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 #97 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
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.
Who is the author of this poem?
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Walt Whitman
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Robert Frost
Stephen Crane
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
This is the prologue to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Evangeline: A Tale of Arcadie. It is known for being written in dactylic hexameter, a meter that many classical writers used.
Passage adapted from Evangeline, A Tale of Arcadie by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1847)
Example Question #98 : Contexts Of Poetry
My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
When was this poem published?
1885
1895
1925
1905
1915
1915
The poem was first published in Frost’s second collection in 1915.
Passage adapted from Robert Frost’s poem "After Apple-picking" published in his collection North of Boston (1915).
Example Question #98 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
In what collection was this poem first published?
The Pangolin and Other Verse
The Cantos
Harmonium
North of Boston
Meditations in an Emergency
North of Boston
The poem appeared in North of Boston, Frost’s second collection.
Harmonium (1923) is a collection by Wallace Stevens, Meditations in an Emergency (1957) is a collection by Frank O’Hara, The Pangolin and Other Verse (1936) is a collection by Marianne Moore, and The Cantos (1948) is a collection by Ezra Pound.
Passage adapted from Robert Frost’s poem "After Apple-picking" published in his collection North of Boston (1915).
Example Question #91 : Contexts Of Poetry
My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
The author of this poem also wrote all but which of the following poems?
“Little Gidding”
“Mending Wall”
“The Road Not Taken”
“A Soldier”
"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”
“Little Gidding”
“Little Gidding” is a poem by T.S. Eliot. (It’s the final work in Eliot’s masterpiece collection Four Quartets (1942).) The rest are all works by Robert Frost. "The Road Not Taken" is from Mountain Interval (1916), "A Soldier" is from West-Running Brook (1928), "Mending Wall" is from North of Boston (1915), "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” is from New Hampshire (1923).
Passage adapted from Robert Frost’s poem "After Apple-picking" published in his collection North of Boston (1915).
Example Question #11 : Contexts Of American Poetry
Thou hast a house on high erect
Framed by that mighty Architect,
With glory richly furnished,
Stands permanent though this be fled.
It‘s purchased and paid for too
By Him who hath enough to do.
A price so vast as is unknown,
Yet by His gift is made thine own;
There‘s wealth enough, I need no more,
Farewell, my pelf, farewell, my store.
The world no longer let me love,
My hope and treasure lies above.
Who wrote this poem?
Phillis Wheatley
Rebecca Hammond Lard
Mary Wollstonecraft
Anne Bradstreet
Aphra Behn
Anne Bradstreet
This is a famous early American poem, “Verses Upon the Burning of Our House July 10th, 1666,” written by the Puritan poet Anne Bradstreet. Bradstreet is known for being the first published female writer in the British North American colonies.
Passage adapted from Anne Bradstreet’s “Verses upon the Burning of our House, July 10th, 1666” (1666)
Example Question #102 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
Thou hast a house on high erect
Framed by that mighty Architect,
With glory richly furnished,
Stands permanent though this be fled.
It‘s purchased and paid for too
By Him who hath enough to do.
A price so vast as is unknown,
Yet by His gift is made thine own;
There‘s wealth enough, I need no more,
Farewell, my pelf, farewell, my store.
The world no longer let me love,
My hope and treasure lies above.
Which of the following is the title of a book by this poet?
New English Canaan
Twice-told Tales
Preparatory Meditations
Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral
The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America
The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America
The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) is Bradstreet’s first volume of poetry. It was a success in both the American colonies and in England, and many of its themes are religious.
Phillis Wheatley's Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773), Edward Taylor's Preparatory Meditations (1723), Thomas Morton's New English Canaan (1883), and Nathaniel Hawthorne's Twice-told Tales (1842) were all used as alternative options.
Passage adapted from Anne Bradstreet’s “Verses upon the Burning of our House, July 10th, 1666” (1666)
Example Question #12 : Contexts Of American Poetry
Thou hast a house on high erect
Framed by that mighty Architect,
With glory richly furnished,
Stands permanent though this be fled.
It‘s purchased and paid for too
By Him who hath enough to do.
A price so vast as is unknown,
Yet by His gift is made thine own;
There‘s wealth enough, I need no more,
Farewell, my pelf, farewell, my store.
The world no longer let me love,
My hope and treasure lies above.
Which of the following poets would not have had a similar religious worldview to this author’s?
Michael Wigglesworth
Cotton Mather
Anne Hutchinson
Edward Taylor
Joel Barlow
Joel Barlow
All of the above authors except for Joel Barlow were Puritan writers. While these authors may have been subverting or interpreting loosely certain religious values in their work, they nonetheless would share a more coherent worldview than Barlow, who espoused atheist leanings in his poetry collection The Columbiad (1807).
Passage adapted from Anne Bradstreet’s “Verses upon the Burning of our House, July 10th, 1666” (1666)
Example Question #13 : Contexts Of American Poetry
Thou hast a house on high erect
Framed by that mighty Architect,
With glory richly furnished,
Stands permanent though this be fled.
It‘s purchased and paid for too
By Him who hath enough to do.
A price so vast as is unknown,
Yet by His gift is made thine own;
There‘s wealth enough, I need no more,
Farewell, my pelf, farewell, my store.
The world no longer let me love,
My hope and treasure lies above.
Which of the following Fireside Poets is a descendant of this poet?
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Oliver Wendell Holmes
John Greenleaf Whittier
James Russell Lowell
William Cullen Bryant
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Oliver Wendell Holmes, a member of the New England group of writers known as the Fireside Poets and the author of “Old Ironsides” (1830), is a direct descendant of Anne Bradstreet.
Passage adapted from Anne Bradstreet’s “Verses upon the Burning of our House, July 10th, 1666” (1666)
Example Question #14 : Contexts Of American Poetry
My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
Who is the author of this poem?
Robert Frost
Wallace Stevens
Ezra Pound
Emily Dickinson
Marianne Moore
Robert Frost
These are the opening lines of Robert Frost’s poem “After Apple-picking” from North of Boston (1915).
Example Question #1 : Contexts Of American Poetry After 1925
Which of the following poets was a leading figure in the American countercultural movement of the 1950s?
Sylvia Plath
Allen Ginsberg
Charles Bukowski
ee cummings
Langston Hughes
Allen Ginsberg
The poet in question is Allen Ginsberg, a leader of the Beats. His most famous work, “Howl,” is an epic poem about minority identities, war, consumerism, sex, and repressive society.
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All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources
