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102 Explanations for Sample Examination III Passage Three: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "The Jewish Cemetery at Newport"

This fascinating poem, which seems out of character for Longfellow, is a meditation on the Hebrew graveyard of the "fair seaport town" (line 2) of Newport. Replete with allusions familiar and obscure, it recounts the long heritage of Jewish persecution as well as the traits that enabled the Jewish people to persevere. However, it ultimately concludes that death marks the final crest of earthly glory, and that the Jewish belief in the regeneration of the patriarchs and prophets is misguided. The speaker's initial exclamation, "How strange it seems!" (line 1), in many ways captures the essence of the entire pOfm. Here, in this harsh New England outpost, beside a turbulent ocean that never ceases to batter the shoreline, is a Hebrew graveyard, the final resting place for sons of David who made their way from their homes abroad to the "new world" of America. Now, beneath a canopy of dust-covered trees, which the speak~r labels "leafy tents" (line 7), they carry on "The long, mysterious Exodus of death" (line 8), their final journey. To the speaker, the weather-beaten and broken gravestones "Seem like the tablets of the Law, thrown down / And broken by Moses at the mountain's base" (lines 11-12). Even the names on the headstones seem exotic and strange, "Of foreign accent, and of different climes" (line 14). Starting with the fifth stanza and continuing through the seventh, however, the poem begins to move away from a mere observation of the gravestones' strangeness and toward a commentary on the finality of death and the nature of the afterlife. In lines 17-20 the speaker imagines the burial scene, in which God bountifully provided man "rest and peace" as well as "Life that nevermore shall cease." This is followed by a series of inverted sentences which emphatically stress the finality of death through symbols such as closed portals, silenced voices, and the repetition of the word "no." Focusing on traditional rituals, places, and personages---worship in the Synagogue, recitation of the Psalms, the Rabbi reading the Ten Commandments---the speaker forcefully states that for those buried in the cemetery, all of these are gone, as are their mourners. Yet, he observes, they are "not neglected; for a hand unseen, / Scattering its bounty, like a summer rain, / Still keeps their graves and their remembrance green" (lines 26-28). In stanzas eight through twelve the speaker concerns himself with two major things: wondering what brought these Jews to such a cold and distant outpost, and cataloging the long history of religious persecution, torture, and banishment suffered by Jews at the hands of intolerant Christians. Alluding to Biblical exiles ("Ishmaels and Hagars"), places of ostracism ("Ghetto and Judenstrass"), and derisive labels ("Anathema maranatha!"), the speaker recounts the ubiquitous suffering of the Jews and compliments their remarkable tolerance ("Taught in the school of patience to endure / The life of anguish and the death of fire"). He furthermore adds that their food was the "unleavened bread, / And bitter herbs of exile," their drink the "marah of their tears" (lines 37-40). Still, despite the humiliation and torment, the jeers that "rang from town to town, from street to street" (line 42), these exiles retained pride in their illustrious religious heritage and steadfastly maintained their faith. As the speaker wondrously observes, "trampled and beaten were they as the sand, / And yet unshaken as the continent" (lines 47-48). . I ~~jExplanations for Sample Examination III 103

In the final three stanzas the speaker attempts to explain the Jews' enduring faith in spite of constant persecution, noting that the great patriarchs, prophets, and sacred traditions of the past they "saw reflected in the coming time" (line 52). However, he indicates that this belief in the rebirth of the past---what the speaker labels a "reverted look" (line 53)---seems to a Christian fruitless as the Christian afterlife suggests a change of being, not a preservation of the past. As the speaker remarks, "But ah! what once has been shall be no more! / The groaning earth in travail and in pain / Brings forth its races but does not restore, / And the dead nations never rise again" (lines 57-60) .

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104 Explanations for Sample Examination III 29. In the poem the speaker portrays the Jewish people as (B) social pariahs. Starting with stanza eight (lines 29-32), in which the speaker first poses the question "How came they here?" (line 29) in reaction to the graves in the Jewish cemetery, the poem catalogs episodes of Jewish persecution. These are sometimes specific (as in the case of the allusion to Ishmael and Hagar in line 32), or more general (as in lines 41-44, which describe how "the accursed Mordecai" was "mockedl, and jeered, and spumed" by Christians in every town). Additional proof is provided by the subsequent stanza which suggests they were humiliated wherever they went, "Trampled and beaten ... as the sand" (line 47). 30.The speaker employs all of the following allusions to corroborate his perception of the Jews as outcasts EXCEPT (B) Moses and the tablets of Law (lines 11-12).

Exodus (A) is the book of the Bible that recounts the Jewish persecution in Egypt under the Pharaoh, while Ishmael and Hagar (C), as the footnote suggests, were driven out of their family and into the desert because of a family quarrel. Both "the Ghetto and Judenstrass" (D) are essentially lower-class neighborhoods to which Jews were restricted, while the cry "Anathema maranatha" (E), also footnoted, was a term of derision and condemnation. Choice (B), Moses' tablets, is actually a figurative description of the fractured, ground-strewn tombstones that the speaker observes in the Newport cemetery. 33.The initial anomaly about the Jewish cemetery noted by the speaker in the first three stanzas (lines 1-12) is its (D) tranquility within a turbulent setting.

