Free Poetry MCQs with Answers

• A. How do I love thee
• B. Ode to a Grecian urn
• C. In faith I do not love thee with mine eyes
• D. Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Explanation: The closing line, “I shall but love thee better after death,” belongs to Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet “How do I love thee?” The…

• A. The Homeric epic
• B. The Gilgamesh epic
• C. The Deluge epic
• D. The Hesiodic ode

Explanation: The Homeric epics, especially the Iliad, are generally treated as the earliest surviving major works of European literature.

• A. westminster abbey
• B. kent church
• C. chapel at windsor
• D. none of the above

Explanation: Geoffrey Chaucer was buried in Westminster Abbey, specifically in what later became known as Poets’ Corner.

• A. Victor Hugo
• B. Alexander Pope
• C. John Milton
• D. Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Explanation: Victor Hugo was a French poet and novelist, not an English poet from England. Pope, Milton, and Coleridge are major English poets.

• A. William Shakespeare
• B. Terry Saylor
• C. Browning
• D. Emily Dickinson

Explanation: William Shakespeare, Robert Browning, and Emily Dickinson are established poets.

• A. John Milton
• B. John Keats
• C. P.B Shelley
• D. William Wordsworth

Explanation: John Keats wrote both “On Death” and “Women, Wine, and Snuff.” These are among his shorter poems, alongside better-known works such as…

• A. french
• B. latin
• C. italian
• D. English

Explanation: Chaucer is derived from the Anglo-French word chaucier, meaning a maker or seller of footwear.

• A. Lust
• B. Corruption
• C. Theft
• D. Gluttony

Explanation: The Franklin is portrayed as excessively fond of food and drink, with a lifestyle associated with gluttony.

• A. Troilus and criseyde
• B. House of fame
• C. The canterbury tales
• D. Parliament of fowls

Explanation: The Canterbury Tales is Chaucer’s magnum opus, a wide-ranging frame narrative containing stories told by pilgrims.

• A. Denver
• B. St Louis
• C. Cuba
• D. Toronto

Explanation: T. S. Eliot was born in St Louis, Missouri, and spent most of his childhood there before moving east for schooling.

• A. An awful way to earn a living
• B. A game of knowledge
• C. The soul exposed
• D. An explosion of language

Explanation: Auden described poetry as a “game of knowledge,” stressing its role in discovering and expressing understanding through language.

• A. William Blake
• B. William Shakespeare
• C. William Morris
• D. William Wordsworth

Explanation: William Wordsworth is the Romantic poet most closely associated with nature, which he treated as a spiritual and moral force.

• A. Hindu
• B. Celtic
• C. Arabic
• D. Arameic

Explanation: The qasida is a long Arabic ode, traditionally written in a monorhyme and often divided into sections such as lyrical introduction…

• A. A poem of six lines
• B. A poem of eight lines
• C. A poem of twelve lines
• D. A poem of fourteen lines

Explanation: A sonnet is a fourteen-line lyric poem, usually written in a regular metre and organized by a particular rhyme scheme.

• A. epic
• B. tale
• C. ballad
• D. sonnet

Explanation: Epic, ballad, and sonnet are established poetic forms or genres. A tale is a narrative story in general and is not, by itself, a specific…

• A. Paradise Lost
• B. Paradise Regained
• C. Samson Agonistes
• D. Divorce Tracts

Explanation: These are the opening lines of Milton’s Paradise Lost, which announces its subject as humanity’s first disobedience and the Fall from…

• A. Endymion
• B. To some ladies
• C. To hope
• D. None of above

Explanation: Endymion, “To Some Ladies,” and “To Hope” are all poems by John Keats. Since every named work belongs to him, “None of above” is the…

• A. A poet of middleness
• B. Capturing a sense of spiritual marooness
• C. One of the leading prairie poets
• D. Has some distinction as a critic

Explanation: The Oxford Companion describes Stephen Dunn as “a poet of middleness,” reflecting his attention to ordinary experiences and balanced…

• A. TS Eliot
• B. Lord Tennyson
• C. Charlotte Bronte
• D. Shakespeare

Explanation: These are the opening lines of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18, one of his best-known poems.

• A. Alliterative verse
• B. Sonnet form
• C. Iambic pentameter
• D. Dactylic hexameter

Explanation: Shakespeare commonly wrote dramatic verse in iambic pentameter, a five-beat line usually alternating unstressed and stressed syllables.