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📚AP English Literature
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📚AP English Literature

FRQ 1 – Poetry Analysis
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Practice FRQ 1 of 491/49
1. In Edgar Lee Masters's poem "Searcy Foote," published in 1915, the speaker recounts the events that led to his sudden acquisition of wealth and marriage. Read the poem carefully. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze how Masters uses literary elements and techniques to convey the complexity of the speaker's moral self-justification and his defiant attitude toward his community.
In your response you should do the following:
  • Respond to the prompt with a thesis that presents a defensible interpretation.
  • Select and use evidence to support your line of reasoning.
  • Explain how the evidence supports your line of reasoning.
  • Use appropriate grammar and punctuation in communicating your argument.
Searcy Foote
I wanted to go away to college
But rich Aunt Persis wouldn’t help me.
So I made gardens and raked the lawns
And bought John Alden’s books with my earnings
5
And toiled for the very means of life.
I wanted to marry Delia Prickett,
But how could I do it with what I earned?
And there was Aunt Persis more than seventy
Who sat in a wheel-chair half alive
10
With her throat so paralyzed, when she swallowed
The soup ran out of her mouth like a duck—
A gourmand2 yet, investing her income
In mortgages, fretting all the time
About her notes and rents and papers.
15
That day I was sawing wood for her,
And reading Proudhon3 in between.
I went in the house for a drink of water,
And there she sat asleep in her chair,
And Proudhon lying on the table,
20
And a bottle of chloroform on the book,
She used sometimes for an aching tooth!
I poured the chloroform on a handkerchief
And held it to her nose till she died.—
Oh Delia, Delia, you and Proudhon
25
Steadied my hand, and the coroner
Said she died of heart failure.
I married Delia and got the money—
A joke on you, Spoon River?
Source: Edgar Lee Masters, Spoon River Anthology, 1915
1 John Alden's books: John B. Alden was a late-nineteenth-century publisher of inexpensive editions of classic literature.
2 gourmand: A person who loves to eat and drink, often to excess.
3 Proudhon: Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865), a French socialist philosopher who famously declared that "property is theft."
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FRQ Directions
Free Response Question Practice

This practice environment simulates the AP AP English Literature Free Response Questions section. Here are some guidelines:

  • Read each question carefullybefore responding. Pay attention to command verbs like "identify," "explain," "analyze," or "evaluate."
  • Use the timer to practice time management. You can pause, restart, or hide the timer as needed.
  • Mark for Review if you want to come back to a question later.
  • Your responses are saved automatically as you type. You can also use the drawing tool for questions that require diagrams or graphs.
  • Use the toolbar for formatting options like bold, italic, subscript, and superscript.
  • Navigate between questions using the Previous and Next buttons at the bottom of the screen.

Tip: Answer all parts of each question. Partial credit is often available, so even if you are unsure, provide what you know.