GRE Subject Test: Literature in English : GRE Subject Test: Literature in English
Study concepts, example questions & explanations for GRE Subject Test: Literature in English
All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #67 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?
Which of the following did not belong to the same literary movement as this poet?
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
William Wordsworth
George Gordon
William Blake
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
All of the above except Alfred, Lord Tennyson were English Romantic poets, as was John Keats.
Passage adapted from John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (1820).
Example Question #68 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?
Who wrote a famous elegiac poem for the author of this poem?
William Wordsworth
Christina Rossetti
William Blake
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Matthew Arnold
Percy Bysshe Shelley
The poem in question is the 1821 Adonaïs: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats, Author of Endymion, Hyperion, etc., written by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Passage adapted from John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (1820).
Example Question #69 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
The sea is calm to-night.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits;—on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Who is the author of this poem?
Matthew Arnold
Robert Southey
Mary Alcock
William Blake
George Gordon
Matthew Arnold
This is “Dover Beach,” one of the most famous poems by the English poet and critic Matthew Arnold (1822-1888).
William Blake wrote Songs of Innocent (1789), George Gordon (A.K.A Lord Byron) wrote Manfred (1817), Robert Southey wrote Chronicle of the Cid (1808), and Mary Alcock wrote The Confined Debtor: a Fragment from a Prison (1775)
Passage adapted from Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” (1867).
Example Question #70 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
The sea is calm to-night.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits;—on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
When was this poem published?
1830s
1860s
1840s
1850s
1820s
1860s
The poem was first published in 1867, although Arnold worked on it for at least ten years before its publication.
Passage adapted from Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” (1867).
Example Question #71 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
The sea is calm to-night.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits;—on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Which of the following is an important prose work by this poet?
Anatomy of Criticism
The Defense of Poesy
Tradition and the Individual Talent
Essays in Criticism
The Anxiety of Influence
Essays in Criticism
The Defense of Poesy (1595) is by Sir Philip Sidney, Tradition and the Individual Talent (1919) is by T.S. Eliot, The Anxiety of Influence (1973) is by Harold Bloom, Anatomy of Criticism (1957) is by Northrop Frye, and Essays in Criticism (1865) is by Matthew Arnold. These are all works of criticism or critical theory.
Passage adapted from Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” (1867).
Example Question #72 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
The sea is calm to-night.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits;—on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
A late Romantic, this poet is also sometimes described as an early member of which literary movement?
Realism
Surrealism
Modernism
Symbolism
Imagism
Modernism
Poems such as “Dover Beach” contain elements of early Modernism, signaling a departure from the Romantic and Victorian sensibilities of the time.
Passage adapted from Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” (1867).
Example Question #73 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
Who is the author of this work?
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
John Keats
George Gordon
Christina Rossetti
Robert Browning
George Gordon
This is the beginning of “She Walks in Beauty,” (1813) is a poem by George Gordon (A.K.A Lord Byron).
Robert Browning wrote Sordello (1840), Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote A Essay on Mind, with Other Poems (1826), John Keats wrote "O Solitude" (1816), and Christina Rossetti wrote Goblin Market (1862).
Example Question #74 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
What is the other name of the author of this work?
Lord Byron
Lord Tennyson
George Eliot
C.S. Lewis
“Man Without a Spleen”
Lord Byron
George Gordon was commonly known by his baronial title: Lord Byron.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote Poems (1842), George Eliot wrote Middlemarch (1874), and C.S. Lewis wrote The Pilgrim's Regress (1933).
Passage adapted from “She Walks in Beauty” (1813) by George Gordon.
Example Question #75 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
Which of the following is not another work by this poet?
Don Juan
Manfred
“My Last Duchess”
The Bride of Abydos
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
“My Last Duchess”
“My Last Duchess” is a poem by the English poet Robert Browning.
Don Juan was published in 1819, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage was published in 1812, The Bride of Abydos was published in 1814, and Manfred was published in 1817.
Passage adapted from “She Walks in Beauty” (1813) by George Gordon.
Example Question #76 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
When was this work published?
1850s
1810s
1830s
1820s
1840s
1810s
This poem was published in 1814. You could have narrowed down the choices if you knew that Lord Byron lived from 1788 to 1824.
Passage adapted from “She Walks in Beauty” (1813) by George Gordon.
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All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources
