SAT II Literature : SAT Subject Test in Literature
Study concepts, example questions & explanations for SAT II Literature
All SAT II Literature Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #13 : Literary Terminology Describing Drama
HAMLET: … What would he do,
Had he the motive and the cue for passion
That I have? He would drown the stage with tears
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,
Make mad the guilty and appal the free,(5)
Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed
The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I,
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,
Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,
And can say nothing. No, not for a king, (10)
Upon whose property and most dear life
A damned defeat was made. Am I a coward?
Who calls me villain?
Lines 5-6 are an example of which literary device?
Asyndeton
Parenthetical speech
Apostrophe
Parallelism
Colloquialism
Parallelism
In lines 5-6, we have the use of clauses with identical grammatical patterns, syntax, or meter (e.g. “She expected nothing, hoped for everything, and received something”). Parenthetical speech would be an aside, a remark set off by parentheses, em dashes, or other punctuation. Asyndeton denotes a lack of conjunction words (e.g. “I came, I saw, I conquered”). Colloquialism is the use of an informal, conversational, or regional bit of speech (e.g. “y’all” for “you all”). Apostrophe is a direct address to the reader (e.g. Herman Melville’s “Call me Ishmael”).
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark. (1603)
Example Question #191 : Literary Terminology And Devices
HAMLET: … What would he do,
Had he the motive and the cue for passion
That I have? He would drown the stage with tears
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,
Make mad the guilty and appal the free,(5)
Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed
The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I,
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,
Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,
And can say nothing. No, not for a king, (10)
Upon whose property and most dear life
A damned defeat was made. Am I a coward?
Who calls me villain?
Lines 12-13 are an example of which literary device?
Cliché
Rhetorical questions
Ellipsis
Antithesis
Imperative voice
Rhetorical questions
Rhetorical questions, or questions not designed to be answered literally, are what we see in lines 12-13. Imperative voice is the use of commands, and a cliché is a phrase that’s become trite or worn out from overuse (e.g. “fast as lightning”). Ellipsis is the deliberate omission of one or more words for the purpose of concision; it is sometimes marked with “…” but sometimes not. Antithesis is a contrast or direct opposite to something.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark. (1603)
Example Question #191 : Literary Terminology And Devices
HAMLET: … What would he do,
Had he the motive and the cue for passion
That I have? He would drown the stage with tears
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,
Make mad the guilty and appal the free,(5)
Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed
The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I,
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,
Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,
And can say nothing. No, not for a king, (10)
Upon whose property and most dear life
A damned defeat was made. Am I a coward?
Who calls me villain?
The lines “Yet I, / A dull and muddy-mettled rascal” are an example of all but which of the following literary devices?
Assonance
Consonance
Epithet
Anaphora
Alliteration
Assonance
Here, we have assonance (repetition of vowel sounds) in “dull” and “muddy.” We also have consonance (repetition of consonant sounds) and alliteration (repetition of sounds at the beginning of words) in “muddy-mettled.” Lastly, this is an epithet, a short and somewhat scurrilous description of a character.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark. (1603)
Example Question #194 : Literary Terminology And Devices
RAPHAEL
The Sun, in ancient guise, competing
With brother spheres in rival song,
With thunder-march, his orb completing,
Moves his predestin'd course along;
His aspect to the powers supernal
Gives strength, though fathom him none may;
Transcending thought, the works eternal
Are fair as on the primal day.
GABRIEL
With speed, thought baffling, unabating,
Earth's splendour whirls in circling flight;
Its Eden-brightness alternating
With solemn, awe-inspiring night;
Ocean's broad waves in wild commotion,
Against the rocks' deep base are hurled;
And with the spheres, both rock and ocean
Eternally are swiftly whirled.
MICHAEL
And tempests roar in emulation
From sea to land, from land to sea,
And raging form, without cessation,
A chain of wondrous agency,
Full in the thunder's path careering,
Flaring the swift destructions play;
But, Lord, Thy servants are revering
The mild procession of thy day.
(1808)
The term "Eden-brightness" is an example of ________________.
synecdoche
analogy
paradox
allusion
hyperbole
allusion
"Eden-like" is a reference to the Garden of Eden, described in the Book of Genesis. The author is contrasting the goodness and purity that the garden represents with the darkness and evil that entered the world with the sin of Adam and Eve. Thus, the reference is clearly a Biblical allusion.
Passage adapted from Johan von Goethe's Faust (1808)
Example Question #195 : Literary Terminology And Devices
ROMEO [To a Servingman]
1 What lady is that, which doth enrich the hand
2 Of yonder knight?
SERVANT
I know not, sir.
ROMEO
3 O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
4 It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
5 Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear;
6 Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
7 So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,
8 As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.
9 The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand,
10 And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.
11 Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight!
12 For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.
TYBALT
13 This, by his voice, should be a Montague.
14 Fetch me my rapier, boy. What dares the slave
15 Come hither, cover'd with an antic face,
16 To fleer and scorn at our solemnity?
17 Now, by the stock and honour of my kin,
18 To strike him dead, I hold it not a sin.
An AA, BB, CC, etc., rhyme scheme begins at line 3. At what line is this rhyme scheme interrupted?
Line 3
Line 13
Line 9
Line 1
Line 17
Line 13
Line 13, the beginning of Tybalt's lines, puts an abrupt end to the rhyme scheme of Romeo's monologue. Lines 3-12 are made up of a series of rhyming couplets. "Montague" at the end of Line 13, however, rhymes neither with the line that comes before it, nor with any line after it.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (1595).
Example Question #196 : Literary Terminology And Devices
ROMEO [To a Servingman]
1 What lady is that, which doth enrich the hand
2 Of yonder knight?
SERVANT
I know not, sir.
