-
Whan that Aprill with his shoures sooteThe droghte of March hath perced to the roote,And bathed every veyne in swich licourOf which vertu engendred is the flour;
These lines were written by:
John Buchan
Walt Whitman
Laurence Perrine
Geoffrey Chaucer
- Detailed Explanation:
- Geoffrey Chaucer is the correct answer.
- These are the opening lines to Chaucer’s most famous work, The Canterbury Tales.
-
"And, sweet spirits, the burden bear.
Hark,hark!
Bow-wow.
Hark,hark! I hear
The strain of strutting chanticleer
Cry, "cock-a-doodle-doo!"
The words “bark,” “bow-wow,” and “Cock-a-doodle-doo” are examples of
Alliteration
Onomatopoeia
Denotation
Limerick
- Detailed Explanation:
- Onomatopoeia is the correct answer.
- William Shakespeare’s Come unto these yellow sands, from The Tempest, uses onomatopoeia (words that sound like their meaning) to further emphasize the noises referred to in the song. Denotation refers to the dictionary definition of a word. Alliteration is a number of words in succession beginning with the same sound—as in “strain of strutting.” A limerick is strictly for humorous verses, which this song is not. Euphony is a pleasant-sounding arrangement of words; the hard “k” sound in “bark” and “Cock-a-doodle-doo” prevents these words from sounding euphonic.
-
The dictionary definition of a word is its ____________.
- Detailed Explanation:
- Denotation.
- The denotation of a word or phrase is what it literally means. This is in contrast to connotation, which is an idea or meaning suggested by or associated with a word or thing. For example, a cigarette ad might have connotations of masculinity, strength, etc.. Connotations are things which are implied or associated, whereas denotations are specific meanings.
-
____________ is the repetition of the same sounds or of the same kinds of sounds at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables, as in “on scrolls of silver snowy sentences”.
- Detailed Explanation:
- Alliteration.
- A couple of examples from poetry of alliteration:Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheaved His vastness. --Milton.Fly o'er waste fens and windy fields. --Tennyson.
-
The poem Death, be not proud was written by
Robert Frost
John Donne
Wallace Stevens
Emily Dickinson
- Detailed Explanation:
- John Donne is the correct answer.
- John Donne (1572-1631) was an English poet known for his religious symbolism and elaborate metaphors. Although he spent much of his life renouncing the Catholic faith, he was forced to join the ministry by the King. Ironically, he was such an engaging preacher that he was to be made bishop at the time of his death. Donne’s other poetic works include The Calme, A Hymn to God the Father, Confined Love, and The Good-Morrow.
-
What is the theme of John Milton’s Paradise Lost?
*Expulsion from Eden
*Failure of a moon colony
*Sudden death of a family patriarch
*Lovers stranded in the jungle
- Detailed Explanation:
- Expulsion from Eden is the correct answer.
- Milton set out to write an epic poem to rival the Iliad, recreating the biblical story of the Garden of Eden—with a sympathetic slant on Lucifer. Paradise Lost inspired many later works, including Romantic poet Percy Shelley.
-
‘Tis not enough no harshness gives offense,The sound must seem an echo to the sense:Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently blows,And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows;Identify the allusion in the above passage.
*“Zephyr”
*“gently blows”
*“smooth stream”
*“echo to the sense”
- Detailed Explanation:
- “Zephyr” is the correct answer.
- An allusion is a reference to something from history or literature. In Sound and Sense by Alexander Pope, “Zephyr” alludes to the Roman god of the west wind.
-
Born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564, he wrote The Rape of Lucrece and Venus and Adonis.Identify this author.
*William Shakespeare
*William Blake
*Christopher Marlowe
*Alexandros of Antioch
- Detailed Explanation:
- William Shakespeare is the correct answer.
- Although both William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe were born in 1564, it was Shakespeare who wrote the epic poems The Rape of Lucrece and Venus and Adonis. Alexandros of Antioch is known for sculpting the Venus de Milo.
-
Alexander Pope’s An Essay on Criticism introduced which famous phrase?
*“I came, I saw, I conquered.”
*“To be, or not to be, that is the question.”
*“I never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
*“A little learning is a dangerous thing.”
- Detailed Explanation:
- “A little learning is a dangerous thing.” is the correct answer.
- Mark Twain is credited with "...never let my schooling...", while "I came, I saw..." was said by Julius Caesar (the original Latin was “Vini, vidi, vinci”). "To be, or not to be..." is from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, while "...one small step..." was the phrase uttered by Neil Armstrong when he first set foot on the moon.
-
The contrasting poems The Tiger and The Lamb were written by
*Mary Shelley
*William Blake
*Robert Frost
*Ogden Nash
- Detailed Explanation:
- William Blake is the correct answer.
- William Blake, known for incorporating his religious visions in his work, penned this famous pair of poems. Blake’s two major poetry compilations are Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. Of the other answer choices, Ogden Nash wrote The Turtle, while Frost and Dickinson are famous in their own rights. Mary Shelley is the author of Frankenstein.
-
And fare thee weel, my only luve!And fare thee weel, a while!And I will come again, my luve,Tho it were ten thousand mile!These lines are the closing stanza to which poem?
*Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
*O, My Luve is Like a Red Red Rose
*The Sick Rose
*10,000 Miles
- Detailed Explanation:
- O, My Luve is Like a Red Red Rose is the correct answer.
- O, My Luve is Like a Red Red Rose was written by the famous Scottish poet Robert Burns. He also wrote Auld Lang Syne, To A Mouse, and Tam O’Shanter, among others. The Mill was written by Edwin Arlington Robinson, while The Sick Rose is by William Blake and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening is by Robert Frost. 10,000 Miles is a song by Mary Chapin Carpenter.
-
My old man’s a white old manAnd my old mother’s black.If I ever cursed my white old manI take my curses back.These lines open the Langston Hughes poem Cross. Identify one of the title’s connotations:
*Religious symbol
*Unpleasant
*Angry
*Of mixed racial heritage
- Detailed Explanation:
- Unpleasant is the correct answer.
- The other four choices are denotations, or definitions, of the word “cross.” A connotation, on the other hand, is an emotion a word conjures up within the reader.
-
What is the theme of William Wordsworth’s poem, The world is too much with us?
*Suicidal decree of star-crossed lovers.
*Discussion among the gods about their powers.
*Justification for why humans control the planet.
*Hierarchial view of nature with God at the top and man at the bottom.
- Detailed Explanation:
- "Hierarchial view of nature with God at the top and man at the bottom" is the correct answer.
- Wordsworth discusses the wastefulness and indifference of humans towards the nature that surrounds them. He is known for incorporating the theme of nature into his poetry.
-
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,Old Time is still a-flying;And this same flower that smiles todayTomorrow will be dying.These are the opening lines to which Robert Herrick poem?
*To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time
*Upon Julia’s Voice
*The Sick Rose
*The Vine
- Detailed Explanation:
- "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time" is the correct answer.
- You may remember these famous lines from the movie Dead Poet’s Society. The Sick Rose is not by Robert Herrick, but by William Blake. The remaining choices are other selections from Herrick’s extensive collection. Herrick was an English poet born in 1591 who mostly wrote of English countryside and (fictional) women.
-
The Road Not Taken, The Pasture, and Birches were all written by
*Robert Frost
*William Shakespeare
*Langston Hughes
*William Faulkner
- Detailed Explanation:
- Robert Frost is the correct answer.
- Robert Frost, born in 1874, is arguably one of the most well-known poets in history. Along with the above-mentioned pieces, Frost also wrote Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Nothing Gold Can Stay, Acquainted with the Night, and Fire and Ice.
