Literature Test

2023 Edition

If you are studying for a high school or college level literature exam, test or quiz, or just looking for a sample practice test to challenge your literary knowledge, take this free literature test and see how well you score. It is not a scientific assessment tool but it will give you an idea of what type of questions can be found on a literature exam and how well you know works, themes and authors.

View Answers as You Go

View 1 Question at a Time

1.	Questions 1 - 2 are based on the following passage: Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd, Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone: Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare; Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss, Though winning near the goal - yet, do not grieve; She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss, For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair! This poem was written in which of the following eras?
		a. Modern
		b. Victorian
		c. Romantic
		d. Postmodern
		e. Elizabethan
Incorrect answer. Please choose another answer.

2.	The theme of this stanza can best be described as _______________.
		a. Art has its limits.
		b. Young love is sometimes not returned.
		c. Music energizes the heart.
		d. Life is enhanced by the imagination.
Incorrect answer. Please choose another answer.

3.	Questions 3 - 5 are based on the following passage: A man can hold land if he can just eat and pay taxes; he can do that. Yes, he can do that until his crops fail one day and he has to borrow money from the bank. But--you see, a bank or a company can't do that, because those creatures don't breathe air, don't eat side-meat. They breathe profits; they eat the interest on the money. If they don't get it, they die the way you die without air, without side-meat. It is a sad thing, but it is so. It is just so. This passage comes from which of the following?
		a. Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
		b. Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman
		c. A Good Man is Hard to Find, Flannery O'Connor
		d. U.S.A. Trilogy, John Dos Passos
Incorrect answer. Please choose another answer.

4.	What historical period does this passage arise out of?
		a. World War II
		b. The Great Depression
		c. The Civil War
		d. Reconstruction
Incorrect answer. Please choose another answer.

5.	The passage is based on the ideas of which of the following?
		a. Freud
		b. Marx
		c. Smith
		d. Emerson
Incorrect answer. Please choose another answer.

6.	Questions 6 - 8 are based on the following poem: why from this her and him did you and i climb (crazily kissing) till into themselves we fell- how have all time and space bowed to immortal us if in one little bed she and he lie (undead) The author of this poem is _______________.
		a. Theodore Roethke
		b. William Carlos Williams
		c. e.e. cummings
		d. Alan Dugan
Incorrect answer. Please choose another answer.

7.	The versification of the poem would best be classified as:
		a. sprung rhythm
		b. blank verse
		c. iambic pentameter
		d. free verse
Incorrect answer. Please choose another answer.

8.	The tone is best described as:
		a. devotional
		b. ironic
		c. whimsical
		d. laudatory
Incorrect answer. Please choose another answer.

9.	Indicate which of the following best characterizes the esthetic philosophy of "Art for art's sake":
		a. John Keats
		b. Alexander Pope
		c. T.S. Elliot
		d. Oscar Wilde
Incorrect answer. Please choose another answer.

10.	Questions 10-11 are based on the following passage: My father's name being Pirrip and my Christian name, Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing more explicit than Pip. So I called myself Pip and came to be called Pip. These lines open which of the following?
		a. Bleak House
		b. Great Expectations
		c. Hard Times
		d. Dombey and Son
Incorrect answer. Please choose another answer.

11.	The opening of the work indicates what about the speaker?
		a. That he is of limited intelligence.
		b. That he is not sure of his lineage.
		c. That he is self-centered.
		d. That he has a senstive and frightened nature.
Incorrect answer. Please choose another answer.

12.	Questions 12-14 are based on the following poem by Bret Harte: Above the pines the moon was slowly drifting, The river sang below; The dim Sierras, far beyond, uplifting Their minarets of snow. Lines two and four have what type of meter?
		a. iambic trimeter
		b. trochaic trimeter
		c. dactylic dimeter
		d. iambic pentameter
Incorrect answer. Please choose another answer.

13.	The lines contain ____ caesuras.
		a. no
		b. one
		c. two
		d. three
Incorrect answer. Please choose another answer.