The graves are "Silent beside the never-silent waves, / At rest in all this moving up and down!" (lines 3-4). Here the turbulence of the Atlantic is contrasted with the peacefulness of the Hebrew graveyard. 32.In describing the graveyard in the second and third stanzas (lines 5-12), the speaker uses all of the following EXCEPT (D) paradox.

The "southwind's breath" (line 6) and the sleeping trees (lines 5-6) exemplify personification (A), while allusion (B) is apparent in the reference to Exodus in line 8. The description of the trees' branches and leaves as "broad curtains" (line 6) and "leafy tents" (line 7) exemplifies metaphor (C), while the phrase "like the tablets of the law, thrown down / And broken by Moses at the mountain's base" (lines 11-12) is a simile (E). Paradox (D) is not used in these particular stanzas. I Explanations for Sample Examination III 105

33.In the poem the speaker implies that the Jewish response to persecution was one of (B) toleration and flight.

In lines 30-31 the speaker wonders "What persecution, merciless and blind, / Drove o'er the sea" the Hebrews that are buried in this cemetery? Later, in stanza eleven, he describes how the "Mordecai / Was mocked and jeered, and spumed by Christian feet" (lines 43-44), ridiculed "from town to town, from street to street" (line 42) and ultimately throughout the world. He adds that "Pride and humiliation hand in hand / walked with them through the world where'er they went" (lines 45-46). 34.Symbolizing the deep-rooted nature of Jewish religious conviction BEST is/are the (D) simile comparing the Jews to a continent.

This simile directly contrasts the previous image of the Jews as being "Trampled and beaten ... as the sand" (line 47). Unlike sand, which is malleable and easily dispersed, the word "continent" suggests the Jewish durability and stability in spite of humiliation. 35.Which of the following contributes LEAST to accentuating the finality of death suggested by stanza six (lines 21-24)? (E) masculine rhyme.

The closed portals of the Synagogue may be seen as a symbol of death (A), as can the silence of the Rabbis. Similarly, the allusion to the Psalms of David and the Decalogue (B) suggests a past time, an age no longer extant. The inverted word order (C) in "Closed are the portals" (line 21) and "Gone are the living" (line 24) accents the opening words, both of which suggest things being over. Similarly, the singular dactylic construction of these phrases (D) further accents this sense of finality. The masculine rhyme contributes little to this feeling. 36.The phrase "The wasting famine of the heart" (line 39) most likely refers to the Jewish people's lack of (C) social acceptance.

The author alludes in lines 37-40 to how Jewish people, exiled from their homeland and spumed from places in which they sought asylum, survived upon "the unleavened bread, / And bitter herbs of exile" and slaked "the wasting famine" of their hearts with the "marah of their tears." As the word "heart" is traditionally associated with love and affection, one may conclude that these were kindnesses not shown to these Jewish exVes, who were instead cursed and spumed from town to town. 37.The phrase, "Trampled and beaten were they as sand, / And yet unshaken as the continent" (lines 47-48), reflects the poet's adept use of (B) simile.

A very straightforward question, this is determined by the "as" in the phrases "as the sand"

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106 Explanations for Sample Examination III and "as the continent." As the explication of question #34 suggests, the continent symbolizes permanence and durability, something rock-solid and rooted. This is a tribute to the firmness of their religious faith.

38.The "reverted look" (line 53) that the speaker mentions refers to the Jewish people's (B) stalwart faith in religious tradition.

The traditional belief that with the coming of the Messiah the great patriarchs and prophets would also return makes them link the "great traditions of the Past" (line 51) with the "coming time" (line 52). Thus, they gaze with a "reverted look" (line 53), not only to their Old Testament leaders, but to the Decalogue and Psalms as well. As the speaker notes in lines 54-56, "The mystic volume of the world they read, / Spelling it backward, like a Hebrew book, / Till life became a Legend of the Dead." 39.The diction in the final stanza of the poem (lines 57-60) is predominantly drawn from (E) childbirth.

Words such as "groaning," "travail," and "pain" in line 58, as well as the phrase "Brings forth its races" in line 59, portray Nature as the archetypal earth-mother. 40. In the poem the speaker depicts death as a(n) (C) cryptic journey. This is directly derived from line 8, in which the speaker refers to death as a "long, mysterious Exodus." However, when one considers the long exile which the Jewish nation experienced in light of the speaker's final claim that "the dead nations never rise again" (line 60), death is now seen as cruelly ironic, a continued journey of unfulfilled expectations. 41. To which does the speaker NOT allude in the course of the poem? (D) a specific Jewish martyr. Several Old Testament episodes (A) are evident in the allusions to Moses and the Ten Commandments, the flight of the Jews out of Egypt, and the experience of Ishmael and Hagar, while famous Jewish patriarchs (B) are apparent in the speaker's mention of Moses and David. Stanzas 8-12 recount the ubiquitous persecution of the Jews (C), while the Psalms and the Decalogue are examples of Hebrew prayers and writings (E). Choice (D), however, cannot be defended by the poem. 42. The predominant theme of the poem concerns the (A) finality of human existence. Ultimately, the speaker's final comment implies that the fervent belief of the Jews is misguided, that because the earth does not restore its races, "what once has been shall be no more!" (line 57).

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