ROMEO
3 O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
4 It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
5 Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear;
6 Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
7 So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,
8 As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.
9 The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand,
10 And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.
11 Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight!
12 For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.
TYBALT
13 This, by his voice, should be a Montague.
14 Fetch me my rapier, boy. What dares the slave
15 Come hither, cover'd with an antic face,
16 To fleer and scorn at our solemnity?
17 Now, by the stock and honour of my kin,
18 To strike him dead, I hold it not a sin.
Lines 4-5 make use of what rhetorical device?
Metonymy
Simile
Synecdoche
Hyperbole
Metaphor
Simile
A simile is a comparison between two things that uses the comparative words "like" or "as." When Romeo says "...she hangs upon the cheek of night / Like a rich jewel," he is using a simile. This is not a metaphor, because a metaphor is a comparison that does not use the words "like" or "as."
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (1595)
Example Question #191 : Literary Terminology And Devices
ROMEO [To a Servingman]
1 What lady is that, which doth enrich the hand
2 Of yonder knight?
SERVANT
I know not, sir.
ROMEO
3 O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
4 It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
5 Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear;
6 Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
7 So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,
8 As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.
9 The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand,
10 And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.
11 Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight!
12 For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.
TYBALT
13 This, by his voice, should be a Montague.
14 Fetch me my rapier, boy. What dares the slave
15 Come hither, cover'd with an antic face,
16 To fleer and scorn at our solemnity?
17 Now, by the stock and honour of my kin,
18 To strike him dead, I hold it not a sin.
In line 1 of this passage, which of the following groups of syllables forms an anapest?
"--dy is that"
"which doth"
"--rich the hand"
"What la--"
"What lady"
"--dy is that"
An anapest is a metrical foot consisting of two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable. Some words that are examples of anapests include: "engineer" and "entertain."
Here is the line with stressed syllables in bold: "What lady is that which doth enrich the hand..." The only sequence of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable is "-dy is that"; this is an anapest.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (1595)
Example Question #191 : Literary Terminology And Devices
ROMEO [To a Servingman]
1 What lady is that, which doth enrich the hand
2 Of yonder knight?
SERVANT
I know not, sir.
ROMEO
3 O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
4 It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
5 Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear;
6 Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
7 So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,
8 As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.
9 The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand,
10 And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.
11 Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight!
12 For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.
TYBALT
13 This, by his voice, should be a Montague.
14 Fetch me my rapier, boy. What dares the slave
15 Come hither, cover'd with an antic face,
16 To fleer and scorn at our solemnity?
17 Now, by the stock and honour of my kin,
18 To strike him dead, I hold it not a sin.
Lines 3-12 are an example of _____________.
hexameter
monologue
soliloquy
aside
parody
monologue
A monologue is a speech of considerable length given by a character in a play. In a monologue, a character may contemplate something out loud, set forth an argument, admire something (as here), or give any other sort of window into their thoughts. The monologue is different from a soliloquy in that a soliloquy is a speech performed by a character who is completely alone on the stage.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (1595)
Example Question #199 : Literary Terminology And Devices
ROMEO [To a Servingman]
1 What lady is that, which doth enrich the hand
2 Of yonder knight?
SERVANT
I know not, sir.
ROMEO
3 O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
4 It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
5 Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear;
6 Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
7 So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,
8 As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.
9 The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand,
10 And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.
11 Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight!
12 For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.
TYBALT
13 This, by his voice, should be a Montague.
14 Fetch me my rapier, boy. What dares the slave
15 Come hither, cover'd with an antic face,
16 To fleer and scorn at our solemnity?
17 Now, by the stock and honour of my kin,
18 To strike him dead, I hold it not a sin.
In what meter is this passage written?
Trochaic trimeter
Iambic tetrameter
Dactylic hexameter
Anapestic hexameter
Iambic pentameter
Iambic pentameter
This passage is written in iambic pentameter. The "meter" of a poem refers to the rhythm and quantity of syllables in each line.
"Pentameter" means that there are five metrical "feet" in each line. A metrical "foot" is a metrical unit of which any given meter is comprised. "Iambic" refers to the fact that most of the metrical feet in this poem are iambs. An iamb is a very common foot in English. It is comprised of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable.
Observe, for instance, this line, a series of five iambs in a row: "To strike him dead, I hold it not a sin" (line 18).
To say the passage is written in iambic pentameter does not mean there are no other metrical feet to be found (spondees, trochees), but that those are the exception and not the rule.
Passage adapted from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (1595)
Example Question #119 : Overall Language Or Specific Words, Phrases, Or Sentences
1 Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;
2 My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy.
3 Seven years thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay,
4 Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.
5 Oh, could I lose all father now! For why
6 Will man lament the state he should envy?
7 To have so soon 'scaped world's and flesh's rage,
8 And if no other misery, yet age!
9 Rest in soft peace, and, asked, say, "Here doth lie
10 Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry,
11 For whose sake, henceforth, all his vows be such
12 As what he loves may never like too much."
In lines 11–12, "For whose sake, henceforth, all his vows be such / As what he loves may never like too much," what is the speaker saying about his future vows?
The speaker will be very careful about what he chooses to love as deeply as he has loved his son.
The speaker will love more fully having loved his son.
The speaker will never like another thing.
The speaker will never love as much as he has loved his dead son.
The speaker will learn to love again.
The speaker will never love as much as he has loved his dead son.
In lines 11–12, "For whose sake, henceforth, all his vows be such / As what he loves may never like too much," the speaker is saying that he will never love as much as he has loved his dead son.
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