-
I felt a funeral in my brain,And mourners to and froKept treading—treading—till it seemedThat sense was breaking through.Which of the following poems was written by the same author as the above lines?
*in Just-
*I heard a fly buzz when I died
*The Tiger
*Home Burial
- Detailed Explanation:
- I heard a fly buzz when I died is the correct answer.
- Emily Dickinson authored both I felt a funeral in my brain and I heard a fly buzz when I died. Dickinson published a mere 10 poems in her life, with the remaining 160 found and published by her sister after Emily’s death. None of her poems were found with titles, so each of her pieces are known by their first line. The Tiger was written by William Blake, while At the round earth’s imagined corners is by John Donne. Home Burial is by Robert Frost, and one of his longest pieces, spanning multiple pages. in Just- is by e.e. cummings, as noted by the characteristic initial lowercase letter.
-
Wilt thou seal up the avenues of ill?Pay every debt, as if God wrote the bill.Identify the simile in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Suum Cuique.
*“God wrote”
*“as if God wrote the bill”
*“the avenues of ill”
*“Wilt”
- Detailed Explanation:
- “as if God wrote the bill” is the correct answer.
- A simile is an explicit comparison between two things, using the words like or as. A metaphor, on the other hand, is an implicit comparison between two things, as in line 1—“the avenues of ill.”
-
A comparison that uses "like" or "as" is known as a ____________.
- Detailed Explanation:
- Simile. You should be able to distinguish the difference between a simile and a metaphor. A simile uses "like" or "as"; for example:
- He smiles like a tiger.
- His feet were as big as boats.
- On the other hand, a metaphor is a figure of speech in which one thing is described in terms of another, without making the comparison explicit:
- Her hair is silk.
- The bar of soap was a slippery eel during the dog’s bath.
-
Identify which of the following selections from Langston Hughes’ Dream Deferred does NOT contain a simile.
*“Or does it explode?”
*“Maybe it just sags/like a heavy load.”
*“Or crust and sugar over—/like a syrupy sweet?”
*“Does it dry up/like a raisin in the sun?”
- Detailed Explanation:
- “Or does it explode?” is the correct answer.
- The remaining answer choices all use the word like, which is a definite sign of a simile.A metaphor, on the other hand, is an implicit comparison, without using an introductory word such as like or as. Examples of metaphors would be "her hair is silk", "All the world's a stage". "Hair" is being compared to "silk" by saying it "is" silk, and the "world" is being compared to a "stage".
-
This homosexual American poet published the collection Leaves of Grass and ‘sang’ Song of Myself.
*Walt Whitman
*e.e. cummings
*Henry David Thoreau
*Robert Frost
- Detailed Explanation:
- Walt Whitman is the correct answer.
- Although every poet listed was an American, it was Walt Whitman who compiled his 300 works over the course of his lifetime into Leaves of Grass. Whitman’s poetry covers almost every subject matter, and is characteristic in its frequent outbursts of thrilled emotion.
-
Alfred Lord Tennyson authored which of the following poems?
*The Tiger
*The Eagle Jack,
*eating rotten cheese, did say
*Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
- Detailed Explanation:
- The Eagle is the correct answer.
- Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) was particularly sensitive to criticism, and the mixed response he received in response to Poems caused him to stop publishing for nine years. Poems ended up being his most successful work. Jack, eating rotten cheese, did say was by Benjamin Franklin, while Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening is one of Robert Frost’s more well-known pieces. Both The Tiger and The Lamb were by William Blake.
-
A rhyme scheme describes the pattern of rhymes in a poem. What rhyme scheme does the following poem follow?
I saw a fairy in the wood,
He was dressed all in green.
He drew his sword while I just stood,
And realized I'd been seen.
- Detailed Explanation:
- abab. This rhyme scheme is simply abab, since "wood" and "stood" are represented in the scheme as "a," while "green" and "seen" are "b."
