GRE Subject Test: Literature in English : Literary Analysis of Poetry
Study concepts, example questions & explanations for GRE Subject Test: Literature in English
All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #1 : Genre, Style, Tone, Mood, And Other Literary Features
Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear
1 Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear,
2 Thy dial how thy precious minutes waste;
3 The vacant leaves thy mind’s impr'nt will bear,
4 And of this book this learning mayst thou taste:
5 The wrinkles which thy glass will truly show
6 Of mouthèd graves will give thee memory;
7 Thou by thy dial’s shady stealth mayst know
8 Time’s thievish progress to eternity.
9 Look what thy memory cannot contain,
10 Commit to these waste blanks, and thou shalt find
11 Those children nursed, delivered from thy brain,
12 To take a new acquaintance of thy mind.
13 These offices, so oft as thou wilt look,
14 Shall profit thee and much enrich thy book.
(1609)
This poem is a(n) __________.
Epic
Petrarchan Sonnet
Ballad
Elegy
English (Shakespearean) Sonnet
English (Shakespearean) Sonnet
This poem is an English (Shakespearean) Sonnet, which has 14 lines written in iambic pentameter and has the rhyme scheme a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g.
(Passage adapted from "Sonnet 77" by William Shakespeare)
Example Question #11 : Sat Subject Test In Literature
“Gear and tackle and trim” (line 6) is an example of a(n) __________, while " "counter, original, spare, strange" (line 7) is an example of a(n) __________.
None of the answers
asyndeton . . . polysyndeton
metonym . . . asyndeton
asyndeton . . . metonym
polysyndeton . . . asyndeton
polysyndeton . . . asyndeton
“Gear and tackle and trim” (line 6) is an example of polysyndeton, while "counter, original, spare, strange" (line 7) is an example of an asyndeton. A polysyndeton is a figure of speech where conjunctions are repeated frequently in a sequence, while an asyndeton is a figure of speech where one or several conjunctions are intentionally left out of the sentence.
(Passage adapted from "Pied Beauty" by Gerard Manley Hopkins)
Example Question #41 : Literary Analysis Of British Poetry To 1660
Which of the following literary techniques is used most frequently in this poem?
Simile
Metonym
Alliteration
Metaphor
Personification
Alliteration
Alliteration is used most frequently in the poem. Alliteration is the repetition of the same sounds or same kinds of sounds at the beginning of words. The following are some of the examples of alliteration in the poem:
"Fresh-firecoal . . . finches" (line 4)
"Plotted and pieced . . . plough" (line 5)
"Fold, fallow" (line 5)
"tackle and trim" (line 6)
"spare, strange" (line 7)
"fickle, freckled" (line 8)
"swift, slow; sweet, sour" (line 9)
"adazzle, dim" ("d" sound) (line 9)
"fathers-forrth" (line 10)
(Passage adapted from "Pied Beauty" by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1918))
Example Question #1 : Other Content Analysis Questions: Poetry
What does God "father" in line 10?
Dappled things
Change
Nature
None of the other answers
All trades
Change
God fathers change. In lines 7-5, the speaker is saying that "whatever is fickle" (line 8) "He fathers" (line 10). If something is "fickle," it is changing constantly. "All things counter, original, spare, strange" also supports the fact that the speaker believes God fathers change. In line 10, the speaker further states that God fathers change because God's "beauty is past change."
(Passage adapted from "Pied Beauty" by Gerard Manley Hopkins)
Example Question #1 : Meaning Of Specified Text: Poetry
The "Viceroy" (line 6) is the ____________.
poem
wreath of hair
poet's beloved
poet's lover's soul
poet
wreath of hair
"Viceroy" means person governing a colony and representing the monarch of the nation to which the colony belongs. In the poem, the "viceroy" (line 6) is the wreath of hair from line 3. Line 1 says to not harm that wreath of hair. Line 4 goes on to further say "you must not touch". Lines 5-6 explain why: the wreath is the poet's "outward soul" (line 5) and his viceroy (line 6).
(Passage adapted from "The Funeral" by John Donne)
Example Question #11 : Literary Terminology And Devices
1 Stella, whence doth this new assault arise,
2 A conquer’d, yielden, ransack’d heart to win?
3 Whereto long since through my long batter’d eyes,
4 Whole armies of thy beauties entered in.
5 And there long since, Love thy lieutenant lies,
6 My forces raz’d, thy banners rais’d within:
7 Of conquest, do not these effects suffice,
8 But wilt now war upon thine own begin?
9 With so sweet voice, and by sweet Nature so
10 In sweetest strength, so sweetly skill’d withal,
11 In all sweet stratagems sweet Art can show,
12 That not my soul, which at thy foot did fall
13 Long since, forc’d by thy beams, but stone nor tree
14 By Sense’s privilege, can ‘scape from thee.
Which of the following is an example of alliteration?
“conquer’d, yielden, ransack’d” (line 2)
“But wild now war upon thine own” (line 8)
“Lieutenant lies,” (line 5)
“sweet Nature so” (line 9)
“forces raz’d,” (line 6)
“Lieutenant lies,” (line 5)
“Liutenant lies” (line 5) is an example of alliteration. Alliteration is the repetition of the same sounds or same kinds of sounds at the beginning of words.
(Passage adapted from "Astrophil and Stella" by Sir Philip Sydney, XXXVI.1-14 (1591))
Example Question #41 : Literary Analysis Of British Poetry To 1660
1 Stella, whence doth this new assault arise,
2 A conquer’d, yielden, ransack’d heart to win?
3 Whereto long since through my long batter’d eyes,
4 Whole armies of thy beauties entered in.
5 And there long since, Love thy lieutenant lies,
6 My forces raz’d, thy banners rais’d within:
7 Of conquest, do not these effects suffice,
8 But wilt now war upon thine own begin?
9 With so sweet voice, and by sweet Nature so
10 In sweetest strength, so sweetly skill’d withal,
11 In all sweet stratagems sweet Art can show,
12 That not my soul, which at thy foot did fall
13 Long since, forc’d by thy beams, but stone nor tree
14 By Sense’s privilege, can ‘scape from thee.
"Conquer’d, yielden, ransack’d" (line 2) and "my forces raz’d, thy banners rais’d within" (line 6) are examples of __________.
rhyme
polysyndeton
asyndeton
metonymy
hyperbole
asyndeton
"Conquer’d, yielden, ransack’d" (line 2) and "my forces raz’d, thy banners rais’d within" (line 6) are examples of asyndetons. An asyndeton is a figure of speech where one or several conjunctions are intentionally left out of the sentence.
(Passage adapted from "Astrophil and Stella" by Sir Philip Sydney, XXXVI.1-14 (1591))
Example Question #91 : Literary Analysis Of Poetry
This stanza is an example of the verse form known as __________.
Free Verse
The Spenserian Stanza
Villanelle
Rhyme Royal
Ottavia Rima
The Spenserian Stanza
This passage is taken from Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, for which the poet invented the verse form that is now known as "the Spenserian stanza." The Spenserian stanza consists of eight lines of iambic pentameter followed by a single alexandrine—a line of iambic hexameter. The rhyme scheme is A-B-A-B-B-C-B-C-C. Later practitioners of the Spenserian stanza include the Romantic poets Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, and John Keats.
Passage adapted from The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser, I.xiv.1-9 (1590)
Example Question #62 : Literary Analysis Of British Poetry
A Knight ther was, and that a worthy man,
That fro the time that he first bigan
To riden out, he loved chivalrye,
Trouthe and honour, freedom and curteisye.
Ful worthy was he in his lordes werre,
And therto hadde he riden, no man ferre,
As wel in Christendom as hethenesse,
And evere honoured for his worthiness.
Which of the following works was NOT written by the author of the excerpted text?
Sir Gawain and The Green Knight
The Book of The Dutchess
The House of Fame
Troilus and Criseide
Legend of Good Women
Sir Gawain and The Green Knight
The passage in question consists of lines 43-50 of the "General Prologue" to The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400). Chaucer also wrote Troilus and Criseide, The Book of The Duchess, The House of Fame, and Legend of Good Women.
The correct answer, Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, was composed by an unknown poet who was likely a contemporary of Chaucer's.
Passage adapted from lines 43–50 in "General Prologue" in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (1478)
Example Question #92 : Literary Analysis Of Poetry
A Knight ther was, and that a worthy man,
That fro the time that he first bigan
To riden out, he loved chivalrye,
Trouthe and honour, freedom and curteisye.
Ful worthy was he in his lordes werre,
And therto hadde he riden, no man ferre,
As wel in Christendom as hethenesse,
And evere honoured for his worthiness.
During which of the following time periods was the work containing the above excerpt written?
1400–1450
1350–1400
1200–1250
1300–1350
1250–1300
1350–1400
The excerpt above (lines 43-50 "The General Prologue" to Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales) was written during the 1380s.
Passage adapted from lines 43–50 in "General Prologue" in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (1478)
All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources
