All Free English Literature MCQs with Answers

• A. Adam and Eve hold hands and walk across an arid plain.
• B. Adam and Eve promise to be fruitful and multiply.
• C. Adam and Eve curse their God.
• D. Adam and Eve curse Satan.

Explanation: Paradise Lost ends with Adam and Eve leaving Eden hand in hand, taking “wandering steps and slow” into the world before them.

• A. Theist
• B. Atheist
• C. Antagonist
• D. Wrestler

Explanation: Agonistes comes from the Greek word for a contestant or wrestler, so Samson Agonistes means Samson the Wrestler or Struggler.

• A. Katherine Woodcock
• B. Oliver Cromwell
• C. Edward II
• D. Mary Powell

Explanation: The sonnet recalls Milton’s second wife, Katherine Woodcock, who died soon after their marriage.

• A. Paradise Lost
• B. Il Penseroso
• C. Areopagitica
• D. Lycidas

Explanation: Paradise Lost, especially after its publication in 1667, established Milton’s stature as England’s greatest epic poet.

• A. Queens college
• B. Trinity college
• C. Christ's college
• D. Warwick college

Explanation: Milton studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he developed his classical learning and began writing poetry.

• A. Taste
• B. Voice
• C. Hearing
• D. Vision

Explanation: Milton became completely blind by about 1652, yet he continued composing through dictation.

• A. Agnes
• B. Ann Powell
• C. Lynda
• D. Mary Powell

Explanation: Milton married Mary Powell in 1642, when he was about thirty-four. The marriage was troubled and became an important biographical episode…

• A. his friends
• B. his friends
• C. his daughters
• D. his sons

Explanation: After losing his sight, Milton dictated his compositions to amanuenses, especially his daughters.

• A. London
• B. Bristol
• C. Wales
• D. Yorkshire

Explanation: Milton was born in London in 1608 and spent much of his early life there.

• A. L'Allegro
• B. Paradise Regained
• C. Samson Agonistes
• D. Paradise Lost

Explanation: Paradise Regained retells Christ's temptation in the wilderness and his triumph over Satan.

• A. Paradise Regained
• B. Paradise Lost
• C. Samson Agonistes
• D. On the Late Massacre in Piedmont

Explanation: Paradise Lost retells the biblical fall of Adam and Eve and explores humanity’s disobedience, punishment, and loss of Eden.

• A. An elegy in two parts
• B. An epic in three parts
• C. A ballad in four parts
• D. None of these

Explanation: The Anniversaries consists of two elegiac poems: An Anatomy of the World and Of the Progress of the Soul.

• A. Colin clouts come home again
• B. Faerie queen, first three books
• C. The Shepherd's calendar
• D. Faerie queen, second three books

Explanation: The Shepheardes Calender, published in 1579, brought Edmund Spenser immediate recognition and established him as a major living poet.

• A. Eve
• B. Adam
• C. Both a and b
• D. Satan

Explanation: In Paradise Lost, Adam and Eve together bring about the Fall through disobedience, although Eve eats the fruit first and Adam knowingly…

• A. Edmund Spenser
• B. John Donne
• C. Shakespeare
• D. John Milton

Explanation: John Donne wrote the Holy Sonnets, also known as the Divine Meditations, which deal with sin, death, judgement, and the speaker’s…

• A. Shakespeare
• B. Thomas Nash
• C. George Chapman
• D. Thomas More

Explanation: Marlowe left Hero and Leander unfinished when he died in 1593. George Chapman completed the poem by adding the continuation known as the…

• A. Edmund Spenser
• B. John Milton
• C. John Donne
• D. Sir Philip Sidney

Explanation: John Donne is regarded as the leading early metaphysical poet, known for conceits, intellectual arguments and striking comparisons.

• A. 1553
• B. 1554
• C. 1555
• D. 1550

Explanation: Sir Philip Sidney was born on 30 November 1554 at Penshurst in Kent. He became a major Elizabethan poet through works such as Astrophil…

• A. Thomas Nash
• B. Thomas More
• C. Thomas lodge
• D. Thomas Wyatt

Explanation: Sir Thomas Wyatt took his degree at Cambridge in 1518 and later became a pioneer of the English sonnet.

• A. Edmund Spenser
• B. John Milton
• C. Shakespeare
• D. Sir Philip Sidney

Explanation: “On His Blindness,” usually known by its opening words “When I consider how my light is spent,” is a sonnet by John Milton.