GRE Subject Test: Literature in English : Cultural and Historical Contexts
Study concepts, example questions & explanations for GRE Subject Test: Literature in English
All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #61 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
… 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?
Thomas Hardy
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Percy Bysshe Shelley
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 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
… 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?
1850s
1890s
1870s
1830s
1810s
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.
Example Question #63 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
… 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.
This poem’s title alludes to a major character in which author’s epic?
Virgil
Ovid
Homer
Dante
Milton
Homer
Ulysses is an alternate name for Odysseus, an important character in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.
Virgil wrote The Aeneid, Ovid wrote Metamorphoses, Dante Alighieri wrote The Divine Comedy (1320), and John Milton wrote Paradise Lost (1674).
Passage adapted from "Ulysses" from Poems (1842) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
Example Question #64 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
… 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.
This poem’s title is shared with a work by which Irish writer?
Oscar Wilde
James Joyce
Jonathan Swift
W.B. Yeats
Seamus Heaney
James Joyce
The work in question is James Joyce’s 1922 novel Ulysses.
Jonathan Swift wrote A Journal to Stella (1766), Seamus Heaney wrote Field Work (1979), W.B. Yeats wrote The Wild Swans at Coole (1917), and Oscar Wilde wrote Intentions (1891).
Passage adapted from "Ulysses" from Poems (1842) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
Example Question #65 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?
Who is the author of this poem?
Christina Rossetti
John Keats
Percy Bysshe Shelley
William Wordsworth
Matthew Arnold
John Keats
This is the first stanza of “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” a famous poem by the English Romantic author John Keats (1795-1821).
William Wordsworth wrote The Prelude (1850), Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote A Defence of Poetry (1821), Matthew Arnold wrote Empedocles on Etna and Other Poems (1852), and Christina Rossetti wrote The Prince's Progress and Other Poems (1866).
Passage adapted from John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” (1820).
Example Question #66 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?
The author of this poem wrote all but which of the following works?
“Ode to a Nightingale”
Lamia
Endymion
Hyperion
Prelude
Prelude
The Prelude (1850) is a semi-autobiographical work by William Wordsworth. Lamia (1820), Endymion (1818), Hyperion (1819, unfinished), and “Ode to a Nightingale” (1819) are all works by John Keats.
Passage adapted from John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (1820).
Example Question #67 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?
Which of the following did not belong to the same literary movement as this poet?
William Wordsworth
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
William Blake
George Gordon
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
All of the above except Alfred, Lord Tennyson were English Romantic poets, as was John Keats.
Passage adapted from John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (1820).
Example Question #68 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?
Who wrote a famous elegiac poem for the author of this poem?
William Blake
William Wordsworth
Christina Rossetti
Matthew Arnold
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley
The poem in question is the 1821 Adonaïs: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats, Author of Endymion, Hyperion, etc., written by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Passage adapted from John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (1820).
Example Question #69 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
The sea is calm to-night.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits;—on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Who is the author of this poem?
Robert Southey
Matthew Arnold
George Gordon
William Blake
Mary Alcock
Matthew Arnold
This is “Dover Beach,” one of the most famous poems by the English poet and critic Matthew Arnold (1822-1888).
William Blake wrote Songs of Innocent (1789), George Gordon (A.K.A Lord Byron) wrote Manfred (1817), Robert Southey wrote Chronicle of the Cid (1808), and Mary Alcock wrote The Confined Debtor: a Fragment from a Prison (1775)
Passage adapted from Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” (1867).
Example Question #70 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
The sea is calm to-night.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits;—on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
When was this poem published?
1840s
1850s
1860s
1820s
1830s
1860s
The poem was first published in 1867, although Arnold worked on it for at least ten years before its publication.
Passage adapted from Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” (1867).
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All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources
