Study Questions on Dryden's "Mac Flecknoe" and "A Song for St. Cecilia's Day"

Link: Mac Flecknoe: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/44181

A song for St.: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/44185

1. In "Mac Flecknoe," what role does "nature" play in Dryden's denunciation of Sh__?

2. In ll.157 60 of "Mac Flecknoe," what is the connection between "dullness" and the advice to Sh__ that he write "by thy own model"?

3. The final line of "A Song for St. Cecilia's Day" describes a future when "MUSICK shall untune the Sky"(l.63). Does this view of music conflict with how music is described is the rest of the poem? If so, why? If not, why not?

Study Questions on Dryden's Criticism

1. What does Dryden mean by "wit"? Why, for Dryden, is "wit" the central quality of good poetry?

2. Are you persuaded by Dryden's argument that it is virtually impossible for "particular opinion" to contest "general authority" (p. 2256)? Why or why not?

3. What, for Dryden, is the role of "Nature" in good poetry? How is what he says about" Nature" connected to what he says about "wit"?

Study Questions on Pope's "An Essay on Man"

Link: Epistle 1: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/44899
Epistle 2: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/44900

1. What does the poem suggest that humans want "reason" to explain? Will "reason" succeed in accomplishing this? Why or why not?

2. What does Pope mean by "order" in sections 8,9, and 10 of Epistle 1?

3. Why does Pope think "the proper study of mankind is man"(Epistle 2,l.2)?

Attachment:- study_question.rar