Identification of British Poetry to 1660

AP English Literature and Composition · Learn by Concept

Help Questions

AP English Literature and Composition › Identification of British Poetry to 1660

1 - 10
1

In a somer seson, whan softe was the sonne,
I shoop me into shroudes as I a sheep weere,
In habite as an heremite unholy of werkes,
Wente wide in this world wondres to here.
Ac on a May morwenynge on Malverne hilles
Me bifel a ferly, of Fairye me thoghte.
I was wery forwandred and wente me to reste
Under a brood bank by a bournes syde;
And as I lay and lenede and loked on the watres,
I slombred into a slepyng, it sweyed so murye.

What is the title of the poem from which these lines are taken?

Piers Plowman

CORRECT

The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales

0

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

0

Troilus and Cressida

0

Pyramus and Thisbe

0

Explanation

Written in the late 1300s, this poem is titled Piers Plowman and is widely considered one of the most important works of Middle English literature. Langland used unrhymed alliterative verse to develop his satirical religious allegory featuring three men, Dobest, Dobet, and Dowel.

Passage adapted from Piers Plowman, l.1-10

2

Lo! the Spear-Danes’ glory through splendid achievements
The folk-kings’ former fame we have heard of,
How princes displayed then their prowess-in-battle.
Oft Scyld the Scefing from scathers in numbers
From many a people their mead-benches tore.
Since first he found him friendless and wretched,
The earl had had terror: comfort he got for it,
Waxed ’neath the welkin, world-honor gained,
Till all his neighbors o’er sea were compelled to
Bow to his bidding and bring him their tribute:
An excellent atheling!

These lines begin which work of literature?

Beowulf

CORRECT

Grendel

0

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

0

Piers Plowman

0

The Faerie Queene

0

Explanation

Beowulf, one of the most important works of Old English literature, features the characters Scyld the Scefing, Hrothgar, Grendel, and the eponymous Beowulf of the Geats. The epic poem begins with the monster Grendel attacking Hrothgar’s mead-hall, Heorot, and follows Beowulf as he seeks vengeance.

Passage adapted from Beowulf l.1-11 (trans. Leslie Hall, 1892)

3

May I for my own self song's truth reckon,
Journey's jargon, how I in harsh days
Hardship endured oft.
Bitter breast-cares have I abided,
Known on my keel many a care's hold,
And dire sea-surge, and there I oft spent
Narrow nightwatch nigh the ship's head
While she tossed close to cliffs.

These lines, originally written in Old English, are from an eleventh-century poem about a man sailing alone and his relationship to God. From which of the following poems is this passage taken?

The Seafarer

CORRECT

Beowulf

0

The Canterbury Tales

0

Pyramus and Thisbe

0

The Wanderer

0

Explanation

Translated by Ezra Pound, these are the opening lines of the anonymous 11th-century poem The Seafarer. The first-person poem appears in the Exeter Book, a canonical anthology of early poetry.

Passage adapted from The Seafarer l.1-8 (trans. Pound 1911)

4

The “Pearl Poet” is responsible for which medieval work of literature?

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

CORRECT

City of God

0

Troilus and Cressida

0

Piers Plowman

0

Purgatorio

0

Explanation

The Pearl Poet is another name for the Gawain Poet, an anonymous author who is thought to have written the fourteenth-century poems Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Pearl. A classic Arthurian narrative, this poem is a chivalric romance that follows the adventures of Sir Gawain.

5

Which early English manuscript is known for its comical and often obscene riddles?

The Exeter Book

CORRECT

The Book of Kells

0

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

0

Pearl

0

Beowulf

0

Explanation

The Exeter Book, a tenth-century codex of Anglo-Saxon poetry, contains nearly a hundred riddles on various subjects. While the Exeter Book is also known for its lyric elegies, it is important to remember that the manuscript contains an important variety of secular writings and is one of the best known sources of extant early English poetry.

6

The knight of the Redcrosse when him he spide,

Spurring so hote with rage dispiteous,

Gan fairely couch his speare, and towards ride:

Soone meete they both, both fell and furious,

That daunted with their forces hideous,

Their steeds do stagger, and amazed stand,

And eke themselves, too rudely rigorous,

Astonied with the stroke of their owne hand

Doe backe rebut, and each to other yeeldeth land.

