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 #2 : Relationship Between Words
Adapted from Richard III by William Shakespeare, I.i.1-42
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
Grim-visaged war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front;
And now, instead of mounting barded steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,
Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deformed, unfinish'd, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;
Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to spy my shadow in the sun
And descant on mine own deformity:
And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
By drunken prophecies, libels and dreams,
To set my brother Clarence and the king
In deadly hate the one against the other:
And if King Edward be as true and just
As I am subtle, false and treacherous,
This day should Clarence closely be mew'd up,
About a prophecy, which says that 'G'
Of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be.
Dive, thoughts, down to my soul: here
Clarence comes.
The underlined word "ambling" can be read as most directly contrasting with which of the following words or excerpts?
"capers" (line 12)
"halt" (line 23)
"strut" (line 17)
"descant" (line 27)
"Deformed" (line 20)
"halt" (line 23)
The underlined "ambling" appears in line 17, as part of the phrase begun in the previous line, "I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty / To strut before a wanton ambling nymph." What is the narrator saying here? He is describing himself as being "rudely stamped" and "wanting" (lacking) "love's majesty," which is required "to strut" in front of women—"a wanton ambling nymph." Here, "wanton" means sexually indecent and "nymph" is being used to imply that the woman is beautiful by hearkening back to a spirit of nature present in classical mythology. What is "ambling" doing in this description? "Ambling" means strolling along casually. In looking for the word that most directly contrasts with "ambling," we need to keep this in mind.
Let's consider our answer choices. "Strut" may look like the most likely answer because it is closest to "ambling" in the passage, part of the same line. However, "strut" means walk in an affected, proud manner and doesn't seem that much different from "ambling." Keep it in mind as potentially correct and consider the other answers. "Capers" hits a similar difficulty, meaning dance or cavort; "descant" means talk about something for a long time—perhaps contrasting with "ambling" in the sense of movement being contrasted with speech? This is a relatively abstract and indirect comparison, though. "Deformed" is being used as an adjective, so it means shaped in a way unlike the expected norm.
"Deformed" may look like the correct answer; as the nymph is "ambling," the speaker is "deformed," implying that he cannot amble. Another answer gets at this difference more directly by referring to the way in which the user moves: "halt." "Halt" in this case means limp. Aha—whereas the nymph is "ambling," the user "halts." This is the best answer choice.
Example Question #1 : Content
1 Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
2 Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
3 Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
4 And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
5 Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
6 And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
7 And every fair from fair sometime declines,
8 By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
9 But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
10 Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
11 Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
12 When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st;
13 So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
14 So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Within his or her poetry, the speaker claims that his or her beloved will remain __________.
alive, yet faded
fair
enlivened by the returning summer
alive
alive and fair
alive and fair
Within his or her poetry, the speaker claims that his or her beloved will remain alive and fair.
"But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,"
Example Question #1 : Content
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
1 How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
2 I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
3 My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
4 For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
5 I love thee to the level of everyday's
6 Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
7 I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
8 I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
9 I love thee with the passion put to use
10 In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
11 I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
12 With my lost saints – I love thee with the breath,
13 Smiles, tears, of all my life! – and, if God choose,
14 I shall but love thee better after death.
What does the speaker indicate is more powerful than his or her love?
God
lost saints
old griefs
tears
childhood's faith
God
According to lines 13 and 14, "and, if God choose, / I shall but love thee better after death," only God is more powerful than the speaker's love.
Example Question #3 : Other Content Analysis Questions: Poetry
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
1 How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
2 I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
3 My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
4 For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
5 I love thee to the level of everyday's
6 Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
7 I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
8 I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
9 I love thee with the passion put to use
10 In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
11 I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
12 With my lost saints – I love thee with the breath,
13 Smiles, tears, of all my life! – and, if God choose,
14 I shall but love thee better after death.
The speaker compares loving "purely" (line 8) to .
humility
self-aggrandizement
chastity
arrogance
innocence
humility
The speaker compares loving "purely" to humility, as the speaker loves like men who "turn from Praise" (line 8).
Example Question #4 : Other Content Analysis Questions: Poetry
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
1 How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
2 I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
3 My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
4 For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
5 I love thee to the level of everyday's
6 Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
7 I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
8 I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
9 I love thee with the passion put to use
10 In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
11 I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
12 With my lost saints – I love thee with the breath,
13 Smiles, tears, of all my life! – and, if God choose,
14 I shall but love thee better after death.
Were this poem to have a topic sentence, it would very probably be which line?
"I love thee with the breath,/Smiles, tears, of all my life!" (lines 12-13)
"I love thee with the passion put to use/In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith." (lines 9-10)
"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." (line 1)
"I shall but love thee better after death." (line 14)
"I love thee with a love I seemed to lose" (line 11)
"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." (line 1)
Were this poem to have a topic sentence, it would be "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." (line 1). Line 1 clearly states the speaker's intent to count the ways that he or she loves.
Example Question #1 : Other Content Analysis Questions: Poetry
Batter my heart (Holy Sonnet 14)
1 Batter my heart, three-person'd God; for you
2 As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
3 That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
4 Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
5 I, like an usurp'd town, to another due,
6 Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.
