GRE Subject Test: Literature in English : Contexts of 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

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

Example Questions

Example Question #81 : Cultural And Historical Contexts

  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

1790s

1870s

1850s

1810s

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).

Example Question #82 : Cultural And Historical Contexts

  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.

What form is this poem?

Possible Answers:

Sestina

Sonnet

Ghazal

Villanelle

Pantoum

Correct answer:

Sonnet

Explanation:

This is a sonnet, identifiable by its 14 lines and loose iambic pentameter. This poem, though, lacks the traditional rhyme scheme and octave-sestet structure of most sonnets.

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

Example Question #278 : 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.

What is the name of the work by this same poet that elegizes John Keats?

Possible Answers:

Prometheus Unbound

“The Masque of Anarchy”

The Revolt of Islam

Adonais

“Music, When Soft Voices Die”

Correct answer:

Adonais

Explanation:

Adonaïs: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats, Author of Endymion, Hyperion, etc. is, as its full title suggests, an 1821 pastoral poem eulogizing the death of the English poet John Keats (by Percy Bysshe Shelley). All the other titles are also works by Shelley. The Revolt of Islam was published in 1818Prometheus Unbound was published in 1820, “The Masque of Anarchy” was published in 1819, and “Music, When Soft Voices Die” was published in 1824.

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

 

Example Question #83 : Cultural And Historical Contexts

On either side the river lie

Long fields of barley and of rye,

That clothe the world 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.

Who is the author of this poem?

Possible Answers:

John Keats

William Wordsworth

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

George Gordon

Correct answer:

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Explanation:

This is Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem “The Lady of Shalott.”

George Gordon (A.K.A Lord Byron) wrote Manfred (1817), William Wordsworth wrote The Prelude (1850), John Keats wrote Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems (1820), and Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote Zastrozzi: A Romance (1810).

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

Example Question #84 : Cultural And Historical Contexts

On either side the river lie

Long fields of barley and of rye,

That clothe the world 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 is not another poem by this author?

Possible Answers:

“Endymion”

“‎Crossing the Bar”

“‎In Memoriam A.H.H.”

“Ulysses”

“‎Break, Break, Break”

Correct answer:

“Endymion”

Explanation:

“Ulysses” (1842), “‎In Memoriam A.H.H.” (1849), “‎Break, Break, Break” (1842), and “‎Crossing the Bar” (1889) are all among Tennyson’s best known works. “Endymion” is an 1818 poem by the English poet John Keats.

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

Example Question #281 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English

On either side the river lie

Long fields of barley and of rye,

That clothe the world 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.

What is the form of this poem?

Possible Answers:

Ballad

Villanelle

Sestina

Sonnet

Pantoum

Correct answer:

Ballad

Explanation:

A ballad is, traditionally, a long narrative poem that often contains detailed descriptions of characters and/or a love story. Sonnets, sestinas, villanelles, and pantoums all have very specific rhyme schemes that “The Lady of Shalott” does not adhere to.

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

Example Question #282 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English

On either side the river lie

Long fields of barley and of rye,

That clothe the world 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.

This poem features characters from what literary/historical tradition?

Possible Answers:

Reformation

Roman

Catholic

Homerian

Arthurian

Correct answer:

Arthurian

Explanation:

“The Lady of Shalott” is based loosely on the medieval Arthurian legend of an imprisoned noblewoman named Elaine of Astolat. Several of Tennyson’s other poems also took Arthurian characters as their subject matter.

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

Example Question #283 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English

If chance, by lonely Contemplation led,
Some hidden Spirit shall inquire thy Fate,
Haply some hoary-headed Swain may say,
"Oft have we seen him at the Peep of Dawn
Brushing with hasty Steps the Dews away
To meet the Sun upon the upland Lawn.
There at the Foot of yonder nodding Beech
That wreathes its old fantastic Roots so high,
His listless Length at Noontide wou'd he stretch,
And pore upon the Brook that babbles by."

In what decade was this poem published?

Possible Answers:

1810s

1750s

1780s

1720s

1690s

Correct answer:

1750s

Explanation:

Gray’s poem was completed in 1750 and first published in 1751. Even if you didn’t know this, you could rule out several of the other options if you knew Gray’s dates of birth and death: 1716 and 1771.

Passage adapted from "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" by Thomas Gray, ln.95-104 (1751)

Example Question #284 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English

This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
  Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
  Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
  Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.
  Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean
  Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.

During what decade was this poem first published?

Possible Answers:

1860s

1890s

1840s

1810s

1910s

Correct answer:

1840s

Explanation:

The poem was first published in 1847. Even if you didn’t know this, the dates of Longfellow’s life (1807 to 1882) could have helped you narrow down the answer choices.

Passage adapted from Evangeline, A Tale of Arcadie by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1847)

All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources

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