Card 0 of 408
Oh, weep for Adonais! The quick Dreams,
The passion-winged Ministers of thought,
Who were his flocks, whom near the living streams
Of his young spirit he fed, and whom he taught
The love which was its music, wander not—
Wander no more, from kindling brain to brain,
But droop there, whence they sprung; and mourn their lot
Round the cold heart, where, after their sweet pain,
They ne'er will gather strength, or find a home again.
This subject of this poem is __________.
This poem is an elegy for the Romantic poet John Keats, who died at age 26 of tuberculosis. Keats was one of the leading figures of the second generation of Romatic poets.
Passage adapted from Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats by Percy Bysshe Shelley, I.1-9 (1821)
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The woman described in W. B. Yeats' poem "Leda and the Swan" is the mother of __________.
Yeats' "Leda and the Swan" is a retelling of a Greek myth in which a Greek queen named Leda is raped by the god Zeus, who has taken the form of a swan. After the rape, Leda produces four offspring, two of whom are the children of Zeus and two of whom are the children of her husband. In the traditional myth, one of the offspring not fathered by Zeus is Agamemnon's future wife Clytemnestra, who later conspires with her lover Aegisthus to kill her husband.
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The author of the poem "Leda and the Swan" founded Dublin's Abbey Theatre along with whom?
Dublin's Abbey Theatre opened in 1904 and is closely associated with the Irish Literary Revival. Key figures associated with the theatre include John Millington Synge and Sean O'Casey, but the actual founders were W. B. Yeats and Lady Augusta Gregory.
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What dire offence from am'rous causes springs,
What mighty contests rise from trivial things,
I sing — This verse to Caryl, Muse! is due:
This, ev'n Belinda may vouchsafe to view:
Slight is the subject, but not so the praise,
If She inspire, and He approve my lays.
Say what strange motive, Goddess! could compel
A well-bred Lord t' assault a gentle Belle?
O say what stranger cause, yet unexplor'd,
Could make a gentle Belle reject a Lord?
In tasks so bold, can little men engage,
And in soft bosoms dwells such mighty Rage?
During what decade was this poem published?
The poem was originally published in 1712, and revised versions were released in 1714 and 1717. Even if you didn’t know this, you could rule out the other decades because none of them fall within Pope’s lifetime (1688-1744).
Passage adapted from Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock, I.1-12(1712; ed. 1906)
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If chance, by lonely Contemplation led,
Some hidden Spirit shall inquire thy Fate,
Haply some hoary-headed Swain may say,
"Oft have we seen him at the Peep of Dawn
Brushing with hasty Steps the Dews away
To meet the Sun upon the upland Lawn.
There at the Foot of yonder nodding Beech
That wreathes its old fantastic Roots so high,
His listless Length at Noontide wou'd he stretch,
And pore upon the Brook that babbles by."
In what decade was this poem published?
Gray’s poem was completed in 1750 and first published in 1751. Even if you didn’t know this, you could rule out several of the other options if you knew Gray’s dates of birth and death: 1716 and 1771.
Passage adapted from "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" by Thomas Gray, ln.95-104 (1751)
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In pious times, e’r Priest-craft did begin,
Before Polygamy was made a Sin;
When Man on many multipli’d his kind,
E’r one to one was cursedly confin’d,
When Nature prompted and no Law deni’d
Promiscuous Use of Concubine and Bride;
Then Israel’s Monarch, after Heavens own heart,
His vigorous warmth did, variously, impart
To Wives and Slaves: And, wide as his Command,
Scatter’d his Maker’s Image through the Land.
Who is the author of this poem?
These are the opening lines of John Dryden’s political allegory Absalom and Achitophel, a book-length poem concerning the rebellion of Absalom against the Biblical King David.
Passage adapted from John Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
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In pious times, e’r Priest-craft did begin,
Before Polygamy was made a Sin;
When Man on many multipli’d his kind,
E’r one to one was cursedly confin’d,
When Nature prompted and no Law deni’d
Promiscuous Use of Concubine and Bride;
Then Israel’s Monarch, after Heavens own heart,
His vigorous warmth did, variously, impart
To Wives and Slaves: And, wide as his Command,
Scatter’d his Maker’s Image through the Land.
Which of the following was not written by the author of this passage?
The Rape of the Lock (1712)is a famous mock-epic poem written by Alexander Pope. Annus Mirabilis (1667), Mac Flecknoe (1682), Astraea Redux (1660), and The Hind and the Panther (1687) are all works by John Dryden.
Passage adapted from John Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
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In pious times, e’r Priest-craft did begin,
Before Polygamy was made a Sin;
When Man on many multipli’d his kind,
E’r one to one was cursedly confin’d,
When Nature prompted and no Law deni’d
Promiscuous Use of Concubine and Bride;
Then Israel’s Monarch, after Heavens own heart,
His vigorous warmth did, variously, impart
To Wives and Slaves: And, wide as his Command,
Scatter’d his Maker’s Image through the Land.
This poet wrote during which major historical period?
