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 #2 : Meaning Of Specified Text: Poetry
Adapted from "The Author to Her Book" by Anne Bradstreet (1678)
Which of the following is the most likely meaning of the underlined fifth and sixth lines of the poem?
Bradstreet's manuscript was printed in its rough draft form, without editing.
Bradsteet did not care for the typeface the book was printed in.
Bradstreet's book was printed on lower quality paper.
Bradstreet's friends printed the book with a lesser publisher than it deserved.
None of the other answers are correct.
Bradstreet's manuscript was printed in its rough draft form, without editing.
Bradstreet's book was published using an uncorrected rough draft of her poems, since she herself did not know it was being published, and thus she feels its "errors were not lessened" by editing.
Example Question #25 : Literary Analysis Of Poetry
Adapted from "The Author to Her Book" by Anne Bradstreet (1678)
Lines 7-10 imply all but which of the following?
Bradstreet immediately acknowledged she was the author of the book.
Bradstreet was embarassed by the book's publication.
Bradstreet did not feel the poems should have been read by the public.
Bradstreet felt the poems needed tighter editing.
None of the other answers is correct.
Bradstreet immediately acknowledged she was the author of the book.
There's nothing in these lines to indicate that Bradstreet immediately acknowledged authorship of the book, given that she finds it "rambling" and in need of tighter editing, and the fact that she "blushes" at its publication implies she does not feel the book was ready to be seen by the public.
Example Question #31 : Literary Analysis Of Poetry
In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, “Is it good, friend?”
“It is bitter – bitter,” he answered;
“But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart.”
The tone of this poem can best be described as __________
dispassionate
orgulous
ethereal
vituperative
phantasmagoric
dispassionate
The tone of this poem could be described as cold, emotionless, or dispassionate. The narrator describes an encounter with a man eating his own heart, and, in contrast to the visceral subject matter, the experience and dialogue are relayed in a flat, affectless way. The poem is, quite literally, emotionless, as the reactions of neither the speaker nor the "creature" are mentioned.
The passage is adapted from "In the Desert," which appeared in Stephen Crane's The Black Rider and Other Lines (1895).
Example Question #32 : Literary Analysis Of Poetry
In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, “Is it good, friend?”
“It is bitter – bitter,” he answered;
“But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart.”
The form of the poem is that of __________.
a villanelle
a Petrarchan sonnet
None of the other answers is correct
a sestina
a ghazal
None of the other answers is correct
This 10-line poem does not follow any of the forms above. A villanelle typically has nineteen lines (including five tercets and a closing quatrain), a sestina has six stanzas of six lines each (and usually a final three-line envoi), a Petrarchan or Italian sonnet has fourteen lines, and a ghazal has between five and fifteen couplets.
This poem, "In the Desert," appeared in Stephen Crane's The Black Riders and Other Lines (1895).
Example Question #33 : Literary Analysis Of Poetry
In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, “Is it good, friend?”
“It is bitter – bitter,” he answered;
“But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart.”
Which of the following meters is used in this poem?
Trochee
Iamb
None of the other answers is correct
Anapest
Spondee
None of the other answers is correct
Although certain lines or phrases in this poem fall into a recognizable meter (as will most any), the overall poem is not confined to any one meter in particular.
The passage is adapted from "In the Desert," which appeared in Stephen Crane's The Black Rider and Other Lines (1895).
Example Question #23 : Literary Analysis Of American Poetry
I celebrate myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease, observing a spear of summer grass.
Houses and rooms are full of perfumes— the shelves are crowded with perfumes,
I breathe the fragrance myself, and know it and like it,
The distillation would intoxicate me also, but I shall not let it.
This passage contains all of the following elements, except __________.
rhyme
individualism
transcendentalism
American Romantic style
Gothic style
Gothic style
Since Whitman can be considered the best example of American Romanticism, and this passage isquite representative of his overall style, it can obviously be said to contain elements of American Romanticism as a classification. One need only count the number of "I"s in this short passage to find ample evidence of individualism. The discussion of shared "atoms" is transcendental in nature. While the passage does not follow an obvious rhyme scheme, the internal rhyme of "houses and rooms are full of perfumes" functions as a notable, and powerful, instance of rhyming for poetic effect in this passage.
Gothic writing is characterized by its use of horror, the grotesque, and the macabre, none of which play a role in this passage, nor in Leaves of Grass as a whole.
Poem taken from Walt Whitman’s 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass.
Example Question #1 : Context, Speaker, And Addressee
Thou ill-form’d offspring of my feeble brain,
Who after birth didst by my side remain,
Till snatched from thence by friends, less wise than true,
Who thee abroad, expos’d to public view,
Made thee in rags, halting to th’ press to trudge,
Where errors were not lessened (all may judge).
At thy return my blushing was not small,
My rambling brat (in print) should mother call,
I cast thee by as one unfit for light,
Thy visage was so irksome in my sight;
Yet being mine own, at length affection would
Thy blemishes amend, if so I could:
I wash’d thy face, but more defects I saw,
And rubbing off a spot, still made a flaw.
