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 37 of 45

  • A. Anna Wordsworth
  • B. Agnes Wordsworth
  • C. Shirley Wordsworth
  • D. Dorothy Wordsworth

Explanation: Dorothy Wordsworth was William’s sister and an important diarist whose journals record their shared life and poetic surroundings.

Correct answer: Dorothy Wordsworth
  • A. Lot
  • B. Belial
  • C. Satan
  • D. Moses

Explanation: The lines describe Belial in Paradise Lost, whose dignified appearance and impressive speech conceal moral emptiness.

Correct answer: Belial
  • A. Adam and Eve
  • B. Noah and the elephant
  • C. Rebel angels
  • D. Benjamin and Joseph

Explanation: The fallen rebel angels throw themselves headlong from Heaven after their defeat in Paradise Lost.

Correct answer: Rebel angels
  • A. Satan's associates
  • B. Satan
  • C. Adam
  • D. Eve

Explanation: The phrase refers to Satan’s associates, the fallen angels who wander after their expulsion from Heaven.

Correct answer: Satan's associates
  • A. Paradise Found
  • B. Paradise Lost Twice
  • C. Paradise Regained
  • D. Paradise Lost Again

Explanation: John Milton’s Paradise Regained is the sequel to Paradise Lost. It presents Christ’s temptation in the wilderness, contrasting with the…

Correct answer: Paradise Regained
  • A. Adam
  • B. Eve
  • C. Satan
  • D. Snake

Explanation: Eve eats the forbidden fruit first after being tempted by Satan in the form of a serpent; Adam eats later because he chooses to share her…

Correct answer: Eve
  • A. Book VII
  • B. Book III
  • C. Book VIII
  • D. Book V

Explanation: Book VII is the shortest book of Paradise Lost. It contains Raphael’s continuation of the account of creation, including the making of the…

Correct answer: Book VII
  • A. The forbidden fruit
  • B. The capital of Heaven
  • C. A beautiful garden
  • D. The capital of Hell

Explanation: Pandemonium is the magnificent palace and capital of Hell, built by Satan’s fallen angels.

Correct answer: The capital of Hell
  • A. Nine
  • B. Twelve
  • C. Eighteen
  • D. Fourteen

Explanation: Paradise Lost is divided into twelve books in its final form, modelled partly on the structure of Virgil’s Aeneid.

Correct answer: Twelve
  • A. Go in search of her mate
  • B. Talk to the animals
  • C. Look at her reflection in a stream
  • D. Eat of the Tree of Knowledge

Explanation: When Eve first becomes conscious, she sees her reflection in a stream and is drawn toward it before being led to Adam.

Correct answer: Look at her reflection in a stream
  • A. Abdiel
  • B. Uriel
  • C. Michael
  • D. Raphael

Explanation: Abdiel is praised for remaining faithful when the other angels follow Satan.

Correct answer: Abdiel
  • A. God
  • B. Eve
  • C. Raphael
  • D. Michael

Explanation: Raphael visits Adam in Paradise and explains the rebellion in Heaven, the war between the angels, and Milton’s cosmological ideas.

Correct answer: Raphael
  • A. The fight between good and evil
  • B. Heaven's battle and Satan's tragic fall
  • C. The creation of the universe
  • D. Adam and Eve's disobedience

Explanation: Milton states the subject as “Man’s first disobedience,” meaning Adam and Eve’s violation of God’s command and the resulting Fall.

Correct answer: Adam and Eve's disobedience
  • A. One
  • B. Two
  • C. Three
  • D. Four

Explanation: Milton invokes the heavenly Muse three times, chiefly in Books I, III, and VII.

Correct answer: Three
  • A. It was created before God the Son
  • B. Earth hangs from Heaven by a chain
  • C. The Earth is a lotus flower
  • D. The Earth revolves around the sun

Explanation: Paradise Lost presents the earth as a pendant world suspended from Heaven by a golden chain.

Correct answer: Earth hangs from Heaven by a chain
  • A. Raphael
  • B. Uriel
  • C. Michael
  • D. None of the above

Explanation: Michael narrates future human history to Adam in Books XI and XII, including the consequences of the Fall and the eventual hope of…

Correct answer: Michael
  • A. Michael
  • B. Abdiel
  • C. Uriel
  • D. Satan is not injured

Explanation: Michael, the chief archangel, fights Satan with a powerful sword and wounds him during the heavenly battle.

Correct answer: Michael
  • A. To assert his superiority to other poets
  • B. To argue against the doctrine of predestination
  • C. To justify the ways of God to men
  • D. To make his story hard to understand

Explanation: Milton states his epic purpose in the opening lines: he will “justify the ways of God to men.” This means explaining divine justice in…

Correct answer: To justify the ways of God to men
  • A. Leviticus
  • B. Exodus
  • C. Genesis
  • D. Deuteronomy

Explanation: The account of Adam and Eve appears in Genesis, the first book of the Bible.

Correct answer: Genesis
  • A. Michael
  • B. Uriel
  • C. Raphael
  • D. Abdiel

Explanation: Satan disguises himself as a cherub and deceives Uriel, the angel guarding Eden.

Correct answer: Uriel