GRE Subject Test: Literature in English : Contexts of World Poetry to 1660
Study concepts, example questions & explanations for GRE Subject Test: Literature in English
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Example Questions
Example Question #11 : Contexts Of World Poetry To 1660
Of arms I sing, and of the man, whom Fate
First drove from Troy to the Lavinian shore.
Full many an evil, through the mindful hate
Of cruel Juno, from the gods he bore,
Much tost on earth and ocean, yea, and more
In war enduring, ere he built a home,
And his loved household-deities brought o’er
To Latium, whence the Latin people come,
Whence rose the Alban sires, and walls of lofty Rome.
Which of the following works was not influenced by this one?
Beowulf
The Rape of the Lock
The Decameron
Paradise Lost
The Divine Comedy
The Decameron
Boccaccio's The Decameron (1351), a 14th-century collection of Italian stories, does not demonstrate any direct influence by Virgil’s work; instead, The Decameron is often cited as the inspiration for other European prose (most notably, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (1475)).
John Milton's Paradise Lost (1674), Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock (1712), and Beowulf (975-1025?) were also used as alternative answers.
Passage adapted from Virgil’s Aeneid, trans. E. Fairfax Taylor (1907)
Example Question #12 : Contexts Of World Poetry To 1660
Of arms I sing, and of the man, whom Fate
First drove from Troy to the Lavinian shore.
Full many an evil, through the mindful hate
Of cruel Juno, from the gods he bore,
Much tost on earth and ocean, yea, and more
In war enduring, ere he built a home,
And his loved household-deities brought o’er
To Latium, whence the Latin people come,
Whence rose the Alban sires, and walls of lofty Rome.
Which of the following is not a major character in this work?
Dido
Menelaus
Creusa
Juno
Anchises
Menelaus
Although Aeneis is from Troy and Menelaus is the husband of Helen of Troy, Menelaus is in fact a major character in Homer’s The Iliad and not Virgil’s The Aeneid.
Passage adapted from Virgil’s Aeneid, trans. E. Fairfax Taylor (1907)
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