GRE Subject Test: Literature in English : Contexts of Poetry

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for GRE Subject Test: Literature in English

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All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources

1 Diagnostic Test 158 Practice Tests Question of the Day Flashcards Learn by Concept

Example Questions

Example Question #1 : Cultural And Historical Contexts

Which of the following was not an associate of Mina Loy?

Possible Answers:

Arthur Cravan

Man Ray

Marcel Duchamp

Conrad Aiken

Ezra Pound

Correct answer:

Conrad Aiken

Explanation:

Conrad Aiken is known for openly criticizing Loy’s poetry. All the others were affiliated with Mina Loy in some way – most through her Greenwich Village ties.

Example Question #2 : Cultural And Historical Contexts

In what decade was The Whitsun Weddings written?

Possible Answers:

1960s

2000s

1990s

1970s

1980s

Correct answer:

1960s

Explanation:

The Whitsun Weddings was first published in 1964. Philip Larkin was born in 1922 and died in 1985, which rules out a few of the answer choices.

Example Question #1 : Cultural And Historical Contexts

Which of the following is not another work by the author of Birthday Letters?

Possible Answers:

Winter Pollen

The Hawk in the Rain

Candles in Babylon

The Iron Man

Crow

Correct answer:

Candles in Babylon

Explanation:

Ted Hughes wrote The Iron Man (1968), The Hawk in the Rain (1957), Crow (1970), and Winter Pollen (1994). Candles in Babylon is a 1982 collection by the British-born American humanist poet Denise Levertov.

Example Question #1 : Contexts Of British Poetry After 1925

During what decade was Birthday Letters published?

Possible Answers:

1990s

1960s

1980s

1950s

1970s

Correct answer:

1990s

Explanation:

Knowing that this was Hughes’ last work of poetry, and knowing that he lived from 1930 to 1998, you could have inferred that Birthday Letters was published in the 1990s (1998, to be precise).

Example Question #1 : Cultural And Historical Contexts

Who is the author of The Lost Lunar Baedeker and Insel?

Possible Answers:

Kate Tempest

Djuna Barnes

Mina Loy

Christina Rossetti

Jackie Kay

Correct answer:

Mina Loy

Explanation:

British artist, poet, playwright, actress, and lamp designer Mina Loy wrote The Lost Lunar Baedeker (1923) and Insel (1914).

Example Question #1 : Cultural And Historical Contexts

Which of the following labels could not be applied to Mina Loy’s work?

Possible Answers:

Bourgeois

Avant-garde

Feminist

Bohemian

Futurist

Correct answer:

Bourgeois

Explanation:

Mina Loy’s poetry and fiction are known for their futurist, feminist leanings as well as their emphases on the avant-garde and the bohemian life-style. Her work was not bourgeois – conventional, middle-class, or materialistic – in any way.

Example Question #1 : Contexts Of Poetry

Which of the following is another collection of poetry by Mina Loy?

Possible Answers:

Tender Buttons

Nightwood

Crossing the Water

Songs to Joannes

An Atlas of the Difficult World

Correct answer:

Songs to Joannes

Explanation:

In addition to The Lost Lunar Baedeker (1923)and Lunar Baedeker & Time Tables (1958), Loy wrote Songs to Joannes, a collection of frank, experimental love poetry,in 1915. Tender Buttons (1914) is by Gertrude Stein, Nightwood (1936) is by Djuna Barnes, An Atlas of the Difficult World (1990) is by Adrienne Rich, and Crossing the Water (1971) is by Sylvia Plath.

Example Question #6 : Cultural And Historical Contexts

Who is the author of The Whitsun Weddings?

Possible Answers:

W.H. Auden

Wallace Stevens

Ezra Pound

Philip Larkin

Seamus Heaney

Correct answer:

Philip Larkin

Explanation:

The Whitsun Weddings (1964) is Philip Larkin’s 8th book, and it contains such well-known poems as the title poem, “MCMXIV,” and “An Arundel Tomb.”

Example Question #2 : Contexts Of British Poetry After 1925

Which of the following was not written by the author of The Whitsun Weddings?

Possible Answers:

The Less Deceived

The Sea and the Mirror

High Windows

Jill

All What Jazz

Correct answer:

The Sea and the Mirror

Explanation:

The Sea and the Mirror is a 1958 poetry collection by W.H. Auden. Jill (1946), High Windows (1974), The Less Deceived (1955), and All What Jazz (1970) are all by the prolific Philip Larkin.

Example Question #3 : Contexts Of British Poetry After 1925

Which of the following subjects does not appear in The Whitsun Weddings?

Possible Answers:

a medieval tomb in Sussex, England

a 1798 rebellion by the United Irishmen

volunteers enlisting in World War I

renting a room

a train journey from Kingston upon Hull

Correct answer:

a 1798 rebellion by the United Irishmen

Explanation:

A medieval Sussex tomb is the subject of the poem “An Arundel Tomb,” renting a room is the subject of “Mr. Bleaney,” volunteer enlistment and slaughter is the subject of “MCMXIV,” and a train journey is the subject of “The Whitsun Weddings” – all of which are poems included in Larkin’s The Whitsun Weddings. The United Irishmen rebellion is the subject of “Requiem for the Croppies,” (1966) a famous poem by Irish poet Seamus Heaney.

All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources

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