GRE Subject Test: Literature in English : Contexts of American Poetry

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

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All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources

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Example Questions

Example Question #14 : Contexts Of American Poetry After 1925

Which of the following is not another work by the author of Helen in Egypt?

Possible Answers:

Sword Blades and Poppy Seed

Hippolytus Temporizes

Red Roses for Bronze

Hymen

Sea Garden

Correct answer:

Sword Blades and Poppy Seed

Explanation:

In addition to Helen in Egypt, H.D. wrote the poetry collections Sea Garden (1916), Hymen (1921), Hippolytus Temporizes (1927), and Red Roses for Bronze (1932). Sword Blades and Poppy Seed is a 1914 collection by the Imagist poet Amy Lowell.

Helen in Egypt (1961) was H.D's last book of poetry.

Example Question #15 : Contexts Of American Poetry After 1925

Which of the following labels could not be applied to the work of the author of Helen in Egypt?

Possible Answers:

Imagist

Avant-garde

Feminist

Confessional

Classicist

Correct answer:

Confessional

Explanation:

H.D. was not a confessional poet, as this movement did not emerge until the late 1950s and early 1960s. Her work, however, took inspiration from Classical Greek poetry and was both Imagist and avant-garde. She was also an outspoken feminist, and works such as Helen in Egypt challenged traditional male voices in poetry.

Helen in Egypt (1961) was H.D's last book of poetry.

Example Question #16 : Contexts Of American Poetry After 1925

Who is the author of Telephone Ringing in the Labyrinth?

Possible Answers:

Marianne Moore

Gwendolyn MacEwen

Amy Lowell

Adrienne Rich

Sylvia Plath

Correct answer:

Adrienne Rich

Explanation:

Telephone Ringing in the Labyrinth (2007) is one of Adrienne Rich’s last poetry collections.

Amy Lowell wrote Legends (1921), Sylvia Plath wrote The Bell Jar (1963), Marianne Moore wrote O to Be a Dragon (1959), and Gwendolyn MacEwen wrote The Rising Fire (1963).

Example Question #17 : Contexts Of American Poetry After 1925

Which of the following is not another book by the author of Telephone Ringing in the Labyrinth?

Possible Answers:

The Diamond Cutters, and Other Poems

Diving into the Wreck

The Colossus and Other Poems

The Dream of a Common Language

An Atlas of the Difficult World: Poems

Correct answer:

The Colossus and Other Poems

Explanation:

The Colossus and Other Poems is a 1960 collection by Sylvia Plath. All the rest are works by Adrienne Rich.

An Atlas of the Difficult World: Poems was published in 1991, The Diamond Cutters, and Other Poems was published in 1955, Diving into the Wreck was published in 1973, The Dream of a Common Language was published in 1978, and Telephone Ringing in the Labyrinth was published in 2007.

Example Question #18 : Contexts Of American Poetry After 1925

What award did the author of Telephone Ringing in the Labyrinth infamously decline?

Possible Answers:

The Nobel Prize

The Pulitzer Prize

The U.S. Poet Laureate

The National Medal of Arts

The National Book Award

Correct answer:

The National Medal of Arts

Explanation:

In 1997, Rich declined the National Medal of Arts in order to protest a proposition to cut government funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and other government policies.

Telephone Ringing in the Labyrinth was published in 2007.

Example Question #19 : Contexts Of American Poetry After 1925

Who is the author of Meditations in an Emergency?

Possible Answers:

John Ashbery

Frank O’Hara

Denis Johnson

Kenneth Koch

William S. Burroughs

Correct answer:

Frank O’Hara

Explanation:

Meditations in an Emergency (1957) is Frank O’Hara’s third collection. The title is allegedly an allusion to a work by the English poet John Donne.

Kenneth Koch wrote Thank You and Other Poems (1962), John Ashbery wrote Your Name Here (2000), William S. Burroughs wrote Junky (1953), and Denis Jonson wrote Jesus' Son (1992).

Example Question #21 : Contexts Of American Poetry After 1925

The author of Meditations in an Emergency was considered an important founder of which literary group?

Possible Answers:

The Factory

The Inklings

The Algonquin Round Table

The Bloomsbury Group

The New York School

Correct answer:

The New York School

Explanation:

Along with Kenneth Koch and John Ashbery, Frank O’Hara was an important member of the New York School and contributed greatly to its surrealist, abstract expressionist, and avant-garde aesthetic.

Meditations in an Emergency was published in 1957.

Example Question #22 : Contexts Of American Poetry After 1925

Which of the following is not a title of a poem in the collection Meditations in an Emergency?

Possible Answers:

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

On Rachmaninoff's Birthday

Romanze, or The Music Students

To the Harbormaster

For Grace, After a Party

Correct answer:

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

Explanation:

"Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” is a 1917 poem by Wallace Stevens.

All of the other answer choices were published in Frank O'Hara's Meditations in an Emergency (1957).

Example Question #23 : Contexts Of American Poetry After 1925

Who is the author of Helen in Egypt?

Possible Answers:

Marianne Moore

H.D.

Ezra Pound

Robert Lowell

Amy Lowell

Correct answer:

H.D.

Explanation:

This is the female Imagist poet and prose writer H.D (H.D was the pen name of Hilda Doolittle). H.D was born in 1886, and was active in publishing from 1916 until her death in 1961.

Ezra Pound wrote Hugh Selwyn Mauberly (1920)Amy Lowell (another American Imagist poet) wrote A Dome of Many Coloured Glass (1912), Robert Lowell wrote the Mills of the Kavanaughs (1951), and Marianne Moore wrote Nevertheless (1944).

Helen in Egypt (1961) was H.D's last book of poetry.

Example Question #24 : Contexts Of American Poetry After 1925

What is another name of the author of Helen in Egypt?

Possible Answers:

D.H. Lawrence

Hilda Doolittle

Donald Hughes

Henry Douglas

Henrietta Davenport

Correct answer:

Hilda Doolittle

Explanation:

H.D. is the pen name of Hilda Doolittle (1886-1961).

Henry Douglas, Henrietta Davenport, and Donald Hughes were not notable American poets at all, but were provided here as alternative names with the initials H.D. The novelist and poet D.H. Lawrence wrote Sons and Lovers (1913). 

Helen in Egypt (1961) was H.D's last book of poetry.

All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources

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