Free Poetry MCQs with Answers

889 Poetry MCQs from English Literature, each with the correct answer and a written explanation of why it is correct. Free and unlimited, with no account needed.

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889 questions · page 36 of 45

  • A. Sailing to Byzantium
  • B. Byzantium
  • C. The Second Coming
  • D. Leda and the Swan

Explanation: In “Sailing to Byzantium,” Yeats contrasts mortal nature with artistic permanence and asks sages to gather him into the “artifice of…

Correct answer: Sailing to Byzantium
  • A. God
  • B. Satan
  • C. Adam
  • D. Eve

Explanation: Satan dominates the action and speeches of Books I and II, leading the fallen angels and planning their revenge against God.

Correct answer: Satan
  • A. A.H. Hallam
  • B. Edward King
  • C. Wellington
  • D. P.B Shelley

Explanation: In Memoriam A.H.H. is Tennyson’s extended elegy for his close friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died young in 1833.

Correct answer: A.H. Hallam
  • A. 110
  • B. 154
  • C. 175
  • D. 187

Explanation: Shakespeare's sonnet sequence contains 154 sonnets, first published together in 1609.

Correct answer: 154
  • A. Tragedies
  • B. Historical Plays
  • C. Narrative Poems
  • D. Comedies

Explanation: Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece are long narrative poems rather than plays.

Correct answer: Narrative Poems
  • A. On the slave trade
  • B. On romantic philosophy
  • C. On the creativity of human mind
  • D. On supernatural elements in poetry

Explanation: Coleridge won the Browne Gold Medal at Cambridge in 1792 for his poem on the slave trade.

Correct answer: On the slave trade
  • A. 25 July 1834
  • B. 24 February 1841
  • C. 22 November 1836
  • D. 30 April 1822

Explanation: Samuel Taylor Coleridge died on 25 July 1834 at Highgate, London. He belongs to the first generation of English Romantic poets, alongside…

Correct answer: 25 July 1834
  • A. The Poets society
  • B. British Royal Navy
  • C. Solicitors office
  • D. Royal Dragoons

Explanation: Coleridge used the assumed name Silas Tomkyn Comberbache when he enlisted in the 15th Light Dragoons, later known as the Royal Dragoons…

Correct answer: Royal Dragoons
  • A. 1798
  • B. 1779
  • C. 1795
  • D. 1789

Explanation: Coleridge met William Wordsworth and Dorothy Wordsworth in 1795, and his later collaboration with Wordsworth helped shape English Romantic…

Correct answer: 1795
  • A. November 12, 1762
  • B. September 8, 1764
  • C. January 10, 1789
  • D. October 21, 1772

Explanation: Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born on 21 October 1772 at Ottery St Mary in Devon.

Correct answer: October 21, 1772
  • A. 1802
  • B. 1812
  • C. 1798
  • D. 1805

Explanation: Wordsworth married his childhood friend Mary Hutchinson in 1802. Their relationship belongs to the period when Wordsworth was…

Correct answer: 1802
  • A. 1843-1850
  • B. 1840-1855
  • C. 1842-1851
  • D. 1833-1848

Explanation: Wordsworth served as Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death in 1850. He succeeded Robert Southey, and the office confirmed his…

Correct answer: 1843-1850
  • A. 1847
  • B. 1861
  • C. 1839
  • D. 1843

Explanation: Wordsworth was appointed Poet Laureate in 1843 after the death of Robert Southey. He held the honorary office until 1850.

Correct answer: 1843
  • A. The Excursion
  • B. The Prelude
  • C. Lyrical Ballads
  • D. Poems, in Two Volumes

Explanation: Lyrical Ballads, published jointly by Wordsworth and Coleridge in 1798, is commonly regarded as the work that inaugurated English…

Correct answer: Lyrical Ballads
  • A. 7 April 1770
  • B. 7 July 1767
  • C. 20 March 1773
  • D. 10 September 1772

Explanation: Wordsworth was born on 7 April 1770 at Cockermouth in the Lake District.

Correct answer: 7 April 1770
  • A. The European Magazine
  • B. New Poetry
  • C. The Tatler
  • D. The Rambler

Explanation: Wordsworth made his literary debut in 1787 by publishing a sonnet in The European Magazine.

Correct answer: The European Magazine
  • A. St. John's College
  • B. Trinity College
  • C. Christ College
  • D. King's College

Explanation: Wordsworth studied at St. John’s College, Cambridge, where he entered in 1787.

Correct answer: St. John's College
  • A. 1778
  • B. 1769
  • C. 1798
  • D. 1792

Explanation: Lyrical Ballads was first published in 1798 by Wordsworth and Coleridge, marking a major beginning of English Romanticism.

Correct answer: 1798
  • A. Laodamia
  • B. The Prelude
  • C. Guide to the Lakes
  • D. Preface to the Lyrical Ballads

Explanation: The Prelude is generally regarded as Wordsworth’s magnum opus, an autobiographical poem tracing the growth of his poetic mind.

Correct answer: The Prelude
  • A. 12 January 1842
  • B. 7 June 1849
  • C. 3 November 1852
  • D. 23 April 1850

Explanation: Wordsworth died on 23 April 1850 at Rydal Mount and was buried at Grasmere.

Correct answer: 23 April 1850