The Habit of Perfection
Elected Silence, sing to me
And beat upon my whorlèd ear,
Pipe me to pastures still and be
The music that I care to hear.

Shape nothing, lips; be lovely-dumb:
It is the shut, the curfew sent
From there where all surrenders come
Which only makes you eloquent.

Be shellèd, eyes, with double dark
And find the uncreated light:
This ruck and reel which you remark
Coils, keeps, and teases simple sight.

Palate, the hutch of tasty lust,
Desire not to be rinsed with wine:
The can  must be so sweet, the crust
So fresh that come in fasts divine!

Nostrils, your careless breath that spend
Upon the stir and keep of pride,
What relish shall the censers send
Along the sanctuary side!

O feel-of-primrose hands, O feet
That want the yield of plushy sward
But you shall walk the golden street
And you unhouse and house the Lord.

And Poverty, be thou the bride
And now the marriage feast begun,
And lily-colored clothes provide
Your spouse not labored-at nor spun.


37. The importance of “Silence’’ (line 1) is established by all of the following except
(a) capitalizing the “s’’
(b) alluding to it throughout the poem
(c) describing it as elected
(d) imparting to it human qualities
(e) placing it at the beginning of the poem

38. In the first stanza, the speaker makes use of paradox by doing which of
the following?
(a) Requesting that he be simultaneously serenaded and assaulted
(b) Expressing both a desire and an apprehension
(c) Using mere language to depict a religious experience
(d) Addressing a presence invisible to the reader
(e) Depicting silence as though it were a kind of sound

39. The reference to “curfew’’ (line 6) indirectly establishes the
(a) depth of the silence sought by the speaker
(b) existence of an ultimate spiritual power
(c) disparity between what the speaker seeks and what can actually be attained
(d) connection between the speaker’s past and the future he anticipates
(e) inability of “lovely-dumb’’ (line 5) lips to achieve true eloquence

40. Which of the following best conveys the meaning of the word “uncreated’’
(line 10)?
(a) Nascent
(b) Mortal
(c) Internal
(d) Imperfect
(e) Amorphous

41. Which of the following best paraphrases the meaning of line 12?
(a) Confounds true vision
(b) Delights the spirit
(c) Demands visual acuity
(d) Emits an intense light
(e) Maintains the simplicity of vision

42. In line 13, the word “hutch’’ suggests the
(a) lowly animal nature of human appetite
(b) personally destructive effects of alcohol
(c) finite influence of sensual desires on the spirit
(d) ardor associated with abstinence
(e) state of poverty sought by the speaker

43. The verb phrase “must be’’ (line 15) serves primarily to
(a) suggest that the speaker demands the sensation of sweetness
(b) indicate that the speaker has not actually experienced the sweetness
(c) importune the reader to share in the sensation of sweetness described
(d) modify the tone of emotional intensity established by the previous stanza
(e) reflect an attitude of ambivalence on the part of the speaker

44. The words “stir’’ and “keep’’ (line 18) convey which of the following?
(a) Attraction and repulsion
(b) Excitement and exploitation
(c) Stimulation and sustenance
(d) Disruption and confusion
(e) Acquisition and refinement

45. What is the subject of “provide’’ (line 27)?
(a) “Poverty’’ (line 25)
(b) “bride’’ (line 25)
(c) “marriage feast’’ (line 26)
(d) “lily-colored clothes’’ (line 27)
(e) “spouse’’ (line 28)

46. The speaker metaphorically likens himself to a
(a) musician
(b) bridegroom
(c) laborer
(d) gardener
(e) soldier

When you come, as you soon must, to the streets of our city,
Mad-eyed from stating the obvious,
Not proclaiming our fall but begging us
In God’s name to have self-pity,

(5) Spare us all word of the weapons, their force and range,
The long numbers that rocket the mind;
Our slow, unreckoning hearts will be left behind,
Unable to fear what is too strange.

Nor shall you scare us with talk of the death of the race.
(10) How should we dream of this place without us?—
The sun mere fire, the leaves untroubled about us,
A stone look on the stone’s face?

Speak of the world’s own change. Though we cannot conceive
Of an undreamt thing, we know to our cost
(15) How the dreamt cloud crumbles, the vines are blackened by frost,
How the view alters. We could believe,

If you told us so, that the white-tailed deer will slip
Into perfect shade, grown perfectly shy,
The lark avoid the reaches of our eye,
(20) The jack-pine lose its knuckled grip

On the cold ledge, and every torrent burn
As Xanthus* once, its gliding trout
Stunned in a twinkling. What should we be without
The dolphin’s arc, the dove’s return,

(25) These things in which we have seen ourselves and spoken?
Ask us, prophet, how we shall call
Our natures forth when that live tongue is all
Dispelled, that glass obscured or broken

In which we have said the rose of our love and the clean
(30) Horse of our courage, in which beheld
The singing locust of the soul unshelled,
And all we mean or wish to mean.

Ask us, ask us whether with the worldless rose
Our hearts shall fail us; come demanding
(35) Whether there shall be lofty or long standing
When the bronze annals of the oak-tree close.

*Xanthus: in Greek myth, a river scalded by Hephaestus, god
of fire.



1. The speaker assumes that the prophet referred to in lines 1-12 will come proclaiming
(A) a new religious dispensation
(B) joyous self-awareness
(C) a new political order
(D) the horror of self-destruction
(E) an appreciation of nature

2. According to the speaker, the prophet’s “word of the weapons” (line 5) will probably not be heeded because
(A) human beings are really fascinated by weapons
(B) nature is more fascinating than warfare
(C) men and women are more concerned with love than with weapons
(D) people have heard such talk too often before
(E) people cannot comprehend abstract descriptions of power

3. In the phrase, “A stone look on the stone’s face,” (line 12) the speaker is suggesting that
(A) a stone is the most difficult natural object to comprehend
(B) such a stone is a metaphor for a human lack of understanding
(C) it is human beings who see a face on stones
(D) nature is a hostile environment for the human race
(E) the pain of life is bearable only to a stoic

4. In line 13 the speaker is doing which of the following?
(A) Anticipating the prophet’s own advice
(B) Despairing of ever influencing the prophet
(C) Exchanging his own point of view with that of the prophet
(D) Heeding the prophet’s advice
(E) Prescribing what the prophet should say

5. In lines 14-16, the speaker is asserting that we
(A) learn more or less about decay in nature according to our point of view
(B) can never understand change in nature
(C) are always instructed by an altering of our perspective
(D) have all experienced loss and disappointment
(E) realize that the end of the world may be near

6. The speaker implies that without “the dolphin’s arc, the dove’s return” (line 24) we would
(A) be less worried about war and destruction
(B) crave coarser pleasures than the enjoyment of nature
(C) have less understanding of ourselves and our lives
(D) be unable to love
(E) find ourselves unwilling to heed the advice of prophets

7. The phrase “knuckled grip” (line 20) implies that the jack-pine
(A) will never really fall from the ledge
(B) has roots that grasp like a hand
(C) is very precariously attached to the ledge
(D) is a rough and inhuman part of nature
(E) is very awkwardly placed

8. “The dolphin’s arc” (line 24) refers to the
(A) Biblical story of Noah
(B) leap of a dolphin
(C) hunting of dolphins with bow and arrow
(D) rainbow
(E) migration pattern of the dolphin

9. The phrase “that live tongue” (line 27) is best understood as
(A) a metaphor for nature
(B) an image of the poet’s mind
(C) a symbol of the history of the world
(D) a reference to the poem itself
(E) a metaphor for the advice of the prophet

10. According to the speaker, we use the images of the rose
(line 29), the horse (line 30), and the locust (line 31)
(A) literally to denote specific natural objects
(B) as metaphors to aid in comprehending abstractions
(C) as similes illustrating the speaker’s attitude toward nature
(D) to reinforce images previously used by the prophet
(E) to explain the need for scientific study of nature

11. Which of the following best describes an effect of the repetition of the phrase “ask us” in line 33?
(A) It suggests that the prophet himself is the cause of much of the world’s misery.
(B) It represents a sarcastic challenge to the prophet to ask the right questions.
(C) It suggests that the speaker is certain of the answer he will receive.
(D) It makes the line scan as a perfect example of iambic pentameter.
(E) It provides a tone of imploring earnestness.

12. Which of the following best paraphrases the meaning of line 36?
(A) When the end of the year has come
(B) When the chronicles no longer tell of trees
(C) When art no longer imitates nature
(D) When nature has ceased to exist
(E) When the forests are finally restored

13. Which of the following best describes the poem as a whole?
(A) An amusing satire on the excesses of modern prophets
(B) A poetic expression of the need for love to give meaning to life
(C) A lyrical celebration of the importance of nature for man
(D) A personal meditation on human courage in the face of destruction
(E) A philosophical and didactic poem about man and nature