GRE Subject Test: Literature in English : Contexts of American Poetry Before 1925
Study concepts, example questions & explanations for GRE Subject Test: Literature in English
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Example Questions
Example Question #91 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
The author of this poem also wrote all but which of the following poems?
“The Road Not Taken”
“Little Gidding”
“A Soldier”
“Mending Wall”
"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”
“Little Gidding”
“Little Gidding” is a poem by T.S. Eliot. (It’s the final work in Eliot’s masterpiece collection Four Quartets (1942).) The rest are all works by Robert Frost. "The Road Not Taken" is from Mountain Interval (1916), "A Soldier" is from West-Running Brook (1928), "Mending Wall" is from North of Boston (1915), "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” is from New Hampshire (1923).
Passage adapted from Robert Frost’s poem "After Apple-picking" published in his collection North of Boston (1915).
Example Question #11 : Contexts Of American Poetry Before 1925
Thou hast a house on high erect
Framed by that mighty Architect,
With glory richly furnished,
Stands permanent though this be fled.
It‘s purchased and paid for too
By Him who hath enough to do.
A price so vast as is unknown,
Yet by His gift is made thine own;
There‘s wealth enough, I need no more,
Farewell, my pelf, farewell, my store.
The world no longer let me love,
My hope and treasure lies above.
Who wrote this poem?
Rebecca Hammond Lard
Aphra Behn
Mary Wollstonecraft
Anne Bradstreet
Phillis Wheatley
Anne Bradstreet
This is a famous early American poem, “Verses Upon the Burning of Our House July 10th, 1666,” written by the Puritan poet Anne Bradstreet. Bradstreet is known for being the first published female writer in the British North American colonies.
Passage adapted from Anne Bradstreet’s “Verses upon the Burning of our House, July 10th, 1666” (1666)
Example Question #102 : Contexts Of Poetry
Thou hast a house on high erect
Framed by that mighty Architect,
With glory richly furnished,
Stands permanent though this be fled.
It‘s purchased and paid for too
By Him who hath enough to do.
A price so vast as is unknown,
Yet by His gift is made thine own;
There‘s wealth enough, I need no more,
Farewell, my pelf, farewell, my store.
The world no longer let me love,
My hope and treasure lies above.
Which of the following is the title of a book by this poet?
New English Canaan
Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral
Preparatory Meditations
The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America
Twice-told Tales
The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America
The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) is Bradstreet’s first volume of poetry. It was a success in both the American colonies and in England, and many of its themes are religious.
Phillis Wheatley's Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773), Edward Taylor's Preparatory Meditations (1723), Thomas Morton's New English Canaan (1883), and Nathaniel Hawthorne's Twice-told Tales (1842) were all used as alternative options.
Passage adapted from Anne Bradstreet’s “Verses upon the Burning of our House, July 10th, 1666” (1666)
Example Question #12 : Contexts Of American Poetry Before 1925
Thou hast a house on high erect
Framed by that mighty Architect,
With glory richly furnished,
Stands permanent though this be fled.
It‘s purchased and paid for too
By Him who hath enough to do.
A price so vast as is unknown,
Yet by His gift is made thine own;
There‘s wealth enough, I need no more,
Farewell, my pelf, farewell, my store.
The world no longer let me love,
My hope and treasure lies above.
Which of the following poets would not have had a similar religious worldview to this author’s?
Anne Hutchinson
Cotton Mather
Edward Taylor
Joel Barlow
Michael Wigglesworth
Joel Barlow
All of the above authors except for Joel Barlow were Puritan writers. While these authors may have been subverting or interpreting loosely certain religious values in their work, they nonetheless would share a more coherent worldview than Barlow, who espoused atheist leanings in his poetry collection The Columbiad (1807).
Passage adapted from Anne Bradstreet’s “Verses upon the Burning of our House, July 10th, 1666” (1666)
Example Question #13 : Contexts Of American Poetry Before 1925
Thou hast a house on high erect
Framed by that mighty Architect,
With glory richly furnished,
Stands permanent though this be fled.
It‘s purchased and paid for too
By Him who hath enough to do.
A price so vast as is unknown,
Yet by His gift is made thine own;
There‘s wealth enough, I need no more,
Farewell, my pelf, farewell, my store.
The world no longer let me love,
My hope and treasure lies above.
Which of the following Fireside Poets is a descendant of this poet?
James Russell Lowell
Oliver Wendell Holmes
John Greenleaf Whittier
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
William Cullen Bryant
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Oliver Wendell Holmes, a member of the New England group of writers known as the Fireside Poets and the author of “Old Ironsides” (1830), is a direct descendant of Anne Bradstreet.
Passage adapted from Anne Bradstreet’s “Verses upon the Burning of our House, July 10th, 1666” (1666)
Example Question #14 : Contexts Of American Poetry Before 1925
My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
Who is the author of this poem?
Marianne Moore
Wallace Stevens
Emily Dickinson
Robert Frost
Ezra Pound
Robert Frost
These are the opening lines of Robert Frost’s poem “After Apple-picking” from North of Boston (1915).
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