John Dryden lived from 1631 to 1700, and Absalom and Achitophel was written at the height of the English Restoration in 1681. The poem itself is an allegory for various Restoration-era events, including the Popish Plot and the Monmouth Rebellion.
Passage adapted from John Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
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In pious times, e’r Priest-craft did begin,
Before Polygamy was made a Sin;
When Man on many multipli’d his kind,
E’r one to one was cursedly confin’d,
When Nature prompted and no Law deni’d
Promiscuous Use of Concubine and Bride;
Then Israel’s Monarch, after Heavens own heart,
His vigorous warmth did, variously, impart
To Wives and Slaves: And, wide as his Command,
Scatter’d his Maker’s Image through the Land.
Which of the following was not a contemporary of the author of this passage?
The epitome of a Restoration poet, Dryden lived from 1631 to 1700. Other Restoration poets included Sir William Davenant (1606-1668), Thomas Killigrew (1612-1683), William Wycherley (1640-1715), and John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (1647-1680). Only John Donne (1572-1631) was not a Restoration poet; instead, he is considered a leading metaphysical poet.
Passage adapted from John Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
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Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat
Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd who first taught the chosen seed
In the beginning how the heavens and earth
Rose out of Chaos…
Who is the author of this work?
These are the famous opening lines of John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost.
Passage adapted from John Milton's Paradise Lost (1674)
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Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat
Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd who first taught the chosen seed
In the beginning how the heavens and earth
Rose out of Chaos…
This poem is an allegory for which Biblical story?
Paradise Lost retells the Biblical story of man’s fall, beginning with the temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and continuing with their punishment and expulsion from the garden. The poem is particularly notable for humanizing Satan and for justifying God’s actions to readers.
Passage adapted from John Milton's Paradise Lost (1674)
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Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat
Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd who first taught the chosen seed
In the beginning how the heavens and earth
Rose out of Chaos…
Which of the following is not a character from this work?
Mephistopheles is a character from Goethe’s 1808 Faust (and in various other versions of the German story of Dr. Faustus). All of other the characters are angels or fallen angels in Paradise Lost.
Passage adapted from John Milton's Paradise Lost (1674)
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Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat
Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd who first taught the chosen seed
In the beginning how the heavens and earth
Rose out of Chaos…
When was this poem published?
The poem was first published in 10 sections in 1667, although a revised 1674 edition would reorganize the work into the 12-section version studied today.
Passage adapted from John Milton's Paradise Lost (1674)
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’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
Who is the author of this poem?
This is Lewis Carroll’s fanciful nonsense poem The Jabberwocky. It appears in his novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871)as an example of mirror writing that Alice discovers in a strange book.
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’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
When was this poem published?
As part of Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, the poem first appeared in 1871.
Passage adapted from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871)
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’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
What other work did the author of this poem write?
Lewis Carroll’s most famous work by far is the 1865 novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, often shortened to just Alice in Wonderland. This fantastical novel concerns the experiences of the eponymous Alice, who falls through a rabbit hole into a nonsensical world of strange characters.
Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Grey (1890), Edward Gorey's_Gashlycrumb Tinies_ (1963), Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth (1961), and Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1894) were all used as alternative answer choices.
Passage adapted from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871)
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’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
Which of the following is not a character in the novel from which this poem is taken?
The novel features a number of classic characters, including Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the White King and Queen, the Red King and Queen, Humpty Dumpty, and Bandersnatch as well as the all-important protagonist Alice. The Humbug is a character from Norton Juster’s 1961 children’s novel The Phantom Tollbooth.
Passage adapted from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871)
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On either side the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the world and meet the sky;
And thro' the field the road runs by
To many-tower'd Camelot;
And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow
Round an island there below,
The island of Shalott.
Who is the author of this poem?
This is Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem “The Lady of Shalott.”
George Gordon (A.K.A Lord Byron) wrote Manfred (1817), William Wordsworth wrote The Prelude (1850), John Keats wrote Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems (1820), and Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote Zastrozzi: A Romance (1810).
Passage adapted from "The Lady of Shalott" first published in Poems by Alfred Tennyson(1833).
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On either side the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the world and meet the sky;
And thro' the field the road runs by
To many-tower'd Camelot;
And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow
Round an island there below,
The island of Shalott.
Which of the following is not another poem by this author?
“Ulysses” (1842), “In Memoriam A.H.H.” (1849), “Break, Break, Break” (1842), and “Crossing the Bar” (1889) are all among Tennyson’s best known works. “Endymion” is an 1818 poem by the English poet John Keats.
Passage adapted from "The Lady of Shalott" first published in Poems by Alfred Tennyson(1833).
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On either side the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the world and meet the sky;
And thro' the field the road runs by
To many-tower'd Camelot;
And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow
Round an island there below,
The island of Shalott.
What is the form of this poem?
A ballad is, traditionally, a long narrative poem that often contains detailed descriptions of characters and/or a love story. Sonnets, sestinas, villanelles, and pantoums all have very specific rhyme schemes that “The Lady of Shalott” does not adhere to.
Passage adapted from "The Lady of Shalott," first published in Poems by Alfred Tennyson(1833).
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