From which poem is this passage excerpted?

The Faerie Queene

CORRECT

Piers Plowman

0

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

0

Beowulf

0

The Seafarer

0

Explanation

This is The Faerie Queene, written by Edward Spenser in the late sixteenth century. The poem is distinguishable by its nine-line Spenserian stanzas, which follows an ABABBCBCC rhyme scheme, with the first eight lines in iambic pentameter and the last in iambic hexameter. This stanza also mentions one of the poem’s main characters, the Redcrosse Knight.

Passage adapted from The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser,I.ii.15.1-9 (1590)

7

Oh, weep for Adonais! The quick Dreams,

The passion-winged Ministers of thought,

Who were his flocks, whom near the living streams

Of his young spirit he fed, and whom he taught

The love which was its music, wander not—

Wander no more, from kindling brain to brain,

But droop there, whence they sprung; and mourn their lot

Round the cold heart, where, after their sweet pain,

They ne'er will gather strength, or find a home again.

The author of this poem was __________.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

CORRECT

Lord Byron

0

John Keats

0

Dante Gabriel Rosetti

0

Robert Browning

0

Explanation

Shelley wrote this elegy memorializing John Keats, who had died of tuberculosis in Rome.

Passage adapted from Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats by Percy Bysshe Shelley, I.1-9 (1821)

8

Lo I the man, whose Muse whilome did maske,
As time her taught, in lowly Shepheards weeds,
Am now enforst a far unfitter taske,
For trumpets sterne to chaunge mine Oaten reeds,
And sing of Knights and Ladies gentle deeds;
Whose prayses having slept in silence long,
Me, all too meane, the sacred Muse areeds
To blazon broade emongst her learned throng:
Fierce warres and faithfull loves shall moralize my song.

These lines begin which work of literature?

The Faerie Queene

CORRECT

Piers Plowman

0

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

0

Beowulf

0

The Exeter Book

0

Explanation

The Faerie Queene, published in the 1590s by Edward Spenser, includes an Arthurian plotline and various religious allegories. The poem is distinguishable by its nine-line Spenserian stanzas, which follows an ABABBCBCC rhyme scheme, with the first eight lines in iambic pentameter and the last in iambic hexameter.

Passage adapted from The Faerie Queene I.i.1.1-9 (1590)

9

If all the world and love were young,

And truth in every Shepherd’s tongue,

These pretty pleasures might me move,

To live with thee, and be thy love.

Time drives the flocks from field to fold,

When Rivers rage and Rocks grow cold,

And Philomel becometh dumb,

The rest complains of cares to come.

The flowers do fade, and wanton fields,

To wayward winter reckoning yields,

A honey tongue, a heart of gall,

Is fancy’s spring, but sorrow’s fall.

Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of Roses,

Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies

Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten:

In folly ripe, in reason rotten.

Thy belt of straw and Ivy buds,

The Coral clasps and amber studs,

All these in me no means can move

To come to thee and be thy love.

But could youth last, and love still breed,

Had joys no date, nor age no need,

Then these delights my mind might move

To live with thee, and be thy love.

This poem is a response to a poem by __________.

Christopher Marlowe

CORRECT

Sir Walter Raleigh

0

William Shakespeare

0

Philip Sidney

0

Andrew Marvell

0

Explanation

Sir Walter Raleigh wrote this poem, "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd," in 1596 as a response to, and a parody of, Christopher Marlowe's famous pastoral poem "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love." Marlowe's original is one of the best examples of the type of poem that is known as "Pastoral."

Passage adapted from "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd" by Sir Walter Raleigh (1596)

10

Which of the following works features the characters Grendel, Wiglaf, Hrothgar, and Breca?

Beowulf

CORRECT

Paradiso

0

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

0

Piers Plowman

0

The Reeve’s Tale

0

Explanation

These characters are from Beowulf. Grendel is the monster that Beowulf fights to avenge the destruction of Heorot; Wiglaf is a young warrior and follower of Beowulf; Hrothgar is the king of the Danes and lord of Heorot; and Breca is a childhood friend of Beowulf.