All CLEP Humanities Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #1 : Poetry
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.
The above lines are from which poem?
The Battle of Marathon
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
"The Charge of the Light Brigade"
"Kubla Kahn"
"Crossing the Bar"
"The Charge of the Light Brigade"
The poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" was written in 1854 to commemorate the same event in the Crimean War, where a British brigade made a nearly suicidal charge at the Battle of Balaclava. Published just six weeks after the event, Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem is a famous poetic depiction of heroic soldiering from the mid-nineteenth century, with its recitation of the marching, drilling, and cannon fire of the battle.
Example Question #2 : Poetry
Passage adapted from "Because I could not stop for Death" by Emily Dickinson (1890)
Because I could not stop for Death—
He kindly stopped for me—
The Carriage held but just Ourselves—
And Immortality.
We slowly drove—He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility—
What is the rhyme scheme for the above poem?
AAAB CCCD
AABB CCDD
ABCD ABCD
ABBA CDDC
ABAB CDCD
ABAB CDCD
A rhyme scheme identified by letter describes each rhyme with the same letter. Thus, since the poem's first and third lines rhyme, the first stanza should be marked as ABAB. Because the second stanza has a new rhyming word, the second stanza should be marked CDCD.
Example Question #1 : Poetry
Passage adapted from "Because I could not stop for Death" by Emily Dickinson (1890)
Because I could not stop for Death—
He kindly stopped for me—
The Carriage held but just Ourselves—
And Immortality.
We slowly drove—He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility—
In this poem, what is the poetic device that Dickinson uses in reference to "Death"?
Objectification
Alliteration
Simile
Consonance
Personification
Personification
In this poem, Dickinson has death something that has "stopped for me," a thing that can know, and that has "Civility." These are all features of a person, despite "death" technically being an event or abstract idea. Making an abstract idea have human traits is called "personification."
Example Question #2 : Poetry
John Milton’s Paradise Lost features which figure as its main character?
Jesus Christ
Satan
Eve
The angel Gabriel
Adam
Satan
The very first character introduced into Milton's narrative in Paradise Lost is Satan. While telling the story of Adam and Eve in a new way, the narrative unfolds from Satan's perspective. Milton's epic poem has greatly contributed to the character of Satan in the Western literary tradition.
Example Question #11 : Poetry
Call the roller of big cigars,
The muscular one, and bid him whip
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
As they are used to wear, and let the boys
Bring flowers in last month's newspapers.
Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
Take from the dresser of deal,
Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet
On which she embroidered fantails once
And spread it so as to cover her face.
If her horny feet protrude, they come
To show how cold she is, and dumb.
Let the lamp affix its beam.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
(1922)
The narrator of this poem is best described as __________.
having an omniscient perspective
satirical
detached
being an interested party
hateful
being an interested party
The poem features a narrator who is attempting to gather everyone for the event. So even though the narrator has a slightly detached view of the event ("Let be be the finale of seem"), the narrator is also deeply involved. There is also a sense of wonder throughout the poem, largely thanks to the narrator's own involvement in the strange circumstances.
(Passage adapted from "The Emperor of Ice-Cream" by Wallace Stevens)
Example Question #1 : Analyzing The Content Of Twentieth Century Poetry
Which of the following poems was written by Allen Ginsberg?
Hugh Selwyn Mauberley
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
"Funeral Blues"
The Waste Land
"Howl"
"Howl"
Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" is considered the preeminent Beat-era poem, with its stark descriptions of drugs and sexual acts, as well as its use of a blank verse form inspired by jazz. Ginsberg gained instant notoriety when "Howl" was published in 1957, and was brought forward in an obscenity trial in Ginsberg's native California in 1959.
Example Question #2 : Analyzing The Content Of Twentieth Century Poetry
Adapted from "The Emperor of Ice-Cream" by Wallace Stevens (1922)
Call the roller of big cigars,
The muscular one, and bid him whip
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
As they are used to wear, and let the boys
Bring flowers in last month's newspapers.
Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
Take from the dresser of deal,
Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet
On which she embroidered fantails once
And spread it so as to cover her face.
If her horny feet protrude, they come
To show how cold she is, and dumb.
Let the lamp affix its beam.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
What kind of event does the poem describe?
An outdoor barbecue
A funeral or wake
A birthday party
A patriotic celebration
A christening
A funeral or wake
The poem describes a woman's body as "cold" and "dumb," and that it needs to be covered by a sheet, indicating that she is dead. The rest of the poem described gathering people for some kind of event where she is central. Thus, the poem is about a funeral or wake.
Example Question #241 : Clep: Humanities
What is the Roman epic poem that is both a successor to the Homeric epics and a founding myth regarding Rome?
The Odes
The Eclogues
The Iliad
The Aeneid
The Divine Comedy
The Aeneid
The Aeneid, written by the poet Vergil between 29 and 19 BCE, tells the story of Aeneas, a Trojan hero and the mythical founder of Rome. As such, the story is both a continuation of Homer's Iliad, and serves as a founding myth for the Roman people. Vergil's poem traces how Aeneas fled Troy, led a Trojan fleet, and eventually settled in Italy.
Example Question #1 : Analyzing The Content Of Medieval And Renaissance Poetry
The medieval work that followed its author's journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven is __________.
Beowulf
Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight
The Summa Theologiœ
The Divine Comedy
The Canterbury Tales
The Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy tells the story of its author, Dante, traveling through the different realms of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, all to find what happened to his deceased lover, Beatrice. The work is divided into three separate sections between Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Heaven). The whole work is an allegory for the soul's journey to God, as expressed in Medieval Catholic theology.
Example Question #2 : Analyzing The Content Of Medieval And Renaissance Poetry
Which of these figures was in limbo in Dante Alighieri's fourteenth century epic poem The Divine Comedy?
Emperor Frederick II, King of the Holy Roman Empire
Sultan Saladin of Egypt
Beatrice
Queen Dido of Carthage
Judas Iscariot
Sultan Saladin of Egypt
Sultan Saladin is the correct answer. He was placed in limbo because he was an honorable man, despite being a non-Christian. Sultan Saladin was a contemporary of Richard the Lionheart and conquered Jerusalem in the Second and Third Crusades. Others in limbo in The Divine Comedy include Julius Caesar, Hector, and Avicenna.