All Free English Literature MCQs with Answers
Every English Literature question in the bank, across all chapters, each with the correct answer and a written explanation. Free and unlimited, with no account needed.
3,192 questions · page 103 of 160
- A. "Was it for this-"
- B. "Riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs."
- C. "And the worst friend and enemy is but Death."
- D. "April is the cruellest month"
Explanation: The Waste Land opens with the striking declaration, “April is the cruellest month,” which reverses the usual association of spring with…
Correct answer: "April is the cruellest month"- A. Genteel
- B. Symbolist
- C. Impressionist
- D. Decadent
Explanation: The commonly identified poetic modes of this period include the genteel, Symbolist, and Decadent modes.
Correct answer: Impressionist- A. "The Sun Also Rises"
- B. "Hugh Selwyn Mauberley"
- C. "The Cantos"
- D. "To the Lighthouse"
Explanation: Ezra Pound’s The Cantos was composed over much of his lifetime and combines history, economics, politics, myth, and culture in a difficult…
Correct answer: "The Cantos"- A. It is a dramatic monologue.
- B. Like earlier Romantic lyrics, it takes a natural setting as an occasion for philosophical reflection.
- C. It has a melancholic tone.
- D. It envisions Christianity as eternal.
Explanation: Dover Beach uses a dramatic speaker, a natural scene, and a deeply melancholic reflection on the retreat of religious faith.
Correct answer: It envisions Christianity as eternal.- A. Their conservative poetics
- B. Their frank depiction of sexuality
- C. Their radical politics
- D. Their nationalistic tone
Explanation: Swinburne’s “Hermaphroditus” is associated with aestheticism and a frank, often transgressive treatment of erotic desire and sexuality.
Correct answer: Their frank depiction of sexuality- A. his use of the heroic couplet.
- B. an Enlightenment focus on useful knowledge.
- C. a neoclassical emphasis on propriety and knowing limitations.
- D. a radical questioning of revealed religion
Explanation: The lines use Pope’s characteristic heroic couplet and express Enlightenment and neoclassical ideals of rational, useful knowledge and…
Correct answer: a radical questioning of revealed religion- A. The poet's changing relationship to nature as fount of meaning and significance
- B. The falsity of human art as opposed to the immediate truth of nature
- C. The failure of the poet when a youth to imagine his future
- D. The utter rejection of youthful folly in favor of mature rationality
Explanation: In ‘Tintern Abbey,’ Wordsworth contrasts youthful, largely sensory responses to nature with mature reflection, in which nature gains moral…
Correct answer: The poet's changing relationship to nature as fount of meaning and significance- A. The common man
- B. The promises of technology
- C. The outcast figure
- D. The movement of time
Explanation: Wordsworth often writes about ordinary people, outsiders, and the effects of time, but he is generally suspicious of industrial modernity.
Correct answer: The promises of technology- A. An identical rhyme structure
- B. The belief that a person is incapable of change, even as he or she ages
- C. The sense of hope that death will come soon
- D. A shared theme that nature exposes the pain in human life
Explanation: Both poems explore the loss or weakening of the sustaining power once associated with nature, linking natural experience with human pain…
Correct answer: A shared theme that nature exposes the pain in human life2050. Tennyson's "Ulysses" can be characterized in all of the following ways, EXCEPT________________?
- A. it thematizes the importance of choosing action over complacency.
- B. it reflects a Victorian attitude of continuing to fight against loss of hope or faith.
- C. it uses Greek mythology to comment on contemporary questions.
- D. it emphasizes the internal life of the mind over social action.
Explanation: Ulysses values continued action and struggle, uses a classical hero to address Victorian concerns, and expresses resistance to despair and…
Correct answer: it emphasizes the internal life of the mind over social action.- A. Ann Radcliffe
- B. William Wordsworth
- C. John Keats
- D. Alfred Lord Tennyson
Explanation: The phrase comes from Wordsworth's definition of poetry as the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, recollected in tranquillity.
Correct answer: William Wordsworth- A. England's power to overcome the recent plague and the great fire of London
- B. The monarch's ability to squelch continuing Puritan resistance
- C. The church's potential to unify the populace after the English revolution
- D. Parliament's ability to restrain the power of the King
Explanation: Dryden's *Annus Mirabilis* celebrates England's endurance through the plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of London in 1666, while also…
Correct answer: England's power to overcome the recent plague and the great fire of London- A. Sonnet 43 is similar to most other sonnets in its focus on love.
- B. Sonnet 43 is part of a sonnet sequence "Sonnets from the Portuguese."
- C. Sonnet 43 consists of fourteen lines, like other sonnets.
- D. Sonnet 43 is a romantic poem in the same way Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey" is a romantic poem.
Explanation: The false statement is d because “romantic” love poetry is not necessarily Romantic-period poetry.
Correct answer: Sonnet 43 is a romantic poem in the same way Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey" is a romantic poem.- A. its references to Shakespeare.
- B. its commitment to an elevated taste, its use of classical imagery, and its evocation of classic forms.
- C. its scientific ethos and setting in London.
- D. its refusal to mention Shadwell directly.
Explanation: “Mac Flecknoe” follows neoclassical practice through elevated diction, classical allusions and imagery, and imitation of established…
Correct answer: its commitment to an elevated taste, its use of classical imagery, and its evocation of classic forms.- A. rejection of traditional form.
- B. portrayal of the power of art to speak truth.
- C. rejection of art's political role.
- D. attempt to link poetry with music.
Explanation: In “Ozymandias,” the ruined statue shows that art can preserve truth about power long after political authority has vanished.
Correct answer: portrayal of the power of art to speak truth.- A. To help drive his ideas across the universe
- B. To help him reach the afterlife
- C. To help him hear nature's music
- D. To help him start a new revolutionary war
Explanation: By asking the wind to become his lyre, Shelley imagines nature turning his thoughts and revolutionary ideas into a powerful song carried…
Correct answer: To help drive his ideas across the universe- A. Alexander Pope
- B. Percy Shelley
- C. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- D. Alfred Tennyson
Explanation: Arthur Henry Hallam associated Alfred Tennyson's poetry with the picturesque, especially its vivid visual description and artistic…
Correct answer: Alfred Tennyson- A. The lyric poem is a popular form in the Romantic era.
- B. The lyric poem has a song-like quality.
- C. The lyric poem creates a personal sense of emotion.
- D. The lyric poem focuses on action.Books & Literature
Explanation: A lyric poem concentrates on a speaker's personal feelings and usually has a musical or song-like quality, making it especially important…
Correct answer: The lyric poem focuses on action.Books & Literature- A. Wordsworth's "We Are Seven"
- B. Pope's Rape of the Lock
- C. Swift's "A Modest Proposal"
- D. Benn's Oroonoko
Explanation: A mock-epic applies the grand conventions and elevated style of epic to a trivial or comic subject.
Correct answer: Pope's Rape of the Lock- A. are an example of antithesis to suggest the falcon's contradictory nature.
- B. use alliterative language to draw attention to the falcon's importance as a symbol of Christ.
- C. refer to the speaker's heart.
- D. indicate the speaker's lack of faith.
Explanation: The repeated d sounds in "daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn" create striking alliteration and exalt the falcon.
Correct answer: use alliterative language to draw attention to the falcon's importance as a symbol of Christ.