many minds
      (D) glowed for too long
      (E)  destroyed too many things
2.  In the context of line 8, "danced in a green bay" means that good men at their end realize regretfully that their frail deeds  might have been more productive if they had been performed
      (A) in a ballroom dance hall
      (B) for more envious people
      (C) for more unfortunate farmers
      (D) in a more fertile field
      (E)  on a more colorful floor
3.  The following oxymoron used by Thomas creates an unusual image by combining opposite terms:
      (A) "should burn and rave at the close of  day"  (line 2)
      (B)  "their words had no forked lightning"  (line 5)
      (C)  "might have danced in a green bay" (line 8)
      (D)  "caught and sang the sun"  ( line 10)
       (E)  "who see with blinding sight"  (line 13)
4.  The following pun is used by Thomas to attach two different meanings to the same word:
      (A)  "wise" men  (line 4)
      (B)  "good" men  (line 7)
      (C)  "wild" men  - line 10
      (D)  "grave" men  (line 13)
       (E)  my "father"  (line 16)
5.  Variety is achieved through all BUT one of the following metonymies for death:
      (A)  "good night"  (lines 1, 6, 12, 18)
      (B)  "close of day"  (line 2)
      (C)  "dying of the light"  (lines 3, 9, 15, 19)
      (D)  "dark"  (line 4)
      (E)  " a green bay"  (line 8)
6.  All  BUT one of the following are characteristics of a villanelle, a French verse form, and are true of this poem:
      (A)  The poem consists of five tercets and a concluding quatrain.
      (B)  The poem employs only three end rhymes.
      (C)  The first and third lines alternately conclude the tercets.
      (D)  The first and third lines form a  concluding couplet for the quatrain.
      (E)  The rhyme scheme of each tercet is aba
7.  Despite the villanelle's restrictions, Dylan Thomas's poem is remarkably
      (A) repetitious
      (B)  restricted
      (C)  unforced
      (D)  formal
      (E)  effusive
8.  The speaker in this poem can be characterized as one who
      (A)  loves life
      (B)  believes in "afterlife"
      (C)  believes death is only a gateway to heaven
      (D)  does not want his father to die
      (E) does not believe in heaven
9.  The figure of speech which dominates the poem is the
     (A)  apostrophe
     (B)  simile
     (C)  metaphor
     (D)  pun
     (E)  oxymoron
10.  Thomas introduces all BUT one of the following  people in the poem who might be expected to accept death gently but who, nonetheless, resist it:
      (A)  philosophers
      (B)  theologians
      (C)  factory workers
      (D)  inspired artists
      (E)  writers
11.  How many types of people are addressed by Dylan Thomas as those who want to prolong their life and live it according to their new insights?
      (A) three
      (B)  four
      (C)  five
      (D)  six
      (E)  seven
12.  The overall effect of the poem's metaphorical descriptions of death is to
      (A)  internalize death and increase it's mystery
      (B)  terrorize death and increase its threat
      (C)  familiarize death and lessen its threat
      (D)  abstract death and decrease its acceptance
      (E)  externalize death and lessen its wonder
13.  All BUT one of the following words are used by Dylan Thomas to convey a hopeful tone:
      (A)  "good"
      (B)  "right"
      (C)  "bright"
      (D)  "green"
      (E)  "flight"
14.  All BUT one of the following words are used by Dylan Thomas to convey a regretful tone:
      (A)  "dying"
      (B)  "danced"
      (C)  "dark"
      (D)  "crying"
      (E)  "grieved"
15.  A third layer of tone, fierce unacceptance, is added by Dylan Thomas's use of all of the following words EXCEPT:
      (A)  "burn"
      (B)  "rave"
      (C)  "rage"
      (D)  "wave"
      (E)  "blaze"
 

Included in the Teacher Edition are the Answers/Explanations.  Here are the answers/explanations for the above test.

1. (B)  The wise men regret that their words made no difference.
2. (D)  Green bay is a metaphor for fertile field.
3.  (E)  All choices show Dylan Thomas's talent for using poetical devices, but (E) is the only choice in which contradictory terms are paired together.
4.  (D)  Grave men are both serious and headed for the tomb.
5.  (E)  The green bay is not a metonymy for death but a metaphor for a farmer's fertile field.  All other examples name death by a gentler name.
6.  (B)  A villanelle has only two end rhymes.  All other statements describe the strict requirements of a villanelle.
7.  (C)  Despite the villanelle's strict requirements, Dylan Thomas's poem is remarkably unforced. The word "despite" in the stem of the question indicates the answer should be a contrast to the negative implications of the poem's restrictions.  The poem employs a lot of repetition, but is not repetitious in a negative way (A).  Restricted (B) and formal (D) are wrong choices because they are antonyms of unforced.  Although effusive (E) can mean freeflowing, a synonym for unforced, the connotations of gushing extravagance that go with the word effusive do not apply here.
8.  (D)  The speaker addresses his "father, there on the sad height," asking him to also "rage against the dying of the light."  The speaker seems to be neither religious (B and C) nor agnostic (E) nor a lover of life (A).  He seems to simply be making a plea to never give up life, or any of the problems life gives, without a fight.
9.  (A)  The overall use of apostrophe dominates the poem.  The speaker addresses his father, who is not dead (the technical definition of apostrophe) but on his death bed.  Since the father is giving himself up to death, he is probably absent (another definition of apostrophe) in that he can't hear or is ignoring what the speaker is saying.
10.  (C)  Factory workers are not addressed by Thomas.  The "wise men" could be philosophers (A) who regret that their words "forked no lightning" (made no difference).  Good men might be theologians (B) who now know their deeds were "frail" because they did not dance "in a 
green bay."  Inspired artists (D) might be the "wild men" who "caught and sang the sun."  And "grave men" could be the writers (E) "who see with blinding sight."
11. (B) Four types of people are addressed in the poem.  Although the father is a fifth person addressed, he is not a "type" of person.
12. (C)  The metonymies for death serve to familiarize death and lessen its threat.
13.  (E)  The plea in this poem is to fight death and the problems of life, not flee from them.  'Flight" is the only word that does not produce a 
hopeful tone.
14.  (B)  "Danced" is used in a positive sense of what could have been.
15.  (D)  "Wave" is the only word that does not have connotations of fierceness.

Check out these three NEW Workbooks that address the new changes in AP English:

| Item 9001:  Advanced Writing Instruction Solutions for the English Honors and Literature Classrooms |

 | Item 9002:  Advanced Writing Instruction Solutions for the English Honors and Language Classroom |

 | Item 9003: Multiple- Choice Solutions for the English Honors and Language Classrooms|

| Item 9004: Multiple- Choice Solutions for the English Honors and Literature Classrooms |

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