I stretched thy joints to make thee even feet,
Yet still thou run’st more hobling then is meet;
In better dress to trim thee was my mind,
But nought save home-spun cloth, i’ th’ house I find.
In this array ’mongst vulgars mayst thou roam.
In critics' hands, beware thou dost not come;
And take thy way where yet thou art not known,
If for thy father askt, say, thou hadst none:
And for thy mother, she alas is poor,
Which caus’d her thus to send thee out of door.
All of the following emotions can be attributed to the speaker EXCEPT __________.
None of the other answers is correct.
justifiable pride
self-deprecation
grudging acceptance
embarassment
justifiable pride
While Bradstreet at turns expresses embarassment and self-deprecation about her poetry, and finally accepts that her poems are now out in the world whether she wants them to be or not, she does not give evidence of any particular pride in this.
Passage adapted from "The Author to Her Book" by Anne Bradstreet (1678)
Example Question #1 : Structure And Form
Thou ill-form’d offspring of my feeble brain,
Who after birth didst by my side remain,
Till snatched from thence by friends, less wise than true,
Who thee abroad, expos’d to public view,
Made thee in rags, halting to th’ press to trudge,
Where errors were not lessened (all may judge).
At thy return my blushing was not small,
My rambling brat (in print) should mother call,
I cast thee by as one unfit for light,
Thy visage was so irksome in my sight;
Yet being mine own, at length affection would
Thy blemishes amend, if so I could:
I wash’d thy face, but more defects I saw,
And rubbing off a spot, still made a flaw.
I stretched thy joints to make thee even feet,
Yet still thou run’st more hobling then is meet;
In better dress to trim thee was my mind,
But nought save home-spun cloth, i’ th’ house I find.
In this array ’mongst vulgars mayst thou roam.
In critics' hands, beware thou dost not come;
And take thy way where yet thou art not known,
If for thy father askt, say, thou hadst none:
And for thy mother, she alas is poor,
Which caus’d her thus to send thee out of door.
The poetic form that Bradstreet uses in this poem is __________.
sonnet
None of the other answers is correct
blank verse
heroic couplets
sestina
heroic couplets
The poem is written in heroic couplets, which are rhymed pairs of lines in iambic pentameter. The poem would only be in blank verse if the iambic pentameter lines did not rhyme. The poem is also too long and in the wrong form to be a sonnet and is too short to be a sestina.
Passage adapted from "The Author to Her Book" by Anne Bradstreet (1678)
Example Question #24 : Literary Analysis Of American Poetry
Thou ill-form’d offspring of my feeble brain,
Who after birth didst by my side remain,
Till snatched from thence by friends, less wise than true,
Who thee abroad, expos’d to public view,
Made thee in rags, halting to th’ press to trudge,
Where errors were not lessened (all may judge).
At thy return my blushing was not small,
My rambling brat (in print) should mother call,
I cast thee by as one unfit for light,
Thy visage was so irksome in my sight;
Yet being mine own, at length affection would
Thy blemishes amend, if so I could:
I wash’d thy face, but more defects I saw,
And rubbing off a spot, still made a flaw.
I stretched thy joints to make thee even feet,
Yet still thou run’st more hobling then is meet;
In better dress to trim thee was my mind,
But nought save home-spun cloth, i’ th’ house I find.
In this array ’mongst vulgars mayst thou roam.
In critics' hands, beware thou dost not come;
And take thy way where yet thou art not known,
If for thy father askt, say, thou hadst none:
And for thy mother, she alas is poor,
Which caus’d her thus to send thee out of door.
The underlined lines "I stretched thy joints to make thee even feet, / Yet still thou run'st more hobbling than is meet" most likely refers to what?
The poet revising the meter of the poems
The poet revising the subject matter of the poems
The poet revising the form of the poems
The poet revising the rhyme of the poems
None of the other answers is correct
The poet revising the meter of the poems
The word "feet" is the clue here: the meter of poems is measured in metrical feet, different combinations of stressed and unstressed syllables, and here, Bradstreet is using the image of stretching the "joints" of her "offspring" to even up the meter.
Passage adapted from "The Author to Her Book" by Anne Bradstreet (1678)
Example Question #34 : Literary Analysis Of Poetry
This poet is known as America's most prolific poet. From Massachusetts, he or she wrote more than 1800 poems about art, gardens, joy, love, death, and grief.
Washington Irving
Emily Dickinson
Jack London
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Anne Bradstreet
Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) was born in Amherst, Massachusetts. Most of her works were not discovered until after her death. Many of these works, mostly discovered in her bedroom, were about death. Her first publication, The Poems of Emily Dickinson, wasn't published until 1890, four years after her death. Her themes varied greatly, from joy through death, and as she grew older, her poems took on a more negative tone, focusing on death and grief.
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