GRE Subject Test: Literature in English : Contexts of British Poetry 1660–1925
Study concepts, example questions & explanations for GRE Subject Test: Literature in English
All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #41 : Contexts Of British Poetry 1660–1925
That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf’s hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said
“Frà Pandolf” by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
The depth and passion of its earnest glance…
Who is the author of this poem?
Robert Browning
Mary Elizabeth Coleridge
Caroline Clive
Lewis Carroll
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Robert Browning
These are the opening lines of Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess.”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote Poems, Chiefly Lyrical (1830), Caroline Clive wrote Year after year: a tale (1858), Lewis Carroll wrote Three Sunsets and Other Poems (1898), and Mary Elizabeth Coleridge wrote Non Sequitur (1900).
Passage adapted from Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess," from Dramatic Lyrics (1842).
Example Question #243 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English
That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf’s hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said
“Frà Pandolf” by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
The depth and passion of its earnest glance…
With which era is this poet associated?
Regency
Georgian
Modernist
Restoration
Victorian
Victorian
Robert Browning, who lived from 1812 to 1889, was a leading Victorian poet.
Passage adapted from Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess," from Dramatic Lyrics (1842).
Example Question #244 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English
That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf’s hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said
“Frà Pandolf” by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
The depth and passion of its earnest glance…
When was this poem published?
1850s
1840s
1820s
1810s
1830s
1840s
The poem first appeared in 1842 in Browning’s collection Dramatic Lyrics. Remembering Browning’s birth date (1812) may have helped rule out the earlier decades.
Passage adapted from Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess," from Dramatic Lyrics (1842).
Example Question #245 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English
That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf’s hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said
“Frà Pandolf” by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
The depth and passion of its earnest glance…
The author of this passage was married to which famous Victorian writer?
George Eliot
Lady Charlotte Elliot
Christina Rossetti
Lady Caroline Lamb
Elizabeth Barrett
Elizabeth Barrett
Elizabeth Barrett, known as Elizabeth Barrett Browning after her marriage, married Robert Browning in 1846. As a result of the elopement (she kept the courtship secret), she was disinherited by her family.
George Eliot was a novelist, and the author of Middlemarch (1874). Lady Caroline Lamb wrote Ada Reis (1823), Lady Charlotte Elliot wrote Hours of Sorrow Cheered and Comforted (1836), and Christina Rossetti wrote Goblin Market (1862).
Passage adapted from Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess," from Dramatic Lyrics (1842).
Example Question #251 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
Who is the author of this poem?
Mary Elizabeth Coleridge
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Caroline Clive
Christina Rossetti
Robert Browning
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
This is “How Do I Love Thee,” one of the best known poems by the Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861).
Robert Browning wrote Pauline: A Fragment of a Confession (1833), Mary Elizabeth Coleridge The King with Two Faces (1897), Christina Rossetti wrote Goblin Market (1862), and Caroline Clive wrote Paul Ferroll: a Tale (1855).
Passage adapted from "How Do I Love Thee," from Sonnets from the Portugese (1850).
Example Question #252 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
What is the title of the collection of famous sonnets written by this poet to her husband?
The New Colossus
Leda and the Swan
Sweet Rose of Virtue
Bread and Music
Sonnets from the Portuguese
Sonnets from the Portuguese
Sonnets from the Portuguese is the title of the collection, which includes “How Do I Love Thee.” All the others are titles of individual sonnets by different authors.
"The New Colossus" (1883) is by Emma Lazarus, "Bread and Music" (1917) is by Conrad Aiken, "Sweet Rose of Virtue" (1633) is by George Herbert, and "Leda and the Swan" (1924) is by William Butler Yeats.
Passage adapted from "How Do I Love Thee," from Sonnets from the Portugese (1850).
Example Question #253 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
To what country did this poet move to aid her poor health?
Italy
Portugal
India
France
Greece
Italy
Due to problems with her lungs, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her husband moved to Italy in 1846. She would live there until her death in Florence in 1861.
Passage adapted from "How Do I Love Thee," from Sonnets from the Portugese (1850).
Example Question #254 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
Which of the following is the title of another work by this poet?
The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus
Aurora Leigh
The Fiery Dawn
Holman Hunt
The Lady on the Drawingroom Floor
Aurora Leigh
Aurora Leigh is an Elizabeth Barrett Browning novel written in blank verse. All the other titles are by the Victorian poet Mary Elizabeth Coleridge. The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus was published in 1898, The Fiery Dawn was published in 1901, The Lady on the Drawingroom Floor was published in 1906, and Holman Hunt was published in 1908.
Passage adapted from "How Do I Love Thee," from Sonnets from the Portugese (1850).
Example Question #61 : Contexts Of British Poetry
… Come, my friends,
’T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Who is the author of this poem?
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Thomas Hardy
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
These are the famous final lines of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem “Ulysses.”
Thomas Hardy wrote Satires of Circumstance (1914), Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote The Wreck of the Deutschland (1918), Dante Gabriel Rossetti wrote Ballads and Sonnets (1881), and Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote Prometheus Unbound (1820).
Passage adapted from "Ulysses" from Poems (1842) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
Example Question #62 : Contexts Of British Poetry
… Come, my friends,
’T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
When was this poem written?
1830s
1870s
1810s
1890s
1850s
1830s
Although the poem was published in 1842, it was written almost a decade earlier, in 1833.
Passage adapted from "Ulysses" from Poems (1842) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources
