All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources
Example Questions
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?
1890s
1850s
1860s
1870s
1880s
1850s
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?
“Middle Passage”
“O Captain! My Captain”
“Because I Could Not Stop For Death”
“Burnt Norton”
“The Road Not Taken”
“O Captain! My Captain”
“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)
Example Question #31 : 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.
What other famous line appears in a later version of the same poem?
"Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes."
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— / I took the one less traveled by"
"Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink"
"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways"
"Hope is the thing with feathers"
"Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes."
“Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink" is from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (1834 version), “Hope is the thing with feathers” is from the Emily Dickinson poem of the same name published in 1891, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— / I took the one less traveled by” is from Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" (1916), and “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways” is from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Sonnet 43" (1850).
"Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes" was taken from the 1892 edition of Leaves of Grass.
Passage adapted from "Song of Myself" in Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, ln.1-8 (1855)
Example Question #31 : Identification
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.
What other poem appears in the same volume as this one?
“I Sing the Body Electric”
“Paul Revere’s Ride”
"I wandered lonely as a cloud"
“A Choice”
“The Raven”
“I Sing the Body Electric”
“The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe was first published in 1845. “A Choice” by Paul Laurence Dunbar was first published in 1913. "I wandered lonely as a cloud" by William Wordsworth was first published in 1807. “Paul Revere’s Ride” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was first published in 1860.
Passage adapted from "Song of Myself" in Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, ln.1-8 (1855) "I Sing the Body Electric" was published in the same volume.
Example Question #35 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English
The author of the poem "Sylvia's Death" is __________.
Anne Sexton
Marianne Moore
Adrienne Rich
Robert Lowell
Ted Hughes
Anne Sexton
Anne Sexton's poem "Sylvia's Death" deals with the death of fellow poet Sylvia Plath.
Example Question #32 : Identification
The author of the poem "We Real Cool" is __________.
Maya Angelou
Langston Hughes
Leroi Jones
William Carlos Williams
Gwendolyn Brooks
Gwendolyn Brooks
The poem is by Gwendolyn Brooks, who was the first African American poet to win the Pulitzer Prize. Brooks experimented with poetic form throughout her career, but her poetry is often concerned with the urban poor of the area of Chicago in which she lived for much of her life. This poem is a favorite of the Lit GRE's and it is extremely short, so you should make it a point to be able to recognize it on first sight.
Example Question #33 : Identification
Which American poet was known for a playful use of language, a lack of standard orthography, a latent transcendentalism, and titles such as “i carry your heart with me (i carry it in” and “anyone lived in a pretty how town”?
Allen Ginsberg
William Carlos Williams
Gertrude Stein
e. e. cummings
Adrienne Rich
e. e. cummings
The poet described is Edward Estlin Cummings, usually known as e. e. cummings. In addition to his poetry, Cummings was known for his paintings, plays, novels and essays.
Example Question #36 : Identification
This American poet was heralded as the leader of the Beats and had his epic poem “Howl” subjected to an obscenity trial in the 1950s.
Allen Ginsberg
e. e. cummings
Gertrude Stein
Adrienne Rich
William Carlos Williams
Allen Ginsberg
The poet in question is Allen Ginsberg, a leading figure in the counterculture movement. His most famous work, “Howl,” gave voice to previously unheard minorities and spoke against war, materialism, consumerism, homophobia, and various forms of repression. Its opening lines are frequently quoted, although “Howl” was often censored because of its depictions of homosexual and heterosexual sex acts.
Example Question #37 : Identification
This poet was known for her semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar as well as her collection of poetry, Ariel. Some of her best-known poems include “Daddy,” “Lady Lazarus,” and “Mad Girl’s Love Song.” Who is she?
Gertrude Stein
Adrienne Rich
Sylvia Plath
Gwendolyn Brooks
Marianne Moore
Sylvia Plath
The poet is Sylvia Plath, wife of the British poet Ted Hughes and an important figure in the genre of confessional poetry. Plath’s work is marked by body- and nature-based imagery, depictions of mental illness, and seemingly mundane details from everyday life.
Example Question #38 : Identification
“Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” is a famous poem by which author?
Gertrude Stein
William Carlos Williams
Wallace Stevens
Ted Hughes
Langston Hughes
Wallace Stevens
The poem, broken into 13 fractured, imagistic sections, was written by American poet Wallace Stevens. Stevens was a leading figure in the American modernist poetry world, and in 1955 he won a Pulitzer for his work. Stevens’ work is marked by a preoccupation with intellectual themes and ideas about human consciousness. Some of his best-known poems include “The Emperor of Ice Cream,” “Anecdote of the Jar,” “The Idea of Order at Key West,” and “Sunday Morning,” as well as “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.”