GRE Subject Test: Literature in English : Contexts of British Poetry 1660–1925

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for GRE Subject Test: Literature in English

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All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources

1 Diagnostic Test 158 Practice Tests Question of the Day Flashcards Learn by Concept

Example Questions

Example Question #73 : Contexts Of British Poetry

She walks in beauty, like the night

   Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that’s best of dark and bright

   Meet in her aspect and her eyes;

Thus mellowed to that tender light

   Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

Who is the author of this work?

Possible Answers:

John Keats

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

George Gordon

Robert Browning

Christina Rossetti

Correct answer:

George Gordon

Explanation:

This is the beginning of “She Walks in Beauty,” (1813) is a poem by George Gordon (A.K.A Lord Byron). 

Robert Browning wrote Sordello (1840), Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote A Essay on Mind, with Other Poems (1826), John Keats wrote "O Solitude" (1816), and Christina Rossetti wrote Goblin Market (1862).

Example Question #74 : Contexts Of British Poetry

She walks in beauty, like the night

   Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that’s best of dark and bright

   Meet in her aspect and her eyes;

Thus mellowed to that tender light

   Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

What is the other name of the author of this work?

Possible Answers:

Lord Tennyson

“Man Without a Spleen”

Lord Byron

C.S. Lewis

George Eliot

Correct answer:

Lord Byron

Explanation:

George Gordon was commonly known by his baronial title: Lord Byron.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote Poems (1842), George Eliot wrote Middlemarch (1874), and C.S. Lewis wrote The Pilgrim's Regress (1933).

Passage adapted from “She Walks in Beauty” (1813) by George Gordon.

Example Question #75 : Contexts Of British Poetry

She walks in beauty, like the night

   Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that’s best of dark and bright

   Meet in her aspect and her eyes;

Thus mellowed to that tender light

   Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

Which of the following is not another work by this poet?

Possible Answers:

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

Don Juan

The Bride of Abydos

“My Last Duchess”

Manfred

Correct answer:

“My Last Duchess”

Explanation:

“My Last Duchess” is a poem by the English poet Robert Browning.

Don Juan was published in 1819, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage was published in 1812, The Bride of Abydos was published in 1814, and Manfred was published in 1817.

Passage adapted from “She Walks in Beauty” (1813) by George Gordon.

Example Question #76 : Contexts Of British Poetry

She walks in beauty, like the night

   Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that’s best of dark and bright

   Meet in her aspect and her eyes;

Thus mellowed to that tender light

   Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

When was this work published?

Possible Answers:

1830s

1850s

1840s

1810s

1820s

Correct answer:

1810s

Explanation:

This poem was published in 1814. You could have narrowed down the choices if you knew that Lord Byron lived from 1788 to 1824.

Passage adapted from “She Walks in Beauty” (1813) by George Gordon.

Example Question #271 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English

On either side the river lie

Long fields of barley and of rye,

That clothe the wold and meet the sky;

And thro' the field the road runs by

To many-tower'd Camelot;

And up and down the people go,

Gazing where the lilies blow

Round an island there below,

The island of Shalott.

During what historical era was this poem published?

Possible Answers:

Victorian

fin de siècle

French Revolutionary

Gilded Age

American Revolutionary

Correct answer:

Victorian

Explanation:

“The Lady of Shalott” was published in England in two versions: the first in 1833 and the second in 1842. Both dates situate this poem within the beginning of the Victorian era.

Passage adapted from "The Lady of Shalott," first published in Poems by Alfred Tennyson (1833).

Example Question #272 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English

On either side the river lie

Long fields of barley and of rye,

That clothe the wold and meet the sky;

And thro' the field the road runs by

To many-tower'd Camelot;

And up and down the people go,

Gazing where the lilies blow

Round an island there below,

The island of Shalott.

Which of the following words best describes this stanza of the poem?

Possible Answers:

Picaresque

Panegyric

Pastoral

Paean

Parodic

Correct answer:

Pastoral

Explanation:

The first several stanzas of “The Lady of Shalott” are pastoral; that is, they describe an idyllic country scene with great detail and vivid nature imagery. There are few things more pastoral than the idea of "long fields of barley and rye,/ that clothe the world and meet the sky."

Passage adapted from "The Lady of Shalott," first published in Poems by Alfred Tennyson (1833).

Example Question #79 : Contexts Of Poetry

I met a traveller from an antique land

  Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

  Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,

  Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

  And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

  Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

  Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

  The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:

  And on the pedestal these words appear:

  "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings;

  Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

  Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

  Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

  The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Who is the author of this poem?

Possible Answers:

Percy Bysshe Shelley

William Wordsworth

George Gordon

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

John Keats

Correct answer:

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Explanation:

This is the full text of “Ozymandias,” one of the most famous poems by the English author Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822).

Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote Poems (1833), George Gordon wrote Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812), John Keats wrote "Sleep and Poetry" (1816), and William Wordsworth co-wrote The Lyrical Ballads (1798)

Passage adapted from "Ozymandias," by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1818).

Example Question #274 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English

  I met a traveller from an antique land

  Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

  Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,

  Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

  And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

  Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

  Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

  The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:

  And on the pedestal these words appear:

  "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings;

  Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

  Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

  Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

  The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Which of the following is not a work by this poet?

Possible Answers:

“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”

“Love’s Philosophy”

Adonais

“Ode to the West Wind”

Queen Mab

Correct answer:

“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”

Explanation:

Queen Mab (1813), Adonais (1821), “Love’s Philosophy” (1820), and “Ode to the West Wind” (1820) are all by Percy Bysshe Shelley. “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” is an 1807 poem by William Wordsworth.

Passage adapted from "Ozymandias," by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1818).

Example Question #81 : Contexts Of British Poetry

  I met a traveller from an antique land

  Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

  Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,

  Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

  And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

  Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

  Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

  The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:

  And on the pedestal these words appear:

  "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings;

  Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

  Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

  Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

  The lone and level sands stretch far away.

When was this poem published?

Possible Answers:

1830s

1850s

1810s

1790s

1870s

Correct answer:

1810s

Explanation:

This poem first appeared in January 1818 in The Examiner, a few weeks before Horace Smith’s poem of the same name.

Passage adapted from "Ozymandias," by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1818).

Example Question #82 : Contexts Of Poetry

  I met a traveller from an antique land

  Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

  Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,

  Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

  And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

  Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

  Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

  The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:

  And on the pedestal these words appear:

  "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings;

  Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

  Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

  Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

  The lone and level sands stretch far away.

This poem was written in competition with which poet?

Possible Answers:

William Blake

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

William Cowper

Horace Smith

Arthur Henry Hallam

Correct answer:

Horace Smith

Explanation:

Shelley and his friend, the English poet Horace Smith (1779–1849), each wrote a poem inspired by the British Museum’s acquisition of a statue of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Ozymandias (also known as Ramesses II). Shelley’s was published a few weeks before Smith’s and achieved far more fame, even though there are many marked similarities between the two.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge co-wrote The Lyrical Ballads (1798), William Cowper wrote The Task (1785), William Blake wrote Songs of Innocence (1789), and Arthur Henry Hallam wrote Remains in Verse and Prose of Arthur Henry Hallam (1862).

Passage adapted from "Ozymandias," by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1818).

All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources

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