- Another example of a rhyme scheme:
- Roses are red
- Violents are blue
- Sugar is sweet
- And so are you.
You could describe the above rhyme scheme as abcb.
One last example:
- "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost (1874-1963)
- Whose woods these are I think I know. a
- His house is in the village though; a
- He will not see me stopping here b
- To watch his woods fill up with snow. a
- My little horse must think it queer b
- To stop without a farmhouse near b
- Between the woods and frozen lake c
- The darkest evening of the year. b
- He gives his harness bells a shake c
- To ask if there is some mistake. c
- The only other sound's the sweep d
- Of easy wind and downy flake. c
- The woods are lovely, dark and deep, d
- But I have promises to keep, d
- And miles to go before I sleep. d
- And miles to go before I sleep. d
Hence, the rhyme scheme is: aaba bbcb ccdc dddd
-
Two brothers devised what at sightSeemed a bicycle crossed with a kite.They predicted—rash pair!It would fly through the air!And what do you know? They were Wright!
*Shakespearean sonnet
*Spoonerism
*Limerick
*Octave
- Detailed Explanation:
- Limerick is the correct answer.
- A limerick is a fixed form with rhyme scheme aabba, used exclusively for humorous poetry. A Shakespearean sonnet and English sonnet are the same thing, while an octave would require eight lines—this poem is only five. A spoonerism is transposing the initial sounds of two words (as in nixed muts for mixed nuts).
-
Author of the poems Sailing to Byzantium and The Second Coming, this poet believed that every two thousand years, the current era of humanity would be replaced by its polar opposite. Born in Dublin, this poet's writings were largely Gaelic-influenced.
*William Butler Yeats
*Benjamin Franklin
*Walt Whitman
*Maya Angelou
- Detailed Explanation:
- William Butler Yeats is the correct answer.
- The remaining answer choices are all American poets. Yeats also wrote When You are Old and To a Child Dancing in the Wind.
-
That’s my last duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf’s hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
How many grammatical caesuras are in the above lines from Robert Browning’s My Last Duchess?
*6
*0
*4
*2
- Detailed Explanation:
- 4 is the correct answer.
- A caesura is a pause within a line, either grammatical (noted by punctuation) or rhetorical (a natural pause without punctuation). There are a total of four grammatical pauses within the above lines (“alive.” “wonder,” “now;” and “day,”).
-
This poet wrote The Bell Jar.
*Mark Twain
*Ernest Hemingway
*Sylvia Plath
*Marvin Bell
- Detailed Explanation:
- Sylvia Plath is the correct answer.
- Many of Sylvia Plath’s later works in Ariel, Crossing the Water, and Winter Trees were dark, macabre pieces alluding to her eventual suicide at age 30, after a long bout with mental illness. Ernest Hemingway was not a poet, and wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls.
-
What is the proper form of a haiku?
*Three lines, consisting of seven, five, and seven syllables, respectively
*Eight lines of any length
*Five lines, with the rhyme scheme aabba
*Three lines, consisting of five, seven, and five syllables, respectively
- Detailed Explanation:
- "Three lines, consisting of five, seven, and five syllables, respectively" is the correct answer.
- Three lines, consisting of seven, five, and seven syllables, respectively, is an incorrect haiku, while five lines with the rhyme scheme aabba makes a limerick. Eight lines of any length compose an octave.
-
When icicles hang by the wall,
And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,
And Tom bears logs into the hall,
And milk comes frozen home in pail,
When blood is nipped and ways be foul,
Then nightly sings the staring owl,
“Tu-whit, tu-who!”
A merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.
When all aloud the wind doth blow,
And coughing drowns the parson’s saw,
And birds sit brooding in the snow,
And Marian’s nose looks red and raw,
When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,
“Tu-whit, tu-who!”
A merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.
Identify the refrain in the above poem.
*crabs hiss in the bowl
*When
*coughing drowns
*“Tu-whit, tu-who!”A merry note,While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.
