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AP ENGLISH LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS
Question 1
The following poem is by the Renaissance poet Thomas Carew (1595-1640). Read the poem
carefully. Then, write a well-developed essay in which you analyze how the speaker’s complex
attitude is conveyed through the author’s use of literary devices and contributes to the meaning
of the work as a whole.
Mediocrity1 In Love Rejected
Give me more love or more disdain;
The torrid2, or the frozen zone,
Bring equal ease unto my pain;
The temperate affords me none;
Either extreme, of love, or hate,
Is sweeter than a calm estate.
Give me a storm; if it be love,
Like Danae3 in that golden show'r
I swim in pleasure; if it prove
Disdain, that torrent4 will devour
My vulture-hopes; and he's possess'd
Of heaven, that's but from hell releas'd.
Then crown my joys, or cure my pain;
Give me more love, or more disdain.
1
average quality or indifference
2
boiling or burning
3
from Greek mythology, mother of the hero Perseus who was impregnated by the god Zeus who visited her in the form of a
golden rain
4
an overwhelming flow of water