Card 0 of 16
This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.
Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.
Who is the author of this poem?
This is the prologue to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Evangeline: A Tale of Arcadie. It is known for being written in dactylic hexameter, a meter that many classical writers used.
Passage adapted from Evangeline, A Tale of Arcadie by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1847)
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This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.
Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.
During what decade was this poem first published?
The poem was first published in 1847. Even if you didn’t know this, the dates of Longfellow’s life (1807 to 1882) could have helped you narrow down the answer choices.
Passage adapted from Evangeline, A Tale of Arcadie by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1847)
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This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.
Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.
What type of poem is this?
Longfellow’s Evangeline is an epic poem, spanning dozens of long stanzas and concerning a young woman’s search for her lover, Gabriel Lajeunesse. It is set during the Great Deportation of the Acadians in Canada, a period of time during the French and Indian War.
Passage adapted from Evangeline, A Tale of Arcadie by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1847)
Compare your answer with the correct one above
This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.
Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.
The author of this poem also wrote which of the following works?
In addition to Evangeline and translations of Dante’s Divine Comedy, Longfellow was known for several early collections of poetry, including Voices of the Night.
Passage adapted from Evangeline, A Tale of Arcadie by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1847)
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Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"’t is some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door—
Only this, and nothing more."
Who is the author of this poem?
These are the opening lines of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven," which follows the story of a lovelorn man who is possibly slowly driven mad by grief for a woman named Lenore.
Passage adapted from “The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe (1884)
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Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"’t is some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door—
Only this, and nothing more."
During what era was this poem first published?
The poem was first published in 1845, which falls in the Antebellum Period (spanning from the War of 1812 to the Civil War). You could have eliminated several of these answers based on Poe’s short life: He was only alive between 1809 and 1849.
Passage adapted from “The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe (1884)
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Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"’t is some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door—
Only this, and nothing more."
The author of this poem also wrote all but which one of the following works?
“Young Goodman Brown” is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The rest of the titles are all short stories by Poe.
Passage adapted from “The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe (1884)
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Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"’t is some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door—
Only this, and nothing more."
Which of the following poets would be least likely to employ a meter similar to the one in this passage?
“The Raven” is written in trochaic octameter. Whitman’s major work, Leaves of Grass, was written in free verse and is an important early example of this form. The other poets here all tended to write in strict meter. For example, Longfellow’s Evangeline is written in unrhymed dactylic hexameter, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Oh could I raise the darken’d veil” is in iambic tetrameter, and Anne Bradstreet’s “Verses upon the Burning of our House, July 10th, 1666” is in rhyming couplets of iambic tetrameter.
Passage adapted from “The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe (1884)
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My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
Who is the author of this poem?
These are the opening lines of Robert Frost’s poem “After Apple-picking” from North of Boston (1915).
Compare your answer with the correct one above
My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
When was this poem published?
The poem was first published in Frost’s second collection in 1915.
Passage adapted from Robert Frost’s poem "After Apple-picking" published in his collection North of Boston (1915).
Compare your answer with the correct one above
My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
In what collection was this poem first published?
The poem appeared in North of Boston, Frost’s second collection.
Harmonium (1923) is a collection by Wallace Stevens, Meditations in an Emergency (1957)is a collection by Frank O’Hara, The Pangolin and Other Verse (1936)is a collection by Marianne Moore, and The Cantos (1948)is a collection by Ezra Pound.
Passage adapted from Robert Frost’s poem "After Apple-picking" published in his collection North of Boston (1915).
Compare your answer with the correct one above
My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
The author of this poem also wrote all but which of the following poems?
“Little Gidding” is a poem by T.S. Eliot. (It’s the final work in Eliot’s masterpiece collection Four Quartets (1942).) The rest are all works by Robert Frost. "The Road Not Taken" is from Mountain Interval (1916), "A Soldier" is from West-Running Brook (1928), "Mending Wall" is from North of Boston (1915), "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” is from New Hampshire (1923).
Passage adapted from Robert Frost’s poem "After Apple-picking" published in his collection North of Boston (1915).
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Thou hast a house on high erect
Framed by that mighty Architect,
With glory richly furnished,
Stands permanent though this be fled.
It‘s purchased and paid for too
By Him who hath enough to do.
A price so vast as is unknown,
Yet by His gift is made thine own;
There‘s wealth enough, I need no more,
Farewell, my pelf, farewell, my store.
The world no longer let me love,
My hope and treasure lies above.
Who wrote this poem?
This is a famous early American poem, “Verses Upon the Burning of Our House July 10th, 1666,” written by the Puritan poet Anne Bradstreet. Bradstreet is known for being the first published female writer in the British North American colonies.
Passage adapted from Anne Bradstreet’s “Verses upon the Burning of our House, July 10th, 1666” (1666)
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Thou hast a house on high erect
Framed by that mighty Architect,
With glory richly furnished,
Stands permanent though this be fled.
It‘s purchased and paid for too
By Him who hath enough to do.
A price so vast as is unknown,
Yet by His gift is made thine own;
There‘s wealth enough, I need no more,
Farewell, my pelf, farewell, my store.
The world no longer let me love,
My hope and treasure lies above.
Which of the following is the title of a book by this poet?
The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) is Bradstreet’s first volume of poetry. It was a success in both the American colonies and in England, and many of its themes are religious.
Phillis Wheatley's Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773), Edward Taylor's Preparatory Meditations (1723), Thomas Morton's New English Canaan (1883), and Nathaniel Hawthorne's Twice-told Tales (1842) were all used as alternative options.
Passage adapted from Anne Bradstreet’s “Verses upon the Burning of our House, July 10th, 1666” (1666)
Compare your answer with the correct one above
Thou hast a house on high erect
Framed by that mighty Architect,
With glory richly furnished,
Stands permanent though this be fled.
It‘s purchased and paid for too
By Him who hath enough to do.
A price so vast as is unknown,
Yet by His gift is made thine own;
There‘s wealth enough, I need no more,
Farewell, my pelf, farewell, my store.
The world no longer let me love,
My hope and treasure lies above.
Which of the following poets would not have had a similar religious worldview to this author’s?
All of the above authors except for Joel Barlow were Puritan writers. While these authors may have been subverting or interpreting loosely certain religious values in their work, they nonetheless would share a more coherent worldview than Barlow, who espoused atheist leanings in his poetry collection The Columbiad (1807).
Passage adapted from Anne Bradstreet’s “Verses upon the Burning of our House, July 10th, 1666” (1666)
Compare your answer with the correct one above
Thou hast a house on high erect
Framed by that mighty Architect,
With glory richly furnished,
Stands permanent though this be fled.
It‘s purchased and paid for too
By Him who hath enough to do.
A price so vast as is unknown,
Yet by His gift is made thine own;
There‘s wealth enough, I need no more,
Farewell, my pelf, farewell, my store.
The world no longer let me love,
My hope and treasure lies above.
Which of the following Fireside Poets is a descendant of this poet?
Oliver Wendell Holmes, a member of the New England group of writers known as the Fireside Poets and the author of “Old Ironsides” (1830), is a direct descendant of Anne Bradstreet.
Passage adapted from Anne Bradstreet’s “Verses upon the Burning of our House, July 10th, 1666” (1666)
Compare your answer with the correct one above