- Detailed Explanation:
- The correct answer is the set of three lines beginning with "Tu-whit, tu-who!".
- A refrain is a part of a poem repeated at the same position in each stanza as Shakespeare does with the final three lines of each stanza in Winter. ababccdef is the rhyme scheme of the first stanza.
-
Identify which of the following is an example of consonance.
*Repetition of the final vowel sound in a row of words.
*Repetition of the final consonant sound in a row of words.
*Repetition of the initial vowel sound in a row of words.
*A word beginning and ending in a consonant.
- Detailed Explanation:
- "Repetition of the final consonant sound in a row of words." is the correct answer.
- Consonance is the inverse of alliteration, or the repetition of the initial consonant sound in a row of words. Repetition of a vowel sound is known as assonance.Alliteration refers to a repeated consonant at the beginning of the word: The refurbished red roof rocked.Consonance plays with consonants at the end of words: sound beside the wood
-
The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.
These are the opening lines to A.E. Housman’s To an Athlete Dying Young. In it, Housman ____________ the runner.
*disparages
*names
*apostrophizes
*personifies
- Detailed Explanation:
- "apostrophizes" is the correct answer.
- By writing the poem as if Housman were speaking directly to the athlete, Housman uses apostrophe. Personification entails giving human qualities to a non-human, but in this case, the athlete is a human. The athlete is neither referred to by name or disparaged, and it is impossible to cacophonize a person.
-
The author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland also wrote which famous poem?
*Jabberwocky
*Through the Looking Glass
*Blackberry Eating
*Where the Wild Things Are
- Detailed Explanation:
- Jabberwocky is the correct answer.
- Lewis Carroll wrote Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Jabberwocky, and Through the Looking Glass, although the latter was not a poem. Carroll’s real name was Charles Dodgson, and he was a nineteenth-century English writer. Blackberry Eating is a poem by Galway Kinnell. Where the Wild Things Are is a children’s book by Maurice Sendak, while Where the Sidewalk Ends is children’s poetry by Shel Silverstein.
-
That God of ours, the Great Geometer,
Does something for us here, where He hath put
(if you want to put it that way) things in shape,
Compressing the little lambs in orderly cubes,
Making the roast a decent cylinder,
Fairing the tin ellipsoid of a ham,
Getting the luncheon meat anonymous
In squares and oblongs with the edges bevelled
Or rounded (streamlined, maybe, for greater speed).
In the above lines from Howard Nemerov’s Grace to Be Said at the Supermarket, God is a metaphor for
*Cashiers
*Meatpackers
*Cleaning Crew
*Managers
- Detailed Explanation:
- Meatpackers is the correct answer.
- Nemerov satirizes humans for being omnivores (creatures which eat both plants and meat), and indirectly compares meatpackers to God (a metaphor) as they display their packaged meats for sale.
-
This poet wrote “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.”
*Maya Angelou
*e.e. cummings
*Langston Hughes
*Emily Dickinson
- Detailed Explanation:
- Maya Angelou is the correct answer.
- Maya Angelou, an African-American poet, has also written Million Man March Poem, read at the Million Man March, and The Rock Cries Out For Us Today, for President Bill Clinton’s 1993 Inauguration.
-
Much madness is divinest sense
To a discerning eye,
Much sense, the starkest madness.
‘Tis the majority
In this, as all, prevail:
Assent, and you are sane;
Demur, you’re straightway dangerous
And handled with a chain.
Identify the paradox in the above poem.
*Conforming to society’s standards is good sense.
*Madness is evil.
*Insanity is good sense, while good sense is insanity.
*“handled with a chain”
- Detailed Explanation:
- "Insanity is good sense, while good sense is insanity." is the correct answer.
- A paradox is a seemingly contradictory statement that is, in fact, true. As Emily Dickinson shows in Much madness is divinest sense, madness is sensical, while sense is stark madness. Nowhere does the poem imply that madness is evil.