7 Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
8 But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
9 Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
10 But am betroth'd unto your enemy;
11 Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
12 Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
13 Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
14 Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
The metaphysical conceit of the "usurp'd town" (line 5) turns at line 9 to .
the metaphor of the knot
the metaphor of an imprisoned criminal
the metaphor of an already engaged lover
the metaphor of the "three-person'd God" (line 1)
the metaphor of the chaste lover
the metaphor of an already engaged lover
The metaphysical conceit of the "usurp'd town" (line 5) turns at line 9 to the metaphor of an already engaged lover "betroth'd unto your enemy" (line 10). A metaphysical conceit is simply an extended metaphor with rather complex logic.
Example Question #1 : Content
A Late Walk
1 When I go up through the mowing field,
2 The headless aftermath,
3 Smooth-laid like thatch with the heavy dew,
4 Half closes the garden path.
5 And when I come to the garden ground,
6 The whir of sober birds
7 Up from the tangle of withered weeds
8 Is sadder than any words
9 A tree beside the wall stands bare,
10 But a leaf that lingered brown,
11 Disturbed, I doubt not, by my thought,
12 Comes softly rattling down.
13 I end not far from my going forth
14 By picking the faded blue
15 Of the last remaining aster flower
16 To carry again to you.
What does the speaker believe caused the "leaf that lingered brown" (line 10) to come "softly rattling down" (line 12)?
The wind
A squirrel
The leaf's own wishes
His thoughts
The shivering tree
His thoughts
In line 11, the speaker expresses the belief that it fell as a result of his thoughts: "Disturbed, I doubt not, by my thought."
Example Question #871 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English
1 Go, wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense
2 Weigh thy Opinion against Providence;
3 Call Imperfection what thou fancy'st such,
4 Say, here he gives too little, there too much;
5 Destroy all creatures for thy sport or gust,
6 Yet cry, If Man's unhappy, God's unjust;
7 If Man alone engross not Heav'n's high care,
8 Alone made perfect here, immortal there:
9 Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod,
10 Re-judge his justice, be the GOD of GOD!
11 In Pride, in reasoning Pride, our error lies;
12 All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies.
13 Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes,
14 Men would be Angels, Angels would be Gods.
15 Aspiring to be Gods, if Angels fell,
16 Aspiring to be Angels, Men rebel;
17 And who but wishes to invert the laws
18 Of ORDER, sins against th' Eternal Cause.
(1734)
According to the speaker, what is man’s greatest sin?
Pride
Attempting to be immortal
Destruction of God's creatures
Rebellion
Attempting to be perfect
Pride
Pride is man’s greatest sin because “In Pride, in reasoning Pride, our error lies” (line 11). Lines 1-8 show man judging and questioning the opinion of “Providence” (line 2). Lines 9-10 show that man tries to "Snatch from His hand the balance and the rod” (line 9) as well as “re-judge His justice, be the God of God.” Line 11 suggests that it is "pride, . . . reasoning pride," that causes man to try and take God’s place, and lines 17-18 claim that whoever tries to do so, “sins against the Eternal Cause.”
(Passage adapted from "An Essay on Man" by Alexander Pope, I.IV.1-18)
Example Question #1 : Content
1 'So careful of the type?' but no.
2 From scarped cliff and quarried stone
3 She cries, `A thousand types are gone:
4 I care for nothing, all shall go.
5 'Thou makest thine appeal to me:
6 I bring to life, I bring to death:
7 The spirit does but mean the breath:
8 I know no more.' And he, shall he,
9 Man, her last work, who seem'd so fair,
10 Such splendid purpose in his eyes,
11 Who roll'd the psalm to wintry skies,
12 Who built him fanes of fruitless prayer,
13 Who trusted God was love indeed
14 And love Creation's final law—
15 Tho' Nature, red in tooth and claw
16 With ravine, shriek'd against his creed—
17 Who loved, who suffer'd countless ills,
18 Who battled for the True, the Just,
19 Be blown about the desert dust,
20 Or seal'd within the iron hills?
21 No more? A monster then, a dream,
22 A discord. Dragons of the prime,
23 That tare each other in their slime,
24 Were mellow music match'd with him.
25 O life as futile, then, as frail!
26 O for thy voice to soothe and bless!
27 What hope of answer, or redress?
28 Behind the veil, behind the veil.
(1849)
The speaker questions if __________ will “be blown about the desert dust/ Or seal’d within the iron hills?” (lines 19-20).
himself
his friend
dinosaurs
"she" (line 3)
Man
Man
The speaker questions if Man will “be blown about the desert dust / Or seal’d within the iron hills?” (lines 19-20). Lines 19-20 are the end of a complete thought that began with line 9, "Man, her last work, who seem'd so fair,". The poet questions whether Man, who does all the actions listed in lines 11-14 and lines 17-18, will be “be blown about the desert dust / Or seal’d within the iron hills?” (lines 19-20) because Nature "red in tooth and claw / With ravine, shriek'd against his creed" (lines 15-16).
(Passage adapted from "In Memorium A. H. H." by Alfred Lord Tennyson, LVI.1-28)
Example Question #2 : Content
What does God "father" in line 10?
None of the other answers
Nature
Change
All trades
Dappled things
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)
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