14.	Which lines end with feminine rhyme?
		a. one and two
		b. three
		c. one, two and three
		d. one and three
Incorrect answer. Please choose another answer.

1/14



1.	Questions 1 - 2 are based on the following passage: Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd, Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone: Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare; Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss, Though winning near the goal - yet, do not grieve; She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss, For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair! This poem was written in which of the following eras?
		a. Modern
		b. Victorian
		c. Romantic
		d. Postmodern
		e. Elizabethan
Incorrect answer. Please choose another answer.

2/14



2.	The theme of this stanza can best be described as _______________.
		a. Art has its limits.
		b. Young love is sometimes not returned.
		c. Music energizes the heart.
		d. Life is enhanced by the imagination.
Incorrect answer. Please choose another answer.

3/14



3.	Questions 3 - 5 are based on the following passage: A man can hold land if he can just eat and pay taxes; he can do that. Yes, he can do that until his crops fail one day and he has to borrow money from the bank. But--you see, a bank or a company can't do that, because those creatures don't breathe air, don't eat side-meat. They breathe profits; they eat the interest on the money. If they don't get it, they die the way you die without air, without side-meat. It is a sad thing, but it is so. It is just so. This passage comes from which of the following?
		a. Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
		b. Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman
		c. A Good Man is Hard to Find, Flannery O'Connor
		d. U.S.A. Trilogy, John Dos Passos
Incorrect answer. Please choose another answer.

4/14



4.	What historical period does this passage arise out of?
		a. World War II
		b. The Great Depression
		c. The Civil War
		d. Reconstruction
Incorrect answer. Please choose another answer.

5/14



5.	The passage is based on the ideas of which of the following?
		a. Freud
		b. Marx
		c. Smith
		d. Emerson
Incorrect answer. Please choose another answer.

6/14



6.	Questions 6 - 8 are based on the following poem: why from this her and him did you and i climb (crazily kissing) till into themselves we fell- how have all time and space bowed to immortal us if in one little bed she and he lie (undead) The author of this poem is _______________.
		a. Theodore Roethke
		b. William Carlos Williams
		c. e.e. cummings
		d. Alan Dugan
Incorrect answer. Please choose another answer.

7/14



7.	The versification of the poem would best be classified as:
		a. sprung rhythm
		b. blank verse
		c. iambic pentameter
		d. free verse
Incorrect answer. Please choose another answer.

8/14



8.	The tone is best described as:
		a. devotional
		b. ironic
		c. whimsical
		d. laudatory
Incorrect answer. Please choose another answer.

9/14



9.	Indicate which of the following best characterizes the esthetic philosophy of "Art for art's sake":
		a. John Keats
		b. Alexander Pope
		c. T.S. Elliot
		d. Oscar Wilde
Incorrect answer. Please choose another answer.

10/14



10.	Questions 10-11 are based on the following passage: My father's name being Pirrip and my Christian name, Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing more explicit than Pip. So I called myself Pip and came to be called Pip. These lines open which of the following?
		a. Bleak House
		b. Great Expectations
		c. Hard Times
		d. Dombey and Son
Incorrect answer. Please choose another answer.

11/14



11.	The opening of the work indicates what about the speaker?
		a. That he is of limited intelligence.
		b. That he is not sure of his lineage.
		c. That he is self-centered.
		d. That he has a senstive and frightened nature.
Incorrect answer. Please choose another answer.

12/14



12.	Questions 12-14 are based on the following poem by Bret Harte: Above the pines the moon was slowly drifting, The river sang below; The dim Sierras, far beyond, uplifting Their minarets of snow. Lines two and four have what type of meter?
		a. iambic trimeter
		b. trochaic trimeter
		c. dactylic dimeter
		d. iambic pentameter
Incorrect answer. Please choose another answer.

13/14



13.	The lines contain ____ caesuras.
		a. no
		b. one
		c. two
		d. three
Incorrect answer. Please choose another answer.

14/14



14.	Which lines end with feminine rhyme?
		a. one and two
		b. three
		c. one, two and three
		d. one and three
Incorrect answer. Please choose another answer.