-
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Identify the hyperbole in Alfred Lord Tennyson’s The Eagle.
*“clasps the crag with crooked”
*“He watches from his mountain walls”
*“wrinkled sea”
*“Close to the sun”
- Detailed Explanation:
- “Close to the sun” is the correct answer.
- A hyperbole is an overstatement or gross exaggeration—the eagle is said to be close to the sun, but in reality, he isn’t actually anywhere near the sun. Another example of a hyperbole might be "her hips are a mile wide." The phrase “clasps the crag with crooked” is an example of alliteration, while “like a thunderbolt” is a simile.
-
What type of poem is In Memoriam by Alfred Lord Tennyson?
*Haiku
*Love
*Spoonerism
*Elegy
- Detailed Explanation:
- Elegy is the correct answer.
- An elegy is a poem written to commemorate the dead; Tennyson wrote In Memoriam after the death of his good friend Arthur Hallam.
-
The units of measurement used to measure verse are
*Foot, hyperbole
*Meter
*Meter, line, stanza
*Foot, line, stanza
- Detailed Explanation:
- Foot, line, stanza. Meter is what is being measured, and is not itself a unit of measurement in verse—for example, a monometer is a piece one foot long. A foot is made up of one accented syllable and one or two unaccented syllables, while a line is fairly self-explanatory. A stanza is a group of lines whose metrical pattern is repeated. A hyperbole is an overstatement, not a verse measurement, and Iambic pentameter is the fundamental pattern of an English (or Shakespearean) sonnet.
-
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learned, too late, they grieved it on its way
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Ang yo, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
What type of poem is Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night?
*Limerick
*Italian sonnet
*English sonnet
*Villanelle
- Detailed Explanation:
- Villanelle is the correct answer.
- Note that this poem, which starts with the famous lines "Do not go gentle into that good night...Rage, rage against the dying of the light." is one of the best known poems by Dylan Thomas.A villanelle, a French poem, takes the following form:
- line 1 - a First refrain
- line 2 - b
- line 3 - a Second refrain
- line 4 - a
- line 5 - b
- line 6 - a First refrain (same as line 1)
- ine 7 - a
- line 8 - b
- line 9 - a Second refrain (same as line 3)
- line 10 - a
- line 11 - b
- line 12 - a First refrain (same as line 1)
- line 13 - a
- line 14 - b
- line 15 - a Second refrain (same as line 3)
- line 16 - a
- line 17 - b
- line 18 - a First refrain (same as line 1)
- line 19 - a Second refrain (same as line 3)
As you can see, a Villanelle has two refrains, which are repeated in the first and last stanzas, as well as alternated at the end of each of the stanzas in between.
-
An English sonnet is composed of three ____________ and one _____________.
*quatrains, couplet
*similes, metaphor
*lines, foot
*couplets, quatrain
- Detailed Explanation:
- "quatrains, couplet" is the correct answer.
- An English sonnet (also known as a Shakespearean sonnet) begins with three quatrains (a quatrain is a stanza containing 4 lines) and concludes with a couplet (two rhyming lines). It follows the rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg. An English sonnet is 14 lines long (divided into 4 stanzas), and it has no required number of caesuras, or pauses within a line.
-
In poetry, a ___________ unit is a set of two or three syllables of which only one is stressed.
- Detailed Explanation:
- Metric. A poem's meter describes how it can be broken up by syllables and accents. The main types are anapestic meter, dactylic meter, iambic meter, and trochaic meter.
-
Identify the most commonly used English meter.
*Dactylic
*Iambic
*Spondaic
*Anapestic
- Detailed Explanation:
- Iambic is the correct answer.
- An Iambic meter is one where the majority of feet are iambs (metrical feet consisting of one unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable). Here are examples of the different meters to help you understand the concept of feet and accents:
|
|
