GRE Subject Test: Literature in English : Identification of American Poetry Before 1925

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 #21 : Identification

In silent night when rest I took,

For sorrow near I did not look,

I wakened was with thund’ring noise

And piteous shrieks of dreadful voice.

That fearful sound of “fire” and “fire,”

Let no man know is my Desire.

I, starting up, the light did spy,

And to my God my heart did cry

To straighten me in my Distress

And not to leave me succourless.

Who wrote the poem from which this passage is adapted?

Possible Answers:

Walt Whitman

Edgar Allan Poe

Stephen Crane

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Anne Bradstreet

Correct answer:

Anne Bradstreet

Explanation:

Anne Bradstreet wrote “Verses Upon the Burning of Our House July 10th, 1666,” as well as many other early poems. Bradstreet, the first female author to be published in America, lived in the seventeenth century and is known for including her Puritan ideals in her poetry.

Passage adapted from "Verses upon the Burning of our House, July 10th, 1666" (1666)

Example Question #22 : Identification

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all,

 

And sweetest in the gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.

 

I've heard it in the chillest land,

And on the strangest sea;

Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

Who wrote this poem?

Possible Answers:

Emily Dickinson

Edgar Allan Poe

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Robert Frost

Anne Bradstreet

Correct answer:

Emily Dickinson

Explanation:

This is “Hope is the Thing With Feathers,” written by Emily Dickinson and published after her death. Although Dickinson’s poetry is often recognizable by her extensive use of em dashes (see “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” et al.), readers can also distinguish her work by her short lines and stanzas, her keen observations, and her philosophical musing.

Example Question #23 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs.

Who wrote the poem from which these lines are excerpted?

Possible Answers:

Emily Dickinson

Robert Frost

Edgar Allan Poe

Henry David Thoreau

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Correct answer:

Robert Frost

Explanation:

“Mending Wall,” published in 1914, is one of Frost’s better known works. The poem is written in blank verse and discusses a dispute between two neighbors about the necessity of a fence between their properties.

Passage adapted from "Mending Wall" by Robert Frost in Modern American Poetry (ed. Untermeyer, 1919)

Example Question #24 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English

But how presumptuous shall we hope to find
Divine acceptance with the Almighty mind
While yet a deed ungenerous they disgrace
And hold in bondage Afric's blameless race
Let virtue reign and then accord our prayers
Be victory ours and generous freedom theirs.

Based on the subject matter of this excerpt, the author of the poem is most likely to be which of the following?

Possible Answers:

Walt Whitman

Phillis Wheatley

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Frederick Douglass

Anne Bradstreet

Correct answer:

Phillis Wheatley

Explanation:

This excerpt, taken from a eulogy to an American general, was written by the female poet, Phillis Wheatley. An African slave, Wheatley was well educated and wrote on a variety of topics—everything from slavery to infant mortality. She favored couplets in her work and was the first African-American to publish a book.

Example Question #25 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English

I celebrate myself, and sing 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.

My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil,
     this air,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and
     their parents the same,
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to cease not till death.

Who wrote this poem?

Possible Answers:

Walt Whitman

Emily Dickinson

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Edgar Allan Poe

Anne Bradstreet

Correct answer:

Walt Whitman

Explanation:

This is the opening of Walt Whitman’s beautiful “Song of Myself,” taken from Leaves of Grass (1855). The poem is said to represent the heart of Whitman’s poetic vision and be inspired by the Transcendentalist movement, although it was initially criticized for its raw, uncensored depictions of human sexuality.

Example Question #26 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English

And would it have been worth it, after all,
Would it have been worth while,
After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,
After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor—
And this, and so much more?—
It is impossible to say just what I mean!
But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:
Would it have been worth while
If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl,
And turning toward the window, should say:
     “That is not it at all,
     That is not what I meant, at all.”

Identify the title of poem from which the selection was adapted based on its content and style.

Possible Answers:

“At a Window"

“I Need Not Go"

“If You Forget Me”

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

“Howl”

Correct answer:

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

Explanation:

The stanza is from T.S. Eliot's poem, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," which was published in 1915.

Passage adapted from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" l.99-110 (1915)

Example Question #27 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
                         But O heart! heart! heart!
                            O the bleeding drops of red,
                               Where on the deck my Captain lies,
                                  Fallen cold and dead.

Which American author wrote this poem?

Possible Answers:

Stephen Crane

Robert Frost

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

William Cullen Bryant

Walt Whitman

Correct answer:

Walt Whitman

Explanation:

Written by Walt Whitman in 1865 (and popularized by the movie, Dead Poets Society), this iconic American elegy eulogizes Abraham Lincoln, compaings him to a stalwart ship captain. “O Captain! My Captain!” is included in later editions of Whitman’s Leaves of Grass and often accompanies another Whitman elegy for Lincoln, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.”

Example Question #28 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English

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 poem was written by __________.

Possible Answers:

Emily Dickinson

Ambrose Bierce

Carl Sandburg

Walt Whitman

Robert Frost

Correct answer:

Walt Whitman

Explanation:

This passage is adapted from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” taken from the first edition of his Leaves of Grass (1855). Always be vigilant about the edition of Leaves of Grass, as Whitman significantly revised and expanded the book in later editions.

Passage adapted from "Song of Myself" in Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, ln.1-8 (1855)

Example Question #11 : Identification Of American Poetry Before 1925

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.

In what decade was this poem first published?

Possible Answers:

1890s

1850s

1860s

1870s

1880s

Correct answer:

1850s

Explanation:

The key word in this question is "first." Whitman first published the poem in 1855, but he edited it and published new versions until his death in 1892. Over nearly four decades, the volume expanded from a dozen poems to more than 400.

Passage adapted from "Song of Myself" in Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, ln.1-8 (1855)

Example Question #32 : Identification Of 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.

The author of this poem also wrote which of these poems? 

Possible Answers:

“Middle Passage”

“O Captain! My Captain”

“Because I Could Not Stop For Death”

“Burnt Norton”

“The Road Not Taken”

Correct answer:

“O Captain! My Captain”

Explanation:

“O Captain! My Captain” by Walt Whitman was first published in 1865. “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost was first published in 1916. “Because I Could Not Stop For Death” by Emily Dickinson was first published in 1890. “Middle Passage” by Robert Hayden was first published in 1945, and “Burnt Norton” by T.S. Eliot was first published in 1936.

Passage adapted from "Song of Myself" in Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, ln.1-8 (1855)

All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources

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