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Test For Poetic Sensitivity-Dr. Greg A. Grove, Ph.D.
Biometric/IQ Ready Reckoner-Dr. Greg A. Grove, Ph.D. (downloadable in PDF format only)

Test For Poetic Sensitivity _________________
___ Devised by Dr. Greg A. Grove __________
_______ Copyright © 2000 ________________

Below are five different sets of poetic stanzas.  Each set appears in three different versions.  You are to read each set carefully and then choose which version you think is Best and which version you think is Worst.  For example, 

Set I

X - best
Z - worst

Set II 

Y - worst
Z - best

And so forth.  Submit only your answers to ggrove141@aol.com.  List them as in the example above.  You will receive the results of your work within a week.  Good luck!

                Set I

X             Once there was a violet,
                Growing near a stone;
                It reminded me of a star
                All alone in the sky.

Y             A violet grew by a mossy stone,
                Where it was hard to see;
                It looked like a star, for it shone
                As pretty as could be.

Z             A violet by a mossy stone
                Half hidden from the eye!
                Fair as a star, when only one
                Is shining in the sky.

                Set II

X             Music, when faint voices cease,
                Continues in the memory—
                Odors, when the violets fade,
                Linger where their smell was made.

Y             Music lives in the memory,
                Though the songster’s voice is done.
                Sweet odors haunt the nose,
                Though the violets that waked them are gone.

Z             Music, when soft voices die,
                Vibrates in the memory—
                Odors, when sweet violets sicken,
                Live within the sense they quicken.

                Set III

X             No rosebud yet has ever been seen,
                Or flower in tropic lands,
                To equal these, more beauteous Eden—
                A baby’s hands.

Y             No rosebuds yet by dawn impearled
                Match, even in loveliest lands,
                The sweetest flowers in all the world—
                A baby’s hands.

Z             No flower that grows,
                In this or any other lands,
                Compares with these, of daintiest rose—
                A baby’s hands.

                Set IV

X             She speaks in tones of silver
                With the voice of morning birds,
                And every word that’s spoken of her
                Echoes the music of her words.

Y             Her every tone is music’s own,
                Like those of morning birds,
                And something more than melody
                Dwells ever in her words.

Z             Her tones are pure as silver chimes,
                Her notes of birdlike beauty;
                The words she speaks are at all times
                Replete with life and beauty.

                Set V

X             A pipe and a book,
                By the side of the brook,
                With the world and her troubles forgot;
                Just to read and to smoke,
                Man forgets that he’s broke—
                And he finds, after all, that he’s not.

Y             Give a man a pipe he can smoke,
                Give a man a book he can read;
                And his home is bright with a calm delight.
                Though the room be poor indeed.

Z             Let a man smoke,
                And let a man read;
                A pipe and a book in any old nook,
                Lend peace which is wealth indeed.

THIS CONCLUDES THE TEST.

Poetry | Prose | Psychometry

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