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 94 of 160
- A. French Symbolist poetry is full of exaggerated metaphors.
- B. French Symbolist poetry has narrative clarity.
- C. French Symbolist poetry is shocking.
- D. French Symbolist poetry is formally experimental.
Explanation: Symbolist poetry is associated with suggestive imagery, startling effects, and formal experimentation rather than straightforward…
Correct answer: French Symbolist poetry has narrative clarity.- A. The form of a villanelle
- B. The use of synesthesia
- C. The use of simile
- D. The use of metaphor
Explanation: The poem compresses the faces in the Paris crowd into an image of petals on a dark branch, making the comparison a striking metaphor.
Correct answer: The use of metaphor- A. They symbolize the return to a lost paradise.
- B. They point to alchemical elements, which in turn symbolize the body and the soul.
- C. They symbolize the coming apocalypse.
- D. They symbolize a fulfilled longing.
Explanation: The apples suggest recovered paradise, spiritual and bodily fulfilment, and the satisfaction of a lifelong quest.
Correct answer: They symbolize the coming apocalypse.- A. There were no significant differences in the functioning of visual images in these two types of poetry.
- B. The Imagists relied on visual images to achieve clarity of expression, whereas World War I poets relied on visual images to subtly punctuate their often desperate political messages.
- C. The Imagists valued brevity, which could be achieved with precise visual images, whereasWorldWar I poets preferred declamatory statements in their poems.
- D. WorldWar I poets valued clarity of expression through visual images, whereas Imagists relied on complex expression through emotional visual images.
Explanation: Imagists used exact visual images to make expression clear and concentrated, while World War I poets often used images to reinforce…
Correct answer: The Imagists relied on visual images to achieve clarity of expression, whereas World War I poets relied on visual images to subtly punctuate their often desperate political messages.- A. The Mahabharata
- B. Paradise Lost
- C. The Odyssey
- D. The Aeneid
Explanation: The Cantos draws heavily on the structure and subject matter of epic journeys, especially Homer's Odyssey, while combining historical…
Correct answer: The Odyssey- A. It seeks to diminish the distance between society and nature.
- B. It seeks to amplify the distance between society and nature.
- C. It plays with the relationship between the social, natural, and supernatural worlds.
- D. It evokes the beauty of a pastoral scene.
Explanation: The poem merges human faces with natural petals and introduces the uncanny word “apparition,” so it links social, natural, and…
Correct answer: It plays with the relationship between the social, natural, and supernatural worlds.- A. They tend to use traditional rhyme schemes and rhythms, and they avoid free verse.
- B. They tend to use metaphors and avoid direct descriptive statements.
- C. They tend to use classical imagery while rejecting romantic tropes.
- D. They tend to be narrative and confront the reader with stark wartime realities.
Explanation: American World War II poetry commonly confronts combat and its consequences through direct, narrative presentation rather than avoiding…
Correct answer: They tend to be narrative and confront the reader with stark wartime realities.- A. An avalanche
- B. Rapids
- C. The west wind
- D. Thunder
Explanation: The culminating section is titled “What the Thunder Said,” and thunder provides the natural voice that introduces the Sanskrit commands…
Correct answer: Thunder- A. Combat detaches a man from humanity.
- B. All is fair in love and war.
- C. It is honorable and just to defend your country in a war.
- D. There is a right and a wrong way to throw a hand grenade.
Explanation: Douglas presents killing as a technical, almost detached procedure, exposing how combat separates the soldier from ordinary human…
Correct answer: Combat detaches a man from humanity.- A. Wilfred Owen
- B. Siegfried Sassoon
- C. Rupert Brooke
- D. Rudyard Kipling
Explanation: Wilfred Owen wrote “Dulce et Decorum Est,” a powerful anti-war poem based on the experiences of soldiers in the First World War.
Correct answer: Wilfred Owen- A. Fear of the failure of a segregated educational system
- B. Fear of the AIDs crisis
- C. Fear of global nuclear war
- D. Fear of the economic Great Depression
Explanation: These lines express the constant anxiety of the nuclear age, when people feared that global nuclear conflict could occur at any moment.
Correct answer: Fear of global nuclear war- A. It serves to effectively depersonalize Pound's poems.
- B. It serves the greater aim of conveying both intensity and immediacy in Pound's poetry.
- C. It is a paradoxical mixture of personal and impersonal elements.
- D. It is a means of creating a dialogue between modernity and tradition.
Explanation: Ezra Pound’s technical precision was not merely decorative or an attempt to remove personality from poetry; it aimed to give his poems…
Correct answer: It serves the greater aim of conveying both intensity and immediacy in Pound's poetry.- A. It juxtaposes human consciousness against the sea.
- B. It uses alliteration and iambic pentameter.
- C. It has a subtle formal structure, even though it does not use rhyme.
- D. Both A and C
Explanation: In “A Grave,” Moore sets human consciousness and human activity against the vast, impersonal sea, while the poem’s lineation and sound…
Correct answer: Both A and C- A. William Shakespeare
- B. Thomas Kyd
- C. John Dryden
- D. John Donne
Explanation: John Donne echoes Marlowe's invitation in his poem "The Bait," which begins "Come live with me, and be my love." Donne's poem transforms…
Correct answer: John Donne- A. Anthony and Cleopatra
- B. Hero and Leander
- C. Troilus and Cressida
- D. Apollo and Hyacinth
Explanation: Marlowe's unfinished narrative poem Hero and Leander retells the classical story of two lovers separated by the Hellespont.
Correct answer: Hero and Leander- A. Ovid
- B. Lucan
- C. Virgil
- D. Horace
Explanation: Pharsalia, also called De Bello Civili, is the Roman epic by Lucan about the civil war between Caesar and Pompey.
Correct answer: Lucan- A. lycidas
- B. Paradise Lost
- C. II penseroso
- D. none of the above
Explanation: Milton wrote Lycidas in memory of Edward King, who died by drowning in 1637.
Correct answer: lycidas- A. 'Il Penseroso'
- B. 'Lycidas'
- C. 'Comus'
- D. 'The Masque of Blackness'
Explanation: Comus, first performed in 1634, is Milton’s masque, formally titled A Masque Presented at Ludlow Castle.
Correct answer: 'Comus'- A. Horatio Herbert Kitchener
- B. William Blake
- C. William Wordsworth
- D. John Keats
Explanation: The line appears in Wordsworth’s sonnet “London, 1802,” in which he calls upon Milton’s moral and poetic example to revive England.
Correct answer: William Wordsworth- A. 'L'Allegro'
- B. 'Lycidas'
- C. 'Il Penseroso'
- D. 'Absolom and Achitophel'
Explanation: Absalom and Achitophel was written by John Dryden as a political allegory. L’Allegro, Lycidas, and Il Penseroso are all poems by Milton.
Correct answer: 'Absolom and Achitophel'