West Bengal Civil Service
Examination-2007
(Optional Papers)
English Paper -II
Time Allowed : 3 Hours Full Marks : 100
(All questions carry equal marks.)
1. Answer any one of the following :
(a) Make a brief survey of the use of the spell of medieval-ism in English Poetry of the Nineteenth Century.
(b) Compare Rupert Brooke with Wilfred Owen in view of the vision and experience of battlefield.
(c) The period 1798-1832 has often been referred to as the period of "Romantic Revival." Indicate the tendencies revived and give illustrative references.
2. Answer any one of the following :
(a) Evaluate Galsworthy's treatment of "social and contemporary problems" in his plays.
(b) "In Arms and the Man Mr. Sh does not, as some imagine, attack-war ... In Candida he does not attack love." - Do you agree ?
(c) Write a short note on drama as written in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries.
3. Answer any one of the following :-
(a) Write an essay on the achievement of important women novelists of the Victorian era.
(b) Jane Austin when set against Walter Scott has been looked upon as "the flicker of a candle set against the illumination of a searchlight." - Would you agree with this estimate of those two novelists of the early Nineteenth Century ?
(c) Attempt a critical appreciation of any one of the following :-
(i) Frankenstein; (ii) Vanity Fair; (iii) The Egoist.
4. Comment on the theme and style of the following poem :
Whose woods these are I think I know
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
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