West Bengal Civil Service
Examination-2002
(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) Write a short essay on the "romantic" element in the literature of the early 19th century.
(b) Clearly analyse Wordsworth's love for Nature with close reference to the major poetry of the poet.
(c) Write a note on Tennyson's attitude to life and death, giving suitable examples from his work of note.
(d) Examine the major trends in the war poetry of the poets of the First World War.
2. Answer any one of the following :-
(a) By the middle of the nineteenth century "Victorian drama becomes more sophisticated, more technically accomplished and concerned with moral problems, more dclicated and more contem- porary than those dealt with in nineteenth century melodrama."
Discuss the incorporation of the new trends with close reference to the work of any 6ne author of the mid nineteenth century.
(b) Write a note on the absurd drama with close reference to the work of any one exponent.
(c) Consider the importance of either George Bernard Shaw or Tohn Galsworthy to the prose drama in English the early part of the 20th century.
3. Answer any one of the following :-
(a) Charles Dickens has often been called "a representative of his age". Discuss the credibility of the given statement with reference to any two of his novels.
(b) Some of the writers of the Victorian novel exploited the traditions of the Gothic Romance. Select any one and discuss with reference to the above comment.
(c) Write a short note on the Women novelists of the Victorian Era. choosing one from the early part of the age and the second from the later part of the age.
4. Give the substance of the following passage and add a critical appreciation of the same.
So shuts the marigold her leaves
At the departure of the sun ;
So from the honeysuckle sheaves
The bee goes when the day is done ;
So sits the turtle when she is but one,
And so all woe, as I since she is gone.
To some few birds kind Nature hath
Made all the summer as one day ;
Which once enjoyes, cold winter's wrath
As night they sleeping pass away,
Those happy creatures are, that know not yet
The pain to be deprived or to forget.
I oft have heard men gay there be
Some that with confidence profess
The helpful art of Memory ;
But could they teach forgetfulness,
I'd learn; and try what further art could do
To make me love her and forget her too.
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