CLEP Humanities : Literature

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for CLEP Humanities

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Example Questions

Example Question #3 : Identifying Titles, Authors, Or Schools Of Classical Poetry

Which of the following biblical books is an extended love poem?

Possible Answers:

Wisdom

Psalms

Proverbs

Qoheleth

Song of Songs

Correct answer:

Song of Songs

Explanation:

Of course, the very name "Song of Songs" already tempts you to answer that this is a piece of poetry, even if you are not aware of its genre and content. The poem is actually a piece of erotic love poetry, detailing the back and forth of the desires of a bride and groom for each other's beauty and love. The poem was ultimately brought into the overall canon of the Hebrew Scriptures because of its allegorical interpretation for the relation between the Hebrew people and God. For many Christian mystics, this book played a massively important role for describing the relationship between the individual soul and God as well. For example, the great monastic, Cistercian writer Bernard of Clairvaux produced numerous sermons on the Song, not even making it through all of the text in spite of writing over eighty sermons. 

The Song is also known as the "Song of Solomon" or the "Canticle of Canticles."

Example Question #1 : Analyzing The Content Of Medieval And Renaissance Poetry

The medieval work that followed its author's journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven is __________.

Possible Answers:

Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight

The Canterbury Tales

The Summa Theologiœ

Beowulf

The Divine Comedy

Correct answer:

The Divine Comedy

Explanation:

The Divine Comedy tells the story of its author, Dante, traveling through the different realms of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, all to find what happened to his deceased lover, Beatrice. The work is divided into three separate sections between Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Heaven). The whole work is an allegory for the soul's journey to God, as expressed in Medieval Catholic theology.

Example Question #2 : Analyzing The Content Of Medieval And Renaissance Poetry

Which of these figures was in limbo in Dante Alighieri's fourteenth century epic poem The Divine Comedy?

Possible Answers:

Beatrice

Emperor Frederick II, King of the Holy Roman Empire

Queen Dido of Carthage

Sultan Saladin of Egypt

Judas Iscariot

Correct answer:

Sultan Saladin of Egypt

Explanation:

Sultan Saladin is the correct answer. He was placed in limbo because he was an honorable man, despite being a non-Christian. Sultan Saladin was a contemporary of Richard the Lionheart and conquered Jerusalem in the Second and Third Crusades. Others in limbo in The Divine Comedy include Julius Caesar, Hector, and Avicenna.

Example Question #1 : Analyzing The Form Of Poetry

Which of the following is not a key feature of a sonnet?

Possible Answers:

Epic length

A specific structure

A strict rhyme scheme

Fourteen lines

Metered lines

Correct answer:

Epic length

Explanation:

The sonnet was first developed in thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Italy, but became a popular form of poetry throughout Europe during the Renaissance. William Shakespeare became well known in England for his sonnets in the late sixteenth century. A sonnet typically has just fourteen strictly metered lines, with a specific structure and strict rhyme scheme.

Example Question #255 : Clep: Humanities

The rhythmic scheme of iambic pentameter refers to a line that contains __________.

Possible Answers:

three feet of two unstressed syllables and one stressed syllable

ten feet of two stressed syllables

three feet of two stressed syllables and one unstressed syllable

five feet of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable

five feet of three long syllables

Correct answer:

five feet of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable

Explanation:

Iambic pentameter is most famous as the rhythm scheme used by William Shakespeare in most of his plays. The scheme features five "feet" per line, with each foot having one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable. This rhythm creates a standard speaking pattern for actors and audiences to follow.

Example Question #251 : Clep: Humanities

The Italian poet Petrarch is most famous for working in what poetic form?

Possible Answers:

Common meter

Blank verse

The cinquain

The villanelle

The sonnet

Correct answer:

The sonnet

Explanation:

Petrarch, who lived from 1304 to 1374, is not just famous for writing most of his poems in the sonnet form, but for widely popularizing the form across Europe. Petrarch used a standard fourteen line form with an ABBA rhyme scheme. Petrarch is considered one of the standardizers of the Italian language thanks to his immense popularity.

Example Question #3 : Analyzing The Form Of Poetry

If a stanza of poetry has an ABBA rhyme scheme, which of its lines rhyme?

Possible Answers:

First and third

Second and fourth

Third and fourth

First and fourth

First and second

Correct answer:

First and fourth

Explanation:

When a rhyme scheme is described with letters, the first line automatically gets designated as "A." Any other line that rhymes with the first line will also be marked as "A." Therefore, in an ABBA rhyme scheme, the first and the fourth lines rhyme, as do the second and third lines.

Example Question #253 : Literature

What kinds of poems are made up of fourteen lines, iambic pentameter, and end in a rhyming couplet?

Possible Answers:

Poems written in common meter

Sonnets

Aubades

Haikus

Odes

Correct answer:

Sonnets

Explanation:

"Sonnet" is the correct answer, as sonnets utilize iambic pentameter and a concluding couplet and are usually made up of fourteen lines. The most famous writer of English sonnets is William Shakespeare, who wrote one hundred and fifty-four sonnets during his lifetime.

Example Question #254 : Literature

Which of the following metrical schemes was used by William Shakespeare in his poetry?

Possible Answers:

Iambic Pentameter

Trochaic Tetrameter

Cretic Dimeter

Dactylic Hexameter

Spondaic Pentameter

Correct answer:

Iambic Pentameter

Explanation:

The poetry of William Shakespeare fit most of the conventions of sixteenth century English poetry, and as such he used the meter of iambic pentameter almost exclusively. Iambs refer to the "feet," or stress breaks, in poetry that are a short syllable followed by a long syllable, while "pentamater" refers to there being five, from the Greek "penta," feet. Thus, an iambic pentameter line is meant to be said with a rhythm of "da-DUH, da-DUH, da-DUH, da-DUH, da-DUH."

Example Question #1 : Understanding Terminology That Describes Poetry

When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes,

I all alone beweep my outcast state,

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,

And look upon myself and curse my fate,

Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,

Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,

Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,

With what I most enjoy contented least,

Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,

Haply I think on thee, and then my state,

(Like to the lark at break of day arising

From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate,

For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings,

That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

What is the rhyme scheme of the given passage?

Possible Answers:

a b a b
c d c d
e f e f
g g 

a b a b
c d c d
e f e f
c d 

a b a b
c d c d
e f e f
e f

a b a b
c d c d
e f e f
a b

a b a b
c d c d
e f e f
b b

Correct answer:

a b a b
c d c d
e f e f
g g 

Explanation:

The poem is Sonnet 29 by William Shakespeare. The rhyme scheme is four quatrains and an ending couplet. The couplet, or last two lines, rhyme with each other, but not with other lines earlier in the poem.

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