Contexts of British Poetry
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AP English Literature and Composition › Contexts of British Poetry
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
Who is the author of this poem?
William Blake
William Cowper
John Keats
Christina Rossetti
Matthew Arnold
Explanation
This is “The Tyger,” one of the best known poems by the English poet William Blake (1757-1827).
William Cowper wrote John Gilpin (1782), John Keats wrote Poems (1816), Christina Rossetti wrote Goblin Market (1862), and Matthew Arnold wrote Empedocles on Etna, and Other Poems (1852).
Passage adapted from William Blake’s Songs of Experience (1794).
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
Who is the author of this poem?
William Blake
William Cowper
John Keats
Christina Rossetti
Matthew Arnold
Explanation
This is “The Tyger,” one of the best known poems by the English poet William Blake (1757-1827).
William Cowper wrote John Gilpin (1782), John Keats wrote Poems (1816), Christina Rossetti wrote Goblin Market (1862), and Matthew Arnold wrote Empedocles on Etna, and Other Poems (1852).
Passage adapted from William Blake’s Songs of Experience (1794).
In pious times, e’r Priest-craft did begin,
Before Polygamy was made a Sin;
When Man on many multipli’d his kind,
E’r one to one was cursedly confin’d,
When Nature prompted and no Law deni’d
Promiscuous Use of Concubine and Bride;
Then Israel’s Monarch, after Heavens own heart,
His vigorous warmth did, variously, impart
To Wives and Slaves: And, wide as his Command,
Scatter’d his Maker’s Image through the Land.
Who is the author of this poem?
John Dryden
Sir William Davenant
John Milton
Thomas Shadwell
Edmund Spenser
Explanation
These are the opening lines of John Dryden’s political allegory Absalom and Achitophel, a book-length poem concerning the rebellion of Absalom against the Biblical King David.
Passage adapted from John Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
In pious times, e’r Priest-craft did begin,
Before Polygamy was made a Sin;
When Man on many multipli’d his kind,
E’r one to one was cursedly confin’d,
When Nature prompted and no Law deni’d
Promiscuous Use of Concubine and Bride;
Then Israel’s Monarch, after Heavens own heart,
His vigorous warmth did, variously, impart
To Wives and Slaves: And, wide as his Command,
Scatter’d his Maker’s Image through the Land.
Who is the author of this poem?
John Dryden
Sir William Davenant
John Milton
Thomas Shadwell
Edmund Spenser
Explanation
These are the opening lines of John Dryden’s political allegory Absalom and Achitophel, a book-length poem concerning the rebellion of Absalom against the Biblical King David.
Passage adapted from John Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?
The author of this poem wrote all but which of the following works?
Prelude
Lamia
Endymion
Hyperion
“Ode to a Nightingale”
Explanation
The Prelude (1850)is a semi-autobiographical work by William Wordsworth. Lamia (1820), Endymion (1818), Hyperion (1819, unfinished), and “Ode to a Nightingale” (1819) are all works by John Keats.
Passage adapted from John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (1820).
Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote
The droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne,
And smale fowles maken melodye,
That slepen al the night with open ye,
(So priketh hem nature in hir corages:
Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages...
Who is the author of this work?
Chaucer
Boethius
Unknown/anonymous
Bede
Langland
Explanation
These are the famous opening lines of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (1475). The Middle English work takes the form of more than 20 narratives (most written in verse) told by the main characters as they complete a pilgrimage to the Canterbury Cathedral. Some of these main characters include the Wife of Bath, the Miller, the Knight, the Pardoner, and the Reeve.
Passage adapted from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (1475)
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
What collection is this poem taken from?
Songs of Experience
Songs of Innocence
Songs of Eagerness
Songs of Ecstasy
Songs of Ecclesiastes
Explanation
William Blake wrote both Songs of Experience and Songs of Innocence, but “The Tyger” is from the former collection. (The other titles are invented.)
Passage adapted from William Blake’s Songs of Experience (1794).
Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?
The author of this poem wrote all but which of the following works?
Prelude
Lamia
Endymion
Hyperion
“Ode to a Nightingale”
Explanation
The Prelude (1850)is a semi-autobiographical work by William Wordsworth. Lamia (1820), Endymion (1818), Hyperion (1819, unfinished), and “Ode to a Nightingale” (1819) are all works by John Keats.
Passage adapted from John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (1820).
What dire offence from am'rous causes springs,
What mighty contests rise from trivial things,
I sing — This verse to Caryl, Muse! is due:
This, ev'n Belinda may vouchsafe to view:
Slight is the subject, but not so the praise,
If She inspire, and He approve my lays.
Say what strange motive, Goddess! could compel
A well-bred Lord t' assault a gentle Belle?
O say what stranger cause, yet unexplor'd,
Could make a gentle Belle reject a Lord?
In tasks so bold, can little men engage,
And in soft bosoms dwells such mighty Rage?
During what decade was this poem published?
1710s
1610s
1660s
1760s
1810s
Explanation
The poem was originally published in 1712, and revised versions were released in 1714 and 1717. Even if you didn’t know this, you could rule out the other decades because none of them fall within Pope’s lifetime (1688-1744).
Passage adapted from Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock, I.1-12(1712; ed. 1906)
Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote
The droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne,
And smale fowles maken melodye,
That slepen al the night with open ye,
(So priketh hem nature in hir corages:
Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages...
Who is the author of this work?
Chaucer
Boethius
Unknown/anonymous
Bede
Langland
Explanation
These are the famous opening lines of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (1475). The Middle English work takes the form of more than 20 narratives (most written in verse) told by the main characters as they complete a pilgrimage to the Canterbury Cathedral. Some of these main characters include the Wife of Bath, the Miller, the Knight, the Pardoner, and the Reeve.
Passage adapted from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (1475)