GRE Subject Test: Literature in English : GRE Subject Test: Literature in English
Study concepts, example questions & explanations for GRE Subject Test: Literature in English
All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #4 : Contexts Of British Poetry 1660–1925
In pious times, e’r Priest-craft did begin,
Before Polygamy was made a Sin;
When Man on many multipli’d his kind,
E’r one to one was cursedly confin’d,
When Nature prompted and no Law deni’d
Promiscuous Use of Concubine and Bride;
Then Israel’s Monarch, after Heavens own heart,
His vigorous warmth did, variously, impart
To Wives and Slaves: And, wide as his Command,
Scatter’d his Maker’s Image through the Land.
Who is the author of this poem?
Sir William Davenant
Edmund Spenser
John Milton
Thomas Shadwell
John Dryden
John Dryden
These are the opening lines of John Dryden’s political allegory Absalom and Achitophel, a book-length poem concerning the rebellion of Absalom against the Biblical King David.
Passage adapted from John Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
Example Question #5 : Contexts Of British Poetry 1660–1925
In pious times, e’r Priest-craft did begin,
Before Polygamy was made a Sin;
When Man on many multipli’d his kind,
E’r one to one was cursedly confin’d,
When Nature prompted and no Law deni’d
Promiscuous Use of Concubine and Bride;
Then Israel’s Monarch, after Heavens own heart,
His vigorous warmth did, variously, impart
To Wives and Slaves: And, wide as his Command,
Scatter’d his Maker’s Image through the Land.
This poet wrote during which major historical period?
the English Reformation
the Interregnum
the Elizabethan era
the English Restoration
the Hundred Years’ War
the English Restoration
John Dryden lived from 1631 to 1700, and Absalom and Achitophel was written at the height of the English Restoration in 1681. The poem itself is an allegory for various Restoration-era events, including the Popish Plot and the Monmouth Rebellion.
Passage adapted from John Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
Example Question #5 : Contexts Of British Poetry 1660–1925
In pious times, e’r Priest-craft did begin,
Before Polygamy was made a Sin;
When Man on many multipli’d his kind,
E’r one to one was cursedly confin’d,
When Nature prompted and no Law deni’d
Promiscuous Use of Concubine and Bride;
Then Israel’s Monarch, after Heavens own heart,
His vigorous warmth did, variously, impart
To Wives and Slaves: And, wide as his Command,
Scatter’d his Maker’s Image through the Land.
Which of the following was not a contemporary of the author of this passage?
Thomas Killigrew
John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester
John Donne
Sir William Davenant
William Wycherley
John Donne
The epitome of a Restoration poet, Dryden lived from 1631 to 1700. Other Restoration poets included Sir William Davenant (1606-1668), Thomas Killigrew (1612-1683), William Wycherley (1640-1715), and John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (1647-1680). Only John Donne (1572-1631) was not a Restoration poet; instead, he is considered a leading metaphysical poet.
Passage adapted from John Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
Example Question #6 : Contexts Of British Poetry 1660–1925
Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat
Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd who first taught the chosen seed
In the beginning how the heavens and earth
Rose out of Chaos…
This poem is an allegory for which Biblical story?
the birth of Jesus Christ
the crucifixion of Jesus Christ
the fall in the Garden of Eden
the creation of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai
the exile of the Jews in Egypt
the fall in the Garden of Eden
Paradise Lost retells the Biblical story of man’s fall, beginning with the temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and continuing with their punishment and expulsion from the garden. The poem is particularly notable for humanizing Satan and for justifying God’s actions to readers.
Passage adapted from John Milton's Paradise Lost (1674)
Example Question #211 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English
Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat
Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd who first taught the chosen seed
In the beginning how the heavens and earth
Rose out of Chaos…
Which of the following is not a character from this work?
Mephistopheles
Mulciber
Raphael
Uriel
Moloch
Mephistopheles
Mephistopheles is a character from Goethe’s 1808 Faust (and in various other versions of the German story of Dr. Faustus). All of other the characters are angels or fallen angels in Paradise Lost.
Passage adapted from John Milton's Paradise Lost (1674)
Example Question #212 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English
Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat
Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd who first taught the chosen seed
In the beginning how the heavens and earth
Rose out of Chaos…
When was this poem published?
1680s
1700s
1660s
1650s
1690s
1660s
The poem was first published in 10 sections in 1667, although a revised 1674 edition would reorganize the work into the 12-section version studied today.
Passage adapted from John Milton's Paradise Lost (1674)
Example Question #11 : Contexts Of British Poetry 1660–1925
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
Who is the author of this poem?
Oscar Wilde
Rudyard Kipling
Lewis Carroll
Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss)
Jonathan Swift
Lewis Carroll
This is Lewis Carroll’s fanciful nonsense poem The Jabberwocky. It appears in his novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871) as an example of mirror writing that Alice discovers in a strange book.
Example Question #12 : Contexts Of British Poetry 1660–1925
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
When was this poem published?
the 1890s
the 1850s
the 1860s
the 1870s
the 1880s
the 1870s
As part of Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, the poem first appeared in 1871.
Passage adapted from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871)
Example Question #23 : Contexts Of Poetry
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
What other work did the author of this poem write?
Gashlycrumb Tinies
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Jungle Book
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
The Phantom Tollbooth
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll’s most famous work by far is the 1865 novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, often shortened to just Alice in Wonderland. This fantastical novel concerns the experiences of the eponymous Alice, who falls through a rabbit hole into a nonsensical world of strange characters.
Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Grey (1890), Edward Gorey's Gashlycrumb Tinies (1963), Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth (1961), and Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1894) were all used as alternative answer choices.
Passage adapted from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871)
Example Question #13 : Contexts Of British Poetry 1660–1925
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
Which of the following is not a character in the novel from which this poem is taken?
Tweedledum
Humpty Dumpty
the Humbug
the White King
Bandersnatch
the Humbug
The novel features a number of classic characters, including Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the White King and Queen, the Red King and Queen, Humpty Dumpty, and Bandersnatch as well as the all-important protagonist Alice. The Humbug is a character from Norton Juster’s 1961 children’s novel The Phantom Tollbooth.
Passage adapted from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871)
All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources
