Multiple Choice Questions
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 60
Use Shakespeare’s Sonnet 60 to answer the following questions.
Read the sonnet and choose the best answer for each question.
1. The image in the first two lines
suggests all of the following EXCEPT:
A. Life has a regularity and rhythm of its
own.
B. The course that life follows is beyond
the control of man.
C. Life moves hurriedly toward its end.
D. The will to live is fundamental to man’s
accomplishments.
E. The end toward which all men move is
natural and unavoidable.
2. Throughout the poem, the poet
expands his ideas chiefly by means of
A. simile
B. paradox
C. hyperbole
D. antithesis
E. personification
3. Line 3 can best be interpreted as
meaning that
A. life is monotonous
B. the world is constantly changing
C. no moment of life is ever repeated
D. man is helpless against the forces of
nature
E. no moment of life is without a struggle
4. “In sequent toil all forward to
contend” (line 4) is an accurate
description of all of the following
EXCEPT the
A. movement of the waves toward the
shore
B. succession of the moments of our
lives
C. movement of life toward its close
D. progression of time
E. struggle between the waves and the
shore
5. “Nativity” (line 5) can best be
interpreted to mean
A. birth and infancy
B. ignorance
C. Christ’s birth
D. the rising of the sun
E. innocence
6. In lines 5–7, the speaker describes
life as a
A. movement from illusion to reality.
B. movement from promise to promise
without sign of fulfillment.
C. movement that is unpredictable in its
course.
D. struggle to secure a mature outlook
despite constant lack of fulfillment.
E. struggle to maintain achievements
despite adverse fortune.
