Free Poetry MCQs with Answers

• A. "A Lover's Complaint"
• B. "Venus and Adonis"
• C. "The Phoenix and Turtle"
• D. "The Rape of Lucrece"

Explanation: A Lover's Complaint is often described as Shakespeare's most neglected poem because it has received far less critical and popular…

• A. England
• B. Spain
• C. France
• D. Italy

Explanation: The sonnet originated in Italy, especially through the form associated with Petrarch.

• A. A poem about death
• B. A poem about love
• C. A poem about writing poetry
• D. A poem about Shakespeare and his father

Explanation: Sonnet 153 belongs to Shakespeare's love-sonnet sequence and develops the image of Cupid's torch and healing springs.

• A. In a hunting accident
• B. By Venus
• C. By execution
• D. By old age

Explanation: Adonis is killed by a wild boar while hunting, despite Venus's warnings and his own eagerness to pursue the hunt.

• A. 12
• B. 67
• C. 154
• D. 200

Explanation: The standard Shakespearean canon contains 154 sonnets, first published together in 1609.

• A. The Bible
• B. A Christopher Marlowe play
• C. Ovid's Metamorphoses
• D. An early Shakespeare play

Explanation: Shakespeare’s narrative poem retells the story of Venus and Adonis from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, especially Book 10.

• A. Paganism
• B. Pre-Christian theology
• C. Christianity and the Renaissance
• D. Greek nihilism

Explanation: Paradise Lost combines Christian theology with Renaissance humanism and classical learning, especially its epic models from Homer and…

• A. The Royal Society of Edinburgh
• B. The Royal Society ofLondon
• C. Royal Society of Arts
• D. Royal Society of Literature

Explanation: Coleridge was associated with the Royal Society of Literature, an institution founded in 1820 to promote literary achievement.

• A. Immortality Ode
• B. Tintern Abbey
• C. The Prelude
• D. The Solitary Reaper

Explanation: In Tintern Abbey, Wordsworth presents himself as deeply devoted to nature and describes its spiritual influence on his mind and moral…

• A. Queen Victoria's coronation
• B. Industrial Revolution
• C. Women's Education and Rights
• D. Rise of Democracy

Explanation: Tennyson's The Princess explores the question of women's education and rights through the Princess's attempt to establish a university for…

• A. Paradise Lost
• B. Sonnets
• C. Lycidas
• D. Areopagitica

Explanation: Milton uses extended epic similes extensively in Paradise Lost, often comparing supernatural events with scenes from nature, history, and…

• A. Coleridge
• B. Wordsworth
• C. Keats
• D. Shelley

Explanation: Epipsychidion is a lyrical poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, written in 1821 and addressed to an idealised beloved.

• A. agnosticism
• B. optimism
• C. pessimism
• D. skepticism

Explanation: Optimism is the keynote of Robert Browning's philosophy: he treats struggle, growth, love, and the imperfect present as stages in…

• A. Kubla Khan
• B. Christabel
• C. The Ancient Mariner
• D. Ode on the Departing Year

Explanation: Coleridge described Kubla Khan as having been composed after an opium-induced dream, which accounts for its vivid, fragmentary…

• A. Sense of injured merit
• B. Hatred of tyranny
• C. Spirit of revolt
• D. All these

Explanation: In Book I, Satan chiefly embodies the spirit of revolt against authority, expressed in his defiance of God and refusal to submit.

• A. Chastelard
• B. A Song of Italy
• C. Atalanta in Calydon
• D. Songs before Sunrise

Explanation: The opening “When the hounds of spring are on winter’s traces” comes from Swinburne’s Atalanta in Calydon.

• A. Milton
• B. Coleridge
• C. Keats
• D. Johnson

Explanation: Shelley's Adonais mourns the death of John Keats, who died in 1821. The poem follows the classical pastoral elegy tradition, like Milton's…

• A. Browning
• B. Tennyson
• C. Swinburne
• D. Rossetti

Explanation: Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote 'The Defence of Lucknow', a poem about the British defence of Lucknow during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

• A. Mars
• B. Hercules
• C. Zeus
• D. Bacchus

Explanation: In Yeats's 'Leda and the Swan', Zeus approaches and ravishes Leda while disguised as a swan.

• A. Henry Wriothesley, the third earl of Southampton
• B. Thomas Wriothesley,forth earl of Southampton
• C. William Fitzwilliam, first earl of Southampton
• D. Henry Wriothesley, the second earl of Southampton

Explanation: Venus and Adonis was dedicated to Henry Wriothesley, the third Earl of Southampton, whom Shakespeare also addressed in the dedication to…