intertext

Yes, I'm fond of the old "rec and com" type questions - passages they have to identify and then say relatively intelligent things about. lilyfriend is able to say very intelligent things :) Not everyone is. But I find it's a good way to separate the sheep from the lambs, so to speak. I don't usually bother much with meter unless it has artistic significance (as in "The Destruction of Senacherib" or the spondees in the final lines of "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" And they have to know a "bob and wheel" when they see one in "Gawain and the Green Knight" - stuff like that. Some students will insist on giving me rhyme schemes and things - spinning their wheels, really.